Overall I like Qyzen Fess.

 

I did have issues with him around mid 30's to 40 when he seemed to getting spanked pretty hard. I am a healing sage and his DPS was lacking. I would run out of force healing him before he got very far on golds. I ended up pulling out Zenith and using him as a DPS companion while I tried very hard as a healing sage to pull aggro and just heal through it which worked fairly well!

 

Zenith does kill much faster then Fess. I am not 43 and finding that Fess is now starting to get his groove back. However I just got Nadia and I am playing around with her as a companion.

 

That is my experience anyhow

I've noticed several times on Taris, Fess's health bar does not fully fill back to max. Tried med, dismiss, sending him to sell, nothing gets it back up. I have to go back to the fleet and voila all his health is back. Anyone else noticed this from Mr. Fess.

Popping in briefly at 42 now to say most of the below hasn't changed. Far as I'm concerned, there really isn't another choice for my solo play (which is a little sad, but I suppose understandable).

 

As far as turning off CC goes, I wish the damn things would STAY OFF until I turn them back on instead of popping on automatically every time I enter an instance or dismiss/resummon (which I do more of than I should as pathfinding when jumping up rocks and such is a bit weird).

 

Finally, I will be VERY happy when they finally get an orange techblade in the game... maybe soon? (hopeful look)

 

Just dinged 35 here and, in my personal playing experience, Qyzen wins hands down:

 

(1) I've got him in almost all oranges with aim (update - aim, power, and critical) mods.

 

(2) I too, bemoan the lack of an orange techblade (just posted about that elsewhere, in fact, I didn't know they do not exist... meh... should have asked here!).

 

(3) At the moment, Qyzen is sporting nearly 10k HP, roughly 587 aim (not as nice as I'd like, but as close as I can get until I find him an orange waist and bracer).

 

(4) Qyzen and I regularly take down champions at our level (though admittedly, it's usually an exhilarating fight) and have no issue whatever with anything under this so long as I keep my situational awareness up.

 

(5) I agree with the photo-bomb comment (I, too, lol'd!) and really wish they would make him stand BEHIND YOU when at rest (After all, he's supposed to damn near worship you as "The Herald", isn't he?).

 

(6) Yes, I'm fully speced into healing. For Telekinesis, I used Theran as his heals allowed me to dish the damage, but I went back to healing because frankly, I don't have the armor to take hits and dish damage. I haven't tried the Balance tree, but looking at the abilities, would think either companion could be helpful (Likely the edge to Theran here).

 

At this point, I have no plans to change companions unless another Qyzen-like tank shows up and I'll merely move over the oranges (frankly, if the next/other tank is NOT Aim based, I'll skip them because I don't see buying up new armor, mods, and enhancements just to have a different looking tank).

 

My partner plays a trooper and, when we're running together, I pull Theran out and he has his little "harem of healers". It works quite nicely as he gets to be GOD ALMIGHTY MELEE while his healer, Theran, and I relax and toss happy heals anon.

 

Life is good.

 

p.s.: My partner, reading over my shoulder, says, "Well, all I can say is that your Qyzen embarrasses me on HP; maybe you just gear him better than most, but I'm running around at just over 7k myself... maybe it's his scales."

Qyzen is fine, especially if you're healer specced.

 

agreed, though his aoes breaking my lift does get annoying, he is overall extremely useful to a sage healer.

I've noticed several times on Taris, Fess's health bar does not fully fill back to max. Tried med, dismiss, sending him to sell, nothing gets it back up. I have to go back to the fleet and voila all his health is back. Anyone else noticed this from Mr. Fess.

 

it's a visual bug that I have noticed. My UI will say that he is damage but when I target him, the targeting HP bar will show full *or vice versa*

 

He is actually full hp though, and I have noticed it with other players companions while in my group as well.

it's a visual bug that I have noticed. My UI will say that he is damage but when I target him, the targeting HP bar will show full *or vice versa*

 

He is actually full hp though, and I have noticed it with other players companions while in my group as well.

 

A Ctrl-Ux2 to reload UI will fixed bugged health bars, and as mentioned it's not a Qyzen specific thing.

/agree.

 

Its easy to get techblades for him at any weapon vendor (if you don't get a drop for him).

 

You are leveling up, so just put fresh green gear on him regularly and he is a fine tank. Orange gear is more trouble then it is worth for a companion while leveling.

 

As for the control issues identified by OP, I have not found this to be any real problem. Learn to play nicely within the known constraints of our companion, IMO.

 

The OP is right, there are very few tech blades. Trust me.

They need to let him use other weps then tech blades, and they HAVE to re-design him. He looks so ugly, just like the alien from the "worst fight scene ever" from old star trek.

I love Qyzen! I'm a TK Sage and we're at level 33 right now and I think he's an awesome tank. I have him in an orange Trooper armor that I got from Hammer Station fully armored up in Aim mods that I managed to yoink from the GTN as well as other Trooper armor that have dropped. I can't remember where I got his Techblade from, I think an end of mission bonus for him but I'd love an orange one I can mod. I have a guild mate who does Armstech and tries to keep him updated when I can catch him online.

 

My hubby, whom I duo with, runs a dps Trooper and is always telling me that Qyzen and I need to stop killing mobs faster than he can get his powers off! We're a deadly foursome, me and Qyzen and him with M1-4X and we manage to tromp through just about anything. Champions go down really easy.

 

Sometimes, however, the big Q does drive me crazy. We were doing a mission last night and he just stood at the end of a hallway staring at us while we beat up the enemies. We'd just come off of an elevator. I made fun of him as he strolled down the hallway after the fight, lots of giggles and laughter going on. *grin* I really hope they fix this eventually though. Also, I'd kill for some faster action time on his charge but we've learned to work around it. There's usually the call "Cannon magnet going in!" and a pause and then we attack when he gets there.

 

But still, the big lizard is awesome!

Qyzen Fess gets just as much melee damage/crit from strength as he does from aim. Only his 2 aoes don't benefit from strength. If you're wanting him to not use those anyways, then feel free to make him look like a jedi and his single target abilities will scale the same.

 

Qyzen never has auto-switching issues for me so long as me or him initiates aggro. As balance I have negligible problems and little downtime by using Ctrl+1 to send him after something and he's usually there by the time I'm finished casting Disturbance on another and he usually gets the peripheral aggro from all the other mobs.

 

Techblades are sold by vendors at the beginning of every world and sometimes twice on the same world. Keeping his weapon up to date is relatively easy.

 

@lvl 20, I've been leaving him in Combat Stance since I single target everything down anyways. Even on elites, between Conq Strike (bonus threat) and Taunt, I don't rip aggro until sub 30%. The guard stance mathmatically only gives about 5% damage redux, which hardly makes up for 25% damage bonus and 25% CD redux. Him doing ~35% more damage will mitigate more damage than 5% from guard stance.

I typically find him fine, although I do find his reaction time just ridiculous, I could probably go make a coffee inbetween the time when I click attack and he moves.

Qyzen is aweome. Have a armstech make you some techblades to increase his DPS. He tanks and gathers mobs for AOE better than any other pet that we have. Edited January 10, 2012 by Wheldrake

I use my middle bottom bars for my guy and really don't use Fess's bar at all which remains tiny in the bottom left. If I expand his bar, I lose my bottom bar. Is there a way around this? I would use a lot more of his abilities if I could access them easier. What do you all do?

I use my middle bottom bars for my guy and really don't use Fess's bar at all which remains tiny in the bottom left. If I expand his bar, I lose my bottom bar. Is there a way around this? I would use a lot more of his abilities if I could access them easier. What do you all do?

 

There is an option in the UI section of the preference menu to have it use one of the side bars.(I think it's the UI section, but it's in there somewhere...)

 

I wasn't a fan of Qyzen when I started playing, but once I got the other companions I realized he could have been so much worse. The only companion who I find useful at all is Nadia, and you don't get her until late in the story. The consular got screwed as far as companions go IMO.

Qyzen has been perfectly fine for me but like most companions you really have to be on top of his gear and you need to gear him right. I have an armstech and armormech alts to craft him blue gear and it really helps.

I disliked using the Lizard on my Kinetic's Sage and loved using Theran. I love using the Lizard on my Infiltration shadow, but dislike using Theran.

 

One shoe does not fit all.

The other thing about Qyzen that annoys the crap out of me, is the lack of appropriate looking armors.

 

The gear he gets after arriving on Courscant is pretty awesome. Then, if you can outfit him in a full set of Trandoshan armor, that's pretty awesome too.

 

But after that? It seems the only option you ever have, is to make him look like a Stormtrooper!

 

It annoys the crap out of me. Way, way, WAY too many trooper clones in this game, between:

 

Troopers

Trooper Companions (Aric Jorgenson)

Smuggler Companions (Corso Riggs)

Jedi Consular Compaions (Qyzen Fess)

 

If you agree with me, then please, go show some support at my thread here:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showt...67#post1479467

 

Tell Bioware NO MORE CLONES!!!

 

Thank you for your time

However, I have noticed that when you dismiss/resummon Qyzen one of his 2 AoE abilities gets turned back on so watch out for that.

 

This is the one bug that irritates the hell out of me. I love Qyzen as a tank, but I almost always have to turn off his EMP grenade manually when I have to forcelift pull something. More often than not he's got it activated >.>

I've found Qyzen to be an awesome solo tank at 50 for Sage DPS.

 

I think he's our best tank, I'm looking forward to having him in awesome gear.

Yes he sucks. I hate him so, so much.

They should have left him ranged instead of trying to match Khem.

 

Khem's tanking 'stance' is also superior in the way it regenerates health.

I completely ignored Qyzen after taking Cedrax. No baby sitting, no cursing, no scorekeeper **** anymore. Cedrax is a team player unlike the barbarian geko without a brain.

I'm a synthweaver so I ended up making modable hed chest and legings for Qyzen. Got a guildy to make him a purple lv 50 tech blade and he is great at lv 50. I'm heal speced and apart from bubling him up I don't have to heal him that much and can off DPS while he holds agro. Edited January 20, 2012 by MariLupus

"What irritates me the most is, whenever I approach something interactive and go to right-click on it, he photo-bombs me and sticks his head under the cursor"

 

HAHAHAHA!!!!!

Yeah i hate when he does that.

 

TK Spec, Heal (limited)

 

I find that Qyzen works very well for me, much like others i have him "oranged" out with aim/end, i lost alot for the 1st 20 lvls by gearing him with str, but since my fix he rocks.....the lag in his attack, i have noticed that either he is taunting, then leaping to attack or just dragging tail, but i take that time to bubble him, and trigger one of my longer timing powers (not that they take that long to trigger) and it seems to hit a split hair after he does, so all in all, he's a monster for me as a solo player, in groups he can wreck the cc, so i keep him close or force him to attack the enemies away from the cc'd enemies, and to this date its been working well for me.

 

As far as storyline, his croaks are ALOT LESS ANNOYING when im listening to music from my ipod, lol.

Qyzen is great if you are a healing sage, if you are a shadow/tanking Consular, not so much. I've loved using Qyzen on my sage, but couldn't wait to get rid of him on my shadow.

 

Not sure why but even with current level green/blue gear Qyzen is still built like he's wearing tissue paper for armor. He is nowhere near the tank that Khem is for inquisitor. I shelved him as soon as I got Tharan, and even as annoying as he is, I'll keep using him because every mob and boss fight is a cakewalk now.