Nadia's stances: Perforation or Ensanguination?

[Felioats]

They both seem to do something similar. One penetrates 15% of armor and one has a chance to deal internal damage (which ignores armor) over 6 seconds.

 

Which do you prefer?

[Dorieon]

I'd prefer a change to train her to either tank or heal tbh. But since that wasn't one of your options, I normally leave her in perforation (when I use her at all). As a shadow tank, I have little use for her because Tharan Cedrax allows for so much more.

[Felioats]

I think every companion should have a tank, heal or DPS stance, but that would be just crazy. I mean, we'd be able to use companions we liked, rather than the ones who did what we needed.

[Dorieon]

I agree in principal that it could get out of hand. But when a character is a Padawan and also a possible romance option, they should be viable to take along on missions. The difference between Nadia and Tharan was so drastic that I just 'power romanced' her to get thru the story and used Tharan for everything. That doesn't make her much of a Padawan imo.

[Rafe_Vidar]

I agree in principal that it could get out of hand. But when a character is a Padawan and also a possible romance option, they should be viable to take along on missions. The difference between Nadia and Tharan was so drastic that I just 'power romanced' her to get thru the story and used Tharan for everything. That doesn't make her much of a Padawan imo.

 

Lets be honest, the romancing "story" with Nadia was terribly bland and felt empty. Romancing Kira was a MUCH MUCH more enjoyable story. Nadia felt terribly scrapped together. I HOPE/pray that Nadia has a much better written story and the player will WANT to buy into her. Unfortunately the first three chapters played like a means to an end.

 

EDIT: Apologies.

 

To be more on topic, I'd love the ability to use whatever companion I wanted as I seemed to be forced to use Theran as well.

Edited March 2, 2012 by Rafe_Vidar

[SithEater]

Lets be honest, the romancing "story" with Nadia was terribly bland and felt empty. Romancing Kira was a MUCH MUCH more enjoyable story. Nadia felt terribly scrapped together. I HOPE/pray that Nadia has a much better written story and the player will WANT to buy into her. Unfortunately the first three chapters played like a means to an end.

 

EDIT: Apologies.

 

To be more on topic, I'd love the ability to use whatever companion I wanted as I seemed to be forced to use Theran as well.

The problem imo opinion is when you get Nadia. You get Kira right off quick and have time to develop her story. Nadia comes along as an actual usuable companion late in the story and I think thats why they had to cram all her "love" scenes back to back to back.

 

As far as the OP goes...

 

 

Talk about no Dark Side points for killing someone, try banging your Padawan and MARRYING her and still not getting any Dark Side points. I mean what is more forbidden to Jedi than attachments and I am openly married to, loving, and sexing up my apprentice and not a Dark Side point to be seen. I was a little disappointed to be honest. I had decided back in Beta I was gonna sexy time Nadia and even so when it came time to do the deed I agonized for a good half hour before finally deciding to dance on the Dark Side...and nothing happened. Nobody cared. The Force was looking the other way I guess.

 

[CplQ]

I used her as soon as I got her, I'm a shadow kinetic combat. I beat syo with her and i used whichever form gives the two bleed effects, ensanguination i think. I use Nadia to daily quest too. Takes quite a bit to die with tharan as shadow but goes soo slow. I would much rather cc and interupt and kill faster then move at the same steady slow pace, but that's my prefered playstyle.

 

Should be more difference between range and melee tank companions if anything.

[Freor]

Really wish we had damage meters

 

I have her in the armor penetration mode, figured that's better for general gameplay, but for tough elites the other mode might be better. Maybe I should record battles and take time lol

[Azunai_]

i think the guy above me is right. the Armor penetration stance is probably better vs trash (it increases the damage of her powerful AoE spells, too) and the dot stance is probably better for tough stuff (high HP/heavy armor). i think the dots are elemental damage, so they bypass the high armor value of elite mobs.

[Khadroth]

It's my understanding that she doesn't get penetration on her force attacks, where as dots can occur on all her attacks. I've always used her in Exsanguination. It's particularly helpful when she aoe's and dots all the targets. She can also have 2 dots running on any given target, not just 1. Edited March 3, 2012 by Khadroth

[Freor]

Tried the Exsanguination stance a little. While it's hard to see much dmg difference, what I did notice that she refuses to turn off her lightsaber lol. Either it's always on and in her hand, or sometimes she actually does put it to her side but with the blade active

 

Only happens with that stance for me. Read about Kira having similar bug. Anyone else run into this with Nadia, and perhaps know a workaround?

[LeeTone]

To actually address the OP's question, generally rule is use the armor penetration stance and switch to the dot stance for bosses or mobs with high health and armor.

[LilTsar]

havent actually experimented, but i think my astounding affinities for logic and math grant me the ability to figure this one out. it seems every dps companion will have one stance that is more ideal for tearing through weaker opponents and one that is better for single targets. for example, i forget which is which but one of the melee pet stances gives 15% armor penetration or somesuch, which gives instantaneous benefit on every attack, making it good for tearing through trash. the other one, exsanguination or whatever, has a chance to deal extra damage over time, and if a given fight lasts long enough, then that bonus damage will start to amount to more total than you would get with the penetration one. likewise for ranged dps, one of their stances improves their aoe, so they are therefore obviously better suited in that stance for going through crowds, while the sniper sight is better for tougher, sustained battles. to be clear, i have not crunched numbers or even done direct comparisons, but i did go to college, so there:)

[Lemina_Ausa]

It's my understanding that she doesn't get penetration on her force attacks, where as dots can occur on all her attacks. I've always used her in Exsanguination. It's particularly helpful when she aoe's and dots all the targets. She can also have 2 dots running on any given target, not just 1.

 

That's useful to know, thanks a lot~

[Felioats]

To actually address the OP's question, generally rule is use the armor penetration stance and switch to the dot stance for bosses or mobs with high health and armor.

 

Because the trash dies too fast for Ensanguination to matter. Makes sense. Thanks.

[Rafe_Vidar]

Just to provide a meager update.

 

I noticed questing with Nadia after gearing her for raiding is much more beneficial than tharan. I just geared her from the stalker hand-me-downs I received from raiding. She's in nearly full columni. Just thought I'd provide a benchmark, however skewed, to those wishing to actually quest with Nadia.

[MithrilSoul]

I've never tried Nadia's "bleed" (DoT) stance, but it makes sense that it would be more helpful on boss fights. I guess I just figured that if there was a difference, it was unlikely to be a big one.

 

Off-topic to the initial question, but relevant to how the discussion here has unfolded, as a kinetic shadow at lvl 50, I find Nadia is a much better choice for most scenarios than Tharan. I'll use the healer if I am trying to solo a heroic or something, but for almost anything else, Nadia (when geared up) does pretty ridiculous damage and helps killing stuff go so much faster.

[Onager]

The only way to test this is to see how much her armor penetration stance boosts the damage on her attacks vs the internal damage (which ignores armor). If the internal damage ignores more armor than the armor pen does, then it'd be the better of the two.

[HolyGigi]

I play a sage and have Nadia up 90% of the time, only switch to Tharan if im doing heroics alone.

I use her bleed stance most of the time since *it seems* to kill stuff faster. Cant say for sure, but it looks like this to me.

 

Fully geared out, she deals insane DPS. I have her in the salve outfit from Nar Shada (i know, i know) and used only 51 mods on it, mostly from Ilum daily quests. Her staff is also moded with purple, and her implants are purple with 2 crit augments.

She has close to 29% crit chance, almost 15k HP and she is hot. My favorite companion by far.

[Randen]

Lets be honest, the romancing "story" with Nadia was terribly bland and felt empty. Romancing Kira was a MUCH MUCH more enjoyable story. Nadia felt terribly scrapped together. I HOPE/pray that Nadia has a much better written story and the player will WANT to buy into her. Unfortunately the first three chapters played like a means to an end.

 

EDIT: Apologies.

 

To be more on topic, I'd love the ability to use whatever companion I wanted as I seemed to be forced to use Theran as well.

 

I guess it's a good thing she was my first romanced companion! Now on to the knight!