Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Nerf CH: Memory Lane
Ralph Koster: PetNerfs(07/21/2003)
Only complete idiots couldn't kill a pet if they were maxed.
Nowadays? People completely ignore pets if they are in pvp unless it's a screecher or something.
No pet can hang with a maxed player (combat) that isn't an idiot.
HOWEVER, pve... pets were WAY overpowered on the DEFENSIVE side. You could (as a master) have 2 75% kinetic resist maulers out at once. The answer to this problem was not to make a moderate, reasonable change... but to make the class utterly without value except to those of us that just like to collect things.
The only caveat to this is if you get an INSANE BE pet with just wild resists.
Back then the game was very different. Every man and his dog werent walking around in 80% composite with 2.5k doctor buffs and 800+ mind from brandy. They were walking around with three frenzied grauls (or AR2gurrecks or webmasters) instead!
Imagine, most other professions were completely broken, yet CH gave you access to pets with upto 250k worth of HAM bars. I wonder which skill 99% of the player base picked up?
The initial design and implementation for CH was abysmal and needed fixing, no one can argue that.. In the context of the game as it is now though, CH was hit very hard with the nerf bat. It does look like the game will shift some goodness back to CH (how much we wont know until the combat rebalance) as it looks like armor, weapons and doctor buffs will get scaled down in publish 10. We have to wait and see...
Agreed, back then, less than a month since the game's launch, things were completely different back then.
In PvE, CH's were overpowered, as stated and to a certain degree, some changes needed to be made, but so early in the game, I feel the Devs Frantically Overreacted.
I have no problem with the way they reorganized the Creature Handling Skill Tree, but in response to the cries of various other Elite/Hybrid Professions which, imo, were too impatiently ground out by many who did not even realize their full unique potential, the Devs saw fit to also lower every Wild Creatures' Stats while raising their CL at the same time.
All the Devs really needed to do was raise the CL of many of the powerful pets so that Master Bounty Hunters or Commandos could not run around with only 3,0,0,0 CH for a Graul Mauler at their side. Of course, with the implimentation of the new CH Tree system, raising the CL wasn't really necessary, either.
In short, it was a quick fix to settle the newbie cries. (Elite or Novice, we were all newbies back then because we didn't fully understand the nature of the game or give it a chance to evolve before slamming the hammer down so early in the game's launch)
The BE pets did need to be fixed, no arguement there.
In the months that passed, people have since learned how to use their chosen professions to their fullest advantage and even produced calculators and templates for uber-stacking and with the addition of, as stated before, 3k+ Buffs and 80%+ K/B/E Composite Armor, has left CH's with Impotent Pets and essentially one Elite Combat Professionwith 0 Skillpoints leftover.
The equation is as follows:
A Master Rifleman or Master Pistoleer + Master Creature Handler = A Master Rifleman or Master Pistoleer or A Good PvE combination, Still only half a player in PvP.
Rumor has it in the upcoming Combat Revamp, they will be bringing everyone else down to our level. If this is true, many of the common player-raided dungeons and caves should prove interesting if the Combat Revamp does not also adjust NPC difficulty. "LET THE DURNI INVASION BEGIN"
NlMH wrote:
"LET THE DURNI INVASION BEGIN"
Not only did they take down creature pets, but they in addition they took down all the wild pets. Basically they lowered all creatures in game, while raising all NPCs in the game. Exception Krayt and Kimo.
It is way to easy to kill creatures now. Watching a TK taking on 4 Ancient Bull Rancors in under 2 minutes is ridiculous. I swear it was only 10 seconds, it went to fast.
That's why moving the Combat Revamp out is causing chaos on the PvE side. Professions and combined professions are so vastly overpowered compared to already "balanced" animals, that solo groups that have 20 heavy hitters gathering for missions just so they can go out and do them alone/
Missions have taken on a more nightmarish form than they had in the days of the Baz Nitch on Dathomir.
Rorenikibi wrote:
Missions have taken on a more nightmarish form than they had in the days of the Baz Nitch on Dathomir.
Id almost forgotten about that. Non aggro Baz nitches and 3k health lairs for a 10k payoff. Some people got rich off that fiasco!
Missions have taken on a more nightmarish form than they had in the days of the Baz Nitch on Dathomir.
NlMH wrote:
Rumor has it in the upcoming Combat Revamp, they will be bringing everyone else down to our level. If this is true, many of the common player-raided dungeons and caves should prove interesting if the Combat Revamp does not also adjust NPC difficulty. "LET THE DURNI INVASION BEGIN"