Suggestion: Merge Charm Animal and Comfort Animal

Pretty much as the topic says. Merge the two skills into one. Having to take Charm Animal is pretty pointless since 95% of the time it has to be paired with Comfort Animal in order to take care of/res your pet. If you think this will unbalance the game or skill set, press Alt F4, Back or whatever. It's logical to merge the skills. They're needed for B/P groups and Rangers who use Beast Mastery. Charm Animal's only use is to capture a pet and to bring your pet into the field. Having the skills separate is like needing to have a skill in your skillbar just to hold your axe/bow/sword/hammer/wand/staff.

it has been brought up in gaile conversations, and she has definitely been working toward it. im assuming it will be an improvement that comes out after the factions things settle. definitely need it tho.
/signed

I see the search feature is down again I was looking for other threads where this has been discussed, as I know it has at least once.

But ..... yes ..... something that I would like to see in some form. Maybe charm and res in one skill, and comfort (heal) as a seperate skill?

/signed

/signed

Having an extra skill slot in any build using a pet can go a long way

Search feature is weak. This has been brought up a dozen times, either players don't want to use a skill and get a free pet, or they want charm animal to heal their pet so they have one more skill slot, it is the same thing.

This is obviously unbalanced, having up to a lvl 20 pet which comes with 480 health and 80 AL is more then your average skills worth, being able to raise that companion and heal him with one skill is also more then a skills worth.

I find the use of Comfort animal to be particularly newbish, just because you use it 95% of the time doesn't mean it is a neccessary skill or that it is unbalanced to have 2 skills in order to bring a pet, heal him, and ressurect him. I almost never use comfort animal, the pet rarely takes so much damage in a battle that he needs healing, bringing monk healing skills can be used on my pet, myself, and human allies, and "Revive Animal" allows me to ressurect my pet, as well as any allies pets, freeing them from carrying any pet revive skills. Using Revive animal and symbiotic bond keeps my animal alive and revived easily, if I am with several other beast masters, Call of protection is better than symbiotic bond, and I don't bother healing them, because they don't die easily at all. If my pet is taking hits and getting killed instead of me or any player on my team, it is a victory, because I am alive and they are killing a sidekick.

I believe Comfort Animal is too expensive, for a mediocre cure and a very determental rez, 5 energy is more then enough, even though the skill is multifuncitonal, it doesn't amount to crap in healing at a cost of 10 energy, which is why I use revive animal instead of comfort animal, I will not waste all my energy pumping weak cures. I agree that the skill could be better, but charm animal is more then powerful enough to take a full skill slot on its own, and outside of pet control abilities, Charm Animal should not be changed.

/signatures don't mean jack, balance does.

/signed

Between, charm, comfort and rez sig, thats 3 slots burned right there. No wonder people complain all rangers do is spam distracting and savage! =P All they have room left for.

well, id like the charm animal be redundant if u have a charmed pet, that way you only need confort animal in your skill bar.

OR

If you have a charmed animal, and charm animal in your skill bar then you can use the charm animal skill as a pet attack target command.( after all as it stands today why should I need to press it the skill?)

OR

let Confort animal heal other allied animals and pets (perhaps ,like orison of healing, perhaps like heal party)

OR

all the above

I think if you earn the charm skill, which truely is waste of space in the skillbar, that once the quest that earns you this is completed that this skill embeds itself into the character like a tatoo or something. and then to add a twist of chance to this change .. if your pet dies in the field and you don't want it, that you should be able to charm another pet. I mean why not allow the ranger to charm other pets if the current dies and the ranger has deteremine the pet to be useless.

just a thought

hey second thought if embedding charm or combining the charm with comfort is no good then why not increase the effect of charm or create a second charm skill, one to allow you to charm two pets??? since our levels are maxing to 20 either get the skill around level 15 or call elite charming.

just another thought

oh and for the rez sig, I feel all signets should be on a bar called signet bar seperate from skills to start with...my two cents.

/signed

I will agree that there is a serious lack of skill slots in all builds, which I don't like, it forces players to focus their build on one thing or another, when any character needs several key skills to be a helpful team member.

Having limited skills for you build isn't exclusive to Ranger, as an Elementist, I almost always need to bring 2 energy management skills just to operate, as well I have to put high to max points in energy storage, then put max points in an element and have enough room to actually bring attack skills.

The structure of this game dictates that there is a limit of 8 skills, it limits ranger just as much as it limits everyone else. I would like for there to be 10 skills, that way we could all make more diverse builds, but Anet wants players to be limited, and limited for one is limited for all, trying to get extra room on your skill bar so you can have more functions is an obvious imbalance, it is no different then elementist trying to get 1 skill which saves energy and heals him.

Beast mastery skills are suppose to be cheap because they are sustaining a less important companion, but that doesn't justify extra skill slots, in this way, or another.

Yes, this has been debated extensivly in the past. I believe there were even suggestions of a combined Elite, requirements in BM for ress. and many more.
You see any changes to this has an affect on the infamous IWAY build, so its a bit more complicated then that.

This would have to be an elite... Think about it

-It brings your pet into battle
-It heals your pet
-It resses your pet

That is pretty powerful... How about turning it into an elite? The only problem is the cast time.. Charm Animal = 10 seconds... Comfort Animal = 1 second. So I guess thats the balancing point.

{E}Bond Animal: 10 Energy 3 Cast Time 15 Recharge
Skill. Charm target animal. Once charmed, your animal companion will travel with you whenever you have bond animal equipped. If targeted on animal companion you heal it for 30..97 [125] Health. If your animal companion is dead, it is resurrected with 10..54 [75]% Health.

Disagreed, it's meant for 2 skills not all in one. I love the ranger class but this suggestion will make rangers more powerful, an extra interruption, or another skill from secondary.

Charm animal takes 10 seconds to cast. I assume for a reason. Merging the skills would force Anet to make it last 1 second. Thats 9 seconds less, wow. I assume it so you can't just run to a pet and cap it or cap one thats way more powerful than you alone. That probably shouldn't be changed.

/notsigned unless its made into some kind of elite skill. Even if it is... Anyways, as fiery said, its ment for 2 skills, not one.

Brother Gilburt

I don't really see what you're complaining about Gilburt-when I tamed my level 20 black widow spider in the Uw, the damage it did was minimal. I think the only reason they have it so long is so it can be itnerrupted or the pet dies. Unless there's a beastmaster controlling the pet, so it can do pet attacks, a pet on it's own even at level 20 cannot kill a player unless you actively try.

Which happens to be the problem with doing this.

The fact that it takes 2 slots and high ranked guilds are still using pet builds has to mean that giving them an extra slot would only further increase the power of an already powerful build.

If it was nerfed in some way and combined I'd be fine with it.

I like the idea better of having it so that if you have a pet skill equiped then your pet comes with you. If it isn't comfort animal or revive animal, then when your pet dies you have a useless skill on your bar. That way charm is a one time use, or rather you only use it to get a pet. That makes a bit more sense to me than changing the Charm animal skill. Plus it still comes at a cost if you don't have a way to res your pet.

On the other hand, that way would also mean that one person could have revive animal and everyone else could just have a pet attack. That would be rather bad for some of the PvP builds out there I would imagine.

/notsigned
I think getting a level 20 ally in exchange for 1 skill slot is already overpowered,

Merge Eviscerate and Executioner's Strike since 95% of the time you will use 1 following the other.

Just because it takes 2 skills doesn't mean it shouldn't be 2 skills. Charm animal doubles your damage (Assuming equal investments in beast mastery and markmanship)...if it also healed and ressurected your pet....wow broken.

/notsigned

(And just so you know...it will never happen unless they make it a new elite skill or something...would you give up your elite slot for it? Because you are saying that you are giving up nothing for it....come on....meet me halfway.)


Actually, having the skills seporate is like needing to have a skill in your skillbar to DUAL WIELD your axe/bow/sword/hammer/wand/staff.

How to implement: If you do not have a pet, this skill (charm/comfort animal mix) takes 10s to cast. If you do have a pet, this skill is instant cast.

/signed