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Using Companions in Hard Mode FP's


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Howdy folks,

My name is Church (Raseri 50 Merc-Healer Ascendancy Corellian Run Server) and sometimes I get bored at endgame. *gasp*

 

To pass some time I've been gearing out Companions to use in HM FP's. So far I have used Torian for DPS and Blizz as the main tank in BT HM. Being the healer helps to remove some of the reservations PUG's may have about using a companion in a HM.

 

Next step is running a 2 man BT HM with someone's well geared DPS companion, maybe doing some other FP's.

 

Word around the forums seems to be a lot of hating on the lack of endgame usability for the whole companion system other than for dailies. Anyone else running FP's with companions? Have suggestions/questions? Might have to get a video of it soon.

 

Thanks,

Church

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its not as good as a player, but very doable. even in just 126 gear. depending on how long it takes you to fill out slots, and how well geared your companion is its a pretty fair trade. been doing this with my roomate for a bit to stock up on alloys.
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Absolutely. Thanks to the loot system in Normal Mode Ops I have a few doubles or triples of some Columi slots. Torian is in mostly Energized gear. As a main tank I wanted to make sure Blizz was a little better geared. He is in 2 Tionese 2 Columi for the 2% defense Super Commando bonus. My guild's MT Powertech is pissed because Blizz has the Columi shield and he is still using the Tionese.

 

I will say however, if the DPS is on par, Blizz may be the most suited tank for the bonus boss in BT. Something about a true ranged tank just works extremely well.

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I'm a Rakata/Columi Jugg with Columi equipped Vette as DPS, my mate is a Merc healer, pretty well equipped too, with a not so well equipped Blizz. Well, we could've taken a DPS companion instead of Blizz, but they were like at 10K HP. We tried to run BT HM, and took down everything except the bonus boss and the Padawan at the end. If I remember right, she did that Force Pull, Slow and then Storm thing, and we instantly set the companions to passive after being pulled to her. Didn't help, they died and we didn't make it, it was a really long fight then, she enraged and at one certain point, she started onehitting us lol.

I have NO idea how I could overcome this, except a hybrid build + DD equip for heavy damage instead of heavy survivability.

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It is not optimal by any means to sub in a companion. But for the sake of alternative play methods and sheer lolz I do it.

Having said that, I noticed that even a better equipped Torian (techblade Aim-based Melee DPS) wasn't as good in a boss fight than a not so well equipped Gault (blaster/sniper rifle Cunning-based Ranged DPS). But that's the difference between a burst based damage and an AOE damage.

 

In your group an under geared Blizz is a bad idea. He is disadvantaged as far as regular mitigation and defenses go. Aggro he has plenty of which will further expose his lack of stats. (As a basis of comparison my Blizz is sitting at 18990 Health and around 30 Reduction/Absorb/Shield and 15% Defense IIRC)

 

The toggle passive will work on the Padawan. I found it helpful to start moving away first before hitting it, but it is a pretty tight window. Marauders have it a little easier with Predation; Sorcerers with Static shield. Just takes a little practice with a good friend. Luckily that fight has a reset point so it's not an automatic wipe to work on the technique.

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Just did Kaon HM using Ashara as a DPS, her at orange gear + daily comms level, with a bit of tionese grade things thrown in. With the other DPS in the group being heal spec'd.

 

Kaon is a pretty easy instance, overall. About the only things to be careful of with her instead of a player is the exploding guys (she'll live through one blowing up though) and, more annoyingly, one less person to interrupt the merc stun. At its worst during the cannon boss bit, since then you're down to 2 players, one of whom is probably going to get stunned.

Edited by Battilea
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I'd like to see how that would go with the screamers too. Companions pulling extra groups of mobs doesn't always happen. It's different from other pets from other MMOs I've played in that regard.

 

Player Character Tank and Healer with 2 DPS companions may be the way to go in other FP's. I know if the tank can survive with me tossing in extra DPS on top of heals there is less worry about the enrage timers.

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I'd like to see how that would go with the screamers too. Companions pulling extra groups of mobs doesn't always happen. It's different from other pets from other MMOs I've played in that regard.

 

Well, the nice thing with a dps companion is that they don't pull much aggro and they attack what you tell them to. Screamers were on me, the tank.

 

As to companions aggro'ing stuff, that's just a matter of understanding how companions aggro things. If they hit it, obviously. Beyond that, there's certain actions they make, like instigating a fight or starting to harvest that trigger a LoS check from nearby mobs to you. Well, to you for harvesting a node for sure anyway. Starting combat might be different, haven't tested that as much. So, once the fight is started, they can get knocked back wherever and it pretty much won't matter. Fight is already started, not likely to be mobs they are currently fighting nearby to AoE. Mobs won't aggro on them, unlike if a player got knocked back into another group.

 

The healer's comment at the end of it was along the lines of: that might have been the smoothest Kaon run he's done.

 

Player Character Tank and Healer with 2 DPS companions may be the way to go in other FP's. I know if the tank can survive with me tossing in extra DPS on top of heals there is less worry about the enrage timers.

 

For a bunch, think I'd rather have companion tank and dps player. Most boss fights, keeping the tank up isn't much of an issue. As long as you have someone who is good at bossing the pet around...

Edited by Battilea
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For a bunch, think I'd rather have companion tank and dps player. Most boss fights, keeping the tank up isn't much of an issue. As long as you have someone who is good at bossing the pet around...

 

I can see that. Speaking specifically about Kaon, I know during the fire barrel boss encounter the mechanics of the fight would limit a tanking companion. It would be an interesting fight to manage.

 

Just curious, do you stim for your respective main stat or presence?

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Have run a few 2 man HMs over the past couple of weeks.

 

I play a Shadow Tank with 9 Rakata / 5 Columi and use Nadia as DPS with 7 Rakata / 7 Columi. Friend is similarly geared Smuggler Healer.

 

We can get to the last boss of Battle of Ilum in 10 minutes by skipping 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th bosses and all the trash (can't skip 3rd boss w/o aggroing but you can with the rest). Best we could do was dieing to last boss at 5% due to enrage. I think it would be super easy if i just specced DPS or had DPS Relics because the last boss doesn't hit hard unless you fail on interrupts.

 

I think the only incredibly difficult one to clear with 2 companions would be Directive 7. It'd be hard to keep Bulwark from enraging the the mechanics of the last boss might be too tricky. Oh and 2nd boss with the 3 droids would be hard too...

 

BTW idk if many people know about skipping 2nd boss on Battle of Ilum. I figured it out myself while solo'ing it to the 5th boss and waiting for my friend. You just have to wait for the closest dude to walk a bit further away from the switch and you can actually press the switch from quite far away. Have a go. Looks impossible to skip. ;)

Edited by Feignz
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Me and my guildmate Drekvalos ran BT hardmode and we both used companions. I used Xalek DPS spec/geared in colum/champ mix and he used Temple dPS geared.

 

I tanked as assassin and he healed as an operative. We were able to down all bosses in BT HM including the bonus boss without enrage timers. Didnt get a video but I do have a screenshot.

 

We plan on attempting some others just for the hell of it. Fun fact, companions aren't slowed by Yadira's AOE :p

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I did all the HM flashpoints with 1 companion (3 players) the first time through. The only bosses we struggled with much at all were the bonus boss in BT (as fresh 50s with terrible gear), the boss of Foundry (bugged?), and the third named in Battle of Ilum (melee composition).

 

I'm surprised anyone would say companions aren't useful at endgame; I love that you can use them to duo/trio flashpoints. I do kinda wish we could use them in Operations as a last resort, but yeah, they're great in flashpoints.

 

EDIT: I actually missed the flexibility of being able to swap between different companions depending on the fight when we ran with a fourth player, heh.

Edited by Lymain
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I'm surprised anyone would say companions aren't useful at endgame; I love that you can use them to duo/trio flashpoints. I do kinda wish we could use them in Operations as a last resort, but yeah, they're great in flashpoints.

 

You'd be surprised how much disrespect they get from some of the hardcore players. I ran into a thread talking about how odd it is to make Techblades and Techstaves

(since they are companion only weapons) and most of the thread went as such:

 

"Endgame=/=Companion. Do you really need an orange moddable for running dailies?"

 

Need to direct them to this thread.

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Funny thing is though, in a way, they are right about those weapons, even in the context of this thread. It means those weapons stop at that tier. I can get Tion, columi, or Rakata level weapons for the other ones. Or at least slap some better mods in them. And even with the 1.2 changes, that won't change, since there won't be the right type of hilts to rip out of things for those companions (if they had orange weapons, which they don't). As a result, companions that use those weapons are less than ideal. they'll have less force/tech power, lower stats, worse damage. Edited by Battilea
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Not to derail the thread too much, but a decent Strength hilt on an Aim based melee weapon would still be ok. The lack of 40 or so Aim would be an easy trade off for the boosted DPS based on the hilt. Unfortunately it wouldn't matter anyway since Techblade and Techstaff are not interchangeable with Vibroblade and Electrostaff.
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Did some more companion gearing today (and ran BT with Blizz tank). Completely slipped my mind to turn on Fraps for the BT run, but I'll make a point of it to do it tomorrow.

 

Guild is doing Soa and KP HM tonight so might pick up some extra gear to allow some hand me downs.

 

The longer people run ops the more companions are going to gear up. It seems inevitable.

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I've run a few with my companion out. I am a dps sorc, and ive used my andronikos revel as a second dps. He is about half rakata the rest columi/tionese. i can't imagine a companion healing a FP but my companion does tons of dps so it worked out. he attacks whatever i cast on first.
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  • 1 month later...

My best friend and I have just started running 2 man HMs this week.

 

I'm a shadow tank and he's a gunslinger DPS. We are both 124ish daily commendation / reward geared with companions that are the same.

 

Mostly, I run a healer companion and he runs a ranged DPS companion, although we have used everything from healer / healer to ranged DPS / melee DPS companion combinations depending on the boss.

 

So far we've tried and completed all the bosses in the Esseles and Kaon. The only thing we haven't been able to do is the bonus boss in Kaon...90% of the time my healer seems to bug during the add phase, he turns off and his entire quick bar goes grey.

 

I love love love the companion system. And I love that is possible to run HMs with only two people and that it's possible to progress to that point with two people in the same way a 4 man group would by doing dailies, heroic dailies and regular 50s. It's fun, it's challenging and has quickly become my favorite thing to do in the game.

 

Thank you Bioware for giving us a way to play at an extremely high level in a very small group!

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There was a fairly long stretch when there was myself and 2 friends at 50, and we did just about every HM FP with the 3 of us + one companion. That companion was usually ranged DPS or healer, depending on the situation.

 

The only one we didn't clear was Boarding Party, and that wasn't due to FP difficulty but rather low priority and us all buying hands with comms before needing to do it for drops. BT, Foundry, FE, Ilum, D7 and Kaon were all very doable.

 

The biggest downsides are dealing with environment-based boss mechanics and poor companion DPS to beat some of the tighter rage timers.

 

That said, the 3 of us managed to go from daily com-modded oranges to practically full Columi with just ourselves + companion.

Edited by Omophorus
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hah, glad to see i'm not the only one doing this.

 

I've used Torian and Blizz in DPS/tank roles for HM BT, as well as the heroic daily on Corellia.

 

I'm actually enjoying "tanking" things with Blizz on my merc, it's a fun challenge. I say "I'll tank" and people think i'm nuts, but then when we get through with minimal trouble and no loss of threat on Blizz's part, they usually are pleasantly surprised.

 

Both Blizz and Torian are better geared than most pickup players anyway, in full columi/rakata.

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