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Companion Change Feedback


EricMusco

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Hey folks,

 

Following the Companion changes we made Tuesday in 4.0.2, we want to gather your feedback on your gameplay experiences. We hope by this point you have had some time to jump in and get your hands on the changes yourselves. First, before we get into the feedback we are looking for, let’s talk a bit about our specific design goals related to Companions:

 

  • Leveling Content – Challenge Level: Low. To complete this content, a player should have a basic understanding of game mechanics and have level-appropriate gear. Their companion’s role shouldn’t matter.
  • KotFE Chapters – Challenge Level: Low. Like leveling content, a player should have a basic understanding of game mechanics and have level-appropriate gear. Their companion’s role shouldn’t matter.
  • [Heroic 2] Missions – Challenge Level: Medium. To complete this content, a player should have a good understanding of their class and game mechanics, as well as level appropriate gear. Their companion’s role should begin to matter at this point, supplementing the player’s own Discipline. We expect some players to find these challenging initially—maybe even needing a friend’s help--but once the player earns better gear, a few levels of Influence with their companion, and has a greater understanding of the game, they should be able to solo the hardest of these missions.
  • Star Fortress – Challenge Level: Medium. These are similar to [Heroic 2] Missions. Star Fortresses should be similar to [Heroic 2] Missions. To complete this content, we expect you to have level-appropriate gear, a good understanding of your class, a companion with a few levels of Influence, as well as being in a role that supplements the player’s. We expect most players to be able to solo these with a little practice and effort on their part to gain some increased power.
  • Heroic Star Fortress – Challenge Level: High. At this point we expect players to really understand their class, their companion, and their gear. Players should have sought out gear upgrades, as well as increased their companions’ Influence level. These are meant to be challenging and difficult to do solo.
  • “The One and Only” Achievement should still be possible. As an Achievement, this is definitely intended to be extremely hard and rewarding to players. This means the Achievement can be exceptionally challenging, and similar to HM Star Fortress, you will need to be a skilled player, with moderate to high Influence level with your companion, and very good gear on your character.

Based on these statements above, do you think that these are true after Tuesday’s changes? What content is more or less difficult than you expected? Is there something that is just flat out impossible?

 

Please give us your feedback, and we simply ask you to be as constructive as possible. Include information such as:

  • Your level
  • Roughly Average Item Rating
  • Discipline
  • Companion
  • Companion role
  • Companion Influence level
  • Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?)
  • Your personal experience while playing this content

If you have a video or other related content to go with your feedback, feel free to link that as well as it will allow us the best insight into your experiences.

 

The team will be reviewing all feedback, along with supporting data, to see what / if any future adjustments need to be made. Thank you all in advance for your feedback!

 

-eric

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All my toons are level 65, mostly in 216 with a few using 208, all vendor bought.

 

Toons with higher defenses and/or good off-heals can cope in most things.

 

Static, low defense DPS (Marksman Sniper is my experience) are struggling with planetary heroics past level 40, companions cant heal fast enough, tanking isnt working right and dps is too low to blow mobs away in a dps race.

 

In addition, healing companions have been broken since 4.0. They stop healing mid fight, wander off, do a crossword, anything but heal. Before this patch, they would spark into life and burst heal me for 20K, so this poor coding on your part was covered by the powerful heals.

 

Now, after scratching their backsides, they decide to heal for about 6K instead, which doesnt make up for your poor AI coding and I die.

 

Why did you not fix actual bugs before the ridiculous 75% cut in healing power? How can a professional development team even attempt to balance something that is actually broken already and not working properly?

 

Above all, adding time to a long grind for alliance, which is all your changes do, simply makes the game not fun.

 

Well done in taking the fun out of a game. I'm sure it meets all your goals and metrics.

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One thing I would request is perhaps the possibility of the team looking into making the Star Fortress initial quests able to be done in both Solo Mode and Heroic Mode - if nothing else, that way players of all skill levels can complete the initial quests and have it done and over with. Keep the achievement and rewards on the Heroic mode, but allow quest completion on the solo mode as well.

 

edit: by "initial quests", I mean the completion of the quests that now can only be done on Heroic Mode.

Edited by AdarnVote
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All my toons are level 65, mostly in 216 with a few using 208, all vendor bought.

 

Toons with higher defenses and/or good off-heals can cope in most things.

 

Static, low defense DPS (Marksman Sniper is my experience) are struggling with planetary heroics past level 40, companions cant heal fast enough, tanking isnt working right and dps is too low to blow mobs away in a dps race.

 

In addition, healing companions have been broken since 4.0. They stop healing mid fight, wander off, do a crossword, anything but heal. Before this patch, they would spark into life and burst heal me for 20K, so this poor coding on your part was covered by the powerful heals.

 

Now, after scratching their backsides, they decide to heal for about 6K instead, which doesnt make up for your poor AI coding and I die.

 

Why did you not fix actual bugs before the ridiculous 75% cut in healing power? How can a professional development team even attempt to balance something that is actually broken already and not working properly?

 

Above all, adding time to a long grind for alliance, which is all your changes do, simply makes the game not fun.

 

Well done in taking the fun out of a game. I'm sure it meets all your goals and metrics.

 

*nods in agreement*

 

*Fixed since I used slow clap incorrectly. Apologies*

Edited by orangenkaiser
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1) Heroic [2+] Voss: Cyber Mercenaries; most pulls 2 strong, 1 elite. I plan to take as many of my characters as I can through the same heroics so I can eliminate the player-related variables.

 

Smuggler, Gunslinger. I know this character very well.

 

Level: 62

Roughly Average Item Rating: 172-186

Discipline: Sharpshooter

Companion: Corso Riggs

Companion role: Tank

Companion Influence level: 24 (Presence 2031)

 

No deaths and it felt easy. Using crowd control and focusing on one target at a time; I used my heroic moment frequently because I am amused by it, but it did not feel necessary. Corso often had low health but only died once, when I forgot to regen between groups (a bad habit from the way things were from 4.0 to Tuesday). This feels satisfying to me as a player. I need to stay alert but don't need perfect execution.

 

Jedi Knight, Guardian. This was my "Start at 60" and I have never played one before the KoTFE content. My husband has played a jedi guardian since beta and when I ask him how I'm doing he gets as evasive as when I ask him if jeans make me look fat. I have no idea what most of my abilities are, but prior to 4.0.2 I did story content and solo Star Fortress with a healing companion, and would have called it Low difficulty.

 

Level: 65

Roughly Average Item Rating: 190

Discipline: Defense

Companion: T7

Companion role: Healing

Companion Influence level: 20 (Presence 1912)

 

I died on the first pull (three strong mobs). Got back up, rebuffed, and examined my defensive abilities. Popping those and NOT taunting the mob that went for T7 let me get past it, but my health was hovering around 30%. Pulled the group of four strong mobs; second and third deaths, one when I disconnected. T7's channeled heal ticks for only 260, and multiple mobs are hitting me with attacks 2-3 times that. But I managed to take one of them with me each time and I am not a quitter! Wait, these things respawn? The first two are back? Finished the fight with T7 at less than 2,000 health, I'm at 32%.

 

Companion role: Damage

 

I switched T7's role to damage. Obviously my health is still pretty low at the end of the fight, but the next few pulls feel much easier, with no deaths. This doesn't feel right: as a tank shouldn't I be using a healing companion if anyone does?

 

Companion role: Healing

 

I put T7 back on healing and study my abilities closely. This thing called saber reflect sounds useful and Heroic Moment wasn't even on my bar for all of KotFE? Seriously, me? We start breaking open kolto tanks and, fighting one elite at a time, "T7 + Jedi = Great Team" - my health stays near full. Next pull of 4 strong mobs - I do use heroic moment, but with a bit of paying attention to my abilities, my health never drops below 50%. Got the boss on the first try, although my health did get low.

 

My conclusions/feedback:

 

My trip with a tank + healing companion was initially a lot more painful than on my other classes, but I approached it with the attitude that I could do it instead of the assumption that it was broken, and I learned and was able to complete the heroic alone. I think that one big problem is that the stronger companions masked the learning curve on new classes, and you gave the majority of players a new class. But, MMORPG players often play for a sense of increasing mastery, both because we've gained skills and gear upgrades - anything that weakens us is going to be unpopular because it cuts the heart out of our psychological reward. I think that the big lesson here is to do more testing before things go live.

 

That said, healing stance does feel significantly less useful than the other stances, even on the same companion. The current experience may meet your stated goal for heroics but they're faster and easier with other player/companion compositions, and the alliance system is designed to require us to do them literally hundreds of times.

 

Healing companions are especially having trouble keeping up with the incoming damage from 3 or more attackers. You may be able to achieve your design goals by adjusting the mob distribution in heroic areas, or by buffing the crowd control spells given to healing companions, instead of increasing heal numbers again.

 

Additional update, after doing Trouble in Deed (cakewalk) and The Viper's Nest (painful even with two well-coordinated players + our two companions; we did this heroic together back when it was 4+ with the same setup and it was easier): too large a range of difficulty is labeled as "Heroic 2+" right now.

Edited by Zorbiax
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*slow clap*

 

no need to be a dick. Eric wants feedback, and he has to expect it's not all going to be constructive as a lot of people are disappointed. he needs to know how the community is feeling about this in general, as well as the more specific things he has asked for.

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Most planetary heroics feel fine to me except for 3 on Makeb.

 

The Observer: This heroic is fine, except for the champion droid half way thru the Heroic, it was boss immunity and hits pretty hard for it's planetary level, I was able to complete it with a Sorc in 172 gear at 65 (but I did wipe a few times) and as a Merc with 208/216 gear at level 65. I feel if you remove the boss immunity from the Mob so that it may be CC'd it will be more solo friendly from newer and older players alike.

 

The Viper's Nest: This Heroic is very anti-solo friendly. The first part of the quest requires you fight off 8 silvers, which apply all sorts of debuffs and deal a large amount of damage very, very fast. I spent a good portion of my afternoon on my Sage trying to complete it before having to cheese with knock backs off a cliff to complete it. I imagine Tank classes will find this easy but I was near death after having used cooldowns on my Sentinel in mostly 220 gear when I went thru.

 

False History/For the Record: I list two different Heroics because they are the same Heroic just different factions. This is very not solo friendly because of the Gas Room needing 4 panels and if you arn't able to move quick enough (because it's designed for 2 players on opposite sides of the room clicking wall panels), you die and get kicked out of the instance and your heroic reset. There for, I strongly recommend if you wish this to be solo friendly, you should disable two of the panels.

 

Like I said above, I feel all planetary heroics are alright except for those 3(4) on Makeb and I hope they are adjusted to become more solo friendly, thank you.

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Companions stand in stupid. Need to fix this. The over healing they had before would compensate, but now they have been nerfed by 75% that is not so anymore. No armor/defense is also a MAJOR issue that needs to be addressed. You guys borked this up a LOT, but again the over healing by the companion addressed this short sighted untested issue.

 

Level 65, near BIS 224, influence 50 on Senya/Treek, SORC Healer. Primary focus is Heroic Star Fortress. Was able to handle Pre-Nerf Exarch for "The one and only" with companion dying once (Back when I was around 198 gear BIS Pre-Nerf) and both of us "Healer" spec'd and me kiting a LOT. Now... ya.. not fun anymore and no plans to do it beyond the initial series for DECO only.

 

Struggled with the first room with two knights. CC'd the Champion of course the any time he got lose it was game over. Managed to complete that room, but after the sheer volume of time it took... NOT FUN and just not worth the crappy rewards provided. I stopped after trying some with Treek.

 

Shifted to Treek with some better luck, but it's like doing NIM content with the lack of intelligence (IE: PUG RUN) by the companion. They STAND IN STUPID.. you can't heal that with the Armor issue creating a double whammy.

 

Correction Actions BW should take:

  • Revert the changes to healing for at least 50% given back)
  • BEEF up the influence level 50 to what we had before NERF
  • Fix the AI of "Standing in Stupid" damage the companions seem to keep doing.
  • Fix the ARMOR/DEFENSE (4.0.3 I think I saw mentioned) issue.
  • Not make knee jerk changes on the fly. Your causal market base just took this as a giant middle finger and will not end well for Bioware. I'm sure your metrics are going to show a rapid decline in subs due to stupidity and degree of this change.

 

EDIT: Healing compared to my healing is TERRIBLE comparison and very lacking. I'm seeing 1k-2k heals with influence level 50 - how does that help? Compared to my Innervate with 5k ticks that is CRAP. Swapped to TREEK and she at least had 2k heals and a few 8k ticks. Again.. I can crit a 20k on the right condition and this is FAR below "MY healing" and in no fashion equal to my heals. I agree the comp's should not over shadow our skills, but they should at least provide the same level of heals we can provide. With level 50 influence this clearly is not the case. FIX it please.. My companion healer at 50 influence should heal like he/she was wearing at least 216/220 BIS gear.

 

IF you guys can't get this right then give us back the ability to gear our companions ourselves. I at least knew I would get better results with doing it myself.

Edited by dscount
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Playing on 65 healers (Operative in 220 mix of Ops gear and Vendor, and Sorc in 216 mix of Ops gear and Vendor) I'm able to clear the H2 content on the Heroic terminal. That puts me mostly healing on the more challenging Heroics but hey healers... The Operative is using an INF 10 is companion. While the Sorc is using a INF30 companion.

 

My less geared or less INF companions are all having more issues.

 

I have to say let me pick which companions are good and which are bad by how I gear them. This their good one week and bad the next because you patched them isn't happy making. If they're bad because I didn't gear them then it's at least my choice.

 

mallo

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Leveling content? Does that include the solo flashpoints? I ask because I died with a sniper of a level a little over 60 in complete old Yavin 4 legacy gear and SCORPIO with 20 ranks of influence as healer there twice at the fight with Mentor in Directive 7... and that before the nerf of 4.0.2!

 

Also, with the level sync in place (which I still like), I have to say it was at least good to have strong companions, so the moving around as high level character is not too annoying, but the change also reduce that aspect of how enjoyable the game is.

Edited by Drudenfusz
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Your level: 65

Roughly Average Item Rating: 200

Discipline:marksman sniper

Companion:scorpio

Companion role:healer

Companion Influence level:28

Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?) Heroic

Your personal experience while playing this content: All way to the exarch no problems whatsoever, like the companion nerf never even happened. Exarch proved to be a bit more of a challenge, wiped 4-5 times, until managed to come up with a tactic that was good enough to able me to defeat the exarch. Just to mention i was doing it alone, with blue 190 main/offhand. Sure it was challenging, and to put it boldly, i can see players with less knowledge of their class/rotation struggle in this boss, as you have to know what you are doing, so which would mean they have to do it with another player. Companions on my opinion are pretty good at the moment, and only exarch is the one proving to be some match. Healing could receive a bit of a buff though, just to make it a bit easier for people to solo the heroic star fortress. I can do it, but a lot of people apparently can not.

Edited by Iivana_Julma
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How about adding a "Tedious Level" as well.

 

  • Leveling Content –Tedious Level: High. I'm bored AND I have to worry about my companion wetting himself.
  • KotFE Chapters – Tedious Level: High. Arbitrarily high health pools inflate combat time while adding basically no actual combat mechanics.
  • [Heroic 2] Missions – Tedious Level: Transcribing the Bible from the original Hebrew.
  • Star Fortress –Tedious Level: My Brain is Falling Out
  • Heroic Star Fortress – Tedious Level: Players are expected to look like this :eek: while playing for extended periods
  • “The One and Only” Achievement – Tedious Level: I Would Rather Be Solving a Crossword Puzzle.

 

The only real challenge left in any of the listed content is simply finding a reason to continue subjecting oneself to the tedium of swtor combat, which now is dwarfed by the time it takes to heal in between combats.

 

Please give us your feedback, and we simply ask you to be as constructive as possible. Include information such as:

  • Your level
  • Roughly Average Item Rating
  • Discipline
  • Companion
  • Companion role
  • Companion Influence level
  • Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?)
  • Your personal experience while playing this content

 

You exclusively used the wondrous (read: notoriously arbitrary) swtor "metrics" to bring the sledgehammer to companions in the last patch, and NOW we need to supply this information for additional changes?

 

I think I need to seek help. I'm starting to enjoy watching these kinds of decisions being made, and not being helpful anymore whatsoever.

Edited by UTlNNl
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Hey folks,

First, before we get into the feedback we are looking for, let’s talk a bit about our specific design goals related to Companions:

 

I understand this thread is intended for companion change feedback and not a Q&A, but if it's fair to pose a question of my own:

 

Why exactly are these your goals? I believe the "One and Only" achievement should be a very difficult achievement to attain and agree with your reasoning behind this particular bullet point, at least on a personal level. On that same level I'm genuinely curious as to what the process is behind developing your specific goals, how you came to those goals, and what made you decide to make the changes that you did in order to achieve them.

 

A follow up as well, if I might ask; if you are set in your goals and would like this content to be set at a higher difficulty, did you ever consider a different set of changes? For instance, perhaps nerfing companion numbers on a smaller scale while also tuning the fights to be more difficult, either mechanically or through simple numbers.

Edited by ToBeSomebody
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Most planetary heroics feel fine to me except for 3 on Makeb.

 

The Observer: This heroic is fine, except for the champion droid half way thru the Heroic, it was boss immunity and hits pretty hard for it's planetary level, I was able to complete it with a Sorc in 172 gear at 65 (but I did wipe a few times) and as a Merc with 208/216 gear at level 65. I feel if you remove the boss immunity from the Mob so that it may be CC'd it will be more solo friendly from newer and older players alike.

 

The Viper's Nest: This Heroic is very anti-solo friendly. The first part of the quest requires you fight off 8 silvers, which apply all sorts of debuffs and deal a large amount of damage very, very fast. I spent a good portion of my afternoon on my Sage trying to complete it before having to cheese with knock backs off a cliff to complete it. I imagine Tank classes will find this easy but I was near death after having used cooldowns on my Sentinel in mostly 220 gear when I went thru.

 

False History/For the Record: I list two different Heroics because they are the same Heroic just different factions. This is very not solo friendly because of the Gas Room needing 4 panels and if you arn't able to move quick enough (because it's designed for 2 players on opposite sides of the room clicking wall panels), you die and get kicked out of the instance and your heroic reset. There for, I strongly recommend if you wish this to be solo friendly, you should disable two of the panels.

 

Like I said above, I feel all planetary heroics are alright except for those 3(4) on Makeb and I hope they are adjusted to become more solo friendly, thank you.

 

 

The problem with allowing targets to be CC'ed is that tank companions do not honor crowd control. If you cc a target, then send your Comp in to a different target, when they finish their first mob and move to the next, the also grapple in your CC'ed mob, which will ultimately kill your tank more often than not. That is an issue. Also, they stated that tank threat was boosted, but of all of the heroics I have seen, as a Sniper, I rip aggro all the time. This might be due to the fact that the comps are not putting out enough damage, therefore, allowing aggro to be ripped. This occurs consistently.

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When I play my Tanking Assassins (65), I do alright, i have one of every crafter and try to gear/augment them as fit for their role. Between their defensive abilities and aggro control as long as you are actually paying attention you can slowly slog your way through.

 

My marauders (65) however, even augmented they are painful ride due to aggro control when mobs decide to whale on the now nerfed comps, they are too busy trying to heal themselves to heal me and things go awry. (And yes I aug and gear them as well) Marauder + 50 influence Akk Dog heals = squish

 

From my own personal experience, there is a huge difference in survivability with the nerfed heals between tank and dps class.

 

I dont play healers because they are just not fun for me, so no input on those.

Edited by XiamaraSimi
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no need to be a dick. Eric wants feedback, and he has to expect it's not all going to be constructive as a lot of people are disappointed. he needs to know how the community is feeling about this in general, as well as the more specific things he has asked for.

 

Wasn't trying to be a dick. I agree with the poster I quoted.

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  • Your level
  • Roughly Average Item Rating
  • Discipline
  • Companion
  • Companion role
  • Companion Influence level
  • Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?)
  • Your personal experience while playing this content

 

level 65 marskman sniper (item level 216, augmented wih a 208 sniper rifle) with rank 26 lana in healer mode. If necessary, some background about me. I think i am a fairly decent player, nightmare raider here, mythic raider somewhere else :D, good reflexes and trained PVE player)

 

i ran all H2+ on beslavis and makeb (execpt the poison one) I had to make use of various CC like flash bang grenade, stun, bump for melee and mez if there were droid, defensive cooldowns and my offensive cooldown to burn mobs fast at the start in order to reduce incoming DPS. Didn't wipe, but there were some close call though.

 

Only thing i couldn't solo was the star fortress H2+. Went up to 3rd array but was overwhelmed. I didn't insist after 3 wipe, since i don't really care about new alliance companion.

 

Overall, weekly H2 are objectively harder, i have to watch my health and use cooldown. I like it though, feels good to use everything in my arsenal to manage to stay alive. I like the new swtor.

 

Since i would admit i'm probably more experienced that most casual player, i understand why some might find them hard. If you were to offer the more casual players a way to have an easier time with soloing H2, i would humbly request that you would somehow give us the option to keep content challenging with possibly better rewards.

 

Have you considered something like hard mode heroic 2+ (those in green story zone anyway) or even nightmare heroics. Do you play diablo 3? do you know about the torment system?

Edited by Vankris
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Several characters at 65. My main is sage with 200-224 set piece gear. He has companion at 50 affection. The H2+ are doable. The problem is that the companion "forgets" to heal till I am almost under 20% HP. Then they try to heal, but the amount of heal is so small, it does not help much. if they were healing continuously, it would not be issue. So first issue is scripting fr the companions. I have not tried Start Fortress H2+ with this char yet. Will update when i have data.

 

My other character is in 208 gear. Companion at 20 affection. This character is GS. She is having issues doing H2+ because - once again - companion forgets to heal. Star Fortress was a massacre.

 

Third char is Juggernaut tank @65 with 208 gear. Companion at 25 affection. He can do H2 slowly. Problem is when companions forget to heal. Not tried SF H2+ on this one.

 

You see a pattern here? It is something in the companion scripting.

 

I do not have 1-50 characters. I will leave that feedback to fellow players.

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Please give us your feedback, and we simply ask you to be as constructive as possible. Include information such as:

Your level 65

Roughly Average Item Rating 216

Discipline GunSlinger

Companion Linda

Companion role Healer

Companion Influence level 35

Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?) Solo Heroic is to hard

Your personal experience while playing this content

in Solo mode, prior i had Never! died. now, it happens on some of the elites (hard guys) , im about 1/2 health if i make it. if there are adds i die and get tossed into the Jail. . Personally i think the reduction in healing was a bit much, maybe 1/2 of what you did would have been better, .. allowed us to make it thru but still have to stay focused. prior it was hard to die, now. it can be way more of a challenge.. sometimes the heals just cant keep up with the damage, and im pretty good about moving out of AOE and such, its just the massive damage some of the hard guys can do, the healing can not keep up. if i want a challenge i guess i would make my comp. tank or dps, but as a healer. they are not even close to keeping up with the damage.

Edited by Wigetts
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Hello Eric,

 

OK, here is the feedback. Two characters, both Level 65. One is a TK Sage (which I am very good at playing) and who has 208 or so level gear. The second character is a Vanguard tank (which I am not very good at playing) and who has 190 level gear.

 

First, let's talk about the Sage. I have used companions of many influence levels and in many roles. But I'm going to structure this post in a certain way, and only talk about my highest-influence companion, who is now up to influence level 23. I'll talk about all three roles.

 

Most content is easy because I'm good at this class. I will only talk about planetary heroics and heroic star fortress, because that's what I like to do most.

 

Planetary Heroics

 

When my companion is DPS we breeze through content, except on Makeb. I don't even notice a downgrade because the companion now has armor, and as a result can survive pulling some aggro. In the past they couldn't due to no armor. At most there might be a total dps loss of 10% (between the two of us), but it's even lower than that because in the past so much of the companion's dps was "over-dps".

 

My blunt experience is that DPS companions are superior now to how they were in the past because they have some armor.

 

Companion as Healer No problems at all. Healer keeps up on every Heroic I've tried, including all the ones on Makeb. The healing output is significantly lower but, again, it helps that if the companion draws aggro they don't just die immediately. However I will say that it just doesn't "feel" good to run a healing companion in the way it feels good to run a dps companion. The dps companions feel powerful enough. The healing companions don't.

 

Companion as Tank Tanking companions do fine on holding aggro once they get it, but their choice of abilities is odd. Also, they have armor now so they are actually useful. However, they still have no shield. I think it would be OK for them to have no shield if their armor got buffed a little bit.

 

The AoE pull still pulls in CCed enemies, but thankfully the tank's moves do not break the CC. Running a tank companion also feels good, like running a dps. But I still feel the dps is better balanced.

 

In Planetary heroics I have a lot of fun with all three companions. There are only a few fights in Makeb that I feel I need to use the healer.

 

Heroic Star Fortress

DPS Companion They really shine in heroic star fortress. I can clear the entire fortress on my sage with no Heroic Moment, no Alliance buffs, and no Alliance gadgets and companion in DPS mode. It is very challenging but it is also a lot of fun. CC's and kiting are absolutely critical, as are having a good build and using self-heals and defensive cooldowns. Again, the fact that the companion now has armor is a critical difference.

 

I would say in Heroic SF DPS companions have improved. The most fun I have right now is soloing heroic SF with my DPS companion. I love it.

 

Healing Companion I can still solo Heroic SF but it is not as much fun. I still have to use a LOT of self-heals. My companion can survive some aggro but it just doesn't feel quite right. I can get it done, but the healing companion feels definitely less powerful than the dps companion.

 

Tank Companion Honestly I don't feel like tank companions are good for hard content because they just stand in bad like noobs. So I don't use them. This is not an issue with 4.02 though, tank companions have always stood in bad like noobs.

 

Now here is my experience on my pitifully geared Vanguard tank, which I am not that great at playing. This will be shorter because I never use a tank companion (obviously). My companion has influence rating of between 1 and 10. (Yes I tested an influence rank 1 companion.)

 

Planetary Heroics: Lots of fun with a dps companion, even at influence rank 1! Very boring with a healing companion. A few heroics on Makeb I feel I must use the healer, but I can (barely) get through all of them. Also a few fights on other planets seem to require a healer. I die a lot on Makeb. I like that there are some genuinely hard heroics, though--but maybe the rewards for doing Makeb heroics should be increased.

 

Heroic Star Fortress I can complete everything without gadgets and heroic moment until the second reactor room. I die a lot regardless of which companion I use. I must kite constantly. Again, many times the dps companion seems more useful and it's better if I just kite and use what I call my "pvp abilities." At the second reactor room I'm stuck. I cannot get through it without either increasing my gear past iLvl 190, or else using every cheeseball trick in the book. Honestly I doubt I can beat the third reactor room period until my gear improves no matter how much cheese I through at it.

 

OK that is my experience. Hopefully it is helpful.

Edited by Darkbloom
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Gee, that's nice and all.

 

I don't suppose you'll actually do something like...resetting the "One and Only" achievement for everyone so that those who got it done while Healing Companions were over the top OP get to do it again with everything...'fixed' now.

 

As an aside, setting up Heroic Star Fortress content to be the 'only' challenging content for solo players is a terrible idea.

 

But, whatever. Back to Fallout 4.

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Wasn't trying to be a dick. I agree with the poster I quoted.

 

 

"*slow clap*" is sarcasm.

 

slow clap ‎(plural slow claps)

 

A form of clapping in which audience members clap slowly, with long intervals between claps, as a form of heckling and a to show that they disapprove of a performer, speaker, etc.

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Wasn't trying to be a dick. I agree with the poster I quoted.

 

Slow claps are usually sarcastic :p

 

I don't suppose you'll actually do something like...resetting the "One and Only" achievement for everyone so that those who got it done while Healing Companions were over the top OP get to do it again with everything...'fixed' now.

 

Yea until this is done, their 'intent' will always fall way short of reality.

Edited by hadoken
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My main is a lvl 65 Combat Sentinel with mostly 216 Augment gear. I have all Datacrons and most, if not all, Presence buffs. My highest Influence companion is Lana Beniko, at 27.

 

I did the Tattooine SF just after 4.02 and found it definitely harder, but not impossible. Attention to details and managing my CDs is a must. I *felt* Lana's healing stance should be more efficient, though, because HoT's and burst Heals seemed lower than an Affection 10 companion in 3.0. DPS is subpar, but doable; Tank is frankly weird -- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and the companion folds like a piece of paper. I don't have the technical knowledge to explain it.

 

I also play a lot with a level 65 Scrapper Scoundrel. She has full unranked un-Augmented PvP gear and all classic Smuggler companions at Influence 10, because I haven't started KotFE on her. Heroics are mostly fine, but I got my rear end handed to me in the Morgukai H2 on Nar Shaddaa -- because near the Champion mob there's a pull with 2 Elites and several other golds and silvers nearby. I had to try a new approach to complete the mission (which is fine in itself), but I definitively felt something was off there. First, tank and dps stances didn't even scratch the mobs on Bowdarr, Akavi, Corso or Risha (all level 10 Influence, remember). Second, with Akavi on Heals, I managed to complete the mission, but had to do some tricky self-heals and CD management.

 

The same Smuggler and Sentinel did fine on the Corellia and Illum H2 respectively.

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