Vette

[caultonpos]

Is it worth gearing vetter up (im level 16) or will she be replaced in the next 5 levels or so?

[Xargyn]

Vette provides a lot of DPS support. If you don't need that, then you can gear up the droid that comes with the ship for a healer until you get your second class companion. That companion will provide both heals and dps and will join your crew after you complete your class story line on the planet that follows Dromuund Kaas. Edited February 3, 2012 by Xargyn

[Kibaken]

Vette provides a lot of DPS support. If you don't need that, then you can gear up the droid that comes with the ship for a healer until you get your second class companion. That companion will provide both heals and dps and will join your crew after you complete your class story line on Balmorra.

 

Fixed.

[Tumri]

I leveled all the way to 50 with Vette. Having said that I'll have to admit that it would have been 10x easier with Quinn. Using Vette to 50 is like leveling up on Nightmare mode. It's a constant struggle to clear mobs quickly while also keeping yourself alive. Many packs will require waiting on Channeled Hatred and some of the tougher mini-bosses will require the use of your 20m cooldown. I personally didn't have many difficulties and never wiped on any of the storyline quests that people on the forums seem to QQ about(Draagh comes to mind as one that's QQ'd about a lot but personally I found it easily done by chaining cooldowns and bursting as hard as I could with Carnage spec).

 

TLDR - Use Vette if you want a challenging leveling experience unlike any other MMO's pitiful grindy leveling processes. Use Quinn if you want to breeze through content like in WoW.

[Roda]

As a mid 30's Marauder, I've only been forced to switch to our healer companion for one class quest. This happened on Alderaan and was basically a marathon fight against triggered waves of mobs. While I could get about half way through on Vette, my multiple deaths convinced me to temporarily switch to the healer.

 

Vette is a strong ranged dps Companion with decent AoE damage. If you're running an Annihilation spec character, then your self-healing and defensive cool downs should be enough to keep Vette viable in non-Heroic quest situations. Yet if you're not running Annihilation and want to try to solo Heroic quests, then Vette simply won't cut it.

 

Based on my Alderaan experience, I've found that Vette is the faster Companion. Together we can blaze down things rediculously fast as you play with a "pure aggression" style. Compared to Vette, things are much slower with the healing Companion since they mostly just freeze mobs which you're not fighting and then spam some heals on you. While the healer is far safer, you also kill mobs slower since you're basically having to solo dps them all down. (Even with having to heal up in between fights while using Vette, the Vette option still seems to be the faster soloing path.)

 

Another key factor for players is the whole situation about character personalities. In general terms, your healer Companion is almost the complete opposite of Vette in terms of mental and emotional make up. If you find Vette annoying as a character, then the healer may be enjoyable for you as a NPC. Yet if you are entertained by Vette, then the healer will often seem like they've got a board shoved up their rear end. It's definitely something to keep in mind.

Edited February 3, 2012 by Roda

[OniGanon]

Even accounting for stopping to heal up every second fight, I've found using Vette or Jaesa quicker than using Quinn. Which is good, because I don't like Quinn.

[Alyta]

Both Vette and Quinn use the same medium armor, Cunning-based gear, and blaster pistols (Quinn only uses 1). So, feel free to gear up Vette - if you switch to Quinn when you get him, you can just strip the good stuff off Vette and put it on Quinn. No wasted gear.