Thank you for letting us know your thoughts. the present choice of the Developers to fiddle with companion stats is substandard (to say it mildly). Many quicker and easier solutions to the problem have been suggested. my solution...simple: Provide an overall optional Companion buff available to all classes. Players then have an option if they wish to make their companions more powerful or not. The present Companion-gift option is...well, a pain in the nectar.

Character level 65. Sorceress Healer spec-ted. Needs strong DPS or Tank Companion. Right now Companions do not manage enough damage to complete some boss fights. Example. Manaan-Cyborg Stivastine 4 minute time limit. The requirement is not possible to complete with a healing Sorc because the DPS companion takes all the Argro and it is not possible to draw the Cyborg into the flames that destroy the shield. In order to complete this mission I had to respect to lightening. With the respected lightning Sorc the flashpoint could be completed relative easily. This shows that things are not level even within one class. Please provide an option that allows for such differences in classes. I understand that you can not test possible each and every class and player stile. So there (in my opinion) must be a relative large margin in companion abilities. In other world... make the companions powerful and provide an option for those who wish less powerful companions to have these.... or do it the other way around. the present companion gift option is... well, substandard, me thinks.

Yes I know...we are supposed to draw the cyborg into the fire...yet with a Healing Sorc...or sage... the Comp draws all the agro and it is not possible to lure the cyborg into the flames. Not sure if you ever played a dedicated healer... by the way... i respected to lightning and did the cyborg in 3 minutes flat without flames. but this is not the point.... the point is that there is a class that can not do this (and other bosses) except by fluke or respecting. So why does this class exist at all if it is not viable?

title said it all. The DEVS fiddle constantly with stats...especially Companion stats. Do they test the changes they make? I do not think so. Example: Solo- Flashpoint Manaan Cyborg Stivastin...time limit 4 minutes. Can not be done with a dedicated healing sorceress and a DPS companion+ combat droid. Impossible... Had to respect to Lightening Sorc and did it easily. this tells me clearly that they did not test things at all. I found the same mechanic with other Bosses... This is (in my opinion) not good enough. At least...if the Devs are too xxxx make respecting easier so it can be done on the spot and in the instance.

The Changes made now are only partly good news... By changing the game balance again you have not taken in account many of the heroic and flashpoint bosses. How do I know? Solo flashpoint Manaan - Cyborg - Stivastin with a timer of 4 minutes can NOT be taken down in 4 minutes by a dedicated healing Sorceress with a DPS Companion + a combat droid. (you never tested that...did you?) The fact is that by constantly changing companion specs (and other specs) WITHOUT testing these you mess up a lot of things that you did not intend to mess up but nevertheless do mess up. please stop twiddling stats and concentrate on a solid game-play, for right now things are in a MESS...indeed...more a Colossal MESS.

Diners and whiners. Snipers and gripers. Will you guys ever stop this. There are at least 20 threats about this and in all the bulk of posters tell you the game is mostly okay now. But no... you keep at it! If it is not the Companions then it is something else you gripe about like in this post. Really, REALLY... get a Life. If things are that mind-numbing for you then take a break and come back when the brain is not numb any longer.

I do not know what the Original Poster means by 'lots' of Alts. But i run one for every main class because of the Story content. To me every one of the Class stories had some good some mediocre and some boring parts, but how would i know if i never played these tales? So, it is worthwhile to have at least 8 Alts to me. In addition I run a few pure Grafter Alts and a pure Storage one. As for having too many Alts... Me thinks that there is the danger of burnout. I have already enough with running the 8 Main ones reasonably... but that is me....

Just did the final Illum battle slaying the false Emperor (Solo Mode). Soc level 63... Kehm level 8 influence...and the Battle Droid. Equipment: average 55 gear. Facts: It took me 15 mins to whittle Malgus down. The fight was slow and tedious and at one stage I wondered if I just ought to bail out. Sorry to say this.... All those crying that the companions are Overpowered it is your own fault. you gear up to max and have high influence with your Companions and then you complain the fights are way too easy. OF COURSE fights are easy that way. In any of the Twenty or so Games i played Fights were always easy when being overpowered. So please stop the crap comments for the Companions are fine and just right for the majority of players.

/signed

no one in their right mind could say This is not only harsh...it is outright insulting (to me). I have read the suggestions you are making several times in other posts...points being, it is not new and you are not the first one to think of it. The (as you call it) yammering will not shut up as long as those insisting that Comps are Overpowered will not stop rekindling the topic with new posts.

Yes It is so

Maybe i read this wrong... if i do ...i am sorry. To me it appears that the writer (and the one he responds to) equate game-play with erasing NPCs. and clubbing things in the game. If this is the case i would suggest seriously to engage in PvP play. Plenty of clubbing there and plenty of challenge. To me PvE games were and are always first about the Story... the fighting computer-pixel-people comes last and is more of a nuisance on the way (for me) to achieve what I wish to achieve. To make it clearer what i mean... One title gained as an achievement (to me) is more worth then clubbing a 1000 pixel NPCs.

In all the above you forgot one important statement: 'IN MY OPINION....' that is in your opinion.... Well, IN MY OPINION Grinding is the death of my enjoyment and i avoid grinding whenever I can. Running 14 chars I personally am happy for fast leveling and i miss the 12X EXP because there are so many other things for me to do and enjoy. Leveling is just a VERY minor part of the overall game experience FOR ME. Yes... Elites APPEAR easier to kill if you measure difficulty in the time it takes to erase one. Taking a long time to achieve something does not automatically translate into more difficult. It just makes it more tedious and boring in my opinion. My understanding of more difficult is to give Elites more skills that can take half a Player Avatar's health away. But how many people will like that? I would not... Well... all that I wrote is of course MY OPINION (which appears to be shared by many other players. But maybe I am wrong).

lol Yes... i suppose you could get rid of the companion. however... you do not. Why? Because then you can not chat? please define 'Somewhat difficult'. The game was not particularly difficult before the update either for there were always ways to make things easier.

Roflol. Yep... I got the same problem with Maelstorm Prison. Kira and the combat droid hammered the final boss without even making a dent in his armor. I watched the spectacle for 3mins before getting sick of it. It was my Avatar that did all the damage in the end. Overpowered NPC Companions... come on... they are just right now to be somewhat useful.

The NPC Companion Overpowered or not Overpowered Forum-War has been going on for a week now. How to solve the issue? Here is an Idea for the Developers and Players to ponder. Do away with automatic level advancement and... Introduce Player Avatar and separate NPC Companion Trainers in order to advance in levels. Then every player for himself / herself can decide how difficult they want the game to be by advancing a level or not advancing a level. This also would do away with the need for automatic level adjustment. Okay ... now I will not read the forums for a week to escape all the flaming.

I agree. The problem is NOT the Comps but the easy Content (I expect the content to get more difficult eventually). As for the Comps... even before update 4 I used my Comp Treek only as a healer and now I do so with all Comps. So it does not matter to me how strong the Comps are or not. The comps either heal properly or they do not. Using comps as Tanks (too me) is just lazy game-play.

???? what are you talking about? Companion gear??? Avatar Gear???? Crafting Gear???? Buying Gear????

No, I am apologizing. You are NOT trolling at all. that came out wrong... sorry. Yes, a great many things could have been done different... but they were not. Yes, they could have buffed player avatars... if they had, i guess people would cry by now that the Avatars are too powerful. I for one am grateful that the companion NPCs are as they are because: a) Before 4 I only played with Treek as a healer and only with my healing Sorc would I take a Comp as tank. b) now the Comp actually heals my Avatar instead of healing themselves. c) there is really now no reason to use a Comp as a Tank ever ( unless one chooses to play a healer) and with that the argument that Comps can solo high-end NPC's is mute to me. My avatar does the fighting and the Companion does the healing. That is it.

look... the entire issue is mute anyhow. who cares if the companions can solo a double gold star NPC either put the comps on passive.... or, just have them healing. then players can be the heroes they want to be. But no... next comes that the Companions heal way too much and so there is no challenge either. Roflol. Why do some people want to be clubbed? Question in my mind: are they Masochists? The answer to me is obvious. People are so bored with the game they 'Troll' on the forums just to stir up things a little. Easy solution: go somewhere else and Troll.

If you 'Feel' like a sidekick you most likely are one. Solutions there are many.

Apology not accepted. Leave the Companions alone and move on.

there is an easy solution to that. Do not hand in your quests and instead grind your way to the top if you 'FEEL' cheated out of grinding. Yes i know... but what you described happens seldom enough and only if one collects quests rewards until the very end. Happened to me also. and i was happy for it.

spot on... Thanks

Well spoken and spot on... Thanks