HK-51 while leveling?

[wayneck]

Is it works spending credits or Cartel coins on this comp. to unlock? I am going to be leveling a tank vanguard and wanted to know if i unlock this thing from the beginning say level 1 will it be worth it? or should i just stick with my healer once i get her?

[Igax]

Is it works spending credits or Cartel coins on this comp. to unlock? I am going to be leveling a tank vanguard and wanted to know if i unlock this thing from the beginning say level 1 will it be worth it? or should i just stick with my healer once i get her?

 

Not sure if they fixed the gear lvling with you or not. Worst case you will have to buy some droid parts or make them. He is a bit OP in the early levels and on a bad side I do not think he has any dialog for the first 50 lvls of quests.... so you will miss out on that much.

[Mowermanx]

I got HK when it was released, and on 2 other toons after, but all 50's. Then just recently, I decided to level up a toon with him, and I must say, was an awesome experience, the assassinate skill is beautiful to get rid of the strong's before engaging a pack, I kept mako geared up as I was going along thinking I may need her in some tough fights, but alas, HK just destroyed all in his path long before needing medical attention.

He will comment on all new areas you come into, the same as other companions, though a lot of them are quite hilarious. He is also integrated in a quest on Voss, where you can offer him for disassemble and inspection to gormak techs.

If I ever make another toon(very doubtful) I will get HK again for sure.

[Raltar]

When my brother unlocked him for his companion on his low level BH, HK-51 came with level 50 gear he couldn't use. So he had to buy modable droid parts and put DPS stuff in there to make him usable. This was like, 3 weeks ago.

[Avicii]

If you get him at level 1 and just give him a gun you fly through the starter planet. He comes with all his level 50 skills making him a huge asset leveling up and you can send your other comps out in missions and just use him. If I could decide what I was gonna level I would unlock him for them lol.

[Selethar]

HK is FANTASTIC to have from level 1. Yes, have to replace his gear to start but even with a level 1-3 rifle he can solo anything up to boss level stuff. I have lots of fun sending him to destroy one group of mobs while I trash the other. Having the full bar of skills is a definite asset (just turn off stealth suit).

 

Also, in many missions you get a choice for droid parts as one of the reward choices and several of the planet comms vendors have parts as well (cheaper than regular gear I might add). Once you get all moddable parts (orange for instance) then he is no different than any other character.

[Raltar]

I'd just like to point out that any companion below 10 is going to totally destroy everything. Especially if you have a level 50 human and some affection maxed characters giving bonuses to presence. In this regard, HK is really no different than the others(except he has all of his abilities).

[Jrea]

If you like super easy mode, then yes, buy HK. The only problem is what you are going to do on the higher levels where HK is less awesome, You won't know how to play your character or your other companions.

[WearwolfMachine]

If you like super easy mode, then yes, buy HK. The only problem is what you are going to do on the higher levels where HK is less awesome, You won't know how to play your character or your other companions.

 

He is nowhere near useless in higher levels.. iam currently a level 52 Mara and he just destroys everything on Makeb.

[Suromir]

He is nowhere near useless in higher levels.. iam currently a level 52 Mara and he just destroys everything on Makeb.

 

This, even with his starter (51) blue gear he destroys things better than my companions outfitted in (66) blues..he's "less awesome" at higher levels sure...but "less awesome" for HK-51 is still "more awesome" than your average, better geared, companion.

 

And to the person who said you won't know your class/etc. false. Yes you kill things a lot faster but you don't really learn your class from soloing. But from grouping with, you know, others. You're just fine skill wise leveling with HK-51.

[thescotsviking]

I didnt know that you could unlock him at low levels, please someone tell me how lol?

[Heezdedjim]

He is loltastic on the starter planet if you have a lot of presence from legacy unlocks. With 300+ presence I think he has like 3,200 HP and does 130 bonus damage. I just stripped all his gear off, gave him a green weapon from the vendor, and he proceeded to solo packs of HEROIC mobs with ease.

 

The problem is he's a pain in the *** to gear until level 30, because there are no level 1 orange sets for droids, like there are for all other companions. And all the craftable droid parts you can buy have tanking stats, so they're pretty stupidly itemized for a DPS companion. There are no craftable DPS droid parts, and you can't get a complete set of moddable parts for him until you hit 30.

 

After that, he's no better or worse than any other DPS companion. His abilities are a little gimmicky, and his one-shot kill only works on silver mobs, sadly. His real outstanding advantage is that he's the only companion you can get at level 1, and for classes like trooper that get the first companion annoyingly late (after the last starter planet class quest, unlike with most classes that have their companions by then), he makes it go a little quicker.

[johnduane]

Not sure if they fixed the gear lvling with you or not. Worst case you will have to buy some droid parts or make them. He is a bit OP in the early levels and on a bad side I do not think he has any dialog for the first 50 lvls of quests.... so you will miss out on that much.

 

I have 5 - 55s with HK. I decided to get one at level 1 for my smuggler. He has a TON of dialog that is absolutely hilarious that I missed out on getting him at 50. On Alderan as we entered Castle Organa: Postulate: Slippery floors are not conducive to killing, master" Not an exact quote, but a ton of sayings and thoughts he has as different things are encountered. Definitely worth it.

[Darth_Wicked]

I have 5 - 55s with HK. I decided to get one at level 1 for my smuggler. He has a TON of dialog that is absolutely hilarious that I missed out on getting him at 50. On Alderan as we entered Castle Organa: Postulate: Slippery floors are not conducive to killing, master" Not an exact quote, but a ton of sayings and thoughts he has as different things are encountered. Definitely worth it.

 

I don't know concerning Coruscant but at least starting from Taris ( Republic ) and Balmorra ( Imperial ), HK-51 has the EXACT same number of lines in specific areas, like the very first companion you get in the game.

 

It's a shame there's no affection gains with him during questing, except in Makeb... I have HK-51 on eight different characters and only unlocked him doing the main quest, since there's no real advantage IMO for getting him earlier.

[Spiritrider]

I thought he was difficult to gear after 50, is that true?

[hadoken]

I thought he was difficult to gear after 50, is that true?

 

Don't see why that would be as all his parts use item modifications.

[Spiritrider]

You can't use mods from regular clothes for droids, belts have to go to belts or something like that, so you can't use basic comms to get anything for him. So I was told.

[Rooff]

I thought he was difficult to gear after 50, is that true?

 

He is very difficult to gear at higher levels as you cant pull armorings out of humanoid gear as it will be restricted to teh various human parts (feet chest legs etc.) vs the droid slots (parts, motor etc). To gear him you will need to buy/craft armorings to upgrade his gear.

 

 

Buy him for the low level fun and when it gets easier to upgrade you other humanoid companions make the switch.

[hadoken]

You can't use mods from regular clothes for droids, belts have to go to belts or something like that, so you can't use basic comms to get anything for him. So I was told.

 

Oh you mean like set armorings, yea those wouldn't work.

[Heezdedjim]

Oh you mean like set armorings, yea those wouldn't work.

No, it's all primary mods --- armorings and barrels --- not just the ones that have set bonuses. Since ROTHC came out, every armoring or barrel you pull out of a piece of gear gets slot-ified, so it can only go back into a shell of the exact same type as it came from. For the seven armor slots, this means the armoring can only go into the same slot (chest, head, belt, wrist, etc.). For weapons and offhands, it means it can only go into the same class of weapon or offhand item.

 

This gets pretty damn annoying considering that you can't pull a barrel from a rifle and put it into a techblade, and there are no techblades that drop in endgame raids, so you can never, ever get a BiS barrel for Qyzen Fess, for example. It's even pretty stupid that you can't use a blaster rifle barrel in a blaster pistol, but instead have to get a barrel from a pistol. It's a completely unneeded and stupid mechanic that does nothing but make it more annoying to gear yourself or companions up with dropped items, and impossible to fully gear some companions.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Heezdedjim

[hadoken]

No, it's all primary mods --- armorings and barrels --- not just the ones that have set bonuses. Since ROTHC came out, every armoring or barrel you pull out of a piece of gear gets slot-ified, so it can only go back into a shell of the exact same type as it came from. For the seven armor slots, this means the armoring can only go into the same slot (chest, head, belt, wrist, etc.). For weapons and offhands, it means it can only go into the same class of weapon or offhand item.

 

This gets pretty damn annoying considering, for example, that you can't pull a barrel from a rifle and put it into a techblade, and there are no techblades that drop in endgame raids, so you can never, ever get a BiS barrel for Qyzen Fess, for example. It's even pretty stupid that you can't use a blaster rifle barrel in a blaster pistol, but instead have to get a barrel from a pistol. It's a completely unneeded and stupid mechanic that does nothing but make it more annoying to gear yourself or companions up with dropped items, and impossible to full gear some companions.

 

Wow that is one retarded change they made.

 

Is that because they now sell belts/bracers/etc with mod slots for badges? I guess I can understand they don't want you fully gearing out buying the exact same piece but still...

Edited July 31, 2013 by hadoken

[Heezdedjim]

You can't use mods from regular clothes for droids, belts have to go to belts or something like that, so you can't use basic comms to get anything for him. So I was told.

Yep. Although grinding basic comms is a big waste of time anyway, considering the same mods (without slot-gimpification) are available cheap on the GTN anyway. You can craft or grind credits for them a whole lot quicker than you can get enough comms.

 

The rule now is that we can craft any mod rating up to N-1, where N is the highest item rating in game. Any humanoid companion can be geared up to rating N in all armor slots, since they wear regular armor. A few can only get to N-1 on their weapon because they use weapon types that do not drop in endgame instances. Droids can only get to N-1 in all armor slots, since they wear "parts" instead of armor, and thus must use crafted mods only in all gear slots except weapon and offhand. But all the droids now in game can get to N on their weapon and offhand, since those are conventional and dropped barrels and armoring can be slotted in them.

 

In the end, this doesn't matter all that much since companions are never used in endgame settings, so whether you can get them to N, N-1, N-3, or whatever, they will still be overgeared for anything you're going to run solo or in small groups like dailies and HM FPs. If you kit them out in all 156 rated gear (the purple rank 66 mods equal to Basic gear), then they will already be more powerful than you could ever reasonably need them to be. And that stuff is all dirt cheap on the GTN or easy to craft, so you can get any companion up to an adequate power level with ease.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Heezdedjim

[Heezdedjim]

Wow that is one retarded change they made. Is that because they now sell belts/bracers/etc with mod slots for badges? I guess I can understand they don't want you fully gearing out buying the exact same piece but still...

As far as I can tell they didn't really think it through at all. I think the motive was to make it so you can't buy an offhand weapon (which is cheaper than a mainhand), yank the barrel, and put it in a mainhand (same thing with certain slots like belts and wrists that are cheaper than heads and chests). Rather than just equalizing the prices of, e.g., mainhand and offhand items, they just did the laziest and most annoying thing and bound everything to everything in the dumbest possible way, without even thinking about the obvious problems that would cause.

[Spiritrider]

Yep. Although grinding basic comms is a big waste of time anyway, considering the same mods (without slot-gimpification) are available cheap on the GTN anyway. You can craft or grind credits for them a whole lot quicker than you can get enough comms.

 

The rule now is that we can craft any mod rating up to N-1, where N is the highest item rating in game. Any humanoid companion can be geared up to rating N in all armor slots, since they wear regular armor. A few can only get to N-1 on their weapon because they use weapon types that do not drop in endgame instances. Droids can only get to N-1 in all armor slots, since they wear "parts" instead of armor, and thus must use crafted mods only in all gear slots except weapon and offhand. But all the droids now in game can get to N on their weapon and offhand, since those are conventional and dropped barrels and armoring can be slotted in them.

 

In the end, this doesn't matter all that much since companions are never used in endgame settings, so whether you can get them to N, N-1, N-3, or whatever, they will still be overgeared for anything you're going to run solo or in small groups like dailies and HM FPs. If you kit them out in all 156 rated gear (the purple rank 66 mods equal to Basic gear), then they will already be more powerful than you could ever reasonably need them to be. And that stuff is all dirt cheap on the GTN or easy to craft, so you can get any companion up to an adequate power level with ease.

 

 

So if I understand this correct, if I really wanted too, I could buy enough stuff off the GTN to get HK-51 outfitted in the equivalent of Basic comm gear?

[Spiritrider]

or is it elite gear?