Non-heal Companions

[RandomXChance]

Reading some of the regular threads complaining about role changes for companions (and this is usually just a disguise for a desire to have all comps have a heal role) it got me thinking about the subject because I enjoy using all three types but do admit that the lazy way to play is to use a heal comp.

 

So, instead of wanting them all to be healers, why not think of ways to improve the viability of Tank and DPS companions?

 

Two ideas came to mind for tanks. I feel the biggest issue is the need to heal them up for a full cycle after every fight. The 15 seconds may not sound like much, but it feels like an eternity. The Presence boost gives them extra DPS and extra HP. Neither of those is actually all the useful in this case. How about give tank comps a DR increase that scales with Presence?

 

The second idea came to mind while I was replaying Dragon Age and Dragon Age 2 recently. As a lifelong RPG gamer, the way you healed-to-full super fast as soon as combat ended was a revelation in those games. Traditional RPG games made tremendous drudgery out of the rest/heal cycle. Have tank companions have a similar feature. If you did both ideas I bet tank comps might become more popular than heals.

 

Any other semi-realistic ideas?

[Darth_Wicked]

Reading some of the regular threads complaining about role changes for companions (and this is usually just a disguise for a desire to have all comps have a heal role) it got me thinking about the subject because I enjoy using all three types but do admit that the lazy way to play is to use a heal comp.

 

So, instead of wanting them all to be healers, why not think of ways to improve the viability of Tank and DPS companions?

 

Two ideas came to mind for tanks. I feel the biggest issue is the need to heal them up for a full cycle after every fight. The 15 seconds may not sound like much, but it feels like an eternity. The Presence boost gives them extra DPS and extra HP. Neither of those is actually all the useful in this case. How about give tank comps a DR increase that scales with Presence?

 

The second idea came to mind while I was replaying Dragon Age and Dragon Age 2 recently. As a lifelong RPG gamer, the way you healed-to-full super fast as soon as combat ended was a revelation in those games. Traditional RPG games made tremendous drudgery out of the rest/heal cycle. Have tank companions have a similar feature. If you did both ideas I bet tank comps might become more popular than heals.

 

Any other semi-realistic ideas?

 

I usually use Rocket Boost to overcome that. As soon as the companion disappears, rebuff and the companion yet again reappears, with full health and properly buffed.

 

And ready to impart our will upon the Galaxy.

[Millardkillmoore]

Make Tank stances for companions boost armor like tank stances do for player characters. Companion tanks are now far more useful.

 

Boost DPS companion damage up to ~3/4 what an equally-geared player is capable of doing. DPS companions are now far more useful.

[Deewe]

The issue isn't only on companions healing but also character.

 

Thing is if you play with anything but a healer companion you might kill things a bit slower but then you have to be idle while healing after combat. So you get much more downtime.

 

I like how Wildstar fixed this issue by letting your character heal very fast between combats.

Something many MMO could learn from.

[Warrgames]

The issue isn't only on companions healing but also character.

 

Thing is if you play with anything but a healer companion you might kill things a bit slower but then you have to be idle while healing after combat. So you get much more downtime.

 

I like how Wildstar fixed this issue by letting your character heal very fast between combats.

Something many MMO could learn from.

 

The only issue I see with that is how does it work with PvP?

[Sangrar]

I don't know about you guys but when I am on my healer character I typically use either dps or tank companions because if I just bring a healing companion out it becomes overly redundant. The dps and tank comps can actually work very well as long as you put the time and effort to give them some decent gear ( for example on my consular everytime I upgrade my characters gear I give the older pieces to Nadia and she does a **** ton of dps)

[KurganNazzir]

It's personal preference and also the fact that a lot of players are in a hurry, not a problem with the companions. All of the companions do their roles really well, especially if decently geared, but so many players want to rush, rush, rush instead of taking a few seconds to heal. Don't get me wrong, there's times I'm rushing around, as well, but I'll still take the time to heal depending on how low my health is and what character I'm on and then I just use rocket boots or a speeder to hurry to wherever I'm going next (which sometimes is stupid because I'll mount up kind of close to a cave or other entrance that is just going to dismount me). Personally, I very much prefer using DPS companions on almost all of my characters and the time to heal after a fight isn't that long at all to me, plus my companions usually aren't that low on health because the aggro is usually on me and if they are too low on health, just rocket boots/mount up or dismiss/summon (also good for removing DOTs and debuffs). There are times when I let a companion eat the damage because I'm mean like that but it still doesn't slow me down that I have noticed.

 

I'm not saying there isn't room for improvement because I think there's probably always room for improvement. What I am saying is that the companions already function very well but a lot of gamers are just in too much of a hurry for whatever reason, whether it be limited play time, impatience, or whatever, so they use a healer so that they can rush through the mobs (which I was guilty of on my Arsenal Merc for a while but I found I can still rush through pretty much the same with a DPS companion). It's the same reason mounts are allowed in indoor spaces, because people thought it took too long to run through the spaceport/orbital station or run around Fleet. because they are in a hurry and they think running to locations is a waste of time (which sometimes is, of course).

 

Anyway, those are my thoughts and I know people will disagree, which is all good because if everyone agreed on everything, the world would be a boring place.

[Khevar]

... How about give tank comps a DR increase that scales with Presence? ...

I wanted to quote this so it isn't overlooked.

 

I think this is a really excellent idea!

[slafko]

The issue isn't only on companions healing but also character.

 

Thing is if you play with anything but a healer companion you might kill things a bit slower but then you have to be idle while healing after combat. So you get much more downtime.

From my experience, the fastest way to kill stuff with least downtime is tank with a dps companion. Of those, Shadow Tank + Nadia is the best combination. Great AoE and single target damage augmented by near invulnerability and made OP with Stealth. Nothing comes close.

[Cuiwe]

I always felt tank companions in particular are kinda flawed. Now, now. I have ample experience playing with Companions(ok-Heroes) in GW1. Therefore, it's not me.

 

They have trouble because they don't get either the extra DR that player tanks get NOR the extra armour player tanks get. Therefore reaching 33% DR on them is like a blessing. Meanwhile-what's the max DR the player can get without gimping himself? 55% Sure-is only a 22% difference. But let's look at it in the different way: 22% is a 66% of 33%. See how more effective they'd get...

 

DPS companions are fine-doubly so if you are DPS as well. Things just get evaporated. Tank + DPS is ok as well. Healer + DPS = .

 

Healer companions are like a blessing if you are playing a tank-it literally removes ANY difficulty from the game. However, they are quite incompatible with all the other roles. Double Healer

 

In reality, it's the tank characters that are best suited for the number of situations. Double Tank is just leet(he gets what he needs from your guard). Tank + Healer(no matter which is a player) is godlike. Tank + DPS is very nice as well due to the "dismiss/summon" trick. Yet, mechanically, they are the ones that are most gimped. LOL WUT :confused:

Edited June 24, 2014 by Cuiwe

[slafko]

I always felt tank companions in particular are kinda flawed. Now, now. I have ample experience playing with Companions(ok-Heroes) in GW1. Therefore, it's not me.

 

I don't think it's fair to Guild Wars to mention SWTOR's companion system and GW's hero system in the same sentence.

Edited June 24, 2014 by slafko

[DomiSotto]

By whatever reasons tank companions seem to not being able to match the stats of a tanking player. Because they act on AI I wish they had some bonuses in terms of their Shield/Defense and Endurance. I remember equipping Riggs with everything I could put on him, and my husband's knight still was better even with less equipment. I am not sure why that is?

[Deewe]

It's personal preference and also the fact that a lot of players are in a hurry, not a problem with the companions.

You do have a point still there's quite a difference between down time and rush.

 

Thing is without being a healer yourself or pairing with a companion that can tend your wounds you are stuck with boring down time.

 

The only issue I see with that is how does it work with PvP?

There's PvP in that game? Geez someone should have told me!

 

More on topic tough as long as there's no world PvP companions are pretty much useless in PVP for now.

[Nibs]

To the people saying it takes too long to heal a companion back to full after a fight: They summon on full health. Dismiss the companion, re-summon them, full health. Takes what? 5 seconds?

[DomiSotto]

The whole healing system in this game needs a bi of a touch up to help a person to run without a healer or a healer companion. Like making companion healing packs droppable. Give more companions ability to self-heal like Khem does. Make reusable packs available through something other than BioChem through legacy (or maxing out Biochem?) I dunno. Something to make healing more available, I guess.

[Cuiwe]

The whole healing system in this game needs a bi of a touch up to help a person to run without a healer or a healer companion. Like making companion healing packs droppable. Give more companions ability to self-heal like Khem does. Make reusable packs available through something other than BioChem through legacy (or maxing out Biochem?) I dunno. Something to make healing more available, I guess.

 

Yeah, I use reusable medpacks on my Sniper. Works like a charm when you're in a pinch. When the combat is finished, dismiss/resummon.

 

Still, I wish that tank companions actually FELT like real tanks. But then nobody would use anything else. Hmmm... We're in a bit of a sticker :/

[DataBeaver]

Out of all three companion roles, I find tank companions to be the most lacking. Healer companions are great for difficult content, especially if the player character is a tank. DPS companions make things melt at record speed. Tank companions however just lack the survivability and aggro management tools to really be tanks.

 

Heavy armor companions get no armor bonus, and light armor users get a drastically lower bonus than comparable player characters. They don't have skill bonuses for defensive stats. A tank player character has almost twice the mitigation of an equally geared tank companion.

 

Companions are not smart enough to avoid hitting CC'ed mobs with AoE abilities, so leaving those enabled is always a risk. Their taunts do not give them highest threat like player characters' taunts do, and their damage is only just about enough to keep aggro from a single enemy. Any AoE damage or heals from the player character is likely to pull aggro from everything the companion isn't targeting at the moment.

[DomiSotto]

This breaking CC comes up again and again. Is it hard to add an option that allows the companion to recognize the CC and not break it?

 

Also, is there some way to increase the defense on a Tank companion. See, that's one thing I do not understand - the advice to put power/surge on the Tank companions, instead of shield/defense. Is that because you really use them not as a tank, but as a slightly more survivable DPS and should run them in their Sniper mode? That's what I end up doing anyway because otherwise they just die too fast?

Edited June 24, 2014 by DomiSotto

[BuriDogshin]

This breaking CC comes up again and again. Is it hard to add an option that allows the companion to recognize the CC and not break it?

Just turn off your companion's AoE attacks and they will never break CC.

[DomiSotto]

How do you do that. In my naiveté, I thought you click off the wee little square on the bar, but I actually activated the attack instead. So the companion attacked. We fought for dear life, and I never tried to deactivate anything again, just switch their stance. Edited June 24, 2014 by DomiSotto

[BuriDogshin]

How do you do that. In my naiveté, I thought you click off the wee little square on the bar, but I actually activated the attack instead. So the companion attacked. We fought for dear life, and I never tried to deactivate anything again, just switch their stance.

 

I think you right-click. Fool around with it when there are no mobs nearby.

[DomiSotto]

Worth giving it a shot, I will try to remember.

[DataBeaver]

How do you do that. In my naiveté, I thought you click off the wee little square on the bar, but I actually activated the attack instead. So the companion attacked. We fought for dear life, and I never tried to deactivate anything again, just switch their stance.

Right click the ability to toggle its enabledness.

[RandomXChance]

To the people saying it takes too long to heal a companion back to full after a fight: They summon on full health. Dismiss the companion, re-summon them, full health. Takes what? 5 seconds?

 

Its actually about 2.5 seconds. 1.5 second channel to summon and .5-1.0 to dismiss and get the option to re-summon. I love using tank comps so this is what I do. It's just that again, we run into the issue of "healer comps are more time efficient" issue.

[Loc_n_lol]

Well... my experience is that the best combo is DPS player + tank companion. Although healer companions are useful to have when soloing heroic content, but that's a special case.

 

 

Healer companions just don't heal all that fast and contribute virtually no dps. Meanwhile, you are tanking, which reduces your effectiveness and will require out of combat healing (provided by the companion but you may still need to rest once in a while).

 

Dps companions.. well they make things die faster but the higher level you are, the more irrelevant their damage becomes. A dps companion in basic gear does something like 800 dps, that's about as much as a tank player with the same level of gear. Oh and since you're likely to be doing more threat than they are, you'll be tanking, and they won't help you soak damage or heal up at all.

 

Now tank companions, well their defensive stats are bad, as is their aggro, but none of that matters. What matters is, as long as they have taunts, they will divert attacks away from you, and soak it with their hp. They will also eat annoying CCs, dots, debuffs, and al lthat sith, freeing you up to do more damage and enjoying yourself. Since you aren't healing them in combat, all that matters is they have enough HP to last through most of the fight, and usually they have plenty enough to survive. Oh and also they contribute *some* damage, unlike healers. And of course you can heal them instantly after combat, unlike yourself.

 

 

Now the argument for what spec you, the player, should be using. Well, in solo content, healers and tanks are simply overkill when it come to survival (again, heroic content nonwithstanding). A dps-spec player solo-tanking may find themselves low on health after every pull, but that's why you bring a tank companion (or a healer, if that's your thing). On the other hand, with a full skill tree, a dps player will do 2 to 3 times the damage of a tank or healer, that's obviously far more efficient, and a dps companion does not come close to making up for that...

Edited June 25, 2014 by Loc_n_lol