I bought her a helmet and implants.... rest is her standard gear she came with. I'm 32.... honestly seemed to me like Bowdarr and Corso do more dps. What am I missing? Does she just need a better set of gears?

Gear or you don't have her in the right stance with the right abilities up. She should be doing far more damage than Corso or Bowdaar, certainly did for me. You can do a rough test by comparing how long it takes them to kill a strong mob. Bowdaar/Corso would still be working on it when I was done the rest of the group and then I had to help them finish it off. Risha was able to take them down herself by the time I was done my part. Edited January 27, 2012 by hadoken

Gear or you don't have her in the right stance with the right abilities up. She should be doing far more damage than Corso or Bowdaar, certainly did for me. You can do a rough test by comparing how long it takes them to kill a strong mob. Bowdaar/Corso would still be working on it when I was done the rest of the group and then I had to help them finish it off. Risha was able to take them down herself by the time I was done my part.

 

Ok cool, I shoulda done that before posting. Thanks.

Im 50 now as a Healing Scoundrel and I can tell you that once I got Risha I pretty much stopped using the tanks (Bowdar and Corso). Especially if you have Armstech....you can make her nice sniper rifles and then give her your gear that you upgrade.

 

She does quite a bit more damage then the others.

 

For me...it was basically have longer fights with Bowdar or faster fights that I may have to heal a hair bit more with Risha. I went with the latter. The only time I break out a tank pet is perhaps for a tougher boss fight on a class quest or something.

Just in case you didn't notice as well, while her sniper rifle is green it's also fully moddable so it's very easy to upgrade (as she's cunning like you).

Who would you rather dress in the Slave Bikini outfit, Bowdarr, Corso, or Risha?

 

Exactly.

pretty much just buy a decent green/prototype sniper rifle off the GTN, when you get her as a companion, and risha's up to speed. i got so used to healing bowdaar that risha was a huge change, regardless.

 

i was healing myself more often and taking on elites without any problems, except she doesn't handle taking on groups in melee, and it's been a while since i pulled threat, but its not a bad thing. i can take down groups faster, and still have health/energy left. granted, i have to heal more often, but the mobs die faster, so it's less work overall.

 

it may help if you have some leftover artifact/custom (purple/orange) gear, or some previous level implants/earpieces (... old relics ??) to boost stats, but at 31/32, her gear is very likely better than yours, and you do get the nice act 1 quest completion gear for yourself after she joins the party.

 

risha, compared to bowdaar in lightspring and the act 1 boss, at lv31, i think risha's easily a better choice due to range being so much easier to control.

 

bowdaar's AE tanking made things seem better but his DPS was weak and, really, he's not a great tank, bowdaar doesn't absorb hits, he moves into the fire, has no defense CD's, etc. and he can't interrupt, you have to move to melee range when bowdaar tanks elites and champions.

 

I won't miss bowdaar knocking mobs into patrolling elites, or corso's harpoon'ing death field/force lightning sith elites, from around corners, etc.

 

overall, not a big change, but a nice one.

I bought her a helmet and implants.... QUOTE]

 

Sorry, but did anyone else chuckle at bit at that last part?