a frenzied ostard

[Mikel123]

These are pretty weak on this shard.

I set one on my alt character (unarmored), and it did around 7-8 damage. According to the wiki, it should do 8-23, for an average of 15.5. This is definitely what I remember from T2A.

A forest ostard hit me for 7 or 8 per hit today

Also, frenzies should have 170 to 179 dex. They spawned like this until sometime in UO:R when that pack instinct thing kicked in and they nerfed them to spawn at 125 and under.

[poogoblin]

Sounds like frenzied were made as normal ostards just aggressive. Good catch

[Derrick]

Adjusting. Speed was off too.

Thanks!

[Mikel123]

http://www.tamingarchive.com/tameables/ ... ostard.php

Frenzieds are another underestimated pet. They will always be remembered by older players for their savageness with their famed high dexterity. Today's frenzieds are not near as powerful as they once were. With a good veterinarian, they can take on almost any creature in overland T2A, including wyverns and titans. Frenzieds tamed after Publish 16 (July 2002) are omnivorous (will eat meat, fruit, vegies, etc.), ones tamed prior are vegitarians (will not eat meat). They are the only aggressive creature that will eat fruits and vegies.

This page talks about their "famed high dexterity" that they once had. This is the only source I can find that references it. Every other reference to them is to their current, 2009, stats.

[Mikel123]

Ah cool, yeah they were damn fast too (due to the high dex, I assume).

Here's one other really cool page that is believed to have been written in Oct or Nov 1999:
http://www.tamingarchive.com/faqs/pvp.php

Lots of tamers will recommend the frenzied against mages due to it's extremely high dexterity and good damage.

Also, unrelated but very interesting:

Some dragons can cast ebolt in their natural state while others struggle with lightning.

Dragons - The ultimate monster in just about every fantasy game and book ever created, the dragon on UO is a powerful friend indeed. Trained, they can Flamestrike and have unbelievable melee damage.

I don't think I've ever seen a dragon ebolt on this shard, even with a ton of training.

Ideally taming a dragon that does 41 damage in a firebreath is best.

Good! Our dragons seem to do around 40, pretty consistently.

Combined with the follow command they are a force to be reckoned with which no lone non tamer could beat. Unfortunately they are slow without being told to Follow and it is this major difference that ends up costing them the most when compared to a wyrm in pvp.

Wyrms - My absolute favorite pvp creature. Wyrms are incredibly fast. There is no need for the follow command which saves you some time in targeting.

So it sounds like Wyrms use their "follow" speed when set to "guard" or "kill", while dragons only use their follow speed while following. Interesting. I'm a little confused by this "tick" stuff, but you can decide from this quote if we do this right or not.

My best wyrm has been known to triple flamestrike and do 55 damage a shot per melee

Anyone with a trained Wyrm able to comment if they can do 55 damage per melee hit? I know their melee is supposed to be better than a dragons, due to higher STR and Tactics, but I never knew by how much.

Mares - A nightmare is a beautiful creature and a powerful one at that. It has more hitpoints than a dragon or wyrm but does less damage and has laughable magery. I really prefer the mare as a mount more than an active pvp tool. It's ultra high dex almost insures you won't fatigue and I'd hate to sacrifice my mobility by dismounting and having it attack. Speed is important. I'd take speed over the damage the mare can do. But if you absolutely must use your mare for pvp for cripe's sake keep it healed and cured. Again don't forget the importance of [pet name] Follow. Firebreath damage: 24-26

Not sure what the "ultra-high dex" might mean, but I'm guessing 125 is plenty to make it far superior to a horse.

[poogoblin]

Lol, nice finds Mikel but hardly accurate....

Dragons could never EB or FS...and wtf is a triple FS from a WW? Sounds like alot of kids talking out their arse.

[Mikel123]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they could. The Taming Archive is probably the best source out there; better than even Stratics, as far as taming info. The people on that site were taming fanatics and spent a ridiculous amount of time playing/testing/etc. My guess is that once a dragon (or imp) hit 51.8 magery, and thus could successfully cast a level 6 spell, it would begin mixing ebolts and explosions into its repertoire. And once it hit 66.1 magery, it would begin implementing Flamestrikes, Mass Curse, etc.

For the triple-flamestrike... my understanding (based on gameplay experience) is that every set amount of time, a magic casting npc will cast a random spell from its spellbook. Wyrms cast with ridiculous frequency, while Dragons and Imps and such always seemed to cast more slowly. I think that's what he means by triple-flamestrike is simply 3 in a row, spaced at whatever normal spacing between spell casts is typical for a Wyrm.

Of course, the chance of a triple-fireball or a triple-poison or a curse-fireball-poison is probably just as likely as a triple-flamestrike... but you don't remember (or care) about those

[poogoblin]

The taming archive didn't come out until UO:R to my recollection. What they are posting on their site there looks purely like some guy trying to pull memories out of the deep recesses of his brain. Pets could raise their stats in T2A but not their skills from what I remember

[Mikel123]

The taming archive didn't come out until UO:R to my recollection. What they are posting on their site there looks purely like some guy trying to pull memories out of the deep recesses of his brain. Pets could raise their stats in T2A but not their skills from what I remember

Your recollection is poor, because you are absolutely 100% incorrect about that.

It is a very well known fact that pets could increase their skills in T2A. This was known from the Wind test - take a fresh dragon to the Wind teleporter... it wouldn't get in. Now train it for a couple hours, and take it back there, and voila! It can get in! Meaning it has 72+ magery at that point, but did not before.

[poogoblin]

This may be true (I will admit I didn't have a tamer only interactions with them), but I still never ran across a single dragon, counting the tamed ones (let alone an imp), that EBed me/FSed me. Also a triple flamestrike sounds like someone had a lag spike on their Uber AOL connection.

Anyway, I don't have any real proof and for one wouldn't mind seeing tamers get some love, so I'll exit the conversation and let someone else dispute you or agree with you.

[Mikel123]

How many times, 10 years ago, did you fight against a TRAINED dragon?

That's the key here.

The dragons needed to be trained to have the magery to cast a 6th or 7th circle spell.

So in order to be ebolted or FSed by a dragon, you needed:

1) to be near a tamer with a dragon
2) to be near a tamer who spent a lot of time hunting or training with the dragon
3) to be near a tamer who spent a lot of time hunting or training with the dragon without the dragon dying
4) to attack a tamer/dragon, or have one of them attack you

With the exception of (1), these are all fairly unlikely.

As for the triple-FS... I think I explained that above. How many times have you fought a lich and had them curse or poison you, and then it would appear that they don't cast again for an extra long time? Most likely, they tried to cast curse or poison again, and it had no effect. Pets and monsters can cast the same spell a few times in a row. Wyrms have more than enough mana (over 400 I believe) to be able to do this with a 40-mana spell.

[archaicsubrosa77]

Triple flamestrikes (3 in a row) was a big deal as only a creature with 120 int could pull this off. I heard about these from a friend who played UO for a long time.

[GuardianKnight]

Quote:
Combined with the follow command they are a force to be reckoned with which no lone non tamer could beat. Unfortunately they are slow without being told to Follow and it is this major difference that ends up costing them the most when compared to a wyrm in pvp.

Quote:
Wyrms - My absolute favorite pvp creature. Wyrms are incredibly fast. There is no need for the follow command which saves you some time in targeting.


So it sounds like Wyrms use their "follow" speed when set to "guard" or "kill", while dragons only use their follow speed while following. Interesting. I'm a little confused by this "tick" stuff, but you can decide from this quote if we do this right or not.

_________________________________________________________________

DING DING DING. WINNER!

[Derrick]

Quote:
Wyrms - My absolute favorite pvp creature. Wyrms are incredibly fast. There is no need for the follow command which saves you some time in targeting.

The logical interpretation of this to me is that since Wyrms move at Maximum creature speed, there is no need to tell them to follow, which is the case on UOSA

[Mikel123]

Quote:
Wyrms - My absolute favorite pvp creature. Wyrms are incredibly fast. There is no need for the follow command which saves you some time in targeting.

The logical interpretation of this to me is that since Wyrms move at Maximum creature speed, there is no need to tell them to follow, which is the case on UOSA

Cool. Sounds like you got to the Frenzy dex already... any verdict on the dragons being able to cast higher level spells as they improve magery? Am I forgetting some source somewhere that refutes the taming archive quote above?