EnkiduNineEight Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 I just read the combat changes thread. Here is the cut and paste for companions: Companions are now summoned from the Companions and Contacts/Alliance window. Companions now all have 3 roles you can choose from on the fly, DPS/Healer/Tank, and different ability sets based on that role. Companions that use the same weapon type will share the same ability sets (so every companion that uses Blaster Pistols will have the same ability sets). Companions no longer generate any stats from gear, their stats are purely based on the level of the companion, so you can dress them up however you want. Accordingly, equipment slots that didn't have any effect on visibility have been removed from companions. Companions will still need a weapon in order to activate their abilities, but the stats of the weapon won't matter. I have bolded the relevant part. So, I fear that not only will Treek's abilities be complete removed and replaced with the blaster rifle set, but her animations etc as well. So not only will Treek NOT be able to heal and Tank simultaneously, but her uniqueness as a companion is completely removed. HK will be just like every other sniper. So our companions have lost their 'uniqueness'. They may still say their rote phrases and such, but Theran loses Holiday for example. As far as can be gleaned from the above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanArgent Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 I just read the combat changes thread. Here is the cut and paste for companions: Companions are now summoned from the Companions and Contacts/Alliance window. Companions now all have 3 roles you can choose from on the fly, DPS/Healer/Tank, and different ability sets based on that role. Companions that use the same weapon type will share the same ability sets (so every companion that uses Blaster Pistols will have the same ability sets). Companions no longer generate any stats from gear, their stats are purely based on the level of the companion, so you can dress them up however you want. Accordingly, equipment slots that didn't have any effect on visibility have been removed from companions. Companions will still need a weapon in order to activate their abilities, but the stats of the weapon won't matter. I have bolded the relevant part. So, I fear that not only will Treek's abilities be complete removed and replaced with the blaster rifle set, but her animations etc as well. So not only will Treek NOT be able to heal and Tank simultaneously, but her uniqueness as a companion is completely removed. HK will be just like every other sniper. So our companions have lost their 'uniqueness'. They may still say their rote phrases and such, but Theran loses Holiday for example. As far as can be gleaned from the above. Looks likely that the mechanically unique moves are being removed. But I would expect Theran to keep Holiday, since all the healers have that mechanically identical move with different animations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Transairion Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 I would (hope) "identical" ability sets are only for the non-base version of the companion. Like HK will have his unique DPS abilities, but standard healing and tank abilities like all the others. Doc will have his unique healer abiltiies, but standard DPS and tank abilities. M1-4X will have his unique tank abiltiies, but standard DPS and heals abilities, and so on. Surely they wouldn't make every single companion just a reskin of the others?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnkiduNineEight Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 I would (hope) "identical" ability sets are only for the non-base version of the companion. Like HK will have his unique DPS abilities, but standard healing and tank abilities like all the others. Doc will have his unique healer abiltiies, but standard DPS and tank abilities. M1-4X will have his unique tank abiltiies, but standard DPS and heals abilities, and so on. Surely they wouldn't make every single companion just a reskin of the others?? As far as I can see from their comments they are doing exactly that. Every comp uses the same abilities as every other comp with the same weapon. DPS/HEAL/TANK doesn't matter, same ability set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aries_cz Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 Why not? Choosing which companion to use is a part of the complexity of the game. You have to learn what companions are good at. Making all companions "the same" is yet another dumbing down of the game. Keep going like this and you'll have SWTOR as easy as Dora the Explorer. If by complexity you mean "always have healer (or recently, Treek) out as it makes everything trivial" then yes, but otherwise, no. Your "complexity" still remains, you still need to select proper role, expect now that role can be filled by any companion, which is a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holocron Posted October 3, 2015 Author Share Posted October 3, 2015 I've been thinking about this more and more, and I wonder if along with the forced level sync this new companion streamlining (which will make Treek less powerful overall) is simply another step in slowing down the players progress through content, by making it all more time consuming to complete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanArgent Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 The thing is, outside of Treek and HK, each companion is mostly a reskin of the other comps in that role. There's some minor variations in mechanics, like 4x has a harpoon drag instead of a leap to target, but mechanically, all the mDPS have mechanically nearly-identical moves (regardless of animation), etc; the healers all have the same move set, etc (the way that the faction classes have mechanically identical moveset, but may have different animations for those moves). And for animations, a lot of the animations each comp has for their attacks are very similar to the animations other characters with that mainhand have, even if the mechanics change depending on the role. Again, like characters that use the same hand may have similar-looking animations with different mechanical effects. (Indicentally, I can't find ANYPLACE a list of each companion and their full power set. That's annoying) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ilhares Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 Never really understood the Treek obsession, she's alright as a healing companion but I prefer Lokin for his cc, or even Mako for her dpsThe one thing that, for me, has set Treek far and above other companions is not that she can heal while tanking - although that is quite handy sometimes, but it is in fact that her AoE abilities DO NOT BREAK CROWD CONTROL EFFECTS. This makes Treek handy if you can disable a target and not have the moronic companion immediately put them back into play. More often than not, however, Treek is only along for the ride if I absolutely need a healer. Even when tanking, I prefer a DPS companion except in the most difficult situations. I had a smash-and-grab streak of bodies left everywhere when I did a DPS build assassin (vengance, woo!) and took HK as my sidekick. I think between level 1 and 60 I pulled out a healing companion 3 times for some difficult situations. I'm not even sure if it was Treek when I did it - though it's possible. Usually it was DPS sidekick, and eventually Xalek, because he could taunt the enemy to turn their back, making it easier to stab them to death. I'm hoping that neither of the special companions is altered to be like basic companions, and that we will in fact have the 'basic' companion functionality via HK-55 instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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