MadProfStein Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Really, what purpose does he serve? His DPS is crap, and unless you spend 200k gearing him out in oranges every five levels, he is the squishiest and single worst tank in the known universe. Can we either toughen him up or jsut remove him from the game? His constant emo bullcrap would be tolerable IF HE WASN'T USELESS. Unfortunately, this is not the case, making it either stupidly expensive, or impossible to level as a sorcerer. If you're thinking of making one, I would strongly suggest against it unless you have bags of money to throw at khem for gear, or perhaps if you're just a masochist and enjoy dying constantly because khem gets one shot on every pack of mobs with a strong in it =.= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verfallen Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Cool story bro. Especially with a sorc. You got a shield and heals... What level are you exactly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadProfStein Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 Cool story bro. Especially with a sorc. You got a shield and heals... What level are you exactly? A shield that pops two seconds after khem dies four seconds into a fight, and heals that take so long to cast their worthless. I either sit there spamming heals on khem, which takes forever to kill anything, or I let him die and pray I kill the mobs myself before I die too. 30. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenacity Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 All tanking companions feel like they're weaker than a wet paper towel right now - and it's because they were nerfed across the board towards the end of beta. Back when i was playing beta, all tanking companions received a bonus to armor rating while in their guard/defense stance - 60% to be precise. That's equivalent to the armor boost that player tanks get while in their tanking stance. Having that 60% extra armor actually let them stand up to a few targets without getting wtfpwned in a few seconds, and without needing constant spam healing. The problem (according to bioware) is that healing-specced players were able to solo heroic 4 content too easily, so tanking companions had the armor buff removed. Now, they're useless to anyone except a healer specced player, and even then you still have to spam heal them in order to keep them alive, preventing you from adding any damage to the fight yourself. I could see them cutting that armor buff down, but they shouldnt have removed it entirely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buttascotch Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I've had the same problem with Khem and Kaliya (Agent tank companion). Truth be told, it's an easy solution. Upgrade his gear over yours. Yeah, that sounds annoying and weird, but it'll make things a lot easier in the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordbishopX Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 (edited) A shield that pops two seconds after khem dies four seconds into a fight, and heals that take so long to cast their worthless. I either sit there spamming heals on khem, which takes forever to kill anything, or I let him die and pray I kill the mobs myself before I die too. 30. What in the world are you fighting lol sorc so far is pretty much easy mode with bubbles. So far in comparison to leveling my 50 SIN its a walk in the park. Same with my OPS me and K kill so fast we hardly take any damage unless an elite mob and I just keep TA up and heal k with 0 trouble. Oh OP have you turned all his skills on? As our companions level they get new skills just the game doesn't turn them on or tell you about them lol. Edited February 20, 2012 by LordbishopX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feyrbrax Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I have never had an issue with Khem.... If you have orange gear slap some mods in..... simple...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kantoro Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Bad player does not mean bad companion. Anecdotal exaggerations make terrible forum posts. I use all my companions at different times for different things. Just because you don't know how to use Khem, doesn't make HIM bad. He is actually one of the better all around companions, he cannot heal, but if you gear him right, he is ok dps and if you gear him as a tank, he does just fine for my Sorc. I have tanked fps with him, I can solo all the dailies with him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ochad Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 (edited) You need to spend some time trying different strategies. Leveling a sorcerer is easy street friend. Once you get the next companion don't look back. He will take you to 50 and full epic level gear. Until you start passing Champion and Columni pieces down to one of your future companions, it's not even close. Gear your companions as you do yourself. I've elected to take companion gear over and upgrade of my own. You wont regret it. Edited February 20, 2012 by Ochad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkcheng Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Learn to play your class and keep him geared. You'd have to trigger the world boss in Tatooine to have Khem get killed in seconds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadProfStein Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 Did anyone who replied to this even bother to read my first post? Not just skim it? I am SURE that if I were to throw bags of money at the GTM Khem would be better then most player tanks, but I said REPEATEDLY I'm not willing to do that. So, read the OP, or just don't bother to reply, because you'll promptly be ignored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkcheng Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 (edited) Did anyone who replied to this even bother to read my first post? Not just skim it? I am SURE that if I were to throw bags of money at the GTM Khem would be better then most player tanks, but I said REPEATEDLY I'm not willing to do that. So, read the OP, or just don't bother to reply, because you'll promptly be ignored. We did, and you need to learn to manage him better. You can put him in greens up to his level and he'd do fine as a tank. And don't forget to enable Shadow whatever which is is tanking stance and be sure to look over his abilities and activate to your liking. If you're not even willing to gear him in greens, or give him the quest rewards dropped that have companion gear, then please don't complain about him not being useful. The game was designed to need a companion for solo questing, not keeping him geared is as good as not keeping yourself geared. This is like saying, "I want to raid HM Ops but I'm not willing to do my dailies/FPs and get some raid-ready gear first." You know what that results in? You with 12k hp getting two-shotted by HM boss abilities. Edited February 20, 2012 by jkcheng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadProfStein Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 We did, and you need to learn to manage him better. You can put him in greens up to his level and he'd do fine as a tank. And don't forget to enable Shadow whatever which is is tanking stance and be sure to look over his abilities and activate to your liking. He has greens up to his level, and he is still crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkcheng Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 (edited) He has greens up to his level, and he is still crap. Are you fighting mobs above your level, if you're not, then I have to question your skills. I leveled with Khem almost all way to 50, switching to Xalek when I got him around 47/48 and then Talos for the very last fight. Khem has never been a problem for me and I'm a squishy assassin who can neither heal nor bubble him. I didn't throw a ton of money at him for gear either. I had Cybertech as crewskill and made Armoring for his gear. Are you putting greens with tanking stats on him? Edited February 20, 2012 by jkcheng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kantoro Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 (edited) Oh we understood that you are part of the kiddy generation that wants everything handed to them and doesn't want to actually work for anything. You know, like take the time to gear your companion up so he is effective. Nah, you just wanna slap any old drop on him, light armor with willpower and have him be the Ubermensch. Doesn't work that way. You want him to be effective, put some effort into it. Your laziness does not mean he is bad. You reap what you sow. TL: DR "Oh noes, I can't solo H4s with a companion decked out in burlap armor, he must be teh suck" Edited February 20, 2012 by Kantoro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AetherMcLoud Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Khem Val is the best tank out of all the tanking companions. AFAIK he's the only one that can heal himself a bit incombat, and also he has the +20% armor skill. There are tanking companions that don't have EITHER of those 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkcheng Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Khem Val is the best tank out of all the tanking companions. AFAIK he's the only one that can heal himself a bit incombat, and also he has the +20% armor skill. There are tanking companions that don't have EITHER of those 2. I think Xalek has the Consume Essence ability also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drewgy Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I leveled as a healer and used Khem until Xalek was assigned to me. I one shotted most of the content (the straightforward stuff at least) and all I did for gear was taking the tank version of whatever Quest rewards were. Granted he did most of the DPS, but leveling to 50 still took under 20 hours IIRC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadProfStein Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 Oh we understood that you are part of the kiddy generation that wants everything handed to them and doesn't want to actually work for anything. You know, like take the time to gear your companion up so he is effective. Nah, you just wanna slap any old drop on him, light armor with willpower and have him be the Ubermensch. Doesn't work that way. You want him to be effective, put some effort into it. Your laziness does not mean he is bad. You reap what you sow. TL: DR "Oh noes, I can't solo H4s with a companion decked out in burlap armor, he must be teh suck" You're obvioustrolling and IM the child? Interesting logic you have there. Maybe you should put your dictionary away, because believe it or not, a little proper grammar and big words isn't going to scare everyone in the internet into thinking you're intelligent, which you clearly aren't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kantoro Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I can figure out how to utilize a companion, all you can do is whine. I am pretty confident in which of us is more intelligent. But carry on, I am sure your complaint is valid. Really, so many people agree with you. Have you tried stomping your foot real hard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FyveS Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 It looks like most of the folks in this thread have leveled with Khem without issue (including myself). Logically, when others are doing fine and you're not - it's not them, it's you. Khem was my go-to leveling as a Healer 100%. I did give him upgrades over taking them for myself. I leveled Synthweaving and geared him (and myself) with my own crafting skills. The only items I bought for both of us were ear pieces and implants. Keep him under Static Barrier, drop the HoT on him and focus your attacks on the mobs he is on. Check his own skills carefully. Every patch, I notice that my companions get reset to default selections so I check them all regularly. I use Andronikus for my go-to DPS guy. He and I cut through non-Strong mobs like a hot knife through butter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havokk Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 (edited) Are you using a different Khem Val than I am? I ask because the khem Val I use can tank excellently. My Sorceror is able to take on plus-one-level elites and (once, by accident) a same-level champion. I keep Khem in really good greens and blues and my sorceror in anything with Willpower (since nothing ever hits my Sorc I don't care about armour). You companion is part of your character - you have to keep them geared. Saying "i'm not willing to buy gear for companion" is exactly the same as saying "i'm not willing to buy gear for my Sorceror". My suggestions (you may already be doing some of these, of course). - END gear for Khem, rather than STR. - Equip a shield item in his offhand. - Open the Companion Toolbar, make sure all the abilities you want are activated (the green button). - Send Khem in to tank (Ctl+1 key), shield him while he is running in. - Let Khem tank the biggest mob while you pick off the others in order from weakest up. HTH. Edit: Added shield. Edited February 21, 2012 by Havokk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xterminatz Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I used Khen Val from 1-50 so not sure what you're crying about. He's a tank so his purpose is to be a meat shield, if he dies then he served his purpose, if he lived then you send him to the next pack of mobs. The idea is that you don't get aggro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huehuecoyotl Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I keep my Khem with upgraded gear, shields and an orange weapon. He is not as competent as a player tank but is much more resilient that I (Sin). Be sure and set his skills to active and put him on shadow walk (threat). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GavinPatterson Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 every world there is new gear for each companion avible as quest rewards - its not hard to gear him up. Hes a tank. He gets the mobs attention and you are to DPS them. Hes really good. I'd suggest reading the forum "You companions don't suck - its you" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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