Companion Change Feedback

[Nyla]

what I don't understand is... if you didn't like the art style - why did you buy it in a first place? its not like they hid it, or the lore prior to the game being available for purchase. not to mention... anyone who was interested in the game could get into one of the Beta weekends to try it out. I did.

 

the truth is... most people left because too much of the game was rapidly unaccessible past early leveling. they erred a little too hardcore. mind you.. its still possible to be hardcore and do ok. secret world does it. they TOO had to be buy to play eventually, but they did so accepting their very niche status.

 

do you know why WoW blew up as it did back then? because even why not nearly as well designed as EQ (and dear god that launch was just absolutely awful and almost unplayable) - it was far more accessible. it was solo friendly. it didn't punish you prohibitively for messing up and dying.

 

hardcore is niche. hard is niche. its why easy and normal difficulty exists in majority of single player games, its why some games started adding "very easy" difficulty.

 

and thing is. HM ops were and aren't as easy as people claim they are. but they ARE absolutely easier and more accessible than old school ones where among other things a boss fight, a single boss fight could last through the day.

 

you want something to have wider appeal? make it accessible, make it relaxing. add elements of challenge here and there, but the bulk? needs to be easy enough that even someone who is marginal gamer - can still successfully play it.

 

It's simple, I'm buying games that I would like to try because I like parts of it, it doesn't mean I like all of it. Sometimes there's things I don't like at all just reading or seeing things and I don't even try, sometimes despite things I don't like I will play a game for months.

As a differnt example, LotRO, I never liked the PvP systems they made and I like PvP in general. Despite that, I really liked the game, played it a lot and think there's many things there other MMO companies should learn from.

 

I understand that there's a bigger audience in the casual or relaxed crowd that doesn't mean you can't make viable MMOs properly tailored for more hardcore people or that every solo content should be targeted to a single audience.

 

If, like BW seems to want to do, you want to keep different crowds playing a game, you have to offer all of them something. Yes 4.0.2 removed that for a part of the playerbase, but 4.0 did it also for another part so either they find a compromise, or they find a way to let players adjust the difficulty or they make different content for different people and really clearly explain which is for whom.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

The irony for me in all these topics is when you actually play the game there is so little outrage in chat over this issue.

 

It's almost all forums ( maybe reddit? ) ... even when people do raise it in chat they tend to get quickly shut down if they have the hair on fire attitude that many have demonstrated.

 

So either all the people annoyed about it have mostly already stopped playing ( and I've noted no real pop drop, no issues getting groups etc. than before ) or it's just not as big of an issue as people are making out.

 

There was more in game debate/arguments/rage over the over powered companions than there is over the nerfed companions in my experience.

 

I'll repeat what I mentioned earlier and hope for a solution that suits the most players possible.

[TarKoFett]

Hey folks,

 

First off, we want to thank all of you for your feedback about Companion balance following 4.0.2. As we go into the weekend, we wanted you to know that we have gone through this thread, the forums, Reddit, and social media to gather everyone’s perspectives. We have come out of this with quite a few action items that we are going to take, including buffs for Companions. On Monday, we are going to release a forum post highlighting our plans to address current Companion balance, along with the state of Heroic Missions and Star Fortress.

 

Thank you all once again for your feedback.

 

-eric

 

Hey Eric,

 

to be honest i dont believe you and this company of yours you work for any more. You gave us something we had fun with, something that was nice and in no ways did hurt those who did the progressive hc group content.

 

Al you try with this post is to buy time, tim e to survive through the weekend when a lot of us casuals log in to find out what happend this week.

Next week you will give us some ideas u have in plan bla bla bla aso with the one and only goal to buy yourself as Dev team more time.

 

You are not even sorry for what happened.

 

This post of yours is not communication it pure pr base level time buying action, telling us to wait for next week.

What will be after next week, will you tell us that you need more time to get some numbers?

We are human beeings and we are not happy at the moment, why cant you role back the patch and take all the time and numbers you need on a ptr and THEN do a proper adjustment instead of killin our fun and killing this game for us?

 

What was the plan anyways? Give the players some candy to take their money so you have enough to survive some more moth and as soon as that is accomplished fear the normal people away from this game so EA can sell more Battlefront copys? Was that the Plan, because for me it feels like that at the moment.

 

This is a Star Wars MMO, this should be Star Wars fan service not a hc players fan service ONLY. They should have their HC OPTIONAL content and we should have ours.

You pulled us back into this game by telling us that 4.0 is focused on Story but the endgame after 4.0.2 is again the same old b#§$%it as it was for years. Years in which this game did not go so well, was forced to go f2p, years which had leed to the decision to go back to story telling and open lettering players so they notice this and come back.

 

Well gues what plan did work BUT NOW YOU FEAR US AWAY AGAIN.

[YankeeDelta]

do you know why WoW blew up as it did back then? because even why not nearly as well designed as EQ (and dear god that launch was just absolutely awful and almost unplayable) - it was far more accessible. it was solo friendly. it didn't punish you prohibitively for messing up and dying.

 

Yeah, WOW launched as wide a net as possible, in every way possible. Even the graphical style, which some hated, was easy to run, allowing players with older PCs access to the game.

[Adaarye]

Please rollback 4.0.2

 

Playing during 4.0-4.0.1 with the new companions was the most fun I've ever had in the game. It felt like the game had finally stuck a perfect balance between the group and casual/solo content. You could enjoy playing the story missions, leveling, and heroics without the drama of toxic players or tedious grinds.

 

The changes didn't prevent me from grouping in the slightest as I still found things like heroics faster and more fun with other players. But at the same time not being limited to have to play them at the whims of others was liberating. The companions as they were, left the harder challenges where they belong - in the flashpoints, WBs, events, Ops etc. I love all this other group content as well, I simply do not want all content to be that time consuming, stressful or or exhausting.

 

I so fell in love with game during 4-4.0. I was planning on re-playing each of the classes missions of both factions at least once if not more. I was also planning out long-term plans for working on all achievements and others things I had never even considered before with grinds as they were. I had also purchased more Cartel Coins than I ever had before as well. All due to my excitement and direction the game had taken.

 

To me the pre-4.0.2 companions completely opened up the game and made it so much more fun and accessible.

Please revert the companions to pre-4.0.2 levels and let the separate sides of the game both co-exist. Fun solo, casual/coop, story content and harder challenging group content like flashpoints and Ops.

 

As of now I have unsubscribed and am letting 3 months of my gametime run out and not planning on returning unless 4.0.2 is rolled back.

I hope they roll it back all the way too. But I doubt they will go that far. If that was the plan I think the most recent post would have said there will be a roll back and not "action items". What the heck is an action item???

The game will either be fun, or it will be grindy and not fun. I can unsub again just as quickly as I re-subbed in order to try this fix. I won't pay for a game that's no fun.

[Psychopyro]

The irony for me in all these topics is when you actually play the game there is so little outrage in chat over this issue.

 

It's almost all forums ( maybe reddit? ) ... even when people do raise it in chat they tend to get quickly shut down if they have the hair on fire attitude that many have demonstrated.

 

So either all the people annoyed about it have mostly already stopped playing ( and I've noted no real pop drop, no issues getting groups etc. than before ) or it's just not as big of an issue as people are making out.

 

There was more in game debate/arguments/rage over the over powered companions than there is over the nerfed companions in my experience.

 

I'll repeat what I mentioned earlier and hope for a solution that suits the most players possible.

 

A lot of people are holding it to guild chat... Also the expansion is not a month old yet. Those people may still be "playing" even though they hit the cancel button because psychology and stuff.

 

For instance my sub renewed today. Had the devs not responded, I very well have let it lapse until this whole thing was settled. Not because I was for or against the change (for the record I thought they were OP, but I didn't really care for the most part), but because I seen they have been following their pattern of going too far off the deep end when making adjustments.

[Lord_Sleepy]

No. Would much prefer them back in less OP form atleast.

I was fine with this nerf, but I'm fine with a little buff too. Emphasis on little.

 

I still would prefer that instead of a blanket buff, leave the companions as is, and allow people to buy upgrades, to buff them for themselves, sell them on fleet for coms, 25, 50,75, and 100% of 4.0 power for the companions, so you can decide for yourself where you want your companions. Somedays I want a faceroll, some I want a challenge, if I decide what I have then if I am not having fun no one to blame but my choices.

 

I may want to slowly work down to not buff, but I want that to be my choice.

[bornthismarch]

I think EA heard complaints and they forced Bioware to make some changes.

[Icestar]

I look foward to see what these changes can be, the playerbase have not been that happy the last few days perhaps they can change that.

[Pirindolo]

Hey folks,

 

First off, we want to thank all of you for your feedback about Companion balance following 4.0.2. As we go into the weekend, we wanted you to know that we have gone through this thread, the forums, Reddit, and social media to gather everyone’s perspectives. We have come out of this with quite a few action items that we are going to take, including buffs for Companions. On Monday, we are going to release a forum post highlighting our plans to address current Companion balance, along with the state of Heroic Missions and Star Fortress.

 

Thank you all once again for your feedback.

 

-eric

 

And so, once again, the cycle of nerf is closed again.

 

-Hey guys, some of the vocal minority is asking for a Nerf, although there are x3 times more people saying that they don't want a nerf at all.

-And? You know, the vocal minority is the vocal minority. And we don't need more than that to nerf stuff.

-Righ. Ok, so, how much this time?

-Well, bad players are performing too well. There are some casul players getting the "one for all" achievement!!!!!! and we cannot allow that.

-What? Unacceptable at all. 50% Nerf incomming.

-50%? Isn't that too much?

-Who cares!! We will justify it in two stages, you know. At first the nerf will be around 75%. And once that the riots start, we will say that we did our numbers and blah blah... 4 days later we will say that we take very seriously our beloved customers' opinions, and based on a feedback that nobody here will read, we will revert 25% of the nerf, so most of those raging players will think that they have won. Only a few will be aware that the real nerf has been of a huge 50%, but who cares?

-Evil!!! Mwahahahahahaha.. Mwahahahahahaha

Edited November 21, 2015 by Pirindolo

[Kiesu]

-Hey guys, some of the vocal minority is asking for a Nerf, although there are x3 times more people saying that they don't want a nerf at all.

 

Well actually I didnt like OP comps either, but i didnt come on forums complaining about it. After they nerfed them though, I realized I liked the nerf better and came to support it. But thats just me.

[AsarAnchti]

I hope I'm not too late with the feedback.

 

 

Your level: 65

Roughly Average Item Rating: 178-190 with exceptions (2 x crystal of rating cca 156, PVP chest rating 204)

Discipline: DPS marauder

Companion: Senya

Companion role: healing

Companion Influence level: 11

Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?): story and planetary heroics, solo

Your personal experience while playing this content:

- Story mission challenge - very low, there was practically no challenge there

- Alderaan Heroics challenge - low to slight medium, I didn't die once, got to 1/10 of HP bar once.

- Makeb Heroics challenge - low to hard. Most of the heroics were easy. However, I couldn't finish False history. I tried it 4 times, and died every time either due to high abundance of mobs or gas. Also, The Specialists is probably bugged. I couldn't interact with Docking ring communication computer, thus was unable to progress through this quest.

- Star Fortress solo challenge - medium. I died once, but was able to finish the FP without much trouble.

- Star Fortress heroics challenge - impossible. I couldn't do it in my current equipment. I got stuck on Praetorian.

 

Conclusion:

All in all I think that companions are as they should be. Slight boost may improve my survivability in Star Fortress and few planetary heroics, but I think better gear gained through crystals will also accomplish this.

Edited November 21, 2015 by AsarAnchti

[theJudeAbides]

Here's my thoughts companion nerfs (bear in mind, right now I'm mainly using companions for weekly Heroics):

 

I think they went a bit far with them, and have made some (key word here) Heroics VERY difficult to impossible to complete solo, and, if you're like me and play at odd hours with very few people on, it can be difficult to find a group. And I'm not "anti-social" either, I always try to group up with any others I see in the area (especially if it's an open-world heroic with long-respawn objectives/bosses), and will type in chat for a group as well. Sometimes I get takers, sometimes I don't.

 

Starter Planet/Capital Planet Heroics: This are still ridiculously easy, which is probably ok, since they'll be newbies first Heroics, it's ok for these to be cake.

 

Leveling Planet (Taris/Balmorra - Ilum) Planets: Mostly moderate with a few more challenging ones. My main issue here is that the my companions lack of DPS/heals just makes things much more grindy/tedious. Without the additional help from my companions, mobs take longer to kill and I have to stop and heal after a lot of fights. I feel that, if my companion is set to heals, I really shouldn't have to heal myself at all, but the mobs will take longer to take down (like they currently do), and if they're set to DPS, the mobs will go down fast but I'll have to heal myself after each fight.

 

Pre-nerf, the mobs would go down fast AND I wouldn't need to heal, which was nice, but admittedly a bit OP. Now, the mobs go down slow AND I need to heal, which I think most people agree is UP. To me, this should be about preference: Would you rather spend extra time taking down mobs, or healing yourself after a fight? Give us a real choice, and I think most of the thunder will die down. Not too many people enjoy a tedious grind.

 

 

Makeb: I wanted to separate this planet out because I feel 3 of the 5 Heroics (for both factions) here are far beyond the "moderate" difficulty scale. I believe this is because these missions were originally Heroic 4s, and although you've reduced the mob difficulty, you've left in mechanics that still require more than one person:

Viper's Nest: During this mission, you reach a point where a steady stream of Strongs will approach, eventually totally in 8, and the speed in which the spawn is so fast that you don't really have time to take down the previous ones before the new ones spawn. This results in you quickly being overwhelmed, and even with cooldowns and self heals, is VERY difficult to impossible to solo.

For the Record/False History: The rooms here require you to click 4 things very quickly or face a quick death. Now, with 2 real people, this isn't a problem, but if we're supposed to be able to solo these with companions, then no. Because companions don't click objectives. Therefore, you need to reduce the number of clickable objects from 4 to 2 in order to make this soloable.

 

 

Some Final thoughts on Heroics: The thing that has really frustrated me the most this week, though, is that Bioware still hasn't done anything to alleviate the annoyances we're seeing with open-world heroics including, but not limited to:

- Decreasing respawn of critical objectives/mobs/bosses, particularly during busy times. I'm looking at you, Irradiated Rhakghouls on Taris and champion in the temple on Dromund Kaas (I forget his name). I've seen it go so far as having people form ops groups while waiting for a boss to respawn so that everyone can get credit when it finally does. It's ridiculous these respawn times are so long.

- Fixing bugs where a quest item collected off a mob does not correctly register properly, requiring you to log out/log in or reset your quest (sometimes multiple times). I've seen this happen on just about every world with an open-world Heroic. PLEASE FIX THIS!

- Or, similar to above, a quest item refuses to drop off a single mob, despite the fact that I've killed every mob in the area. This usually requires a reset as well.

- The Bonus Quest on Ilum pretending like it's gonna allow me to complete it but then it doesn't.

 

 

TL/DR: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

[Halinalle]

Makeb, Deception Play H2+

 

4X, rank 17, heals

Gunnery Commando, 208s, few 216s, 204 relics and 2 piece bonus.

 

Doable but difficulty is hard. Even with Concussive Round. Damage is just insane.

With utility that has low chance to absorb damage I still had to Reactive shield, medpack, Adrenaline Rush in every pull. 4X would stop healing when my health drops to 25%. Long CC ends and 4X gets attacked by elite. I start to attack the elite but I'm still at 40% hp, 4X spam heals himself, no heals for me even when my hp drops below 20%. 4X keeps spam healing himself without worries even when he isn't getting attacked anymore.

Edited November 21, 2015 by Halinalle

[Nerethriel]

Hey folks,

 

First off, we want to thank all of you for your feedback about Companion balance following 4.0.2. As we go into the weekend, we wanted you to know that we have gone through this thread, the forums, Reddit, and social media to gather everyone’s perspectives. We have come out of this with quite a few action items that we are going to take, including buffs for Companions. On Monday, we are going to release a forum post highlighting our plans to address current Companion balance, along with the state of Heroic Missions and Star Fortress.

 

Thank you all once again for your feedback.

 

-eric

 

Thanks! I was very much in support of a companion nerf, but some parts of the nerf you did were probably too strong. As other posters said, please don't overcompensate. I think it's better to boost the companions little by little until the goal you yourself stated (that the H2+ could be soloed by most people) is met without destroying gameplay by making the player irrelevant.

[Transairion]

Thanks! I was very much in support of a companion nerf, but some parts of the nerf you did were probably too strong. As other posters said, please don't overcompensate. I think it's better to boost the companions little by little until the goal you yourself stated (that the H2+ could be soloed by most people) is met without destroying gameplay by making the player irrelevant.

 

 

The only companions that made the player "irrevelant" were healers.

 

If you sent the 'broken OP' tank/dps in alone against 2 or more mobs at a time, they usually died. Yeah, if you sent a tank in to 1 v 1 some downlevelled champion, it usually spammed self-heal faster than the champ damaged it. The final champion boss of one of the Coruscant Heroics also gets 2 shot despite being downlevelled, so make of that what you will.

 

 

Only heals were a big issue but they nerfed all 3.

[KnightOfTython]

On Monday, we are going to release a forum post highlighting our plans to address current Companion balance, along with the state of Heroic Missions and Star Fortress.

 

Thank you all once again for your feedback.

 

-eric

 

Much appreciated, thank you.

[Ursakar]

Thanks! I was very much in support of a companion nerf, but some parts of the nerf you did were probably too strong. As other posters said, please don't overcompensate. I think it's better to boost the companions little by little until the goal you yourself stated (that the H2+ could be soloed by most people) is met without destroying gameplay by making the player irrelevant.

 

Their goal should not be "that the H2+ could be soloed by most people". It should be that the H2+ could be soloed by most people and they didn't find it tedious/boring to do these H2+ quests over and over again.

[DerSchneider]

I doubt bw would read to 150+ page, but still:

 

Your level - 65

Roughly Average Item Rating - ranked DPS PVP gear with augs (208 or so)

Discipline - Immortal juggernaut

Companion - HK-51

Companion role - healer

Companion Influence level - 30

Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?) - Soloed heroic belsavis star fortress with only 1 death (when derped with tactics on exarch and let companion die). Overall this mission was not SUPER challenging to me, probably I should try another class and without alliance buffs.

Edited November 21, 2015 by DerSchneider

[Ysshaline]

Your level : 65

 

Roughly Average Item Rating : 216

 

Discipline : Shadow tank

 

Companion : Nico Okar

 

Companion role : Heal

 

Companion Influence level : 21

 

Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?) : H2+ on Tython, Coruscant, Nar shadaa, Belsavis, Black Hole, Ilum (all of this in solo).

 

Your personal experience while playing this content : No difficulties, I have to use my defensive cooldown and cut, but no problems.

Edited November 21, 2015 by Ysshaline

[SGMRock]

The only companions that made the player "irrevelant" were healers.

 

If you sent the 'broken OP' tank/dps in alone against 2 or more mobs at a time, they usually died. Yeah, if you sent a tank in to 1 v 1 some downlevelled champion, it usually spammed self-heal faster than the champ damaged it. The final champion boss of one of the Coruscant Heroics also gets 2 shot despite being downlevelled, so make of that what you will.

 

 

Only heals were a big issue but they nerfed all 3.

 

I agree with you here, they didn't need to touch the DPS or tank all they had to do was scale down the healing some, instead they nerfed all the stats on every class, crit, power, alacrity even accuracy, why touch accuracy on the DPS characters, why touch those stats at all really. Why do tanks have 0 accuracy, a player tank has 10% free.

[Robocles]

Hey folks,

 

First off, we want to thank all of you for your feedback about Companion balance following 4.0.2. As we go into the weekend, we wanted you to know that we have gone through this thread, the forums, Reddit, and social media to gather everyone’s perspectives. We have come out of this with quite a few action items that we are going to take, including buffs for Companions. On Monday, we are going to release a forum post highlighting our plans to address current Companion balance, along with the state of Heroic Missions and Star Fortress.

 

Thank you all once again for your feedback.

 

-eric

 

Roughly translated: You're screwed through the holiday weekend.

[Lagruell]

I'll wait until this gets patched before renewing my sub.

 

If my comps do not feel strong enough, especially as healers, I won't be coming back.

 

I hope I won't have to boost them to 50 for them to be useful again.

[DocDAM]

41 pages, I'm sure my post will be significant, LOL. Anyway...

 

• 
   
  
• Your level: 65
  
• Roughly Average Item Rating: 216, 208 MH/OH. no augments
  
• Discipline: Vigilance Guardian
  
• Companion: 2R-V8 (for the 2500 kills, you guys are Sadists!!)
  
• Companion role: Healer
  
• Companion Influence level: 10
  
• Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?): Solo
  
• Your personal experience while playing this content:
  

 

All Heroics were easy. Yesterday I ran Belsavis, Voss, Corellia, Ilum to check the higher level ones. Total of 5.

Even with the HUGE LAG on Belsavis (and bad, but less elsewhere, Shadowlands). ... the only one that was trouble was the first where i went down to ~40-50% health ... then realized I had all 2R's healing abilities OFF (LOL). So I guess this isn't really a good test of how good a healer is if I don't need him

 

Solo SF: After one careless Paladin fight when I went down to <10% health, I started paying attention. And started using DCD's. After that, not really an issue, though I did occasionally go down to 50-60% health.

 

I'm afraid to try the Heroic again. But I'll give it a shot today.

 

KOTFE feedback: too little story, too much post-9 grind.

Some of the grind stuff should be Legacy (I'm thinking Alliance Influence, at least say half of it should carry over?).

Seriously, intending us to play this grind over, and over, and over on 8 or so classes to fill the time waiting for a chapter a month is not going to keep me subbed.

[Demon_Pat]

Well since everyone was posting their experiences I thought i might post mine to.

Your level - 65

Roughly Average Item Rating - BiS 224/220

Discipline - Deception Assassin

Companion - Xalek

Companion role - healer/tank

Companion Influence level - 50

Star Fortress Heroic Mode with No Alliance buffs

I found most of the heroic pretty easy. Died twice, once in the room right before the exarch fight and once on the exarch fight. Had to put companion in tank stance in the room before the exarch fight so he could survive long enough while standing in crap while i cleared out the room as quickly as possible and the reason i died once on the exarch fight was i decided to use companion in tank stance. Companion died within seconds, while i was able to push the exarch to around 10% i did not have enough cds left. Put companion on heal stance the 2nd time and it was a super easy fight. Just had to put companion on passive sometimes to make him move out of circles.

All in all as many people have already stated, bioware needs to fix the companion AI so that they don't stand in bad circles and also fix their armor.