Be careful what you wish for. If you look at the overall picture, as much as I hate to say this, tamers and GDs/etc are the only thing keeping other vastly overpowered templates in check.
I dont believe much of anything needs nerfing right now. Most templates have at least 1 or 2 grossly overpowered abilities right now and they are equalizing themselves out.
If you have an issue with just the tamer template? ...Use the common exploit out there and use a blue bard in GZ to completely negate them. I have a red bard mage/archer that simply drops any tamer/Pet out there that dares to venture out of the GZ. Of course, I am not able to discord pets in the GZ like blue bards can
I guess when a blue does it, it is a good thing...rofl!
Drop the nerf stick. Fix exploits instead.
This is one of the longest WHINER/EMO threads I have seen in some time. Way to go!!
I hate any kind of nerfing in general. I would rather buff up the opposite, or "nerf upwards". But first, regarding blue bards.
Using blue bards against tamers is not an exploit
I have to say that using a blue bard is not an exploit. It's totally valid game mechanics.
To people that says "then how come if red bards do the same thing, they are flagged". My opinion is that, being red means you are now a wanted murderer. It's one more penalty for being red, and more reason to stay blue. I am sorry to say that wonton murderers should not expect the same courtesy normally afforded to the blues to be extended to you.
As a tamer, you alone (even without your weakened pet) should be able to take out the bard if neither of you are hugging a guardzone.
Templates wise, - in theory, a tamer has devoted only 2-3 skills: taming/lore plus maybe vet in his template. The rest of the 4-5 skills can be uses on magery/eval/resists/med (or their warrior equivalents weaponskill/tactics/resists/chiv/bushido).
A bard has devoted the same 2-3 skills: music/discord plus maybe peace. He also has 4-5 remaining skills for the rest of his template.
So even with the tamers' pet taken out of the equation, the tamer still has the same remaining skill points to go toe to toe with the bard.
Further, note that the skillpoints invested into the barding skills are much less useful in a PvP situation compared to taming.
GDs by themselves are not overpowered
If you compared damage output without double casting and without the tamer attacking at the same time, GDs by themselves are really not overpowered, they spawn with low dex that cannot be trained above 125, meaning their chase/attack speed is capped at 125 dex, unlike rune beetles/frenzies.
A pack of 5 frenzies tears things up much much faster than a GD and attacks 5 times a second, if it doesn't instant kill someone, it screws up any spellcasting/healing attempt badly and will block 5 tiles adjacent to the victim. If the victim makes a wrong step or the tamer somehow boxes the victim in, he'll need to regain full stamina to push himself out. Now, if you party another tamer with 5 pack animals, those 10 pack animals can easily clog up all 8 adjacent tiles...
But they have low HPs/resists and are susceptible to area attacks. In balance, a GD has better survivability with it's higher HP and resists.
Tactics for dealing with tamer
Several people have already explained how to deal with tamers. I just want to highlight that when you go against a tamer, it's basically a co-ordinated gank scenario (from 1-5 pets plus tamer). Normal tactics that you use 1 v 1 will not work well. Best to have a friend, one to deal with the pet/s, one to deal with the tamer.
The main idea is to attack the weakest link - the tamer. Once he's dead, his pets will be alot easier to handle. Also, if you are with a freind, take advantage of the fact that his pets can only attack 1 player at a time. If he's too long in the tooth and doesn't fall for luring techniques, x-heal and gank him. Just don't leave him disengaged and free to cast spells or shoot at you or assist his pets as he pleases.
Note: My tactics as biased towards 2 v 1 strategies as I play together with my wife, esp when we go Fel or Siege. But we don't aggro people. We only retaliate when attacked (oh, and run away too!).
There's something not right about spellcasting monsters and pets
That's OP's point. The "double casting" and "1 skipped range check done at the point of setting off the spell". This really do seem to be a bug with mobs' spell casting sequence. Can this at least be looked into first? It's not a true nerf, it's just correcting an algorithmn to make it conform to normal spellcasting rules. Let's see if it offers a measure of balance, if not we can look at further tweaks.
If that doesn't work, then look at DPS from pets
I say look at DPS from pets instead of capping pet damage. That's because I feel a simple damage cap will not work. It's not really 1 massive spell or attack that kills you, it's the combo of attacks. Capping DPS will do nothing to a pack of frenzies as someone else already mentioned, or combo weapon specials etc.
To prevent 1 hit-kill situations, I'd rather they jack up player HPs instead. Then balance the rest of the things upwards. The advantage of this is that you have more allowance to play with for better fine tuning in the future.
If they cut damage in half now, it'll be like cutting a length of rope in half, you have less rope play with in the future.
