Creature Handler Archive

Message Edited by CritterControl on 09-13-2005 07:30 AM

I was a master doctor/master pikeman, but began giving up pike to pick up CH.

Oddly, as I gave up more and more pike to go up CH, I did not notice the huge dropoff in effectiveness I'd feared.

What defensive and armor stats I got from Doctor were enough to keep me going and keeping my CL high was the biggest factor in my overall effectiveness... which surprised me, because I thought pikeman abilities were the main reason for my toughness originally.

Based on this, I'm thinking the CH/Doc or CH/CM is a pretty nice template with either some basic melee or ranged to round it out. You can keep your pets going for a long time like this, and you can probably tank what aggro you do pick up without toomuch trouble.

If you are still debating between pike/sword... after playing pikeman I think you might be better served with sword because you'll have more 1v1 offense. If you really want to be a tank vs multiple targets... TKA would be better since you won't go through a suit of armor every day or two like you can with pikeman.

Pikeman is just cool, that's the major reason I was sad to give it up.

Idai liked M pIke w/ M Ch she would be the person to ask.

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CritterControl wrote:

thanks for the info anyone else tell me their expeciences with pikeman?

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A friend of mine on Ahazi (Ailobo) is an MCH/MasterPike(wo)man. She seems to have great fun with it.

As noted above, though, the artificiality of the level system imposed multiplier effect severely impacts your combat effeciveness. The skillset takes a back seat to what level you are, which is why being level 80 is the be all and end all of the post CU world. Dabbling is extremely limitedbecause the only way to be a level 80 toon is the double elite mastery, which eats up a lot ofSP in the process.

I have been a pikeman and a creature handler since the beginning of the game, but I am not sure how they work together anymore. With all the work needed to customize your pack, it is hard to determine what would be most effective. As a pikeman, you generally debuff and stay defensive to last through most fights. You could train your animals to behave similar to this, or make them aggressive and offensive as a swordsman to compensate. I wish Ihad concrete experience to help you decide, but I still have not gotten my animals in order yet...

I have a master CH/master pikeswoman, and I think the combo is great. When the pets lose agro and it comes looking for me, I have enough armor and defensive skills to be able to soak the damage. It's great to be close to the pets to pop a stim on them when they need it.

I find that it's better to use the smaller pets though. The big ones make it sort of difficult to target multiple enemies during a fight.

I have both an MCH/MB/MP and an MCH/MB/MS - I much prefer the pike combo even though I can deal more damage with my MS (different servers-different WS). I prefer thecombat command selection for Pike over Swords but now that I can teach my pets some of these abilities (i.e., intimidation) I'll be able to compensate my Swords toon with my pets.

LOL, I try to protect my babies so I am in the fray right alongside themsince it's much easier to spam a pet stim while I am up close and personal. I don't wear armor on either toon as I prefer BE modded clothes.

thanks so much for all the info! i posted this on the pikeman forum but i got nothing from them so far so i though maybe you guys would have so ideas. which template would you do?

Master pike

MCH

Sword 0/0/3/0

FS melee speed 4

FS melee defense 2

or

master pike

MCH

medic 0/0/3/0

FS melee acc 4

FS melee speed 4

FS melee defense 4

FS range defense 2

basically is avanced armor break good enough to drop my FS mods? im 99% PvE

Message Edited by CritterControl on 09-13-2005 12:32 PM

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CritterControl wrote:

right now im a master swordsman/mch and i can do pretty much anything combat wise. but ive always liked pikeman...so i was wondering if there are any master pikeman/mch that can give me their experiences with it and if there are any difficulties with this template? do your pets have to tank more? do you find you can dish out the damage and keep aggro while the pet is backup? is it difficult to take down higher lvl stuff yourself?

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I have been MPike/MCH for close to a year. I love my template,and there's not to much that I can't do on my own. Help is always appreciated, of course, but I'mgenerally self-sufficient. As it were, I tank and use my pet as support. I have no issues holding agro, whether it's just me and my pet, or I'm in a larger group. If the situation calls for it, though, I can use a strong pet to tank, and support it with heals. Get yourself a good pike and a good pet, and you'll be fine.

/bump

ok cool i was actually heading towards jedi due to pressure from fellow players but realized my place is with CH. been one since the begining of the game so im very attached. maybe ill just drop a few to get 0/0/4/0 in medic...

Well you do remember you can use a VL. Only need too be CL 54 for it! So keep the Swordsman. Reason why is with a nice PH you'll do WAY more damage!