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[Guide] Companion Optimization, Gearing and Tips


KevMeup

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I'd like to mention that for healing the new CM droid(Iso - XR or something like that, he looks quite like golden fury) has a kolto cloud ability which would probably get his hps quite high. I'll try to parse him later that week when i have enough time and will post his hps here.

 

I just got one on my new character. I was really surprised to see the new heal setup. Companions seem to be a little slow on their heal responses, so I'm concerned that the merc like shot heal may not compare against the channeled heal that other companions have. If you find a reliable way of parsing heals at max level, let me know. I used to just do it on a sorc and consume, but thats no longer an option. It seems that now I'd need to get a fair number of ads beating on me in star fortress or zakul swamps..

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You should stick a note in there somewhere about the "guest companion" issue.

 

Apparently "guest" companions (i.e. haven't formally joined your crew) work correctly up to Influence rank 49, but if you push them all the way to rank 50(1), they suddenly start performing as if they are rank 1 again.

 

The solution, obviously, is to finish the class missions for the planet where you acquire them and do the post-planet holocommunicator / intercom conversation, at which point they cease to be guest companions. Once they are promoted to full companions, rank 50 works normally. Or, indeed, to realise that rank 3 or so more than suffices for all class and planetary arc content.

 

(1) Yes, apparently there are people who take the time and expense needed to get a companion all the way to rank 50 during the planet-of-acquisition. They come on the forums to complain about their companions being suddenly enfeebled.

 

Thats funny. Well, I can imagine just wanting a companion bad and quitting the story after. Like if I wanted Ashara for leveling. I've heard of people leveling up Darth Marr to 50 as well. I'll add a note to the bugs section.

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I just got one on my new character. I was really surprised to see the new heal setup. Companions seem to be a little slow on their heal responses, so I'm concerned that the merc like shot heal may not compare against the channeled heal that other companions have. If you find a reliable way of parsing heals at max level, let me know. I used to just do it on a sorc and consume, but thats no longer an option. It seems that now I'd need to get a fair number of ads beating on me in star fortress or zakul swamps..

 

I intend to do it on the Balmora quest area where you need to collect some junk from a toxic swamp.

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I intend to do it on the Balmora quest area where you need to collect some junk from a toxic swamp.

 

Just tried it. Its single target heal is not that good:

Time till death Iso-5r Lana Ginx ( all 50 influence)

56s 1:54 1:55

Edited by Tsetso
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Just tried it. Its single target heal is not that good:

Time till death Iso-5r Lana Ginx ( all 50 influence)

56s 1:54 1:55

 

Ouch, yeah, a companions heal ability is really based around that unlimited channel, it sounds like this guy will be a bit more like treek. It also has an activation time on it's quick heal that others don't. It's possible he may be more combat ready, if he alternates damaging attacks in between, I just can't see any general benefit to the heal change.

 

Unless there is something bugged his DPS should be like any other single weapon user and his tanking should be as broken as TD-1D (range discrepancy).

 

It's really sad to see more sub par cartel companions. Especially ones as cool looking as this :)

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Just tried it. Its single target heal is not that good:

Time till death Iso-5r Lana Ginx ( all 50 influence)

56s 1:54 1:55

 

It looks like Kolto Shot is bugged, in his 30s, the tool tip says it heals for 590, yet it heals for 293 tops and crits for 469. It may just not be scaling to the level or presence.

 

His AOE says it heals for 401 over 6 seconds but heals for about 7 tics, 400 normal, 600 on a crit.

Edited by KevMeup
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The rating of the weapon has had no effect in any of my testing. Only the number of weapons. (0-1-2).

 

After putting in a barrel/hilt and changing the spec of the companion (like from DD to heal, back to DD) you could see a difference in the "Damage" display, but this one doesn't seem to work anymore. So I don't know if it is still the way it was and puts in more damage. This was changed in patch 4.7:

 

"The Character Sheet now displays correct values for Companion damages and no longer takes Equipment into account. "

Edited by Methylium
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Great thread and information, thanks for your hard work. You'ed be surprised how many people don't believe you when you tell them that a weapon barrel/hilt on a companion affects their DPS.

 

One tip for the eternal championship. The breaktown brawler fight has a mechanic where ranged attacks are reflected, worth switching to a melee version of whatever you prefer (DPS or heals) for this fight, if you normally run a ranged companion.

 

Thank you very much. I added a note about that Brawler fight. I tested and the damage to a ranged healer is pretty small, since they instantly just start healing themselves to recover that small amount of damage. I would imagine it would be super painful with a ranged DPS companion though.

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HK-51 was tested to?

Its DPS tooltips have higher dmg then in other companions... there is also the factor of 'finishing ability' (below 30% dmg) HK-51 also had like 20% higher amount then rest..

 

The tool tips are based off the equipped weapon, yet actual damage is not. This means he will show higher tool tips than any blaster riffle user but will still perform the same as them. The only way to verify is to parse and compare the actual numbers.

 

HK replaces his Armor Debuff, Dot and AOE with single target attacks. This leaves his single target DPS on par with a normal blaster riffle user. This means if you're in a group with another DPS companion or someone that can lower armor, HK will perform above average.

 

With the current 2 weapon... Feature.. Any companion that has 2 weapons will out perform HK in all circumstances at least slightly. They won't look as cool or call people meatbags though :(

 

This is my best understanding from my testing, if anyone has some better parse results for him I'd love to see. He's a lot of fun, I wish they didn't remove so much of his uniqueness when they "balanced" him.

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So back to my original question?(sorry if you already answered , because i didn't get it)

Simple Yes/No

did the HK-51 was also in your test?

 

Yes. Performs like a normal blaster user. 3600 dps. Performs slightly better if you can debuff armor for him.

Edited by KevMeup
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  • 4 months later...

I've added some parses from level 70 and patch 5.1. It looks like everything seems to be holding true from previous patches.

 

One sad thing I noticed in testing, all companions now have 0 expertise :(

Edited by KevMeup
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Thanks again for this, I frequently refer my guildies to it.

 

I've seen many people argue that, at least subjectively, companions like Treek, Z0-0M, and K1-Z3N (Zoom's mirror from the cartel market) heal better than some of the others because they have healing abilities which are different than the other standard companions. Have you observed this and how might we collaborate on testing this?

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Thanks again for this, I frequently refer my guildies to it.

 

I've seen many people argue that, at least subjectively, companions like Treek, Z0-0M, and K1-Z3N (Zoom's mirror from the cartel market) heal better than some of the others because they have healing abilities which are different than the other standard companions. Have you observed this and how might we collaborate on testing this?

 

Glad to help :)

 

We tested the ISO-5 droid and he failed miserably as a healer. It has some bugged skills that don't scale right.

 

Treek can't keep up as much sustained healing for single target heals, but if she is in range of the rest of the group, her AOE might make up the slack.

 

I'll test Zoom or at least K1 soon (just bought). I am curious how her skills compare. It seems like she might give up a little mobility for slightly improved heals.

 

I used to test healing on my sorc, using consume, but that's no longer an option. The most recent method I've seen is to compare time-to-death while standing in fire or acid (like on balmora). To get exact numbers you'd need to engage in some sort of combat, mock companion battles wouldn't be bad, but has it's own challenges of variance and I think expertise rules of less effective heals kick in. I may just try testing with the star fortress champion mobs as they take a bit to kill, do plenty of damage and are a good use case.

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I added tons of healing parses to the parse section and a DPS parse for Z3N. For testing, I had 4 standard mobs fight a level 1 healer comp or 5 for level 50 comps.

 

It looks like Z0-0M and K1-Z3N are solid companions all around, but don't provide a specific advantage. Other than bugged companions, the difference in heals seems to be statistically insignificant across the board.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Thanks for putting in the work. So after wasting 1.5 mill getting HK-51 to lvl 40, I find out he sucks. What companion would you recommend for someone who missed the DvL ones like Master Ranos and Niko?

 

Glad to help :) Any companion with 2 blaster pistols is excellent right now. I will update the guide soon with my findings. Vette, theron, or someone pulled from the lost companions terminal like Ensign Temple or Andro.

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Thanks for putting in the work. So after wasting 1.5 mill getting HK-51 to lvl 40, I find out he sucks. What companion would you recommend for someone who missed the DvL ones like Master Ranos and Niko?

 

There's nothing wrong with leveling HK-51. At this point it seems unlikely that they will be taking away certain companions. You can't go wrong by grabbing Hemdil Tre as dual pistols and Veeroa Denz as dual sabers, and they are both from star fortress so seem unlikely to go and useful for all classes. If you are a healing class grab Lokin to tank for you. If you need additional companions for crew skills, it's unlikely we will lose Treek or HK-51... they were both available before chapter 9 for crew skills when my main class ones were not. They may not be special or optimal for combat but they will likely stick around so they can be useful for crew skills. The ship droids are probably unlikely to go as well so they can be safely leveled up for crew skills. So that's seven there. If you want another two to have 8 comps for crew skills and one for combat then you can use the cartel droid Q0-77 as its dual pistols, and pick another star fortress comp for crew skilling. You might have Rokuss from Voss already since destroying the Voss heroic star fortress auto-completes a bonus quest in KOTET Chapter 1. There's your nine companions to get to 50 and you have multiple dual-wielders to choose from and several companions that won't go away semi-permanently with story. If I didn't have Nico, Ranos, Shae, HK-55, and Z0-0M (all the reward comps) those 9 I mentioned would be ones to invest gifts in.

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snip

If you're looking for unlock-able cartel companions:

 

Q0-77, ISO and Warbots are horribly bugged and can't even keep themselves alive in testing. Stay clear.

 

K1-Z3N is exactly like Z0-0M Except zoom gets 1 extra hidden bonus AOE heal skill (making her the best heals in game). Z3N puts out even heals and dps as a double pistol user, it's just a little inconsistent. He's a ton of fun though.

 

TY-4N and T4-1D act like normal blaster users, except they are bad tanks since they don't charge. They are strong choices though.

 

To my knowledge all creature companions can't DPS for crap, but most of them can heal fine if thats all you care about.

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Except zoom gets 1 extra hidden bonus AOE heal skill (making her the best heals in game).

 

:eek: This wasn't in your parse i presume? (EDIT: found it, its called Kolto Burst) Because you wrote

 

I added tons of healing parses to the parse section and a DPS parse for Z3N. For testing, I had 4 standard mobs fight a level 1 healer comp or 5 for level 50 comps.

 

It looks like Z0-0M and K1-Z3N are solid companions all around, but don't provide a specific advantage. Other than bugged companions, the difference in heals seems to be statistically insignificant across the board.

 

And I shudder to think about influencing another comp to 50 on 4-5 toons or more

Edited by phalczen
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