Marak Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I think it depends on the player and what you deem acceptable. Back in January I leveled my Guardian up using Kira for basically 100% of the trip. I was DPS spec'd with a DPS companion. I was a synthweaver and kept her and I in adequate gear and we did fine. On my operative I used Kaliyo for a solid 80% of it. She was useful because I needed to backstab and honestly tanks do decent damage themselves. On my assassin I basically used the newest companion I had the whole way just to mix it up. Those three were all pre-legacy presence bombs. On my gunslinger.. I used Corso until I got Bowdaar until I got Risha and then Risha the whole way. 500 presence with a dps companion is not even fair. Especially with that combo. Sharpshooter gunslinger with a sniper companion = mobs dead before the shots even landed. I would say yes healers are good for playing it safe and for newer players, but they aren't required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saurakk Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I used Mako on my merc. Healer + DPS I used Andronokis for my Sorc. DPS + DPS (Khem is ok, but I find I live just find and kill stuff quicker with the DPS pet). I use Kira for my Guardian. DPS + Tank The tank kills stuff way too slowly spec'd for def and tanking so a healer would just make leveling as exciting as watching paint dry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aharx Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 So what I've taken from this (As a DPS spec'd Bounty Hunter: Powertech- Pyrotech) is that I should switch from Mako (healer) to either a tanking or DPS companion. Would that be a safe assumption? I could always just give it a whirl I guess and see how it works out. Hah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synxos Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 As dps, heals is best. As tank, heals is best. As heals, dps is best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urael Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 But, it's far more efficient to just specialize in DPS and bring a Healer. Things die reasonably fast, and you have almost no downtime making your overall efficiency much higher than any other combination I've tried.! I am going to have to disagree with this comment. I find the over all encounter (OAE) time not much differenet. I will define OAE time as the time it takes to kill a mob or group of mobs + the time it takes to recover from said encounter. For example in Tank + healz companion it takes much longer to finish the combat part of the encounter but not so much time to recover. In the Tank + DPS companion it takes a lot less time to finish the combat part of the encounter but much longer to recover. No real percievable difference in the OAE. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobmcbo Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 for me, it all depends on my character. if I can heal (not necessarily specced for healing) I use a tank if I tank (specced) I use a healer if I can only dps, I use a healer if I can tank, but aren't specced for it, I use a dps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deewe Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Whatever companions healers are the best combo with any classes, the main issue persists: Most of the companions aren't efficient so it leaves all players to stick with the same companion, whatever you like others personality, look or background better. This is where DE has it wrong: Deewe: With the locked companion specs, some of us feel like being forced to use specific companions versus choosing them for their personality and look. Is there in the works any kind of feature mitigating this issue (hint: companions kits)? Daniel Erickson (Lead Game Designer): Companions in BioWare games have always been fully developed characters with their own backgrounds and skills. While you can change between a couple different approaches with each, we do not presently have plans to make Companion Characters interchangeable. Players should be able to choose what companion to use and not be limited by their roles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCesca Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 If I'm healing, i use my tank. If I'm grouping with someone who has a healer who's better geared than mine, I use a DPS. Otherwise, I use the healer pretty much all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunni Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 (edited) I should clarify that I'm on level for each planet using mostly orange and blue gear. I use either Elara or Aric, both of which are using my hand me downs so they're one 'tier' lower than what I'm wearing. So in other words they're fairly well geared. This is all you had to say. This is your major problem. How do you expect to play decent? No wonder you are using your healer more. Healers can afford to be under geared cause all that is expected of them is to heal. You can't expect to quest on a level 40-43 planet with you in maybe level 36 blues and your tank or dps companion in your hand me down level 30 gear. You should run into problems and should expect it. Diminishing returns apply to companions as well. When I upgrade my gear for a new planet I make damn sure which ever companion I'm using is at least just as geared as I am. BTW, I hate the healing companions. I usually roll with range dps or range tank. When geared proper, these companions are beasts. Edited July 17, 2012 by Sunni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gokkus Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Players should be able to choose what companion to use and not be limited by their roles. How I wish this was true. I already know some companions that I will use from lvl 10 to 50 simply because they are the best choice. That is pretty lame. For some classes it really is quite vital to have a companion in a certain role. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deewe Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 How I wish this was true. I already know some companions that I will use from lvl 10 to 50 simply because they are the best choice. That is pretty lame. For some classes it really is quite vital to have a companion in a certain role. Well if you are playing a jug without Quinn you are doing it wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urael Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Well if you are playing a jug without Quinn you are doing it wrong. Disagree. My Jug with a well geared Vette rocks hard! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweetiepies Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I swear by Torian. He is a beast. Solo play, (50 dailies) I don't need a healer because we burn down pretty much everything we come across. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deewe Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Disagree. My Jug with a well geared Vette rocks hard! Well maybe I'd ask what's your build... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urael Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Well maybe I'd ask what's your build... Immortal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deewe Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Immortal. Strange. I tested Vette and I found that my cool down between fights is way longer than with Quinn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyla Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 (edited) Whatever companions healers are the best combo with any classes, the main issue persists: Most of the companions aren't efficient so it leaves all players to stick with the same companion, whatever you like others personality, look or background better. This is where DE has it wrong: Players should be able to choose what companion to use and not be limited by their roles. Agree with this. With 2 companions (like in most of their other games), even if you choose your companions based on their character, between your abilities and theirs, you have most of the time at least a decent group. With only one companion, it's a lot more tricky. Sure, depending on your level vs content level, gear, ... you can do many things whatever the companion you use. The thing is some companions are safer to use than others. Sure as a tank or DPS, I can use a DPS or a tank companion and kill things faster but if I want to play safe (like in case, something goes wrong or I'm attacked by a player while killing mobs), healer companions are superior. As a healer, I can play with DPS companions, focusing more on dealing damage and only healing in bad fights. But again, with a tank companion, I would be able to stay alive a lot longer. While it indeed depends on your playstyle and how risky or safe you like to play, tank PC + healer comp, DPS PC + healer comp, healer PC + tank comp are better combos as in more capable of being alive longer. From this, many players play only with thoses companions even though they would like to play with another. Instead of letting us play with the companion we want and adjust its capabilities, we play with a companion because of its premade role. From my Imp characters: I made a tank assassin and wanted to play with Khem but it's sub par. I made a healer operative and I had to play with Kaliyo even though I wanted to leave her before lvl15. I made a healer merc and wanted to play with Mako but it's sub par. I made a marauder and wanted to play with Vette but it's sub par. ..... Companions with different personnalities should be available early so we can choose (probably before leaving capital planets) which one we want to play with and then choose which role we need them to be. Edited July 17, 2012 by Nyla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urael Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Strange. I tested Vette and I found that my cool down between fights is way longer than with Quinn. Vette sometimes mows down 2 mobs before I get finished with one. Hmmmm you know what I didn't take into account. Pre bonus from legacy free unlocks. Maybe that is factoring in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenzali Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 (edited) The issue I have is that it's extremely disadvantageous to use a non-tank companion if you are a ranged dps or a healer. If you are a healer, after the first heal you cast on your dps companion the aggro will be drawn to you and you'll spend most of the time healing yourself due to your spells constantly being pushed back and most likely being more squishy than your companion. Levelling this way is slow with a lot of downtime and slow killing speed. God forbid you're a scoundrel healer and have to go into melee range to do your damage or a mercenary healer and have to rely on a gimped Power Shot that gets pushed back so much that it goes negative off the left side of the castbar. On a Sorceror healer it was good enough having the lightning snares and stuns to keep everything at bay. If you are a ranged dps, if you go with a healer companion you suffer the pushback and dps loss, but not have to worry about recuperating after each fight, or you go with a dps companion and have the same problems, fast killing speed, but a ton of downtime as both of you will be losing a lot of health. It doesn't seem to be as bad for Snipers though since they have cover to protect them to an extent. So your only choice is pretty much to use a tank companion. Dailies are painfully slow on my Mercenary healer and I do not do them anymore. Melee dps classes other hand, can very succesfully work well with any of the companions because they have no spell pushback to worry about. Their killing speed is just mind boggling, especially Sentinels. You really can't go wrong with any companion here. I'm actually levelling one up right now just because I don't have any character that is capable of doing dailies at a reasonable speed (Merc healer, Commando healer, Sorc healer, Scoundrel healer, Juggernaut tank, Powertech tank). Although Jugg/PT tanks can use Vette/Torian to kill things very fast I still dislike having to recuperate health between battles while I watch Sentinels/Marauders with Doc/Quinn zooming between groups killing everything with no downtime. Edited July 17, 2012 by Jenzali Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwena Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 (edited) I think healing companions are the most, hmm, versatile maybe? Easy to use? In that there is generally less risk of death and they can work well with pretty much any spec. IMHO DPS + DPS companion is a really efficient combo if you have good gear and if you won't be facing anything that might beat you in a DPS race. I tried DPS Scoundrel + Akaavi Spar at 50 for my dailies once I got decent gear, and it was fast and fun. As a healer, I find I can use pretty much any companion I like without much of an issue -- yes, even a healing companion, though it is quite slow. I stuck with a tank mostly on my first healer, but later discovered that DPS companions can usually "tank" single elites just fine and things went a little faster. So I just pick whichever companion I like the personality/look of the best on my healer characters. I do think that the current 1 role per companion thing is too limiting (and let's be honest, a tank or healer in their "damage" stance is nowhere near as good as an actual DPS companion). For example, on my Juggernaut, I would like to use Pierce for awhile when I get him. But my Juggernaut is a tank, so this combo will be very inefficient. Edited July 17, 2012 by Gwena Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaisernick Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Well if you are playing a jug without Quinn you are doing it wrong. for a tank jugg any of the others apart from a tank companion are fine. my biggest problem is allthougth tank companions come with a dps option they still seem to pull agro off me even with their taunt abilites turned off and seem to do bad damage which wasnt helpful for my knight guardian and a shame cause i like pierce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mavsynchroid Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Me too, unless my character is a healer itself, then I use tank or dps depending on how easy the fight is. The main reason I use healer is because I'd rather not sit there and heal up after every fight. It gets annoying very quickly. Too bad there's no auto regen for health outside of combat. Yes I know there IS one, but I mean as fast as you would recharging. There would of course be stipulations to it, but it would be nice to keep on trucking to the next group of mods without recharging with the same animation over and over and over..and...over...and.... @_@ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mavsynchroid Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 ...over..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izorii Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I find the exact same thing. If I am DPS or a Tank I have to take a healer with me. I thought my BH was an insanly over powered class when I got him until I worked out out, its because he got a healer compaion first. He wasn't over powered but getting a healer compaion meant he kicked *** where my other classes would just die. I think in a lot of fights Mako actually healed me more health than I started with. Only my healer spec SI can choose to take which ever compaion he wants all the other have to take the healer or things are just more difficult. I would like it if the other compaions were as good as the healer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petnil Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 rarely use my healer compagnons, and never on my healers rarely use a tank compagnon, and never on my tanks basicly i use a dps compagnon. well, i actually use 4x on my commando healer, but that´s mainly because he´s so pro rep. it´s funny. realy too bad you cant get droids geared up like your other compagnons(at lv 50) atm i´m leveling a sentinel (45) and i think i only ever used kira. It gets close at times, but close fights is fun, and you learn to use your defensive cooldowns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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