Companion Change Feedback

[Doum]

Companions stand in stupid. Need to fix this. The over healing they had before would compensate, but now they have been nerfed by 75% that is not so anymore. No armor/defense is also a MAJOR issue that needs to be addressed. You guys borked this up a LOT, but again the over healing by the companion addressed this short sighted untested issue.

 

Level 65, near BIS 224, influence 50 on Senya/Treek, SORC Healer. Primary focus is Heroic Star Fortress. Was able to handle Pre-Nerf Exarch for "The one and only" with companion dying once (Back when I was around 198 gear BIS Pre-Nerf) and both of us "Healer" spec'd and me kiting a LOT. Now... ya.. not fun anymore and no plans to do it beyond the initial series for DECO only.

 

Struggled with the first room with two knights. CC'd the Champion of course the any time he got lose it was game over. Managed to complete that room, but after the sheer volume of time it took... NOT FUN and just not worth the crappy rewards provided. I stopped after trying some with Treek.

 

Shifted to Treek with some better luck, but it's like doing NIM content with the lack of intelligence (IE: PUG RUN) by the companion. They STAND IN STUPID.. you can't heal that with the Armor issue creating a double whammy.

 

Correction Actions BW should take:

• Revert the changes to healing for at least 50% given back)
  
• BEEF up the influence level 50 to what we had before NERF
  
• Fix the AI of "Standing in Stupid" damage the companions seem to keep doing.
  
• Fix the ARMOR/DEFENSE (4.0.3 I think I saw mentioned) issue.
  
• Not make knee jerk changes on the fly. Your causal market base just took this as a giant middle finger and will not end well for Bioware. I'm sure your metrics are going to show a rapid decline in subs due to stupidity and degree of this change.
  

 

EDIT: Healing compared to my healing is TERRIBLE comparison and very lacking. I'm seeing 1k-2k heals with influence level 50 - how does that help? Compared to my Innervate with 5k ticks that is CRAP. Swapped to TREEK and she at least had 2k heals and a few 8k ticks. Again.. I can crit a 20k on the right condition and this is FAR below "MY healing" and in no fashion equal to my heals. I agree the comp's should not over shadow our skills, but they should at least provide the same level of heals we can provide. With level 50 influence this clearly is not the case. FIX it please.. My companion healer at 50 influence should heal like he/she was wearing at least 216/220 BIS gear.

 

IF you guys can't get this right then give us back the ability to gear our companions ourselves. I at least knew I would get better results with doing it myself.

 

This pretty much reflect my own experience in 4.0.2.

 

I am playing as a madness sorcerer

[JourrnoRush]

so older heroic content should be boring to do even tho we out lvled it while ago? they should do 1 of 2 things change it back to 4.0 or remove level sync

 

Its boring if its too easy and its boring if you have to use basic skills to complete it?

 

So you want it to be 4.0 easy or pre 4.0 easy? LOL not going to happen

[BobandMurphy]

I have been using a level 65 Marauder, and have found most things easy except the Heroic star force missions. I have 208 armor and carnage discipline. Most things are easy if you just switch your companion to Tank

[MeNaCe-NZ]

And what is wrg with that if they are paying their monthly sub fee. You or anyone else don't have the right to say who plays and who do not play. It sounds like those gamergate idiots that say women have no right or place in gaming and they no grounds in which to decide who is in gaming and who is not, just like no one has the right to tell anyone that they can play or how to play.

 

I don't really care what they pay to do until the game starts being made less a game and more a movie to cater to their inability to do anything except walk and hit 1 ... though 1 was possibly pushing it a bit far for how hard it was prior to this nerf.

[Blurch]

Hey folks,

 

Following the Companion changes we made Tuesday in 4.0.2, we want to gather your feedback on your gameplay experiences. We hope by this point you have had some time to jump in and get your hands on the changes yourselves. First, before we get into the feedback we are looking for, let’s talk a bit about our specific design goals related to Companions:

 

• Leveling Content – Challenge Level: Low. To complete this content, a player should have a basic understanding of game mechanics and have level-appropriate gear. Their companion’s role shouldn’t matter.
  
• KotFE Chapters – Challenge Level: Low. Like leveling content, a player should have a basic understanding of game mechanics and have level-appropriate gear. Their companion’s role shouldn’t matter.
  
• [Heroic 2] Missions – Challenge Level: Medium. To complete this content, a player should have a good understanding of their class and game mechanics, as well as level appropriate gear. Their companion’s role should begin to matter at this point, supplementing the player’s own Discipline. We expect some players to find these challenging initially—maybe even needing a friend’s help--but once the player earns better gear, a few levels of Influence with their companion, and has a greater understanding of the game, they should be able to solo the hardest of these missions.
  
• Star Fortress – Challenge Level: Medium. These are similar to [Heroic 2] Missions. Star Fortresses should be similar to [Heroic 2] Missions. To complete this content, we expect you to have level-appropriate gear, a good understanding of your class, a companion with a few levels of Influence, as well as being in a role that supplements the player’s. We expect most players to be able to solo these with a little practice and effort on their part to gain some increased power.
  
• Heroic Star Fortress – Challenge Level: High. At this point we expect players to really understand their class, their companion, and their gear. Players should have sought out gear upgrades, as well as increased their companions’ Influence level. These are meant to be challenging and difficult to do solo.
  
• “The One and Only” Achievement should still be possible. As an Achievement, this is definitely intended to be extremely hard and rewarding to players. This means the Achievement can be exceptionally challenging, and similar to HM Star Fortress, you will need to be a skilled player, with moderate to high Influence level with your companion, and very good gear on your character.
  

Based on these statements above, do you think that these are true after Tuesday’s changes? What content is more or less difficult than you expected? Is there something that is just flat out impossible?

 

Please give us your feedback, and we simply ask you to be as constructive as possible. Include information such as:

• Your level
  
• Roughly Average Item Rating
  
• Discipline
  
• Companion
  
• Companion role
  
• Companion Influence level
  
• Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?)
  
• Your personal experience while playing this content
  

If you have a video or other related content to go with your feedback, feel free to link that as well as it will allow us the best insight into your experiences.

 

The team will be reviewing all feedback, along with supporting data, to see what / if any future adjustments need to be made. Thank you all in advance for your feedback!

 

-eric

 

Ok Eric where do I send my one hour and twelve minute video

[Fordbird]

Because they can't account for how inherently bad so many players are at playing games these days and how unwilling they are to learn to get better or even attempt actual gameplay.

 

The curse of the modern day MMO, it brought people into games that have no interest in actually playing games. They just want a casual walk with some lighting effects, maybe a movie or 2 and some nice loot to reward them for said casual walk.

 

And this is exactly the people Bioware was trying to attract with this xpac. "We've heard you loud and clear, and what the players are telling us they want is more story. So we're going back to our story telling roots." Like it or not, this is te face of today's gamer. People want to jump into the action for an hour or so when they get the chance and have fun doing it. The players complaining that the content was too easy could very well have played through the content on a toon with little to no influence to increase the difficulty. But they/we didn't. Instead, many bought gifts with crystals and credits to max their companions affection as quickly as possible and then immediately complained that the intent was too easy. I have no problem with companions being as they are now, but I am irritated that so many players picked up a sub because they were told they were in for a casual experience, only to have the "casual" part removed a few weeks later. The population of this game seemed to have been struggling before the xpac, and I thought it was great to see so many new players coming in. I'd hate to see a lot of them leave because they feel as though they were decieved.

[Noyjitat]

The team will be reviewing all feedback, along with supporting data, to see what / if any future adjustments need to be made. Thank you all in advance for your feedback!

 

-eric

 

Eric, Let me restate this:

Companions have been nerfed to the point that some previous content is now much harder or for some impossible to do. You have reduced healing to a point to where it's worse than before KOTFE. Not to mention nerfing companion damage into the ground. Before we even get to the starfortress we run into content that we can no longer do or its much much harder to do. No mmo to date that I know of does a nerf so hard that previous content is harder or impossible to do. So You WILL make adjustments or we will unsubscribe. I don't know of a more polite way to say it.

 

Feedback:

 

Character info:

Your level - 65

Roughly Average Item Rating - 216

Discipline - Juggernaut Immortal, all max augmented gear and all datacrons / all legacy presence

Companion - Jaessa Wilsaam

Companion role - heal / damage

Companion Influence level - 50

Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing : Outlined below

Your personal experience while playing this content : Multiple experiences: Everything is either harder, takes too long or is impossbile. Explained below

 

Shadow of Revan content: Ziost Devastator Monolith

 

This is something I liked doing pre 4.0 when i would augment out my tanks. It was to me a good test of just what me and my companion could do. Well..... Before 4.0 I was able to solo devastator monoliths on ziost with a 190 augmented immortal jugg and a 192/190 augmented companion (i didn't use the pieces with accuracy and replaced them with 190 ziost gear)

 

Now this time we're 2 levels above since ziost is a level 60 world and the damn thing nearly killed me and my companion several times despite using all cooldowns ( didn't use heroic moment but then i never needed to before) we were both near a hit from dying several times but at the last second a heal would save us or my cooldown would be ready to use again so jaessa only had to heal herself. Never before did I struggle with this encounter once I and my companion were fully augmented.

 

This tells me a 50 influence companion has less either burst healing or overall healing output (possibly both) than pre 4.0 healing companions. I mean come on! We're 2 levels above the damned monolith now and i have higher defense and shield/absorb than i had pre 4.0.

 

 

 

Heroic star fortresses

 

Rank 16 specialist buffs (but not using the specialist crates temporary abilities, since most players won't even have these ) I will not be using a healing companion for the first phase because as a tank it takes too long to kill even a standard npc let alone a strong or elite on these. Keep in mind once again that my Jaessa is level 50 influence.

Again, using a damage companion for the first part of the star fortress as I typically only needed healing during exarch fight. My cooldowns and gear would suffice before. But because of the damage nerfs to Jaessa it now takes me 3 times as long just to get to the exarch fight using her damage role while playing a tank. Yes that's right you read that correctly, 3 times as long. A flash point should not take the length of a Operation to complete in any universe or time in history.

Noting that I probably wouldn't be able to even get this far on a damage character with a damage companion. Because I'd either die alot or constantly come near death.

 

During trash fights

'Damage' Jaessa actually struggles killing two standard npcs in a reasonable amount of time and results in losing 1/3 of her health - simply unacceptable

'Damage' Jaessa can no longer bring a knight (elite) below 1/4 health before death is imminent (me taunting other mobs away. - I feel it's worth pointing out that the developers say that a companion counts as a player and so they should be able to do what a player can. WEll I can certainly kill a single elite by myself and she can't even get it down 1/4 health and while im a tank and have more defense she has 3 times my damage.

 

Praetorian / Paladin fights

'Damage' Jaessa spec comes close to death on these boss fights on heroic star fortress with me playing as a tank. Most likely because of her damage being nerfed and it taking too long to kill champions. I also have to pop my defensive cooldowns more. I'm not completely sure she would of survive if I was melee dps instead.

After a long fight ended I changed jaessa to heal when i dropped down to 30% health so she could heal me but ended up using my out of combat regen power instead after finding I could heal myself way faster than jaessa can heal me. As a result of the nerfs. Which frankly is beyond belief as it never was like this before.

 

The exarch terminal phase

I can do the exarch terminals phase with damage companion while I tank but i have to use cool downs and i have some really close to death moments (yes im dodging and running out of damage circles)

 

The exarch boss fight phase

-using a damage jaessa and me as a tank-

Almost killed Alderan exarch with 'damage' Jaessa but I died with exarch at 24%. I didn't use the specialists rank 10 crate items because most players won't have those but i did use a medpack and all of my cooldowns. I did not pop heroic moment. This tells me i probably wouldn't come close to killing the voss exarch that has regen powers before he killed me or the companion. Especially with companions not being smart enough to run out of damage circles

 

-using a healing jaessa and me as a tank (this is what i normally always do)

Jaessa comes close to death few times during the fight trying to keep me healed and herself alive but ultimately dies and I finally kill the exarch with 40% health remaining and a dead companion. This tells me that she would be next to useless on hardmode flashpoints if the group lacked a healing player. She would ultimately die from random group damage while healing other players. In the end I don't think a damage player using a healing companion is going to make it throught this fight as easily (keep in mind she is a level 50 influence healing companion

 

Sorry but this flat 50% - 75% heal and 50% damage nerf is **** and im not going to stay around if this doesn't change. Keep in mind that my companion is 50 influence which means she shouldd be way better than this and I spent countless credits, crystals, cartel coins (for hypercrates with companion gifts and things to sell for credits to get companion gifts) I could of accepted 20% maybe even 25- 30% damage / heal nerf but 50%/75% is insane and unreasonable.

 

I won't be running anymore star fortresses without a friend and that means not very often since they don't get to play but once or twice a week when im lucky. Which means I basically won't be running star fortresses at all and will probably be unsubscribing at this point. I feel I also need to add that I haven't felt the need to unsubscribe a game in years due to a nerf. You've really made a bad impression on me for the first time.

Edited November 20, 2015 by Noyjitat

[LordTynell]

I don't really care what they pay to do until the game starts being made less a game and more a movie to cater to their inability to do anything except walk and hit 1 ... though 1 was possibly pushing it a bit far for how hard it was prior to this nerf.

 

Still working on building that strawman? You seem smart enough to know that's not what the people are clamoring about, but you keep going back to insulting your strawman. Why is that? Can't even accept a 75% nerf to a healing companion is a little too much?

 

Better yet, how does their play style effect yours?

[JourrnoRush]

for a start defiant set bonus isnt roughly average for a casual as it is ops drop gear.

we are not all players that can do operations and get the gear that quick and from your influence level it seems you do ops more than anything else.

as sage in heals/dps with a set bonus you are way more powerful than as you suggest use the gear drops as you level from 60 to 65.

i agree that heroic should mean that but your analogy of doing it in level 25 gear is just stupid but when it is impossible for some in level 60 purple gear maybe there is a problem. as regards harder stuff i do wish bioware would introduce a real nightmare level that only 2 or 3 guilds in the world would master before nerfing to sit back and watch the posts from people like you who would say its impossible.

i play for enjoyment and chat with other like minded players we want fun and not to be put down in posts like yours have been ( you have totally denied that anyone could have a problem with the game as "i can do it - therefore you can do it as well" remember - if a game is to be successful; it has to cater for all styles and abilities thats why console games have several levels of challenge you can pick as you start. we could have that here as well if people like yourself would allow it

 

Okay.

You are confusing the ability to have lvl 60 gear and lvl sync. Reread the post again, but to assist you I will break it apart further.

Completing 1-50 heroics is not hard on my characters. I play many of them. I find that having geared my character appropriately has been successful. This is an MMO, outside of the story, the content is going to require you to have that level's gear for the most part. This is what people can't seem to understand. The Star Fortress Heroic <One and Only> achievement was TOO easy before these nerfs. Now it is a challenge as it should be. The normal heroics dont' require much effort, just some common sense and basic abilities and appropriate gear.

 

I'm not saying making it too hard so that only a select few can do it. It's not hard. The majority of hte whining here is because they can't AFK their fights anymore. I'm telling you, get some gear, toss your companion some gifts and give it a try. If it's still too hard for you, grab a buddy. I'm on ebon hawk I can help you if you want.

 

I can see this deeply troubles you, but there is no need to be rude.

[Furiant]

Want some companion changes feedback?!

 

LET US CUSTOMIZE THEIR GEAR!!!

 

That's my feedback.

 

It totally sucks to be unable to change the looks of our new companions and to be stuck with them on clothes that aren't visualy appealing for most of us. Not to mention that its annoying to have everyone walking around with the same companions looking exactly the same. You can no longer feel you got an unique crew that fits your personal style.

 

Absolutely. I get that some folks were happy not to have to update their companion gear, after KotFE launched, but I didn't hear a lot of screaming about it beforehand. It's yet another way to give people control over their companions' performance.

 

Are you an elite ultra-hardcore player who thinks the game is too easy? Want everything you do to be an adrenaline-pumping affair that stands testament to how uber and bleeding edge you are? Run with naked companions and no influence. Knock yourself out. Enjoy that rest period between every group of mobs while everyone else runs around you completing their missions.

 

Are you comfortable with your skills and like a challenge on your own terms, but don't want Every Single Fight to be a friggin tedious frustration, because running daily heroics for 6 hours is called a "grind" not a "challenge"? Put some effort into your companions' gear and influence.

 

Are you not so skilled and need a little more? Max your companions' gear and influence.

 

Or maybe you don't play a tank with a healing companion in Star Fortress H2+... maybe you haven't reduced the entire game to this tiny, repetitive, temporary situtation and judge the entire experience based on that... Maybe you don't think everyone should go play another game if they don't play exactly as you do, leaving SWTOR with a playerbase of less than a hundred "True Gamers", because that would, you know, suck.

 

Clearly there are many ways to play the game, there is much more to the game than what is being discussed in 99% of these posts, and the solution is to give us control. There are several ways to do that. Just make it happen.

Edited November 20, 2015 by Furiant

[MeNaCe-NZ]

hardcore gamer is a dying bread it is the casual players hwo make games money now and if you get them angry they stop paying that is what bioware is doing they keep it up by spring this game will be a ghosttown

 

The thing this isn't about being "hardcore", it's about actually having challenging gameplay to do of varying scales and this is what we now have in the game.

 

If you read what Eric put about their views of content and how challenging it should be it's not really that far off. Perhaps the heroics could be slightly easier and they rename SF H2 to something else so it doesn't get lumped with the other H2' but it's nowhere near as bad as people make out.

 

Most peoples experiences in this thread show this, most just seem to hate dieing and grinding ... it's the hardest solo content in the game ( H2's ) ideally, you are going to die and it's going to take time.

 

People who just want god mode through everything have no place in any games imo.

[JourrnoRush]

Ok Eric where do I send my one hour and twelve minute video

 

Post it here bud!

[Eupholus]

Eric - I appreciate you asking for constructive feedback, though I think there has already been lively discussion that one might note. Regardless, getting non-rant-filled feedback is optimum so I will have a go... I apologize that I can really only offer mainly qualitative information.

 

I have generally only played my main Lvl 65, 208-geared Vigilance Guardian of late - a character I believe I play pretty well. I was and have continued to focus on the Star Fortress (SF) - content just prior to and after the patch, so I can only comment on that. I had just begin the Solo Heroic part of SF-Alderaan - without the buffs - and was learning the mechanics of the final fights - Paladins, no problem. I felt I could have readily competed this with a healing 20+ INF companion and careful play, even though I was using a DPS character, though a robust one.

 

Following the nerf, I began the same solo heroic - using the initial buffs because I knew the nerf had hit - and was unable to complete one of the paladins and had some problems with the Praetorian. This mainly felt like a problem with the companion AI healing or actions, but it's hard to tell in a good fight. Regardless, I called it quits and was disappointed - the though of cancelling my subscription crossed my mind. Solo heroic without buffs - alright, I can understand that being too difficult for ME (non-hardcore) to solo , but I feel I should be able to complete the buffed version.

 

As a somewhat casual player completing mostly solo PvE content, I appreciated being able (post 4.0 and pre-nerf) to complete end-game content and the other FPs. I did want it to be a bit more challenging, yes, but I think there was some level of over-nerf, and I admit to not being enough of a hardcore player to suggest a proper level; there are plenty of others, as well as the game data, to help with that. All I know is that if I can't complete important content solo, I will be less likely to continue to play. I am a Legendary Player, so I have much of the rest of the story content covered.

 

So many variables required to balance players needs and wants against challenge level. I do not envy your position. Good luck!

[TFBWYAG]

I don't really care what they pay to do until the game starts being made less a game and more a movie to cater to their inability to do anything except walk and hit 1 ... though 1 was possibly pushing it a bit far for how hard it was prior to this nerf.

 

So, like last night, now the same names are showing up, insulting others, attempting to add fuel to the fire, belittling others, telling them how they should play the game,,, sad really

 

If the game right now is so awesome, and exactly how you want it, then why are you spending so much time coming to the threads to attempt to make things worse?

 

Just curious really, other then that,,, meh

[JourrnoRush]

The thing this isn't about being "hardcore", it's about actually having challenging gameplay to do of varying scales and this is what we now have in the game.

 

If you read what Eric put about their views of content and how challenging it should be it's not really that far off. Perhaps the heroics could be slightly easier and they rename SF H2 to something else so it doesn't get lumped with the other H2' but it's nowhere near as bad as people make out.

 

Most peoples experiences in this thread show this, most just seem to hate dieing and grinding ... it's the hardest solo content in the game ( H2's ) ideally, you are going to die and it's going to take time.

 

People who just want god mode through everything have no place in any games imo.

 

I kind of agree with this.

I think an underlying issue is that people were facerolling content and making a lot of credits. They can't do that anymore and now have to come here advocating to get it changed.

 

Heroics should be harder than the solo/story content period

[HankMurphy]

Thousands LOL

 

Its the same 50-100 people now going back and forth. The "polls" can be tampered and only BW's data will reveal if a fix is needed.

 

I really think a major issue BW found was that people were making tons of credits with how easy the game was. By doing this they toned back the amoutn of people who can farm (not really because its still easy) and people can still complete the solo content.

 

IMO BW found a good medium with how companions are now. The game is a little bit more difficult, but you can still solo just abotu anything with some basic skills and gear. Their data, not the tantrums on here, will determine the next step.

 

Yeah, the polls lie and the customers posting on the forums that never have before all using unique account names are secretly a conspiracy between a few dozen people.

 

I your name Karl Rove? Do you work for the republican national committee or something? Doing special math and mental gymnastics to pretend reality isn't happening to you?

 

Their data sounds really powerful and all-knowing.

Too bad their data isn't going to get me to click subscribe ever again.

 

You'd think with all that mysterious and alleged data, they'd have avoided this crapstorm to begin with. Maybe even head it off at release with "whoa! not intended guys, we're probably going to have to fix this soon"... you know, any communication what-so-ever.

 

This went exactly the way they wanted it to. They waved around a piece of candy and let everyone get a real good taste and then when the money was in their hands they smacked the candy out of their hands and into the dirt.

 

It wasn't pending and spurred by mythical data revelations. They just didn't expect people to leave like this. They figured the new players would be just like the usual stockholm sufferer they're used to.

 

There's a timeless saying that covers this:

Easy Come, Easy Go

 

Well, Bye.

[tattoohero]

eric has just reaffirmed that heroic star fortresses should be difficult.

 

best case scenario i think is companions get buffed to pre 4.0 levels. they will never revert back if the above is true.

 

Difficult is one thing, but I died trying to kill a gold boss and my companion was not able to keep up in heals and the companion is at influence 32.

 

The heals are junk at 32, which means they just be okay at 50.

 

I completed the voss star fortress with a 20 influence companoin and a mix of 208 and 216 gear. Now my companion is at 32 and I'm a mix of 216 and 220 and I'm not unable to even get past a fight with 2 mooks and 2 gold bosses. Never mind getting two the actual heroic part of the run.

 

I was fighting 1 gold boss in the area which is the last fight for the solo and my companion at influence 32 was unable to keep me with heals enough for me to DPS 1 boss down.

 

Guess I'll just do the solo version for the weekly. I'm not going in with a companion 2/3 the way maxed out and get beat on like a rag doll. To be honest the ones at 10 can barely do anything during a heroic on Coreilla.

[Jeweledleah]

Okay.

You are confusing the ability to have lvl 60 gear and lvl sync. Reread the post again, but to assist you I will break it apart further.

Completing 1-50 heroics is not hard on my characters. I play many of them. I find that having geared my character appropriately has been successful. This is an MMO, outside of the story, the content is going to require you to have that level's gear for the most part. This is what people can't seem to understand. The Star Fortress Heroic <One and Only> achievement was TOO easy before these nerfs. Now it is a challenge as it should be. The normal heroics dont' require much effort, just some common sense and basic abilities and appropriate gear.

 

I'm not saying making it too hard so that only a select few can do it. It's not hard. The majority of hte whining here is because they can't AFK their fights anymore. I'm telling you, get some gear, toss your companion some gifts and give it a try. If it's still too hard for you, grab a buddy. I'm on ebon hawk I can help you if you want.

 

I can see this deeply troubles you, but there is no need to be rude.

 

what level is your legacy. do you have legendary status. do you have all presence bonuses? all datacrons?

 

if the answer is yes to all of the above, of COURSE it should feel easy at that point.

 

now. I have a challenge for you. roll a new character on a server where you have no legacy. and try the same content on them. if you have a free lvl 60 still available? even better - try higher level heroics, like Makeb, Voss and Corelia on that one.

 

and then come back here and tell all of us how game is supposed to be "hard"

 

spoiler alert. yes its still doable. what it is NOT however - is fun for a great number of people. its tedious and annoying and absolutely positively NOT worth repeating. which defeats the purpose of having repeatable quests in a first place.

 

/shrug. I posted my feedback. I have a week's worth of subscription still left, so if further feedback is requested - I'll get it and post it. the ball is in bioware's court at this point

 

P.S. those straw polls? actualy can NOT be tampered with, you can only vote once, so unless for whatever reason you are going around, clicking on it from different IP's and that's some dedication right there (even I don't wear tinfoil hat that brazen) - each one of those votes represents a single household.

Edited November 20, 2015 by Jeweledleah

[monsterfurby]

My feedback in short, playing a Guardian (Tank) with a healer companion inf 40 or so: combat is a bit too slow, downtimes between encounters kill the game.

 

I'm somewhat alright with the power level of companions in combat, but adding the kind of downtime that gives me DaoC flashbacks back in is not a great choice in a 2015 game. If companions are supposed to stay where they are now, out of combat regeneration should be upped massively.

[HankMurphy]

The thing this isn't about being "hardcore", it's about actually having challenging gameplay to do of varying scales and this is what we now have in the game.

 

If you read what Eric put about their views of content and how challenging it should be it's not really that far off. Perhaps the heroics could be slightly easier and they rename SF H2 to something else so it doesn't get lumped with the other H2' but it's nowhere near as bad as people make out.

 

Most peoples experiences in this thread show this, most just seem to hate dieing and grinding ... it's the hardest solo content in the game ( H2's ) ideally, you are going to die and it's going to take time.

 

People who just want god mode through everything have no place in any games imo.

 

I bet you're a blast at parties.

 

I've been using console commands on fallout 4 building epic settlements.

IHAVENOPLACEINANYGAMESLOLOLOL

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Still working on building that strawman? You seem smart enough to know that's not what the people are clamoring about, but you keep going back to insulting your strawman. Why is that? Can't even accept a 75% nerf to a healing companion is a little too much?

 

Better yet, how does their play style effect yours?

 

"the people" , you just want to lump everyone together now?

 

I'm purposely targeting the people who act exactly like I say, I'm not saying everyone against the nerf are like that though. There are actually quite a few well reasonabed players who say it needed nerfing as it was too stupidly easy but it's gone too far.

 

The people I talk about are those for example that are so entitled they think they should be able to skip through HM SF - the hardest content that has an inkling of solo intention attached to it by the devs - without a care in the world and never die and no worries to be had. That attitude is ridiculous.

 

How does the old op companions affect me? I like group content and solo content but quickly get bored of solo content once I've done it. A couple of quick issues I had with the old companion system ( beyond the fact it made content too easy for me, I shouldn't have to turn stuff off as it's intended to have fun ) is it meant less and less people grouping for group content since they could solo/duo it ( flashpoints ) and those that were endeavouring to give operations and what not a go had no idea what so ever how to play their character because they were given a false sense of security by the companions.

 

Thus they end up hating grouped content and not wanting to give it a go and learn all because they had their hand held far too much.

 

How it is now is better than how it was. Does it need a boost? I don't think so but clearly others do so fair enough, but nowhere even close to how it was before. People need to work to clear challenging content plain and simple - if people are finding it actually impossible now then sure, ease up a wee bit but leave HM SF as challenging as possible and still achievable.

[JourrnoRush]

Yeah, the polls lie and the customers posting on the forums that never have before all using unique account names are secretly a conspiracy between a few dozen people.

 

I your name Karl Rove? Do you work for the republican national committee or something? Doing special math and mental gymnastics to pretend reality isn't happening to you?

 

Their data sounds really powerful and all-knowing.

Too bad their data isn't going to get me to click subscribe ever again.

 

You'd think with all that mysterious and alleged data, they'd have avoided this crapstorm to begin with. Maybe even head it off at release with "whoa! not intended guys, we're probably going to have to fix this soon"... you know, any communication what-so-ever.

 

This went exactly the way they wanted it to. They waved around a piece of candy and let everyone get a real good taste and then when the money was in their hands they smacked the candy out of their hands and into the dirt.

 

It wasn't pending and spurred by mythical data revelations. They just didn't expect people to leave like this. They figured the new players would be just like the usual stockholm sufferer they're used to.

 

There's a timeless saying that covers this:

Easy Come, Easy Go

 

Well, Bye.

 

Good bye and god bless!

[MeNaCe-NZ]

So, like last night, now the same names are showing up, insulting others, attempting to add fuel to the fire, belittling others, telling them how they should play the game,,, sad really

 

If the game right now is so awesome, and exactly how you want it, then why are you spending so much time coming to the threads to attempt to make things worse?

 

Just curious really, other then that,,, meh

 

At work, when at home I am playing as I get time ( I too could be considered casual, get maybe an hour or so a day ).

Funnily enough chat lately has been dead on this issue I've noted ... almost like it's a forum storm in a teacup. Yes you get a bit of outrage but mostly those people get ignored and chat goes on on other topics ... nothing at all like the forum outrage.

 

Soapbox and all that I guess.

[tattoohero]

I kind of agree with this.

I think an underlying issue is that people were facerolling content and making a lot of credits. They can't do that anymore and now have to come here advocating to get it changed.

 

Heroics should be harder than the solo/story content period

 

I should be able to beat 1 gold enemy with a companion at influence 32 and that's not happening. Like at that point in the run, the healer stops healing you and keeps healing themselves.

[Fizzbang]

• Character: Krogg@Jedi Covenant - 65 - Sith Warrior - Juggernaut
  
• Roughly Average Item Rating: 216 gear (Glowing Crystal gear), full 208 augments, 208 pvp def proc relics
  
• Discipline: Immortal
  
• Companion: Senya
  
• Companion role: DPS for trash / HEAL for bosses
  
• Companion Influence level: 43
  
• Which Mission or Star Fortress:Heroic Star Fortress (Belsavis)
  
• Your personal experience while playing this content:
  

 

TL;DR: I am no longer invincible, which is fine, but if I wern't a tank, I would be screwed. Comps seem to have ADHD. AI needs to be smarter, comp heals need to be a bit higher or much more frequent (or both!). Comp damage output needs to be raised.

 

I was able to achieve <The One And Only> post nerf yesterday, however this was a long and tedious slog (took about an hour to run the whole thing). I am a Founder, 4-year Subscriber, Legendary Player, so I have all the class buffs, and have a 500 Biochemist supplying me with stims. Health drops are substantial and I had to pull out all the stops so that my companion would keep up on healing, including cooldowns, heroic moment, freezing force / mad dash or force push away from attacking enemies just to give the comp a chance to catch up on the healing. If I ever lost aggro (rare), comp would stop healing me and concentrate on herself.

 

 

• 
   
  
• Companion DPS is much lower and as a tank, I out DPS my companion. I don't think this should be the case.
  
• Out of combat, comp needed to spend 12+ casts to heal herself from 25% back up to 100% with no incoming damage.
  
• Comps do not attempt to avoid scripted damage events or attempt to get out of AOEs.
  
• Comps often stop healing altogether, looking for squirrels.
  

 

I have companion attack hot keyed so I can focus my companion's attacks, and in many cases, (since she is a melee comp), use that to "move" her to a different area, but this only works if there are more than one enemy to move her. Sometimes, issuing an attack order makes her "snap out" of the "standing there contemplating why her ADHD medication doesn't have the same.....SQUIRREL!!! What was I saying? Oh, we're in a fight? Why are you bleeding? I can heal? No way!" But that doesn't work everytime.

 

I have my Alliance at 20-19-19-20, so if I were to go back into Star Fortress, since I already achieved <The One And Only>, I would be willing to bet that it would be slightly easier, but i have yet to test that as I wanted to give good "regular world feedback".

 

That said, it is my opinion that if people are willing to take the time to level their companions to make them more powerful for solo play, why not let them? What does it really hurt? Why bother stopping at 50? Why not let us go to 100, or 200, or even 500? If we're willing to invest the time and effort playing for an increase in a solo capacity, why not just let us do that? To that end, maybe buying them off with gifts/conversations to increase their influence past 50 isn't the best idea and actually have some repeatable game play mechanic that would increase influence? Maybe, one of the rewards for dailies/weeklies could be a box that either contains a random gift or gift fragment *instead* of credits/crystals/alliance supplies? (Or, just allow us to trade Alliance Supplies for gifts).

 

Yes, this is an MMO, but I pay my subscription just like everyone else and most of the time, I would rather play by myself, while being social and occasionally helping players near me without being forced into it. I don't run OPS, they just arent fun for me. Slogging around for 2+ hours with 7 other people in a "know the fight before you get to it" environment is archaic and boring. MMO's havent learned this yet. Boss fights should teach you the encounter so that you learn it WHILE YOU PLAY IT, and become gradually more difficult during the fight if players make mistakes instead of "read up on the interwebs and know the fight first". Because of this, a solo player's progression tops out, giving us no incentive to continue to play until more story content is released. Playing solo, my mistakes are my own and that is far better than to have my fun dictated by another player's ineptitude. Sure, stupidly powerful companions mean we'll be able to faceroll content, and generate buttloads of credits, but honestly, why not? We, the players have the ability with over 20 summonable companions to dictate the difficulty of our solo game based on their influence rank. If I have a rank 40 comp and I think it is too easy, i could always use a lower level comp. Conversely, if I think the game is too hard, I have a game play mechanism to increase my relative power in the world. This heavy-handed nerf removes that choice, that I, the solo-player, am intelligent enough to make for myself.

 

Edited November 20, 2015 by Fizzbang