Companion Changes in 4.0.2

[Tashia]

I don't enjoy it when T7 drops like a wet noodle when he gets 2 heroics on him -- before I even have time to get to him to help (from killing the 3 mobs on me) --

and please notice I said I HELP my companion ----- he drops; and I'm dead --- no that's not fun ( that's why I went with Treek from now on for healing -- she is as good or better than him ) --- and so much for playing with a companion I really like .... and I pointed that out to the powers that be -- where is that CHOICE they promised us ? )

[Makillda]

I've done it on a guardian but it's always down to the last second. Poison still gets me every time thou.

 

Doable but the fact that if you miss it by the second means you have to fight your way through 3 pulls of mobs again for another try just means I rather log another toon and do other heroics than waste time on Makeb lol.

 

If that happens, just respawn right there. No do-over required.

[Fallerup]

If that happens, just respawn right there. No do-over required.

 

you can't, you dont get the option to do that if you die there without being in a group, you spawn outside the phase if you solo it. this is why this mission needs to be nerfed.

Edited November 21, 2015 by Fallerup

[Ovaline]

What if--they keep companions at the same power level they are now but allow you the option of using two of them t a time while playing solo? It's kind of annoying that I have this giant multitude of companions and I can only use one at a time.

 

 

Also why can't I change most of their armor?

[DoctorSegger]

I think changes its not good and not bad)) I think its will necessary because some new players dont want learn game mechanics) Edited November 21, 2015 by DoctorSegger

[Makillda]

you can't, you dont get the option to do that if you die there without being in a group, you spawn outside the phase if you solo it. this is why this mission needs to be nerfed.

 

Yes, you can. I've done it several times. If the panels are actually deactivated, you respawn right there.

[Infernixx]

Yes, you can. I've done it several times. If the panels are actually deactivated, you respawn right there.

 

Unless you deactivate all 4 panels, you 'fail' the mechanic, die and get respawned outside the instance with all the mobs respawned for you to try again. It's designed for 4 players to click all 4 panels at one time. If nothing else you need at least 2 people to make it work.

 

This is literally what the problem is with this Heroic.

[Makillda]

Unless you deactivate all 4 panels, you 'fail' the mechanic, die and get respawned outside the instance with all the mobs respawned for you to try again. It's designed for 4 players to click all 4 panels at one time. If nothing else you need at least 2 people to make it work.

 

This is literally what the problem is with this Heroic.

 

It is possible to die after the 4th panel is deactivated to the dot and respawn right there in that room. The post you quoted said "if you actually deactivated all 4 panels" and I meant exactly that.

 

You do not need 2 people to do it. It is possible to solo it. It is even possible to not die in the process.

Edited November 21, 2015 by Makillda

[Infernixx]

It is possible to die after the 4th panel is deactivated to the dot and respawn right there in that room. The post you quoted said "if you actually deactivated all 4 panels" and I meant exactly that.

 

You do not need 2 people to do it. It is possible to solo it. It is even possible to not die in the process.

 

Yes, it's possible, doesn't mean that it's probable or even likely. It's a stupid mechanic that wasn't readjusted when they redid the Heroic missions. It was designed for a minimum of 2 people and ideally for 4 people. They just never bothered to fix the debuff/dot to take into account that Heroic Weeklies are designed to be done by one person with a Companion now.

 

They screwed up again, in other words.

[Roalmo]

Been sitting here pondering the timing of any patch to be done next week.

 

Noticed Eric posted his "fix" note as he was going out the door Friday.

 

But didn't notice the usual patch note posting, you know, the "patch on Tues. from x to x time, patch notes on Monday".

 

Maybe(probably am) starting at shadows here, but makes me tad nervous.

 

If we have to live with the servers as they are now (nerf + the piles of dead/lag) over the US holiday "week" ( Weds. thru Sun), that's a long time......

 

Sigh... not even a good Forum PVP with all the elite players gone quiet, only the bads still playing.

[Razdek]

More feedback. My sub has been cancelled and I won't even be playing F2P or unloading the copious anounts of cash that I do on the CM for packs etc anymore. This slight buff you are talking about won't bring me back. I want my 4.0 comps back or I'm gone for good. I know I am only one person, but that is just how I genuinely feel. Casual 4 Life.

[Fled]

Eh 3K + respondents is plenty "community" in terms of sample size. In fact, most university studies don't approach those numbers. Just listen to the ppl and give us back our godlings.

 

http://strawpoll.me/5841131/r

[Dawnblabe]

Instead of doing the tired old buff and nerf cycle with your companions.

 

Give them three different settings........low power, normal and over powered that the players can set. This allows the player to decide how powerful his companion is. You can also add some sort of reward for using low power....IE achievement or item to tempt players to use that setting. Don't use for PVP just use the normal setting for that to make it fair.

 

Just an idea likely will get shot down and torn up

[Bugattiboy]

That takes Dev time and a little money, which they do not have.

 

EA has both the time and the money. They just refuse to spend it.

[Geoffreys]

Instead of doing the tired old buff and nerf cycle with your companions.

 

Give them three different settings........low power, normal and over powered that the players can set. This allows the player to decide how powerful his companion is. You can also add some sort of reward for using low power....IE achievement or item to tempt players to use that setting. Don't use for PVP just use the normal setting for that to make it fair.

 

Just an idea likely will get shot down and torn up

 

Best idea yet. Let players choose their play experience without effecting other player's play styles

[kerotomas]

I think changes its not good and not bad)) I think its will necessary because some new players dont want learn game mechanics)

 

like you don't want to learn English lmao

I have to say imo you're wrong about game mechanics. For me this game is a heavily story based mmo, this means you really shouldn't have to focus on the combat instead focus on the story and the sw universe. For me combat is the most boring and tedious (not hard) aspect of the game. (for example lightsaber combat is a joke) I always want to finish fighting trash as soon as possible to get over it. Companions in 4.0 and 4.0.1 were totally awesome for me, probably i had the most fun in the game in a long time, didn't have to use the same boring rotation every time, or the character heal after every fight. Now it's even worse than in pre-4.0, fights are long and boring as hell again. I just can't stand it, i won't play again until it's fixed. I just fail to realise how boring and tedious stuff can be fun for anybody.

Edited November 22, 2015 by kerotomas

[enochrising]

Has Eric even said anything since his vague "try it and let us know" quip?

 

I've tried it. The game is not broken for me but I can't see myself staying with it in the long run if the fighting is going to take as long as it does now. It was incredibly fun before and now it is not. Fighting trash is tedious and requires that I stick to the "optimal rotation" of skills. The Heroic 2+ quests so far are doable but take a very long time. It is an extremely noticeable difference in my opinion and not in a positive way.

Edited November 22, 2015 by enochrising

[HaoZhao]

Has Eric even said anything since his cowardly "try it and let us know" quip?

 

I've tried it. The game is not broken for me but I can't see myself staying with it in the long run if the fighting is going to take as long as it does now. It was incredibly fun before and now it is not. Fighting trash is tedious and requires that I stick to the "optimal rotation" of skills. The Heroic 2+ quests so far are doable but take a very long time. It is an extremely noticeable difference in my opinion and not in a positive way.

 

I still have FFXIV that I can go back to if you're not going to man up and say something Eric.

 

I'm pretty sure the unspoken, unofficial BW policy is to quietly laugh at and ignore anyone who childishly threatens to unsub unless daddy lets them have chocolate for breakfast.

 

If you can't make a request or suggestion without uttering poorly veiled threats, then you have a communication problem.

[Leklor]

Has Eric even said anything since his cowardly "try it and let us know" quip?

 

I've tried it. The game is not broken for me but I can't see myself staying with it in the long run if the fighting is going to take as long as it does now. It was incredibly fun before and now it is not. Fighting trash is tedious and requires that I stick to the "optimal rotation" of skills. The Heroic 2+ quests so far are doable but take a very long time. It is an extremely noticeable difference in my opinion and not in a positive way.

 

I still have FFXIV that I can go back to if you're not going to man up and say something Eric.

 

They announced there would be changes (It was Friday) and that we would know more on Monday.

[Alssaran]

They announced there would be changes (It was Friday) and that we would know more on Monday.

 

There's information to be found, if one dares to look. From 4,600 up to 10,000 is one claim. The word on the street is 65% buff, to a point thirty percent behind the 4.0 numbers.

 

But that's just a rumor, eh?

[ibervang]

Here is my experiance of the HC's i have done today. First off, to all the players saying "learn to play" piss of, I know how to play. And some of us have a RL and work, we don't all have mommy and daddy to pay for everything for us

 

I was playing on belsavis with my main which is a carnage marauder. I have played the game since beta/pre-launch, And have played through the game with 1 of each class. My gear is as such. Got 1 192 (relic), 1 208 (main hand) the rest is 216, and i augmentet 9 of them with 208. My companion is rank 12. I survived most of the fights (died 1 time, might have been because the fight had 6 strong mobs and i didnt cc and might have messed up a little). But the rest of the fights, I don't think I have had to use or have used intimidating roar or been this close to dying, in all the years i have been playing, combined, vs the fights I have played today. I get that its nice with a challenge every now and them, but the time it now takes to do these HC's insn't fun. And considering how many you have to do to get the reputation up with the alliances. I can say i REALLY look forward to nok having to do a single HC again. That will be a happy day. Im certain that the dev's dont play this game at all. And if they do, they definitly don't do HC's alone. If they want a hardcore game, just come out and say it. But look at what happened to Wildstar. They made a hardcore game because the gamers said they wanted that. Then the game died and they also had to go f2p and find various other ways to make money of the game. So think about that the next time you feel like listening to the hardcore gamers. Can you afford to lose more subbers?

[jonathantavara]

Hey folks,

 

If you haven’t yet seen the 4.0.2 patch notes, you can view them here. There are some patch notes that we wanted to highlight and talk about specifically.

 

• Companion base stats have been reduced.
  
• Companion damage and healing output has been reduced.
  

 

Some of you will certainly ask, why the need to nerf Companions? This is something that we definitely saw the community be divided on, and it was good for us to hear feedback from both sides. Ultimately, this decision came down to our own goals for Companions, along with data on how they were performing. What we saw in those instances is that Companions, simply put, were just way too good. Their healing and damage output could be greater than that of a very skilled player with a fully maximized character. In order for you to understand why we are making these changes, we thought it best to explain our goals for Companions in Fallen Empire.

 

In KotFE, with a large focus on going back to story, we wanted to make sure that all of our story content was accessible to all of our players. The power that Companions bring to the table, definitely played a part in that accessibility. Companions, from a combat perspective, should complement and provide support to your character, not overshadow them. However, in looking at how strong Companions are, we may have gone a bit too far in that direction. Simply put, while playing through much of the game, there are a lot of situations in regular combat where it is practically impossible for you to be killed if you have a healing Companion. Although this can be fun for a time, this wasn’t our goal. Companions should be strong, they should fill any role you need, but they should not make your actual gameplay be overshadowed by how strong they are.

 

So with 4.0.2 we have brought their effectiveness down quite a bit, let’s talk about some of the specifics here:

• There isn’t a flat % that healing was reduced by. Effectiveness reduction varies greatly depending on level, Influence, level sync, etc. That being said, the healer companions are still quite competitive, but they no longer trivialize content that was meant to be challenging.
  
• Healing power increase by Influence level has been increased. That means that as you scale up Influence levels with a Companion they will get more powerful per level than before. This helps to offset the base healing reduction a bit as you gain influence with your companion.
  

 

We did want to make some improvements to tanking Companions:

• We increased the threat generated by tank companions, so they should be able to hold the attention of enemy NPCs better than before.
  
• We fixed an issue involving the tank companion’s mass grapple ability, it will no longer pull in enemies that are out of combat.
  

 

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

I hope that there will be another change in the companions to make them feel stronger again. I understand why it was changed especially when companions are in the healing stage but the reason I disagree is that while we still have the level cap put in place I always felt that to counterbalance the situation is to have the companions feel more powerful than before. This was something that I did not mind in the least and it still felt challenging at times even if they are in the healing phase since if the companion and the player is getting attacked by a large mob or a strong opponent there is still some kind of strategy put in place to fight against large mobs or strong enemies. I hope that the companions are back to the way they were or at the very least make them a bit more competent.

[avidara]

I have played the game since the companion skill reduction, and find the game is not as enjoyable. I am an average player, and the more difficult aspects of the game are now out of my reach. The companions have been reduced below effectiveness. I find myself healing companions and not able to give any damage during solo outings, so much so, the companion dies, leaving me in situations that leave my _____ dead. Not enjoyable. If this continues, I can't see myself playing much longer. I find it hard playing in groups that expect you to have a flawless style of play, which I don't have. I enjoyed solo play, and have played since launch, way back when. I find I am close to parting ways with swtor, not enjoyable anymore.

[Quraswren]

There's information to be found, if one dares to look. From 4,600 up to 10,000 is one claim. The word on the street is 65% buff, to a point thirty percent behind the 4.0 numbers.

 

But that's just a rumor, eh?

 

I think someone worked out on these forums some rough numbers. that it was a 75% nerf roughly to start and it's about to get a 75% increase in most areas from the nerfed numbers.

 

Overall resulting in a roughly 47% NERF from what we started with in most areas.

 

Acceptable / Unacceptable depends on the individual gamer. (and thats all estimated so take that as you will)

[Kangkar]

The best way forward is to have the nerf remain for all companions except one. Probably the one you can romance or ship droid or perhaps Treek. This way casual players will be able to play with a OP companion (prior to the nerf), while those who seek more challenges can go ahead with those nerf companions.