Tank companions

Yes its inefficient.
But
Is it really so hard to just mount dismount?
Its quicker than using recupe.
Its quicker than dismissing and resummoning.
Its quicker than healing back to full via cast methods.

The pet pill is a good idea but it comes with its drawbacks, It would pretty much be a biochem/vendor thing. It means youd have to farm more along the way.Which ends up being.... inefficient.

I have 450 odd presence on my alts and its something i just grin and bear. Not like im in a massive rush to hit end game on the 5 alts i have slowly churning away

Yes the question would be how much would be enough. If you give companions too much armor rating then certain classes will pretty much be able to solo or even duo about 95% of the content. In early beta companion tanks had much higher armor rating than they do now and the healing classes were able to solo/duo many 4 man heroics and even flashpoints. Thus BW nerfed companion tanks armor.

think the op wants The Undead Hero from guardian hero's as a tank.

Im afraid it isnt that simple. Like i have already explained, the problem isnt the fact that you may have to rectify the situation of your tank companion's health for a single enemy, or even 6. It is what effect doing so has on your leveling efficiency when compared to the two other roles of companions, namely healers and damage dealers.

It is just plain faster and more efficient to level purely with healer companions. Tank companions just dont have a place in the game at this point. Maybe for specific enemies or situations, but their ''screen time'' is just so miniscule. And these are well developed companions, just as much as the other two roles of companions are.

In my personal opinion, this problem is just a shame as some of the companions are well loved ones who players would love to have out adventuring with all the time - but due to game mechanics making it quite difficult or ''annoying'', they feel they need to always be efficient. And so they use the other two roles of companions.

Actually i have no idea what your talking about rofl.

Yeah this is a major point right here. There is no real reason to use them in the game. Personally, on my Mercenary, i would LOVE to have Blizz out all the time as he is just awesome. But using him makes leveling quite slow and cumbersome. Not hard by any means, just slow when compared to Gault or Mako.

Individually, it is by far, faster to kill a white enemy with a damage dealer. Groups of weak enemies, healer is best. On gold enemies, a tank is better. But that is as far as that goes. Once the gold enemy is down, you, your companion or both have taken a beating and must then restore your health. So most players sacrifice killing speed for efficiency.

Being able to kill a single enemy fast, is not the same as being efficient at doing so. Being efficient is all about being able to kill multiple enemies at the quickest speed possible whilst staying as close to 100% in class power (heat, energy etc) and health. This is so you have as least downtime as possible and can continue without needing to stop.

Take up Bioanalysis and make heal stims that heal both you and your companion. Those Healstims are 100 times better than any you can get off venders!

Yeah exactly. Except someone already mentioned, it would require HAVING Biochem and possibly Bioanalysis and then to craft those companion medpacks. And that is almost like making those two crew skills ''required'' for leveling.

Well you're the one going on about efficiency.. so be efficient and take the skills needed to be that way. All I'm seeing here is that you: dont want to have to take biochem, dont want to rest between fights for more than 2 seconds, dont want to have to click any buttons to heal your companion, dont want to spend any downtime at all that's not getting xp/clearing content. Really, at this point it's becoming a bit trollish. Why not just ask for a macro that plays the game for you in turbo mode so you can quickly get to the story cutscenes that you can spacebar through for not being fast enough.

And fwiw I levelled my sorc with khem val (tank) just fine, thank you, because a) he did the job, and b) I liked his company and story. You cant have EVERYTHING, even if he wasnt the most efficient, he was the most fun for me.

Your more than welcome to have your opinion on this topic. The point remains valid and it does in fact affect all players. It isnt what "I" dont want - more that i would like to be more efficient without having to resort to using the same healer/damage dealer as everyone else who plays that class.

Oh and i should note that i have 400 Biochem on all my max level characters as i simply love the reusables.