LordXalas Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Like others have said, T7 is great at HOLDING aggro, but his ability to take a hit really starts to suffer later, although this is not a problem unique to T7. All tank companions that I have used (T7, Scourge, Blizz, Skadge, Kaliyo) have seemed very lackluster compared to DPS and, especially, healing companions. From my understanding, tanking companions were stupidly overpowered in Beta and Bioware went and overnerfed them. yes they really need to buff tank companions up to match the lvl of other companions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafaman Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 And yet there are several people here who are saying you DON'T have to use Doc. Personally, I want to roll a female alt (who's the daughter of my main JK and Kira) as a Sentinel, and I don't want to use Doc. It's heartening to read accounts of successful play with t7. Actually this brings up another interesting point. I have stopped using Doc. The main reason is simply that I wanted to solo as a true dps as much as possible. While flashpoints and heroics are nowhere near the same as solo quests, I wanted some consistency in my strategy and therefore good practice for both. T7 allows me to do that. He has more abilities and is seemingly more versatile than Scourge. In my experience, I relied on Doc just a little too much once I realized how much easier things were with him. Now I rely on the tank doing his job and typically preform much better in any given fight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chessack Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 One of the issues I've not generally seen mentioned is the impact of T7 vs. Doc or even Kira on the Rebuke ability. Rebuke refreshes a lot so you can use it a lot, and it is a great power for reducing incoming damage. But, Rebuke kind of relies on you getting attacked. If you don't get attacked it wears out in a few seconds. Every time something attacks you, Rebuke's timer is reset. I have a lot more trouble keeping Rebuke up for the max duration when T7 is around. Everything turns and attacks him -- great, that's the job of the tank. But that means Rebuke goes down a lot faster. With Doc, I have Rebuke running for the max period of time in every battle. With T7, that doesn't always happen. Additionally, with mobs focused on *me*, I have to do a lot less moving around the battle field. With T7 in the mix, melees often run to him, forcing me to move, use my ranged attacks, or use another Force Leap to get back into battle. When they focus on me, I don't have to do that as much. Of course you always will with ranged mobs, but not the melee ones. Finally T7 makes it harder to effectively apply Sweep... If everyone crowds around him, and he's not close to you, then you have to move in or you can't use Sweep as a true AOE (it will work on one guy but that wastes it). In general I just find it more efficient to be both DPS and (basically) tank for my little 2-man party. T7 makes it harder to manage that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafaman Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 One of the issues I've not generally seen mentioned is the impact of T7 vs. Doc or even Kira on the Rebuke ability. Rebuke refreshes a lot so you can use it a lot, and it is a great power for reducing incoming damage. But, Rebuke kind of relies on you getting attacked. If you don't get attacked it wears out in a few seconds. Every time something attacks you, Rebuke's timer is reset. I have a lot more trouble keeping Rebuke up for the max duration when T7 is around. Everything turns and attacks him -- great, that's the job of the tank. But that means Rebuke goes down a lot faster. With Doc, I have Rebuke running for the max period of time in every battle. With T7, that doesn't always happen. Additionally, with mobs focused on *me*, I have to do a lot less moving around the battle field. With T7 in the mix, melees often run to him, forcing me to move, use my ranged attacks, or use another Force Leap to get back into battle. When they focus on me, I don't have to do that as much. Of course you always will with ranged mobs, but not the melee ones. Finally T7 makes it harder to effectively apply Sweep... If everyone crowds around him, and he's not close to you, then you have to move in or you can't use Sweep as a true AOE (it will work on one guy but that wastes it). In general I just find it more efficient to be both DPS and (basically) tank for my little 2-man party. T7 makes it harder to manage that. Yup. I have had to manage my fights differently since I started using him. And there is no question that my use of Rebuke has changed. I can use it effectively but not quite the same way as before. Also, I understand that with T7 comes much more movement and a better understanding of hate and aggro. How you use T7 will become just as important as the fact that he is a tank. Elites and different mobs warrant different tactics. I won't get into all the details here, but in short, there are times to send him in first and be fast with trash. Force Sweep and hilt smack are 2 shot kills. Blade Storm can be a one shot kill if coming off of Blade Rush. I find that I typically end fights in very good health. T7 is in good to fair shape. I guess that offsets the less effective rebuke gains for me. But hey, mileage will vary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zunayson Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 He tanks better than guardians and damage more than sentinels YES HE IS VIABLE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darianth Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 On my sentinel play through I am only using Kira and we can effectively take down almost anything. All I need to do is send her in first to let her get her aoe off then i fly in and pull off her and we cut them down. Usually I'm lucky though and have a friend that i level with that tanks and has a healing companion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bliapis Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Thats the problem that needs fixing, you shouldn't have to use your healer companion, but from what everyone is saying, you HAVE to use him to get a positive experience leveling up, while the trooper, smuggler and their imperial mirror classes do not need to use their healer companions beyond their companion quests to get the best positive results in leveling up. Me, i never used Doc as a companion. Didnt have to. I used Kira and Scourge all they. On my Vanguard tank i used a healer though, it made it easier and faster. On sentinel, the little heal i output is good enough. When i use Scourge and he gets the hammer, even if he dies, i make it thought with 80% or more health. After the fight i dismiss him and call him back again. that way i have my companion back operational in full health in less than 3''. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonBraun Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 T7 is very good... Especially at that level. I still used him after I got Doc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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