Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Rune, Vert, and my great fellow CH's
Pluto,
It may not just be Vert, it could be TH and it is most likely the Devs that have decided that CH is a non priority. In the manual it calls CH an Elite profession, but we aren't anymore, unless of course we are an elite supply and scouting support profession. I think the problem really rests with this simple fact: the Devs don't have a Hot clue where the game is going. They have not mapped out how they plan to get from here to there or even where here and there is.
If we knew for instance, that the role of CH is to be the explorers and the supply channel that rare loot etc, came through then we could handle that. Personally I don't believe any of my "pets" should be able to be used in PVP at all. Especially now, the fact is if they made our faction pets stronger and they are restricted to pvp and our pve pets stronger to do the job they need to do then I think you would see a definite separation of roles.
Right now they lick their finger, stick it out the window to see which way the wind is blowing and go with the people who are complaining the most. I think Vert could be more open, but I don't know if he knows any more about what's going on than we do, maybe sometimes less.
I know the frustration you are feeling, today my pets stored twice, mount disappeared, vehicle went poof but I just keep trying to make it work because I feel that if I continue to look at all the negatives I will miss what is really sort of ok. Chin up Pluto you are one of the strongest voices of reason in a sea of anger, frustration and discontent. Hang in there 
I think you hit the nail on the head. If Vert has too much going on in real life then maybe that is the biggest reason he should pass the torch. No I am not saying he should treat it like a 24/7 job. But I do think of it as like owning a puppy. If you buy a puppy and over time start to pay it less and less attention it becomes depressed or even violent. You have to feed the puppy and nurture the puppy. And we puppies are promising to not mess on the floor if the owner is taking good care of us. But I do feel left unattended. I am suggesting that the lack of CH love is in direct correlation with the lack of Vert's attention, if not in fact a cause and effect relationship.
As to the rest...I did not veil anything. I directly stated I wish him to step down. Defend Vert if you want. I am not opposed to him staying if you can show me we as a whole recieve more attention because he is doing his job. Again I think we are in the position of three weeks ago. Do the devs realize mounts will not follow. Maybe he could say they do. Correspondents write. That is their job (yes unpaid of course). The job description of correspondent also states that they must fairly represent the words of the community. I have not seen that. I know I am not the only one. Any relationship takes work. I have repeatedly asked that Vert be more vocal. In large this goes unheeded whether real life or just general lack of enthusiasm. I do not charge him with either. That is not for me to judge. The fact that I do feel he does not adequetely fight for his CH community is the key factor.
I've made my decision to move on from MCH. There is probably a little bit of enjoyment left in it for me, but not enough to keep me happy on a daily basis, not to mention the fact I'm practically broke (less than 100k credits). I logged on yesterday and just stood there wondering what to do. I ran around for awhile, then just came back to Coronet and stood there. I logged and was so depressed about this profession and SWG in general that I didn't snap out of it all night and went to take my nap before work, couldn't sleep--tossed and turned. This morning after 8 hours of work I've thought it over and realized there are still things I want to experience in SWG besides MCH. I thought I'd never come to this point, wanting to drop CH. I think the last straw happened long ago, I just didn't want to admit it. The devs killed this profession on purpose. It's dead to me and I just don't have the energy to carry it along anymore. It's sad... I'm one of the oldest MCH's on Intrepid...a dying breed.
I'll be posting all of my pets for sale on the galaxy auction forum soon, possibly this morning. If you're a CH on Intrepid and would like to own some of the best BE pets on the server then keep your eyes peeled for my post. Unfortunately I won't be giving them away since I paid hard-earned credits for them and I need credits to start in my new direction.
That's all I have to say. I'll be on my way.
aww you can't leave 
... before you dump CH and all your pets, why not create a new toon on a different server??? i did this last week actully... am trying something completly different... i'm having some fun doing it, being a broke noob with no skills sucks but its a nice change... but after a week or so i missed my pets and the things they allow me to do, i also missed not having the compainionship with me at all times...
its different not knowing anyone ingame again... also the difference in the servers themselves was surprising... its all the same goods, same basic worlds, but totaly different... i actully got lost on dant cause there are cities where there shouldn't be and emptyness where there should be cities...
if you find that you like things better as something else then do it for your main toon... if not, and you realize that MCH is fun to have, then you just saved yourself a long grind back, and you keep all of your pets...
Wabit
Sorry, I couldn't let this slide by. Only two specials work in the Pistoleer class and besides Fan Shot, the most damaging skills a Pistoleer has are actually from the Marksman tree (Kip-Up and Roll Shot).
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=pistoleer&message.id=39826
Wabit wrote:
as for professions that work there are a few...*snip* Pistoleer *snip*
Wabit
Freth,
I suppose that is how I came to write this letter. I have holo-grinded since the holiday holos. I have managed to holo on to my MCH title through the whole experience. Hoping beyond all hope that bugs would get fixed. Somehow and magically for publish 7 we get two new mounts. The majority of us would rather SOE shove those two mounts somewhere else. They have to code two creatures *mount on*. Very minimal amount of content for us. Especially when mounts are only used at best by roleplayers. They have no other intrinsic value. The fact most of us would rather have the autostore bug fixed than new content is not reaching the Devs. Or they are turning a blind eye to us and quite possibly Vert. But since Vert never assures us that he has told them we would be most upset with new content over fixes it leaves us wondering where the breakdown occurs.
My whole letter was not written on the impeachment of Vert. That is only part of my frustrations.
I have come to feel that SOE does not recognize us at all. When we did get recognized it was because we told Vert to shove it we would talk about and treat the Devs in any manner we saw fit. One has to feel if the Devs do not understand how we feel then that information is not reaching them. If it were there would be no shock to find that the Devs are getting dogged in forums everywhere.
Lastly, I have come to my hidden profession. I got pretty lucky in my holo chase and did not have to drop the MCH title. Now I may have to drop it and I am not certain I will come back. If I do come back it will be for the reason that I return to pistoleer. There is nothing better or cooler than siccing my pets on a lair letting it spawn in its entirety and fanshooting the hell outta it. How that will play out after the combat rebalance remains to be seen.
Actually some of the professions you listed above do have quite a few broken things.
Commando's acid rifles are pointless atm, the grenades cost way too much ham cost, better off just using flame thrower. Majority of the pistoleer skills are broken, such as health shot 3, disarm shot 1 and 2 (doesn't have any use at all), stopping shot while powerful clearly doesn't do what it describes, double tap there's no real use, the multi target shot at master pistoleer is broken, pistol melee defense 2 doesn't do anything. TKA center of being seems bugged (and that's one of their only major line of defense that decreases their chance of actually getting hit, and it uses ham).
The general tone of this thread is typical of all the posts that have been made slamming the development team regarding the creature handler profession since the first time the nerf bat was swung in this directon. The profession has changed dramatically, there's no denying that. However, not once have said "I am underpowered, everything is broken, we need more attention 24/7!"
There are 33 professions with non-functional parts. 33 professions with bugs to fix and things to balance. The nature of a constantly changing MMO means that some things get fixed while other things have to wait for their turn. We got our turn first and hardest, lots of changes and lots of fixes. Whether you like it or not, overall the rebalance was good for the game as a whole. It took a very small adjustment for me to realize that for the most part we were still just as strong in PvE as before December. We just need the right pets for the job. And we need to know our limitations. CH is not a ticket to solo the game, but there's not much I can't win against on my own if I play smart.
Vertexon may not be the most frequent poster (though I count almost 20 posts by him since 3/8) but it is pretty apparant if you actually read what he posts that he knows what is going on as far as our bugs and concerns are. He assists the community by gathering information, passing along what we say to the developers, and giving us back the limited answers the developers pass along to him. I really think the thrust of your comments on Vertexon indicate that you want the correspondant position to have some kind of god-power where they force developer attention and compliance with all our wishes, and that's not going to happen. Just like Thunderheart, Vertexon is a mouthpiece. He says what he can say, and if there are results to be had, they come from someone on the dev team, not from him. So far, all I've seen is excellent, positive work from him, and I'm very glad we have him as our correspondant. It's a thankless job because you can't please everyone, but he does a good job with the tools he has at his disposal.
No offense, but a definite thrust of your post would seem to be a thinly veiled attempt at self-nomination for the correspondant position, even though you threw a few other names out there to deflect the obvious. Many of your posts are things similar to what Vertexon posts, and some of them are quite well thought-out and constructive. I give you a thumbs-up for making the constructive ones, but things like this thread offset my thumbs up, because it sounds once again like, excuse my saying it, whining and complaining. It's the kind of post you see 100 times a day on every other profession board rallying against the devs and demanding immediate action. The kind of post that normally gets a bunch of /agree responses from the same people that complain daily, and the kind of post that doesn't have anything positive or constructive about it. I mean really, because someone disagreed with you and one-starred you, your second post was calling Vertexon a coward and accusing him of being the person who did it. You then proceeded to try and tear him down line by line. How childish is that?
Of course, the bugs need attention. But you know what? My pets haven't autostored on me in a month, and I play every day. They fixed whatever they broke in publish 6, at least on MY server, and my pets no longer run around moronically in combat or stand on top of me when they should be beside me. Sure, issuing special attacks is still bugged. Mounts don't follow or fight correctly sometimes (though my non-BE dewback seems to work just fine 99.999% of the time). But we know (because it has been said numerous times) that these things have been brought to the developer's attentions, by Vertexon in the correspondant forums and by players on the Test Center boards. We just have to wait our turn, once again, just like every other one of the 33 professions.
And as far as our role goes, if it isn't obvious enough for you, we are combat support. Our pets are used to fight, and help us in PvE. We are NOT a standalone combat profession. If you took up CH with that belief, I suggest you check out another profession. I've been hologrinding while refusing to give up MCH. And I'll tell you what, compared to my hologrinding friends who have NO creature handler skills, I have it EASY when working on combat professions. I get through them in half the time, because of my pets. But if I were trying to solo content as MCH using no other combat skills, I hope I'm just fighting easy stuff. And I don't think it should be any different than that. We DO bring a lot of power to the table if you play smart. No, we're not the flavor of the month powergamer class anymore, but we're a strong class if used correctly. Sure, we could use some definite adjustment for PvP (maybe subject our pets to the damage reduction that our opponents benefit from?) but in PvE I don't personally see any problems. I suppose if you think we should be able to tank a Nightsister Elder, then we may have a difference of opinion.
Alright, I'm done. I can't say any more and keep it constructive.
I was questing for the Uber-rare pets for a while.Then I realised, um why? what benefit is haveing a bull rancor? PvE? please 2 BE'ed pets are better than 1 bull rancor. PvP still useless even with Be'ed pets.
I am getting to the point of wondering why i even bother. Part of it is the only feedback we get is from each other. I'm sorry but ask a question on the other profession boards and it usually get answered by a correspondent. Vert had 800+ posts most other correspondents have 1000's of posts. It's been said before and I will say it again we need more feedback.
Our main problem is all the attention we get from the devs come in the form of nerfs. What little bug fixing they do creates other bugs. I give you pet pathing fixed, now mounts don't listen. Our bigest bug fresh from Open-beta 1, Autostore, Is still not fixed.
TH's pet progect teh Droid commander got Boo'ed to death especially by the DE and CH communtity, so I think our punishment will be to be nerfed into non exsistance.
Tell me truthfully, when you are hopping around from planet to planet how many people do you see rideing mounts?
Usually myself only.
How many people do you see using pets, except to get better missions then store them?
There is 0 CH content, our biggest thing is the quest for the rares, as I said big deal, then what? with Master Md buffs around players make better thanks then pets and don't cost 66 skill points. and you can always find a doc buffing in coronet starport.
I honestly think if mounts aren't fixed for patch 7 I will just slip off to the sunset of former MCH's and say good work devs you have killed another one.
Ko-aIri wrote:
Vertexon may not be the most frequent poster (though I count almost 20 posts by him since 3/8) but it is pretty apparant if you actually read what he posts that he knows what is going on as far as our bugs and concerns are. He assists the community by gathering information, passing along what we say to the developers, and giving us back the limited answers the developers pass along to him. I really think the thrust of your comments on Vertexon indicate that you want the correspondant position to have some kind of god-power where they force developer attention and compliance with all our wishes, and that's not going to happen. Just like Thunderheart, Vertexon is a mouthpiece. He says what he can say, and if there are results to be had, they come from someone on the dev team, not from him. So far, all I've seen is excellent, positive work from him, and I'm very glad we have him as our correspondant. It's a thankless job because you can't please everyone, but he does a good job with the tools he has at his disposal.
God power? No. Some jewels to make sure that they have heard us, then to tell us they wer told. Yes. To tell us what he is allowed to tell us. Yes.
No offense, but a definite thrust of your post would seem to be a thinly veiled attempt at self-nomination for the correspondant position, even though you threw a few other names out there to deflect the obvious.
I stated what I felt must be said. I did not say Vert I think you are doing a great job, but could you try doing X more. That my friend is thinly veiled. I stated I do not want the job. For two reasons. I tried my own hand at making discussions and they were largely ignored. If its for the same reason that Vert is inactive. Then he should step down. I do not want the job for the very same reason that productive posts go largely ignored. But I feel I also like Freth, Talon, and recently Tivo has wondered whether he would stay in the game or not because we have tried to be vocal and are largely ignored. This all leads to this immense feeling of indifference you see. We have tried being nice, we have tried being vocal, some of us have tried being loud and unruly. The unruliness got some warnings and lots of deletions. I also stated the three people whom opinions whether I agree or disagree matter most to me. It is not like I threw out Barb-Wire or DeneziB, people I do not agree with, nor does most of the community.
Of course, the bugs need attention. But you know what? My pets haven't autostored on me in a month, and I play every day. They fixed whatever they broke in publish 6, at least on MY server, and my pets no longer run around moronically in combat or stand on top of me when they should be beside me. Sure, issuing special attacks is still bugged. Mounts don't follow or fight correctly sometimes (though my non-BE dewback seems to work just fine 99.999% of the time). But we know (because it has been said numerous times) that these things have been brought to the developer's attentions, by Vertexon in the correspondant forums and by players on the Test Center boards. We just have to wait our turn, once again, just like every other one of the 33 professions.
Pets no longer run around for YOU moronically in combat. They fixed what they broke. Well BFD. They should fix what they break. It should not have left test center broken. And do not give me that rubbish about I should play TC more. I pay to play a game that is going to stay somewhat consistent over time. The fact that Vert no longer plays live suggests why he is out of touch. The CH's who pay to play real servers want bugs fixed. My graul ferocity 9 runs from Pikets EVERYfriggenTIME it gets dizzied. I do not get to see the correspondent forums. When asked if there was a patch on TC Vert replied not as of DayX. He should have in my opinion relied "no it has not and I yet again told X it needed fixed".
And as far as our role goes, if it isn't obvious enough for you, we are combat support. Our pets are used to fight, and help us in PvE. We are NOT a standalone combat profession. If you took up CH with that belief, I suggest you check out another profession. I've been hologrinding while refusing to give up MCH. And I'll tell you what, compared to my hologrinding friends who have NO creature handler skills, I have it EASY when working on combat professions. I get through them in half the time, because of my pets. But if I were trying to solo content as MCH using no other combat skills, I hope I'm just fighting easy stuff. And I don't think it should be any different than that. We DO bring a lot of power to the table if you play smart. No, we're not the flavor of the month powergamer class anymore, but we're a strong class if used correctly. Sure, we could use some definite adjustment for PvP (maybe subject our pets to the damage reduction that our opponents benefit from?) but in PvE I don't personally see any problems. I suppose if you think we should be able to tank a Nightsister Elder, then we may have a difference of opinion.
Alright, I'm done. I can't say any more and keep it constructive.
Once again I have to deal with people reading into things. I did not ask to be Launch day uber. Those are words that you are placing there. I want bugs fixed. I want to know the right people are aware of our bugs. And I want to know the correspondent is just as livid as I am. I did not say CH does not have its benefits. I do question your term lots of power. A pet that runs away constantly is not lots of power. A pet that runs or redistances because a tree is beside it is not lots of power. I did not ask for stronger PvP capabilities. I am resolved to being PvE. Special that work since you mention it would be nice. A graul that uses ranged when told to, rather than when it wants to would be nice. A correspondent who says look we have lost X amount of players this week would be nice. Devs who care that we lost X amount of players this week would be nice. And pets that have some capability of supporting a group would be nice. If I cannot have a minimal chance of gaining agro with my pets, then who am I supporting? We are not combat support. Any gamer in their right mind would choose a TKM to tank over a CH with runaway pets and day. You question whether I play smart? Things go wrong often and when they do bugs do not help. If I have pet incap, then I incap. The pet stores. Thats a bug. Not combat support. Or based on smart play. If a docs buffs (combat support) did not work you can be damned sure they would get fixed.
Hi Pluto,
First and again, you are the only one who has tried to keep his cool time after time.
Again, I have said, the jedi profession grind to unlock FS slot is a crock, period. I am so glad i got master Architect on both my accounts, I simply said, Up yours, and moved on. Jedi grind has burnt out more players than I can name at the moment. In our guild we have lost half the members because they burnt out grinding for Jedi. I kept telling them it was a crock but hey they wanted it badly enough.
Yes we want the bugs fixed, absolutely, but I think we may have to do something more drastic more imaginative than yelling at vert. It's kind of like yelling at a cat, you get the "what is wrong with you stare" and they mosey off and do their own thing. I am sure Vert is a human, I am sure he is hurting from all the attacks and demands (course it could be a her but I doubt it cause a female is much more verbose and caring). I don't know that getting a new correspondent will help us. Thunder Dork is a problem and so is our own personel Dev Ruinthegame. I think what we want to hear is, Pathing is a major pain in the neck and we are still trying to figure out what is causing it. Or Auto store has got us hooped but we are working on it very hard and trying different things. Or, right now we are trying to fix the BH's but we have CH's concerns on the list of "to do" things. What we can never handle is "SILENCE". Silence always means ignore and we are all tired of that.
Hang in there Pluto you are doing a great job.
Our frustration stems from a long line of incompetence. I say incompetence all the time because I can't think of a better word to describe SOE in a nutshell. This game should've never been released to the public until the bugs and balance issues were fixed in beta, but it's obvious to me and most everyone else on these forums (not just the CH forum) that SOE either has poor management or doesn't know what they're doing. I've been programming for over 20 years. I don't write games mind you, but I do write database software for my own use. SOE has to be the worst excuse for a gaming company I have ever seen. The lack of bug fixes alone proves to me that something is wrong. I can't understand how programmers can be so inept. Having a background in programming, I understand how basic bugs can be fixed easily if time was invested properly.
The point is there is a long line of missed opportunities. The CH profession is just one casualty of the SOE debaucle. Maybe it was intentional, noone knows because they won't give us a straight answer to 99% of the questions we pose. As an pre-nerf MCH, I've seen it all. We've gone down the tubes in a major way. I've been using my pets in PVE and PVP daily the whole ride. Just this week I took my two best BE pets up against some enraged rancors and I had to run, because my pets were losing health faster than I could take the rancor down...and this is with Master Pistoleer and my own seasoned experience as an MCH. That's one clincher in a long line that really drove home to me the sad state of CH. I'm tired of struggling, tired of voicing my opinion, tired of getting no results/no answers. I'm tired. As you've seen in this thread, may of the veteran MCH's feel the same way. I'm not going to sit here and try to explain it further. All it takes is a couple hours of back-reading in the sticky forums and you'll get the gist of our frustrations. I'm beyond caring anymore. I'm going to play the other professions I wanted to try as long as I am still interested, then I'm done with this game.
SOE has some serious problems, that's very evident to anyone that reads the forums and plays the game. When you don't get results constructive criticism tends to turn to disappointment, anger and a whole range of emotions. If you look back over our posts you'll see how we progressed from positive people to negative people. It's taken months but the back is broken in my case.
Pluto9Moon wrote:
God power? No. Some jewels to make sure that they have heard us, then to tell us they wer told. Yes. To tell us what he is allowed to tell us. Yes.
Last I checked, he does exactly that. He responds to the issues we bring up, he tells us what he knows, and he reiterates what he tells the dev team frequently. For example, I direct you here:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=creature_handler&message.id=165709#M165709
Just one example. From 10 days ago, but how often does he need to repeat himself? The issues are still the issues, only the developers can actually make a change. We can just keep saying it.
I stated what I felt must be said. I did not say Vert I think you are doing a great job, but could you try doing X more. That my friend is thinly veiled. I stated I do not want the job. For two reasons. I tried my own hand at making discussions and they were largely ignored. If its for the same reason that Vert is inactive. Then he should step down. I do not want the job for the very same reason that productive posts go largely ignored. But I feel I also like Freth, Talon, and recently Tivo has wondered whether he would stay in the game or not because we have tried to be vocal and are largely ignored. This all leads to this immense feeling of indifference you see. We have tried being nice, we have tried being vocal, some of us have tried being loud and unruly. The unruliness got some warnings and lots of deletions. I also stated the three people whom opinions whether I agree or disagree matter most to me. It is not like I threw out Barb-Wire or DeneziB, people I do not agree with, nor does most of the community.
What, because people like Freth, Talon, or Tivo express distaste with the profession they should become the correspondant? I hold respect for the opinions of everyone who posts a constructive argument, but the correspondant has one duty: To relay information back and forth. They send the developers the collective concerns of the entire community, and the developers send it back. That job must be clear of personal opinions or it's self defeating. If Vertexon fought passionately for his own personal view of what a CH is, we'd get nowhere because that's not how it's supposed to be. He has to fight for what we ALL think it is, and thus it takes someone who can step back and look at the big picture objectively. And you can state you don't want the job, but if you don't I don't see the point of your posts and your attacks on Vertexon. It's insulting to him and to the community at large. Especially your little comment about the one-star, and I quote (since you didn't address it):
Vert,
Are you the one-star coward? I know for a fact you posted shortly after I did. You have no defense, other than a mystery one star? While in other forums it is obvious that other correspondents have an opinion, you linger around and restate what everyone else has said. Do you have opinions? Novel ideas? Any concept or agenda? Please do not remain hidden forever. -- Pluto9Moon
Do you really think that was mature? Called-for? Constructive?
Pets no longer run around for YOU moronically in combat. They fixed what they broke. Well BFD. They should fix what they break. It should not have left test center broken. And do not give me that rubbish about I should play TC more. I pay to play a game that is going to stay somewhat consistent over time. The fact that Vert no longer plays live suggests why he is out of touch. The CH's who pay to play real servers want bugs fixed. My graul ferocity 9 runs from Pikets EVERYfriggenTIME it gets dizzied. I do not get to see the correspondent forums. When asked if there was a patch on TC Vert replied not as of DayX. He should have in my opinion relied "no it has not and I yet again told X it needed fixed".
I didn't give you any rubbish about playing TC. I could care less if you play there or not, I said the bugs are reported and addressed on the TestCenter boards.
If you pay to play a game that is going to stay consistent, don't play an MMO. MMOs evolve and change as the player base and min/maxers find new ways to break the system. They have to correct for problems and abuse. So whether you like it or not, things will change.
And who said Vertexon doesn't play live? I haven't seen an official post on that anywhere. I think that was someone's rumored opinion creeping in.
Where does it say Ferocity rating is tied in to creature behavior in combat? My Ferocity 0 BE angler never runs at all, but according to you it should be a total coward. Ferocity is simply, from what I can tell, the likelihood of a wild creature of that type aggroing the things around it. A great plains stalker has a high ferocity and attacks everything in sight, as do rancors of all types, just for example. Higher ferocity also seems tied into the % chance for a creature to break your mask scent. Grauls run because the character model is trying to stay in optimal range from the target. Every time I fight grauls on live with my narglatch, the grauls shift and move to get to their attack range. This is the problem, it has nothing to do with Ferocity. It would seem that's what they broke in Publish 6 that made everything run, all the creatures optimal ranges were set to 0m or so (which is why the pets stood on top of you) and they had to go back and change the offset again to fix it, and now the creatures behave like they did before that publish.
Once again I have to deal with people reading into things. I did not ask to be Launch day uber. Those are words that you are placing there.
I said nothing about you wanting to be "launch day uber." You're placing words, not me. I said to know and accept the current role of the creature handler. I said we are no longer the flavor of the month class. I said if you wanted to be a standalone combat class, please try something else, because we are NOT that.
I want bugs fixed. I want to know the right people are aware of our bugs. And I want to know the correspondent is just as livid as I am. I did not say CH does not have its benefits. I do question your term lots of power. A pet that runs away constantly is not lots of power. A pet that runs or redistances because a tree is beside it is not lots of power.
I would say Vertexon, and the development team, are more than aware of our problems. It's been stated daily for a long time. Some things are fixed, some things are not. Again, we are not the only profession in the game. We are 1/33 of the professions in this game. And therefore, there is only so much they can fix and do at one time. Only so much time in a day. I don't feel ignored, but then again, I don't experience these fantasy bugs you seem so fond of repeating. I don't have a single problem with my pets except the occasional problem with my pets not holding aggro, with they aren't always supposed to do.
I did not ask for stronger PvP capabilities. I am resolved to being PvE. Special that work since you mention it would be nice. A graul that uses ranged when told to, rather than when it wants to would be nice. A correspondent who says look we have lost X amount of players this week would be nice. Devs who care that we lost X amount of players this week would be nice.
Yes, specials are broken. Then again, at least the pets still use them, and there is a workaround if you really want to enforce the use. But it would be greatly appreciated if it were fixed.
And why do I, or anyone else, care numerically about how many people quit this profession? I've never seen any correspondent on ANY board say "Ok, this week we've lost 35 people who were XXX, and gained only 12." The people who really enjoy creature handler keep it. The people who don't do not. That is true of any profession. I'd say 90% of the people who dropped CH in the last several months did it because of the loss of power the class has experienced since launch. They wanted to be "uber" and we are no longer "uber" (now I'm discussing launch day uber). We are now mostly "balanced" and they are looking elsewhere for a profession to min/max. I say "see ya later, don't care" to those people. The other 10% have left because they are dissatisfied with our professions's bugs and shortcomings. But this is likely true of any profession.
And pets that have some capability of supporting a group would be nice. If I cannot have a minimal chance of gaining agro with my pets, then who am I supporting? We are not combat support. Any gamer in their right mind would choose a TKM to tank over a CH with runaway pets and day. You question whether I play smart? Things go wrong often and when they do bugs do not help. If I have pet incap, then I incap. The pet stores. Thats a bug. Not combat support. Or based on smart play. If a docs buffs (combat support) did not work you can be damned sure they would get fixed
Well, then you and I must be playing a different game. I can toss my pet at the front line, tank for all my friends, and as long as I keep it standing with a pet stim I never get hit unless my pet gets hit with a KD attack. Sure, sometimes the pet doesn't hold aggro, but that's by design because realistically, you think every NPC and creature is going to ignore you standing back there? I didn't think so.
And I didn't question whether you play smart. I said if one plays smart, creature handler has a lot of power. If you are a smart player, and I am making no judgement on that, you likely have found a way or ways to make creature handler very powerful indeed in PvE. Again, in PvP we lack, but PvE we still do very well against a great many things. Again, I know my limitations, so I don't use my pet in the vain hope it will hold aggro against large groups of red cons and allow me to clean house. I use my pets when it is smart to do so, I don't treat my pets like expendible meat shields.
The pet storing when you are both incapped was introduced, if I remember correctly, as a DESIGN not a BUG back a few publishes ago to prevent repeated vitality loss. Someone could probably find patch notes regarding this if they felt so inclined, but I distinctly remember reading that. I really can't relate there anyways as my pets have only been incapped 3 times in 3 months, and it's been the same pet every time since after my first accident I didn't really care about the vitality any more.
And, to use your example, doctor buffs have been random (i.e. "broken") since launch. You know, sometimes a master doctor with +25 medical BE clothing can buff one guy with a pack for 3K, and buff another guy with the same pack for 1.5K? They are just now fixing them in Publish 7 to not have the random issue anymore. Obviously, these things can take a long time. I'm not saying that's right, I'm just saying that's the way it is.