Exactly. You aren't actually interested in 'challenging' yourself unless you have some exterior motivation to (i.e. a reward). So that horse isn't so high up there after all, is it. The funny part is I was able to take a brand new character through solo Esseles with a companion just fine again last night. Which is not something I could do (could never get by the mandalorian boss) prior to 4.0. So I mean, challenge wise? Still easier than it was. Alas for those that want to be punished, I suppose

Sure, ok. Didn't see him leave myself but maybe you did. He could have, who knows. Point is, he was alive when last you saw him so he's a potential future companion. Could be dead in the bar, too, for all we know I suppose.

Did Tuesday give you that back? Prior to that, did you stow your companion when doing stuff alone?

Only if it had rewards I cared about, I suppose. I'm not here to challenge myself otherwise, I do that enough elsewhere in life.

THAT many?

It's too bad they left the titles in, I suppose. Because nobody is really going to know or care

You don't say.

It's true, older games were more punitive but it was also a small industry with no real options. Today's marketplace is so vast and competitive you're going to want to do whatever gets you the most people. And most people these days take the path of least resistance. I suspect many of us old timers might have too back then if we had such paths

Accurate.

"fraud" is taking it a bit far, I think.

It'd be more believable if it didn't take a month to implement with 0 communication on it until the day before (conveniently after the data leaked).

More regular (or really with regards to companions, ANY prior to the day before the patch) communication would have gone a long way to helping this situation not become the firestorm it is.

3-4 weeks actually depending on which launch you were in.

That's a good point. Pre-4.0 we had the ability to tweak our companions better. Not within their core role but their strength at it.

Well my guardian I was working on finished class story chapter 3 with a rank 21 T7, everyone else 6-8. I'm sure it differs per character. But yea I agree having a rank 1 companion with an instant 60 and their gear (180? I think) should be a good test.

I think more than the action itself, was the fact that it was done with almost no communication. We got an 'explanation post' a few hours before the patch hit. But absolutely no indication that the team thought the companions were broken for the past month (or I assume during beta? was there a beta?). Had the average player (or at least the forum reader) been aware this was an issue BioWare was working to resolve I think the reaction would have been a lot less vitriolic.

I can't imagine this game can suffer more on Metacritic than they did shortly after launch.

The companions they get start at rank 1? or 10?

oo that's a good idea, I may try that myself. Didn't know what to do with that stupid token.

I guess a good part of this patch is going to be in pointing out the imbalance in difficulty among all the H2s. Class and companion specific issues too, I suppose. Course then one wonders if any of that will be addressed

This is probably going to come off sarcastic but I really don't mean it as such. I wonder Reno, if you're interested in testing this stuff, if you'd be willing to get a full non aug'd green suit and see how you do? I'm really more than anything curious how gear scales down for those heroics and if that even matters. I know you can't do anything about the datacrons or presence buffs.

I don't have the numbers on me but when I looked last night on a mid 40s guardian she had about twice the output T7 did. And she was rank 5, vs T7 at rank 21. Still didn't end up using her because I wanted more influence on T7, but I think she's better than him at least.

I imagine they're waiting for the dust to settle or something. Just hope it doesn't take another month before we get some kind of response and then the next day a patch

So you're saying you haven't played through Fallen Empire yet?

I didn't try any of my 65s last night, was playing a mid 40s guardian. What I did notice was groups composed of two silvers almost killed me, had to use quite a bit of extra effort to take them down and often times I'd skip groups or wait for cooldowns on defensive abilities before pulls. It didn't bother me all that much but it was quite a difference from prior to the patch. I have a feeling I would not be able to solo any of the Heroic 2s at level, which I could before.