Veterinary, why not make it again a skill to have ?

With Templates craving for skill points, and the more the better, considering all of the downsides of vetting a pet close by, like, with MoBs using AoEs a go-go, retargeting on the Tamer all the time, landing blows on the Tamer that kill them in 1 or 2 hits or close to that etc. etc. it is no surprise that Veterinary, other then to resurrect a pet, is not much used for healing the pet....

Most Tamers, be it to use those 120 skill points in some other skill which they can put to better use, or being it because they find it way safer to use Greater Heal from a distance, prefer not to use Veterinary.

Why don't the Developers do something to the skill so as to make it more viable ?

Like, offer to Tamers vetting their pet a better chance not to be targeted by MoBs close by ?

I mean, after all, it is 120 skills points.... they should give something back.... yet, with Monsters using AoEs and retargeting all the time, and usually being able to kill a Tamer in just a few hits (most Tamers are spellcasters for ranged approach to Monsters, therefore, close range Defence Chance Increase can be a bonus, but other properties are seen as better priorities, usually...also, usually holding spellbooks is preferred to holding Mage Weapons for better defense).

Anyways, I think it would be nice to see Tamers get back to heal their pets through Veterinary, rather then being forced to used ranged Greater Heals....

How do I address another only in popps head all my tamers have 120 vet heck my ninja scout healer has 120 lore/vet my fishman pally tamer yep vet ..

Well, a whole lot ot Tamers prefer to invest those 120 points in skills that bring them home a lot more then Veterinary can....

I mean, most MoBs you simply cannot get close to vet the pet....

Be it because AoEs that the MoBs pull off, be it because they pretty much retarget the Tamer thus forcing him/her to leave (hiding often does not work as they stay aggroed on the Tamer and as soon as the Tamer resumes vetting, they pound their heavy blows onto the Tamer's head...), or be it because higher end MoBs are too hard hitter who can kill a Tamer in just a few blows, using Veterinary to heal a pet, usually means for the Tamer ending up dead....

And when the Tamer dies, the pet usually dies too....

McDougle said:

How do I address another only in popps head all my tamers have 120 vet heck my ninja scout healer has 120 lore/vet my fishman pally tamer yep vet ..

My tamers have vet. I wouldn't dream of not having it. In some instances I use both vet and magery to heal them at the same time.

So they made a choice and live with the consequences that's the beauty of UO isn't it?? No change is needed here...

Petra_Fyde said:

McDougle said:

How do I address another only in popps head all my tamers have 120 vet heck my ninja scout healer has 120 lore/vet my fishman pally tamer yep vet ..

My tamers have vet. I wouldn't dream of not having it. In some instances I use both vet and magery to heal them at the same time.

This says it all for me too.

I use vet on Tamers I take to fight things. Macro Bandage Nearest follower. Cast spell Greater Heal on target. 

Popps should not post about any Template unless he has that template. 

I have yet to see him have a Built pet with max skills.  Pet Revamp is 4 years old.  He could have hundreds of pets and know how to play a tamer

Usage of vet really depends on how your pet and character are setup.  Survivability of pet is often better handled in the way the pet is built.

One use case for vet is a rare usage of pet rez.  For this, you can get away with about 40 vet skill, and use jewels/items to bring your vet up to 80 for the rez.

There may be rare cases where having high vet in use throughout a fight is good.  Vetting a pet on cora comes to mind, or other pet traning.  But these cases seem rare.

Personally, I don't think vet is good to invest 120 points in.  You can invest the points in something else that allows the tamer to deal more damage themselves, which is a case of good offense improving your defense (survivability of tamer and pet)...

Pure mages are usually better off holding a mage weapon item than a spellbook, in defense/run stance.  take the balakai staff as an example.

Mene_Drachenfels said:

You guys always forget one very important thing to have full veterinary skill -

The Number of Stable slots a Tamer can have in summa summarum !

Copied from UO.guide com:

Each pet requires one stable slot, regardless of how many control slots they use. A typical (non-tamer) character has two available stable slots. Tamers, however, have a increased amount of stable slots based upon their combined taming abilities. The sum of the character's skills in Animal Taming, Veterinary, and Animal Lore determines the amount of additional stable slots according the following table:

• Below 160.0: 2 pets may be stabled.
• 160.1 - 199.9: 3 pets may be stabled.
• 200.0 - 239.9: 4 pets may be stabled.
• 240.0 and up: 5 pets may be stabled.
  

Additionally, "bonus" stabling slots are added for each of the three taming skills that reach 100.0, 110.0, and 120.0. These "bonus slots" are cumulative.

For example, a person that has all three skills at 80.0 would have 5 stable slots. A person that had 100.0 Animal Lore and Animal Taming and Veterinary at 70.0 would have a total of six stable slots (five for having 240.0+ skill and one bonus slot for having Animal Lore at 100.00)

Beyond that, 2 additional stabling slots are granted characters on an account upgraded with the Stygian Abyss Expansion.

The maximum amount of stable slots any one character can have is 21:
Five slots for having 240.0+ taming skills, nine bonus slots for the three taming skills at levels 100.0, 110.0, and 120.0 plus 2 bonus slots for being SA upgraded.
plus 2 additional slots are available through Time of Legends.
plus 1 additonal slot per tier using Taming mastery.

Stable slots are based on current skill level including jewelry. A character with 99.0 skill in one of the three skills can get an additional bonus slot by wearing a piece of +1.0 skill jewelry in that skill. When the jewelery is removed, the creature will remain in the stable.

You can check your number of filled/total stabling slots by the command "stablecount".

Buying the Stable Slot Increase from the Shop will bring you more slots - 1 Token give 3 more. You can buy up to 7 - so that you can get another 21. So with all this you have a whole number of 42 stable slots on a fully trained Tamer Char!

So don't throw Vet away

To my opinion, for pets' storage, it is more functional just to make EJ Tamers rather then having a currently not much useful Veterinary skill on the Template wasting up precious skill points real estate on a Template...

Truth is, that, as it is, Veterinary is a waste of skill points....

The only way that Veterinary would once again be a skill appealing to want to have, even at 120, on a Template, was if the Developers were to make MoBs NOT retarget on a Tamer who is vetting their pet. It is OK to handle AOEs, depending on how damaging they are, usually a Tamer can through a self heal here or there to handle AOEs, but the real issue if MoBs retargeting on the Tamer at close distance, especially since, often, the Tamer is on foot when using a 5 slots pet and, thus, incapable of running away fat enough.

Not to mention, in those instances where the Tamer is vetting a Pet fighting multiple higher end MoBs at once... if more then one Creature retargets on the Tamer that is vetting, the Tamer is dead before they can even realize it...

If the Developers want tamers to invest 120 skill points on a Template to actually actively vet a pet, then, while vetting the ability of Monsters to retarget on the Tamer has to be toned down a WHOLE LOT, me thinks.

You make zero sense.  I use veterinary all the time.  Its far more efficient than greater heal.  Especially when doing  T-maps...

Again @popps just don't have vet......problem solved..