Kaliyo's tanking becoming less effective?

[Darthsnake]

I saw someone mention this in another thread, and I've been noticing it.

 

I'm level 36 now, and for the past few levels, Kaliyo's becoming really, really squishy. I've done the best I can for her in terms of armor, but she's losing a lot of health rather quickly.

 

Anyone else had this problem, and if so, how can it be fixed?

[Xael]

It seems like this is the case with most tank companions unfortunately.

I put a thread up earlier about Kaliyo becoming squishy in the 30s, and after I did reading into it, it seems myself (and you) aren't the only one experiencing it.

 

I am doing what I can, as she is wearing orange mod gear, and I am making cybertech armor/mods to keep it up-to-date, and it doesn't seem to be enough.

[LilTsar]

around the mid 30s tanks become obsolete to everybody but healers. they make a nice early/first companion since they will keep you unthreatened and with time to learn to play, but by the end of the first act you'll want to run with a dps pet for trash and your healer (which youll get at the end of taris) for the rough stuff.

[Vrylokai]

around the mid 30s tanks become obsolete to everybody but healers. they make a nice early/first companion since they will keep you unthreatened and with time to learn to play, but by the end of the first act you'll want to run with a dps pet for trash and your healer (which youll get at the end of taris) for the rough stuff.

 

 

He pretty much laid it out well. Though I will say I still run with Kaliyo and don't have any issues really. Of course, I am a hybrid healer/dps and I do PVP. At 40 I decked her out in the full pvp tank gear and she is pretty tough. One of the keys, as always, it to keep them geared up if you want them to continue to do well. She became a bit rough to heal, when I neglected her and her gear was around 15 levels or so behind her.

 

Also, make sure you are gearing up as well. It is really easy to forget about all your different slots as you are leveling. I found myself almost 10-15 levels behind in gear in my 30's. I rectified that and suddenly my dps was much more and my heals were more effective and I didn't notice the tanking ability of Kaliyo as much.

[Datamonger]

Kaliyo doesn't necessarily get squishier, the enemies just become more difficult at higher levels. Keep her gear fresh and focus more on DPS while she tanks, if you decide to keep using her. Otherwise opt for another companion.

[Canis_Anubis]

Yes, as you level, a player tank starts to stack on talents which really beef up their tanking ability, plus, at least for my juggernaut, a bunch of stuns which made fights against everything shy of named champions pretty easy. When you stack force charge, backhand, force choke, force push, and a second force charge on an elite, he's usually more than half dead without really laying a finger on you. Kaliyo, and other companion tanks, don't really have anything like that, so the fights tend to involve them taking a lot more punishment.

 

I've leveled my agent to 49 now, and Kaliyo definitely got harder to keep upright for some fights, even though I'm spec'd Medicine. I can't imagine trying to keep her alive through those fights with any other spec. My advice: Use those patron armour inserts and bring along Doctor Lokin.

[Firolaine]

I personally think that it's because of the gear. Roughly at the start of the 30's, the companion gear doesn't come with many secondary stats (crit, shield rating, absorption, etc). I stocked Kaliyo up with defense rating and shield rating, but it was pretty pricey.

[Mokael]

imo - if you are a Cyber (or know a cyber, or have a cyber alt) you'll end up switching to Scorpio. All of her gear is modable. So for me - Scorpio is a much better tank (even though she does like to do 180s while tanking ....but all companion melee tanks do that for some reason)

[chuixupu]

They do seem less effective around the 30's if you're not working hard to keep their gear up. Or maybe even if you do. However, once you're level 50 and you start giving them epics from unwanted drops, they become quite good.

[Damatheus]

I recently specced healer at lvl 39 and tried using Vector in blues/greens and a purple weapons and Kaliyo in about the same level gear. Kaliyo was a little easier to heal but it took forever to kill things. I was able to solo a Champion with her though. Vector was almost as easy to heal, killed stuff a lot faster, but did not have the survivability in multiple mob situations.

 

As a healer questing with kailyo is slow but dependable, questing with Vector is faster but a little bit more risky.

[Sarielle]

I'm level 28 and she doesn't seem very effective. I'm specced into the healing tree up to Kolto Probes and I upgrade her gear both from quests and from the trading post but...yeah. She really seems to struggle to stay up against anything harder than normal mobs.

 

I typically open with a backstab (so I take some initial aggro), maybe the bomb that knocks easier mobs down (depending on cluster), dot them up with the dart and then usually throw a couple of kolto probes on Kaliyo. Mostly thereafter I renew the dot as needed and backstab whenever it's up, with the other melee attack to keep tactical advantage up. The rest of the time I spend CCing to gain time to heal Kaliyo.

 

I've been focusing on endurance/armor for her...is there something else I should be worrying about? Then again, my diplomatic gal keeps getting henpecked with -1's all the time so I may end up dropping Kaliyo whenever I get a second companion. Which, thanks to another thread in this forum, I have a good idea who that'll be, lol.

[Malanoth]

I think some of you are being a bit unrealistic in what the tank companions can do although I think all companions are getting buffed slightly. They are not meant to take only 10% damage per pack of mobs with a silver and go on nearly untouchable. Gear is important and will see a hardier tank but they are supposed to die if they take too much damage or your trying content that is 3 levels above you. At the end of each fight just dismiss and resummon her. It takes 2 seconds and she'll appear wil full hp and good to go again, you dont need to heal her or use the out of combat skill to replensish her hp unless you need it too. Thats how I've done it with her since I got her as a Concealment Operative. She had the full pvp set at 40 and I just kept the mods updated where possible, now 48 and still no problems with her and yes she will die if I take on too many mobs. As long as you dont die its jobe done.

[janeping]

Kaliyo is the most reliable companion for me. Yes, Vector has better dmg but as others had pointed out, the survivability is not so great with multiple mobs. I leveled full med spec, if my companion can hold agros on multiple mobs, we can down them. It might take a little longer but everything is possible. At 50, I can solo all heroic daily on belsavis by myself. I can take on 2 silver + 2 gold mix assuming one is a robot with Kaliyo. I always have Kaliyo's gear as up to date as possible. It's very important you upgrade her weapon too, get the latest barrel. I noticed her effectiveness dropped one time when her barrel was several levels behind. But after I upgraded it, she's as good as usual. She keeps mobs on her well and allow me to heal her while dpsing with orbit strike, backstab, etc. Edited April 2, 2012 by janeping

[Sarielle]

having had Vector for a couple of levels now I feel like he's a better "tank" for the simple fact that stuff dies so quickly it doesn't have time to do much damage. He also does enough DPS to pull aggro from my medic/DPS hybrid so I still find it easy to backstab.

 

Occasionally on champ mobs I feel like he's a little weaker that Kaliyo, but it's still very possible to heal him through it. It could just be that "weak spot" that I keep reading she hits early 30s, but her gear is much better than his because I haven't been to the trader to gear him up yet.

[bushwacker]

I saw someone mention this in another thread, and I've been noticing it.

 

I'm level 36 now, and for the past few levels, Kaliyo's becoming really, really squishy. I've done the best I can for her in terms of armor, but she's losing a lot of health rather quickly.

 

Anyone else had this problem, and if so, how can it be fixed?

 

Yeah, I just notice this around level 26, then I realized that her guard stance toggle wasn't on. Maybe that's the problem for you??

[VanguardXL]

Kaliyo suffers from the same flaw, some would say bug, that all tank companions do; their tanking mode does not boost their armor like player tanking modes do. So even wearing "heavy" armor they have absolute garbage damage mitigation. Thus they seem to get squishier when mob damage starts ramping up as the game progresses. A tank companion, unless geared in top end raid/PvP gear, will have at most 5% or less more mitigation than a medium armor wearing player. Less than a light armor wearing shadow/assassin tank.

 

Modable armor with heavy emphasis on Defense, Shield and Absorption can offset this somewhat, but the fact of the matter remains they take damage like a DPS player does, without any of the benefits. DPS companions take hits like Sage/Sorcerers do, since they all (with one exception, Ashura) wear light armor.

[Zelurd]

It's natural that tank companions seem to be squishier as you get to higher levels because mob damage scale curve grows faster while companion stats grow linearly pretty much.

 

However, tank companions are still the best for a dps spec imo.

"Squishiness" is usually a non-issue because you always mount up to fully heal your companion automatically. Using DPS companions as many said here, on the other hand, is NOT effective at all. You kill mobs faster with DPS companions for sure, but since they can't aggro with increased threat / taunt, you almost take a fair amount of damage for every mob group, which means you need to heal up every other battle.

 

When using tank companions, you only take the first or two hits from the mobs initially when you open, but your tank companion's aoe/taunt will aggro them right after. When you mount up and go to the next group, your companion is fully healed again, while you take almost no damage.

[LilTsar]

 

However, tank companions are still the best for a dps spec imo.

"Squishiness" is usually a non-issue because you always mount up to fully heal your companion automatically. Using DPS companions as many said here, on the other hand, is NOT effective at all. You kill mobs faster with DPS companions for sure, but since they can't aggro with increased threat / taunt, you almost take a fair amount of damage for every mob group, which means you need to heal up every other battle.

 

When using tank companions, you only take the first or two hits from the mobs initially when you open, but your tank companion's aoe/taunt will aggro them right after. When you mount up and go to the next group, your companion is fully healed again, while you take almost no damage.

 

i have downtime maybe once every 3-5 fights with double dps. for agent, pop defense probe (sic) pretty regularly, focus dps, use knockdowns/ccs/ stuns/ and, for snipers, proper kill order (starting with ranged guys) and the expediency of a dps companion is not only good for speed but health as well.

 

also, its not like you can just mount up anywhere. using a tank companion, no you dont take much, but they do, even when geared. (my wookie tank is in about 3/4 jedi guardian tank gear, still takes more time and needs more downtimes than a dps companion in nothing but modded lingerie)

 

if survivability is actually an issue, whip out a healer, they pretty much replace tanks as the 'safe bet' for tough fights. the last time i used kaliyo outside of her companion quests was for the act 1 boss, indeed for the human, or, er, ratatakki shield element, but tanks are far from the best bet for dps players.

Edited April 4, 2012 by LilTsar

[Serbegorn]

Keep her gear up to date if you want her to tank effectively imo. If you have her runnin around in greens you're doing it wrong. Most of my companions probably have better gear than the average player does.