How long

how long would it take to go creature handler and what do I need to get it.

[Yvesof]

I can't say how long it'll take. Watching my roommate try it out it seemed pretty tedious unless you just like fighting all the time.

I can tell you that you need Exploration 4 and Hunting 4 from the Scout tree though. Hope that helps somewhat.

[Emmy]

Creature Handler, is not an easily grindable profession. If you just want to have a decent pet for tanking you still need to get about halfway to master. I sometimes feel for those poor holo-fools who drew the MCH card for their FS-slot, because getting to master takes time.

But if you are serious about it, it is a lot of fun and rewarding.

[Koireu]

Just something I noticed, you get the same CH exp if your pet gets one attack in as he does fighing the whole time. If you have a low level pet, use your same fighting style and wait until your foe is near death, then have him attack.
I am a nooby rifleman, and will frequently take lower missions, send pet to attack, and as soon as he does damage, will headshot for a kill. I don't get a LOT of rifle xp but do get full CH xp :)

I think that CH has to be one of the hardest, if not THE hardest profession to master. I have heard Riflemen complain about how long it takes to get to master. I started Rifleman and CH at the same time (about 4 months ago). I am a couple hours away from Master Rifleman and only 2/3/2/3 CH. I think I have a few more months to go to hit MCH.

I haven't done much grinding, and only get to play about 8hrs a week. I am now at a comfortable level (CL35), where I have a couple of armored BE pets I can use to tank, so I anticipate it might take me many months to hit master unless I push it.

The good thing about it is that you can do some pretty cool stuff once you're only half-way through the tree.

[Shinjeko]

[b:27ff282c7b]The key to getting to master CH is GROUPS![/b:27ff282c7b]

Get Novice Scout, join a hunting group and concentrate on [b:27ff282c7b]/harvest meat[/b:27ff282c7b]. You will be able to sell the meat for 2-3cpu no matter what the quality is to people who dont want to hunt meat for grinding.

You will [i:27ff282c7b]literally[/i:27ff282c7b] fly up to Exploration and Hunting IV, a bit more and you can get Novice CH.

Once you have Novice CH, get a fresh baby of a higher level pet - I like to give people 'piket plain walker' babies. They start with just under 1k ham, level 1 and have 40% kinetic armor.

Then find a group, the bigger the better. While the group does its destroy missions you focus on one thing, and one thing only: Making sure your pet takes a bite out of every monster that spawns. Attack - wait a few moments - follow/attack next target.

If your pet is too strong for the opponent you get a pentalty on the CH xp that the opponent can give, that penalty can be 100% - 1xp. So watch the XP you get and get a new training pet if necessary.

Rinse and repeat till you are master. :wink:

[Cyphaze]

BTW Shin - if you're a starting CH with a fragile pet, flip to the \"Combat\" tab on your chat box when your hunting groupmates are about to engage their targets. That way when you send your pet it, you know exactly when he deals damage (\"a picket plains walker (baby) hits a rancor for 8 damage\") and you can draw him back immediately to prevent an incap.

[Juicer]

It might be even quicker to get to CH if you get hunting II, so you have mask scent, then go to corellia or dantooine and find a place with lots of CL 30 or so aggressive spawns, mask scent, then ride on a speeder around through them for about 2 hours and you would get plenty of exp :D

I did this after i got exploration II and hunting II and i was grinding for CH, and after i started i got it in a matter of hours