Creature Handler Archive

The only reason at this point to become a CH is if you just love the critters. CH does not offer you anywhere NEAR the combat chops you have now as an TKM.

CH is simply not reliable as a standalone combat profession with its bugs and pathetically nerfed pets. CH is only effecteve in combat in combination with some combat skills, preferably elite combat skills, and this has always been true. Pets are there to tank. If you can tank more effectively than your pet, then there's no need to have a pet, fantasies about "duel wielding" aside. As a TK novice, you will do far more damage to any mob than your pet can. CL level is roughly 1/10th of the average damage level you can expect per hit out of your creature pets.

Yeah, if you go MCH with no combat class to keep you alive, you will die... many many times. Pets won't stop other players, and it will take them ages to kill a lot ofmobs by themselves.

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Kageboushi Sukauto - Elder Creature Handler - Captain of the YT-2400 "Jolly Roger"
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Now... Give us some more piratey ship textures! We want skull and bones textures for privateer pilots! ... I do, anyway.

Put it this way, CH would be reliable on its own if our weapons didn't disappear randomly and often. I was a non-combat CH and did just fine by my standards, meaning I could handle a solo Lv. 40ish creature with a wild pet. But I could not handle two or more at once by any means. If you drop your combat skill, you have to hunt smart and stay sharp at all times, and don't expect to get rich or go play with the rancors.

I'm still a 0/0/1/4 CH, but I very rarely use the critters I can call in combat. With buffs and armor the way they are, as a 3/0/4/3 commandowith TK novice I can go out and solo fambaa missions (assuming I'm grouped with others to get them to come up) on my own, no problem. Last night I was taking down bolle bol lairs on Naboo without any difficulty at all. The most critical times are when the brandy's effects have run out and I've neglected to take a couple more swigs.

Elite melee professions can tank high level content, and, when grouped with others to dish out additional damage, survive and triumph without too much of a sweat. Players are seriously over powered in PvE and have been ever since the great pub 5 nerf that decimated creatures and crippled CH. Nowadays I only call out petsfor mount duties, as bodyguards when I'm unbuffed just running around, and to raise my mission level.

Or for RP or social purposes. Creatures are just fun to have around, which is my main reason for being a CH.

Creature pets really don't have a role in high end PvE now. They're useful in low to mid level stuff when you don't feel like being buffed or wearing armor, but with a master doc alt, it's trival for me to be buffed nowadays. The other problem is the accursed autostoring; last week I died for the first time in at least two months when I did some unbuffed Nyax missions on Corellia, and my GSP decided to leave in the middle of the battle. Unbuffed, not wearng armor, without the GSP holding aggro, and with lower, slower commando skills, I was easy prey for the four Nyax goons guarding the chapel. If the GSP had held aggro, i could have fried them all.