zaltanus Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 FWIW, Khem is my bestie. While I can't throw him at multiple elites or anything crazy, i can reliably have him tank an elite and a few regulars, or tank a good number of regs before things go crazy. My advice, watch his health. When he gets down, bub and start healing him. He'll keep aggro on himself and you can heal him till you get him up to a good amount. I'm lightning spec and that's basically what i did from about 35-50. Your companion tanks aren't supposed to be as powerful as player tanks, or at least that's what I've gathered with BW making the changes they did. That being said, I played sorc in beta too- Khem was a BEAST in beta. Was insane what he could survive then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkcheng Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 The only complaints I have of Khem: 1. Does not show the gear you put on him 2. Doesn't speak basic 3. Obsessed with Tulak Hord 4. Gets in the way of buttons I need to click Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darksiderrr Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I thought Khem was useless as well...but then I respecced and changed how I approached the game. Use your CC when you need to. Gear him up through quest rewards and/or commendation gear. Focus your attacks on who he is attacking so you don't pull aggro off of him. Take a look at your spec and how you are approaching mobs and ask yourself if you can do something different to be more effective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystifieduk Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 He tanks both heroic 2man dailes no problem when im soloing them, get him around 19-20% def chance 40% shield 30+ shield absorbtion, he rocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrria Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Well I have had a different experience than you, I love Khem. I have not bought a single item of gear for him and he works great for me. Oh and I'm level 32 in case you were wondering, and a sorcerer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkcheng Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I thought Khem was useless as well...but then I respecced and changed how I approached the game. Use your CC when you need to. Gear him up through quest rewards and/or commendation gear. Focus your attacks on who he is attacking so you don't pull aggro off of him. Take a look at your spec and how you are approaching mobs and ask yourself if you can do something different to be more effective. Change my approach? No way! I'm perfect, I can do no wrong, I got a room full of trophies to prove it. When things don't work right it's everyone else's fault, not mine. /sarcasm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDarkSideJedi Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 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. This might be a stupid question but what are you doing to level to 50 in 20 hours? I have been playing for weeks and its taking me that long to go to level 20. What have I been doing wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coyotecalls Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I put all level 40 PVP gear on him the day I hit 40. He's beast with full gear. I don't even bubble him any more. I just send him in and rain lightning storm on everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forceconduit Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I don't know if this has been mentioned before but here goes. Fist off, you need to utilize your CC's, most notably, Whirlwind. When facing mobs of 3 or more cast Whirlwind at the start of the fight on the toughest mob. I always target strong or elite mobs to CC. Secondly, If you're going as a hybrid Madness/Lightning sorcerer, which I highly recommend by the way, be sure to pick up Oppressing Force. Your Whirlwind will affect 2 additional standard or weak enemies within 8 meters of the target. It's also a good talent for leveling and it's decent for pvp as well with the reduced cooldown on Electrocute by 10 seconds. You can also spec into Haunted Dreams to make Whirlwind an instant cast. Suppression in the Lightning tree will reduce the cooldown of Whirlwind by 15 seconds. You will be able to cast Whirlwind faster, more often, CC more mobs, and make life a bit easier while leveling with the aforementioned talents. A couple other notable things. Make sure you disable Khem's AoE abilities and ones that strike more than one target at once. If you don't he'll AoE your CC'd mobs and break the CC. Always cast shield on Khem before you send him into the fight. Furthermore, you can spec into Lightning Barrier to increase the amount absorbed by 20%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Solrac Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 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 =.= I'm an SS, & mine serves me quite well. He's a great shield & distraction while I zap from the rear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Expedience Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Just finished Taris on my 35 Sorc. I've spent at max 20k on his gear (ear, implants, and the alderaan orange weapon), and have had zero problems with Khem by just using the quest greens you get for him. If I cast Barrier on him before a pull he takes absolutely no damage from anything other than elites. Even elites though barely damage him if you keep up the shield and interrupt heavy hitting abilities. Gonna have to go with the L2P crowd here and say you just need to L2P... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cycrowuk Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 i dont really use khem that much anymore, i find i dont really need to i just use ashara, shield us both then just dps, can usually take down all the mobs with very little healing needed. only switching to khem if im facing a mod that hits pretty hard or longer fights most solo content i've not needed to thou. I dont think anybody had ever "money" issues on this game. im constantly running out of money, but thats mainly because i've been doing my crew skills way above my level, so the cost of doing them is far greater than the money im earning maxed them out before getting close to 40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kantoro Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 i dont really use khem that much anymore, i find i dont really need to i just use ashara, shield us both then just dps, can usually take down all the mobs with very little healing needed. only switching to khem if im facing a mod that hits pretty hard or longer fights most solo content i've not needed to thou. im constantly running out of money, but thats mainly because i've been doing my crew skills way above my level, so the cost of doing them is far greater than the money im earning maxed them out before getting close to 40 When you hit 50 you will literally be rolling in credits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissbob Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 ....I'm not the only one who quests without a companion, right?I'm not trying to say "Look at me, I'm so good I don't need a companion", but I've found that unless it's a very difficult class boss, a companion isn't necessary... and in fact makes it a little too easy to kill mobs. Because of this I think it's a little irrelevant to complain about how bad a companion is at combat. I could get someone complaining about his/her personality/ story... but not combat skills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kantoro Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 I suppose I could quest by smashing my face on the keyboard, if I wanted to. Question is, why would I? Why would you not use a companion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eilykarol Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Khem is ok for an assassin, but while I don't have any issues with him, I prefer using Ashara. I have her lead the strike on an elite, wait until she's close to death, Mind Control->Sacrifice->Deflection and kill pretty much any elite without any real issues (at 50, geared in orange gear with mostly blue level 50 mods, Ashara is in greens with light sabers modded with blue level 50 mods, so I'm between decent gear and crap gear). Threat is the only problem I have with Khem and Xalek. Talos is fun, but killing is too slow. I never really got into using Andy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sithinthebox Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 (edited) I have my Khem outfitted with mostly just gear I've recieved as quest rewards, with some orange stuff obtained doing a flashpoint mission. I have noticed he's gone down a little more quickly then I would have suspected in some fights, but that's mostly because he's not as maxed out as he could be. I've found that using Ashara is more effective in fights at my current level(38) then Khem would be(I also use Andronikos a lot as well) as her fighting style and abilities are a better fit to my own combat tactics playing as an assassin. Edited February 23, 2012 by Sithinthebox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultrapower Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 (edited) He is still pretty squishy.Every time he tanks he gets below half health.But it might be that they are 1-2 levels higher then me but still.Wish they would just boost them up a little. Edited February 23, 2012 by Ultrapower Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spifnar Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 He's one of the best tank companions in the game. The only problem he has is that he's not easy to gear (not hard either). As many have said, the OPs problem is probably CC related. Sorcs have a ton of CC against normal mobs. Normal mobs deal almost as much DPS as strong, so it's worthwhile to use shock, overload, jolt and force storm to reduce incoming damage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryanchris Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 I ate Khem Val problem solved, and he is not stinking up my ship anymore, dude had a serious gas problem from all the Jedi he ate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frostvadar Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Have leveled with Khem and only Khem up to 34. I am a sorc. spec. As reapeated throughout this post, Gear him in rewards and commendation gear. Bubble him going in, stand back and let the lightning fly, as soon as bubble drops, do it again.. then heal him a bit. Unless I'm going against a Champion mob, he never dips below 1/2 health. I seek out the Champions and use the bubble, dps, heal method and take them out as well.. Only problem I have with Khem is he is always standing on the piles of dead bodies we lay waste to and I can't loot them. This game is about balancing the needs of your companion and you when it comes to gear. You can have the uber gear, but if you don't gear your companions, then what is the point of having them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narcosis Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 I used Khem until I got Andro, not because Khem was bad, but because I'm a tankasin and having 2 tanks made killing things slower. Khems fine, L2Play Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katahn Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Full disclosure: healing specced sorcerer - my personal dps is... anemic I suppose. I hadn't considered using pvp gear on Khem (I am level 26, but heck its worth the look) but I can say that even with current greens and the odd orange he is a bit squishy for me still. He's fine if I focus on healing him and let him slooooooooowly chew through mobs, but if I try to add to the damage Khem can end up taking a lot of punishment pretty quickly. I've tried using CC, but without a reliable way to safely seperate the CC'd mob from the rest, Khem's AoE would just break the CC. I've not wanted to turn his AoEs off for fear that this would just make the fights take longer or he would lose aggro on the "other mobs" and they'd just end up coming after me. I can solo and complete quests with him just fine, its just slow. It would be nicer if he were a little tougher, or if maybe the tanking companions could get an armor buff as a result of mid-level+ healing talents (so they can be more durable for healers who would then be freer to use their own dps abilities more reliably). I know if I am focusing on healing that trying to micromanage Khem to tank in a group is "hectic" to put it politely so I wouldn't expect this would result in a bunch of tanks being put out of work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barzarel Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Personally use my healer companion most time, doing hybrid built, quite good actually given the tanks sorry state id say probaly even better. By sorry i mean the poor migitation that almost become inferior to just packing massive health, the dumping in damage for migitation stats that doesn't even outweight wearing dps gear, its practically a poor joke. If there were no base shield bonuses and some the hard damage reduction abilities or stances, you hardly even notice wearing tanking gear at all, aside from damage being ridicilously gimped out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProjectJay Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 khem is a beast i was able to do all heroic 2's and a lot of heroic 4s solo with him. And my khem was almost never up to date on gear just because of how fast i was leveling. This was as a dps spec. I dont know if u are doing something wrong but i will say u have to remember not to really tank and spank but to try and limit as much damage as possible coming in with ur cc's. Also turn off his aoes so u get the most out of ur cc's. a neat trick i like to do that may help is alphaing the mobs myself with the bubble on me. That way khem grabs the agro from me and while the mobs are switching targets im pounding away with no damage coming in to either of us. lastly like other have said make sure u have him in his tanking stance since it gives him great boost and make sure u have a shield equiped on him. he can equip a gen but it does nothing for him and the shield is much better even if the gen gives him better stats. Spending money gearing him is not needed but if u choose too u will notice how easier the game will become. Good luck out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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