Too much dying for Val

[RikHar]

It seems Khem Val on my level 32 Assassin has been dying like crazy as of late. Not me, but him. He barely ever died before this so I don't understand why he's taking so much damage now. In the past if he lost a lot of health (which was rare) I would use the companion health kits but now even that's not helping him.

 

He's outfitted completely in Orange gear with blue wrists and belt. Mods on his gear is almost 100% up to date so it's not his armor.

 

Someone told me from level 30 up he will die a lot. I'm guessing it's true now. Anyone else noticed this at this level?

 

 

Thanks

[Khopesh]

I really liked the 2nd companion and left khem val to it but when i wen back to val he seemed to die, i assumed it was because i didn't kit him out as much as i should, but i still had the problem kitting him out as much as i can, i'm now at my fourth companion and i just don't use val you will probably find as you go on you want to use a specific character and i rarely see a high level guy using khem. Edited April 15, 2012 by Khopesh

[Darth_Solrac]

Chose Ashara over him as my main companion, as I favor other Force users. Plan on choosing Xalek over her asap.

[Adordrius]

For me, personally, as a sorceror, i used Khem Val until I Ashara. I used her up until I got Talos. His heals aren't perfect but he can be really helpful in a tough spot. Even gearing Khem Val with level appropriate Synth gear he still just seemed below the curve from Taris and beyond. So I don't think it's just you.

[DelTrigger]

I expect him to die (sorc) most of the time. I bubble him as often as possible but it's inevitable in groups with something as low as a strong and a bunch of weak mobs. I pretty much just use him as an aggro stick until he dies. I can survive on my own for maybe 50% health on elite mobs.

[Vladnar]

I personally found Khem did have a sticky patch in the 30's but picked up fine again by the end...i was dps and had him tanking, so a few heals occasionally to get us through.....now at 50 im a healer and he's doing the damage, ensure correct stance, and between us we have no problems at all.

 

Khem Val, Never leave home without him.

[scottberg]

Yeah he did seem to get very squishy after 30 no matter how well I had him geared. It sucked because I'm playing a dark sith and he was the only one who seemed liked my darkside ways.

[TopazDragon]

I used Khem Val till 50. I did notice that there were some points that it gets hard for him.

 

First, make sure that he has good gear. Whenever you gear yourself up you should be gearing him up with almost as good gear.

 

Second, I think that this is the part of the game where you have to start static barriering him. Most of the begining you can get away just sending him into fight, but at this point you'll want to put a Static Barrier on him before you send him into battle. Maybe even want to throw another on him in the middle. Its not a big inconvenience b/c Static Barrier is instant

 

Eventually (40's) I found that I'll have to static barrier AND heal him a few times even against trash mobs. It was a bit awkward as a DPS spec but it worked fine overall.

[verfallen]

Game difficulty does increase with levels, as it can be expected. Anything else than a tank-spec player take a LOT more damage after Tatooine. Tanking companions will start dying on elites and sometimes strongs.

 

If you level a marauder its something you'll see acutely as your own relative survivability (since you are typically the one taking the hits) when suddenly messing up can be your death rather than just ending the fight 10% lower than usual.

 

Keeping the gear updated is a must, but won't do miracles.

[VVyrdo]

I used khem, like others all the way through to 50. I did notice however, during the later levels that he was no longer the "brick s**t house" he was in the early levels. He went from pretty much taking every hit and laughing in the face of whoever had even bothered to swing their saber at him to becoming a wet paper bag.

 

 

I have to admit though, I never really had any problems with this. If anything he should take more damage as you get higher level. Meaning you have to focus on your playstyle more than just trying to nuke everything down.

 

The majority of fights I would do my opener, then just spend the rest of the fight keeping khem up. I could have easily let him die while messing up whatever mob had fallen into my path, but that's not how I wanted to play. My idea of having the tank/healer setup is that I am supposed to be healing him and he is supposed to be doing my fighting for me.

 

If you find he is dying too quickly, then you just aren't giving him enough heals. If you are a dps sorc, then you shouldn't be using khem anyways. There are far better dps companions, ashara for one, or if you are doing the majority of the dps then use our healer comps.

 

 

Experimenting is what makes this game great, it's still early days so they may even make changes to the way companions work.

 

 

 

 

tl;dr heal that Dashade and he will love you forever.

 

 

And fyi, as an assassin using a tank companion. let me be the first to say, you are doing it wrong

Edited April 16, 2012 by VVyrdo

[iSenseSomething]

Beyond level 30, you need to trade taunts with Khem so he's not tanking the entire duration of a gold-star enemy (if you're assassin). Otherwise heal him (if sorc).

 

Make sure to use mind trap for every group and take out the weak enemies first. Also, you might want to turn off his aoe damage abilities so your mind trap doesn't break early.