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Can Companions heal or tank well enough in FPs?


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Hi, I plan on playing the game with two other friends and was wondering if one of our companions would be good enough to either tank or heal all the different flashpoints. Or would it be best for two of us to fill those roles and just have a companion DPS instead? Thanks! Edited by Rabelais
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Depends what you're asking, honestly. The quick and easy version is, yes, they CAN tank and/or heal flashpoints and still leave room for success.

 

The full truth is somewhat less promising, however. Unless things have changed dramatically since beta, companions will generally do fine tanking or healing in BT or Esseles, though players tend to do better (real intelligence vs AI). By about the second FP though, I found that they weren't really well-suited to tank, (again, mostly due to AI issues. Accidentally pulling pats and such). They may be ok to heal though, depending on how good your group is.

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The answer is yes and no. A companion healer does ok but the tank tends to get killed easily due to boss mechanics that they can't react to. In fact many Flash Point bosses do things that normal people can avoid but companions will not. Best thing to do is have a companion healer and someone else who is dpsing also able to heal to keep everyone alive if needed.
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It certainly helps if the companion's gear is up to date, and that you remember healing companions won't move to heal you. So you need to stay in range of them.

 

If the player controlling the companion micromanaged their heals its possible you'd find a bit more success as well.

 

Any of the bosses that require the healer to move away/out of/dispel stuff are likely going to be extremely hard to do successfully as well.

 

Baring anything like that odds are if you out level the flashpoint by 2-3+ levels you could probably replace a player with a modestly geared companion without too much trouble or extra effort.

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It took a bit of microing in the beta to be really useful, but certainly doable.

It's better than being a man short, but not as good as another player..

which is about right.

 

The ai is solid enough to just "summon and forget" without making other players useless.

 

There's really no reason not to fill the party up with companions if there are empty spots and can't get another player.

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I know that my Assassin and my buddies Marauder at 13 did the Black Talon FP with a our friend on a lvl 10 Merc and his Companion healed it. Not sure if that type of deal would work in later levels though.

 

Downside to that is BT is a 2 man FP. Having three people with a healing comp was overkill.

I was able to solo all but the final boss on a level 12 Sorc with my companion tank in beta.

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So what I gather from all the feedback is that companions aren't the greatest for tanking due to certain boss mechanics. So, if we had a player tanking, two players DPS, and a companion healing we should be able to go through all the flashpoints? Is there lots of spike damage during boss fights and will a companion be able to heal through it?
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My friend and I did the first 4 FP's in beta. He tanked and I healed. Each fight is different though and sometimes we used 2 DPS companions and sometimes had a healer or a tank. I would say it depends on the fight which pet to use but I would recemmend at least 1 player healer and 1 player tank.
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