Companion Changes in 4.0.2

[Blurch]

Oh come off of it.

It is still easy to do, you just have to use what is available on your character to get it done. If you are terribly undergeared or have no idea how to play your class, then you won't be completing it solo.

 

The only thing that should be easy to do in garbage gear is KotFE story and 1-50 class story. Everything else SHOULD require players to have some sense of competence with their class and not be lazy about upgrading their gear.

 

The tell them to drop achievements for Star Fortress and give Scoundrels some dps.

[gotxrayvision]

Absolutely! It certainly may be a bit more challenging than before but you can complete them. The intent is that you can complete any [Heroic 2] with your Companion counting as one of the two. If you find this isn't true for any Heroics tomorrow, let us know.

 

-eric

 

I'm not gonna say that all Heroic 2's are now impossible (I've finished most of them solo in just about the same amount of time as before), however, I will say that the dev's need to do some fine tuning to this nerf. While I'm not dying to mobs all that often at all unless it's my own fault, I am finding it impossible to stay alive during certain parts of Heroic 2's. A good example is the gas trap that is sprung at the end of "For the Record" on Makeb. I cannot disarm all four of them before my companion and I both die. That is with me using every DCD I have and self healing. That should not happen and it is very annoying to go through that just to have to start over because my companion can no longer keep up with the damage. This example and others that other players may have shows that some extra tuning needs to be done to the companions to at least make them able to heal through unavoidable damage that is part of the mission itself. It also shows the need for a PTR server to test these changes out ahead of release in order to see what changes may do to gameplay as well as to receive feedback from the player base having to deal with the changes. This will allow any changes to be as close to balanced as possible from the start.

[Draqsko]

You do realize you can still be a good player and admit that the companion nerf was a bit overboard, right? lol

 

Not by their definition. If you admit anything might be too hard now that makes you a bad player.

 

The nerf to companions doesn't even really affect me, most of the stuff I do is group content, lately I've been forced to use companions to finish flashpoints but that is only because my server is on life support (Jung Ma), and it's really boring waiting for an hour or 2 at prime time to even get a tactical flashpoint to pop in LFG.

 

My girl and I used to 2 man all the flashpoints, even hard modes before 4.0. Only a couple weren't possible to do with companions because of boss mechanics and the required micromanagement of them to deal with those mechanics (Blood Hunt HM for example), but those same flashpoints were also very difficult for even average players to do. We are going to do some tacticals tonight together with our companions as DPS, myself tanking and her healing. If we even hit an enrage timer, then companions will be weaker than they were prior to 4.0 when we could gear them ourselves because we never hit enrage with geared companions prior to 4.0, even in hard mode flashpoints.

[Blurch]

The tell them to drop achievements for Star Fortress and give Scoundrels some dps.

 

In 216+ gear with 31 Nico. I died a lot couldn't out heal there damage to him when he was in tank mode and kept getting agro. I know how to play healer but when they nerfed the heals then the dps now the companions there unplayable.

Edited November 18, 2015 by Blurch
Ment to be a reply to "JourrnoRush"

[Gwena]

Dear Eric and other folks at Bioware,

 

My feedback is that I am extremely disappointed by the companion nerfs. Some points:

 

- I can still do the H2's I have attempted so far (haven't tried the "hard" ones though). They are not what I would call difficult; they just take longer. Being able to tear through mobs quickly made the Alliance box-gathering grind okay, but now it is just tedious.

 

- I feel (<-- keyword) somewhat cheated because I had spent a ton of time/resources to get my favorite companion on my main up to rank 47. It was worth it to me because he was awesome in combat and obviously a lot better than the low rank companions I didn't like enough to use. Now? There is a difference, yes, but really he is just a bit less pathetic than the others. >.<

 

- Pre-4.0, I used Andronikos on my squishy DPS because he was my favorite. I was delighted to be able to switch him to a different role in 4.0. Now with the nerfs, I find myself putting him in DPS stance again because it seems to be the least useless. The ability to use any role isn't all that great when healing has been nerfed into oblivion and tanks are still made of tissue but don't have enough to make up for it.

 

- I think this issue was handled extremely poorly. Within a week of 4.0, it was obvious that companions were strong. Heck, it was obvious within 20 minutes of gameplay. Taking nearly a month to say that there was a problem was way too long. And I find it hard to believe that you messed up so badly with companion strength that you had to nerf them so badly. Were companions not tested at all?

 

My somewhat cynical belief is that you guys nerfed companions so hard because players were doing things too quickly, and you don't want us to run out of things to do before chapter 10 comes out in January. Regardless, I hope to see an in-depth post discussing this issue more.

 

Sincerely,

a very unhappy customer

[JeKoCZ]

I have mixed feelings about this and I won't pick a side in this stupid fight between pro-nerf and no-nerf.

 

I don't feel like I've lost anything aside from uber healing. Which sounds strange phrased like that, but it's true. I can still faceroll everything because even after the nerf, the time needed to complete a heroic hasn't changed in the slightest for me. Maybe the fact that I'm a tank helps, but I can still survive any encounter in any mission without problems. And I've done all of them, from Ord Mantell all the way to Makeb. Because even if usually the companion struggles to keep up with the healing, I never go below the 75%/80% health.

 

But I still don't like the nerf because for me there wasn't any legit reason for it being asked for in the first place. It's just plain stupid. All people need to do with after this nerf is pick the set from the vendor on Odessen purchasable with green crystals (The common ones) and they're good to go. That gear is good enough for heroics 2+. Companion healing is not that horrible has people are saying either. Any companion with influence level 10+ is good enough to solo all heroics. And I'm sure of this because I was running with a lv4-7 influence healer through some of them and had no problems. Once I switched to a lv11 influence one it was even better.

 

All this drama is just plain stupid. Yes, companions pre-4.0.2 were overpowered. And what's the problem with that? You really expected a challenge in daily/weekly missions which are supposed to be a cake walk cash grab? You cried and moaned so much that their healing was cut in half and now those very same people are crying and moaning because they think the game is unplayable and that they will unsubscribe. What's wrong with you? If you have to be that spoiled about stuff, at least think of the consequences of your own actions and words.

 

Pre 4.0: "We are too strong and feel invincible, we want more challenges"

Post 4.0: "Companions are too strong and we are too strong aswell and we feel invincible, nerf companions"

Post 4.0.2: "Companions suck, this nerf suck, revert the changes back because the challenge we cried and moaned about is now too strong. We unsubscribe."

[Jadescythe]

No didn't miss the point called EA 1st to try and send info through there channel being there help.ea.com but that sigh doesn't work with SWTOR. So called there CS about that they said SWTOR doesn't work with that web page but every call and every person I talk to before them said it did. SWTOR CS I know only Deals with billing but when EA says they don't deal with anything about SWTOR but to call them guess who's getting the call.

 

You don't need to call anyone. There is no one to call as the developers aren't giving out their phone number. Post your thoughts and suggestions here so the community team can pass that information along to them. If they don't make a change and you no longer enjoy the game, then unsubscribe and return when you feel the game will be enjoyable.

 

Having worked CS myself, I can tell you that your actions are only frustrating you more and most likely harming the metrics of the CS representative you talk to. It is also making it more difficult for players with issues actually resolved by CS to reach a representative and get back to the game.

[OceanwaveII]

Oh come off of it.

It is still easy to do, you just have to use what is available on your character to get it done. If you are terribly undergeared or have no idea how to play your class, then you won't be completing it solo.

 

The only thing that should be easy to do in garbage gear is KotFE story and 1-50 class story. Everything else SHOULD require players to have some sense of competence with their class and not be lazy about upgrading their gear.

 

What the heck , why would anyone do this junk ? the star fortresses H2 drops 208 gear for a half an hour of work or longer and your reward for a 250 k alliance Grind is some gimped companion and no story . You might as well do story ops the rewards are better and it takes far less time to do than sit there mindlessly "LFG For Tatoonie star fortress"

Edited November 18, 2015 by OceanwaveII

[Apache]

Dear Eric and other folks at Bioware,

 

My feedback is that I am extremely disappointed by the companion nerfs. Some points:

 

- I can still do the H2's I have attempted so far (haven't tried the "hard" ones though). They are not what I would call difficult; they just take longer. Being able to tear through mobs quickly made the Alliance box-gathering grind okay, but now it is just tedious.

 

- I feel (<-- keyword) somewhat cheated because I had spent a ton of time/resources to get my favorite companion on my main up to rank 47. It was worth it to me because he was awesome in combat and obviously a lot better than the low rank companions I didn't like enough to use. Now? There is a difference, yes, but really he is just a bit less pathetic than the others. >.<

 

- Pre-4.0, I used Andronikos on my squishy DPS because he was my favorite. I was delighted to be able to switch him to a different role in 4.0. Now with the nerfs, I find myself putting him in DPS stance again because it seems to be the least useless. The ability to use any role isn't all that great when healing has been nerfed into oblivion and tanks are still made of tissue but don't have enough to make up for it.

 

- I think this issue was handled extremely poorly. Within a week of 4.0, it was obvious that companions were strong. Heck, it was obvious within 20 minutes of gameplay. Taking nearly a month to say that there was a problem was way too long. And I find it hard to believe that you messed up so badly with companion strength that you had to nerf them so badly. Were companions not tested at all?

 

My somewhat cynical belief is that you guys nerfed companions so hard because players were doing things too quickly, and you don't want us to run out of things to do before chapter 10 comes out in January. Regardless, I hope to see an in-depth post discussing this issue more.

 

Sincerely,

a very unhappy customer

 

Ya, too bad they don't care how unhappy you are. Just as long as you're still paying your sub they know you will eat whatever crap they serve to you and still keep paying

 

Edit- apologies if that sounded like an attack against you. Wasn't my intention to offend you. Just trying to point out that they only care about your sub

Edited November 18, 2015 by Apache

[oortcloud]

Can't do H2 Star Fortress Penultimate fight anymore; madness sorc, half/half 208/216 with 2 pc 220, Akk Dog @ L43 in either tank OR healer stance

[Joesixxpack]

Absolutely! It certainly may be a bit more challenging than before but you can complete them. The intent is that you can complete any [Heroic 2] with your Companion counting as one of the two. If you find this isn't true for any Heroics tomorrow, let us know.

 

-eric

 

The changes suck. Pls lrn2 tune more incrementally and thoughtfully.

 

This is supposed to be live, not beta, you ham-fisted nerf herders.

Edited November 18, 2015 by Joesixxpack

[-JE-BLAZAR-]

I think you guys should read my post in the bug report section about how hilt/barrels boost up the damage of the companion with level scaling bij 30%, and for me it worked the same for healing for my companion but the healing bug was fixed it seems, with latest patch.

Healing increase could not be read in the tooltips like the dps version.

But I confirmed by retesting the numbers of my ahara's healing for example does not change anymore if I equip her with a mainhand hilt weapon or not. So I think besides the weapon damage of the mainhand weapon the "force power" or "tech power" was affected too? Not sure what was going on but I think it caused to make wrong conclusions how much to nerf the companions.

[MrDeda]

Terrible change, I don't think I'll sub again until this is at least partially reverted.

[Altus_Esterhazy]

I would like to add that I came back to the game after about a year, and enjoyed the hell out of the overpowered healing companions. After all the tedium that made me quit before on Makeb with my 50 Sorc and on Tatooine with my 25 Consular, plowing through Heroics on my own without the fear of dying restored in me the joy of playing the game that I had when I first started playing. Not fearing mobs was the best, suddenly I felt like exploring all the planets in the game (and I unlocked most of the maps I had given up on before because of mobs). The game felt like fun again. I had a blast with the Rakghoul Event, even went back to Section X (which I still found very unpleasant ). And, you know what, as amazing as it felt being basically immortal in solo, the challenge in Ops didn't bother me at all. Just because I like my solo gameplay easy doesn't mean I don't enjoy a challenge in group gameplay.

 

So, understandably, what I read here I find very troubling. Perhaps I returned at the wrong time.

[Deathsightofhell]

BW, you better nerf Irelia, and while your at it , this person also

 

http://s3.zerochan.net/Teemo.240.1653888.jpg

[Aricin]

For what its worth. I tried taking my semi geared (208 - no augments) Jug through SF with Xalek 25 on heals. In dps spec it was ok until sub boss that summons more droids. after 2 deaths with Xalek stopping to heal me and only himself at least one of the fights and I switched to tank spec scrapped through, barely

 

again he bugged out during the fight. I stayed in tank after that until next named and while I was fine, it took forever.

 

seriously, no thanks. I am a casual player and would consider myself your prime audience. My play time is limited and I am not logging into grind. fu** that

 

Ill be back once a couple of chapters have been released and check out the story, but cancelled sub. Not paying for this crap

[HK-FortySeven]

I could be complaining now that companion gifts give only half the influence points (1997 at lvl30 before, 936 after the patch). I guess that point is pretty moot now, since even at lvl50 they would be pretty much useless.

Before the patch it was a big enough grind to get through Star Fortresses.. now they want us to take longer to grind companions to 50, and still grind longer through content > huge fail = already canceled my subscription.

 

BioWare, pass this up to the higher ranks that don't seem to realize their decisions that make you do some code changes, are not helping increasing income. If need to be, democratically elect one of your (inner rank) employees to take one for the team and punch the EA executive for his bad decisions in his stupid face, Rocky Balboa-style, pretty please.

 

PS: Still have 26 days playing time left. If those ridiculous nerfs aren't reverted by then, my subscription will stay canceled.

[NatashaTerenzio]

You know, I've already cancelled my sub because of this nonsense and intended to just pop back in for the story chapters. Now, I'm wondering whether or not I'll even do that and I'm really leaning towards no, which is sad because I love star wars and have for the most party really enjoyed this game.

 

But I've about had it with companies not understanding basic communication with customers or learning how to treat their customers correctly. I was with a hosting company for my websites since 2008 not because they were the necessarily the best, but because they had OUTSTANDING customer service. They made me feel valued, they were polite and helpful as such I gave them my money. The devs over at The Secret World are AMAZING. There is all kinds of communication with the community, you feel like they care and they listen. They go out of their way to stay in touch, as such while TSW might not be the shinning example of a MMO, I don't care, I will happily give them my money because I feel valued.

 

There are so many different ways Bioware/EA could have resolved this, that a company with all that effen money and resources refuses to do so leads to only one conclusion: they don't care. They just don't. One community moderator or someone on the inside could have jumped in and said "hey guys we hear you, it would be really helpful if you can parse data for us and we need that feedback from highly geared characters along with the causal player so we can figure this out. We really apologize...etc" Instead, they're just quietly removing threads they don't like such as this one: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=854139&page=43 to off topic. Wow, really?

 

So you know what, I'm an adult now and my time and money is precious. And since you have proven your silly ***-backwards business model is how you're going to do things and to hell with what we think, I will take my money elsewhere. I hope another company gets rights to make another Star Wars game and makes it better. Otherwise when I need a Star Wars fix I'll go back and watch the movies, write some fan fiction, or go play KoTOR.

 

So long and thanks for all the fish.

[Burtlebe]

I personally think the companions need about a 25% boost.

 

I have been here since beta with exception of a few months due to illness and I gotta say with 24 characters I was enjoying the strength of the companions when you spent the time and or money to raise them up to 25 plus influence and was looking for to running the content on all 24 characters and even making more.

 

with the changes though I find I am just not as interested in grinding my way thru them all, which means once I finish my mains I am seriously considering spending my money and time elsewhere. its my choice. after all the money I have spent in this game it felt nice to be legendary for a bit.

 

I am hoping Bioware will realize that the change is a bit too much and find a happy median between 4 patch and now which will make it fun for all.

[Namyel]

Alright I had a good laugh with the utter bullsh*t move you made with this 4.02 patch, but now reverse it again.

Seriously I mean it, enough screwing around.

 

Feels like I was nailed in the butt with a rusty knitting needle...

[Raoul_Duke]

Thanks for bringing the companions back to useless garbage, yet again. No, really. Also, I can continue to shelve (Heroic 4) Uprooting The Last Seed as my mate and I clearly cannot get past this with our companions at our side. Companions were suppose to help people out when they are in a pinch for extra help but you squashed that pretty good. Cheers!

[SGMRock]

Conspiracy Theory: This nerf was timed perfectly with the release of Battlegrounds as well as the super long extended downtime on the same day. These two items combined were put in place by EA to make sure more of us Star Wars lovers bought Battlefront. After a couple weeks of annoying everyone and driving them to buy Battlegrounds they will go back and get companions more balanced. Edited November 18, 2015 by SGMRock

[Robocles]

You know, I've already cancelled my sub because of this nonsense and intended to just pop back in for the story chapters. Now, I'm wondering whether or not I'll even do that and I'm really leaning towards no, which is sad because I love star wars and have for the most party really enjoyed this game.

 

But I've about had it with companies not understanding basic communication with customers or learning how to treat their customers correctly. I was with a hosting company for my websites since 2008 not because they were the necessarily the best, but because they had OUTSTANDING customer service. They made me feel valued, they were polite and helpful as such I gave them my money. The devs over at The Secret World are AMAZING. There is all kinds of communication with the community, you feel like they care and they listen. They go out of their way to stay in touch, as such while TSW might not be the shinning example of a MMO, I don't care, I will happily give them my money because I feel valued.

 

There are so many different ways Bioware/EA could have resolved this, that a company with all that effen money and resources refuses to do so leads to only one conclusion: they don't care. They just don't. One community moderator or someone on the inside could have jumped in and said "hey guys we hear you, it would be really helpful if you can parse data for us and we need that feedback from highly geared characters along with the causal player so we can figure this out. We really apologize...etc" Instead, they're just quietly removing threads they don't like such as this one: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=854139&page=43 to off topic. Wow, really?

 

So you know what, I'm an adult now and my time and money is precious. And since you have proven your silly ***-backwards business model is how you're going to do things and to hell with what we think, I will take my money elsewhere. I hope another company gets rights to make another Star Wars game and makes it better. Otherwise when I need a Star Wars fix I'll go back and watch the movies, write some fan fiction, or go play KoTOR.

 

So long and thanks for all the fish.

 

The TSW devs are decent... but their billing department is headed by the biggest ******e I have ever seen in any business setting. ANY setting. I'd still be playing it if not for that waste of air.

[Joesixxpack]

Conspiracy Theory: This nerf was timed perfectly with the release of Battlegrounds as well as the super long extended downtime on the same day. These two items combined were put in place by EA to make sure more of us Star Wars lovers bought Battlefront. After a couple weeks of annoying everyone and driving them to buy Battlegrounds they will go back and get companions more balanced.

 

Egads, makes sense!

[GeeDubya]

Absolutely! It certainly may be a bit more challenging than before but you can complete them. The intent is that you can complete any [Heroic 2] with your Companion counting as one of the two. If you find this isn't true for any Heroics tomorrow, let us know.

 

-eric

 

Well you certainly missed the mark when it comes to still being able to complete Heroic 2's. Some solo Flashpoints can barely be completed now.

 

Will your Companions feel a bit weaker than they did when KotFE launched? Yes. But believe me they will still carry their weight and fill the role you need them to in combat. All that we ask is that you log in tomorrow, and check the changes yourself. Play around with the Companions in each role and let us know your feedback. Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

 

A bit weaker? How about significantly weaker - as in just about useless.

 

Planet level sync wasn't bad. Getting xp to go back and hit some of the content skipped during the 12x xp phase has been fun. Also was enjoyed doing many heroics that I skipped just because the xp and rewards weren't worth the time. With this latest patch all the fun is gone again.

Edited November 18, 2015 by GeeDubya