Thoughts on our profession. . .

[DarthMarksman]

Well, you may or may not be aware of the revolt happening in the CH forums on SWG. I just wanted to get away from that drama and talk to other CHs about the art of interacting with beasts.

1. I know we have our issues as does every profession in the game.

2. I am enjoying being a CH, as I am sure, I'll assume most of you here do.

So, your thoughts. :)

[Nytar]

Yeah I am enjoying CH. It is too bad things are going the way it did.

There are many things broken with the game and I DO hope SOE fix it ASAP, but I personally would use my intimidiate force patience (+3) and wait :D

[Zurlaboo]

Creature handling renewed my interest big time! Not that it was waning terribly, but I'd finished all the quests that I could do, climbed as high as I could in the ranks of my faction, visited as many of the POI badge sites as I cared to, and there I was. I don't care for PvP and, aside from harvesting hides and resources for my crafting buddies, I was twiddling my thumbs.

Creature handling is challenging if you want it to be. You could grind your way to master, buy the most uber pets going, and it might not be such a challenge. But if you want it, it's infuriatingly challenging. Just ask the people here who post about their quests for bull rancors and GPS!

There are a few things that I would like to see changed, but none of them make the profession 'not worth it'. I don't know what the uproar is on the SWG forums, frankly, I don't care. I can imagine it puts CH's in a bad light to those who don't know the frustrations of our craft.

Zurlaboo has stumbled and struggled through creature handling. I've learned the art of taming fairly well. My alternate CH character will have a much easier go of it, and make far fewer mistakes, because of it. With him, I'm going to keep a checklist of every creature that's tamable at every level and hunt them down and tame each one. I think that would be a lot of fun (with the exception of the impossibly rare ones) Wow, I might actually tame a kreetle finally :)

[Ocelot Kane]

I enjoy CH, immensely. It is definitely one of those professions you don't mindleveling, because you enjoy it so much. There are some things that are broken, but overall, it could be worse.

Seeing as how the devs said this would be a \"blaster-centric\" combat system, I was surprised that professions like creature handler, pikeman, fencer, Tera Kasi are as much fun as they are.

[velm]

I think it adds a certain something to the game. The primary reason I got SWG was for JTL. I got my wook while I was waiting my JTL to arrive, so I figured I would ground pound a bit and explore the game. (oh, yeah, have not taken my newb starship out of my data pad yet.) Messed around with a few different profession ideas, then I noticed that I had alot of xp in scouting and hunting so I figured CH would be interesting. Gotta say, it is a good choice.
One of the best moments happened today when I was showing an aspiring CH friend of mine some of my cats, showed her my 'baby' Female Dire cat, who is a 9 now. Then an onlooker walked by and was watching this. Next, I brought out my Swamp Gurr Cat. The \"AWWWWs\" I got were amazing, totally unexpected. So, I gave her the Swamp Gurr Cat, and the onlooker was interested in one for herself. So now I am off looking for Swamp Gurr Cats. Heck, they provide good CH xp, and I can give her a present.
I have a buddy of mine who I go with on occasions. Sometimes we grind some. I think, being a CH, I prefer to go out solo, I noticed this more when I was in a small group going after a dire cat lair. I like going out alone because I can be methodical in my ways. I can take my time taking out the guards, then wait for more to spawn, then hit the lair, and so on. I like to give my cat a chance to participate in kills. Sometimes it can be difficult as by the time she gets down there in a group, whatever it might be dead. That frustraites me.
I have seen people post on other sites about how the game will dry up soon as people are going to become jedi and then leave once that is attained, or reach ace pilot then leave. I think it is their call. As everyone is different.
I like the challenge of finding babies, then trying to tame them, being a lowly Gubber, to whatever the next encounter might bring. I like going to a lair and just hoping for a baby to spawn out. Of course, it usually infuriates me when I accidently shoot it for 600 pts of damage, or do an unarmed attack for 179 and smash it to the ground, that is when I go \"#@$!!! I spent 40 minutes looking for a lair like this now I shoot it by accident!!!\"
I think the defining moments of my CH days will be getting a Rancor, and getting a mount. In fact, I have a carrion spat who is growing right now in my datapad for when I can train him to be my mount. Everything else is icing on the cake.

[Zurlaboo]

A helpful tip:

Make this macro called 'peace'

/peace;
/macro peace;

Keep it very handy and as soon as you notice your baby, hit it. You will never attack the baby (or anything) until you /dump. Don't forget to /dump when you're finished though, or you'll be wondering why that gubbar smacked you down before you even got a hit in!

[Iakimo]

Personally, I'm in agreement with all of you. Creature Handling is an amazingly fun profession. I'm one of those who are set on the goal of reaching Jedi Knight one day, so my CH career will eventually be sacrificed. But for now, I am enjoying my career as one of the best PvE professions in the game: Master Bounty Hunter/Creature Handler Dabbler, with a bit of Medic thrown in for healing when things get rough.

Some of my most intense moments have come when I was attempting to tame creatures. Like my first Graul, when I could barely tame level-30 pets and had a base vicious-taming chance of 17% or so. Ah, the dilemma! \"Hmmm.... do I take off my armor and don my Creature Tamer's clothing?? What if those other grauls turn on me??\"

Naturally, off my armor went.

Damn near got myself killed when the first baby attacked me, but I managed to stay alive, and tamed a second lair's baby, which I still have to this day! His name is \"Harvey.\"

Or the time when I tamed a baby Giant Crystal Snake, only to see the entire venomous lair come after me when my masked scent failed. I named that one, \"Slytherin.\"

And then, there was the time I discovered a baby Merek Assassin standing between the legs of an adult! I managed to pick it off and tame it standing right next to the adult with my scent masked, and scooted away without firing a shot. His name? Well, it could only be \"Scarface.\"

I love watching my Gleaming Lantern Bird, \"Talon,\" flying right behind me as I speed across the countryside on my swoop. This swift, strong pet served me with great distinction on patrols in the current phase of the Village of Aurilia. (Phase 1 of a new cycle at the time of this writing.)

With all my heart, I hope the developers give us some lovin' with the Combat Upgrade. I want very much to see dedicated Creature Handlers acquire the ability to truly inspire fear again in PvP. I want to see us acquire the ability to develop the athleticism and lethality of our pets with dedicated training programs, as well as through biochemical and/or mechanical enhancements. I want to design schematics for armor attachments for them, and commission armorsmiths to build them to order. I want to establish natural-looking zoos and holding pens for them, so I can showcase the natural wonders of this galaxy properly. I want to be able to find and tame superb physical specimens, and to breed them for superior qualities. I want to be able to share and trade pets that will be useful to other players. I want to unlock and acquire advanced mount-training and pack-handling abilities on pets. I want to be able to place a mobile combat platform on the backs of fambaas and tortons, and ride into combat against an enemy base with a heavy-weapons team of three or four comrades-in-arms aboard, with one (a Commando, perhaps?) firing a small heavy-weapons turret.

I want to have a mobile answer to the Imperial AT-ST. And I want us to provide that answer.

In short, I want to play all phases of the game without being a skill-stacked PvP-only robot.

But even if the status quo remains, I will always love Creature Handling. It is, quite simply, pure fun.

[Zurlaboo]

I like your wish list, Iakimo :)

[Ivoe]

I would like CH's to be able to call our pets inside the Warren, Corvette and some other dungeons. However, having a Fambaa with heavy artilery on it's back would be great.

- Ivoe

[Cyclone]

I read a great post on the forums and I just keep thinking about it. Give us the ability to train pets for profesions. Like he gave the idea of having a pet retriver to retrive incaped people for medics so they can stay safely on the edge of the battlefield and keep healing the people. Or, what Iakimo said, \"pack mules\" for weapons or for your second inventory. Sort of like droids. Or hunting pets for Bounty Hunters. The droid brings you to a place and the pet pinpoints the target. That would be awsome!!!