What exactly does it do and is there a place I can view that?

Not the current level of affection your companion has, but what bonus the affection level is giving?

 

Im trying to figure out what it does and Ive heard all kinds of crazy things from it does what Presence does to it increasing the crew skill ability, so Im just trying to get a handle on it

are you asking about presence as in the presence stat or the individual's companion affection level?

I don't know what the affection bonuses are in the mid ranges (if there are any) but there are very good legacy bonuses when you max out your companions. You can look in the legacy screen for the details. The 5 main companion type unlock only work once on the legacy but EVERY unlocked companion gives +10 presence.

 

Maxed companions also have a greater crit rate on crew skills (I don't know if that increases on the way to 10000, or just once you reach 10k).

are you asking about presence as in the presence stat or the individual's companion affection level?

 

Im asking about affection and if theres anywhere it shows what it does itself. I HEAR it affect the crew skills, but I cant seem to find anywhere where the game SHOWS that.

There is no where in game that shows it, but affection impacts the speed at which they perform crew skill crafting/missions.

this is what maxing affection on a companion gives you:

 

+ 5% crit chance to crafting

+15% efficiency

+10 presence per companion

+1% accuracy/max hp/crit/surge/healing received (this is dependent on the type of companion maxed out) once per legacy

 

This stacks with any existing bonuses a particular companion may have. I believe its progressive (i.e. not 0% or 100% exclusively) but this is anecdotal and based on observation of gathering speed changes. whether its pure percentage based or step based i have not bothered to determine.

 

More information: here (see darthtexas's question) and here

Edited September 18, 2013 by cabled

Affection basically improves the time taken to do missions, as affection increses the time needed to do missions drops. As above has said once you get the max affection rating of 10k there is a bonus to the crit chance and presence on that companion, but I am unsure if while increasing up to 10k if that crit chance goes up. I think it only gives a gradual increse in efficency.

 

You can see affection levels from the crew window under each potrait is the affection bar which goes from 0 to 10k max. This is split into five ranks bascally for every 2k so rank 3 is 4K to 6K range. This is importnat as the gifts that you give to your companion are raked also so a rank 1 gift with have little or no effect if your companion is already at rank 4. So use gifts basically at the rank your companion is at, one level below is fine. The gift vendor only has rank 1 - 2 gifts, but rank 2 gifts can still be effective enough at rank 3 level 4k-6k of your companion and usually works out cheaper than running the missions at that stage. After you get passed 6k you need to run missions of buy from GTN gifts at rank 4 and 5 once you are beyond the 6k mark.

Edited September 18, 2013 by NOTACTICS

Also be aware at certain stages as you increase affection that you will need to have a conversation in cantina, ship or fleet with your companion to move them up in the affection stages. You can tell a companion is ready for a converstion by the spech marker next to their potrait window, note you can only talk to them in rest area's. If you forget to do this it can have a negative effect of the affection gained from gifts. Sometimes there is even extra companion missions to do.

Presence is seperate and effects a companions effectivness in a fight but does not effect crew skills. I think it must improve a companions ability activation times or something along those lines so they act quicker and go through their rotations quicker. Edited September 18, 2013 by NOTACTICS

Also be aware at certain stages as you increase affection that you will need to have a conversation in cantina, ship or fleet with your companion to move them up in the affection stages. You can tell a companion is ready for a converstion by the spech marker next to their potrait window, note you can only talk to them in rest area's. If you forget to do this it can have a negative effect of the affection gained from gifts. Sometimes there is even extra companion missions to do.

 

Mostly false. Your companion will want to talk with you and sometimes in a cantina or other rest area, sometimes on your ship. That part is true. But you can get your companion to 10k affection without EVER having a conversation with them, and you won't get any penalties for it. In fact, the best strategy is to get your companion to 6k affection before ever having a conversation with them, since it is so easy and cheap to get to 6k.

Presence is seperate and effects a companions effectivness in a fight but does not effect crew skills. I think it must improve a companions ability activation times or something along those lines so they act quicker and go through their rotations quicker.

 

If you hold your cursor over your Presence stat, the tooltip will tell you what it does: raise companion's health and damage/healing output. It has nothing to do with alacrity, which is what you're describing.

If you hold your cursor over your Presence stat, the tooltip will tell you what it does: raise companion's health and damage/healing output. It has nothing to do with alacrity, which is what you're describing.

 

Thanks for clearing that up, to be honest I was not sure what the effects of presence were and was just guessing.

Thanks for clearing that up, to be honest I was not sure what the effects of presence were and was just guessing.

 

Ya there seems to be a fair-ish amount of that and observational data on this since there doesnt seem to be any in game way of showing what it does

 

whats the cheapest way to get to 6k?

Edited September 19, 2013 by Buddahcjcc

whats the cheapest way to get to 6k?

 

I think companion affection can be gained either quickly, or cheaply, but not both.

 

The quickest way to gain companion affection is to give them companion gifts. Gifts are acquired running crew skill missions with companion gifts as the reward. This costs credits (and, it helps you in leveling up in the particular crew skill), and the type of companion gift garnered is random. Meaning, you may not get a gift that a particular companion likes. Green level 1 and 2 companion gifts can be purchased for credits from a companion gift vendor. Companion gift fragments (acquired through crew skill missions) can be traded with a Curator vendor for companion gifts. Companion gifts can be purchased on the GTN.

 

The cheapest way to garner companion affection is to have the companion with you during mission conversations. Companions give, or deduct, affection based on your responses to conversations. Not fast, but it doesn't cost any additional credits.

Edited September 19, 2013 by Nmyownworld

Ya there seems to be a fair-ish amount of that and observational data on this since there doesnt seem to be any in game way of showing what it does

 

whats the cheapest way to get to 6k?

 

Yeah, except that there IS an in-game way of showing what it does. It's the same way you show what any OTHER stat does. I do not understand the confusion.

 

EDIT: The quickest and cheapest way to get to 6k is to buy tier 1 gifts from the Companion Gift Vendor on the fleet until 4k, then buy tier 2 gifts from 4k-6k. Will run you grand total ~30-35k, iirc.

 

EDIT #2: It's important to only purchase the type of gift that the given companion LOVES (e.g. Weapons for Corso). Some companions have no type of gift that they love, so it will cost more for those.

Edited September 19, 2013 by Fidelicatessen

Yeah, except that there IS an in-game way of showing what it does. It's the same way you show what any OTHER stat does. I do not understand the confusion.

 

EDIT: The quickest and cheapest way to get to 6k is to buy tier 1 gifts from the Companion Gift Vendor on the fleet until 4k, then buy tier 2 gifts from 4k-6k. Will run you grand total ~30-35k, iirc.

 

EDIT #2: It's important to only purchase the type of gift that the given companion LOVES (e.g. Weapons for Corso). Some companions have no type of gift that they love, so it will cost more for those.

 

Theres a way to mouse over affection and see the bonuses you get to crafting?

Because thats how I see the bonuses the other stats give me.