Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Please enlighten me...I've taken a 7 month hiatus from the game...summarize what has happened to CH
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Dreamflayer
Wed Jul 14, 2004 4:46 pm
#1
After the massive rounds of nerf bat weilding craziness from many months ago, I decided to sign up for a few more months, dust off my moldy pets and play a bit. From a general scanning of the forum topics I don't see the happiness level having raised much. Could someone please briefly summarize the State of the CH nation?
Thanks
Dreamflayer/Radiant
Lownewulfe
Wed Jul 14, 2004 5:10 pm
#2
I wish I could assist you Dream but I've only just returned after almost 1 year gone. The doozy CH nerf, the very first one, sent me packing. Glad to see someone else come back and I hope you're having as much fun as I am this time around!!
Dreamflayer
Wed Jul 14, 2004 5:21 pm
#3
Once I learn how to play the game again, I'll probably be enjoying myself. The lag seems to be a bit worse, at least for me. Probably take me a bit to remember how to take out my pets
TheLoneBowler
Wed Jul 14, 2004 5:38 pm
#4
Morale is very low. Pets are almost useless. In PVPhigh level petsdie in 2-3 hits. We were balanced against a combat rebalance that has been delayed and has not happened yet. Pets will auto store themselves at completely random and inopportune times. People laugh at you if you want to fight with your pets. Pets are generally only pulled out to raise mission payouts. Some people (such as myself) have found creative ways to make pets somewhat viable, but they are only BE pets engineered for a very specific purpose.
Spazzers
Wed Jul 14, 2004 5:52 pm
#5
7 months ago was December or January more or less. Creature handlers got wacked hard about that time. Creature handler "dabblers" dropped the profession in droves because they couldn't call two maulers anymore. Wild pets became wimpering tag alongs that got stuck on every rock or tree they came across not to mention they would warp across the planet leaving you alone in the wilderness.
On the other hand bio engineers made out like bandits. They were able to craft freak of natures like littlefat grey gnorts with armor and 12K HAM, eopies that spit strong poison, razor cats and blurrgs for non-creature handlers. We won't mention the CL10 animals with +5K HAM (the pet check never has worked correctly and dare I say the pre-nerf CL1/0 blurrgs are still out there. Yes they can still be called with a CL70 pet.)
Fast forward 7 months....creature handlers are still wacked and bio engineers still make freaks. Mounts follow now which is a plus. It wasn't so long ago you'd get off your mount and run over to a lair just to turn around and find your mount way back where you got off it. No one wanted their animal trained as a mount for the longest time. Mount was synonomous with brain death.
You can command special attacks now as well ranged attack which if you ask me ROCKS. You can call your pet without having to throw a camp which is nice. You have to wait 15 seconds to call the animal if you're in the field though which most people agree is stupid. What if you had to wait 15 seconds to arm your flame thrower in the field? I won't hold my breath for that to be changed. If you call your animal in the field and something attacks you the 15 second timer stops leaving you alone to fight the attacker with whatever weapon skills you may have. For me that's basicallyscreaming and flailing a lot. The attackerusually isn't to preturbed by my defenses. Hmmm. Be safe. Call your animals in town before you leave. I typically call an armored mount withone or twocomplimentory pets. Cats types usually keep up with speeders well.
You can role play a true die hard creature handler and roam the wilds looking for those rare uber pets or you can role play a zoo keeper and buy a freak of nature from your local bio engineer. I have both wild and engineered and I use both. They all have a purpose. The trick is to find the nitch that best fits your play style.
Most people that haven't found that nitch are the ones that are the most unhappy with the game. 
TheLoneBowler
Wed Jul 14, 2004 7:26 pm
#6
Spazzers wrote:
Most people that haven't found that nitch are the ones that are the most unhappy with the game.
For the most part this is true, however the niche is so unbelievably narrow... I tried rare hunting... 300+ bull rancor lairs no luck. I tried PVP... Screecher died in 3 hits, lost vitality (Post patch). No other pets do enough kinetic damage to get past buffs/armor in PVP, the regeneration rate is too high for the damage done (And yes I have level 70 pets). Half of the specials (knockdown, poison, disease) do not work on command anymore, I am sure they did once. Turning ranged attack on is nice but you can't turn it off. There is no way to make money as a CH, I rely on doing missions as a TKM. PVE I do fine in, but that is because I ama TKM.
On the positive side, my pets do help with state effects, so PVE assistance is the niche for me I guess...
If they lived longer then 5-10 seconds they might be effective in PVP too.
I once was a master BE but CH is not strong enough to be a sole combat profession. 
Dreamflayer
Wed Jul 14, 2004 7:28 pm
#7
The special attacks sounds fun, as do the mounts, took me 7 months to get over the last round of nerfs, so unless there is another wave on the way, I may be able to stomach this new creature handler
Thanks for the summation.
TheLoneBowler
Wed Jul 14, 2004 7:52 pm
#8
Dreamflayer wrote:
The special attacks sounds fun, as do the mounts, took me 7 months to get over the last round of nerfs, so unless there is another wave on the way, I may be able to stomach this new creature handler
Thanks for the summation.
Infact we are probably the only profession that won't get nerfed in the combat balance. I am just holding out till then to see if it fixes a lot of our issues.
Dreamflayer
Wed Jul 14, 2004 7:53 pm
#9
Which pets are Level 70? That must have happened in the last 7 months....or did they just bump up already existing pets to that level.
TheLoneBowler
Wed Jul 14, 2004 8:05 pm
#10
Bio-engineered pets can be made useable up to level 70. If you are not a wookiee, any thing above a certain level ( I think it is 65) will require taming clothes to call.
RellikCro
Thu Jul 15, 2004 1:12 am
#11
Dreamflayer,
I can not vouch for how my fellow CH's play.. although Ch was balanced against a revamp that has been postponed over and over, I still find it very fun to play CH. There was a time a few weeks ago I was thinking of dropping ch and indeed dropped from master and two boxes but I missed the pets I could no longer pull and found that CH is more then just looking at your pets as "weapons" to use against your target.
I might of found that elusive rare "niche" mentioned above but I have become attached to my pets, they seem to be like friends and I very much enjoy hunting with them to this day. I have never had any problems hunting with pets and being harrassed by anyone, whether it be grouped members or those passing by. I am working on mastering CH again so I can once again pull my longtime pets out and do some hunting with them.
I am a hardcore PvE'er that never PvP's so I can not give advice on that aspect of CH. You need to be smart with pets now though, they are no longer the ultimate tanks that will not run and die fighting.... their chance of running seems to increase as they get hurt, theres a chance of the target ignoring your pet and gong afte ryou, though if you peace and reattack with your pet the target seems to forget you again (in my experience).
All in all I very much enjoy playing a Pistoleer/CH... not the uber PvE'er, not the uber PvP'er but then IMO CH is not about being uber.... it is about making the bond with your pet that you watch grow and mature... a friend that is always willing to go hunt with you anytime anywhere.
If you are of like mind you will very much enjoy playing CH again 
DrexDrakon
Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:48 am
#12
I've got a few wild creatures left in my datapad, but most are BE made. The wild ones are the "rares" that were brought back w/patch 8. i.e. 2nd Bull Rancor on Lowca. I've had various other "rares" and either traded or sold them away...never deleted them since they were too hard to come by to begin with. I've never done PvP as an MCH past the 1st two times since my pets were nuked (wild ones one fight/BE ones 2nd fight) but I do enjoy using them still in PvE or when I'm hunting for the ever elusive Arachne Widow.
Dodece
Thu Jul 15, 2004 8:39 am
#13
Alot of professions are just screwed till the revamp. Buffs and armor are so good. That they put players in god mode. Passive defenses on some professions are so high that attacking them is pointless, and with the buffs they can special at nauseam.
That is why ch feals so dang weak. Infact most everyone is increadibly weak compared to the few uber classes. TKA combat medic riflemen. TKAs just dodge you forever so the chances of takeing them down ranged is near pointless. The combat medics hit you will a poison so strong that all they need do then is run. Wait for the 400 point plummets to lay you fallow. Riflemen just slice through armor, and get a huge chip out of your mind when you hit. Which works well for them because mindbuffs even with brandy rarely go over four hundred. Even with muon on that you still cannot crack a couple thousand.
So until the rebalance pvp is dead to all but those guys. Look on the brightside after the pvp the only thing left is pve and ch works very well at that.
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