My Companions are useless.

[Xanerithe]

I am a Jedi Sage, dps spec'd into balance, (I tried Tele but didn't like it and felt weaker) Currently I am lvl 36 and my companions are utterly worthless. I geared out Qyzen as best as I can hes in full defense/shield gear with blue and epic quality gear. He has almost 11k hp and even though he is geared, he gets taken out by strong npcs and elite npcs incredibly fast. Why are companions so underpowered? My healing companion is also geared for his level and his healing sucks, he can't keep me up to save his life.

 

My dps companion is lol, his gear is not as good as the other 2 but it's still 34-36 with greens and some blues and his dps is laughable.

 

Don't get me wrong I am not saying that Qyzen needs to be godly, but he isn't even remotely strong and thats with good gear, I could imagine if he had just greens.

 

Now I know you can say just heal him, and I do and I also put my shield up on him as well, it doesn't matter. I am dps spec so my heals are not strong.

 

Bioware either buff companions or nerf the damage enemies use, the damage they do is way to high.

[Felioats]

At level 25, I'm pleased with the effectiveness of Qyzen.

 

Sometimes though, even as a Seer, I've found its better for him if I DPS his enemies down rather than heal him. He doesn't deal much damage, so killing his targets limits the amount of time they have to hurt him. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure, as they say. You need to do both.

 

Pulling with Lift helps a lot, too.

[Redderic]

personally i would say to pvp to 40 and use the bg comms to buy him a full set of pvp gear. its what i did and he went from subpar to great. still mostly use theran but thats because im tank specced.

if pvp isnt your thing try joining a guild or look for a group on your planet and quest together. then you get the perk of gaining social points as well.

sorry to be of little help but i dont see them making the companions so good that we no longer have to group any time soon. the game would hardly be an mmo then.

[Amirault]

Qyzen is a tank. If you don't heal him, CC, or kill the mobs he dies. So for a shadow Qyzen isn't great, but for a sage he works fine. He isn't supposed to be a main tank for raids (even though I used him to tank 4 man Heroics). If Tharan Cedrax isn't keeping you alive you are pulling too much and not CCing. Tharan made leveling as balance (Force lift 3 mobs at once???) the easiest thing ever. Once you get force quake you won't even need to do anything, but that unless there is a strong mob in the pull, just cast it at your feet and let Tharan keep you at full health.

[Sporeegg]

This is probably coming from a man, who doesnt know, how much you and your companion can take, and how valuable your CC/stun cooldowns are. Qyzen can tank 1 mob for a limited amount of time before dying, you can lift the hardest mob, qyzen tanks the second hardest, you stun it, then use projectile on a mob without stars.

 

Tbh, I tend to run out of Force rather than Wyzen dying before me. DPS, while CCing, healing and HoTing Wyzen, applying a Shield every 20 secs. and DPS. My latest catch was the Lv 27 Jedi Master in Tatooine, it is a gold star melee mob with Force Leap between you and Qyzie. I failed miserably on the first try, but then I killed him.

 

And to be honest, what do you want? A companion to solo every Heroic or Group mission, to solo Flashpoints? That is clearly not intended.

[Dubblebass]

Qyzen is a tank. If you don't heal him, CC, or kill the mobs he dies. So for a shadow Qyzen isn't great, but for a sage he works fine. He isn't supposed to be a main tank for raids (even though I used him to tank 4 man Heroics). If Tharan Cedrax isn't keeping you alive you are pulling too much and not CCing. Tharan made leveling as balance (Force lift 3 mobs at once???) the easiest thing ever. Once you get force quake you won't even need to do anything, but that unless there is a strong mob in the pull, just cast it at your feet and let Tharan keep you at full health.

 

This is how I feel as well (as seer spec). Queen is fine and has been for me all the way to 41 so far. He tanks, I heal and dps. I haven't played as a dps spec, so I am to sure how he is for that spec (I hear Theran is better for that spec) but as seer, Qyzen works great.

[Humbe]

I'm 33. Qyzen isn't optimal as I'm tank specced myself, but the healer is doing limited heals too, so I'm torn between which one to run with. When running with Qyzen I can basically just run into any regular pull. Qyzen holds his own and keeps a mob or two away from me while I finish the rest. While running with the healer I need to mind him a bit more as I need to protect him a bit more than Qyzen.

 

Fighting elite mobs, it's also a toss. Using the healer, I get some healing, but not very fast. By manually controlling Qyzen's and my own taunt to divide damage between us, I feel like I stay alive for about as long as I do with the healer.

 

As I love to solo and seldom group I'd love for companions to be close enough to players such that I can solo some two man stuff. I feel that's tricky unless I outlevel the content quite a bit though. But I totally understand that they want us to group up and cooperate too.

 

Try running without a companion and you see how useful they are. Allthough not close to as powerful as a player, they are a great utility.

[Requimo]

I am a Jedi Sage, dps spec'd into balance, (I tried Tele but didn't like it and felt weaker) Currently I am lvl 36 and my companions are utterly worthless. I geared out Qyzen as best as I can hes in full defense/shield gear with blue and epic quality gear. He has almost 11k hp and even though he is geared, he gets taken out by strong npcs and elite npcs incredibly fast. Why are companions so underpowered? My healing companion is also geared for his level and his healing sucks, he can't keep me up to save his life.

 

My dps companion is lol, his gear is not as good as the other 2 but it's still 34-36 with greens and some blues and his dps is laughable.

 

Don't get me wrong I am not saying that Qyzen needs to be godly, but he isn't even remotely strong and thats with good gear, I could imagine if he had just greens.

 

Now I know you can say just heal him, and I do and I also put my shield up on him as well, it doesn't matter. I am dps spec so my heals are not strong.

 

Bioware either buff companions or nerf the damage enemies use, the damage they do is way to high.

 

I'm a lvl 41 tank specced Shadow and with Tharan ( healer dude) game becomes so easy that I take Zenith with me to add some challange so I don't know what you are talking about.

[Bradick]

You must have got a different Qyzen than I do. Or you have his stats wrong and have not turned on his skills. In groups I pull him out to tank because frankly he is better at keeping the mobs on him. I have often wondered he would be getting nerfed. Now if you going to a planet 5 levs over yours then your going to have problems because a lot of skills want hit and all your fights will be long. You have done something wrong and need to rethink. I would suggest going up the tele. tree and get that 20% to force armor. Use it before a fight and the start to you heal rotation. I usually let his hp fall until force shield comes back up then start rotation then go back to mob and repeat. You can also put force armor on your self and lead the atk you will only take a few hits before he has them off ya and remember to make sure you have been giving him gifts. You can also use your force push to get range dps closer to him so they will catch his aoe. If they took my Qyzen I would quit…

[Zerosaike]

The problem is that Tank companions like Qyzen don't get any boost to their survivability past a paltry 15% shield chance when in their tank stance. Every PC tank stance comes with a sizable boost to armor, threat, and other perks. Obviously PC tanks should be more effective than companions. But, looking at the numbers, the Tank companions are only marginally beefier than the DPS companions (and this survivability is based on shield chance, not armor) and can't put out nearly as much damage. I believe that in beta they had an armor buff in their tank stance and that would do a lot to fix their current issues.

 

As a tank-spec Shadow at level 19, I have ~27% armor for kinetic and energy in my tank stance along with 14% dodge and 20%/20% shielding. That feels pretty beefy, a few story fights aside, especially since this is before the huge jump in mob difficulty after Alderaan. Qyzen? Admittedly, I haven't geared him out much past the quest greens. I can't afford to. Still, I would hope for better than 12% armor. He doesn't even get the bonuses to defense I get. If I don't throw Guard on him, he can't even handle grabbing Strong aggro, let alone Elites.

[OCoChoco]

If you can't do 2+ content for your level as a sage, you are doing it wrong.

 

Tharan is the most OP companion with the ability Holiday, a 10 sec (force lift) recast 8 seconds... you can use that ability to gain distance and TT until the mob is on you... repeat.

(i turn off both his HoT and DoT)

 

Always Force Lift the hardest to kill and kill the easiest one first.

Edited January 3, 2012 by OCoChoco

[Xanerithe]

Why people are talking about being shadow in a sage focused thread is beyond me. Edited January 3, 2012 by Xanerithe

[Isooc]

Ever since i've gotten Zenith, I've never looked back. With the right gear he's epic. Does Brilliant Damage (His Sniper Shot usually hits for 1.5k - 2.5k) and he can tank more then Nadia can.

 

I have no issue taking down Gold Elites and Strongs with Zenith with me. Nadia on the other hand is down right useless to me lol.

 

I suppose it does depend on Spec as well with me being Seer Spec i can pretty much tank or heal Zenith to allow him to tank and destroy the NPCs.

[Xanerithe]

Zenith is meh, he hasn't made me say zomg hes awesome and hes in blues his level.

[Ranoroth]

I'm currently a level 28 full seer spec (not even the requisite points in TK because I want to get new abilities faster), but I find Qyzen by far the most useful of the three companions I have thus far. His gear is things I've found in quests, with few (if any, I can't remember) mods. That being said, my tactics against the following types go like this:

 

I can solo things up to and including Strong. A Companion is icing.

Elites I treat as a dps race. Imo it's more efficient for me to be a little risky with Qyzen than to spend the extra 10 seconds healing him up during combat. Throw a shield on him before the fight and whenever possible during, but other than that just keep TTing/dotting.

Champions are difficult. I usually burn the 20 minute CD HoT just so I can safely noble sacrifice, but I usually come out ahead. It's always close though.

I don't know this from experience, but I'm pretty sure I can't solo any Heroics yet. Qyzen isn't beefy enough and I don't have the Force management to beat two elites + two strong.

 

In comparing him to Tharan:

One of us will have to tank. Qyzen does this better than I do. One of us will have to heal. I do this better than Tharan does. In both cases I'm the one doing the healing, but it's far more efficient to heal Qyzen than Tharan. That, and he does much better damage. I treat him as a tanky dps, healing him only when he needs attention (Force Armor -> Rejuvenate -> Conveyanced Deliverance).

 

Hope this helps!

[tufy]

My healing companion is also geared for his level and his healing sucks

 

I stopped reading here, mate. It's not the companions, it's you. You're doing something terribly wrong if Cedrax can't keep you up as Balance.

 

Ever since i've gotten Zenith, I've never looked back. With the right gear he's epic. Does Brilliant Damage (His Sniper Shot usually hits for 1.5k - 2.5k) and he can tank more then Nadia can.

 

Interesting, I never really used Zenith, finding him worthless when I got him. As soon as I got Cedrax, Qyzen landed a desk job, then I used Cedrax exclusively all the way up to Nadia, only testing Zenith and Iresso to find them lacking compared to Holiday's sidekick. Nadia, on the other hand, instantly charmed me with her exceptional AoE dps. To top it off, I could gear her up quite easily, as she uses similar gear to mine.

 

Now at 50, Nadia's my go-to girl for all but the very hardest of hard encounters, where Cedrax still wins the day.

 

All in all, for me as TK sage: Cedrax≥Nadia>>>all others

Edited January 3, 2012 by tufy

[Xanerithe]

I stopped reading here, mate. It's not the companions, it's you. You're doing something terribly wrong if Cedrax can't keep you up as Balance.

 

 

 

Interesting, I never really used Zenith, finding him worthless when I got him. As soon as I got Cedrax, Qyzen landed a desk job, then I used Cedrax exclusively all the way up to Nadia, only testing Zenith and Iresso to find them lacking compared to Holiday's sidekick. Nadia, on the other hand, instantly charmed me with her exceptional AoE dps. To top it off, I could gear her up quite easily, as she uses similar gear to mine.

 

Now at 50, Nadia's my go-to girl for all but the very hardest of hard encounters, where Cedrax still wins the day.

 

All in all, for me as TK sage: Cedrax≥Nadia>>>all others

 

a single strong vs me and Cedrax healing, he doesn't do a good job and I use my shields I am usually 35-45% after the fight all my gear is equal to my level, even a few epics. Cedrax cannot keep me up if it's an elite. Qyzen dies to fast against elites, I am dps healing him slows down the fight and ends up the same way, because my heals arent strong.

[csward]

This is probably coming from a man, who doesnt know, how much you and your companion can take, and how valuable your CC/stun cooldowns are. Qyzen can tank 1 mob for a limited amount of time before dying, you can lift the hardest mob, qyzen tanks the second hardest, you stun it, then use projectile on a mob without stars.

 

Tbh, I tend to run out of Force rather than Wyzen dying before me. DPS, while CCing, healing and HoTing Wyzen, applying a Shield every 20 secs. and DPS. My latest catch was the Lv 27 Jedi Master in Tatooine, it is a gold star melee mob with Force Leap between you and Qyzie. I failed miserably on the first try, but then I killed him.

And to be honest, what do you want? A companion to solo every Heroic or Group mission, to solo Flashpoints? That is clearly not intended.

 

Except Qyzen always uses his AoE and knocks the enemies out of force life.

[Arkene]

Foss has been my standard comp all the way through the game. He holds the agro and deals out the damage and i keep him alive and occasionnalyl do some dps myself. None of the other companions do this as easily.

[Amaranth]

Hmm, not really sure what to tell you. I'm currently level 34 Balance spec, and use Qyzen pretty much exclusively. He has about half orange gear with up to date mods and half random blue/green stuff. I don't have any problems keeping him alive against elites or even a lot of champions.

 

For regular/strong mobs I usually leave him in DPS stance, bubble before the pull, and then just DPS the rest of the fight; he usually ends up around 75-80% health. For elites I switch him to tank stance, keep bubble up, throw the occasional Deliverance at him when needed, and DPS the rest of the fight. Near the end of the fight I go to all out burn so Qyzen's health suffers a bit, but he almost never dies unless I do something stupid.

 

I guess if you don't bubble him he might get hit pretty hard, but I don't know why you wouldn't use one of your primary skills, even in TK or Balance spec. Mix heals and DPS and there's really no reason that Qyzen should ever die.

[Tuqui-tuqui]

I don't know this from experience, but I'm pretty sure I can't solo any Heroics yet. Qyzen isn't beefy enough and I don't have the Force management to beat two elites + two strong.

 

You can solo Heroics 2+ with Qyzen and you as a Seer. CC the gold star and DPS/heal through the two silvers. Just make sure you turn off his AoE attacks (but not taunts) from Qyzen's bar. You will never see two golds and two silvers together in a 2+ area.

[Flippit]

Except Qyzen always uses his AoE and knocks the enemies out of force life.

 

Have you tried... Turning off that AoE then? If that is preventing you from using CCs properly, and not using CCs is making stuff too hard, then it might be an idea to just turn it off so Qyzen will not use the AoE, hence allowing you to CC like never before. Try it out, maybe it will be easier?

 

MTFBWY

Edited January 4, 2012 by Flippit