Taming combos, what are you using?

[LokiUO]

I have been doing some taming and having some success.  I was wondering what groupings people are using.  I am mostly interested in PvM.  I am finding that after Boura, Raptors, and Bake it requires 3 slots for each animal tamed.  Curious what combos people are using.
This is what I have done so far.
2 lowland Bouras- 2 slots each. Lots of HP, easy to tame, hit pretty hard with 25% bonus for Pack instinct.
2 raptors - 2 slots each.  Less hp as bouras, hit about as hard as bouras but less health.  No Pack bonus,  Not as good as Boura
2 Bake - 2 slots each. - Hit pretty hard, good magic, no Pack bonus, Less HP than Boura's.  About as effective as Boura overall.

I am interested in the Lesser Hiryu as I may be able to tame it with stat boost.  I have a Ethereal ostard and I like to be on a mount to manuever.
Is it better to have 1 lesser hiryu or 2 Bake?  Should I go one Bake and one Hiryu and just go on foot?  Should i skip all that and just try to get a dragon?

[Mita]

Not including donation pets...
These are my ranking from best to worst and why.

For 5 slot hunting:
1. Greater Dragon
 > 5 Slot <
 + Best damage output
 + High health makes vetting easier
 + High health improves Dragon Breath too. Yay damage!
 + High wrestling makes hit chance and defend chance better (good for offense & defence)
 - No Mounting
 - No room for mount or ethreal
Good anywhere that you are willing to walk it (or potion it). I use it almost everywhere.

2. Hiryu (greater)
 > 4 Slot <
 + Out damages 2 bakes or dragon-mare combos IF wrestling and tactics are both high.
 + Best mountable pet
 + A little harder to vet than greater or cu sidhe due, but still easily doable for most champions even.
 - On Pandora, Hiryu is a rare spawn. I spent several days hunting lessers looking for one with no luck. I only know they exist by word of mouth, and I've seen just 1 owned by a player.
 - No magery, and special moves basically useless in PvM.
Good for ease of travel, mainly in areas that require mountable pets or shrinking potions or that are very far from moongates. I use it if I am going to Ishnar to fight blood elementals or weaker. Otherwise, I use the GD.

3. Cu Sidhe
 > 4 Slot < (i think?)
 - Damage slightly less than mare-dragon combo
 + mountable (for elf or human wearing special boots)
 + Pet uses aids on itself or you, making vetting much easier.
 + Resists and health make vetting very easy.
Good for mobs with constant poisoning.

4. 2 Bakes + ethreal mount
 > 4 slot <
 + Better damage than Hiryu
 ? not mountable, but room for ethreal
 - vetting very difficult due to low hp/resist
Only good where things don't hit hard or are constantly focused on other players/pets (i.e. guant). That said, I don't use it anywhere becuase it is not the best for anything.

5. Dragon - Nightmare
 > 5 slot <
 + Nightmare best 2-slot, and is mountable
 + Dragon can tank most things. Can be difficult to tank some of the harder hitting things (wild GD's or Balron Paragons, etc)
Great combo tamers to climb the pet ranks with. You'll want to switch up later though.

6. RuneBeetle - Nightmare
Same as Dragon-Mare combo, but with a slight trade off.
 - Much hard to vet then dragon (only slightly easier then a mare)
 + Does more damage in general, including poisoning. Damage output vers high-resist mobs generally on par with hiryu output.
I don't normally use this combo becuase it is not safe enough for solo'ing hard mobs. The one case where it is useful in when your pets don't have to tank (guant again), but the negate resist effect helps everyone, and if your pet is attacked it will die. That makes your loot chances slightly lower (in general), but increases the frequency of kills (so it sort of evens out).

7. 2 lowland bouras
 > 4 slots <
 + easy to tame (non-hostile) (expendable)
 + high damage considering the ease of taming and slot control
 + vets about as well as nightmare
 - isn't vet-able for hard mobs/champions
 - damage output still lower than hiryu due to 100 wrestling/tactics cap
I was not aware of pack instincts. ^_6 I use them while I have no bonded pets.

8. 5 Frenzied Ostards
 + Pack Instincts
 + mountable
 + damage output on par with weaker greater dragons (better then hiryu)
 - very easily killed (not vet-able)
Good for guant-ganking. xD With extended pet slots, this combo has the potential to be the most damaging combo available due to pack instincts. (drakes can be a good pack combo too)

I don't know if any donation pets have pack instincts, but basically any of them is better than all of these combos.
Also, I haven't been over 5 slots yet. I would probably use as follows though:
6 slot: Greater + Ethy
7 slot: Greater + nightmare
8 slot: Greater + Dragon
9 slots: Greater + Dragon + Ethy
10 slots: 2 greaters
Why greaters? They tank sooooo well. I still may just use 1 hiryu if its far away in ishnar and have no shrink pots.


*sings* ... and nothing else matters...

[LokiUO]

Lesser Hiyru at 3 slots was a real let down.  Tried to team it with a Bake and it's output was subpar.  Felt like the Bake was doing better damage and actually has more HP then the Lesser H.

With 2 bake's I still get my mount which is much nicer than having to run from mobs when pulling.  I am still using the newbie LRC and one hit can take me down a third easy.
I park my pets and pull Oni, Bake, Lesser Hiyu, Tsuko wolves etc to them.  Keeps adds down.


Planning on investing in a Dragon and Nightmare just to check it out.

EQ taught me well.