Template decisions

Everybody's comments and suggestions are quite helpful but leave me still at an impasse: I'm Very melee-oriented on most games I've ever played (I've always loved collecting and using weapons of all kinds) - this makes me slightly more interested in a full- out GM lumberjack axer now that I've discovered that taming doesn't Quite fit in like I had originally hoped.

While it may not seem like much, I feel like I invested quite a bit of time and energy into the basic dexxer skills on this character, much more than the basic 50 taming.

That said, I am not really sure how strong lumberjacks are at pvm - I doubt that I'd be able to solo a dragon or anything that strong very easily, would I?

If an axer Is really worth having around, I may just scrap taming on this character and start a new, more traditional tamer down the road. The only other way I see my original idea working is to just do swords, but is that somewhat lackluster compared to the other weapon skills? Nobody seems to mention just swords when maces, fencing, and archery all have potentially better merit with the Template in question.

@Dalavar out of curiosity, do both tactics and anatomy have benefit for archery like all the other weapon skills? If I were to create a different tamer with archery in mind, would there be more room in that template than what I'm struggling with now?

Lj swords tact anat healing music peacemaking is a pvm power house. You just need to learn to single targets out. The lack of magery makes it harder to get around with out a gate bot.

Exactly what he said. Provo dexxers do very well with high damage output and good mob control. You just need to take your time and single out mobs or pairs of mobs . . . practice makes perfect.

If you're wanting to melee higher-end monsters while solo, that's the build to go with.

Yes, both would help. If you don't use Healing, then Anatomy is really just a few points of damage bonus. You could drop it I guess.

If I was going to run a fighting character with a Nightmare tank, I'd go with:

Animal Taming, Animal Lore, Veterinary, Weaponskill, Tactics, Anatomy, Magery

If you want to use axes, you could do something cool like:

100 Taming, Lore, Vet, Swords, Tactics, Lumberjacking
50 Anatomy
50 Magery

I think at that Magery, you'll never fail Recall off of a scroll.

you may well be right,though i cant say for sure. However in my sig i have Keza's DPS test where i believe that very question and many others like it are answered by both keza and others and with alot of video evidence to true it. His weakest template of all in terms of DPS was the archery one. 7 dps with a scorp pack. Something like 18 with a scorp pack but just using a warhammer,maybe it was even 25?

This is just if youre curious,im not trying to argue the issue so to speak i believe archery does have its benefits in other areas than damage too for more special events and such,where only one guys pet needs to tank and only 2 tamers need to heal. 2 or 3 more could stand and safely Xbow or bow their slayer of choice in the face of whatever mob from near point blank as you say and have incredible hit rate %.

Warhammer will drain mana of PoD or Elder wyrm to 0 so they hit maybe once every 2 seconds with their melee attack..add a discord and the PoD is easier to heal than a non disco full stamina regular balron. (Heal the tanking pet i mean).

But you may be right that they are equal in DPS. Warhammers arent super high up there either,but crushing blow on a slayer is kinda cool,and it otherwise hits about like an axers axe without the LJ bonus. And the stamina drain. Its really like others have said,alot comes down to preference?Like , Do you have to have the max dps template or do you want the template that sounds fun but is still more than effective and will not be considered odd or weak,just less common!

This is yet another version of a workable Lumberjack tamer. Thank you Dalavar! You could even use dragons ofc on a template like this and a nightmare. You would be a nightmare in the damage department thats for sure. And at 50 magery you can gate from scrolls,not at 100% success i believe but about 75-80%?

The provo or peacemaking lumberjack bard warrior(no taming) is also extremely powerful. Though to GM lumberjack and other neccesary skills you have have to go either 50 magery 50 anat or 80 anat 20 magery and recall around (you have no pets) using scrolls. Or take another weapon skill but preferably one that has a good main weapon that hits slow but very hard,hence why LJ tends to be the one chosen, if youre using peacemaking since fewer hits means the monster will have less times to run a check to see if he awakens from his peaceful tranquilized state to murder you or not.

I've been reading as many template discussion threads on the forums as I can find and wanted to ask about this LJ Tamer build.

In another thread, I asked about minimum magery for recall scroll and got an answer of basically 23-28. If that is the case, could you do this build but GM Anatomy instead of Tactics and then do Tactics around 75-80 and Magery at 20-25? You can up Tactics with the right weapon and I've read there is no difference between 100 and 120-125 Tactics, so it's overkill.

Thus:

GM Taming, Lore, Vet, Swords, LJ, Anatomy
~75-80 Tactics (effectively GM with the right weapon)
~20-25 Magery, (enough to get out most of the time with your mount)

You could take dragons if you wanted, but would have to leave them behind or roll the dice...If no interest in taking dragons, you could drop taming a bit and up the Magery for more reliable recall with your Nightmare.

Is this doable? I'm still working on my first tamer that is very similar to Cordelia's post, but I am a melee guy at heart too and wailing away with an axe for massive damage would make me happy.

Is this a doable build? Yes it can work but there's a major draw back to it. You are left with only potions to heal and being no resists your already very squishy. I think you'd find that you would spend way more time trying to be tactful or rezzing then you would probably prefer.