SS Leveling - What companion?

[johanlofdahl]

Hey guys,

 

I am leveling as shieldspec vanguard atm. This is my third trooper (second vanguard) that I am leveling and the other 2 I rolled with elara.

I would like to go with another companion this time around. What other viable options are there for decent levelingspeed in soloquesting? and how do I get the most out of the other comps? Anyone but Elara.

 

I dont want to "Hold still!" anymore

[Fdzzaigl]

Elara, there is no other.

 

With her, you can basically solo almost anything.

 

You might want to switch to a DPS companion in the rare cases where nuking something into oblivion is better than outlasting it.

 

If you really want something else I'd go with Jorgan or Yuun myself, they seem to have the best damage, and Jorgan is ranged, so you can let him kill things while you kite and LoS them.

 

I don't see why you would want to level up more than one vanguard tbh, but to each their own

Have you ever considered doing a powertech?

Edited April 2, 2012 by Fdzzaigl

[johanlofdahl]

Hello,

 

Thanks for your reply. Reason is I leveled up one Vanguard first, then I felt like the game was missing something and I found a awesome trooper only guild on another server. But then I rolled a commando because I wanted some different gameplay but once I got him decent valor-rank I ended up missing my vanguard, so doing another one on the "new" server. hehe I know, I love troopers.

[Fdzzaigl]

Hello,

 

Thanks for your reply. Reason is I leveled up one Vanguard first, then I felt like the game was missing something and I found a awesome trooper only guild on another server. But then I rolled a commando because I wanted some different gameplay but once I got him decent valor-rank I ended up missing my vanguard, so doing another one on the "new" server. hehe I know, I love troopers.

 

Ah ok, nice

 

Well, I really don't think you can beat Elara for Shield Spec.

But running another companion will also be perfectly viable, you might just have to heal up far more after fights and switch to Elara again for soloing big baddies.

[Kazeshinix]

Elara ftw. World PvP isn't even fair with her out as shield spec.

[Yamirashi]

Elara ftw. World PvP isn't even fair with her out as shield spec.

 

This, almost took out a Jugg who was 43 (I was 39) several times when he kept jumping me on Hoth. The ONLY reason he wound up winning is every fight he would push me into NPCs. They're actually the ones who killed me every time because I never got the added PVP Stealth Time from my rez.

 

I know you guys are trying to help this specific OP in reguards to suggesting other companions but to other people reading I wouldn't swap out for anything. The only thing I would recommend is swapping Elara's stance to DPS unless I'm fighting the big guys. She does more DPS that way yet still heals me so I can burn through normal quest mobs much faster yet don't have to worry about keeping 2 companions geared up to swap out. I know its easier for us to keep multiple companions geared because they're all heavy armor and aim, but most of the gear you get for companions for questing is sadly "Requires Elara Dorne" and the like.

[hallucigenocide]

go for the famous ironfist spec.. it does wonders when you got your healer... last night i encountered 3 imps whom jumped me.. and i was the one kicking ***

[Mozivicus]

For leveling up in PvE, Elara is the clear choice. Just keep her geared well...and don't forget to gear her gun (her original can be mod'd all the way through the game). Like the other poster mentioned, she is ultra handy to have around in the occasional open PvP encounter....which is why my Elara sports a full set of centurion combat medic gear. Come to think of it, I really should get her into some champ gear Edited April 2, 2012 by Mozivicus

[Fordel]

One thing you can do with Elara while leveling, is turn off her CC ability and her cast-time heal spell, then put her into DPS stance.

 

For like 90% of the leveling/solo content, you don't need her cast time heal and that bonus time combined with her DPS stance reducing the cooldowns on her two offensive abilities, really boosts her damage output.

 

Instead of her spending two-seconds casting a heal to take you from 99% health to 100% health, she'll pop off a few extra attacks. It's a noticeable difference in kill speed, with little difference in survivability.

[Sanzorz]

If you don't play on a PvP server, then Elara is really just a "better safe than sorry" companion. She's dreadfully slow in damage, can bug out on healing and your overall migitation is good enough for a decent encounter duration. I rarely used her during my leveling, unless I found the odd open map boss that dropped decent loot.

 

I went with damage companions all the way. Midway though I refitted Forex to full damage and just disabled his tow ability. Rather than Storming people, then just walk into groups as Forex will be in close range aswell for his better abilities. He hurts plenty in dps gear. In the end you'll end up with Yuun who literally mow things down, while you take the little hurting mobs do. You can easily deal with an elite or two due to the short amount of time it takes Yuun to kill them. Just hotkey rest button and move on. Lots more fun than having Elara out.

[johanlofdahl]

I went with damage companions all the way. Midway though I refitted Forex to full damage and just disabled his tow ability. Rather than Storming people, then just walk into groups as Forex will be in close range aswell for his better abilities. He hurts plenty in dps gear. In the end you'll end up with Yuun who literally mow things down, while you take the little hurting mobs do. You can easily deal with an elite or two due to the short amount of time it takes Yuun to kill them. Just hotkey rest button and move on. Lots more fun than having Elara out.

 

This actually sounds like alot of fun! I was hoping that any character but Elara would be useful. I do play on a PvP server but I rather take the extra "deaths" and use another companion, not that I do particularly mind her just ... leveled twice with her now and want to give the others a chance.

Anyhow back to Forex did you use him pre50 successfully? I just might try gearing him out!

 

Alot of people are recommending Elara and well that was what I thought but any, i mean we got 5 companions but only one are viable for leveling? Sounds odd, must be another way!

[Mozivicus]

It's just a preference thing. Most people prefer to have a pocket healer so they don't have to worry about another mechanic of the fight, your health. 4X, Yuun, and Tanno are good close range damage dealers and Jorgen is a good ranged damage dealer. You do have to keep them all geared, should you interchange them. While leveling, this can be a challenge.

 

Try em all out, just don't try em all out only one time. It does take a bit to get used to each one's style, and it will also take a bit to tweak each one's abilities to best compliment your particular play style. Whichever one you choose, have fun

Edited April 3, 2012 by Mozivicus

[LeggoMyMuoio]

Leveling in the Iron Fist spec, I've stuck with Jorgan (lvl 36 so far). I used Mako on my BH merc for the heals, but even though my dps in Shield spec isn't terrible, I'm enjoying killing stuff faster. I only stop to heal every 2-4 pulls as is so I personally feel Jorgan's dps outweighs Elara's healing. I'm also on a PvE server though (stupid friends), but even when leveling my BH on PvP, I rarely saw any pubs.

[HeavensTerror]

Only 30 atm, but been using Elara. She's all I'll probably use. I can solo Heroic 2 with her.

[LeggoMyMuoio]

I'm 40 now and I'm starting to feel the effects of using Jorgan. I'm having to Recharge and Reload after almost every fight (especially since there've been more strong enemies lately), so I'm finally trying out Elara. Unfortunately about half her gear is way out of date, hopefully that won't hurt for too long.

 

My biggest concern is that while my downtime will decrease, each fight is going to take longer. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

[Zbus]

Elara no doubt about it. But I took armor tech so on my way to 50 none of the guys went without armor worked out well since the nice thing about the trooper class is you can make the gear for all your guys and yourself. No clothies in that bunch of companions. of coarse once i hit level cap I went biochem like everyone else but on the road getting thier armortech worked great.

[LemmingLeader]

If you're specced for defense with Vanguard, then technically, Elara is the best, safest, surest way to quest. You can do so much with her.

 

However, fighting will take longer, and it gets pretty dang boring.

[Toburk]

You can use Jorgan for a pretty long time, but by the time you hit the 40's your dps will not have scaled up with the higher lvl mobs hp resulting in much longer fights, which means the incoming dmg will be much more.

 

For comparison, my lvl 46 vanguard, in level appropriate gear does less damage than my combat medic commando did in the mid 20's, let alone if she was gunnery spec. If you have only played a vanguard, you will be amazed by the damage output of some classes like commando or gunslinger (but with less survivability\staying power, gunslinger especially)

 

The time it takes to kill multiple 10,000-15,000hp strongs, or a strong and 3-4 6,500hp normals will take a huge chunk off your hp bar and you will have to use recharge and reload after every single fight, vs staying at 100%hp with elara.

 

With Yuun, i can -barely- kill 2 strongs with supporting normals, and a pair of elites would be impossible if they couldn't be kited. With Elara, I would never drop under 95%hp and can simply go from group to group dropping as much AoE as the cooldowns allow, making for both a faster, and much safer experience.

 

 

The amount of content that would simply be impossible without Elara is quite large if you are a completionist and don't want to go back after being over-leveled. I have soloed all 2+ heroics with her, and several 4+ heroics. Champions are trivial with her, but impossible without.

[revial]

As has been pointed out, but largely ignored, you can turn off/on two of her abilities on the fly that will drastically change her effectiveness. Her cast time heal, and channeled CC. For 99% of the content you encounter, those two things are simply not needed, and drastically reduce her dps if enabled. Elara, with those two skills turned off, and in her DPS stance, is a perfect balance of damage and damage mitigation (via her instant cast hot/direct heals), and I am fairly confident easily ends up being the fastest leveling Companion to use over time.

 

If you are having 'slow' fights with Elara out, you are doing it very, very wrong.

 

That said, there's nothing stopping you from using another Companion. I'm fairly confident that not using Elara isn't going to magically prevent you from hitting level 50.

Edited April 12, 2012 by revial

[Sanzorz]

This actually sounds like alot of fun! I was hoping that any character but Elara would be useful. I do play on a PvP server but I rather take the extra "deaths" and use another companion, not that I do particularly mind her just ... leveled twice with her now and want to give the others a chance.

Anyhow back to Forex did you use him pre50 successfully? I just might try gearing him out!

 

Alot of people are recommending Elara and well that was what I thought but any, i mean we got 5 companions but only one are viable for leveling? Sounds odd, must be another way!

 

I went with Armormech during my leveling, so I could waste commendations on barrels and so on to equip Forex. Making armor made it easy to upgrade the other companions. You bump into moddable equipment for him plenty of times as mission rewards. His starting gear is poor, but after a bit of running around and gearing him up, then I felt he punched out damage quite well. Next to that you can use him for taunt switching in case you're up against some terribly tough bosses. I remember doing that to the Sand People boss on Taris. Keep in mind that his autofire is ALOT faster than Jorgan, meaning after his initial burst he's faster to down the mob(s), where as Jorgan takes ages to do his random bursts.

Extra bonus is ofcourse his loyalist shouts about enemies and the Empire. Lots of humour from him

 

As for the other companions, then Tanno works great too in damage gear. The only issue I have with him, is his delayed charge after set to attack something. Much like what you see with the lizard on Consulars. Another slight problem is that Tanno use Techblades, which are hard to find unless you know a good Armstech. This should be less of an issue in 1.2.

 

The reason Yuun is always active to me is for many reasons. First off he got a charge that allow him to jump to the target, and so he dosen't have the delayed part. Secondly he got a "Bleed" stance causing Internal damage which is imo far better as it's less resisted on many targets including PvP people. There is just so much damage in this guy when properly fitted, that Elara is just a stall and a greater downtime as you can easily absorb the damage from most things. At level 50 I only use her if I go up against lots of elites or some certain 2+ heroics.

 

So yes, if you went with Vanguard for leveling in tank spec, then by all means try and experiment with the tank companions in full dps gear. It works wonders, compared to facepalming yourself due to Captain Slow"Elara"ness.

Edited April 10, 2012 by Sanzorz

[LeggoMyMuoio]

I was surprised how quickly I got Elara's gear up to speed after never using her. Using her has almost made me lazy, I tend not to interrupt as often just because of the ammo cost (not an issue in 1.2).

 

Also, I know lots of people turn off her CC, but I actually find it useful for using Blitz. I never used Shoulder Slam on my merc, but as a Vanguard/Powertech, it's actually pretty useful. A crit can kill or come close to killing a weak enemy which is pretty great.