Creature Handler Archive
Thread: BE / CH template, should I do it?
CH XP is, I'm afraid, probably amoung the slowest and hardest to get now (I have a novice CH alt).
Without a combat profession it has always been darn near impossible to level (I learned BE after mastering CH) - the same is true now, only worse.
The "pet grind" for specials is probably not too bad for a new CH (just chuck away any tames that don't have specials).
Pet damage is "OK" - as a MBE/MCH I can solo 65-70 lairs, but a good 80+ level hunting group will easily outstrip on the hunting/harvesting side.
With the borked XP it is debatable whether XP is faster solo or grouped (definitely solo for me ATM).
It's worth remembering that even with just MCH and no combat skills you can still use some pretty tasty weapons, albeit not as fast and damaging as pure combat bods. You will still outdamage your pets until you get BE'd or special trained ones.
Hunting with just the pet and healing is very, very slow (but see above).
Overall as things stand now:
If you "enjoy the trip" and just want to play with the pets - then by all means go for it. They are still fun to play with (although not uber).
If you intend to "grind" to CH Master this is now one of the mostsoul destroying grinds of all.
I think CH xp is as fast as combat xp which is pretty fast IMO. Like all of it if you get into a good group and use any kind of pet you will get full xp. The biggest problem is getting your pet keyed in on every MOB and keeping up with the group. Sometimes fast groups will move from MOB to MOB so fast that you might miss a few. I actually dropped MCH a month ago to get novice artisan for some village quest and it took me about 2.5 hours to cap out CH xp at 1.2 mill or whatever. When I work in grinding groups I like to use my ranged attack pets, usually my mantrigue, but I used my wrix to level almost all of CH. As far as pet damage, even without a combat prof you will probably outdamage your pets. I am MCH/MCM with a little bit in Marksman and my pets never hit harder than me. You can probably just sit back and heal your pets but the fight will last a while.
As fare as CH/BE it sounds like a fun combo. I always loved being a DE and using all my droids that I made. CH seems like a natural combo for BE. In the end it is all about fun for you.
if you want to spend the money I suggest you get 2 chars and make one a mch with a combat prof and then make the other a BE... This way you can enjoy fighting with your pets a lot more.
Roguestar
JMShunter wrote:
if you want to spend the money I suggest you get 2 chars and make one a mch with a combat prof and then make the other a BE... This way you can enjoy fighting with your pets a lot more.
Roguestar
Or you could join Test Center Prime, where we have 3 character slots per account.
Of course you have to deal with down times more often, as well other minor annoyances....
Though some people think that the community on TC-P and the Double XP make up for that. 
Edit + Looks like I spoke up too soon.
Message Edited by Drashk on 08-19-2005 03:00 PM