Out of Qyzen Fess {damage} & tharan Cedrax {healer} which would be better to run with as a DPS Shadow.

 

Thanks for help

Out of Qyzen Fess {damage} & tharan Cedrax {healer} which would be better to run with as a DPS Shadow.

 

Thanks for help

 

I leveled as a dps shadow, and found Tharan to be the best to use. At endgame, doing daily missions, it doesn't really matter, though you'll get through them quicker with a dps companion.

Never had much downtime with Tharan, always used him personally.

Tharan hands down for levelling.

Not only does he heal like a boss but his holiday interupt/stun compliments your own arsenal of stuns/interupts perfectly.

 

Though at endgame once you are geared well I would recomend Nadia for doing dailys etc.

She will kill stuff twice as fast as you and Tharan with only minimal downtime for healing.

Edited July 6, 2012 by punktual

Tharan is by far the best. Actually, he's probably the only viable companion for a lot of the content.

 

The only time you really have a choice is when you're over-leveled against whatever you're killing, and then the other companions can burn through easy content even faster.

Sadly, the only viable choice is the healer, unless you spec as a healer yourself in general, its the healer........which can be fine if the healer isn't an arrogant, annoying ***hole, which most of them are, i have seen majority of the companions in this game and most of the fun ones are dps companions, which means, to travel with them and quest, you got to penalize yourself or just use an annoying companion, that you would gladly kill off, if given the chance.

For maximum results, tanks and healers should use a DPS companion, and DPS should use a healer companion. Thats not to say other combos aren't viable, I've often leveled DPS characters with DPS companions because I liked that companion better. But for max efficiency I would say DPS use healers and everyone else use DPS.

Tank companions only become viable is they are uber-geared. Otherwise they just die too quickly.

 

I would say use the following companions in the following situations:

 

Balance Shadow vs multiple trash mobs = Zenith (combined AoE = very quick killing)

Balance Shadow vs anything else = Tharen (minimum downtime = quicker leveling)

Infiltration Shadow vs multiple trash mobs = Zenith or Qyzen (zenith for quicker killing, qyzen to allow backstabs)

Infiltration Shadow vs anything else = Tharen (minimum downtime) or Qyzen if uber-geared (if he can hold aggro, u can backstab = higher DPS).

Kinetic Shadow vs all types of trash = Zenith (combined AoE + tank self healing and mitigation = super quick leveling and killing)

Kinetic Shadow vs bosses = Tharen

 

 

Whilst leveling, chances are you wont have qyzen or lt better geared than urself, so just go with Tharen.

I just got Theran a few levels back and tried swapping him in for my well geared Q...and I kill move much slower. I'm inf specced, so backstabs are only really an option with Q. I'm sticking with him until we stop being able to take out champion mobs or we have to start resting between fights. As it is now, we stop every half dozen for a few seconds rest.

 

Basically, I didn't enjoy having to manage Theran's agro and the mutual loss of DPS was frustrating.

As a high level infiltration speced shadow I've found Tharan is not bad since I have the full arsenal of stuns available. However, I think at lower levels when all the stuns are not yet available a tank companion is better as you need them to pull aggro so you can backstab or else take a hit on DPS output. I have yet to try having a DPS companion accompany me.

 

EDIT: I tried having a DPS companion to compliment my DPS Shadow (Infil). I found that I was pulling aggro far faster than my companion (Nadia) so she lost almost no health whereas I was loosing it fast. Overall I would say it doesn't work too well because of this. It may be good for a small trash group but once tougher guys (silver star or higher) get thrown into the mix you need a healer to give you the endurance or a tank to be your meat shield.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Gavin_Kelvar

Qyzen is a "tank" companion, not DPS. However, like all "tank" pets in the game, he's relatively weak at tanking AND weak at DPS. It's a problem common to all classes that only the healer pets feel like they have any actual power to be good at what they're supposed to do.

 

That said, I used Qyzen for everything right up to the notorious final boss fight, which is (or was) nearly impossible to get through in any DPS spec, but was trivial when tank specced with Tharan along. I still use Qyzen for dailies when I can stand to run them. Once you have him in a mix of recruit and cast off Tionese / Columi and he's pushing 19-20K HP, then he is able to stand up to anything you'll run into in regular daily runs. Until he's overgeared though, he just can't stand up to the damage for long enough, and will die sometimes before fights end. In truth the only time the tank companions work "well" is if you're heal specced yourself and can keep them alive indefinitely. Then they are maxi-big afk easy mode, as long as you don't mind sleeping through most fights.

 

I never bothered gearing up any of my companions other than Tharan, and although I always play in DPS spec and gear, I swap to tank stance and pull out Tharan only when I need to deal with something that I just can't kill quickly enough, or when I'm in a flashpoint that winds up short one member before we finish. For everything else, Qyzen works just fine. The only drawback to him is you have to stop and both heal up after every fight, but that's the same any time you're running with a non-healer companion.

Edited October 27, 2012 by Heezdedjim