Hey everyone...

Im a level 30 lightning sorcerer and i was wondering what companion to use for fast-most efficient leveling with minimal downtimes and how to use him in his best fassion.

I obviously started out with khem, but the higher my level becomes, the more inefficient he seems to become. (even though i try to equip him the best i can).

So now im experimenting with Andronikos, which seems to work mutch better concerning downtimes and killing-speed.

Now im trying to find the best way to use him. Meaning: there are 2 modes: Assault (for AOE) or Sniper (for single target dps). And he has serveral abilitys which can be turned on or off....

At the moment i have tried 2 setups, not beeing sure about which one's the best.

1. Single target: turn off "the bomb" and the "cone blaster barrage" and set him to "sniper mode" - enemys seem to die mutch quicker

2. AOE mode: turn on all his abilitys and use assault mode - care: CC-breaker!

 

so what do you guys think?

Which companion is the best for efficiently leveling a dps-sorcerer and how do you configure/play/equip yours?

let the discussion begin

Edited December 26, 2011 by xFaLLeNaNgeLx

Khem was the best companion for me past lvl 30 when i did get my AOE spell (cant remember the name), he was absolutly best at aoe tanking mobs, 5-6 at the time while i was aoe damage the crap out of them. On the planet, 30-35 level there is alot of 5-6 mobgroups so damage them down will go fast.

 

On that planet you will get the companion Azhra Zavros who is a meele DPSer. With right gear, dual lazerswords and ALOT of strength/crit on the gear she will be quite powrful and will take down mobs just as fast as yourself. Only singeltarget though.

 

So far Khem and Azhara are my favorites. I will get 2 more, one healer and one more DPS but i think i will stick with Azhara and Khem for a long while .

Interesting topic indeed, the sorcs on my server know I've been bugging them with this question quite a lot

 

There is no overall best companion though, unfortunately. Sure, if you put in alot of time and money to gear one of them, it will have the slight edge over the others.

 

Khem Val is probably the most versatile and the easiest to level with though. I really liked Andronikos and Talos though, i played with Talos for quite some time!

 

Ashara sofar, to me atleast, has been a bit dissapointing. And 2V-R8 is just useless!

 

I'm about to get Xalek, i'm really excited about this one. Will update more when I've had some time to test him!

Xalek is just like Khem with cooler animations. He is just as squishy but the best part is that he uses light armor as well so you can give him some of your old gear and switch the mods and stuff around.

Xalek is essentially just a copy of Khem. Very similar abilities, just more ranged damage/threat. He also gains affection at a truly ridiculous rate, having an affection multiplier of 6.83 compared to Khem's 1.0 (ie. where Khem gains 15 affection, Xalek would gain 102). I boosted him up to 7k affection with maybe 30k credits right away using the 600 credit rank 2 military gear from the vendor. He also tends to like darkside paths like Khem, though he's not as much of a priss about them. Lastly, he's a willpower light-armor tank instead of a strength heavy-armor tank, so he can us your hand-me-downs. Get him an orange saber (you can get one off the last boss of Black Talon, takes maybe 10 minutes to blast through when you're in at that level) and some orange armor and just give him the mods out of your gear as you replace them with better ones from commendations or quests.

 

As far as questing, I've found Xalek to be a very good companion. Against AoE mobs, I shield myself, run in, AoE with Force Storm/Chain Lightning/Death Field, everything dies. Against silvers and golds, I shield him, send him in, dps from the side-lines while shielding him on debuff expiration. Note I don't bother to heal him unless he's going to died well before the mob dies, though, because if he stay alive long enough for me to kill the mob (even if it's a few seconds after he dies), I can just mount up or dismiss and resummon him, both of which only take a second or two, and he's back at full HP and ready to go. Keeping him geared out for this style also makes the gold or platinum fights for quests that much easier to complete.

Edited December 26, 2011 by Daellia

I'm level 41 and leveling as a hybrid (5/11/16 at the moment) and I'm still partial to Khem.

 

I just feel more comfortable with an aggro grabbing companion.

 

My usual routine for a group of normals or 1 strong + normals is to bubble Khem and send him in then just AOE everything down. On 2 strong groups I put him on passive, cc one and pull the other one close to me before I send Khem after him. This prevents any cc-breaks from his AOE. I could turn off his AOE abilities in that situation but I find that to just be an unnecessary hassle. Elites or Champions are just a traditional tank and spank.

 

Sometimes I turn on his DPS stance for faster killing. He'll lose some aggro that way but his DPS is noticeably better. It's best to do this just after you've upgraded his gear and mods...which is a constant thing as you level and easy to neglect.

 

I don't have my disciple yet but I suspect he'll replace Khem when I do since we tend to pay more attention to his type of gear anyway.

 

I have also played with Ashara on and off a bit and her DPS is better than Khem's (perhaps due to the fact that she gets my hand-me-down lightsabres which often are nearly as good as mine...plus she can dual-wield) but she's a bit more squishy so it takes more healing micro management to quest with her. In general, I find that the non-tank companions for us are situational and more useful to round-out incomplete groups than anything else.

Edited December 26, 2011 by Iselin

Khem Val is the best companion to use. Hands down. Just make sure you gear him up.

 

The level 40 pvp set is fantastic for him.

Khem Val is the best companion to use. Hands down. Just make sure you gear him up.

 

The level 40 pvp set is fantastic for him.

 

Thats what i dont like, he seems to be the only real tank companion, all the others seem like they where made for the SIth ***, not the Sorc?

What is Khem Val's Primary/Secondary stat to look for when gearing up?

I used Khem Val up until 35ish, when I got Ashara and pimped her gear up a bit (double orange light saber for starters) and it worked very effectively for most pulls. I sometimes swapped to Khem Val for (melee based) gold mobs. At 50 I use Xalek almost exclusively when soloing (mostly due to the strength of the mobs you face). Khem Val is probably just as good, but given that Xalek uses light armor with willpower as main stat, it's a bit more convenient gear wise, as you only get inqusitor items and mods from quests/daily quests.

 

As you progress though, all mobs start doing a lot more damage, which eventually causes your companions to seem weaker (unless you dish out a lot of cash to keep their gear top notch possibly). Which one is better to level with is a matter of preference I suppose. Mobs will go down faster with Andronikos or Ashara, but it is slightly more demanding as you'll find yourself targeted a lot more as well, given their lack of taunt and threat abilities.

 

The healer agent guy (don't remember his name atm ) can be fairly effective when soling some of the harder elites (in particular late class quest elites, without spoiling too much). Never tried it myself tho, but so I've heard.

 

In general, you'll get less downtime the more effort you put in on the pulls. Use of interrupts, the stuns on shock and electrocute etc. can reduce the damage taken considerably. As will using force storm on gathered up packs of "weak" mobs, as the stun it provides causes them to virtually do no damage until they're dead.

Edited December 27, 2011 by Sinx

Ive used andronikus since I got him, still need to test Ashara.

 

What as a lightning sorc I tend to start fights with chain lightning, force storm and chain lightning when it procs. Andro just lobs in grenades and does his cone thing to add to to the damage.

 

Micro managing Khem and waiting for him to him to path to **** was just to slow and tedious.

 

I fear I will have the same with Ashara, unless her dps is THAT much better then Andro.

Thats what i dont like, he seems to be the only real tank companion, all the others seem like they where made for the SIth ***, not the Sorc?

 

Andronikos and Ashara are fantastic for sorc healers. Much better than Khem Val. For lightning or madness spec, Khem Val is truly your best bet. You need someone to tank the damage. Xalek comes way too late in the leveling process, but I'm sure is very usable for those last few levels and can be used for doing dailies and such at 50.