Companion Change Feedback

[Dragontex]

•Your level – 65 Jugg DPS (Main)

 

•Roughly Average Item Rating – Mostly 208 with a few 216 and 220, fully augmented

 

•Discipline - Vengeance

 

•Companion – Lana

 

•Companion role - Healer

 

•Companion Influence level - 42

 

•Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?) Planetary H2’s (Not even going to try a Solo HSF!)

 

•Your personal experience while playing this content – The lower level planets like DK, Koriban, and so forth I didn’t notice a change. The H2’s from about Alderan and up however was a real challenge. Was doing the Belsavis H2’s last night and died many times. Some of the hardest ones were the ones with droids that have a kick back. I felt like a pinball machine by the time I was able to attack and by that time I was already at half health with Lana trying her heart out to heal me before they took her out. These H2’s from my understanding were meant to be just that, me plus my companion. I feel the nerf at the higher levels are too much. At the lower levels you can’t tell. I know others will disagree with me but that’s ok, it’s their opinion. I’m not a great player, but I can hold my own. I don’t have an issue grouping with friends/guildies, but they are not always on or they’re doing other things. I believe the nerf hurt the casual Soloist in my opinion.

[JourrnoRush]

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

 

A brand new character isn't completing high level heroics.

I wouldn't expect a brand new character to complete them, because they have lack of gear, experience, companion influence etc.

 

That does not mean it needs to be so easy that its a joke to everyone else. They would need to get gear, experience, give gifts, etc.

 

OR they could do this crazy thing called GROUP WITH OTHER PEOPLE. The heroics are soloable, but this isn't preventing you from doing them.

[JourrnoRush]

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.

 

It's happening with me at a lower influence and I'm completing it no problem.

 

If the healer is only healing themselves and you are fighting one gold enemy, how are you losing? Are you using heroic moment? Are you CCing (its a gold)? Are you wearing any gear?

[Vegal_Zugarin]

Its all gravy

[Nexun]

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

 

so basicly the game should be the way only you like it huh?

[Jeweledleah]

A brand new character isn't completing high level heroics.

I wouldn't expect a brand new character to complete them, because they have lack of gear, experience, companion influence etc.

 

That does not mean it needs to be so easy that its a joke to everyone else. They would need to get gear, experience, give gifts, etc.

 

OR they could do this crazy thing called GROUP WITH OTHER PEOPLE. The heroics are soloable, but this isn't preventing you from doing them.

 

except a brand new character IS going for heroics of their own level. something that we have been doing prior to this expansion, no less. and a brand new playing playing lvl 60 character (or that same character at lvl 65, playing through expansion content) will, again be doing those heroics, becasue "gasp" they are part of the end game content.

 

as for grouping. there are many reasons why someone may not always be able to group for everything. that was THE reason why they changed planetary heroics in a first place in this expansion. imagine that.

 

and it needs to be not a horrible slog. more over, it needs to be tuned so that you "gasp" feel rewarded for reaching that high level legacy and that high level influence. something that used to be harder is now easier.

 

but that I'm afraid is too much logic for you "must be challenging for me without any effort on my part to change my personal difficulty, and to hell with everyone else" people.

[Glocktalker]

Your level - 61

Roughly Average Item Rating - 172

Discipline - Sentinal/Watchman

Companion - Rusk and Kira

Companion role - Healer

Companion Influence level - 9 and 10 respectively

Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?) Voss - Trial of the First

Your personal experience while playing this content

 

Extremely difficult, couldn't even make it through trash pulls without dying or almost dying. That's with using DCD's. I shouldn't be dying every damn pull, on a planet I'm synched to. Now I will confess, I picked this character to test, because I barely finished the class story prior to 4.0, and I was screaming the whole time. After 30, the only time I enjoyed him at all was after 4.0. You've basically made him unplayable for me. I figured let's see worst case, that's worst case. I am very seriously considering cancelling my sub, because the game is no longer fun. The statement posted elsewhere was "Your companions should be able to keep you alive through h2's", and that's simply not at all the case in my experience.

 

Also note that this is coming right on the heels of a CS ticket that was outstanding from 10/27 to 11/17 regarding a missing class quest - with 0 communication. And when I finally DID get an answer, the CS rep didn't even READ the ticket and gave an answer that specifically contradicts my statements about my problem that I wrote in the ticket when I submitted it.

 

I work all day, and I play a game to relax. If someone wants a challenge, let them have hard modes. When the game is no longer fun, I will take my money and my time elsewhere. I do not work all day and pay money to you, just to raise my blood pressure, stress myself out, and feel worthless.

 

I'm trying to remain civil, honestly, but as other people have stated, why does "a bit too strong" turn into worthless. Does no one there understand the concept of incremental change, of making a minor adjustment, testing, then adjusting again if necessary? Honestly, and again, trying to be civil but I don't know how to say this without sounding like a ******* - if the programmers are incapable of doing anything other than "companions are broken because they're too effective" and "companions are broken because they can't do their job worth a bent penny" - just break them in the way that people who don't want OP can adjust to (dismissing, turning to passive, disabling skills), without screwing over the rest of us - then adjust content that you don't want solo'd itself, not the companions.

[KStone]

[*]Your level

65 Sith Warrior (Marauder)

[*]Roughly Average Item Rating

Almost everything is a 216 rating. I have 1 - 3 pieces of equipment that have 1 - 2 mods that are 208, both lightsabers using a +41 power crystal.

[*]Discipline

Carnage

[*]Companion

Lana Beniko

[*]Companion role

Worked all 3 roles.

[*]Companion Influence level

27

[*]Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?)

This is on all of them

[*]Your personal experience while playing this content

While playing the content, before and after, Lana did fantastic. You guys did a massive overhaul on the companion system and I very much enjoyed -not- having to get new equipment for them as I progressed. Post tuesdays patch however, the companions are now completely unable to do anything effectively.

 

As a tank, lana drops and dies too quickly. There's not enough DR equipment for her to remain useful and she dies. Her HP's took a significant hit in tank mode, and she's fairly useless as a tank.

 

DPS isn't much better. As a tank and DPS she has skills that get the enemy focused on her, however her DPS isn't where it should be after the patch, and she's significantly weaker so that instead of being able to survive a fight, she ends up dying within 30 - 45 seconds after the fight has began.

 

As a healer, I was excited. Before the patch I was able to use her and she was able to keep me healed with little to no problem. Even herself when she got hit in the combats. Heals were up to par with what the level should've been, and life overall imo worked out nicely.

 

Post patch, she now barely heals, and the heals that she does do is so sub-par and below level that should she be the only healer, me and on the off chance I'm grouped with someone will die repeatedly.

 

In the VOSS planetary Star Fortress, I had teamed up with a Bounty Hunter who was DPS based. We both had our comps out healing, and on the final boss, we died 3 times before he respecced to healing, and we had me as DPS, 2 healing comps, and him healing -just- to keep up with the DPS from the boss. The comps are all but worthless when it comes to doing anything in the expansion heroics. The expansion heroics mobs have a TON more HP than even regular mobs, their difficulty jacked WAY up, and the companions now are mostly useless in any role.

 

As a gamer, I understand the want to keep things challenging. But you are now with these companion changes to make them not just a little weaker, but SIGNIFICANTLY weaker destroying your pve content. Since you've done the patch i've watched roughly 80% of my friends leave the game and move on to Fallout, Star Trek Online, and other games that they originally left to come play this. Now however, you are driving them away and back to those games because of drastic change after drastic change.

 

There is no good that came from Tuesdays patch - and as much as I hate to be part of the "I'm leaving if this doesn't get fixed" crowd, I've already watched most of my friends and guild mates leave the game because of it. If it can't get fixed, I'm not going to put the energy into the game to make new friends all over again. I've got history with the ones that left and frankly it's just a pain for me to lost my entire circle of friends and guild members to have to rebuild them all over again.

 

If I have to rebuild my social circle because people want to do this that or the other with patches and companions complaints, then I'll simply rebuild my social circle in another game.

[JourrnoRush]

so basicly the game should be the way only you like it huh?

 

That's not the issue. The game has always been enjoyable, I'm just advocating the companions stay the same.

[Nexun]

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.

 

and that is 1 of the problems they should have never made it you have to do the heroic SF for the alliance quest

[Noyjitat]

Just because grouping is available doesn't mean something should be nerfed to levels worse than before this expansion.

[Draqsko]

If a pre patch companion can get a group of three through a HM FP so be it. If a pre patch companion can get a solo player to complete H2 SF, so be it.

 

Umm except they weren't getting a group of three through a HM FP if they took any damage, they had no armor remember? Heck they could barely get me through the first boss on CZ labs tactical, which is a 2 man flashpoint. They would always die to missile blast on the second boss, despite the OP heals. Random mechanics killed them pretty quickly, even tactical versions.

[JourrnoRush]

except a brand new character IS going for heroics of their own level. something that we have been doing prior to this expansion, no less. and a brand new playing playing lvl 60 character (or that same character at lvl 65, playing through expansion content) will, again be doing those heroics, becasue "gasp" they are part of the end game content.

 

as for grouping. there are many reasons why someone may not always be able to group for everything. that was THE reason why they changed planetary heroics in a first place in this expansion. imagine that.

 

and it needs to be not a horrible slog. more over, it needs to be tuned so that you "gasp" feel rewarded for reaching that high level legacy and that high level influence. something that used to be harder is now easier.

 

but that I'm afraid is too much logic for you "must be challenging for me without any effort on my part to change my personal difficulty, and to hell with everyone else" people.

 

Let's try this again.

They have their data and are compiling more. They will make the decision that is best for the community.

 

hey made the heroics this way WITH level sync so that more people could group for content. I don't understand how you missed that part.

 

To it being a horrible slog, that is the thing, its not a horrible slog. I made a brand new character and leveling is not a problem. I get to a heroic there is usually someone nearby, we group up and complete it. How is that a slog? Is it because you can't just AFK content anymore? You are attempting to enter content that is above average, so you need to be above average to complete it. Most of the players here are if they would only put a little effort into getting gear and playing their class correctly.

[kimiko_tomiyama]

This pretty much reflect my own experience in 4.0.2.

 

I am playing as a madness sorcerer

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.

 

First, thanks to the Dev team for considering our feedback. Your willingness to at least listen is why I still play TOR when most of my other MMO's have dropped to the wayside.

 

I've had a similar experience playing both a Marauder and a Sorcerer, both in 208 gear with 1-2 216 pieces. I went from smashing my way through everything to having to stop after every fight. In the case of my Sorc if I don't whirlwind the strongest guy and and fight the supports, I die. 2 Elites is a guaranteed death taking one down. I have tried playing with the modes on my healer sorc and an 18 influence Lana. I can't heal fast enough to keep my tank alive. Putting her in heal mode and baby tanking by dropping aoE after whirlwinding somebody made them a little easier put nearly every fight feels like a matter of luck in the damage/ heal race.

Honestly after getting my bacon handed to me Star fortress heroics even before the latest patch, I've not been suicidal enough to even try doing them now.

As a GM from the old days of P&P gaming I can see the need for toning down the companion abilities some, no matter how fun it could be to curbstomp my way through the planetary heroics. But it went so far that, to me getting through the heroics to pick up the Alliance Resistance companions if more of a grind that I must get through to do the fun stuff rather than a part of the experience.

 

Standard provisio: these are just my perceptions based on my own experiences.

 

edit: Update.. I have had a bit more success shielding Lana and spam healing before she actually starts taking damage... by the time the effect goes off she is already damaged.

Edited November 20, 2015 by kimiko_tomiyama

[heythereqt]

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.

 

ROFL.

 

The irony of you making this statement when there are quite literally only about 10 people who are supporting the companion nerf. This is even more ironic when you consider the fact that those 10 people are frantically posting in every thread they can get their hands on to voice their opinion, which is usually just "whine moar baddie, L2P."

 

I respect your opinion on the companion nerf, although I might disagree with it....but let's stop with the word-play and call a spade a spade here. The clear majority of people dislike the nerf. You're kidding yourself if you think that's not the case.

[knowmyname]

...

Include information such as:

 

• Your level 65
  
• Roughly Average Item Rating 220
  
• Discipline Operative - Helaler and Jugg - Tank
  
• Companion Pierce, Senya, Lana
  
• Companion role Tank and Healer
  
• Companion Influence level 50
  
• Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?) HMFP
   
  
• Your personal experience while playing this content
  Pre-4.0 with properly geared companions and characters I had no issues completing all the solo HMFP (the ones that did not require multiple players to click panels at the same time). I had them on farm for gear, comms, rare items, completeness, help others with HK mission items, and just the challenge of it all. Not many players could complete a Hard Mode Flashpoint successfully.
   
  Doing HMFP solo was a great achievement on a personal level. there was no codex or anything tied to it. Just a handful of us would post videos to brag about. these are not lvl 50 HMFP while level 55 or 60. these are the even level HMFP. so 50 hmfp at level 50, level 55 hmfp at level 55, and level 60 hmfp at level 60. I truly miss the companion gearing and time i would take to tweak their builds. these pre-4.0 companions were over powered in the right hands with the right gear.
   
  the post 4.0 companions melt in the face of the high burst dps phases. sure they have high health and big dps but they cant stand next to a boss with agro very long. a huge let down. you want solo content. the challenging aspect of the game was solo HMFP.
   
  ---===--- ---===--- ---===---
   
  Star Fortress - HM Voss - Boss gets to 72% and heals himself. I can only interrupt this heal every other heal. I can only get him to 50% half the time when I use the heroic moment and the operative crit damage boost. I am on my healer with all 3 companions. Only 3 times did I get that boss to 35%. I gave up after doing this for 3 HOURS... Pierce holds agro best and deals more DPS. Senya cant hold agro and has medium DPS. Lana really wasnt impressing me either way. I'm too busy healing to help with the DPS much on these 3 Influence Rank 50 companions and cleanse is nearly on CD. A 3rd probe would be nice with 3 more seconds added to probe timer. I'm in 220 gear without set bonus. Companions are even using 220 weapons, not that it matters.
   
   
  

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

 

still working on clips to point out exact issues.

 

....

 

-eric

 

you should have had the PUBLIC TEST SERVER up so we could test this stuff out before going live. just as you did with 2.0 and 3.0. 4.0 is a fail due to the push from EA to ge this content out asap and untested by the community. you still have many veterans still playing this game. we know how our classes work. how other classes work. we know it far better than the devs and testers know these roles and abilities. we know when something is broken and can instantly give feedback properly if given the opportunity. we do not want to beta test game mechanics, new game enhancements, combat upgrades, and debug a LIVE game. you would be hard pressed to find anyone serious about paying a monthly subscription to beta test a game on a live server. the community is raging but most of us are very disappointed. we expected a more polished expansion release with less changes to the core mechanics of the gameplay.

 

should have never messed with the companions and their gear. they were fine the way they were. players just needed to spend some time learning more about gear and how to equip it properly. even so far as making it cheaper to attain in game via lower comm/crystal costs and better/higher frequency gear drops. also shortening the time to level up a character killed companion gear along with character gearing. players are out leveling their gear far too quickly. we warned you about this with the x12 XP boost thread from over a year ago. you obviously didnt learn from that big mistake. now the xp boost is expected. they feel entitled to level up quickly and have short fights and blast through content to end game. end game is pvp and operations. not a lot of replay value there.

Edited November 20, 2015 by knowmyname

[TFBWYAG]

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.

 

I get that. And just for the record, I only quoted you because I recognized your name from last night, there are 5 or more names I'm seeing show up as I hit F5 to refresh, basically taking up 3 or 4 of the what 8 or 9 posts per page

[KareBarey]

Hey folks,

 

• Your level - I'm level 65
  
• Roughly Average Item Rating - mostly 204, some 208, augmented
  
• Discipline - Gunnery Commando
  
• Companion - Lana
  
• Companion role - Heals
  
• Companion Influence level - 14
  
• Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?) Heroic
  
• Your personal experience while playing this content - Last week I could solo it up til the last boss, this week I'm dying on the Elite Knight of Zakuul
  

 

Breaking out of the Detention Block is an interesting twist...

[JourrnoRush]

ROFL.

 

The irony of you making this statement when there are quite literally only about 10 people who are supporting the companion nerf. This is even more ironic when you consider the fact that those 10 people are frantically posting in every thread they can get their hands on to voice their opinion, which is usually just "whine moar baddie, L2P."

 

I respect your opinion on the companion nerf, although I might disagree with it....but let's stop with the word-play and call a spade a spade here. The clear majority of people dislike the nerf. You're kidding yourself if you think that's not the case.

 

It doesn't matter if the majority thinks it should be easy mode, the content that is HEROIC should require people to do more than just sit back and watch their companion. That was the purpose of this nerf.

 

I have faith that BW will make the best decision in the end. If it becomes easy mode again, doesn't affect my game. If it stays, still doesn't affect my game. Most players are in fact indifferent, hence why they stay subbed and continue to complain. The issue is that they are are going to waste resources on this when it could be spent elsewhere.

[Voemel]

Here is my feedback. You have access to the servers and all the raw data so that is not really needed, but there is one set of numbers that you do need. How fun was it, I was having a ton of fun pre-nerf, not so much now. I was encouraging people to give it a try because it had become fun, not now.

 

Your design goals should start with

1. Increase customer satisfaction for the largest number possible.

2. Increase customer loyalty through decent customer service and proper testing before changes rolled out.

3. Increase customer base by putting out an enjoyable game for the most people capitalizing on the current popularity of the franchise.

 

You are not doing this, you may claim "artistic integrity" which is great, if you like living in a single room eating top ramen everyday, otherwise you should also take into account the business part, the part that pays for all the rest of it.

 

It should not be a situation of you telling your customers how they should enjoy the game but allowing them, in the greatest number possible, to enjoy it how they do enjoy it.

 

So, it comes down to, not fun, and not even ok enough for "OMG it's Star Wars" to overcome the grind and boredom you have injected into the game.

 

This man is a genius. Please bioware, read this and pay special attention to it.

[tattoohero]

It's happening with me at a lower influence and I'm completing it no problem.

 

If the healer is only healing themselves and you are fighting one gold enemy, how are you losing? Are you using heroic moment? Are you CCing (its a gold)? Are you wearing any gear?

My hp for the run is over 99k. I'm in a mix of 216 and 220, my main hand is 208 and 208 aguements. My HP out of the SF is above 76k. I'm geared for it, or thought.

 

I wish I knew what the problem was. Here's what happened. I got through the 2 paladins and the praetorian boss. Only needed my heroic once. I get to the area where you can see the sun reactor and it's the last fight for the solo mode. There are two doors. One gold, one mook comes out of each one. I was able to get the two mooks down before my companion died.

 

This is a sniper so no cc for humans. Companion used theirs.

 

Now, I get out of SF jail, get back to where I was, 2 gold are left. Companion whirlwinds 1, once it goes off, I use what I have that lasts for 4 or 5 seconds. My companion never died at this time, but I got one gold down, then died. I go back and try again and again, I'm 1v1 against the gold and died.

 

I left at that point, If I can't beat the gold there, I'm not beating them down the line.

Edited November 20, 2015 by tattoohero

[SpectralGhost]

Just as an example of some numbers pertaining to the "adjustment" of companions, as a player at lvl 65 and lvl 50 influence for Lana with all class buffs and all legacy/datacron presence buffs.

 

Pre-Patch:

 

106k HP;

Melee Primary: 5161-5179: Melee Bonus Damage: 5131

Force Bonus Damage: 6348; Force Bonus Healing: 2920

Crit%: 34.5%; Crit Multiplier: 63.27%; Alacrity: 7.6%

Soothe: 12919 instant heal on a 5.6s CD

Mending: 4874 over 9s on a 11.2s CD

Enlivening Force: 18809 channel over 2.79s without CD

Protective Barrier: 20 second bubble absorbing moderate damage on a 34.4s CD

 

Post-Patch:

 

84.2k HP;

Melee Primary: 3213-3228: Melee Bonus Damage: 3183

Force Bonus Damage: 3968; Force Bonus Healing: 2831

Crit%: 29.7%; Crit Multiplier: 60.18%; Alacrity: 5.34%

Soothe: 3696-5159 instant heal on a 5.7s CD

Mending: 6525 over 9s on an 11.4s CD

Enlivening Force: 4474 channel over 2.85s without CD

Protective Barrier: 20 second bubble absorbing moderate damage on a 28.5s CD

 

All of my experience with this change has been on lvl 60-65 characters in either SoR raiding gear or KotFE raiding gear, depending on the character level of course with activities ranging from weekly H2s to soloing the heroic Star Fortresses. I can't really push to see which of the harder flashpoints I can manage with just my companion and myself anymore though, which I did enjoy and did usually require trying to use everything, so thanks for that. A few DCDs may now have to be sprinkled through the playing experience, or a bit of kiting, etc., but truth be told I wouldn't call this more challenging; as many have said already it just feels grindy and tedious, and grindy and tedious isn't fun. If you want to add challenge to things, maybe toss in some mechanics or something, not just things hitting harder and having more health. Also, if I wanted grindy and tedious I'd go back to playing Asian MMOs. I enjoyed Tera's combat system quite alot, but the endgame grind for top gear was truly face-desk worthy and is why I've long since left that game behind. (Tedious Grind = Bad)

 

I can understand if the dev team has some sort of vision or desire for how they'd like the game to be and to be played, but at the same time the devs aren't paying themselves without customers' help (if you are, can I maybe get some type of hint on how that works, please and thank you). If you piss off and possibly sacrifice large swathes of your playerbase that support the development of said vision, in the end that seems counterproductive and poorly planned. Also, yanking the rug out from under and alienating the style of players that you've been advertising to try to attract is just poor form.

 

As for myself, it doesn't matter to me personally if the change stays or is altered/reverted/tweaked, as I know I'll adapt to it and continue on since I still like other aspects of the game. At the same time, I know and acknowledge that not everyone likes to play as I like to play and likes less challenge, and I take no issue with that; they're here to play like they like to play and I'm here to play like I like to play, but I can't understand the need of other people to try to dictate how other people play and enjoy their game. Do you really have to prove that your lightsaber is that big? To the NPCs in your story instances no less?

 

As things stand right now, there seems to be little known incentive besides crafting bonuses to increasing companion influence. After comparing companions across several characters, the difference lvl 1 and lvl 50 seems to be little over 1-2k on heals at most - hardly worth the effort of upping the level. That being said I'm still upping KotFE companions, at least on expansion characters, since I'm weary that BW may use influence at some point to determine if a companion lives or dies during an encounter or story point. Clarification on that would actually be appreciated, so if that's not the case I could stop worrying with that for companions that aren't used for crafting.

 

It seems like there needs to be some type of fix to the situation, obviously, but not a blanket one. Leaving it as is will likely alienate people who like to play casually and reverting it or rebuffing enough to satisfy casual players will likely bring the lightsaber measurers back to complain that companions are too OP. While a different dev team, as a company you guys have had no issue offering scaling difficulty in everything in other games (see Mass Effect scaling of talking heads with occasional pew pew to Insanity). I had originally had a suggestion about possibly scaling effectiveness in tiers based on influence levels and a way to disable influence gains, but I've since seen a simpler suggestion that I like more and that is to offer the same flexibility that was offered for 12x XP. Make the default companion strength as it was with 4.0, and if somebody sees additional challenge as a few medpacs and using the recoup skill between mob pulls, then they can turn off the companion buff and have it as it is now or worse. While we're at it, why not make it scaling - default as initial 4.0 companions, and 12x XP reducer-esque debuffs for companion effectiveness at say, 75%, 50%, 25%, and then near clothed (or naked if you're feeling frisky) paperweight maybe? Without at least something to that effect, it seems unlikely that you can make a change that will end up without at least some segment of the playerbase being happy.

 

The game may have a vision from its development, and that's respectable, but you also need happy customers from as many corners of your playerbase as possible to the best of your abilities and available resources, within reason.

 

[Joefjr]

What is the bar so to speak that you wanted them to be balanced around?

 

Full Datacrons plus Legendary player and Human presence bonuses? From a design stand point they should not be even a factor into a companions power base, those take a lot of effort/time to get and unlock so they should be an added bonus and not a deciding factor into companion power lvls.

 

Also companions clearly have a stat budget, and as of patch 4.0.2 they are now getting 58 points of expertise. Is that expertise just extra or is the part of the companions stat budget?

[KareBarey]

Hey folks,

 

• Your level - I'm level 65
  
• Roughly Average Item Rating - mostly 204, some 208, augmented
  
• Discipline - Gunnery Commando
  
• Companion - Lana
  
• Companion role - Heals
  
• Companion Influence level - 14
  
• Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?) Heroic
  
• Your personal experience while playing this content - Last week I could solo it up til the last boss, this week I'm dying on the Elite Knight of Zakuul
  

 

Breaking out of the Detention Block is an interesting twist...

[ScarletBlaze]

I would suggest just give them the feedback they asked for and not argue with each other. Each side seems to be taking this a bit far.

 

To me it doesn't matter one way or the other as the only thing that concerns me is how it affects me and my boyfriend's style and we have dismissed a companion if we thought it was too easy for us but we would never tell someone else how to play and I don't get why others need to do that .