With GU 5 for SWG comes updates to the Beast Masters profession and Thomas "Hanse" Eidson is the dev with the details!

In 2007, we finished our first incarnations of the profession expertise systems. The recent updates that we've performed were to improve those expertise systems. Luckily, the last expertise system added to the game was for Beast Masters, so it is very up-to-date. We felt that the expertise system for beasts is balanced and does not need tweaks in Update 5. This allowed us to focus on other areas of the beast master system for improvement.

I was chosen to work on the Beast Masters, due to my knowledge of their systems. I wrote the original framework that beasts use in the game. Many large additions for beasts were added (data storage, retrieval, initialization, combat movement, etc) instead of using the older pet system. To make systems such as those, you must have information on everything that the system must do. This gives me a unique insight into fixing issues with beasts.

The full overview of the changes coming can be found here!