Greagoir Pendragons Guide to GM Taming and other taming skills - Release 55 Update

[LordAtAt]

I also made a guide in an easier to read format with sections here on Steam.

Welcome to the world of taming animals in Shroud of the Avatar! I am excited about this and I hope you will be too.

My goal is hoping this helps someone think about taming as a career path in SotA. I really like having a pet battle along side of me while I am adventuring. With the Release 51 introduction of Specializations, I think it now can be.

The path was not easy and I learned a lot about how to tame and I wanted to share this with you. I am still learning and made decisions to be able to GM my taming skills. I am not one who mows down opponents fast with Area of Effect spells or high level blades skills. I am a Druid who uses some spells and a staff. I made the choice to focus more on taming as I have loved taming creatures since early Ultima Online.

Here is my current skills, I have GMed all 10 taming skills (all are at least 100 each):

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Making your Taming tools
I found these recipes in the NPC town of Ardoris (Take the Lunar Rift to Solace Bridge, exit to the Overland Map and go south). Travel to the Market area and go to the Equipment Building (the sign says Equipment) and see the General Merchant Doris Jeanette. She have 4 recipes you need:
- Animal Collar = 2 strap, 1 Metal Binding (Tailoring 10 level)
- Animal Whistle = 1 wooden pole, 1 wooden rasp (Carpentry 1 level)
- Taming Collar = 1 Animal Collar, 1 Silver Ingot (Alchemy 20 level)
- Taming Whistle (aka Summoning Whistle Necklace) = 1 Animal Whistle, 2 Silver Ingot (Alchemy 30 level)

Here is a video that covers all of the taming skills and pet commands:


How to tame a creature:
1) You make or buy a Taming Collar and a Taming Whistle. Put the taming whistle in your Necklace slot before you try a taming attempt. The taming collar needs to be in your backpack.
2) On your combat toolbar put the skill Tame Creature so you can press it while being attacked. Most animals will attack you while you tame them.
3) Find a creature and go into combat mode.
4) Many tamers say it will be easier to tame if you reduce the hit points of the target creature by 50%, once that is achieved you want to disarm your weapon.
5) Press the Tame Creature button on your combat toolbar and you will see if you tame the creature or not.
6) If you are successful, the target creature will disappear into the taming whistle. If not, it will still be attacking you. Try again.

This is what I tamed and when for Tame Creature gains:
0 - 20 = I took the Path of Love so I started out with 20 skill points. If you did not start with 20 then, Rabbits , dogs, pigs, does, foals, and chickens are good to tame at this level. These creatures are found in wooded areas or even towns (dogs).
20 - 40 = Large Corpions and desert wolves. These are found in desert areas.
40 - 60 = Large Arctic Wolves *if you start successful taming a lot and using up collars, then start taming Large Polar Bears. You can also tame: Brown Spider, Crocodile, and Timber Wolves.
60 - 80 = Large Polar Bears in snowy areas. *if you start successful taming a lot and using up collars, then start taming Bear Patriarchs. You can also tame: Large Timber Wolves, Elder Wolves, Large Brown Spiders, and Red Spiders.
80 - 100 = Bear Patriarchs in wooded areas. You can also tame: Large Grizzly Bears, Obsidian Stags, Large Polar Bears and Large Red Spiders.
100+ = Obsidian Bears from any wooded area.

Animal Types
Each animal type has a special ability.
- Corpions have Poison
- Wolves have speed of attack, I think.
- Crocodiles have Knockdown
- Spiders have Web and Poison
- Bears have Knockback and Knockdown
- Boars have a stun knockback - Thanks @Perashim

** Fun Tip : In order to tame a Ferocious Red Spider or a Darkstarr Corpion , you have < 1% if you have a Tame Creature skill of 105. If you raise Tame Creature to 120 you will have 1%. You will want to have 120 or higher to safely tame a Ferocious Red Spider or Darkstarr Corpion . ** Thank you @Boradic Boneslasher and @Rada Torment for this information.

** In Release you can tame an Obsidian Boar now. At level 120 Tame Creature you have a 22% chance to tame one. Thanks to @Boradic Boneslasher for this information.

Update 05/11/2018: I have tamed a Ferocious Red Spider with taming level of 121 (the spider had under 1/2 health), it took 10 tries. My advice is if you want to tame Fero Red Spiders and Darkstarr Coprions, get your tame creature to level 121.


Large Pool of Experience
Having a large pool of adventurer experience points is the key to quick taming level advances after level 80. I went from 99 to 100 faster than going from 98 to 99 because I had a larger adventurer experience pool. Large pool is 1 million experience points in our pool. Most adventurers will shut off all skills from gaining until they reach 1 million pooled experience points.

You can also just use your adventurer pool of experience but you will gain at the regular rate.

Now that you have tamed your first creature - look at my other guide on how I use my pet with my when I am adventuring and attacking targets - https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-pendragons-how-to-be-a-tamer-in-sota.117064/

Only gain in one taming skill at a time to raise it up fast:
Once I had my experience points in check I turned every other skill all to the negative sign (-) so these abilities would not gain. So I would only be gaining in Tame Creature . This made it easier to go from 87 - 98, and 99-100). Levels 98-99 was with I had 257,781 pooled experience points left and the gains were very slow. I needed more pooled experience points to make gains faster.

Levels 97 - 100 will go very slow. If you want to speed it up make sure you have 2-3 million experience points in your pooled xp. Even sped up it can seem like forever to raise it one level.

Collar Recovery is very important to save your silver ingots:
Before taming make sure your Collar Recovery is at a high level so you don't burn through taming collars. I recommend level 95 when taming Bear Patriarchs as I did not loose one collar. Keep Collar Recovery a few levels above your Tame Creature level and if you loose a collar while taming, increase the Collar Recovery another level until you don't loose anymore taming collars before taming again. To tame the highest creature you may need 105 or more in Collar Recovery.

Use Heavy Armor while taming:
I use plate armor while taming to help with the disruption when a tame hits you and breaks your concentration.

Use the Root skill in the Earth tree to keep the animal you are taming in place:
The root spell is the only spell to use to pacify aggressive animals I wanted to tame. I tried other animal spells but they made the creature untamable. Root is very tame creature friendly. The higher Root is means it could pacify the creature up to 1/2 of the total taming attempt time. If you devote your time in getting your earth attunement up to 200, your Root spell can stop the Darkstarr Corpion for 30 seconds, which is enough time to tame him.

If you fail taming and are running for your life use the Animal Charm skill in the Moon tree:
Use Animal Charm as a "save me before I die" type of spell. You can use this even if you have the creature's argo on you.


Getting the other skills up:
To get the innate skills up I mainly gained in Summoning, Resurrect Creature, and Heal Creature and had all of the taming innate skills set up to gain too (Obedience, Collar Recovery, Combat Training, Concentrating, Refresh). They gained rapidly until level 80. When I was taming I was only gaining in Tame Creature on purpose.

The levels break down in the 90's like so you can plan better how much you xp need for this level gain. ** Taming Specialization uses a different amount of xp - see below. **
91 = 46K xp needed to gain level
92 = 50K xp needed to gain level
93 = 58K xp needed to gain level
94 = 62K xp needed to gain level
95 = 69K xp needed to gain level
96 = 75.5K xp needed to gain level
97 = 82K xp needed to gain level
98 = 91K xp needed to gain level
99 = 99K xp needed to gain level
100 = 110K xp needed to gain level
100 - 105 = 672K xp needed to gain level
106 - 110 = 906K xp needed to gain level
110 - 121 = 4.5 million xp needed to gain level (where you can tame fero red spiders and darkstarr corpions)
121 - 137 = 32.3 million xp needed to gain level (where you can tame the ancient obsidian bear). Thank you to @Griffler

Location of the Master Taming Trainer (to unlock the highest taming glyphs)
The location of the Master Taming Trainer is in Braemar (in the Hidden Vale) and his name is Bodan Koren. In Braemar, go to the Main Street of buildings. Behind the buildings on the west side, he is wandering around in the shadows. To get to Braemar, take the ferry to Kingsport from Brittany in Novia. Then head south west until you see it past Valemark.

Taming Specialization skill:
In Release 51 Taming Specialization skill was introduced. This makes my 350 hp Obsidian Bear into a 935 hp powerhouse. Well, a powerhouse when compared to him before. What the Taming Specialization does is increase the pet's Hit Points and strength of attack.

With my Taming Specialization at level 80 my bear can survive 2-3 on one in a Tier 5 scene. He will almost be dead but as a support attacker it is more than adequate. With Taming Specialization at 99 my Obsidian Bear can handle one Tier 6 (Viking T6 guys with 900 hit points) one on one and win.

With the Viking T6 guys above 1,000 hit points he will need my healing help and AOE spells like Meteor Shower and Ring of Fire. Your spells will draw the opponent onto you so be ready to stop healing your pet and start healing yourself while attacking with other spells or attacks.

Taming Specialization also lets Heal Creature adds a chance to remove negative effects and Resurrect Creature will reduce reagent and focus costs.

Taming Specialization each level 80 - 91 adds 10 hit points to your pet's health each level. Level 92 - 97 adds 5 hit points to your pet's health each level. Level 98 - 100 adds 4 hit points to your pet's health each level.

Taming Specialization Taming Mastery levels:
80 = 100% mastery
90 = 112.5% mastery
95 = 118.8% mastery
100 = 125 % mastery

To raise your Taming Specalization just use other taming skills (Heal Creature, Resurrect Creature, Summoning, or Tame Creature). Experience to get to which Taming Specialization level is:
0 - 80 = 3,619,038 xp
81 - 90 = 5,730,274 xp (9,349,312 xp total)
91 - 95 = 5,708,942 xp (15,058,254 xp total)
to 96 = 1,508,759 xp (16,567,013 xp total)
to 97 = 1,654,554 xp (18,221,567 xp total)
to 98 = 1,820,236 xp ( 20,041,803 xp total)
to 99 = 2,002,114 xp ( 22,043,917 xp total)
to 100 (GM) = 2,205,190 xp (24,249,107 xp total)


The taming skills I found useful and not useful:

Tame Creature - Needed to tame any creature. See above on how I gained this skill.

Heal Creature - Great to heal the pet. At level 40 you heal 11 - 15 health. At level 92 it was more like 21 - 25 health (+10). At level 83 it heals between 73 - 102. At 100 it heals 67 - 94 hp.

Resurrect Creature - Needed to resurrect your creature in case he dies. I like that you can select yourself and then hit resurrect to do it, instead of having to get to your pet's body. As soon as he is alive again, right click on him and select teleport him to you so he is not targeted and killed again. I raised mine to level 40, so I have 100% resurrect chance. At 100 it has a 158.1 resurrect chance and will have a -12.5% to consume reagents (so nothing).

Obedience - I think level 40 is good for this as this will determine at what level you pet will flee if his health gets too low. At level it is 30%, at level 60 it is 45%, 80 it is 60%, at 100 it is 75%. I did not see a big difference. Just keep healing your pet and he won't flee.

Collar Recovery - A modifier in helping you not loose any taming collars while taming. At 100 it is 184.7%.

Concentration - This will help reduce the focus use while the pet is active. Get this as high as you can while getting your focus as high as you can. Then you will be able to use magic spells or combat moves and fight along side your pet. At 100 it is a 50.3% reduction in focus drain from you.

Refresh - This is how long you can summon a creature again. At level 1 it takes 15 minutes between summonings and at level 88 it was about 6 minutes between summonings. At level 100 it is 2 minutes and 32 seconds . Find a balance like maybe level 40 for 8 minutes between summonings.

Summoning and Combat Training - These work together to determine the health and power of your pet while summoned with the summoning skill. My bears are at a good level of health and power with my summoning at 86 and combat training at 91. In Summoning 100 you have a +89 Tamed Creature Max Level. In Combat Training at 100 you have +15 tame level bonus.

Combat Training at 80 (+14 tame level bonus), 94 (+15 tame level bonus), 121 (+16 tame level bonus)

Pair Summoning and Combat Training with Concentrating and you have a pet you can battle along with and not feel like both of you are going to perish quickly.

Update 05/2018: I took my combat training to 121 and did not see any increase of hit points. I raised my Summoning to 106 and did see an increase of 7 hit points (1069 to 1076). I then reduced my Combat Training to 94 and



Common Animal Hit Points List
All Hit Point numbers were updated in Release 54 on 05/31/2018.

Hit Points of animals at Combat Training level 80 (+14 Tame Level) and Taming Specialization of 1. Summoning was at 80.
- Obsidian Bear - 645 hp
- Grand Boar - 421 hp
- Ferocious Red Spider - 577 hp
- Darkstarr Corpion - 599 hp

Hit Points of animals at Combat Training level 80 (+14 Tame Level) and Taming Specialization of 40. Summoning was at 80.
- Obsidian Bear - 866 hp with a focus drain of 213.6 (Concentration at level 100)
- Grand Boar - 609 hp with a focus drain of 135.6 (Concentration at level 100)
- Ferocious Red Spider - 741 hp with a focus drain of 236.2 (Concentration at level 100)
- Darkstarr Corpion - 838 hp with a focus drain of 236.2 (Concentration at level 100)

** Fun Fact - The Darkstarr Corpion finally gets over 1000 hit points (1008 hit points ) when your Taming Specification is at level 68 and Combat Training and Summoning both are at level 80. At this point the Obsidian Bear has more at 1030 hit points. **

Hit Points of animals at Combat Training level 80 (+14 Tame Level) and Taming Specialization of 80. Summoning was at 80.
- Obsidian Bear - 1100 hp with a focus drain of 213.6 (Concentration at level 100)
- Grand Boar - 807 hp with a focus drain of 135.6 (Concentration at level 100)
- Ferocious Red Spider - 913 hp with a focus drain of 236.2 (Concentration at level 100)
- Darkstarr Corpion - 1081 hp with a focus drain of 236.2 (Concentration at level 100)

Hit Points of animals at Combat Training level 92 or 100 (+15 Tame Level) and Taming Specialization of 80. Summoning was at 80.
- Obsidian Bear - 1113 hp with a focus drain of 218 (Concentration at level 100)
- Grand Boar - 818 hp with a focus drain of 139 (Concentration at level 100)
- Ferocious Red Spider - 922 hp with a focus drain of 240.9 (Concentration at level 100)
- Darkstarr Corpion - 1091 hp with a focus drain of 240.9 (Concentration at level 100)

Hit Points of animals at Combat Training level 92 or 100 (+15 Tame Level) and Taming Specialization of 100. Summoning was at 80.
- Obsidian Bear - 1231 hp with a focus drain of 218 (Concentration at level 100)
- Grand Boar - 918 hp with a focus drain of 139 (Concentration at level 100)
- Ferocious Red Spider - 1009 hp with a focus drain of 240.9 (Concentration at level 100)
- Darkstarr Corpion - 1214 hp with a focus drain of 240.9 (Concentration at level 100)

Hit Points of animals at Combat Training level 92 or 100 (+15 Tame Level) and Taming Specialization of 100 and Summoning of 100 (GM).
- Obsidian Bear - 1231 hp ** no change - drop off list
- Grand Boar - 918 hp ** no change - drop off list
- Ferocious Red Spider - 1106 hp with a focus drain of 285.2 (Concentration at level 100)
- Darkstarr Corpion - 1327 hp with a focus drain of 285.2 (Concentration at level 100)

Hit Points of animals at Combat Training level 92 or 100 (+15 Tame Level) and Taming Specialization of 100 and Summoning of 106 (GM+).
- Ferocious Red Spider - 1141 hp with a focus drain of 300.9 (Concentration at level 100)
- Darkstarr Corpion - 1367 hp with a focus drain of 300.9 (Concentration at level 100)

Hit Points of animals at Combat Training level 92 or 100 (+15 Tame Level) and Taming Specialization of 100 and Summoning of 110 (GM+).
- Ferocious Red Spider - 1161 hp
- Darkstarr Corpion - 1395 hp

Hit Points of animals at Combat Training level 92 or 100 (+15 Tame Level) and Taming Specialization of 100 and Summoning of 115 (GM+).
- Ferocious Red Spider - 1186 hp with a focus drain of 322.5 (Concentration at level 100)
- Darkstarr Corpion - 1419 hp with a focus drain of 322.5 (Concentration at level 100)

Hit Points of animals at Combat Training level 92 or 100 (+15 Tame Level) and Taming Specialization of 100 and Summoning of 121 (GM+). Summoning at 121 gives you 99.9% Tamed Creature Max level.
- Obsidian Boar - 1233 hp (next QA release I will find when his HP ends.)
- Ferocious Red Spider - 1196 hp (Same as Summoning level 118, no benefit now to go to 121)
- Darkstarr Corpion - 1431 hp (Same as Summoning level 118, no benefit now to go to 121)

Hit Points of animals at Combat Training level 92 or 100 (+15 Tame Level) and Taming Specialization of 100 and Summoning of ??? (GM+).
- Ancient Obsidian Bear - ???? Still a work in progress.
Thank you to @Grimbone and @Tharizdun Baphomet for letting me know that these are in the game now.

** all hit point numbers are as of Release 54 on 05/31/2018. Hit point numbers can change if/when Portalarium changes some code or ability. **


*Fun Fact: If you raise your Combat Training from level 94 (+15 tame level bonus) to level 106 (+16 tame level bonus), it will not increase your pet's hit points IF you your Summoning skill is at 100 or under. Tested this with a Obsidian Bear and the Darkstarr Corpion (the current highest hp creature as of 3/16/2018). **
If you raise your Summoning to level 118 it will raise all pet's hit points up. Tested this with the top four pets on 05/12/2018.)



Summoning skill level to summon common pets:
- Grand Boar - 34
- Large Red Spider - 40
- Bear Patriarch - 44
- Obsidian Wolf - 50
- Obsidian Bear - 54
- Ferocious Wolf Spider - 59
- Ferocious Brown Spider - 59
- Obsidian Boar - 59
- Ferocious Red Spider - 79
- Darkstarr Corpion - 79
- Ancient Obsidian Bear - ???

How to increase your focus to battle the focus drain of having a tamed creature out:
1) put as many skill points in the skill Heightened Awareness under the Focus skill tree. Mine is at 80 for +80 focus.
2) Increase Train Intelligence under the Focus skill tree. Mine is at level 87 for +43.5 intelligence which translates to roughly +21 focus.
3) Cast the Enlightenment skill under the Sun tree. Mine is level 80 for an increase of 40 focus.

Focus Drain:
I will list a few animals and their focus drain at my current Concentration level (94) to give you an idea. Pets cost a lot of your focus.
- Obsidian Bear gives you a -222.4 focus drain.
- Fero Red Spider and Darkstarr Corpion gives you a -260.3 focus drain.
- Grand Boar gives you a -141.8 focus drain.

How much experience does the skills take?
Tame Creature (to 100) = 1,212,424. 120 = (8,157,124 xp)
Summoning (to 100) = 1,212,424. 120 = (8,157,124 xp)
Heal Creature (to 100) = 1,212,424
Obedience (to 100) = 1,212,424
Collar Recovery (to 100) = 1,212,424
Resurrect Creature (to 100) = 1,212,424
Combat Training (to 100) = 1,212,424
Concentration (to 100) = 1,212,424
Refresh (to 100) = 1,212,424
Taming Specialization (to 80) = ** Look above in the Taming Specialization section **

Blessing of the Tamer - Buff
In R53 and after it gives your pet +10 levels.
Zone: South Boundless Forest
Spoiler: Solving the totem puzzle & Getting the Blessing of the Tamer
Spoiler
Boar totem (location -262.4, 39.1, -168.5) - make it face NORTH
Wolf totem (location 157.8, 32.1, 129.2) - make it face SOUTH
Stag Totem (location 188.4, 64.0, -168.1) - make it face EAST
Bear totem (location -82.6, 37.4, 381.7) - make it face WESTThanks to @Rinaldi for uncovering this puzzle solution.
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Here is a video of me doing the blessing of the tamer puzzle and solution:


With Combat Training of 92 through 100 and Taming Specialization of 100 (GM) level the top three pets:
Obsidian Bear will have 1192 health hit points.
Feroicous Red Spider will have 1004 health hit points.
Darkstarr Corpion will have 1244 health hit points.


Results
Obsidian Bear:
- With Combat Training of 92 and Taming Specialization of 100 (GM) level (1,043 health hit points)
OR Taming Specialization of 80 and all other Taming skills at 100 (GM) level (960 health hit points). * Thanks to @Grimbone for verifying this as with Taming Specialization of 85 gives 985 health hit points.
- You can take any Tier 5 creature of a Tier 6 creature under 999 hit points one on one with no healing, in my testing.

Max Level of all Pets
The current max level of all pets is obtained by training your Summoning to 126 and Combat Training to 121. @Pawz discovered this while bring her Summoning to 136 and Combat Training to 131. No Difference, no level raised. Thank you @Pawz for this great information!

Quick keys
These keys on your extended keyboard (or laptop with a number pad) will let you control how your pet reacts or to quickly have them follow your command. OR you can right click on your pet to access the same list (I right click instead of using my numeric keypad.

Num Pad 1: Passive = this will make your pet ignore any targets.
Num Pad 2: Defensive = Your pet will only attack your target if you get attacked first.
Num Pad 3: Aggressive = Your pet will attack a random target of their choice.
Num Pad 4: Stay = Your pet will stay in the spot when you tell them to stay.
Num Pad 5: Follow = Your Pet will follow you around.
Num Pad 8: Teleport to my location in the same scene = this is good if your pet gets stuck and cannot pathfind their way to you.
Num Pad 9: Stop Attacking = Your pet will stop attacking the target. Sometimes your pet is so engrossed they won't stop even if you tell them multiple times.

These two no longer work:
Num Pad 6: Attack
Num Pad 7: Dismiss


Jaath Windsong has an Excel spreadsheet with what to take and what level broken out at this thread - https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/taming-and-summoning-chart.60911/

I hope this guide helps you in your quest to be a GrandMaster Tamer.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Please let me know if there are any corrections please let me know too. My goal is to keep this updated for every release going forward to be a guide for all new players.

Sincerely,
Lord Greagoir Pendragon, ONBE
Duke of Dara Brae

[Enthralling Victor]

Fantastic! Thank you, I've been wanting to give this a shot. Will you please also upload this in "Guides" here in Steam so it doesn't get lost in the forums?

[LordAtAt]

Added to Guides section. Thank you for the suggestion Vladamir.

[🎶Alleine Dragonfyre]

Have you posted this on official? :) Thank you!

[LordAtAt]

Yes, I have.

[LordAtAt]

Updated this morning to make is current.

[Enthralling Victor]

Still wanting to give it a shot, and your guide is the key! Now that the pre-release hubub is over maybe I'll have some free time to go tame a bunny.

[LordAtAt]

Cool! Added Blessing of the Tamer information and link

[LordAtAt]

The guide and this posting has been updated for Release 55 information and changes.