Companions Ruin the Game

Also if your companion is low on hp, mount up and dismount -tada full hp. A very polished game idd.

No actually, I was saying that the fact that a companion character is needed to solo higher level content is not really a big deal in the long run, mostly for reasons you stated (whole point of endgame being pvp/group pve content). Would I try to solo much of any of this game's pve content without a companion? Nope, but do I plan on spending most of my time in the long run with this game levelling? Nope. Sounds a little bit like just bc in WoW any class can get to 85 in a damn vacuum, ppl are frustrated that in this game it might be harder, even though still not impossible (obviously).

And as for the ability reset, as far as i can tell it only happens on dismissing/resummoning your pet (including mount/dismount). Odds of that being in the game 3 weeks from now are probably like a million to 1 though

First I saw similar system in WoW, as I was hunter, I had combat pet.
Second game was Never Winter Nights, loved henchmen system.
I think it is brilliant, what is the joy going with full party and smash in to ground just 1 elite?
But when you will go with your companion only, it is harder and helps learn your class.

When companions were first announced, they were billed as your "moral compass" and would be great for added depth of story, comedy relief, drama... romance, etc.

At the time, it sounded like companions would provide the equivalent of a "buff" to your combat, but not figure into it significantly.

Once we learned that they were going to take the same level slot as a player in a group, I was a little concerned. I thought that perhaps they would be validated through different skill builds, where you could customize yourself depending on wether you like playing with a companion or not (i.e. real pet class.)

So I agree, companions have been made far to integral to the solo combat game. You can't survive without one at higher levels, they make up a significant portion of your combat output.

And the real issue is that they're not usable in end game (not that I want them there) but the fact is you have to gear and spend money on something that ultimately you will not use.

I can fight just fine without my companions, I can't kill as many silver enemies without dropping, but I can hold my own. Must be you or something else other than your companion.

Come on man.

It is the companion. They make up, as best as I can tell, close to half of your combat output. Maybe that depends on the class, but the game is clearly tuned for players with companions, not lone players.

Companions are in no way "half" of your damage output. I'm a Gunnery specced Trooper who's been lucky with repeated drops in Hard Modes and Ops, so my Aric Jorgan is decked out almost as well as I am--and if we were to attack separate but identical mobs, I'd kill mine far faster than twice the time it would take him.

From the get-go, we have known that companions will be nearly necessary for soloing. Unless you're the king of CC, you're going to get a lot of mobs thrown at you at once. This isn't WoW where you fight one creature every time, MAYBE two--it's more like City of Heroes, where you get three, four, five, even six guys dumped on you at once and are expected to pull through. You kind of need a little helper there.

The OP complains about Bowdaar, a tanking pet, needing to heal between fights on his Gunslinger. Well, yeah, Bowdaar is a tank, and Gunslingers are not healers. If Bowdaar keeps the enemies off you, he's done his job. The seven seconds it takes to recuperate him up or dismiss/resummon is not a ridiculous amount of downtime in comparison to other MMOs, especially at launch. Everyone likes to compare to WoW, so I'll do it again; downtime for non-healer classes in WoW was ridiculous for years. People have also complained "soloing isn't anywhere near this hard in WoW" as a healer or something--sure, maybe if you're talking about Cata or late WotLK. I remember launch WoW, and healer-specced Priests and the like were absolutely abysmal for soloing, and this was still before the days of dual specs.

So you're a DPS class and your tanking companion isn't helping you out. Use your healing companion.
It seems to me that DPS characters use Healing companions (as a tank comp. will struggle to keep aggro off them),
Healing characters use tank companions and off-DPS (since their DPS rivals DPS comps. anyway and they'd probably just pull aggro onto themselves),
and Tank characters use DPS companions (since they have no problem surviving themselves, but killing quickly is an issue).

the companions are quite good , if you know how equip and use them right.

Don't be so quick to judge when this could very will be isolated to certain classes and companion combinations. And levels. Can you tell me you had the same experience on your Trooper around level 20? Because I didn't. Aric was just as, if not more powerful than me. And I didn't even touch his gear.

Secondly, no. We did not know from the get go they would be critical to combat. That revelation came waaay later in the game. But that's neither here nor there.