alexkman Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I am currently specced as a tank, mostly because i love the idea of having a jedi companion. But in case i get bored as tank, which i foresee happening, is it possible to effectively use Kira as a dps guardian? What is dps guardian survivability like. Maybe with soresu form and a shield, but dps spec? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clearsighted Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 (edited) If Kira is anything like Jaesa, then you will be fine with her until level 40+. Whereupon you will need to rest after most fights (depending on the relative levels). But it's soooo much easier at that level with Lokin/Quinn that it's hard to keep using them. Edited February 10, 2012 by clearsighted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belly Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 (edited) It's quite effective. I'm Focus spec myself. Kira and I steamroll most anything, i'm only lvl 42 now, but I can't imagine it being all that different from 43-50, as long as you both keep your gear up. The normal mobs aren't much on their own, but their DPS adds up surprisingly fast, if you don't burn em quick. Especially the ones that use DoTs and other debuffs. The extra DPS helps with this. Elites are pretty easy, time your interrupts well and you're good. Champion level mobs are a bit more tricky. You'll need to use consumables and good aggro management. But champion mobs are few, and you can just bring out your healing companion for them. Edited February 10, 2012 by Belly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabredance Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I played with Kira till the end for the same reason. Its doable but not as comforting as with Doc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexkman Posted February 10, 2012 Author Share Posted February 10, 2012 hmm....maybe a hybrid/vigilance hybrid would be fun. if i got the defense tree high enough to get warding call and had a could balance between defense rating and power, do you think i could hold aggro and survive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystry Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 As someone who levelled Vigilance 1-40 then Focus 40-50, no you can't. My kira still has level 12 gear. I used her exactly twice, once when I first got here, where I was prompty torn apart by strong enemies due to no T7 tanking for me, and the second on the forced valis fight, where I died in 10 seconds due once again to no tank. Then I dismissed her and brought T7 back out and beat the fight with no problems. Kira is worse than useless for a DPS guardian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilMeyer Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 At level 50 with good gear for yourself and her, your dailies are trivial. And at level 50, what else are you using a companion for? I've used Kira for 95% of my fights. Is very viable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vastori Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 As someone who levelled Vigilance 1-40 then Focus 40-50, no you can't. My kira still has level 12 gear. I used her exactly twice, once when I first got here, where I was prompty torn apart by strong enemies due to no T7 tanking for me, and the second on the forced valis fight, where I died in 10 seconds due once again to no tank. Then I dismissed her and brought T7 back out and beat the fight with no problems. Kira is worse than useless for a DPS guardian. Intersting, as I have had the exact opposite experience. With T7, as much as I like the little guy, he can't tank for anything, and yeah I have his slots up to level. Kira on the other hand, when she's with me, we tear through mobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chunkie Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Heck ya. I leveled up to 50 with Kira as a dps guardian, and i tore through everything. My first 50 was with a defensive jugg, and the dps guardian was far more fun and easier to level. Strong and lower you just tear through in seconds. Elites and champs you'll need to pop saber ward and other CDs, but you shouldn't be encountering elites and champs that often that they become unavailable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JefferyClark Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 (edited) You can do it with Kira, just be ready to die a lot unless you are a couple levels over what you are supposed to be. You will also need to keep her geared in the best available gear too, since her ability to burn through mobs is tied to her gear (just like yours). I will also qualify this: At some point, you WILL need to use Doc. It's that simple. When you get to a certain point (it was Belsavis for me), without Doc you can't burn through enemies fast enough before dying. So unless you enjoy having 4-5k repair bills for EVERY quest turn-in, I'd suggest keeping Doc geared too. Edited February 13, 2012 by JefferyClark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 I used Kira almost fulltime during levelling and often found her more useful than Doc to be honest. I'm a vigilance guardian by the way. However lately using Lord Scourge due to him using my full columi offset (tank). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chunkie Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 You can do it with Kira, just be ready to die a lot unless you are a couple levels over what you are supposed to be. You will also need to keep her geared in the best available gear too, since her ability to burn through mobs is tied to her gear (just like yours). I will also qualify this: At some point, you WILL need to use Doc. It's that simple. When you get to a certain point (it was Belsavis for me), without Doc you can't burn through enemies fast enough before dying. So unless you enjoy having 4-5k repair bills for EVERY quest turn-in, I'd suggest keeping Doc geared too. Bull. I died maybe a total of 5 times from level 1 - 50, and didn't use Doc at all in anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerion Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 (edited) You can do it with Kira, just be ready to die a lot unless you are a couple levels over what you are supposed to be. You will also need to keep her geared in the best available gear too, since her ability to burn through mobs is tied to her gear (just like yours). I will also qualify this: At some point, you WILL need to use Doc. It's that simple. When you get to a certain point (it was Belsavis for me), without Doc you can't burn through enemies fast enough before dying. So unless you enjoy having 4-5k repair bills for EVERY quest turn-in, I'd suggest keeping Doc geared too. I would concur with the poster above me that this view here is a bit askew. I've been pretty much on level (to underleveled at times), and I've had few issues with Kira. In fact, we regularly take on gold elites two levels above us. And I'm on Voss now. Yeah, you have to gear her, but even this poster admits you have to gear Doc too. So this point is sort of moot. I've had to summon Doc maybe once or twice because of the peculiarities of a particular boss fight. During the Death Cult series of quests on Belsavis, there's a boss that summons three groups of four standards -- we just didn't have enough health to outlast the fight. And I can imagine needing Doc for Champion fights, but I haven't really had a champion fight yet (one that mattered anyway). Edited February 13, 2012 by Cerion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stratasaurus Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 (edited) You probably can but that doesn't mean it's anywhere close to the best thing to do. Once you hit 40 as a guardian dps you almost have to use either your healer or your melee tank...Melee tank makes things quicker but your healer is by far the best for making it out of your class boss fights alive...Kira became amazingly hard for me to use at all once I moved from tank spec to dps spec. Edited February 14, 2012 by Stratasaurus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CriticalMasses Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Really, if you aren't 50, then I don't think you should be responding. Each planet you move too makes things a little more difficult. You will soon find that you're not gaining power at the rate that the mobs are. It CAN be done at 50 with Kira, but you have NO room for mistakes. If you pick up a single extra add, it can mean you are taking a trip to the med center. But yeah, it can be done. IMO, they need to allow us to pick our companion's roles. Spec kira as a healer and maybe she and Rusk would be all I used. As it stands now, Doc is the way to go, sadly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerion Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Really, if you aren't 50, then I don't think you should be responding. Each planet you move too makes things a little more difficult. You will soon find that you're not gaining power at the rate that the mobs are. Oh Wise and Powerful Arbiter of Poster Permissions, I am 45lvl on Voss, and use Kira almost exclusively. May I comment? Sod it, I'm gonna anyway. Here's the thing...the few times I've used Doc (had to try him out after all the hoopla), I've noticed he makes me a lazy player. Using Kira has made me, if I do say so myself, a decent player. I have 24 abilities keymapped to my number bar and shift+number. I use all of them quite fluently and frequently, and with certain boss/champion fights, I use them ALL. Now I don't believe you must go to THIS extreme to be successful with Kira, but that's what I've done. With Doc...I can get by with half a dozen hotkeys. With Doc I can miss an interrupt or three. He just made me lazy. I don't begrudge those who want to use him, and maybe if I were playing a Sentinel, I'd use him exclusively as it's pretty much required. Bottom line: There's a companion to fit everyone's playstyle. You've just got to find out which one works best. I don't believe there is a objectively wrong choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaoogaa Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 I prefered T7 until I got the healer. Kira is ok but T7 does better AE damage for leveling as well as both of us having taunt allows for better life pool managment in longer tough fights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coiffio Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 As someone who levelled Vigilance 1-40 then Focus 40-50, no you can't. My kira still has level 12 gear. I used her exactly twice, once when I first got here, where I was prompty torn apart by strong enemies due to no T7 tanking for me, and the second on the forced valis fight, where I died in 10 seconds due once again to no tank. Then I dismissed her and brought T7 back out and beat the fight with no problems. Kira is worse than useless for a DPS guardian. You have to sort of adjust how you play when using her as a companion. As many others have said here, it's imperative to keep her gear up to par (a good way I did this was to run esseles and get her some orange consular items that could be easily upgraded with mods) When fighting tougher enemies, I generally send her in first to do a bit of damage before I join in and taunt whatever is attacking her if she gets too low. She puts out a decent amount of hurt if you keep her well equipped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee-Jay Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Really, if you aren't 50, then I don't think you should be responding. Each planet you move too makes things a little more difficult. You will soon find that you're not gaining power at the rate that the mobs are. It CAN be done at 50 with Kira, but you have NO room for mistakes. If you pick up a single extra add, it can mean you are taking a trip to the med center. But yeah, it can be done. IMO, they need to allow us to pick our companion's roles. Spec kira as a healer and maybe she and Rusk would be all I used. As it stands now, Doc is the way to go, sadly. I agree, I would love a companion that dealt 80% DPS but would still toss the occasional heal or have a passive healing aura or something. Even a little healing goes a long way for a Guardian and that's what makes Doc so much better than others. Say Doc heals you for 300 HPS. A Mob dealing 500 DPS would need 50 seconds to burn through through your 10000 HP. This drops to 20 seconds without him, which is a 60% loss in survivability. Sure, a DPs companion will add 20-40% more DPS to your progress, but Doc increases your suvivability by 150%. Not taking Doc is a huge loss especially when you consider that he eliminates your downtime too since he heals you while you loot and move towards the next pack of mobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coldin Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 Been using Kira up through level 42 now. Doc was nice. Could certainly just move from fight to fight, but the fights themselves would take so long. Kira is a lot more fun. Battles are a little more frantic, but in a good way. We just DPS everything down. Sometimes things go poorly, and I have to blow some defensive cooldowns, or maybe even die. But I do like to think that gets me better at playing the class, and using all my abilities. Anyway, she certainly can be used. Just try to keep her lightsaber well upgraded. The more damage she does, the more she helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_am_sancho Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I've got a L47 Vigilance spec Guardian, and i've been using Kira the whole time since i got her. Only times i've died while questing (when it wasn't my own fault for being lazy or ignorant) was on Tatooine when you have to fight the 3 marauders at the crashed ship. That ruined me pretty badly a couple of times, but i got thru it. Strange thing is i did it fine when i was a Sentinel (combat spec) at the same level. My point is though, i've never used a companion other than Kira except when i have to in order to advance a class story. Even then, i switch to Kira as soon as combat starts again. That goes for Sentinel as well as Guardian To be blunt, Sentinel was hard but not impossible, Vigilance Guardian is easy. You don't need Doc or a tank if you play it right. You don't even need to be good, just persistant and highly determined. From what i've seen of the other characters, Kira's the best for all the reasons outside of battle as well as all the in-battle stuff. Why choose anyone else when you'd get stuck with a turd like Doc or a meat-head like Rusk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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