Ervashi Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Hey all, I wanted to bring up an issue I read about earlier. Currently, the companion gear system (that is, improving companion gear via quest rewards) is rather limiting - that is, it's very, very difficult to gear more than one companion effectively. This makes it difficult to use more than one companion in PvE environments, because eventually your "favorite" companion's gear will far outperform that of your other companions. What about when you switch crafting skills, and your previous go-to companion has a +2 critical rating for that skill? You can send him/her/it on missions, but none of your other companions are geared enough to handle the content you're encountering. What if I just want a different sidekick for a day to keep things fresh? I could of course purchase a bunch of gear on the GTN, but as it is, I could barely purchase Speeder Piloting 2 when I hit 40 last night. My concern with the current companion system is that a bunch of work went into fleshing out characters and personalities for our companions, but due to the current system it's difficult to get face time in with all of them. As such, we really only get to gain affection with one or two companions at a time naturally (that is, not spamming gifts), and otherwise they're just errand boys and girls to fetch crafting ingredients. I can't say what a good solution would be - perhaps receiving gear for all your companions at various checkpoints, something like chest piece, pants and a weapon that matches your current level and at least makes your companion viable for whatever content you'll be facing next. It just seems like there are stories within SWTOR that I'll never experience because anyone other than Khem Val can't handle the mobs I'll be facing until I hit 50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terminova Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 (edited) You'll probably have to buy commendation gear for your companions if they are under-geared and you want to use them. Edited April 4, 2012 by terminova Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeSaberRattler Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 I tend not to waste rewards on companions or buy items just for them either. I find a companion that can use my gear and just give them all my hand me downs. Which plays into only using one companion for the whole game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revelationjp Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 It's an interesting question, and one I hadn't really thought about. My main is arsenal merc, and pretty much Mako is the only companion who functions for my build very well, so I don't bother gearing any of my others. My first suggestion would be to keep an eye on green drops, I seem to get a huge variety, and they're already leveled to where you are, so i'd guess you could keep your whole crew fairly decently kitted out out that way. Just a guess though, never tried it. Course they'd all be in pretty mis-matched gear that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaggscoob Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 When you hit 50 and start doing dailies, you'll have more money than you know what to do with. I wouldn't worry about gear for companions, you'll be able to gear them out at 50. Also, if you get one to 50, you'll be able to bankroll your alts so their companions have good gear. Having a bunch of different alts for the different crafting professions is nice, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjmc Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 (edited) There isn't a lot of point in gearing your non-active companions while you are levelling, because whatever gear you get them will be obsolete by the time that you decide that you might want to bring them out to fight (although I suppose if you are level 40, it is better for him to have level 30 gear than level 20). The easiest thing to do when you decide to switch companions is to go to the GTN and load up on whatever gear you can afford. Get at least Green gear (which usually isn't too expensive), although you will eventually want to get better than that. If you are really poor, try going out for a resource harvesting run to get resources to sell on the GTN (or craft some things to sell). Also, you can delay switching companions - continue to use your current companion for a few more quests while you focus on gearing up the new one. It can help to have a character that can make armor (armormech is most helpful for smugglers and troopers, not sure about the others). Then you can just run off a new set of armor when you need it -- and being able to sell crafted armor on the GTN helps to prevent you from being poor as well. I could barely purchase Speeder Piloting 2 when I hit 40 last night. We all feel poor at level 40. Pilot training is a big ticket item and is relatively unique that way -- your ability to spend money on other things at the pilot training levels is going to be impacted. Edited April 5, 2012 by sjmc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goretzu Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 There isn't a lot of point in gearing your non-active companions while you are levelling The only issue to remember is some class quests make you take a certain companion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shingara Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Its also down to economics, the crafted gear is better for companions then the quest reward gear is, this is due to presence being on crafted gear and it stacking whilst worn by companions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsillah Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 The easiest thing to do when you decide to switch companions is to go to the GTN and load up on whatever gear you can afford. Get at least Green gear (which usually isn't too expensive), although you will eventually want to get better than that. If you are really poor, try going out for a resource harvesting run to get resources to sell on the GTN (or craft some things to sell). The problem is that a very high percentage of companions use medium gear and on my server even green medium armour with cunning is an absolute rarity. Unless you are lucky on the GTN you'd be better off leveling armormech and cybertech. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amnie Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 I tend not to waste rewards on companions or buy items just for them either. I find a companion that can use my gear and just give them all my hand me downs. Which plays into only using one companion for the whole game. while in theory that isn't a bad idea, it can mean your companion of choice is basically useless. I've tried it on my scoundrel for a while. risha and guss both use the 'general' stats I do. if I just give risha my hand-me-downs she doesn't make enough damage, and since I'm heals specced I really really don't need guss to heal me 'with jedi power' if you are having trouble, you could also do a few warzones and buy them gear from the PVP vendors. I did that with corso, just gave him trooper gear and a fitting weapon/mods Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacklynx Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 I also have this problem, nothing worst than gearing one companion and needing to use another for quest. One way to counter this woulb be the quests giving packs instead on items, for example you finish a quest and have the option of choosing a helmet pack. Open the pack and have an helmet for all current companions. Either that or an area in each planet, similar to an fp but soloable, where the loot is only companion gear, run it a few times to complete at leats 2-3 sets for the companions (plus xp and creds from the quest) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazzer Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 I bought my companions some low level orange armour and weaponry, after that you never really need to gear them again (aside from belts, wrists, implants and ear pieces). The commendations at the end of each planet were enough to keep my current companion on level and the bought green mods from each planet enough to up date the rest. Once you hit 50 and run dailies and heroics on Ilum and Belsavis you can have them kitted out inside of a few week in full purple mods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerokTalram Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 In my humble opinion having properly geared companion(s) is much more important than getting speeder piloting 2. My level 50 still has to purchase speeder piloting 2 but he has 3 companions with useable gear. As for using a companion with the same armor type and using hand me down. That doesn't work for a sentinel as none of the companions are sentinels. I guess you could put medium armor on Lord Scourge but as a tank that would gimp him pretty good. Doc being a scoundrel wears medium armor but you don't want to be putting strength armor on a healing spec'd companion. It works to a point for a trooper who has Alaric and Elara. Though Elara you would also want to increase Alacrity and only a healing spec commando would also raise alacrity. I also believe that the staggering of companions helps you with companion gear. When you get a new companion the gear he has on is good for probably at least 4 levels. Now maybe you don't like some companions, fine but the game was designed for you to use the various companions as they come along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerokTalram Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 The problem is that a very high percentage of companions use medium gear and on my server even green medium armour with cunning is an absolute rarity. Unless you are lucky on the GTN you'd be better off leveling armormech and cybertech. If that's the case what are the smugglers and imperial agents wearing? Stuff must be dropping or you'd hear them screaming loudly on the forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjmc Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 You can also do warzones and use commendations to buy your companions at least some "pvp" gear at level 20-40, especially if your own gear is pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amantheil Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 At lot of it will vary by class. As a level 30ish trooper, I can give Dorne and Joric hand-me-downs, which means I can use quest rewards to gear up M1. Other classes don't have companions they can give hand me downs to though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabrac Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 I agree with the OP. There should be some 'free' packages with white gear after each level milestone for each companion. It was not funny being level 45 and having Vette wear level 25 items. Of course, after you get to level 50 you will get enough money to equip everyone from dailies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iCanUseTheForce Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 (edited) Gearing up un-used companions is a chore, but I don't really see a way around it. Being able to gear them just like you do yourself offers so much customization that I wouldn't want to give up. Generally, you aren't going to change much while questing/leveling. At 50, as a previous poster mentioned, dailies will easily net you the necessary mods. Where I can see this becoming a "problem" is for classes with healing or tanking specs and players who want to try them both. This could become a bigger issue when dual-spec comes out. It's nice when you have a crew skill to help gear your companions: my Guardian has Synthweaving, my BH has Armortech. Edited April 5, 2012 by iCanUseTheForce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toju Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 If that's the case what are the smugglers and imperial agents wearing? Stuff must be dropping or you'd hear them screaming loudly on the forums. I wish that was true Jerok. The only greens that seem to drop for me is willpower =/ I sell a ton of it as vendor trash every night and Ill get only a handfull of useful gear. While I do have orange gear on Risha, Bowdaar, and Avakki, Corso and Jedi dropout Guss are a bit lacking. Planning on giving them PvP gear just for the "photo op" at the end of the smuggler campaign Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uniz Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 sounds like taking cybertech, synthweaving and armortech has its uses after all. got 400 in each and it worked real well in gearing up my companions on that toon. too bad most people fell into the trap of taking slicing and all gathering or just biochem. now these same people it appears want a new system to gear them up. lmao. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iCanUseTheForce Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 sounds like taking cybertech, synthweaving and armortech has its uses after all. got 400 in each and it worked real well in gearing up my companions on that toon. too bad most people fell into the trap of taking slicing and all gathering or just biochem. now these same people it appears want a new system to gear them up. lmao. I try to take crew skills that compliment each class. My Sage is slicing & gathering but since I'll only use one companion (Qyzen) it's ok. Commendations keep me topped up. Especially since my Sent is Artifice, which is super nice for any Force-user (especially a dual-wielding one). My BH Merc & Guardian can both make armor for them + their companions. Quite nice and makes it easier to level the crew skills since I'll be using everything I craft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GnatB Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Do more crafting? I almost never used any of my companions quest reward options, choosing the commendation instead. (except for tech weapons for idiot lizard, I mean Qyzon). I was always able to keep whichever companions I was using outfitted better than the rewards. (addmittedly, max # of companions I ever actually used was 2, and for most of my characters only 1. As for having to send them on crewskill missions? 2 crit (or even 5) isn't THAT much a difference.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trayeth Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 The only issue to remember is some class quests make you take a certain companion. Yeah like how at the end of the knight you HAVE to use T7 because he's "not affected" by the emperor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gungan Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Just roll a Trooper. All your friggin companions use the same gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZORG Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 (edited) The problem is that a very high percentage of companions use medium gear and on my server even green medium armour with cunning is an absolute rarity. Unless you are lucky on the GTN you'd be better off leveling armormech and cybertech. So far I got a 50 trooper armstech guns barrels techblades 46 smuggy 400 biochem implants medpacks 50 sage cybertech ear armorings mods I am now leveling a sentinal the only mods i cant make for him is hilts and enhancements and i can use coms for those. What i do now is ob each of my 50s i do 1 run on ilum dailys since they pay 10k each and can funnel 60k minimum each day if i wanted to. Edited April 11, 2012 by ZORG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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