Jump to content

[Guide] Companion Optimization, Gearing and Tips


KevMeup

Recommended Posts

Hey Kev, have you had any luck fully maximizing presence? I've just been looking into it and it seems like most of the boosts are straightforward to obtain, but a few are not.

 

  • Influence level 50 (+2500)
  • Human level 50 (+100)
  • Companion conversations (+400)
  • Datacrons (+63)
  • Chilled Corellian Cocktail (+84)
  • Advanced Anodyne Command Stim (+233)
  • Antiviral Kit MK-3 x 2 (+140)
  • Advanced Command Augment 28 x 14 (+448)
  • Old presence gear (+???)

 

The last one is very unclear. Craftable presence gear seems to have existed before, but I couldn't find records of any specific items so I have no idea what the max is from that.

 

There is also this claim from the 4.0 Patch Notes:

 

Players will now achieve Legendary Status if they complete every class story in the game. You can track your Legendary Status progress at Character Select where a new GUI element is found. In game, players who have achieved Legendary Status will have a new icon next to their name on their nameplate. Gaining Legendary Status will also grant the player a significant amount of Presence to their companions.

 

I'm not sure if this ever actually happened, and how much presence is given.

 

Looking at my character right now, I have 765 base presence and 473 bonus. The bonus checks out: 310 from conversations (missing 9 of them), 100 from Human, and 63 from datacrons. I'm not sure how the base presence is calculated.

 

Are there any other presence sources I forgot?

 

 

 

EDIT: Doing some slightly dodgy calculations based on this:

According to the askmrrobot.com gear calculator, with the highest level craftable Commander prefix items (+Power, +Presence), rank 28 Command augments, and with all datacrons and legacy buffs, the max achievable would be 2,076 before stim

 

Base level 55 Presence: 360

Augments: 448

Datacrons: 58

Legacy buffs: 500

 

360+448+58+500=1366. 2076-1366 = 710. I'm not sure if there are relics other than the Rakghoul ones that were included in that.

 

I also went searching for presence items on the GTN on every server (set stat to Presence, keywords "general", "leadership" and "commander"). I found these. Seems that some slots can give more presence than others. I don't know what the highest level of this kind of gear is.

 

 

 

EDIT 2: I was convinced the DvL XP gear had presence stats, and it does. 48 Presence in the armorings for 3 of the items. This is higher than I've seen in any craftable presence gear but there may be some higher tier gear I haven't seen.

 

But if it turns out the max presence is obtainable by having done the DvL event on multiple servers (so you get more presence armorings), I think I will give up with this.

 

 

Another edit: The DvL armorings are slot-bound, so having multiple sets would be of no benefit.

 

Through a credit selling site of all places (and a guild site), I was able to find a few high level items:

  • Leadership Experimental Skill Package (62 Presence, 114 Endurance, 94 Mastery, 160 Crit)
  • Leadership Experimental Might Package (62 Presence, 114 Endurance, 94 Mastery, 114 Crit, 46 Accuracy)
  • Leadership Experimental Awareness Motivator (62 Presence, 105 Endurance, 105 Mastery, 157 Crit)
  • Commander's Advanced Supercharged Rejuvenation Relay (62 Presence, 105 Endurance, 105 Mastery, 111 Power, 46 Alacrity)

 

So, is 62 presence the max? These items require level 54 and there is evidence to suggest the Presence gear was scrapped for 3.0. I still haven't found the name or stats of any level 54 armor.

Edited by TheRandomno
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

So I just won the new Rodian companion from the casino, and had a look at his abilities to see if he had any unique ones (as a few companions still have unique abilities, like Paxton Rall). While he doesn't, I did notice one irregularity.

 

In tank mode, his gap closer (called Jet Charge or Powered Charge or something, I forget exactly) says that it heals him for damage done. Every other comp's gap closer in tank mode heals for 25% of damage done.

 

Is this a typo in the tooltip, or does the Rodian actually have a more powerful gap closer as a tank?

 

Thought you'd be the person to ask :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Hello, i have just returned to SWTOR after 9 years and I found your guide. May I ask what exactly is meant by "channeled healing"? I am currently usind Elara Dorne set either as DPS or, more often, as a healer. But there is no skill called channeled healing. Thank you.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello, i have just returned to SWTOR after 9 years and I found your guide. May I ask what exactly is meant by "channeled healing"? I am currently usind Elara Dorne set either as DPS or, more often, as a healer. But there is no skill called channeled healing. Thank you.

 

Progressive Kolto Scan is what I think almost every single companion in healer mode has. It is channeled skill that companion will keep using even if you take just like 1 dmg and because of it not do any damage itself.

Edited by Zenislav
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello again, is there a way to disable the skill permanently? It enables after every conversation and loading screen and it getting incredibly frustrating. Thanks.

 

It might show that little square on top of the icon as "selected" but it actually isn't. A bit of a visual bug.

 

You can check it by:

 

1) Right click on it once - nothing changes (disabled changes to enabled which it already shows by mistake). Click on it second time and it will show it as "disabled". What you did is go through "disabled->enabled->disabled", it's the first step that has a bugged visual representation.

 

2) Get into combat, take some damage and do nothing. Observe what your companion is doing and you will see that it is not using the channeled heal.

Edited by Equeliber
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you. It is indeed just a graphical glitch. Makes me wonder why it has not been fixed yet. Anyway, I can now play without always checking Elara's skills.

All I need now is to find some nice SP guide as I am about to embark to Voss and I am getting near the end of the original story.

Edited by Embrosil
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I'm generally holding out on updates until the xpac drops on the 22nd of next month. Musco also promised a companion rebalance soon.

 

Xpac possibilities:

They might enable the Shroud of Mystery Bonus mission (for Z00M) on the Cartel Market (they've had the item made for 1 year now, they just keep holding out).

XP = Conquest and Renown, which may make Flashpoints/uprisings might be even better since you can get legacy xp boost for them.

There is presence gear with hundreds of presence per slot, so this may be a thing.

Lifesteal might let anyone heal slightly from attacks making self heals from mending relics viable (it's broken on pts now).

Level syncing in flashpoints and ops is going to work a lot like planet syncing, which may make optimized companions far more powerful than players for your normal vets or master modes.

Edited by KevMeup
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 7 months later...

I didn't want to clutter up General Discussion over this, but I did happen to try to use the Taskmaster set 4 piece during my run yesterday.

 

I had a level 75 Jedi Shadow Inilftration discipline. 2 piece Death Knell and 4 pc Taskmaster and one Amp Champ. all 306 rating mods. Nothing really augmented. Character iRating 306. A few pieces did have presence amplifiers. Grade 11 biochem Proficient stim. All the class buffs.

Companion was an influence rank 50 Nico Okarr. I used the presence drink from Onderon to boost my presence stats.

 

I ran the [HEROIC 2+]/Veteran mode Star Fortress over Hoth. I was level locked down to 70.

 

The 4 pc says "significantly increases attack speed of companion." I had Nico in heal mode, toggled off his channeled progressive scan and stun, so that he would do more dps.

 

I really didn't notice any difference at all between wearing that set in that encounter and when Nico is healing me normally on, say, Onderon dailies.

 

Anyone else have experience using this set?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
I've added parse details for DPS companions in 6.1.2d.

Hello what is the current status of d-r3d and the gamorrean guard. In terms of their usefulness for dps or tank or heal or wha not. also i don't have him but what is the status for the rodian have you tested that guy?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello what is the current status of d-r3d and the gamorrean guard. In terms of their usefulness for dps or tank or heal or wha not. also i don't have him but what is the status for the rodian have you tested that guy?

Dred is good as a healer or tank, his dps is just flightly bugged compared to other 2 weapon comps because his AOE only hits once. I have not tested the others yet. I'm not aware of any special skills that would give them an advantage over something like a Gault (Level 50, Gault (Sniper Rifle) 8350 - 6.1.2d). I'll do some gambling though and see if I can get one to test.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dred is good as a healer or tank, his dps is just flightly bugged compared to other 2 weapon comps because his AOE only hits once. I have not tested the others yet. I'm not aware of any special skills that would give them an advantage over something like a Gault (Level 50, Gault (Sniper Rifle) 8350 - 6.1.2d). I'll do some gambling though and see if I can get one to test.

Ok thanks good luck with the gambling all those emperor tokens we randomly get all over the place that most of the time rewards 50 kingpin ones should make it easier than last year. Also if you could maybe add the locations for the various cantina presence increasing drinks and which location had which level requirement drink. That would be great addition to that part of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

phalczen, The taskmaster set adds 3k alacrity to the companion. This took Shae from 11.2k dps to 12.3k dps in a parse. It's should also help with heals a little.

 

Thanks Kev. I probably wouldn't notice it because most encounters are very short. I'll have to try to play around with it some.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dred is good as a healer or tank, his dps is just flightly bugged compared to other 2 weapon comps because his AOE only hits once. I have not tested the others yet. I'm not aware of any special skills that would give them an advantage over something like a Gault (Level 50, Gault (Sniper Rifle) 8350 - 6.1.2d). I'll do some gambling though and see if I can get one to test.
Oh a quick P.S. Both dred and q0-77 seems to have a bug or something these days that makes them having trouble noticing you are actually in combat and or has started attacking something so it takes a while for them to notice and starts helping.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nightlife companion parses added:

 

Level 1, Phrojo Nuray (Assault Cannon) 6319 - 6.1.2d

Level 1, Phrojo Nuray (Assault Cannon) 6392 - 6.1.2d

Level 1, Gamorrean Bodyguard (1 techblade) 5745 - 6.1.2d

Level 1, Gamorrean Bodyguard (1 techblade) 6245 - 6.1.2d

Level 50, Phrojo Nuray (Assault Cannon) 8620 - 6.1.2d

Level 50, Phrojo Nuray (Assault Cannon) 8448 - 6.1.2d

Level 50, Gamorrean Bodyguard (1 techblade) 8073 - 6.1.2d

Level 50, Gamorrean Bodyguard (1 techblade) 8119 - 6.1.2d

 

Not the best due to weapon types, but still viable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nightlife companion parses added:

 

Level 1, Phrojo Nuray (Assault Cannon) 6319 - 6.1.2d

Level 1, Phrojo Nuray (Assault Cannon) 6392 - 6.1.2d

Level 1, Gamorrean Bodyguard (1 techblade) 5745 - 6.1.2d

Level 1, Gamorrean Bodyguard (1 techblade) 6245 - 6.1.2d

Level 50, Phrojo Nuray (Assault Cannon) 8620 - 6.1.2d

Level 50, Phrojo Nuray (Assault Cannon) 8448 - 6.1.2d

Level 50, Gamorrean Bodyguard (1 techblade) 8073 - 6.1.2d

Level 50, Gamorrean Bodyguard (1 techblade) 8119 - 6.1.2d

 

Not the best due to weapon types, but still viable.

Thank you so much. Have you thought of doing an ranking of the class story only companions for the people who doesn't have unlocked shae from level 1?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you so much. Have you thought of doing an ranking of the class story only companions for the people who doesn't have unlocked shae from level 1?

 

Good idea. My best recommendation generally is QO-77, since he can be unlocked in cartel for everyone, does great damage and takes droid parts, which you''ll have an insane amount jawa scrap later to buy. I'm glad they finally fixed him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...