Probably my favorite shadow/companion pair up is player-tank + Nadia. Pre-55, you just use her as a dps gear bank (gear her up as you would gear yourself in dps form, pretty much). Early on that means she just inherits your "hand me down" items. As you get up in levels, she can be a repository for the gear you use when you respec to dps. The problem with Nadia, is you don't get her until late. But that kind of fits with 12xXP. You can rush story quests and get her relatively fast, but you still will not have her at your lowest levels. The healer options for a shadow (treek/theran), are both more of a problem to keep geared up, as they do not share your gear. If you have another high level character, that could be a good reason to choose one or the other (aim/treek, cunning/theran).

I'm insignificantly geared. You can definitely do this in 156 with Nadia and a tank. But to do so, you have to get in all the right interrupts, stuns, and where appropriate move away from strong attacks. Nadia, needs all the best shadow at level DPS gear you can give her (you can swap with her when you want to instance as DPS instead of tank). Cooldowns need to be available, make sure Nadia's high dps attacks are not on cooldown from previous trash. I'm not sure it would be possible as say, a balance shadow with Nadia, since I haven't actually tried that, yet! But I do have a 49 balance shadow, that leveled through pvp. Maybe I'll try Nadia for dailies if I can give up pvp at 49.

Get Nadia as soon as possible, she's awesome, and shares your gear. Pre-nadia, I leveled as balance. You can choose the healer that is easiest for you to gear. Why balance? Mainly because it was fun, we had instant lifts, and with the latest patch, instant lifts are back I think! Really fun to use the cc's for the various level situations. But once you have Nadia, I'd say tank spec. Put all your best DPS gear on Nadia. Be sure to leave her explosive jumping skill active (it will make for interesting pulls where you'll struggle to keep aggro off her, and her vocal emotes sync up hilariously with the leaping force explosions). She is just incredibly fun with a tank spec player character. For some champions, I'll use Theran. But most, it's Nadia. Even post self heal nerf, she's just more fun, albeit much riskier. As others have suggested, bleed spec on Nadia. If the enemies are very low HP, they'll die fast regardless. If they have enough for a tick or more of bleed, then it was the right choice. Ideally I guess you'd swap her around, but for leveling, it's just less hassle to keep her in bleed all the time.

I am not a guilded player, also don't pug story mode ops. So on my shadow tank, and ops healer, no raid gear, just quest items, and a few heroic 4 man items. For the shadow tank, cooldowns, interrupts, and Nadia. For the reaping fields guy, fight in your healing puddle, Nadia with all dps options enabled. He dies before he can finish his second dps cycle. I can only imagine how terribly easy this is with raid gear. My healer, it's actually a bit harder, but still, it's interrupts and cooldowns. Treek in tank mode. If I miss an interrupt Treek dies and I have to kite a bit. My dps companions are not geared enough to see how that would work. Botherium beast, on shadow tank I just melee, interrupt extract, and sprint to one shot healing tentacles. Stand in healing puddle, and use Nadia for dps. Now in raids, I do agree that shadow tanks need some help. Personally, I don't like losing the self heals, but it's hard to justify a shadow tank for a run of the mill guild, when easier tank options are available. But for soloing and 4 mans, shadows are fine in tank mode.

I actually like her vocalizations and animations. I hardly ever read what she's saying, just like the japanese anime kind of wild emotion she expresses. Once in a great while I'll read what she's said, and it's always been ok. I never liked ewoks in the star wars movies. So I understand not liking her based on that. But it's been a long time since the introduction of "ewoks" to star wars. I quite like the way treek fits into swtor. A well geared healer, or tank character will work better with a geared dps companion. Treek provides a really good option for weak/moderate geared characters, or very high DPS characters at max level. For levelling, she is absolutely best for any character that uses aim as a main stat. And arguably best overall for any character (I prefer using a companion that uses the same main stat as the main character for economy and ease of upgrading).

If you have legacy 40, you have 2 options. 1 million credits at a cartel bazaar NPC for her "contract", OR you can use cartel coins. Less than legacy 40, you have to use cartel coins to get her "contract" through the cartel shop. You then click on her "contract", it turns a quest available icon on for a robot NPC in the cartel bazaar. Now you're on your way to acquisition of the Treek companion. Once you've done an acquisition questline for Treek, you could choose to make her available to all characters on that legacy account. The way you do that, is log out and wait a few minutes (20?). Log back in, open up your inventory, and in the corner you'll see a "collections" icon. Click on that, it brings up a GUI page, early on you'll see "specials", near the top of the collections GUI page. Click on that, and fumble about, you'll see the option to make treek available to all characters on the legacy account.

I was completely non-receptive to the treek companion. Mainly due to it's ties to the cartel market. I personally find the whole "packs" thing unappealing. So Treek gets lumped in there. But I had a ton of cartel coins from never spending and accumulating as a subscriber. With a new smuggler healer at 55, I decided to try Treek out as a tank. I put mostly blue modifications in her gear, 50-55, with a mix of aim/tank and aim/dps items. Whatever I could craft myself on my cybertech main character. My verdict after Orincon? Treek is completely worth it as a tank, probably good as a healer also. As an undergeared new 55 smuggler healer, I was able to solo that tower gold boss with his "reaping the fields" attacks. Which was actually tougher than the champions in the heroic2. My guess is Treek would also be good for a very high DPS character as a tank/sometimes healer. As long as you killed stuff fast. I'm not sure how she would work out pre-55. Perhaps best with a main character that also uses aim. Otherwise keeping Treek geared as you level might be a hassle.

As far as sub-55 pvp goes, I'm often top heals republic side. And I think the imps notice that, so they do indeed target me. But I'm a balance shadow. So no. Republic is not stacked with healers every match. And yes indeed, some imps do target top heals in a warzone. So I have to disagree with this post, unless... Unless you include "self-healing" classes as healers. Then I guess, ok. Republic is stacked with self healing shadows, and sentinels.

I'm on Begeren Colony, and play sub-55, 55 (non-ranked) WZs regularly. No lag at all since 2.0 patch. I'm on the west coast, on a high end PC with 2560x1600 screen. Using graphics settings suggested by Nividia (all pretty much at highest settings). Once in a great while, I'll run into the ability activation lag issue.

Some prefer watching a woman, some prefer watching a man, this game allows you to watch either gender as a character. Feel free to watch men if you want, no need for anyone to understand that, your preference, whatever it is, is fine. There's also the voice acting.

I've been here since launch, may play sometime after lunch. Still subscribed. But I haven't played for a week. So please consider me for the stuff giving as you cheerily exit!

You need to think about your class and chosen specification when choosing a main companion to level efficiently with. If you're a shadow consular, then it's Nadia. She "inherits" all your old gear as you level. With her, it's best if you tank, but she can work as a tank for a dps or healer. The main thing is you don't have to expend resources on her gear, since she just gets your "hand me downs". Smugglers, it's probably Risha or Gus. Bounty hunter, Mako is so good, and shows up so early, she might be worth the hassle of gearing as you level. For troopers it's easy. Pick a companion that uses your same gear, and plan out your spec for leveling up with that companion. Works great.

Force lift can be a great way to control aggro in some pve situations when combined with typical line of sight trickery. A shadow tank can initiate a bogus cc, which grabs initial aggro. As the aggro'd group closes, real cc can be applied, non-cc'd enemies continue on to the shadow tank. Since you used LOS after initial aggro, the CC is safe from AOE. Pretty specific to pve, but it's one of the perks for a pve shadow. Late edit for increased clarity: For the purposes of this thread, the shadow tanks lift is considered "bogus", keeping in line with earlier ideas expressed in this thread. The shadow tanks "bogus" lift initiates aggro, the shadow tank being out of line of sight "pulls" the now aggro'd group. "Real cc", would be applied by other members of the shadow tanks group as the aggro'd pack closes (e.g., sage lift, smuggler slice, commando conc. round). For a tough pack you can even get other pre combat cc's in prior to the shadow lift for an even more controlled situation.

<doubled post deleted>

A nice overarching goal would be to use your mouse for fast camera movement, and character rotation, and a keypress for forward, or strafes (left or right). Avoid moving with your "backwards walk" key. Instead, re-orient your character with a much more fluid (and fast) mouse input. And keybindings. SWTOR provides a great interface for altering your keybindings. Very intuitive. Try it out! A nice keybinding approach is to shift over your "forward/ backward/StrafeLeft/StrafeRight/RotateLeft/RotateRight" from "WSAD" towards the right a bit. For example, you could move over to "RFET". That will give you more "real estate" right next to your primary movement keys. Use the keys in the immediate vicinity for your most important keybinds, the more critical the keybind, the closer it should be to your "home" (e.g., "RFET") position. You can place a tiny nubbin of keyboard compatible cement on the "R" to help you remember that position without looking. Once you have that all set up, head over to a training dummy, and practice moving in a circle while using your offensive and defensive skills. Circle left, and right. Attack while on approach, attack while running away. Start slow, gradually increase the pace of your keyboard inputs. After a bit of that, you'll see a large improvement in the fluidity of your attack/defense/heal sequences.

I'm currently leveling up, mostly with Kira. Watchmen spec. The vast majority of my questing is at orange level (on Hoth at the moment). Most of the quest rewards are not usable since they outlevel my character. I was surprised. Most other classes, there is much more call for using a healer. But with watchmen spec, keeping gear up to date (for you, and especially for Kira) means there is no real need to use the healer companion. Take skills that increase your healing, and cc (valor for increased centering, zeal for burn effect healing, close quarters, watchguard, focused leap). Other than that get the damage increasing skills. Use your cc, keep up your dots, target Kira at dangerous enemies first, you clean up weaks before helping her out. Doc of course, also works. But it's slower, so I find I mostly bring him out for conversations so he can get some affection points.

If you look over time, there is a ton of absolute garbage information presented on this forum. If someone wants to spew out "feelings" based opinions in a game built from math, it's ok. But it is clearly not anywhere near optimal. That kind of post is always going to draw flack in a thread looking for "best". I really, really appreciate kitru, and other math based posters that provide informed opinions, and have taken the time to bolster those opinions with math. Even if I'm a player that can't be in a guild that is clearing top end content easily, it's nice to optimize my balance dps or tank shadow as best I can. That simply would not be possible if everyone posted their wild hair notions with no supporting math. Or well spoken, reasoned opinions as to why certain optimizations work better than others. Providing math, and detailed analysis, is simply fantastic. Kitru and keyboardninja come to mind, but there are also others. Thanks. For being patient. Your well written and informed posts are a boon for the swtor community.

There's another option to that noted above. Once you hit valor cap (40) in pre-50 pvp, you get the ability to purchase ranked tokens. If you do it right, you can be capped on normal and ranked tokens by the time you hit 50. Once you cap the higher level tokens, I'd convert valor over to hp and damage reduction pvp stims until 50.

While it's important to note that shadows never, ever kick privates or shoot people in the back with a shotgun. Probably, one of the main things to note, is that a shadow will not heal another person. No green healy animations from a shadow. Scoundrel: green healies, dirty kicks, sucker punch/backblasts, robot/biologic long cc's Shadow: pole sabers (but no pole dancing), can throw rocks and whack things with it's pole saber (sages have to keep their saber in their pocket to throw rocks).

Sorry OP, I really, really like that sabotage charge, and other skills automatically trigger a cover mechanism reposition. As a smuggler healer, that becomes an awesome tactic in pvp, still great in pve. Throw some heals out in certain areas of a map, as your green healy actions generate player hate, and they reconvene on you, throw a sabotage charge! If you're positioned well, you get a super fast reposition. Throw your charge, invis/dodge, then reposition for more heals or attacks. The forced cover animations and repositioning can be a huge advantage. Just play around with it a bit.

One fun way to level is to put 3 points in Bedside Manner (increases cunning), and 2 points in Underworld Medicine (100% chance to grant upper hand). Then... Jump to dirty fighting, work your way up to Dirty Escape (3 points ranged/tech critical chance, 2 points alacrity, 2 points dirty escape). After that start, focus on anything that increases your healing output from sawbones. In pvp, you kick everything, hit them while they're recovering from your kick, and heal. In pve, yes! Again, kick all the red things! Retarget and do some green healy stuff, then kick again! Lots of fun, worked well for questing, h2/4s, and flashpoints.

One fun way to level is to put 3 points in Bedside Manner (increases cunning), and 2 points in Underworld Medicine (100% chance to grant upper hand). Then... Jump to dirty fighting, work your way up to Dirty Escape (3 points ranged/tech critical chance, 2 points alacrity, 2 points dirty escape). After that start, focus on anything that increases your healing output from sawbones. In pvp, you kick everything, hit them while they're recovering from your kick, and heal. In pve, yes! Again, kick all the red things! Retarget and do some green healy stuff, then kick again! Lots of fun, worked well for questing, h2/4s, and flashpoints.

Another vote for Nadia. She wears the same gear you do, the rewards from dailies tied to your class? Shift some over to Nadia when they're no longer a direct benefit to you. Give her a crit/surge oriented focus, and a dps oriented dual bladed lightsaber. Add some power after you get her to 30%+ crit and 70%+ crit damage. Turn on all of her offensive abilities (even the blast them hither and yon thing). If you want to have the option of vanishing out of combat, turn off her dot. Then all you have to do is keep aggro off her! Do everything you can as tank to keep from hearing her distressed emote, and you'll clear through the dailies very fast. You'll still need a geared up Theran for soloing some of the white starred champions, h2s and h4s, but even there... As you gear up it's much more interesting to make it work with Nadia. That's assuming you're a tank spec of course. Maybe, Zeniths heavier armor is a factor when you expect your companion to semi-tank. But if you yourself are the tank, the fun of having a super dps Nadia can't be matched by Zenith. Zenith also does not share your gear rewards, making him more problematic on equipment.

The old animation for project was clearly inferior to it's mirror skill imperial side with regards to pvp. Huge, unending tirades raged about the imbalance. In my opinion, it looked great. Those great looking, massive rock throws meant imperials could dodge your attack in certain scenarios. I liked it, despite the unending forum rage against project at that time. The new animation, perhaps not as impressive looking. But functionally, it's on par with it's mirror skill. The parity is nice, and certainly is something to "like". Maybe an easy compromise would be to have the old animation style in effect for PVE encounters, newer more balanced animation for PVP. Sure, people would still complain, but it would be a whole new crop of people! Maybe it could be a lore thing, along the following lines: Having a PVP animation, and different PVE animation for project makes my head hurt, making me feel unbalanced. It also interferes with my ideas about the lore regarding yanking septic tanks out of the ground to hurl at my enemies. FIX IT!

Scoundrel healing tree. But for fun, get some "dirty fighting" tree points early on: No Holds Barred (3) Black Market Mods (2) Dirty Escape (2) Other than that, typical sawbones, adding in the 3% healing points from "scrapper" tree very late in your leveling process. Keeping Bowdar and Akavvi up while they have aoe skills turned on is really fun. Turn off their aoes if you want them to fight safely in situations where you need to keep both your sap and slice cc's unmolested. Get good at directing them to keep aggro off you, and use dirty kick with abandon! You can solo just about any heroic2 while leveling, and many heroic4s. What you learn doing this also works exceedingly well in flashpoints. Pvp, maybe you'd change it up a bit at very high levels. But a heavy sawbones with a good dirty kick is great in lower level pug pvp.