Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Making CH Competitive
Vert this will not be a popular idea outside the community and quite possibly not within:
In fairness I believe that Special Attack 1&2, Ranged Toggle should be assigned to a skill based system. We lose value by everyone and their mom having a small cat with Dizzy or any other special. You should have to atleast be CH to used these trained commands and I would (note me personally) rather see /usepetsp1 /usepetsp2 /petranged in a skill tree rather than trained commands. It adds more value to the Profession of MCH and can be a great way to present more effective Specials. Ranged could be first. Then Special One. Then Special Two.
The problem would be retroactivating existing pets to have special one being the weakest of the specials. But hindsight is 20/20 eh? Make this happen and I will leave the Red Names alone for months to come. Escpecially if the specials are effective and work at the same time.
#2 Higher level pets need some good resists I am not saying 100% on all or even 1 but a pet out there with stats similar to the pre nerf GM is reasonable, THere are enough different weapon types out there and any rifleman knows that even the best composite is useless when faced with a Jawa ion rifle, why can't we have pets with similar strengts/weaknesses?
Make em all level 50 pets (rancors hint hint) so only masters or near master can use them
#3 on the same note pets should have certain logical resists, the sulfer pools on Lok should cause the Lokian animals to have high Acid resist, Carnivors on Expert planets should have high kinetic resists, Inscets should have at least light armor (it's called an exoskeleton)
#4 pet specials need to work better or be explained (to us) how they work better. I have gotten my pets to use their specials only a handful of times.
To sum it up they nerfed creatures too much, As a Master rifleman I never use my pets anymore cause thier ain't nothing out there that a little stragety won't kill. Granted this is the way it should be (mind over game), but it should also take a lot longer to kill em.
Just speaking for myself, the problem with that is what happens down the road when the combat rebalance does hit? I don't think the intended state of affairs is what we're seeing in game now (people soloing Nightsister Elders, etc). Going through one universal creature stat nerf in December was painful enough...would we really want to get used to those old stats again and then repeat that six or so months from now?
The combat rebalance has been postponed, not cancelled. If there are specific things that can tide us over until combat as a whole is brought into balance, I'd like to ask for them. But I'm not sure we want to go through the whiplash of across the board stat changesas a temporary fix.
If we're looking for something to tide us over, then I have two suggestions:
- Pet AP. Tie in AP with AR, so that creatures with Light AR also have Light AP. This will help out in a few good situations.
- Change our Creature Beserk special to not include the increase in damage taken, and simply double the damage output. Extend the time this lasts for two minutes or until the pet is no longer engaged in combat.
These are probably the easiest fixes I can think of off the top of my head. The Beserk change might not be feasible, because that would also likely have to change Player Beserk at the same time, so they'd have to actually create a seperate Beserk to make it work like that. Also, adding in Light AP would be a huge boost to us, but wouldn't be something that a mere dabbler in the profession could get.
1.All creatures level 70 or less should be tameable. I don't see any reason why they are not.
2. I don't pvp but someone stated earlier that damage done to pets isn't reduced the way it is for everyone else...that isn't fair at all.
3. Fix the bugs.
4. Readjust the creatures to the stats they had before the December nerf.Just base the so-called combat rebalanceon those stats.
5.The maximum total of pets usable at once should be increased (90-100 maybe). No single pet greater than 70 (perhaps 75?).
6. Kill the pet vitality loss in pvp.
Maeril wrote:
Easy. I was suggesting this way back in October-ish.:
1.- Revert all creature stats to what they were pre-Decemeber-nerf
Lysria,
That is a pathetic answer to anything. As I have stated before Medics do not equip stims as it is now. That is one of our current problems. We have timers that get us wasted in no time flat. If our weapons get wasted in 1-5 seconds as they do now we are done. This stupid pet control device thing I keep hearing cannot work unless Medics have to equip, Musicians equip, Surveryors equip, Weaponeers equip, and EVERYONE has the timer.
Secondly, it is stupid because DEFENSES still do STACK. You can be a Pistoleer and a Rifleman at the same time. Dodges are more frequent. CH's do not defend anything in PvP. We are so stuck. We get on small PvE bonus. Everyone elses bonus works PvE and PvP.
All I ask if for a little respect and a reason to be a CH other than 'I like to have pets'
Before the big CH patch in Publish 5 it seemed like everyone in their brother was a CH.....and why not it was an UBER class and we all have to admit that.....even me. But since then I have seen what was an UBER class dwindle to totally useless.
I dont want to be UBER again but I would like to see some type of change that would give us that 'Reason' to strive to be a CH.
1st.....the primary reason to be a CH is to go out and tame 'wild' and at times dangerous creatures to become our companions. Well now that we can get UBER premade BE pets that outstrip anything we can tame in the wild why would be go out and waste our time risking incap and death if we can get one handed to us for credits.....explain this to me !
2nd.....to address this issue I like the fact that there are certain 'Specials' like Plague Strike, Poison Spray and Open Wounds that are found in wild pets that we can as CH tame but do not transfer to a BE pet. The inherant problem with this is that these specials are only found on extremly rair creatures and ws as CH dont really have a chance to acquire one of these. Maybe more specials should be included in this list like maybe Strong Poison, Strong Disease or Knockdown as not being transferable to BE pets thus opening the field for CH to have wild pets that have specials that no UBER BE pet can have. Another solution it to make these UBER rare wild creatures a little less rare so that more CH can have a chance to acquire one.
3rd.....maybe institute medium armor back into some select (not many) wild creatures that CH can tame but that again is NOT trasnferable to some UBER BE pet.
Give us back a reason to exist as a profession and to be true CH is all I ask 
I dont want to be UBER just respected.
Thanks for Your Time
Pluto9Moon wrote:
Lysria,
That is a pathetic answer to anything. As I have stated before Medics do not equip stims as it is now. That is one of our current problems. We have timers that get us wasted in no time flat. If our weapons get wasted in 1-5 seconds as they do now we are done. This stupid pet control device thing I keep hearing cannot work unless Medics have to equip, Musicians equip, Surveryors equip, Weaponeers equip, and EVERYONE has the timer.
Secondly, it is stupid because DEFENSES still do STACK. You can be a Pistoleer and a Rifleman at the same time. Dodges are more frequent. CH's do not defend anything in PvP. We are so stuck. We get on small PvE bonus. Everyone elses bonus works PvE and PvP.
The only way to make CH mean anything at all is to make non-CH mean less. I am so tired of hearing I can be anything else with CH. There are so many different professions that allow for multiplicity of professions. It is how the game is designed.
Both you and Lysiria bring up good points. I think what she was getting at isn't a bad idea as a plus for CH, but the point about defenses stacking is really very true. The idea of a cattle prod that raises the pets attack/defense stats by itself is really pretty good but I'd let it stand by itself and not comare it to another profession.
Far as the pre-December stats, I think we all agree that pets were out of whack before the nerf; and went out of whack in the other direction after the nerf. I'd be happy to see a comprimise on that one -- one that uses some intelligence.
Since pets take full damage, let's get the heal rate increased to reflect that, or as mentioned above, get them better armor maybe from an armorsmith.
And I'd vote once again for fixing bugs. Don't know about all of you, but autostore seems worse since the last patch
pets should have the advantage in PVP that their owners and enemies have. that of the 75% automatic damage reduction.
pet damage should be left as is.
pet special use should be an actual skill not a command that can be trained and anyone can use much the way embolden and enrage are skills.
pet special use should scale in effectiveness with the CL of the pet. for example a level 10 BE made super durni using rancor DNA should have a much less chance of landing the special than the wild tamed actual rancor of CL50.
as for general play no vehicles on adventure planets.
saddle bags and actual different saddle styles that let the trained CH rider have faster speed on a mount another that would let your weapon fire from a mount be more effective with autofire maybe a 2x multiplier to weapon damage but would make the mount never able to gallop saddles should be removable and wear out over time. saddle bags should only hold 5 items.
all CL70 or less creatures should be tameable.
baby spawn rarety needs a pass to check the actual formulas to make sure they arent bugged (frenzied graul comes to mind)
bleh back to work
Pluto, with the exception of medics and crafters everyone DOES have to equip.
2: Increase the armor, damage, and resists of pets so that a CH's pets are comparative to an elite combat profession's damage output.
3: Loose the timer for storing and calling.
4: Give CHs defence mods focused on avoiding melee damage. These mods should be less than current combat professions but enough to give the CH some sort of innate defence.
5: PvP consideration: give pets a form of taunt; any CH holding the control device can force a PC to combat-target a pet instead of himself. Add this one under 'never going to happen'