My adventure: Taming on a budget

My adventure started when I found a taming necklace as loot with a large grey wolf on it. Also, I play (among others) an archer, and I didn't enjoy playing her so much because I felt she was a little weak. So she was stuck at tier 3.
I read the Beginner's Guide to Taming https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...s-guide-to-taming-v2-0-for-release-70.159784/ and Greagoir Pendragon's post https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...taming-skills-updated-current-release.112216/ and was a bit scared when I read about the silver that was required and all the dying - but what the heck, I had the necklace, so Dido equipped it and dragged the Summon glyph to the utility bar and clicked it: and there was the wolf! Now I realized that it would not be wise to go adventuring with the wolf, because Dido did not have any means of healing or resurrecting the wolf. So for now she dismissed the wolf and set to work on taming necklaces and taming collars. I had a little over 100 silver ore, all from Highvale Outskirts. It took a number of mining sessions in the snow cave in the south and its surroundings to get the ore, but it's the only place I know for a low tier character. I got the recipes (Carpentry and Alchemy) and made 2 taming necklaces (16 ore) and 10 taming collars (40 ore) and together with 9 taming collars I found as loot I set out.

- Interlude -
The tame-glyph needs to be on your action bar and you need to be in combat mode in order to tame. But you don't want to kill your potential new pet! Make sure you set auto-attack to Disabled and if necessary first go to the adventurer trainer and learn the Advanced Techniques.

Dido went to Owl's Head and got to work on the sheep in town. Killed the first one (see above ) but was more careful with the next. She started with a success chance of 4% but that went up quite fast with each try. At the 7th try Dido tamed her first animal and got to level 17 in taming. She kept the same necklace on and did 2 more tries on a sheep - both failures, but it took her up to level 20 and only needed 9 collars!

- Interlude -
Dido uses Night Vision. It helps her a lot while crafting items with lower success rates and probably also with taming success rates.

Next I got her all the tier 2 skills from the trainer. Dido went home and summoned the wolf. While I sipped a cup of coffee, she cast Heal Creature over and over again. Surprisingly fast the tier 2 skills went up and after 40 minutes or so (and a second cup of coffee) they all reached 40. Note: no silver ore was used in the process! She went to Bodan in Braemar and got the tier 3 skills.

- Interlude -
I locked the tier 2 skills except Summoning and Collar Recovery to save some XP in the next stage. I'll definitely unlock Healing later but for now I wanted to focus on Combat training and Collar Recovery.

The next step: learn how to fight with a pet. Dido went to one of her favorite gathering areas (a tier 1, with a low density of mobs) and learned how to handle the wolf, what to do to avoid aggro on Dido (her pet will tank for her when possible), and how to handle multiple mobs. For instance, I found that Dido needs to be quite far away from a mob to avoid getting aggro, that healing a pet doesn't influence aggro and that it's worth it to set the pet in Aggressive mode if I want it to guard Dido's back while she is gathering, but Defensive mode in hunting zones.
Also: Dido healed the wolf a lot, whether it was needed or not. That way the combat skills and Collar Recovery went up nicely.
Then it was time to go to hunting areas with the wolf. I'm quite a timid player, so the wolf died only once, but it went really well and Dido can confidently handle the easier tier 4 areas now.

Dido is now a Tamer, at the expense of about 3000 gold in recipes and skills training and only 56 silver ore. The XP that was spent in raising the Taming skills ( I think about 50K in total) was easily gained back while hunting with the wolf.

- Epilogue -
Dido tamed herself 3 more creatures using the collars she had left. She re-used the 2 original taming necklaces plus the starter wolf necklace. Thanks to Collar Recovery, which went to 54 during hunting and healing, she lost only 1 collar during taming so is still using her original supply
Of course I realize it won't stay like this. But one doesn't need to be a GM to have fun taming and hunting with a companion

- Alternatives -
Necklaces with starter pets can be found on player vendors. Also empty taming necklaces and taming collars. If you can't find a starter pet, give me a shout and I'll help you out. Unfortunately I can't help with a supply of taming collars and empty necklaces, since I lack the silver ore, unless you can help me out with the ore.

Ysold.
Edit: added links

 

Excellent write up of your adventure!

 

Forest Road encounters are good for silver, and not too tough (just try not to kill too many enemies, or badder enemies will arrive). I think they are T2, though I have not been in one for a long long time. Plains encounters used to be T4, but now they are T3, so things may have changed. You can get gold in Plains Road encounters. (In Plains encounters too, bu they are a little tougher.)

 

there are starter wooden whistles for sale on vendors in the outskirts, no silver needed. they have a detrimental effect on the pet summoning, though.

 

Desert encounters on the overland map also have some silver too. Corpions, Wolves and Travellers. The Wolf ones might be possible, just be prepared to run like hell if you activate the wave encounter in them (and the Corpion ones).....

 

If all you are looking for in the traveler desert encounter is the silver then simply avoid the "back side" of the rock you are facing when you zone in. There's 3 atavists back there and a dog. As long as you don't fight them the wave battle won't trigger (usually) and there is no silver back there. Two copper nodes but no silver. Good zone for cotton bushes and beetle carapaces too.