Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Creature Handler State of the Profession (January 2004)
Excellent summary. You nailed every issue I've had with the
profession currently, and my wishlist and then some.
/takes hat off
Keep up the good work!!!
Perhapse this may seem out of line to some people, but it is my opinion.
If a BE is a DOCTOR equivalent, then make it a doctor, not a weaponsmith. Eliminate the ability of the BE to create animals, but give them the ability to buff pets. Buffs can consist of long term buffs, like armor and damage upgrades, that last as long as the pet, or decay as armor and weapons do now, as well as short term buffs, such as doctors can give.
The nerfing of animals has made PVE by any combat profession much easier, but has made high level PVE by the CH into something they can not do without a combat profession. Pre nerf, and pre reduction of non-ch pets, pets could be used as an aid to combat professions, or as bodyguards to those of us who didn't want to specialize in combat. After the nerf, a Master Artisian, Architect, with some DE skills and only marksman for combat could not even check his own harvesters without getting incaped by whatever happened to spawn within five meters of his harvesters or home. At least give back the old rock beetles, one of those could usually give me the time I needed to burst run away after throwing in the money and power to keep the machinery going, now that they have been nerfed my rock beetle lasted an entire 15 seconds against the desert deamons that spawned on me only after I was checking the harvester, I was killed before I could even pull the contents from the hopper.
Once the combat droids come out, being a CH will be about as usefull as being a DE is right now, everyone will pay for a droid that can solo a rancor, but only a MCH can use a rancor, and even it can't solo a wild version of it's own species.
I am working CH on my alt, because I planned to work my way through all the professions, not grind them but actually work them, so that once I had finished I could decide what the best professions for my style of play were, and regain them. I began CH once with my main back in Oct, at the time CH gave me the ability to protect my architect with just 1-1-1-1 on the CH chain, I left it there as I worked on my alt, and when trying to check my harvs after the nerf my pet couldn't even defend me from a ravenous pack of kreetles.
Until CH is fixed, to where it can actually tame and sell "guard dogs" that work, and things like the BE non-uber pets with superior resists at lvl 10, are eliminated, I can see this profession being dropped by anyone that really wants to play for fun. Tamed pets need to grow, and a creature handler should be able to focus creature growth, a bio-engineer, on the other hand, should be able to make pets that can be farmed for wool, eggs, and milk of a higher quality then what is usually found in the wild. I don't see bio-engineered pets as the "best possible" creatures, but rather as pets who were adjusted to lower ham for armor/resists, or even ones that give up some abilities to gain others.
Yes, I believe droids are more Star-Warsy in most situations, but having CHs with stables, and cities with arenas where people can go fight a "caught" wild animal would be just as Star-Warsy, if you believe episode 2.
I still say that having a guard dog is better then having a battle driod, but with the current CH profession, you just can't have one.
i just had an idea out of nowhere...
how about giving pets a birthdate or something like that to show how long we've had them. like im curious how old this king merek harvester i have that someone gave me is, and its 100/100 vitals. just a unique idea
Tivo
(wheres all the bull rancor babies!?!?!?)
wiskerbizkit wrote:
good idea tivo. yw for the merek. now sell me your skill tape lmao j/k im dying to pull my lvl 69 rancor
heh 
Message Edited by SWG-Runesabre on 01-18-2004 10:35 AM
SWG-Runesabre wrote:
Very informative "State of the Creature Handler" post. I do not anticipate any further sweeping changes to the Creature Handler on the scale that you all have experienced over the last few months. Furthermore, future changes will include valuable input from the CH community in advance of such changes so as to avoid any anxiety and surprises.
Message Edited by SWG-Runesabre on 01-18-2004 10:35 AM
Is TH sick or something?
I hate to sound like a pr!ck, but didn'tI mentioned that there won't be much happening with our profession for awhile?
I have an issue.
Not enough under CL50 tameables as TH said there would be. And the rares are ridiculously rare. We got Jedi everywhere, but only 5 confirmed Bull Rancors? O....k....
SWG-Runesabre wrote:
Very informative "State of the Creature Handler" post. I do not anticipate any further sweeping changes to the Creature Handler on the scale that you all have experienced over the last few months. Furthermore, future changes will include valuable input from the CH community in advance of such changes so as to avoid any anxiety and surprises.
Message Edited by SWG-Runesabre on 01-18-2004 10:35 AM
Translation:
Now that we achieved our goal of nerfing the creature handler profession into the stone age, dont expect any more changes in the near future. Please feel free to post your ideas because we value those opinionsthat agree with us.
I am very thankful for Vertexon's direct statement about the diminished state of creature handling. It is of particular interest to me as a novice creature handler trying to get to master to fulfill a holocron requirement. Getting to force-sensitive is the single most important objective of SWGfor me. While I enjoy all the other intricacies of the game, the most intricate game I've ever played by far, getting to Jedi is the tastiest carrot, and I'd like to have a lot of fun on the journey.
My point is that if not for my motivation to achieve force-sensitive, I would probably drop this profession.
Many friends of mine have told me that how lucky I am that my holocron pointed me at creature handling. I wonder if that is still true. It is vital that SOE address the diminishing of creature handling and balance the game for a very large body of players.
Truely, Creature Hanlder seems overnerfed when the power of bounty hunters, commandos and teras kasi masters is taken into account.
I had a playful duel with a PA member. He wanted to see how he could handle my frenzied graul (a level 57 pet, and SUPPOSEDLY one of the stronger things in the game).
The duel lasted about one minute or less, with the frenzied running away then being incapped. The TKM? He lost only 10% of his HAM, and had only a couple of wounds. Fortunately, he wasa nice guy and helped me to heal up my Frenzied graul, but this shows that pets are TOTALLY useless for PvP. They ARE useful for PvE, but there is little there to keep one's attention for long, especially with warping MOBs that automatically target the handler.
Let's see some nerfs of the "Uberprofessions" before any more messing around with creature handler, shall we?
Great job everyone. I really agree on the point about rancors being really, really good. In the movies a Jedi could hardley take one out and in the game we have starter professions going out and taking them down. Very bad. Also, there needs to be much more mounts as mentioned. I think that flying and swimming ones would be great! They also either need to make it easier to get CH xp or make it more fun as a not Master CH. ALL Master CHs should be able to tame and call CL 70 pets as well. I really hope that the devs don't ignore us. But I don't think that they are trying to ruin our profession. Just don't know how bad some of their nerfs are. Wild pets in my eyes should be a lot better than bio-egineered ones because they are a lot harder to get.
Bolpuhr Fortunae, Naritus Server
flying mounts......................i see where this is going, winged graul hits star destroyer for 551 dmg points lol j/k