Development Cycle Archive
Thread: IC 1-6: Combat Roles; Creature Handler
What defines theCreature Handler role in combat?
What basic combat elements should they possess?
What offensive abilities?
What defensive abilities?
What unique abilities?
Should add what advantage or asset in group combat?
How could/should they interact with other professions?
What interaction / dependencies should exist with other combatants?
What should be their unique role in the Galactic Civil War?
I don't really have answers for the above questions that many others have not already touched. I don't think of CH as a combat profession and while it is a MAJOR thing to have in combat I would like to see things slightly different.
Arena's:
I would love to see combat arena's for P vP, P v ch mob and CH vs CH mobs, Droids VS CH, you get the idea, a place where deathblows will just take out out of the combat arena back at full health pets too. A place thats just for the fun of it, for entertainment.
Quests:
Creature handlers should have quests. quests that require them to collect, and turn over to NPC's certain types of creatures, in return for such quests, unique creatures, maby be type (so that they can be displayed as trophies or tamed. Skill enhancers, (+creature taming, +mask scent ETC) these sould vbe very rare to get and only given for very rare creatues with a chance to get a really good one +25 tame savage, +25 creaure knowlage or something unique some thing fun and worth putting out the effort.
Aakhperkare wrote:
What unique abilities?
Here is an idea I have for further Creature Handler progression. Pet specializations. Say I choose a Rancor as my specialized pet. Here is a basic idea of how it would work
- Novice Rancor Trainer
Large reduction in HAM costs for the /enragepets and /emboldenpets commands
- Rancor Agressiveness Training
A natural boost in the Rancors damage from 540-550 to 660-680
/berserk2 and /intimidate2 commands for pet
- Advanced Rancor Empathy
/sentry command for pet. "Pet will guard target to the death disallowing anything within 20m's of target"
Instead of a pet vitality loss, the Creature Handler will have the option of taking SEVERE wounds to himself in exchange of preventing the loss of 1 vitality point to his pet.
- Advanced Rancor Conditioning
+40 Pet Terrain Negotiation
20% HAM increase
- Master Rancor Handler
/trick 3 command healing all mind and wound damage by 90%
/trick 4 command healing all mind and wound damage by 100% curing any disease or poison as well
/breed command Allowing your Rancor to breed with another Rancor producing a baby of that particular species for the Creature Handler to tame
(must be at a lair of the same species)
/trainmount command allowing the Creature Handler to also make his specialized combat pet into a mount only he can use and ride.
I think you get the idea and hope you like it half as much as I do.
best idea EVER
What unique abilities?
Here is an idea I have for further Creature Handler progression. Pet specializations. Say I choose a Rancor as my specialized pet. Here is a basic idea of how it would work
- Novice Rancor Trainer
flsdhalghjsdflgkshglajh wrote:
What unique abilities?
Here is an idea I have for further Creature Handler progression. Pet specializations. Say I choose a Rancor as my specialized pet. Here is a basic idea of how it would work
- Novice Rancor Trainer
That sounds like a great idea to me, except there would have to be more skill points otherwise you would have no chance of training in any other skills. Great idea though.
This is more of a day dream, for the future type idea. Because the more professions they add the more SP they will eventually add I am betting...
Here is a little idea I had that I posted in the CH forum,TH. Not sure how you will take it. But here it is anyways...
This is how I would remake pets to give Creature Handlers something more than just a tank, and make them more viable in combat, PvP or PvE.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Gurreck
Armor Rating: None
Special Protection
Kinetic 20.0%
Heat 5.0%
Cold 50.0%
Acid 5.0%
Vulnerability
Energy -
Blast -
Stun -
Restraint -
Electricity -
Aggressive: No
Stalker: No
Has Babies: Yes
Bone type: Animal
Hide type: Wooly
Meat type: Carnivore
Deathblows: Yes
Ferocity: 10
Difficulty Level: 60
Special Attack 1: Crippling Strike
Special Attack 2: Intimidation
Base-To-Hit: 0.70
Damage: 840-1020
Attack Speed: 1.60
Let's take this "remade" Gurreck. This Gurreck would not be of much use tanking anything. But with it's remade stats geared more towards combat, it is much more capable of dealing out some damage at the cost of losing it's defenses. Changes like this could give Creature Handlers an option, other than just being a tank.
A Rancor
Armor Rating: Light
Special Protection
Kinetic 20.0%
Energy 20.0%
Heat 20.0%
Cold 20.0%
Electricity 20.0%
Effectiveness
Restraint -
Vulnerability
Blast -
Stun -
Acid -
Aggressive: Yes
Stalker: Yes
Has Babies: Yes
Bone type: Animal
Hide type: Leathery
Meat type: Carnivore
Deathblows: Yes
Ferocity: 10
Difficulty Level: 65
Special Attack 1: Stunning Strike
Special Attack 2: Intimidation
Base-To-Hit: 0.60
Damage: 850-880
Attack Speed: 2
Here we have the remade Rancor. This pet was remade to be a "jack-of-all-pets" so to speak. Keeping it's light armor and lowering resists to a mere 10%, while a little helpful, this pet obviously has it's shortcomings, but it's short comings are made up by the damage, to-hit and retaining it's light armor, thus making this a creature to be feared in PvP and PvE as it very well should be.
Armor Rating: Medium
Special Protection
Electricity 45.0%
Acid 45.0%
Effectiveness
Kinetic 30.0%
Energy 20.0%
Blast 20.0%
Restraint 20.0%
Vulnerability
Stun -
Aggressive: Yes
Stalker: No
Has Babies: Yes
Bone type: Animal
Hide type: Wooly
Meat type: Carnivore
Deathblows: No
Ferocity: 9
Difficulty Level: 55
Base-To-Hit: 0.2
Damage: 50-120
Attack Speed: 4.20
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And as a final example, we have the Ravenous Tortons. One of the funnest pets in my opinion. This remade torton was given medium armor, retained it's resists and was given a stun vulnerability. It's damage, speed were lowered to be almost insignificant, it's specials were removed and it's CL was raised to 55. This is an example of a pet used for tanking. Nothing more.
There are too many tamables to go over, but I hope this gives you the concept of what I have in mind.
Aakhperkare wrote:
This is more of a day dream, for the future type idea. Because the more professions they add the more SP they will eventually add I am betting...
Thunderheart wrote:
Given the basic considerations listed above, please answer the following questions:
What defines the Creature Handler role in combat?
Worthless! A joke at best. Pets "our weapons" can't last a round of missions. Some pets even 1 mission.
What basic combat elements should they possess?
Armor. Much like pre-change. But, how about a tracking pet. One that can find targets like the seeker droids, but not as fast.
What offensive abilities?
Not being able to run away from the target until it is almost incaped.
What defensive abilities?
Pre-Change armor. Pets are our weapons! I don't mind being attacked by the targets. I'll say that was a patch.
What unique abilities?
Healing as fast as the owners, or at least 1/4 as fast. NOTE: See first comment.
Should add what advantage or asset in group combat?
The ability to assist the CH's other pets with out being commanded to. The ability to assist other members of group while you're incaped.
How could/should they interact with other professions?
See previous answer.
What interaction / dependencies should exist with other combatants?
See above answer.
What should be their unique role in the Galactic Civil War?
To be an effective weapon for the CH. Kind of like pre-change.
Request For Comments:
The community is invited to make comments through April. At that time, the thread will be closed to further comments. Feel free to comment on any or all of the above items. Please stay on topic.
Now I liked some of the changes to the CH tree / combat that were made. Like the tagets attacking me more, the uber pets that I've never seen, making it impossible for a commando to have a rancor. However, the rest of the so-called dabbler fixes effected me more than care to comment on.
I would like to see the profession returned some of the things it had before the change. The change was a knee jerk reaction to comments made from ignorant people. I hope I'm not the only one that feels that way.
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What defines theCreature Handler role in combat?
Unlike most people, and unlike nearly all creature handlers, I have yet to envision the CH as a combat profession. I don't see Siegfried and Roy leading the charge for the U.S.Army (probably because of that pesky don't ask/don't tell policy), and I'll be damned if I can remember one scene in any of the five Star Wars movies where Luke, Vader, Leia, Palpatine or any of the lot said "A" and suddenly their two frenzied grauls started pounding on the opossing force.
What basic combat elements should they possess?
Now, I'm not saying that the Creature Handler has no role whatsoever in combat, I'm just saying that it's role is currently overdone. I believe that the extend of the combat ability of a Creature Handler should be the ability to raise and train a couple of hunting dogs (or slice hounds, narglatches, etc.)
What offensive abilities?
Like I said, a creature handlers' abilities lie in its creatures. The extent of the combat ability of this class should be limited to at most a couple of hunting dog-type pets.
What defensive abilities?
Now, here's somewhere where we can actually get interesting. I imagine a combat skill for creature handler where the CH can calm down an aggressive creature, even after it's already attacking someone or something, similar to the Animal Empathy skill that the Ranger class gets in AD&D. When in combat with a creature, the creature handler can utilize this ability to remove the agro and quell the agressiveness of the critter. First the CH must be the target of the creature (so it's useful in conjunction with /rescue in the Ranger profession) and must be in /peace mode. Then successfull use of the ability will calm down the creature and cause it to drop agro.
What unique abilities?
While I contend that the Creature Handler needs to be powered down combat-wise, it also needs to be powered up elsewhere to compensate. Being able to teach the creatures a variety of skills, some based on the creature type, would be awesome. For example, Hunting dogs who can track (just not as well as a Ranger or Bounty Hunter), creatures who can perform tricks that act like entertainers (although Musicians and Dancers are still more effective, plus they have their buffs), and a variety of other skills and tricks can be tought to creature pets to add versatility to make up for a reduced over-all combat power of the class.
Should add what advantage or asset in group combat?
Even with only a couple of Narglatches or Slicehounds for combat pets, the Creature Handler is a far more effective Tank than Melee classes (sorry, SOE, but true). They have much more HP than players and can afford to soak the damage like a player, even a buffed player, can't.
How could/should they interact with other professions?
It's always usefull to have a creature handler in small hunting parties, because their pets can act as tanks to hold the prey still. The pets aren't really supposed to be damage dealers, they just hold the quarry long enough for the hunters (the guys with guns) to shoot them dead.
What interaction / dependencies should exist with other combatants?
Not being a damage dealing class, the CH should be reliant on other professions to deal the damage while the hunting pets hold the target off them.
What should be their unique role in the Galactic Civil War?