I have a similar problem with that mission: i completed it today, even though i didn't have to in order to recruit Bowdaar (my char is smuggler). after wrapping it up with Hylo on Odessen, Bowdaar is present in the base as a NPC, but nothing happens when i interact with him, and i'm not able to summon him as a companion anymore (previously, i had used the galaxy terminal to get him back right away after KOTFE). When i open my companions window, he's there but in the "alliance recruits" category, hence not summonable.

One could argue that "Chatterbox" Treek was already irritating when she had more than one sentence to her repertoire, but, yeah...

My point exactly. I have no problem with the decision to change Aric's default weapon to a rifle to better fit his backstory, but it shouldn't be done at the expense of player choice. And why decide to remove electrostaff proficiencies? There were already few characters able to equip them in the first place. I'm sure i'm not the only one to have bought the Cathar Warstaff (400 Cartel Coins is no small change by the way, not to mention legacy unlock on top of it) with the intention of giving it to companions.

You're absolutely right, my mistake. I should proofread more

Changing Aric's main weapon to a sniper rifle may be coherent with his backstory, it really wouldn't have hurt to simply add this proficiency to his previous ones, and leave the choice of equipment to players. When we roleplay our characters, companions backstories really shouldn't matter, otherwise we're playing Attack of the Clones 300 years too early. As i said, more options is the way to go. That being said, Aric was just an example, and personally i'm much more annoyed at the Cathar Warstaff issue.

Since 4.0, quite a few of my Companions are no longer able to equip the weapons i assigned them, some of which i had bought with Cartel Coins (i.e. real money). Worst offender in my opinion is the Cathar Warstaff, as discussed in this thread: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=842924. This rather defeats the purpose of removing gear requirements in the first place. Now my Sith Warrior has a Warstaff she can't use (previously wielded by Jaesa), and an assault cannon (also from the Cartel Market) is gathering dust in my Vanguard's locker, since apparently Jorgan's arms have become too weak to lift it properly. There's no coherence to these changes either. As a result of what seems to be arbitrary choices, some companions are better lucked regarding this issue than others (my Sgt Rusk still has his assault cannon, for instance). In any case, with companion gear requirements for combat gone, logic would dictate we have more cosmetic options for them than we used to, not less as it is the case here.

/signed

Yes, please!

I really, really hope that's not working as intended. Now that equipment has no impact on companion stats, we should have more cosmetic options, not less. Now my Sith warrior has a Cathar Warstaff she can't do anything with. I don't want a refund, i want to be able to equip Jaesa with it like i used to. Little details like this tend to ruin the experience of an otherwise great expansion.