I hear a lot of people say, "Tamer is a dead class." 

Then I kill them and the guildies they brought in after that.  

They are confused. What do I do different than other Tamers?

 Press Esc >> Action Key >>

(With Hokey) Evasion (WW) ... change this to G

Character Interactions ... change this to X

Special Action 1 ... change this to T

Toggle Weapon Stance ... change this to R

Press Esc >> Quick Slot Hot Keys >>

Quick Slot 11 ... change this to MouseFunction 2

Quick Slot 12 ... change this to MouseFunction 1

Quick Slot 13 ... change this to MMB

Quick Slot 14 ... change this to ~ (button right of your 1 key)

Quick Slot 16 ... change this to V

Quick Slot 17 ... change this to Z

Quick Slot 18 ... change this to Num0

Quick Slot 19 ... change this to Num3

Quick Slot 20 ... change this to Num.

Skills in Slot from Left to Right - Awakening
All-Around Spinner (1), Jolt Stab (2), Trample (3), Resonance (4), Breath Spike (5),

Heilang: Howling (6), Roaring (7), Commands: Stay (8), Follow (9), Sit (10), Summon: Heilang (0)

Echo Pierce (MB2), Moonlight Strike (MB1), Cloud Stomping (MMB) with it locked in Skill Menu

(Z) Command Attack

(V) Flow: Intimidaton  

(Num0) Absorb Heilang

(Num . ) Potion of your choice A

(Num 3 ) Potion of your choice B

Skills in Slot from Left to Right - Succession

(5) Roaring

(6) Fearful Trembling

(MB2) Command: Attack

(V) Prime: Heilang Aura

Why set things up like this? Well, the Devs made Tamer quite possibly the best class in the game. Your casual animations FLOW together. You can jump, run, crawl, and everything else just like you'd expect to do in real life. No other class does this! It's a fantastic class!

Unfortunately, most players don't seem to know that you can change the Guard from Q.

- This on its own causes a lot of problems. Guard does all kinds of things for Tamer. Yet, if you're female you probably have small hands. I even bought a smaller keyboard to help me. Nevertheless, reaching Q key from Shift is... not going to happen. I make it as far as the S key and can reach no further. Therefore, there's no way to reach Guard. For years, I just went without it. Then while learning Soaring Arts another Tamer was like, "What are you using for keys?" I said, "Eh, just the crappy default stuff. I can't tell what interfers with what if I change something." They laughed and were like, "You're life must be hell. Here, use these." And everything was better! So much better!

Now, the Devs seems to have a fork up their bums about buffing our Martial Arts skills. They've also made the most offensive class in the game for us Tamers, the Nova. She gets many pets who do great damage. Meanwhile, Heilang does not. So, Nova and even the Hassassin has been  a bit of a spit-in-the-face to us who love our Tamers. Nevertheless, these issues are small things. We've recently received many buffs and a new ability that has helped us greatly maintain flow between our attacks. These things were unnecessary if the devs would have buffed Heilang instead (maybe with better AI, too) and brought our Martial Arts things like Flurry of Kicks, Stretch Kick, and Tree Climb into the modern era. They are great abilities, but the Devs have ignored them for years. Consequently their AP output is very smell compared to our needs. Their CC mechanisms are still critical to PvP though as are all of our abilities. So, this is something you will learn to live with as a Tamer. The Devs forget we exist and forget to buff our abilities very frequently. Then over power the other classes and wonder why we are behind. 

Despite all of this though the Tamer remains one of the most skill-packed classes to have ever been made in Black Desert. It is also one of the staple classes for many of us. A girl and her dog-cat was a real novelty for those in North America and EU. Something we have asked for for many years in many games. However, it is wise to expect little of NA and EU companies. Of the Koreans? They are reliable, as Pearl Abyss has shown.

So, while you may hear that the Tamer is a dead class it is actually far from the case. 

The Tamer is quite powerful, but it is also important to remember that the Devs have been cruel to it. For many years Heilang disappeared if he touched even shallow water. This made grinding quite dangerous as at any time he might vanish leaving you with nothing to pull agro off of you. It was also the case for many years he might de-spawn in the middle of a fight leading to an immediate death.

While Heilang does no meaningful damage without you ALSO attacking he is a fantastic tank! And he is capable of many stuns. In Succession riding him actually does damage, too. As well, the controls on Heilang in Succession are mostly usable. Unfortunately, the Devs have not done any work on improving his ability to climb on terrain when leaving stationary into action. He often gets stuck on the smallest of pebbles. However, his attacks while riding make up for this. They can often one or two shot most creatures. Especially when riding him.

So, again, while the Developers often neglect quality of life improvements the Tamer is nevertheless very, very, well equipped with more abilities than any other class overall. On the spot, we can do practically anything. And that versatility makes us highly dangerous. Perhaps the best one-to-one PvP class in the game.

Another thing to keep in mind is this. The Tamer is a machine gun. Let me repeat that. The Tamer is a machine gun. Most Tamer abilitys do a little damage A LOT of times. This means after you attack you need to wait out the animation. Otherwise you're not doing full damage. This is good in terms of realism. However, most of the newer classes the Devs have been lazy with. The classes have piss poor animations and near-instanteous (full damage) output in the same moments as their actions. This lazyiness in their crafting leads to older classes feeling 'slow'. However, this ignores their versatility and survibility. While we may not "clear" as quickly as the newer junky classes we can kill them in a pinch. Partly this is due to an equal laziness in the mindsets of those players as their classes demand from them. And partly this is just due to their lack of skill kits inherent to their slap-dash production.

In short, don't presume the Tamer is wanting. It is just more a patient killer than your immediate gratification classes. And out of combat you can do almost anything. You see that thing over there? You can climb that. No other class can? Want to jump another mountain like a Lahn? Hop on Heilang or learn Soaring Arts and you are there. We have an incredibly good time, but the skill ceiling is high.

Literally, the Skill Point Ceiling is high. I believe Tamer is number 2 in the amount of Skill Points you need overall to "complete" your character.

And, the higher the level you are the better off you'll do.

I've been entirely unable to play other classes since 64+. They are just too weak to keep up and their animation packages are just awful. Again, Tamer is like having a real body. Every other class is a plant of wood that is prone to tipping over or moving only grudgingly, when at all. There's nothing else like playing Tamer. It's just well made. 

Tamer is NOT an evasion class despite that that is what is indicated at character creation. Why is this the case? Perhaps the Devs got a little "Woke" while making it. enying the reality that being a small girl getting hit by very large things doesn't go well in real life. Or, maybe it is "magic". I'm going to go with the latter. Really! Our armor is made from spirit energy. We ought to respect that a bit and contemplate the consequences that means in BDO as the entire story of what's going on in the world is built on it.  For this reason, the Tamer uses Damage Reduction for its Armor stat. Mistake this and you will struggle. And struggle a lot. Especially in PvE.

Lastly, Tamer is very needy on Crit Gear and Crystals. As well, ignore "Damage Against Monsters" on weapons, armor, and Skill-Addons. 

If you doubt what you are doing find a location with a Skill Trainer right next to a Creature Camp. Kill the creatures. See how thngs go. Swap Add-ons. Do this again. Keep doing this until you can sleep through a grind at Thornwood. Especially against the Khalk. Once those are of no issue for you you've got your Tamer set up proper for the time being as current content is. 

So, that's the Tamer. It's a heck of a lot better than people realize. Ignore the idiots saying it is a bad class. They are the idiots for playing a new class and seeking out instant gratification in combat then having a cry when their class always loses and has to run away. 

- Word of Caution: 

The devs have not been kind to Tamer until recently. I'm not sure what caused them to finally think that a pet-class should not have its pet vanish in water, but it took them years to fix it. Likewise, it took until this year for them to fix our guard so that it works at all post-Succession release OR to give us enough attacks off ours Awakened weapon to be able to use it throughout a fight. Therefore, it's okay to feel some dread about the October "reboot" to "old classes". I have a deep fear they are going to delete some of our skills and abilities. If this happens our class will die and that will be the end for us. So, let us hope that they do not delete the uniqueness of this class. 

Also, let us hope this little guide helps people use the class a little more easily. The class isn't bad. The proper setup to get the UI and Keybindings to flow together is just far removed from intuition. 

Enjoy!

Tamer is decent in 1v1. The skills kit have a lot of CC. Tamer suck in large scale battle. She can't do damage in a protective way while defending or evading. You just need 2 casters at long range to gives her a bad day. It's auto-death on 2 ranged skill. Got 3 with similar GS, they break your guard & you die basically. You can't even run away. Her disengagement capability require multiple skills at once. It's absolute garbage when you compare to many different class that goes into similar situation.

The 1vs1 capability of tamer is overrated. Most melee class have larger range of attack. They also have iframe like tamer. The can run away super far while protected differently to tamer. Berzerker hit with cannonball & jump back with a long iframe. For Guardian you just hit a key & can do the same. Maewha, Musa, they have iframe & super armor to run away. Warrior, he can run at crazy distance. Ninja/Kunoichi they can get transparent teleport mixed with super armor/iframe.  Sorceress has iframe & larger attack range. Dark knight has almost similar defensive/evading capability than a tamer. Although her attack range is much better.

The bad matchup... striker/mystic. Striker deal both forward/back attack. if tamer hit box is so short that you get trolled. It can't deal damage on them either. Nova/Hashashin same, get trolled used frontal guard skill. Same with Lahn, cc with back attack from the front.

Her AOE is small for the most part. Mostly aim on single target. Even when evading the class has small gaps. 

Pet is rng. Without legendary beast power & grab, tamer is useless in term of skill kit.

What gear and crystals are you using for the damage reduction build? Almost all of the guides I've seen have been full evasion and for the most part i've seen people say that damage reduction is not too viable for the tamer. 

I believe people do not like whatever class they are on because of the nature of the P2W structure of the game. It is simply just they had the time or money to make their gear better which based on how much the game has made.. people love to whale in this game. My suggestion to anyone on the grind and no enjoying it is to simply just switch to some other game without this type of monitezation... or at least one where PVP is kept separate from PVE.

I disagree.  Almost every class in the game has bigger AOE and performs better with the same or less gear.   Even with 309 ap and 2x dawn earring i still struggle to kill some classes.   Tamer is not at all balanced.  The hit boxes are weird the AOE is tiny.  The dog is glitchy,  doesnt work,  gets knocked down all the time even out of void lighning.  Even with 401dp evasion I would get 1 skilled from certain classes(ninja 310ap).  Testing DR build right now so i can see the difference for myself.  You take far too much damage from everything and with the AOE from all abilities being 1/4 or even 1/5 of other classes you have to get right in there,  most times you will die through block in less than a second.  If the tamer's skills deal 250% less AOE you would think we would have some more damage. Very challanging class to play well with little to no reward for doing so.  I wouldn't recommend tamer class to anyone at all,  even to people I don't like.