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Professions: The Tamer

 

Lady Ghost’s Guide To Training Pets

 

 

There are a few things that you need to be aware of when training your (bonded) pet.

1) Ensure the creature/beast that your pet is training on is not too much higher in skills than the pet.  If it is your pet will not gain from it very easily, if at all.

2) Every time your pet dies it loses skill points so again when training it is best not to have your pet fighting anything that is going to kill it, unless you are able to heal using magic, or the veterinary skill to keep it alive.

3) Make sure you have food handy to feed your pet when it gets hungry. A hungry pet starts to become less happy and, if left, will eventually revert to being wild again.

4) Do not spam commands, or over command your pet as that again will make it unhappy and if you continue will risk the pet reverting to being wild.

5) Take account of your pet’s hit points when picking what creature/beast to train it on.  Even the best trained bunny will die very quickly against a creature/beast that deals out high damage per attack.

Follow the above guidelines and training your pet can be as much fun as you like.

If you are training a lesser pet, that wonderful Greater Chicken you spotted on your travels, that cute purple bunny you stabled so long ago and never got round to training, or the Mongbat that looked to be the perfect companion for you, you will have to start carefully.

I found that my bunny trained brilliantly on a Jack Rabbit just outside New Haven.  The Jack Rabbit never died and they ‘gained’ from each other perfectly, with little healing required.  All went well until some very kind and generous soul killed the Jack Rabbit, don’t we all love those folks!!  Well I moved him onto bigger things like pigs and boars, always mindful of the Base Damage of the other Beastie. I eventually had him killing Ettins outside New Haven with some healing required. Once he had reached the 80’s I took him to the Yamotsu Mines to finish off his Wrestling, Tactics and Anatomy on a Shadow Elemental there (see below for information).

Likewise with my Albino Squirrel and my Ferret.  I started them off on small animals around Moonglow until they were fighting Timber Wolves and Brown Bears happily, then I moved into Wrong Dungeon where they killed Lizard Men and Ogres (I even gained some of the Arties with them).  Once they had reached the 80’s I took them to the Yamotsu Mines and the Shadow Elementals there (see below for information).

The same principle applies to your hardier pets. Start them off with creatures/beasts that have similar, or not too much higher skills than your own pet.  Always ensure you have plenty of bandages if you use the Veterinary skill.  For skill gains the following creatures/ beasts proved very good … Tsuki Wolves, Cyclopean Warriors, Titans, Dragons (though be careful with the Greater Dragons as they will be too tough for most of your pets apart from another Greater Dragon), Ogre Lords, White Wyrms, Ice Fiends, Demons, Succubi, Blood Elementals, Elder Gazers, Rune Beetles and Sphinx.  There are many others out there you can happily train your pets on, though I have personally used all of the above.

Depending on your boredom levels there is a place where training your pet’s Skills, apart from Resist Spells and the Healing on a Cu Sidhe (unless he is tanking), can be done safely, easily and relatively quickly.  This is the Yamotsu Mines in Tokuno.  I have spent many an hour there training my Greater Dragons, Dread Horses and my Rat Pack (purple bunny, Albino Squirrel and Ferret), whilst chatting to the other folks there also training their pets.  There are two Shadow Elementals that live towards the back of the mines, and with careful tempting you can lure them to the entrance of the mines.  Only physical damage from weapons or the Earthquake spell can kill them, so your pets can claw, bite, chew, nibble and spell away on them with impunity.  Beware of their damage though, if training a lesser pet, ensure that something hardier is tanking it first or your pet WILL die!  When using the Shadow Elementals take into account the Guide 1).  If your pet’s skills are much lower it may not gain off them at all, and visa versa, if your pet’s skills are much higher then your pet won’t gain of them either.  I always get a weaker one for my lower skilled pets and kill Shadows until I get a higher skilled one (unless there is a GM trained one there already), for my higher skilled pets.

Putting your Mongbat, bunny, or Greater Chicken on these before they have at least reached the high 70’s will be useless, as they won’t gain a thing ok.

The Shadow Elementals will gain skills until they reach GM, these are perfect for your, almost completely trained, Greater Dragon or Dread Horse.

Providing you follow the above, all of your pets will gain off these generous Elementals.  The skills such as Wrestle, Tactics, Anatomy and Meditation will rise whilst your pet is physically attacking the Shadow Elemental.  To start with so will Magery and Evaluate Intelligence; however once you have just those two skills left on your spell-casting pet, there is another ‘trick’ you can use to advance those two skills.

Stand your pet back away from the Shadow Elemental then tell it to ‘All Kill’, then immediately ‘All Stay’.  If you are struggling with this command sequence and if you have the Magery skill you can cast energy fields to bar the way to the Shadow Elemental, then use the same two commands, ‘All Kill’ followed by ‘All Stay’.  Once the fields dissipate your pet will stay put and will have to cast as the only attack available to its arsenal.  This will speed up the gains on Evaluate Intelligence and Magery, BUT BE WARNED … These gains are the slowest and you may prefer to use your pet in combat to gain these last two skills.

I mentioned that the Healing skill on your Cu Sidhe, can be gained here, but only if he is the one tanking the Shadow Elemental.

Once your Cu Sidhe has reached a certain level in Healing, sadly the only way he will get to GM is by healing high-level poison from Rotting Corpses.

I have also used the following ‘trick’ … First make sure you have LOTS of bandages then go to Twisted Weald in Ilshenar (Spirituality gate and bear left to the cave). Take your Cu Sidhe through onto the sand and bear left until you are in the small circular area with only the one way in or out.  At the back there is a spot where you can place your Cu Sidhe telling it to ‘Stay’ then take a step back trapping it there.  Before you do so you need to position a Satyr and about three Pixies over the rocks so they cannot physically attack your Cu Sidhe.  Once set up tell your Cu Sidhe to ‘Attack’ the Satyr.  He will Discord your Cu Sidhe, you then make him attack the Pixies, if they have not already joined in prompted by the Satyr.  The Pixies cast a lot of Poison spells and being discorded your Cu Sidhe will now gain pretty quickly in the Healing skill.  Ensure the Satyr is ALWAYS on the screen, make your pet attack him again if he starts to wander off.  If he leaves the area the discord will wear off.

BE WARNED, if there are Dryads nearby they will join in and prevent you casting spells by ‘calming’ you.  You may also have Changelings appear and if a Dryad is there it can prove dangerous.

I have still found that, once set up well, this is a great way to train a difficult skill.

For the Resist Spell skill you will need to train your pets on spell-casting Beasts such as Titans, Dragons, Bake Kitsume, Sphinx, Rune Beetles, Lady of the Snow, Elder Gazers, Liches, Lich Lords, Night Mares and other such spell-casting Beasties.

The above ‘trick’ in Twisted Weald will also make your non-spell casting pets gain the Resist Spell skill.

The above are for guidance only, taken from my own personal experiences from training many many pets … from Huggles my Neon Bunny to Stuffy Dwagon my wonderful Greater Dragon.  I love my pets and have enormous pleasure in both training and using them.  I hope the above has given you some ideas and tips to help you get the same pleasure from your own pets.

Lady Ghost