Herding
Herding
The lone shepherd walked the road towards Moonglow, stopping occasionally to lean upon her crook and survey the herd of sheep traveling alongside her path. She reached out with her crook to gently nudge a wayward ewe back toward the pack, nodded quietly, and continued on her way.
Herding is the skill of directing the movement of any tameable creature — moving them to a specific location, or making them follow you indefinitely. Unlike conventional pets there is no known limit to the number of herded creatures that may follow you at one time, though they will not travel through moongates. Herding a stack of dragons, Cu Sidhe, or Greater Dragons is a viable mass-mob strategy for area control, and herding-while-hidden gives a stealth character the rare ability to escort a small army of dangerous monsters anywhere in the realm.
Mechanics
How to herd
- Place a Shepherd's Crook in your hand or your pack.
- Double-click the crook.
- Target the animal you wish to herd.
- Target the location you wish the animal to move toward (or target yourself to make the animal follow you).
Success rate
Your chance of success when giving an order is equal to your current skill level. The taming difficulty of your target creature has no effect on the success rate, and there is no wait time between attempts. This makes Herding fast: you can pulse-target multiple animals in succession.
System messages
| Trigger | Message |
|---|---|
| Skill activated, awaiting target | "Which animal do you wish to herd?" |
| Failed skill check | "You don't seem able to persuade that to move." |
| Successful skill check, awaiting destination | "Click to where you wish the animal to go." |
| Animal moves to specific tile | "The animal walks to where instructed to." |
| Animal follows player | "The animal begins to follow you." |
Combat behavior
Herded monsters may still decide to attack nearby characters — Herding does not pacify them, only directs them. Combined with Hiding/Stealth, however, the herder can stay invisible while the herd ravages targets.
A stealthing character can therefore escort a very large group of dangerous monsters through the realm, though their attacks will likely give away the herder's general location.
Counter
Area-effect Peacemaking stops creatures from following you. Bards can shut down a herder's monster-train with a single Peace.
Moongate restriction
Herded creatures do not pass through moongates. To move a herd between facets, you must take a sea route (boats), the cave-tunnel network (Britannia ↔ Lost Lands), or specific persistent cross-facet portals.
Training
| Range | Method |
|---|---|
| 0 → 30 | NPC Rancher, Ranger Guildmaster, or Shepherd. |
| 30 → 100 | Herd animals according to the difficulty ladder below. |
Alternative Method #1 (tested August 2013)
| Range | Target |
|---|---|
| 0 → 30 | NPC trainer |
| 30 → 44.9 | Horse (purchased from a Stablemaster) — 2-3 hours |
| 44.9 → 80 | Great Hart — 2-3 hours |
| 80 → 89 | Bull — 2-3 hours; gains die out completely at 89.0 with bulls. (The 11 SoT points covered the rest in this test, so 89 → 100 with bulls alone is unconfirmed.) |
Alternative Method #2 (tested December 2015)
| Range | Target |
|---|---|
| 0 → 30 | NPC Shepherd |
| 30 → 35 | Polar Bears |
| 35 → 40 | Snow Leopards |
| 40 → 50 | White Wolves, Grizzly Bears, or Great Harts |
| 50 → 70 | Bulls |
| 70 → 85 | Cu Sidhe, Unicorn, or Fire Beetles |
| 85 → 100 | Greater Dragons (best). If you don't have Stealth, just keep herding Cu Sidhe, Unicorn, or Fire Beetles until 100. |
This second ladder is faster overall and accommodates non-Stealth characters.
Strategic uses
Escort + monster-train
A stealth-Herder can escort a herd of high-end monsters across continents, using them as a mobile threat: enter a town, switch to combat, and the herd follows. Greater Dragons and Cu Sidhe are the highest-tier escort options.
Champ Spawn farming
Herd low-level Champion Spawn creatures into a corner where they can be ground into a pile, then AoE-killed. Useful for solo Champion Spawn runs where the monster density makes individual fights tedious.
Provoke-and-Herd
A combined Provocation + Herding template lets you provoke pairs of monsters to fight, then herd the survivor away from your loot zone — efficient solo PvE play.
Anti-PvP escort
Herding a pack of Greater Dragons through Felucca pre-emptively forces other PvPers off your trail; the dragons attack any aggressor on contact.
Stat-modifier interaction
Herding is governed by Animal Lore (none required) and the targeted creature's natural skill. There is no soulstone-locked stat advantage; Strength and Dexterity have no effect on success.
See also
- Animal_Taming — gain complete control over your herd (the Herding-Taming bridge)
- Animal_Lore — companion skill for creature management
- Provocation — pair for monster-control templates
- Peacemaking — counter to enemy Herders
- Shepherd's_Crook — required tool
- Twisted_Weald — Cu Sidhe / Unicorn training site (high-end Herding)
- Stealth · Hiding — pair for invisible escort builds