>I agree that it certainly isn't useless but you can only calm
>them once. After that, there's the echo that the animal isn't
>normally aggressive, so you have to kill them or leave,

I think I reported this as a bug a long time ago, but now I'm not sure if the skill would be too good if you could just re-calm them. Maybe not, because you'd still have to fight the mob until tame succeeded again.

>On the other hand, it isn't the only ranger mechanic that is a
>little odd. Waylay/ambush is another good example because if
>you try to waylay something that can see though camouflage,
>you get the echo that they can already see you but the fight
>will auto initiate anyway in about 1 round which also doesn't
>make a lot of sense.

This I'm almost certain I've posted to the bug board eons ago. Sadly no one fixes (non-catastrophic) bugs any more. =(