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[Guide] Companion Optimization, Gearing and Tips


KevMeup

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Yeah, those devs surely derped with those companions, I made a couple of threads a while back suggesting the possibility to extract Aim barrels from maihand gun to put them in the companions melee weapons, had zero answers.

They could have just made something like "bound to mainhand" instead of being bound to mainhand AND ranged...

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Another thing, I've read that companions like Torian, Akaavi or Yuun, which are melee DPS with Aim as their primary stat are not dealing their most optimal damage because some of their attacks are Wilpower based, could you shed us a light about this with some parses please?

 

The only glitched companions (to my knowledge) are Yuun and Sgt Rusk. Everyone else has all of their abilities using their main stat.

In other words, as a Knight you're better off with T701 or HK51 for your RDPS companion, and as a trooper your MDPS companion is as good as your RDPS options (Jorgan, Forex, HK51)

ANYONE ELSE still has their melee companion as their best DPS option.

 

Though im a little surprised they didn't stuff up and make Ensign Temples "force" ability use force power - but at the same time Im glad they didn't

Edited by TACeMossie
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This has been fixed. I just tested with my legacy set and 156 mainhand on both:

Aric Jorgan 760 dps

Yuun 960 dps

 

That would be an unlucky string of not-crits for your jorgan then, because mine in 156s was much closer to 900 dps, and same with Yuun

 

Eh im still using HK51 with Ultimate comm mods/enhancements and 156 armorings. Stuck augments on everything and he's pulling 1.2k+ dps because of his augmented gear (also his mainhand is a 180 one on a legacy bind sniper, and next week his offhand should also be a 180 one on a legacy bind vibroknife)

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I did 200k dps on operations boss with both, exact same gear. Yuun did spike to 1000 once, but otherwise he was a steady 960, dot spec. Armor pen spec is lower. Edited by KevMeup
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I did 200k dps on operations boss with both, exact same gear. Yuun did spike to 1000 once, but otherwise he was a steady 960, dot spec. Armor pen spec is lower.

 

Eh 200k dps still can be prone to lucky/unlucky crits. I've gotten as high as 3.52k dps as tactics, but with the same gear as low as 3k dps, on a 1 mill hp dummy. And that was with the exact same number of attacks every time

Edited by TACeMossie
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Eh 200k dps still can be prone to lucky/unlucky crits. I've gotten as high as 3.52k dps as tactics, but with the same gear as low as 3k dps, on a 1 mill hp dummy. And that was with the exact same number of attacks every time

 

It's enough to show the bug is gone :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
I have a question. Since Alacrity decreases global and normal cooldowns, wouldn't make sense to compare it with the other augments, since bringing a 10% faster actions from a full augmented gear could mean a difference with the power DR augments

 

Well considering a lot of companion attacks are its auto attacks, this actually might be a valid point!

I might swap all of HK51's surge enhancements with Advanced Quick Savant Enhancement 34s if this ends up being the case (BiS for ultimates FTW!)

Edited by TACeMossie
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  • 4 weeks later...
This guide should be a good starting point for people who want to get more out of their companions. If you have any more suggestions or comments let me know.

 

Updates:

July 20th 2014: Swapped Tank aug priority. Shield > Absorb.

 

For Tanks (If you're not healing):

Endurance

Absorb

Shield

(Optional) Defense up to 300

Augments: Fortitude > Shield > Absorb.

 

Can you explain this? If you want more absorb, why are you recommending to use Shield augments? I know that Shield and Absorb don't compete and that Absorb competes with Defense, so as long as we're using tanking mods and enhancements, the mods will be absorb or defense and the enhancements will always be shield plus either absorb or defense. So the only way to prioritize Absorb over Shield (as you say to do) is with augments, which is what you say not to do.

 

I'm at endgame and can make any augments, so I was going to go with all Fortitude, so this may not matter. But since augments don't drop [anymore], and we can control what we buy, I can't tell if you are actually suggesting maybe not to use all Fortitude, unless you are thinking people might want to share gear with a character tank, and that in that case, since Fortitude will hopefully not be an option, to go for shield over absorb.

 

In my case, I am an operative using SCORPIO as tank, which means I can't share gear (I'm cunning, she's aim, so we can't share, and she's a Droid, so I can't share with other characters). Is there any reason not to use all Fortitude augs?

Edited by eartharioch
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  • 1 month later...
I have a question. Since Alacrity decreases global and normal cooldowns, wouldn't make sense to compare it with the other augments, since bringing a 10% faster actions from a full augmented gear could mean a difference with the power DR augments

 

Alacrity is not as useful for companions as it is to a character. 1st is because they don't have an energy pool like players, that bonus doesn't help them. 2nd is unlike players they don't get any tree bonuses for alacrity. I would imagine swapping out Overload Augs(BiS for dps comps) to Alacrity would give you a drop in dps. To get to 10% alacrity on a companion you would need to give up surge all together (instead of 400) and Accuracy (420-600) both of which would drop your dps noticeably.

 

That being said... If you have extra gear, toss it on, a 180 piece with the less optimal stats will often perform better than 168 with the right ones since it's 2 levels higher (174s are in between).

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Can you explain this? If you want more absorb, why are you recommending to use Shield augments? .... Is there any reason not to use all Fortitude augs?

 

If you skip defense all together, you'll have a very high absorb. This means every point of shield you add will be magnified by that absorb. The 2 play well together and you're likely to already be getting some diminishing returns on absorb when it's that high, so shield might get you a bit more mileage than defense or more absorb.

 

Fortitude is never a bad choice for a tank comp, if you're healing it during the fights, additional defensive stats will reduce how much healing you need to do and let you heal through some tougher damage, fortitude will buy you wiggle room for trash pulls and is a better choice if you're not keeping her topped off during the fight.

 

I hope that they adjust tank companions when 3.0 comes out, since 2.0 they've been pretty lack luster and I prefer Vector or HK on my operative. I really miss fighting with Scorpio by my side.

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Hi - thanks for this guide. Was looking for something like this for a while. :D

I've got a question regarding tank comp. Let's take Treek as an example:

Well as far as I understand Aim (Treek), Endurance, Shield, Absorb, Defence are the most important attributes.

Endurance, Aim = no diminishing - so give it all you can

Defence = max. 300 points

The rest is to put in Absorb and Shield. (in a 50/50 ratio)

 

Is that somewhat correct - without taking it too serious?

 

Thanks,

S.

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Hi - thanks for this guide. Was looking for something like this for a while. :D

I've got a question regarding tank comp. Let's take Treek as an example:

Well as far as I understand Aim (Treek), Endurance, Shield, Absorb, Defence are the most important attributes.

Endurance, Aim = no diminishing - so give it all you can

Defence = max. 300 points

The rest is to put in Absorb and Shield. (in a 50/50 ratio)

 

Is that somewhat correct - without taking it too serious?

 

Thanks,

S.

 

You got it.

 

Might as well make yourself a Power Tech (or Vangard) Tank set and put everything in legacy gear for Treek. That way you can toss it to any of your Treeks or use yourself later. A player uses more defense but overall it won't matter much.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Thanks for the guide, found it very helpful! One thing, though, is a bit confusing: tank stats priorities are the same for all type of tank companions? What I mean is, aim based tank companions which kind look to powertech / vanguard classes and strength based companions like Scourge or Broonmark which are the juggernaut / guardian type; for players powertech and jugg's tanking obviously mean different proportions of absorb / shield / defense. For tank companions, however, is it all the same or, let's say, Scourge needs more defense while Corso needs more shield?
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  • 2 weeks later...
Jaesa, full alacrity build +10,26% (926 rating).

186 gear with two enhancements 37 and hilt 172.

Augments: blue Power and blue Accuracy

Accuracy: 94,53%. Gotta buy her a purple accuracy augment to get 95%.

 

http://i.imgur.com/HrL9qRZ.png

 

I expect her to reach 2000 with 198 armorings.

 

How goes the all alacrity build? Does she wreck stuff enough to sit back with a bag of popcorn?

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Any idea how Treek in tank stance + shield, while in full DPS gear would work with a DPS toon.

 

She works fairly well this way. Her DPS won't be as good as others, but if you need mobs facing away from you for maul or backstab this can be great. You may decide to skip the shield and just give her a generator though as her shielding might not keep her alive too much longer. Unlike players, she can do all the skills on her bars with a generator and it will give her a nice dps boost.

Edited by KevMeup
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Thanks for the guide, found it very helpful! One thing, though, is a bit confusing: tank stats priorities are the same for all type of tank companions? What I mean is, aim based tank companions which kind look to powertech / vanguard classes and strength based companions like Scourge or Broonmark which are the juggernaut / guardian type; for players powertech and jugg's tanking obviously mean different proportions of absorb / shield / defense. For tank companions, however, is it all the same or, let's say, Scourge needs more defense while Corso needs more shield?

 

The main difference with player stats for tanking is their skill trees (and stances). Since companions don't have real skill trees stat priority doesn't change much between them.

 

Heavy vs light armor also influences stat priority for tanking. Less armor usually means more shield/absorb and all companions are at a major armor disadvantage compared to players, so heavy vs light doesn't shift the priority for them. They also all get a large shield buff to start, so that means you get more return from each absorb, it makes shield/absorb a good value.

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Looking forward to updated version of this. Thanks for the guide.

 

Sorry for the delay, took a little break, I'm gathering gear this week so I can do some updates. The new free companion gear will be awesome to get exact comparisons. It also makes the more difficult to gear companions like droids or torian easily attainable.

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Added Devoted Allies companion gear info. Expanded Presence section. Added note on player debuffs.

 

I'll update parses once I have a full test. So far things seem to be about the same as before, just higher numbers.

1700 melee dps (Dot spec)

1300 melee dps (armor piercing)

1100 HK

 

I'm considering adding a fight parse in there for reference. Revan fight isn't a bad one, it's nice and long, I'm just worried my derping on the orbs might add a lot of inconsistency to the total parse. Geared Vector was at 2500 for the fight the last time I did it. If anyone has a good idea for another real world boss fight that would be long enough to parse a companion on, let me know.

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