Anyone else bummed you can't gear up your comps?

[Gokkus]

Grinded generic looking yaving gear on all comps -> complains they look generic. Who would have thought.

 

Way to completely miss the point. I dont mind about the generic look when it is functional. I traded looks for functionalty, which is fine. Until they remove the functionality altogether so I am now worse of than I was before I did the weeklies.

Edited October 4, 2015 by Gokkus

[Rafaman]

Meh. The only reason I geared up companions is because I was bored and had extra comms. So... I'm not bummed right now.

[Kiesu]

Way to completely miss the point. I dont mind about the generic look when it is functional. I traded looks for functionalty, which is fine. Until they remove the functionality altogether so I am now worse of than I was before I did the weeklies.

Now they'll be equally functional without a grind, and this time you can dress them in anything you want. No need to compromise between functionality and looks anymore, you'll get both.

 

Meh. The only reason I geared up companions is because I was bored and had extra comms. So... I'm not bummed right now.

I mostly just sold everything from extra comms.

Edited October 4, 2015 by Kiesu

[AlrikFassbauer]

People rolling murder machines mostly used HK ad Treek anyway so looking generic never seemed to be issue for them in the first place.

 

The rather philosophical question is :

 

Is SWTOR really a game made for people who roll "murder-machines" ?

 

The sad fact is that it is rather an Action-RPG after Blizzard's model, not one containing stat checks like CHarisma, or other social stats, for example.

 

Everything within SWTOR is modelled to give the player an fighting experience,

not so much an social experience, though. They [bioware] relegated that [the social experience] to RL - to player grouping. It's an MMO, after all, so why implement Charisma checks when social checks ( social points ! ) do essentially the same trick ?

 

So - companions getting streamlined to provide a better fighting experience is only consequential.

This puts, however, for those few who love social interaction more pressure on grouping, if they still want to experience social interaction within the game.

[Kiesu]

The sad fact is that it is rather an Action-RPG after Blizzard's model, not one containing stat checks like CHarisma, or other social stats, for example.

 

Everything within SWTOR is modelled to give the player an fighting experience,

not so much an social experience, though. They [bioware] relegated that [the social experience] to RL - to player grouping. It's an MMO, after all, so why implement Charisma checks when social checks ( social points ! ) do essentially the same trick ?.

Your "charisma" stat in swtor is Presence, that increases stats of all companions, and individual stats on companions are increased by "influence".

Edited October 4, 2015 by Kiesu

[Mithros]

Gearing them up, per se, was never a big deal to me.

 

Just give them some decent stuff and that's that. Even at the highest levels you really only need to gear them up once, or keep a second set for their other stance if you really felt the need, but it's not like there was some secret gear out there that you had to discover to make the most of each companion.

 

And I'll still be able to give them a particular look by using gear and/or companion appearance items.

 

What I am not a fan of is every companion playing identically to every other companion in a given role.

 

Using BH companions, I am fine with being able to use Blizz to heal or Torian to tank or whatever.

I am not so fine with every companion using the exact same abilities and animations for every ability in a given role.

 

Every companion should have a unique ability or two, and they could give them some different animations for the same abilities and that would help some, too.

 

 

 

And, sort of off-topic, but will someone at Bioware please realize that Aric is a sniper, and thus allow him to equip sniper rifles instead of assault cannons?

[Master_ivar]

It´s an utter catastrophe and together with the main stat dumb-down it will totally destroy crafting and severely destabilize the player driven economy.

I´m appalled that hardly anybody seems to notice.

 

But instead everybody looses it over level-synching. Having to actually pay a bit attention when running around low level planets, they hardly ever visited anyway in their max-levels.

Edited October 4, 2015 by Master_ivar

[IanArgent]

The only thing I'm wary of with this is that tank comps with equal-level gear to the character can't hold aggro worth a damn. Most noticeable when I'm running a healer; where i fyou're healing at a level to keep your companion standing, you're drawing fire (which then means you have to divert resources to heal yourself). At which point you may as well bring DPS, who will at least finish the fight quicker, and you can spend all your time healing yourself.

[Eanelinea]

I would suggest you give it a try. Maybe use something better than Yavin gear and actually tweak your companions with some 192/198 optimal gear. Tweak the stats a little. Maybe you don't run the content to get the gear and thats why you don't do it but...

 

My companions are quite amazing.

 

Well, in 4.0 won't make a difference, but as of right now, my tank companions I use have min/maxed gear and I give them tanking augments too. Still not as great a tank as a player would be, but Corso does pretty damn well for what I need him to do.

[Zaltais_Xaal]

I love this idea. I absolutely hate having to gear up my comps and this will help me loads.

[Quraswren]

Well, in 4.0 won't make a difference, but as of right now, my tank companions I use have min/maxed gear and I give them tanking augments too. Still not as great a tank as a player would be, but Corso does pretty damn well for what I need him to do.

No companion will ever be as good as a player but if you went through the trouble of min/max gear and augmenting it. There is not doubt they will be a good bit better than any generic, all across the board system BW will hand out.

 

No doubt they will still accomplish the same goal eventually One version just produces a better preforming, customized companion. Retains that bit of customization and stays clear of the lets make every companion extremely similar by way of what weapon they hold.

 

The only real upside I see to it is you can use any companion you like. But losing out on customization I can't say is worth it because BW isn't going to in any way, put a really good itemization for them and not to the extent a player could customize. Good optimization is just not something they do except for dropped OPS gear. Everything else is optimized poorly in most cases and there is no reason to think BW will do any different here for generic companions.

[KyaniteD]

It´s an utter catastrophe and together with the main stat dumb-down it will totally destroy crafting and severely destabilize the player driven economy.

I´m appalled that hardly anybody seems to notice.

 

But instead everybody looses it over level-synching. Having to actually pay a bit attention when running around low level planets, they hardly ever visited anyway in their max-levels.

 

Right there with you, sooo right there with you. Let's go squander all our crafter's wealth and drown our misery over both the changes and the lack of outrage over them in some shady dive on Tat before riding off into the sunset (we'll flip the last credit chip to decide which sun).

[IanArgent]

I agree that comps aren't as good as a character. But they should be able to hold threat; otherwise they're not a worse tank, they're just a very bad DPS

[Eanelinea]

No companion will ever be as good as a player but if you went through the trouble of min/max gear and augmenting it. There is not doubt they will be a good bit better than any generic, all across the board system BW will hand out.

 

No doubt they will still accomplish the same goal eventually One version just produces a better preforming, customized companion. Retains that bit of customization and stays clear of the lets make every companion extremely similar by way of what weapon they hold.

 

The only real upside I see to it is you can use any companion you like. But losing out on customization I can't say is worth it because BW isn't going to in any way, put a really good itemization for them and not to the extent a player could customize. Good optimization is just not something they do except for dropped OPS gear. Everything else is optimized poorly in most cases and there is no reason to think BW will do any different here for generic companions.

 

I actually wish they were as good as a player, might finally keep me from cussing my companions out when I'm looking at Quinn, who is in FULL 186-198 gear (comm only) and augmented and has stuff a healer would use like alacrity, healing me and himself just fine, until he has a bug up his ***, while in heal spec, to out dps my dps jugg. I'm like 'Quinn STOP SHOOTING THEM AND LET ME KILL 'EM!!!'

[SelinaH]

Gear and tweaking is one thing, if they essentially remove/consolidate all different companion abilities/animations then that's something else entirely, tbh.

This. I'm personally less concerned about not being able to min/max companion performance than I am about the apparent homogenization of not just companion roles, but actual skill sets.

 

I understand that there were reasonable complaints stemming from being "forced" (I use the term in its loosest sense, obviously) to use a particular companion due to trinity role assignment. I don't think I've seen anyone complain that companion abilities are significantly unbalanced amongst themselves -- that Holiday CCs mobs better than a carbonizer, for example, or that Blizz's flamethrower is OP. (The closest to this I've seen is "Non-class companions are more effective than others," which is really a separate, albeit related, issue.)

 

I certainly wonder whether any functional imbalances exist that could not be solved by tweaking numbers rather than removing or consolidating companion skills. I'd hate to lose the uniqueness.

[Razdek]

Not at all bummed... These compsnion changes should have been in the game from day 1... In fact I've often suggested they do exactly this change for companions. Gearing compaions was by far the most annoying feature of this game and often it meant many conpanions went unused. Now that gear is purely cosmetic I can finally have companions look exactly as I want without spending all my credits or worrying about stats. Its perfect! Edited October 4, 2015 by Razdek

[Albertwang]

All I want is my Kira Carsen to gimme some healing.... finally dreams come true.

[Anaesha]

Not in the slightest. I'm rather glad I don't have to change their gear anymore I can put them in what I want and forget about it and only need to mess with their weapon(s)

[ZutaraAvatar]

I don't really feel that bad I don't get to gear them up. Now I don't have to waste creds on getting better gear and mods for them and just focus on just my toon. I'll have to see how it works out when the expansion comes out. Until then, I'm really not that disappointed.

[Suldra]

To me, gearing up my companions was a goal within the game. Now? Why have them at all?

[leehambly]

To me, gearing up my companions was a goal within the game. Now? Why have them at all?

 

It's just changing - that's all.. used to be gear, soon it'll be influence. Who knows what is entailed in gaining influence with each companion.

[IanArgent]

I don't think I've seen anyone complain that companion abilities are significantly unbalanced amongst themselves -- that Holiday CCs mobs better than a carbonizer, for example, or that Blizz's flamethrower is OP. (The closest to this I've seen is "Non-class companions are more effective than others," which is really a separate, albeit related, issue.)

 

Just checked:

Tharan Cedrax's Deploy Holiday: 8s channeled daze, damage ends prematurely. Targets may only be controlled once every 10 sec, must be over 90% health, and not taking periodic damage

Doc's Carbonize Stream and Mako's Electro-Stasis differ in the "cannot be affected" line - it says every 30 s instead of every 10 s. That's a notable theoretical bonus to Theran, except that in practice, you'd have to micromanage Theran to get the most effect out of it; since he'll just deploy it on whoever you're targeting 9 times out of 10 anyway.

 

Let me the first to complain that Theran is OP and should be nerfed, then Seriously, I thought all those moves were identical mechanically - they ought to be, just like the rest of the healers' moves appear to be mechanically identical. A quick check of the story companion ranged tanks I have access to shows they have mechanically identical moves as well (at least at a quick glance), with the notable exception of 4X's harpoon; which is just a pull instead of a jump.

[SelinaH]

Just checked:

Tharan Cedrax's Deploy Holiday: 8s channeled daze, damage ends prematurely. Targets may only be controlled once every 10 sec, must be over 90% health, and not taking periodic damage

Doc's Carbonize Stream and Mako's Electro-Stasis differ in the "cannot be affected" line - it says every 30 s instead of every 10 s. That's a notable theoretical bonus to Theran, except that in practice, you'd have to micromanage Theran to get the most effect out of it; since he'll just deploy it on whoever you're targeting 9 times out of 10 anyway.

 

Let me the first to complain that Theran is OP and should be nerfed, then Seriously, I thought all those moves were identical mechanically - they ought to be, just like the rest of the healers' moves appear to be mechanically identical. A quick check of the story companion ranged tanks I have access to shows they have mechanically identical moves as well (at least at a quick glance), with the notable exception of 4X's harpoon; which is just a pull instead of a jump.

Which is exactly my point -- you actually had to go and check, because you didn't really notice the difference in practice.

 

I'm finding it more likely that the homogenization isn't about balance at all, but merely a way to simplify some of the behind-the-scenes number-crunchy stuff. (This is, admittedly, pure conjecture on my part, as I'm not an IT professional and have no way of knowing or even estimating any net resource savings or reductions in complexity as a result of this change). It may also make it easier to add new companion abilities in the future.

[Fjolsvinnr]

As the OP, didn't expect this niche issue to have such an extreme response.

 

Personally, I'm not entirely devastated by the changes (some of them are good), but I am very wary about how it effects the way I approach the game. Heck, I used to gear/aug up my fave companions better than I did some of my alts. I really liked working on them. I'm worried that they won't be as effective as they used to be. And I no longer get the gratification of feeling like I've overpowered them with my effort. Is it possible they'll perform better? Sure. That would be sweet in its own way. But I'm certainly approaching this with skepticism that an auto-stat function would give me a better comp than the one I customized with the very best gear/augs etc. the game has to offer, with the stat distribution that I tailored to my needs.

 

 

The Good:

 

1. Leveling through the story without having to worry about gearing up comps and generally having a serviceable comp without effort

 

2. Saving a lot of credits endgame in maximizing comp (a debatable Good if the auto stat isn't comparable to personally gearing them well)

 

3. Using whichever comp you like best for whatever role you need them for

 

 

The Bad:

 

1. The possibility that all the skills are homogenized to the point all comps are just different skins

 

2. A worse performing comp (a debatable Bad if the auto stat IS comparable to personally gearing them)

 

3. One less thing in the game to customize/tinker with and the gratification that comes with seeing it perform

 

 

The Ugly:

 

The loss of choice. Bioware could easily have just added an appearance customizer to the comps and given them a level scaling "bolster" so they are serviceable without gear. That would have achieved the same "conveniences" they were aiming for without sacrificing the ability to make comps even more jacked by gearing them up. Those of us who want to pour our time and creds into making a beast npc tailored to our liking should have been able to do so. It wouldn't have been very difficult.

 

Also, I hope they don't terribly botch this whole role-switching business. There isn't a healing comp in the game based around a Jedi/Sith, so we don't know what it would look like. If I have Lana Beniko heal for me and she whips out one of those gadgets, I will freak. Force healing abilities for force users is a must.

[Quraswren]

To me, gearing up my companions was a goal within the game. Now? Why have them at all?

 

Just think. Instead of having some customization of your companion. Spending time working on them, tweaking them to how you want them, you will now increase your influence and everything will be bumped up some small percent instead till you reach the max on some random scale be it similar to affection or just levels.

 

Like leveling up legacy, it's getting turned into a forgetful experience.