Im just back from a huge uo break and it seems that training skills doesnt work as it used too. I tried the old 8x8 method and it was majorly slow to the point that i could have been in a dungeon and gained the same ;). Could somone please let me in on the new secrets to training these skills?

Just cast away.

Nothing different as far as what to cast when and no need to move, just stand still and cast.

as DiP said, just cast. In house, in town, dun matter.
Tips:
Get an LRC suit. See the "getting started FAQ". Swoops is your best bet for getting a cheap LRC suit.

Read up on the new item caps, item properties, etc. This thread is updated within days of any new changes. These will be announced in the general discussion thread as an update.

At 60-70 magery, get a wand or a mage - weapon with spell channel. You will gain as if you were at the adjusted level.

When casting damaging spells (other than mindblast), target your spell book to save wear and tear on your armor.

I just started a new mage on a different shard, and decided the best way to train magery was killing ettins in that dungeon...can't remember the name..the one with ettins, and lizardmen ... that one. Anyway, I poison them first. Then I cast lighting bolt on them...at 60 i started using e-bolt. Anyway, I figured it would be more fun that sitting at the bank casting spells onto my spell book.
I had 57 magery and killed three Ogre Lords, not at the same time of course. It took a while, but it was fun.
I got my LRC suit at the swoops. Bonus, there was a tamer there killing the swoops and he wasn't taking any of the gold. After a while, I had enough for a bag of sending and stayed there until I had a complete LRC suit. I made 136,000 gold collecting armor. Just my lucky day I guess.

Congrats Santi!

well i stood still and cast like a bad fisherman. its gm now (it was slow :/)

Congrats!

Hello, I'm doing magery/tamer, currently working on mage skills right now to help me with that taming skill *sigh* not looking forward to that grind haha. At any rate, I went to swoops (thanks to the guide here on the forums) and have only found up to 78 lrc gear, can I get it higher than that?

Also I just hit 55 magery, i've been casting mostly the buffs on myself, should I be casting other things by now or are buffs good for skilling up just the same?

edit: I do have a mage skill -25 wand, should I have this equipped while casting or should I not to some point? I currently have it equipped.

Thanks

Truwen, you can reach 100 lrc suit, which eliminates the need for reagents entirely. You want to cast spells that have about a 50% chance of failure. At 55 magery, I would be casting a 5th circle spell such as mindblast or dispel field. You will get the fastest gains that way. Look here to give you an idea of which spells to cast at any given level to let you reach that 50% failure rate: http://guide.uo.com/magic.html

You could equip the wand, and cast 3rd circle spells instead, for less mana use. Personally, I've found it best to play around and see which one was giving me the fastest gains.

I feel your pain on the taming grind. I'm at the point that I live off of GGS'.

I met a nice guy in luna last night that really helped me out a lot. He gave me some pointers on skilling up, taught me how to make a macro to recast the same spell and told me that fields are a good way to level up to about 80ish...so I was doing that last night, outside of luna and found myself skilling up way faster. He also helped me to get my LRC up to 125, so no reagents being used there, yay.

At any rate I plan to get my magery skills up to gm first then run around taming sheep for a while till they are to easy. *smile* And at some point learn how to make bandaids.

Any way thanks for the advice and the link I will be sure to read it today.