Companion Change Feedback

[Lord_Sleepy]

They have given a lot of casual content to us since the release of kotfe- and no content for pvpers or raiders. I'm OK with having one part of the game turned atleast a LITTLE harder to feel like they care about people wanting harder content too..

Since, well, there is no real point in progressing trough the nims, again, when you aready did that on previous lvcap progressions.. You forget, not everyone is a casual either. I want a bone to gnaw on too.

 

Fine, buff companions for planet heroics or whatever, but leave H2+ Star Fortress as it is. It was actually fun for me after companion nerf and no buffs.

 

Or maybe like similar to another suggestion, have a companion "relic" that on a max level companion would buff them to 4.0 strength in one role, so if you want Nico to heal real well, he can, but not buffed as anything else. Make it 50 coms to buy, 10 to remove to change it, then you can have your fun, and save a few coms for decorations or whatever you want, and I can have my fun, and neither of us detract from the others.

[Robocles]

Hey, at least DPS PTs are FOTM right now for PVP =)

 

Are they? Maybe I can mess with that again, I suppose.

[wmmarshall]

I would respect your woefully belated attempt to solicit feedback from your subscriber community if you submitted your poll, or questions, to your whole subscriber e-mail listings, rather than the very narrow point-of-view of those who frequent your forums.

 

This is not the place, nor the appropriate audience; you have every subscriber's e-mail address.

 

Post your questions to them.

[Robocles]

I would respect your woefully belated attempt to solicit feedback from your subscriber community if you submitted your poll, or questions, to your whole subscriber e-mail listings, rather than the very narrow point-of-view of those who frequent your forums.

 

This is not the place, nor the appropriate audience; you have every subscriber's e-mail address.

 

Post your questions to them.

 

But then they'd have to actually work on it... instead of responding to fluff bs on Twitter.

[maxjam]

Arsenal Mercenary Level 65

Gear 216 rated

Lana (Healing) level 25

 

Levelling Content

Dunno, not levelled in 4.0

 

KotFE Chapters

Difficulty low (as it should be).

 

Heroic 2

Done them all bar Makeb and found the difficulty low to medium. I found them all very easy apart from;

- 1 mission on Taris and a couple on Nar Shaddaa that I had to heal myself.

- Belsavis was very challenging, I felt my gear and char knowledge was the only thing that prevented me from dying.

 

Star Fortress Solo

Medium difficulty. Tougher than pre-companion nerf but good gear and class knowledge certainly help.

 

Star Fortress Heroic

Not tried yet.

 

The One and Only achievement

Not tried yet.

 

I personally think that the companions are about right now, invest a little time in end game gearing and companion influence and your life should get easier. As stated I haven't attempted the Star Fortress Heroic yet but despite being reasonably geared and having a good knowledge of my class would only consider myself an average gamer - after reading the forums this week I would be concerned that its difficulty would need to be toned back a bit. As for the One and Only achievement I consider these to be rare achievements and not titles that everyone would be able to get, but that's just me!

[Kaytrine]

I do want to point this out:

 

Eric mentioned that their decision to nerf companions were due to INTERNAL METRICS that they had. So why are they not using the same INTERNAL METRICS to see that companions are essentially a non factor right now?

 

I just solo'ed H2+ Star fortress on my Sorc again with no terminal buffs (I pointed out that its easier for Sorcs in my earlier post), AND NO COMPANION AT ALL, and it felt the same as having one.

 

Look, the issue isn't that we can't solo content no more (maybe for certain classes it is), its the fact that having a companion literally makes little to no difference. Possibly for lower skilled players they might, but for experienced/skilled players, I feel comps are just an aesthetic accessory.

[Abbraxis]

I believe my canceled subscription is all the feedback I need to provide.

 

This.

 

You shouldn't need any feedback from your playerbase. You've been getting it for days. You don't need character levels and companion roles either - just go check all those wonderful metrics ...

 

I realize Eric isn't responsible for game development etc but seriously ... that post is insulting.

 

I'm done.

[Beakertanks]

I am having no trouble with any of the content post nerf.

[SamAnders]

Yeah I do believe they should have all the feedback they need at the moment.

[Kaytrine]

I am having no trouble with any of the content post nerf.

 

Dude, glad to see you posting feedback, but put some context in your reply. Its like telling a chef their dish is delicious but not specifying which dish when they have 40.

[Krikos]

I would respect your woefully belated attempt to solicit feedback from your subscriber community if you submitted your poll, or questions, to your whole subscriber e-mail listings, rather than the very narrow point-of-view of those who frequent your forums.

 

This is not the place, nor the appropriate audience; you have every subscriber's e-mail address.

 

Post your questions to them.

 

Direct and to the point

[Robocles]

Dude, glad to see you posting feedback, but put some context in your reply. Its like telling a chef their dish is delicious but not specifying which dish when they have 40.

 

Don't feed the obvious troll.

[sjscorpiomark]

I personally think that the companions are about right now, invest a little time in end game gearing and companion influence and your life should get easier.

 

While fine and dandy with end-game gear it's definitely not fine leveling as a new player that is the point I keep seeing being lost. Roll a new character, preferably a class you have never played before so you are learning the class on a new server with no legacy buffs and tell us how you like the nerf then. classes with limited CC, no self heals and at low levels it's really slow. And dying often on 'medium difficulty' content is not what many players want to put up with.

 

since it appears End game gear makes the difference lets new players start with level 1 gear at say 208 level stats and their companion at say 30 influence. It seems end game geared players are not having issues but I can assure you new players are having some rough times. Not difficult per-se but it's not fun having to heal up between every trash pull. If that is the level of difficulty BW wants that's their choice and I choose not to sub. I came back in 4.0 SPECIFICALLY for the easier gameplay and I will leave because they took that away.

[Robocles]

Yeah I do believe they should have all the feedback they need at the moment.

 

My cancelled sub is what they get. They can do with it what they want.

[Neoforcer]

I personally think that the companions are about right now, invest a little time in end game gearing and companion influence and your life should get easier. As stated I haven't attempted the Star Fortress Heroic yet but despite being reasonably geared and having a good knowledge of my class would only consider myself an average gamer - after reading the forums this week I would be concerned that its difficulty would need to be toned back a bit. As for the One and Only achievement I consider these to be rare achievements and not titles that everyone would be able to get, but that's just me!

 

 

companion are not just about endgame gearing 65 it about companion on the hole across tor not just weather it challenging for you to do h2s at 65 or star fortress solo least if your going to say that say i am not sure about other content be honist

[JourrnoRush]

Don't feed the obvious troll.

 

WHy because he said he isn't having trouble? lol

 

I've played a lvl 40ish BH, all heroics up to my level are still easy to complete. I've had no issues by myself and when I had a buddy they were over the top easy.

 

Making a sniper now since I was told that class is a pain for some.

[SootyTX]

Level/Class - Mains are Vig Guardian, Gun Commando, Shield Vanguard, Tele Sage and Dec Assassin, I also have a bunch of others at 50-65. 65s are relatively new to the grind and still in 200ish gear on average, sub 65 toons are invariably well geared for their level. I'm a very experienced player with a carefully set-up series of controls and keybinds that maximises commonality between toons, to make swapping around easier. Not the quickest twitch reflexes anymore but I find that pretty irrelevant in a target lock game like SWTOR

 

Leveling - is fine. I find it very easy due to familiarity etc, see no reason why a brand new player would have any issues.

KotFE - as above

Heroic 2 - first problem is these are incredibly inconsistent. On any given planet, some are fine, some are much harder - this includes doing them as part of leveling or going back with level sync as part of KotFE grind. Second problem is they are tedious. Its really not a difficulty thing, its simply a boring slugfest. I would expect less experienced players would have difficulties with a good number of them

Star Fotresses - not a whole lot of experience as I've only just started into these and its difficult to judge based on the companion bugs with healing and armour/defence. First impressions though are that you goal for 'medium' appears to be based on a player that has been in the game for years, not someone relatively new.

I haven't done the other 2 so no feedback there.

 

Overall - I honestly have no idea what you were trying to accomplish by making this huge change. It seems very poorly thought out, is a terrible way to meet your stated design goals and anyone over the age of 10 could have predicted this would enflame the community. Making this degree of a change is something you have, as a collective group of designers, ALWAYS argued was a bad idea, that small changes were the right way to do things.

 

Now, couple the (charitiably) 'unwise' decision to make a change of this scale, why on earth you would do it BEFORE fixing the companion heal bug (where they simply stop doing anything) and without fixing the armour/defence bug is completely beyond me. As a professional project manager I simply don't understand how such am obviously stupid decision was made.

 

Bottom line is, its not fun any more. In any way, shape or form. I'll finish doing new things until I run out on a few of my mains and then I'll simply stop, because its just not worth the effort. SWTOR is supposed to be fun, a game, not a chore. Leave the difficulty in raids and deliberately designed multiple player content, not in daily grinds.

 

Bioware seems to have forgotten that the character is supposed to be a galaxy saving hero (or dark side equivalent) but this current iteration actually makes me feel WEAKER after all that time and experience than I did as a newbie padawan on Tython

[Neoforcer]

98% of these feedback post saying every thing is fine are all saying how the game is in elder content...

[RegulatorVarda]

I have a level 65 Sith Sorc. Lightning, with full 216/220 gear. My main companion is Lana with alg level 31. I have ran with her in heal mode every time I have done a SF solo or heroic run. Now I can barely get through a SF solo run with her on heals because she has no damage whatsoever. Even worse is trying to have her tank when she only can draw enough aggro for one or 2 enemies, and for some reason never the Knight/Paladin from Zakuul. So please forgive me if I sound like the other thousand players you have heard from. But if a few players say the game is to easy, then maybe those players could share their overwhelming stats with everyone else . Because I myself feel very frustrated an angry with the new changes to the companions. If this is how its going to be then why would I even try to raise any other toons to 65 and give them top tier gear just to get beaten. Thank you for your time and for hearing me out. LOVE the game HATE the changes.

[Thompsons]

While fine and dandy with end-game gear it's definitely not fine leveling as a new player that is the point I keep seeing being lost.

 

I remember being a new player, long ago and far, far away.

 

In fact, I remember that this is the first MMO I ever played.

 

I remember that leveling up wasn't easy.

 

I also remember dying quite a few times.

 

I remember going "Well, I obviously made (this or that) mistake. i won't do that again."

 

I remember feeling like I'd accomplished something when I got done with a character story chapter.

 

I remember doing all that when the game came out, and there was no boost and no option to only do character story missions.

 

And I had to walk uphill through the snow to do it, blah, blah blah. Yeah, I know. But you see my point. I'm beginning to think I could make money starting new accounts, leveling up characters and selling them to people who just want everything handed to them.

[Beakertanks]

Don't feed the obvious troll.

 

Just did a heroic on Coruscant (Republic's Most Wanted) with a level 14 Serenity Shadow and a level One Qyzen Fess set to heal. I have a mix of rating 18 and and 28 gear. My health did get low on one pull. It was 3 elites and 3 strongs had to break out the whirlwind in the middle of the fight. To be fair I have all of the bonus legacy presence.

So I did a heroic on a planet, (below max level for that planet btw) with few character skills (no interrupt yet for example) a level one companion and NOT top of the line gear. And I didn't die once..... Gasp...

 

I stand by my statement. The Heroics are still easier to solo than they were before 4.0. If you are seriously having trouble with this May I suggest Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Or perhaps Fisher Price's Perfect Fit.

[blindxsecrets]

I can solo most if not all of the heroics by myself as a level 65 player. For me, that's not the issue. The issue is do I WANT to run them now? They are slower, more tedious and take much, much longer to run through all of them. Plus, it's mind-numbingly boring. By maybe 2 heroics in I'm basically done. During 4.0 it took maybe 10-15 before I felt like I was grinding. It's not fun anymore, even though it's DOABLE for most people (newbies with no buffs, presence gains or datacrons, who knows...probably not). And considering the alliance grind is definitely NOT alt friendly, I don't want to have to run those blasted planetary heroics hundreds of times when they take as long as they do now. Certainly not for every alt I have that are capable of running the expansion and considering they bumped our ability to have 40 characters per server, how many are willing to run the alliance grind even 5 times? 7? 10? What about 40?

 

I've only run one character through the expansion because I was trying to cap their alliance influence to 20 before I moved on. In 4.0 it seemed doable, a grind...yes...but doable and maybe fun along the way. Now it takes too long, even though it's *still* doable. I just don't *want* to do it anymore. Still able, just not as willing as I was before.

 

Maybe a buff to bring them back closer to where they were in 4.0 that we can put onto ourselves or our companions, so if we want it to be like it was...it's possible. Then if anyone doesn't want that, and wants the challenge and the slow grind, they can just not put it on. That way everyone is happy, right? Maybe make the alliance grind capable of being legacy wide if we want (and not if someone wants to grind each one up seperately for whatever reason)....that might solve a lot as far as the alliance grind goes...

 

But 124 pages in less (I think?) than 48 hours speaks volumes. I just hope they do something about it.

Edited November 20, 2015 by blindxsecrets

[Bugattiboy]

I would respect your woefully belated attempt to solicit feedback from your subscriber community if you submitted your poll, or questions, to your whole subscriber e-mail listings, rather than the very narrow point-of-view of those who frequent your forums.

 

This is not the place, nor the appropriate audience; you have every subscriber's e-mail address.

 

Post your questions to them.

 

You mean them actually putting in the effort to making the game better? Yeah that'll happen. This is EA, remember?

Edited November 20, 2015 by Bugattiboy

[Robocles]

WHy because he said he isn't having trouble? lol

 

I've played a lvl 40ish BH, all heroics up to my level are still easy to complete. I've had no issues by myself and when I had a buddy they were over the top easy.

 

Making a sniper now since I was told that class is a pain for some.

 

Thank you for your response.

[Adaarye]

RE influence making things better

 

so i haven't had the time to get any of my companions affection maxed out but i have some friends with influence level 50 companions. So tonight we compared healing out put on a level 10 comp vs a level 50 comp and guess what?

 

50 levels of influence dose exactly 200ish points difference on the one HoT heal tick and did absolutely nothing to all the other abilities. outside of the heal over time all the other heals were exactly the same at influence 1 as influence 50. this might be a bug or at this point who knows?

I noticed the same between a lvl 30 influence (koth) and lvl 14 (lana) influence, both with level 65 characters in similar gear.

Is it supposed to be all about presence? If so, why the hell have companion influence grind?

Edited November 20, 2015 by Adaarye
I caint speel