Since the last patch, and in particular the last week, melee companions have begun nodding off the same way ranged companions have for a while. It's always happened now and then, but now they're regularly failing to follow my toons, standing there without healing, etc. I've noticed this on several melee companions regardless of influence rank (most of mine are 50s): Lana, Nadia, Vector, etc.

For the time being it seems like the workaround is to micromanage them to passive and back and to switch companions every now and then, but this is getting ridiculous. Some of my favorite companions are already unreliable because they are ranged, and now the rest of them are going down the drain too?

noticed this too again just yesterday

always switiching back and forth between passive/active and/or keeping a constant eye on the comp, never jumping too far ahead is more than just annoying, please BW fix this!

In a semi-recent post on the subject, they *did* say that the core reason for the bug does, indeed, affect all companions.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=964084

Hey folks,

 

One of the things that has come up quite a bit since 5.10 is a number of Companion issues. I posted yesterday letting you know that one of the more prominent issues (ranged companions not attacking) was likely going to be fixed in 6.0. What I wanted to do was make a bit of a bigger post explaining what these issues are, their current status, and when they are likely to be fixed. Let’s dive in.

 

Ranged Companions Not Attacking

This issue is a bit of an interesting case. The common belief is that this is a bug which was introduced in 5.10. That is understandable since it certainly became more noticeable with that update. However, this issue has actually been around since launch. After the reports we received from 5.10 we began doing a deep dive into what was going on. That is where we discovered a pretty substantial issue with how Companions were built which is causing this to happen. Due to this being an underlying issue with all Companions it requires a larger systemic change then just a standard bug fix which is the reason why the fix is taking so long.

 

An update from yesterday, I was being conservative in saying that it will be fixed for 6.0. Upon double checking with the team they believe that it may actually make it in before then in 5.10.4 in the summer. This is of course still dependent on testing and verification, but you may see it before 6.0 after all.

 

Companion Ineffectiveness / Imbalance

One of the other issues that we hear about is that some Companions are ineffective in specific roles or imbalanced compared to other Companions. For 6.0 the team is making a full pass across all Companions to make a variety of updates. Most notably to address this very imbalance, update abilities, and more.

 

Companions are a critical part of SWTOR and so we take issues with them very seriously. We know that sometimes changes don’t come as quick as you would like but know that we are working to get these types of issues resolved as fast as we can! We thank you for all of the reports around these issues as they were very helpful in isolating the root causes to work towards addressing them. And of course, thank you for your patience as we work to get them resolved.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

-eric

In a semi-recent post on the subject, they *did* say that the core reason for the bug does, indeed, affect all companions.

...and? That doesn't change that I've personally seen the issue get worse in-game over the past week or that melee companions were performing mostly decently until then.

...and? That doesn't change that I've personally seen the issue get worse in-game over the past week or that melee companions were performing mostly decently until then.

For sure, although given what was said, it shouldn't really be a surprise. (That said, I haven't noticed this change myself, and the only melee-companion problem I have is darling Malgus when he just plain stops healing.)

For sure, although given what was said, it shouldn't really be a surprise. (That said, I haven't noticed this change myself, and the only melee-companion problem I have is darling Malgus when he just plain stops healing.)

Actually, there's no reason it wouldn't be a surprise, because despite any underlying systemic issue, melee companions have been handling things decently up until now.

Not entirely sure what the problem is?

The only thing im experiencing is ranged comp not moving into range to attack when im in combat, which pretty much only happens when im doing imp side dailies on ossus killing the 4 turrets at the little bridge.

I can see this becoming a problem when the battlefield is very large, but outside of open world that does not seem to happen a lot at all. Nevertheless, i have my set comp to passive toggle hotkeyed, so that helps if things go bad, or i need the comp to be in a particular spot like for a KB.

Personally, I like the companion "bug". Doing a bit of micro-managing makes things a bit more interesting. Most of the game is too easy - a bit of MM gives you something to do.

yeah. it's great.

since learning that it's 99% a ranged problem, my pet peeve is the fact that my comp doesn't respawn when I port back from a WZ (most of the time). it's not that I forget to summon the comp (although I sometimes do), it's that when you press N, you have to sort your way through 30-some options, and they're not organized by influence rank the way the profession panel (B) is.

That's weird.

I've mainly played my JK recently and uses Theron with her, and he seemed to behave properly (much better that he's done previously), with the slight exception that he's often invisible, but still doing what he's supposed to do : follow and heal, and shoot sometimes as well.

That's weird.

I've mainly played my JK recently and uses Theron with her, and he seemed to behave properly (much better that he's done previously), with the slight exception that he's often invisible, but still doing what he's supposed to do : follow and heal, and shoot sometimes as well.

I've noticed it's intermittent and the "reward" companions sometimes are more reliable than the story ones. Paxton Rall rarely flakes out on my toons, but in the instances where I've had to use Theron he's actually died because he's stopped healing or fighting. He died on me going through the Alliance base in KOTET chapter 8 and almost bought the farm during the rancor fight in KOTET chapter 6, and those aren't hard fights.

With the melee companions it also seems to be intermittent, and they've always done it once in a while, but it seems to have gotten much worse over the past week. I'm now noticing I have to switch companions a few times while doing weeklies because they will fight well for a while, and then decide they're going to stand in one spot and do nothing, or stop following my toons, and stop harvesting mats. Darth Hexid hasn't had issues but I've noticed it on Nadia, Vector, Akaavi and Lana.

Hot key the companion passive key, then let them run to you, then activate them again when it happens. It seems to correct the issue.

I know the workaround and mentioned it in my OP - in my case it works for the moment, but quite often they flake out again and again. I've also sometimes been able to reset them to work by sending them to sell junk - sometimes when they come back they will be okay. But I don't really want to spend all my time toggling them that way.

I've noticed it's intermittent and the "reward" companions sometimes are more reliable than the story ones. Paxton Rall rarely flakes out on my toons, but in the instances where I've had to use Theron he's actually died because he's stopped healing or fighting. He died on me going through the Alliance base in KOTET chapter 8 and almost bought the farm during the rancor fight in KOTET chapter 6, and those aren't hard fights.

 

With the melee companions it also seems to be intermittent, and they've always done it once in a while, but it seems to have gotten much worse over the past week. I'm now noticing I have to switch companions a few times while doing weeklies because they will fight well for a while, and then decide they're going to stand in one spot and do nothing, or stop following my toons, and stop harvesting mats. Darth Hexid hasn't had issues but I've noticed it on Nadia, Vector, Akaavi and Lana.

I think the last time i had an issue with one of my companion was something like 2 weeks ago, while entering the heroic building in Black Hole, right at the entrance i got a bad lag and Theron was pretty much frozen, standing there and doing nothing, we nearly died because of that, but he has not done anything similar since then and i had no problem with him today while doing Black Hole, Ziost and the daily area on Belsavis.

Didn't see any problem with Kaliyo either on my IA.

Died quite miserably with Arcann on Dantoine, but i guess trying to solo a H4 with not so good gear and a lvl 7 companion was not a great idea, especially when stealth is useless.

Can't talk about the other companions though as i've only played with these characters

the moment this bug was introduced back during 5,10 i think it was, i noticed immediately that my ranged companions didnt close the distance in combat therefore if anything was outside their range - with enemy at 30+ meters, they wouldnt close the distance so they could attack it, but instead remain focused on that single enemy so not even attacking other enemies that mightve been in range.

-> that was supposedly fixed and i still remember that it worked for a while, but then it was reintroduced by something and its not getting adressed - been like this for ages now.

and now even melee companions randomly bug in this way, not closing the distance during combat, forcing me to micromanage same way as i was forced to do with ranged companions: by putting them on passive so they would come closer to me, then ordering them to attack something again.

How can u let such a horrible bug be a thing for so long? And it keeps getting worse too. FIX IT!