Bowdaar is the Worst

[RowanThursday]

Oh, love the description of Bowdaar wookie tossing the needed mob over the cliff, in the OP.

 

I can just imagine the aftermath of that, with the smuggler looking hard at him, drumming her fingers on her coat.

 

"What did we say about wookiee toss, Bowdaar?"

 

I did find him a bit squelchy, but throwing upgrades at him on Balmorra seems to have improved the matter a bit.

 

I tend to go for companions for story reasons rather than gear/combat effectiveness though- I used Corso fairly exclusively up to Balmorra, but it's my smuggler's home planet, and she's deeply angry about what's happened to it, so she asked Corso to go run some investigations and salvage, and give her a bit of space to come to terms with things (i.e. shoot a lot of Imperials) before talking to her boyfriend about it. Risha wanted to get a taste of the wild lifestyle, and my smuggler wanted the chance to actually bond with her a bit, so she had a bit of an outing, but then she gave a "Fair enough, I need a rest anyway" style emote once when I sent her on a job, so I took that as a reason to bring Bowdaar out.

 

He's not doing too badly. Seems to stand around like a vaguely puzzled lump for a bit too often for too long after a fight's started, sometimes, but at least he doesn't get confused and left behind in elevators as often as Corso does.

 

Akaavi should be interesting.

[AzraelCales]

I've honestly had the opposite experience with Corso and Bowdarr. Corso died all the time so I switchd to Bowdarr the second that I got him and while he dies every now and then he tanks very well and I've had no problems with his AOE or Wookie Toss. I'm playing a Sharpshooter Gunslinger if that makes any difference.

 

I do agree that the armor for him from quest rewards really don't have a significant amount of upgrade to them.

[Safgril]

Bowdaar is your best tank.. he taunts and holds aggro.. its not his fault you dont give him equipment he needs to survive...

 

suit him up... he is your best tank... he holds AGGRO.... i am a dps sharpshooter and easily grab aggro off any other pet but him...

 

find some orange colored gear and mod it up... he will kick some butt for you..

[Ruhx]

I agree with the OP as 45 Scoundrel/Sawbones I use either Corso or Akavi, a geared Corso with lasso and all his aoe's firing can burning down strong w/normal groups nicely without breaking mez on the elites like Bowdaar. If it's mostly weak/normal and an occasional strong Avaki rips them up without me worrying, and I can just swap their gear so I don't have to double up on tracking upgrades. Edited February 13, 2012 by Ruhx

[noahjam]

As a level 34 DPS Scoundrel I've had no troubles with Bowdaar so far.

[Waxninja]

Both akavia and bowdaar are awesome, I used akavia on all but the toughest bosses I leveled cyber though so my companions were all in orange gear with lvl appropriate armour and mods.

 

Couldn't get rid of corso fast enough and really don't get rishas alleged dps she has really long cast times...

[Jeia]

As a Sharpshooter, I have found Bowdaar much more use than Corso. He needs to be well-geared though and you need to consider which NPCs to pick off first and which one he needs to tank.

 

It's worth turning off his AoEs if they are going to aggro a cave full of nasties.

[Mekias]

The best part is when Bowdaar Tosses some weak mob directly into a Champion, then Charges into him and dies instantly for a sweet Bowdaar-death

 

 

Lol. This is my new signature.

[Badhand]

It seemed like I was endlessly spamming heals at Bowdaar in every fight.

 

I've played all three of the republic healers, and this has nothing to do specifically with Bowdarr. Stuff just gets harder at higher levels and healer-specs will find themselves healing more.

[Devil_Never_Cry]

honestly, bowdaar isnt all THAT bad, i actually use corso and that pathetic excuse for a droid c2 as my crafters

[Monkeypuzzle]

When I first got Bowdaar I was happy to have a wookie at my side. I summoned him straight away (bye Corso, it's been fun, but you know, WOOKIE) and headed into battle.

Well, he fell like a loaded diaper and I was popping all cooldowns to stay alive against the small horde of enemies he seemed to have pulled, against enemies I faced only hours before with Corso I might add. What happened? I checked the gear, pretty poor gear but ah well. Abilities look ok, what does the wiki say, tank? Right ok. Try again.

 

Wipe

 

Bowdaar, time to use your cybertech skills, because your as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. Hello again Corso, the wookie? Nah its ok man, you will always be my number one.

Edited February 21, 2012 by Monkeypuzzle

[Mapex]

I have nothing but good things to say about Bowdaar. When you first get him he's weak not because he sucks but because you've already been gearing up Corso so in comparison of course the big man is weaker.

 

However, get orange gear and mods on him ASAP so he can perform as desired. Keep in mind that his vibrosword is a moddable green sword, though you can also replace it with the orange vibrosword from the Specialty Goods vendor on Tatooine.

 

Level 35 and not a single problem with Bowdaar at all. In fact I don't think he's even died yet outside of one PvP situation.

Edited February 21, 2012 by Mapex

[VelnikSP]

I think that Bowdar, like all companions, has to be both geared up and suited to your style of play/advancement tree.

 

if you play a healzors, you will likely be dissapointed. he just doesn't have the dps, even though you can keep him breathing forever.

 

 

I am specced very specifically as a gunslinger sab, and his style of tossing stuff away and aoeing meshes extremely well with my own, now that he has been geared up well. He keeps aggro rather well, and even though I am not heal specced (although biotech helps) I prefer him to corso.

[runar_smugler]

Me and my mates use Bowdaar in the tank spot when we are running flashpoints, and that seems to work quite well. I'm a gunslinger level 50 (126 armor rating in 90% of the slots), one mate is jedi sage level 50 (full heal spec but only blue level close to 50 gear) and one is trooper commando level 48.

 

I spent 50k creds on GTN to gear him up for this, incl made some mods for him.

 

He have currently 15k HP, 9% defence and close to 30% shield chance. (i use memory here and numbers might not be correct)

 

I'm gonna postpone my earpiece from daily commendation a bit to get him some nice level mods.

[Azzkickrr]

I got bored of Risha due to the fact her usual big hits are when the mobs are around 10% life anyway... and at 50 it doesnt really matter what pet you have out... so I gave bowdarr a go. I've been doing quite a few hard mode EV;s and Hutts, was able to steal some trash look and hook him up with a few peices of rakatta and columi... None of his gear was below 126, and he is sitting around 16k hp. DPS wise, horrible. Tank wise, Horrible. The only thing he was good at was taunting the mob so I could Backblast, and then immediately regain agro after his taunt wore off. I have more HP than him, but he's suppose to be a tank... I can tank gold mobs better than he can. Back to the ship wookie, please stay out of the food supplies this time. Now i'm gearing out Akaavi, and with some gear pretty horrible, she does WAY more DPS and its constant, not speradic like Risha. Tanks waaay better as well. Handles AOE pretty well, only 2 abilities you have to turn off in order for her not to break CC in the rare moments you are soloing anything difficult. My only complaint, WHY the techstaff. What a joke, its a blue item, and I have yet to find a purple weapon for her. Rediculous,

[ahzecklawd]

A Song comes in mind .

 

'If only I could turn back time , I wouldn't waste my life on gearing Bowdaar , he can't even Tank an Elite Boss , OH MY GOD! .

 

Well , Treek / HK all the way . I tried Risha out for a couple of levels (levels? I mean seconds.) and her DPS is amazingly.................. 'bad' . I'm wiping Adds,Elite's way faster with Corso than with Risha , gosh .

 

 

 

Well , I been lucky I used Treek until I got Akaavi (both Aim) and damn , she get's the job done . Might not be as 'smooth' as with Treek/Corso , but it's ok , I enjoy a challenge .

Edited April 14, 2014 by ahzecklawd

[MickyJuulke]

Just wondering: are the ppl who dislike him Scoundrels and the ppl who like him Gunslingers? I'm playing the later atm and have no issue with Bowdaar at all.

[Knightstorme]

Im a slinger and I had issues until I geared him up...

[Sinapus]

All of the companions do amazingly well if you keep their gear as up-to-date as your own. My gunslinger used Risha through most of Balmorra and things just died like crazy. Got a bit close with a few lone elites, but otherwise it was awesome.

 

Bowdaar is very good as well. A good tactic is to pick an approach where his Wookie toss won't throw enemies into another group of mobs and/or have him concentrate on a strong or elite and pick off the weak and standard enemies as quickly as possible.

[CaptainVint]

I wonder about his stats. He uses vibroswords, which have force power, but his abilities are tech. If you compare him to Qyzen, another melee tank, he should be exactly the same, except Qyzen has all those hundreds extra tech power to do damage with. Seems like a pretty big oversight in companion design to me. Same with a lot of the melee dps companions (ex Yuun), whose weapons have tech power but use a lot of force powers.

[OniGanon]

Bowdaar's abilities are mostly Melee, with one Force ability (Wookiee Roar). No Tech.

 

And Bowdaar works fine, just gotta gear him up (like every other companion), and turn off Wookiee Toss if you don't want to pull multiple groups.

[redhoodrider]

Yeah, I don't like him either...But he's better than Corso.

[Kantaso]

I dont see how the wookie is better than Corso, the wookie is dead on no time and Corso has several skills that make him pretty good.

[SlickMK]

Just remember to switch off that wookie punch.

 

I remember doing a Heroic 2+ on Tatoonie. All perfect, On the second floor attacking a mob...... and then he uppercuts a guy over the balcony. into another mods elites..... and then triggers yet more mobs running back to me...

 

All I could do was apologie in chat to the other guy as the group of 4 elites and groups statrted running up the stairs towards us.......

[Jedi_riches]

Bowdaar's abilities are mostly Melee, with one Force ability (Wookiee Roar). No Tech.

 

And Bowdaar works fine, just gotta gear him up (like every other companion), and turn off Wookiee Toss if you don't want to pull multiple groups.

 

I was just wondering this the other night actually since I was thinking on how to gear his offhand shield, since he uses strength but I think that the shields with + Strength all come with + force power, so is that right for me to use? as I want to test him out when I get him (since all smugglers should use a wookiee)