Blades and taming

Hi,
So I have been thinking about specializing in blades and taming. I was just curios if this would do OK with my solo adventuring? The reason I am thinking of doing specialization in taming is for the stronger pets as @Chris said in the last telethon. I Was wondering if anyone has had any good results with taming since the last update? Also if anyone has any thoughts on a good build.

 

Taming is a waste of skill points , make sure you know what you are getting into - -
Here is a good link to training it and my posts below on what you need to understand on how much a waste it is.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-other-taming-skills-2018.112216/#post-958584

Train ONLY the skills you need.

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-is-it-going-to-look-like.108285/#post-958708

As a tamer blades just does not make much sense as you can stand in the middle and tank all you want, the pet would be pointless - they do not do much damge and not great shields if you are blades.

I would use pets as a ranged buffer, wither Archery of Spells.

 

Taming Specialization lets pets have more hit points and do about 2x damage. My obsidian bear has 935 hit points with taming specialization of 80 and Combat Training of 92. Specialization also lets Heal Creature adds a chance to remove negative effects and Resurrect Creature will reduce reagent and focus costs.

 

Thank you @Weins201 and @Duke Gréagóir amazing guide!

 

So do you feel that with a blades spec and also taming I could do pretty well? I love soloing tough stuff, and I figure this will be a good way to go if I do not want to use magic so much other then heals?

 

If you mean Reapers, Trolls and harder. Unfortunately, I have not been able to.

I am at level 86 with 775 in Bludgeon 751 in taming, 508 in Fire, and 471 in earth. I cannot take a Reaper. Instead of bludgeon I used to have about the same in swords and I still could not take a reaper. I am not a power player so my tactics could be what is preventing me and not the bear.

I hope someone with a lot of Blades experience sees this and can offer suggestions for you. @Sara Dreygon

EDIT - clarified my difficulties with defeating Reapers, trolls, etc solo

 

Sara and I have spoken on this. I think after talking with you and others I will wait. It is a darn shame why @Chris thinks everything has to be nerfed when it comes to pets. People should be able to play the way they want.
In UO I was a tamer and I loved it!! I miss those days, and my Nightmare steed. Pets give those of us who are not as social and have a tough time making friends the ability to play solo and really enjoy the game as if we had a 2nd player with us.
They should keep that in mind when nerfing them. I guess it's blades and some magic tree I do not want.

 

I did taming and Polearms and it works amazingly. I think swords would be about the same and possibly better as the aoe uses less focus.

I wouldn't put any faith in the advice of people who didn't try it.

 

I think that any weapon or magic tree with a lot of CC (crowd control) in it will work well in conjunction with tamed combat pets.

 

Taming is not the most powerful skill set you can choose but it's fun. If you enjoy taming don't let others talk you out of enjoying it.

Taming can be tough if you want to wear heavy armor as at higher levels it will take 360ish focus just to have your pet out.

Keep trying your pet out and if you do decide not to be a tamer, dump the skill soon. Right now we get 100% exp back, after next release we get back 50%.

 

Hey guys. I am trying to improve my template so I can take down the higher bosses like Reapers, Trolls, Dragons, etc. I am at level 86 with 775 in Bludgeon 751 in taming, 508 in Fire, and 471 in earth. I use Chain mail armor with a staff.

When I battle a reaper with my obsidian bear I can take him down maybe 40% of his health at most before I am running away with 150 hp or less left. My bear is attacking as much as he can, I am using defenses from the heavy armor and earth trees.

@Numa what spells/abilities that is considered Crowd Control? What is the best ones to use? Are these AOE Spells/abilities?

@eli what did you find that worked to take down Reapers and other bosses?

 

Just for the sake of perspective, @Hunter OfSouls , Im just blades, light armor, and poison against a reaper and i can take them down. But not if i stand still and let it wail on me. Gotta run around and try to get attacks on it while not getting hit if i can help it

Specialized pets can have over 1000 health, and deal damage between 50 and 100 while the spider will web, corpion is high damage, bear is tankier and obsidian stag can knockdown

 

Thank you @EMPstrike ! @Hunter OfSouls that is the solution and my mistake of taking down a reaper - standing still. Since the Troll foot stomps and throw rocks, you are better moving around with him too. In these cases, the pet can be attacking while you are running around doing your next move on the Reaper or Troll.

With this information, I just have bad tactics. But I am learning.

I can do a tier 5 with my bear with no problems with my current build like Deep Ravenswood with any of the creatures of undead.

 

The water tree has the best crowd contol with Ice Fist/Ice Arrow/Ice field slowing down the mob's speed so you and your pet can take whacks at it at leisure. Both Ice Fist and Ice Field affect multiple targets but for the Reaper Ice Arrow plus some weapon with a long reach (bows or polearms) would probably be best. Kite the Reaper using hit and run tactics - if you can keep it's attention on you then your bear can hit it from behind for extra damage.

note: Ice Field is also supposed to have inflict low damage now. Works well with Meteor swarm.

Disabling shot (bow) will also work as a slow in case you don't use water spells.

I use the bow's Rapid Fire to pull aggro off my pet when necessary. Any fast attack executed multiple times in succession should also work well in this regard.

Note that the earth Root or polearm skewer are great emergency mob stoppers when things get hairy.

Some poisons not only do damage - they also slow the mob's attack rate. Daggers, one handed swords and polearms can take advantage of this but bludgeons no longer can (I think).

Let me know how you're doing with you reaper hunt

 

I am sorry but just remember what I said - you are going to use ALOT of experience to get taming up and could be used sooo much better.

Do it if you want but cost benefit is just not there. It will work sure, But.

Now for taking on a boss with a pet you are wasting your time. You lose so much focus, you cannot effectively fight them. I take on reapers and do it with a Ice Elemental and I am not even 90 in Avd Level.

This is my EXACT reason I say 700 pints in the Taming tree is a waste of effort. Spend that much in any spell tree and you can get 10 = 20 x the benefit and the summons hit just as hard and you can just resummons over and over. I almost have 700 there and will leave it until they delete the tree of fix it BUT do not expect to do Bosses with a pet.

Remember it CAN BE FUN - does not mean viable against Everything - the work you put in for taming and needed to make it work is just not even comparable to ANY other skill tree to get better results.



In closing as this is a point IN can make until I am blue in the face and not going to bother anymore - Taming is a skill tree best left for the dance parties. Or use it to help you out with tier 5s, and Sieges, but when it comes to Boss's you better be prepared and understand what you are going to sacrifice and how to adapt.

 

I went with Taming and Bludgeon as that is what I started with. I also use heavy armor. (yes I am a glutton for punishment)

I feel gimped because I know from Q&A that if I put those XP points in other skills/trees I would be more powerful. I am sticking with Taming, Bludgeon and Heavy Armor because this is what I choose to play when I decided to get into SOTA.

Much more balance is needed because Taming has a lot of cons that go with it. (focus drain, neck slot and the high end resources needed just to raise taming)

 

The new boar they just added can charge and knockdown. More survivable than the Stag.

 

Bludgeons take a -25% hit when using poisons except for the Axe which is considered like a blade so you get the full effect of poisons.