I started a new T-hunter a few weeks ago and thought I would share some of My lessons learned for the new hunters who come here.

1. Use them level one t-maps!! They give you a nice safe way to learn some of the chest locations and the spawn around the dig spot. In addition, when you forget to set off the trap remotely and do it by opening the chest the level one trap will not normally kill you. [smile]
2. Before starting the dig, scout around the area and find where the wandering healer / Rez location is. Check out the local spawn and either lead it away or kill it off before starting.
3. Stash some heal/invis regs/pots in a location a little distance away from the dig site. If you get killed and then rezed, your gonna need them to get your health back. The monster that killed you is still prolly standing over your body just waiting for you to try and come get your stuff back [smile]
4. Earth Eles are your friends! I usually pop out two of them before starting the dig. Make sure to drag their health bars off, so you can heal them if necessary. Set up an "all kill" macro so you can sick'em on the same monster at the same time for the baddys. I also find it helpful to set up two individual macros, so I can sick 'em on different creatures. I rename them to x and z and have kill macros for those set up also. Don't forget that they will eventually go away. In my limited t-hunting experience there is nothing worse than having a Ogre Lord pop out from the chest and your earthys going away 10 seconds later. Try summoning your first earthy, then waiting a minutes before summoning the 2nd one. That way they won't go "poof" at the same time.
5. As part of scouting the area find your escape path! It's not a good thing when the ogre lord pops up and your hung on terrain on three sides and it's blocking the way out. Not good. [smile]
6. Chest loot is no different in fel than tram. Monster fame is of course better in fel, but the loot is the same. I'm 100% Trammy, but most chest locations are remote and I've not had any problem with pk's interrupting my dig. Fel maps usually sell for less than tram maps if you want to buy t-maps.
7. Standard price for t-maps is 1K per level. Some peeps sell them for more, but there are plenty of shops that use the standard pricing.
8. If your str is 100 or better, and you gather everything from the chest, you can do 5 lvl ones, 2 level 2's, or one of the higher maps before a bank run is needed.
9. Bring a bag of sending! Esp on the level 3's and above as you can get overloaded if you gather everything from the chest. Sending the gold to the bank will lighten the load a lot.
10. Gather everything from the chest. You can sell the scrolls to the mage NPC's or use them to fill up a spell book. The gems add up and add value to the chest when you sell them to the NPC's. The junk weps can be smelted into ingots. The wands can be sold to the mage NPC's also.
11. Before you remove the chest, mouse over it and make sure the item count is the same for what you see in the chest. Rings like to hide under the wands.
12. Speaking of the wands, the ones with greater healing charges can come in handy in place of the heal regs / pots. If you insure it, you can use it right away after you die and get rezzed. Use them to heal your summoned earth elementals as well.
13. Get a good T-Map utility to help you locate the maps. I use "UO Treasure Hunter Tools" and it's most excellent!
14. Find at least one member of Your local THB guild and thank them for the lock picking training room and rune library (if applicable).
15. There are a couple of areas that the chest can be emptied from. Use them. As you kill the monsters that pop out of the chest from "stirring" they will start to pile up and make looting hard, so move around as they will spawn in slightly different locations, making looting easier.
16. Provoke and / or peacemaking are VERY good skills to have on a T-hunter. Insuring your instrument is a good idea.
17. Once you start the digging process, pre-cast invis and wait to use it till you can see all of the chest, then cast it on yourself. Don't hesitate though, as you only have about one second from the time you can see all of the chest till the 4 guardians pop out. The level two maps are very good for training this. When you are able to do your first Level 2 map, you may notice a "lag spike" when the first 4 monsters spawn, especially if you are on dialup.

Well that's what I have learned so far. I hope this helps some new T-Hunters.

Remember to Kiss and Hug Your Loved Ones Everyday
Very Respectfully,
Whipple of B / GL