Companion Change Feedback

[Reno_Tarshil]

Viper's nest Update following companion buffs on two different characters.

 

Your level: 65 (Sage and Sentinel)

Roughly Average Item Rating: 172 with 2 216 on my Sage and Mostly 220 with some 224 on my Sentinel

Discipline: Telekinetics and Watchman

Companion: Tharan Cedrix and Doc

Companion role: Healer for both

Companion Influence level: Rank 10 on both companions

Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?): H2+ The Viper's Nest on Makeb

Your personal experience while playing this content: See below.

 

I will start with my Sage.

 

With the new companion healing buffs on my Sage, I decided to take a trip back to Makeb and the Viper's Nest. And it only took two attempts on my freshly dinged now 65 Sage. He was still in the 172 mod gear when I attempted this last week aside from set bracers and freebie boots to give you a perspective of my mods. Now I say took me two attempts because we were blind sided by two random pats and had I not goofed and cleared them before hand, we prolly would have been fine as I picked a different spot to blow up on my second attempt in which the patrols wouldn't cross us by and easily defeated the 8 silvers without too much trouble from the high damage as Tharan kept me alive pretty well.

 

Next my Sentinel.

 

I did this last week on my Sentinel after my Sage had so many issues with it and while it required me to use defensive cooldowns and barely make it, I was able to do it. Fast forward to today with the healing buffs and it's like night and day. I didn't have to use a single defensive cooldown once and Rank 10 Doc was able to keep my Sentinel who barely lived last week easily close to topped off.

 

So in conclusion: These new companion changes makes this heroic way more solo friendly than before. I still think it could do a bit a of pruning on the amount of adds that spawn for newer players but with a bit of class knowledge, anyone should easily complete this.

[DarenLoot]

If you find content too easy, why do you not do some of these:

-Turn of some companion abilities.

-Do not gain influence with them and sell your gifts on the GTN.

-Put them in passive mode.

-Dismiss them.

 

That way you can have your challange, and others can still play the game without super heavy grind difficulty.

 

On the other hand, if the content is too easy you're not encouraged to get better at what your doing, this wouldn't mean anything in solo phases, but when you have to deal with group content like flashpoints, ops or warzone -> things related to the mmo part of the game, the one that doesn't want to get better will ruin the game for the others more competitive players. So keep in mind that what your wish for is not one-sided.

Edited November 24, 2015 by DarenLoot

[Roalmo]

On the other hand, if the content is too easy you're not encouraged to get better at what your doing, this wouldn't mean anything in solo phases, but when you have to deal with group content like flashpoints, ops or warzone -> things related to the mmo part of the game, the one that doesn't want to get better will ruin the game for the others more competitive players. So keep in mind that what your wish for is not one-sided.

 

Surely more competitive players would run in pre-made/guild groups?

[Jeronas]

On the other hand, if the content is too easy you're not encouraged to get better at what your doing, this wouldn't mean anything in solo phases, but when you have to deal with group content like flashpoints, ops or warzone -> things related to the mmo part of the game, the one that doesn't want to get better will ruin the game for the others more competitive players. So keep in mind that what your wish for is not one-sided.

 

You assume too much!

 

You assume everyone is interested in the gear grind at max level.

 

I for one, I am too old for that crap and no longer interested in wasting my time raising some pixel values on my screen.

 

I just enjoy the story and that's it. So why can't I enjoy it with a bit OP companions that take the tedium away and make it more fun for me? /shrug

 

You don't even use your companions when you run endgame group content anyway! /FACEPALM

Edited November 24, 2015 by Jeronas

[PallyHk]

Surely more competitive players would run in pre-made/guild groups?

 

Indeed that. Also, there should be tutorials that you need to pass on one char before you can do Hardmode FPs and Operations.

 

I don't mind that. I just want soloable stuff to be soloable.

[Fallensouls]

Whats funny is my companions could kill most mobs while I took a break before 4.0 with the top gear, so they ( meaning pronerf the crybaby whiners) act like some thing is changing to be any different than before 4.0 was out?

 

Actually the nerf had companions to less than what we had with top gear in 3.0 so they really need to shut up.

Because its no different than 3.0 was with the top level gears on companions , so stop all this MEATBAG Bickering over companions because they were EXACTLY the same in 3.0 just with gear. sheesh really how dumb do you have to be to keep beating a dead horse?.

Edited November 24, 2015 by Fallensouls

[DarenLoot]

You assume too much!

 

You assume everyone is interested in the gear grind at max level.

 

I for one, I am too old for that crap and no longer interested in wasting my time raising some pixel values on my screen.

 

I just enjoy the story and that's it. So why can't I enjoy it with a bit OP companions that take the tedium away and make it more fun for me? /shrug

 

You don't even use your companions when you run endgame group content anyway! /FACEPALM

 

Wow, slow down, i didn't say I was against buffing companions, just said there is more than one side to the game. I don't really mind it either way, just stating that if you see people want harder content and don't understand why, there was the reason. For old folks like you who only do solo content that definitely is not the case, like I mentioned before, it only affects those that do group stuff.

Edited November 24, 2015 by DarenLoot

[DarenLoot]

Surely more competitive players would run in pre-made/guild groups?

 

Neah, not really the case. there are a lot of people who do this stuff solo. Competition isn't strictly group bound stuff, neither competitive thinking. It's just that thing that makes you get better at what you do to feel more accomplished in that way.

[Makillda]

Star Fotrress Heroic H2+ Tatooine

 

Shadow (Infiltration):

224 Mainhand + 220 Full set bonus gear

Nadia Grell: Level 30 influence, as healer

 

After today's patch it's easier and better i had no problems on first boss, 2nd boss however, nadia dies really fast because of all the adds that spawn in the room.

 

So this new healing buff is still not enough to complete H2+, but it is slightly better.

 

You are a shadow, use your taunt and/or hit stuff with your lightsaber to keep aggro off of your companion.

[Xtro]

Here we go again with a fresh alt.

Class: sniper

Level : 26-32

Gear: 72 at start (upgraded a few items during the run of the heroics)

Discipline: marksmanship

Companion: Kaliyo

Role: tank

Influence : 15

Content: heroic 2+ up to Alderaan

 

I have all class buffs and a lot of the datacrons.

 

Tanking still is bad, but since patch was not to fix that I am not overly surprised.

To low damage mitigation and to little area control is the problem. Seems like the charge now do more damage and heal less. If the charge that heals is supposed to counter lack of shield then it need to heal more.

 

Damage mitigation is a joke, even if it looks better then before the patch. Having 25% at influence 15 is just silly. You should put mitigation at 25% + 0.5% for each level of influence. Influence should also increase defence. 10% + 0.2% for each level of influence should probably be appropriate. I know one could get better stats then that before 4.0, but it is a good start at least.

 

The tank AI is just stupid, no other way to describe it (would happily exchange it for the AI MOBs at Nar Shadaar have since they try to get out of my area attacks all the time ). They do not always use the charge and use the grapple less now (or at least Kaliyo and 2V-R8 did not use it much any more) .

Edited November 24, 2015 by Xtro

[PallyHk]

You are a shadow, use your taunt and/or hit stuff with your lightsaber to keep aggro off of your companion.

 

The AOE taunt actually decreases threat if you aren't in tank mode. So he/she can only taunt with the single target ability.

[Jahor]

Tank Companion 4.0

I like to play my level 65 Sabo healer with 216/220 mixed gear from cristal, drob and tokan modifikations. With 4.0 I started to use Xalek as personal Tank ... and it was FUN . I could handle any H2+ mission super easy (to easy, yes, I know). Even groups of 2 golden stars + several silver stars had been no problem.

 

Xaleks important tank abilitys:

- his selfe cast absorb shield

- his first ability (german: "Bedrohlicher Schlag") which heals him for 100% of damage done

- his defens (defens, damage reduktion)

 

Tank Companion 4.0.2(x)

It's no real fun anymore .

 

First of Xaleks first ability is BUGGED! The tooltip says: "Does 0 damage and heals him for 25% of that amount". 25% of 0 = 0!. While I belive it's just a tooltip bug this ability is still HARD NERVED.

1) with 4.0.2 all damage has been nerved by 50%-75% while in Tank-Mode

2) the healing from this ability was nerved from 100% to 25% !!!!!!!!!!

SO you did a 90%+++ nerve to the survibility of all tank companions!

Minimum 25% healing of 50% damage, worst 25% of 75% damage

Second you indirect nerved the tanking ability by nerving the primary stats which are:

1) AGAIN another damage nerv

2) a nerv to the defens and damage absorb

3) a nerv to the selfe cast absorb shield

 

TL;TR

I have to say it: Do you realy spend a second of brainwork before you do all this nerves??

 

SOLUTION:

1) set the first ability to: "heal 100% of damage done" (THE DAMAGE IS DOUBLE NERVED ALLREADY)

2) increase the defens and damage absorb to 4.0 values -15%

3) set the selfe cast absorb shield to 4.0 values -15%

 

4) fix the tootip bug of Xalek (some other companions have this too, other don't)

 

PS: My Xalek has influence 33 atm.

Edited November 24, 2015 by Jahor

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Cooldown on abilities has never been a problem, because you have so many abilities (well can´t speak of healer class).

 

The MAIN problem with the game during leveling has been the sheer amount of trash mobs you had to fight through with every mission step!

fighting 20 seconds, meditate health back up 10 seconds, fighting 20 seconds, meditate health back up 10 seconds, etc etc.

It was just boring as hell! Hence, why people left in droves over the years and subs kept going down!

 

The stronger companions that came with patch 4.0 fixed that problem overnight! Now you could fight through these hoards of trash mobs more quickly with far less downtime, making the leveling experience more fun! As you could focus on the mission objectives at hand, instead of the constant chore of fighting endlessly through hoards of trash mobs!

 

That is why people were so happy with Patch 4.0! Get it?

 

You have to understand that the vast majority of players enjoy leveling characters and could care less about the gear grind that comes with RAIDing!

It´s like this in every single MMO! The RAID community is incredibly small in each MMO. Only make up like 2-3% of the entire playerbase.

 

So, or the game´s survival sake! If the leveling experience sucks, the game won´t survive.

 

Patch 4.0 finally fixed that! Tons of people came back and were enjoying themselves!

 

Patch 4.0.2 broke all that again!

 

If they want the companions to be less powerfull, then they have to fix the leveling experience! Not just increase XP and make people do less quests to level up! That is NO FIX!

Then they need to REDUCE HP drastically on all the trash mobs on planets, to remove the tedium during leveling.

 

See I agree completely with this trash mentality ... I had thought it was old content that suffered for this effect but then KoTFE came along and it was actually worse!?!

 

Seriously ... we all seem to hate fighting trash and the solution is to make the content so easy as to make the trash irrelevant ( and have side effects on content that is actually fun like gold pulls or bosses etc. ) ...this design is just stupid.

 

STOP putting so much trash into the elder game Bioware! No one likes it, no one would miss it, make smarter more fun and less tedious design choices. I'm not saying remove it all ( though I wouldn't miss it if you did ) but as the post I'm quoting say ... it doesn't need to be every 20 seconds.

 

If you stopped doing putting all this trash in you wouldn't have to balance things so much because people wouldn't be bored of your monotonous, boring content and might actually be happy and inclined for more challenging content.

 

What is even worse from all this is in the past trash was sort of a means of adding experience to your levelling process. Now it's utterly irrelevant, most heroics are done by people after KoTFE now so they are already 65 and the KoTFE levelling was about the stupidest leveling concept I've seen in gaming to date ... automatic levels at the end of each chapter regardless of how much exp you did or didn't earn ( making trash and side mission for exp purposes an utter waste of time ).

Oh you tried to make it not look like auto levels by making it look like it granted us exp but it always grants enough exp to ensure you level up at the end of the chapter ... why even bother having experience then?

 

I would like a design more like DP where you have 2-3 challenging trash pulls between boss fights ... if it's meant to be easy content of course keep the challenging pulls as easy pulls but if it's challenging content then they should be semi-challenging with the boss fight more challenging.

 

People don't want your trash Bioware - it's half the cause and reason for the entire damn argument on companions buff/nerf.

[Makillda]

The AOE taunt actually decreases threat if you aren't in tank mode. So he/she can only taunt with the single target ability.

 

And that changes the meaning of what I said how?

[Seliana]

Tank Companion 4.0

I like to play my level 65 Sabo healer with 216/220 mixed gear from cristal, drob and tokan modifikations. With 4.0 I started to use Xalek as personal Tank ... and it was FUN . I could handle any H2+ mission super easy (to easy, yes, I know). Even groups of 2 golden stars + several silver stars had been no problem.

 

Xaleks important tank abilitys:

- his selfe cast absorb shield

- his first ability (german: "Bedrohlicher Schlag") which heals him for 100% of damage done

- his defens (defens, damage reduktion)

 

Tank Companion 4.0.2(x)

It's no real fun anymore .

 

First of Xaleks first ability is BUGGED! The tooltip says: "Does 0 damage and heals him for 25% of that amount". 25% of 0 = 0!. While I belive it's just a tooltip bug this ability is still HARD NERVED.

1) with 4.0.2 all damage has been nerved by 50%-75% while in Tank-Mode

2) the healing from this ability was nerved from 100% to 25% !!!!!!!!!!

SO you did a 90%+++ nerve to the survibility of all tank companions!

Minimum 25% healing of 50% damage, worst 25% of 75% damage

Second you indirect nerved the tanking ability by nerving the primary stats which are:

1) AGAIN another damage nerv

2) a nerv to the defens and damage absorb

3) a nerv to the selfe cast absorb shield

 

TL;TR

I have to say it: Do you realy spend a second of brainwork before you do all this nerves??

 

SOLUTION:

1) set the first ability to: "heal 100% of damage done" (THE DAMAGE IS DOUBLE NERVED ALLREADY)

2) increase the defens and damage absorb to 4.0 values -15%

3) set the selfe cast absorb shield to 4.0 values -15%

 

4) fix the tootip bug of Xalek (some other companions have this too, other don't)

 

PS: My Xalek has influence 33 atm.

 

The word your looking for is "NERF" not "Nerv".

http://nerf.hasbro.com

 

It refers to a specific children's toy brand designed to use foam so that kids cant possibly hurt each other, in gaming we use the term "Nerf" to refer to game developers forcing us to use a digital equivalent of foam weapons and abilities which makes players angry. The word "Nerv" isn't a thing.

 

I know your working from German as a primary language, just being informative.

Edited November 25, 2015 by Seliana

[Kalilooela]

I tested the patch on the companions this very afternoon. It's a joke, you have given back a BIG 60% of nothing to the healing abilities. This will surely not convince me to subscribe back though I was willing to.

SWTOR is not my game anymore.

Bye

[Ghisallo]

If you find content too easy, why do you not do some of these:

-Turn of some companion abilities.

-Do not gain influence with them and sell your gifts on the GTN.

-Put them in passive mode.

-Dismiss them.

 

That way you can have your challange, and others can still play the game without super heavy grind difficulty.

 

First you realize that at its core your suggestion is actually inherently selfish correct? People may try to say "not its not it is a compromise" but I would ask you to look up the definition of the word compromise. Nvm I will share it... "an agreement or a settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions."

 

Your suggestion is to say "so I can have a game with an intended designed to my taste why don't you just agree tk NOT play the game as intended by the devs."

 

From the point of a player that is a ridiculous suggestion as well as selfish. From the point of a dev working on a theme park MMO it is equally ridiculous. They make money, as I said, by appealing to as many player preferences as their budget and core concepts allows. Not many people, if any, will PAY to play a game they have to gimp themselves in to have a challenge and that is what BW cares about. This game is not a charitable labor of love. It something I am sure the devs care about I am sure but its purpose is to maximize revenue.

 

Also in order to make the game stable and consistent, especially in the persistent world, the same core rules and mechanics need to be shared. When they design the game's development schedule for the year they plot out how fast they think it will take the "average player" to finish the grind. This helps them to plan when they need to add content updates, new story chapters etc. If you make the game with the equivalent of a difficulty slider (your suggestion) first you have some players advancing so fast you can never get the next content patch out...people leave and don't play. Next because your pace is not consistent it is an exercise in futility trying to use data metrics to plan a schedule.

 

But yeah all that technical stuff is kinda moot because your suggestion is just as filled with a sense of self importance as any selfish demand I have seen from an "elitist" raider and it deserves the same consideration... Meaning little to none. I just gave the logical reasons to be polite.

[Jahor]

The word your looking for is "NERF" not "Nerv".

http://nerf.hasbro.com

 

It refers to a specific children's toy brand designed to use foam so that kids cant possibly hurt each other, in gaming we use the term "Nerf" to refer to game developers forcing us to use a digital equivalent of foam weapons and abilities which makes players angry. The word "Nerv" isn't a thing.

 

I know your working from German as a primary language, just being informative.

and you have no other problems then posting so much about a singel letter?

Poor little guy Go to Hasbro and buy some toys.

 

PS: who are you anyway? somebody important who has the right to grammer-police other people? like a Doc.Prof.3.Grade?

Or just one of the million TROLLS who don't realy have to say anything important who tryhard to get some love?

Well, here: HUG LOVE KISS ... now back to your Hasbro toys my son .

Edited November 25, 2015 by Jahor

[shippper]

nice, we have godmodlike companion again. My only hope rhat bioware well lern word balance sometime.

[Ghisallo]

Delete wrong post Edited November 25, 2015 by Ghisallo

[Ghisallo]

Star Fotrress Heroic H2+ Tatooine

 

Shadow (Infiltration):

224 Mainhand + 220 Full set bonus gear

Nadia Grell: Level 30 influence, as healer

 

After today's patch it's easier and better i had no problems on first boss, 2nd boss however, nadia dies really fast because of all the adds that spawn in the room.

 

So this new healing buff is still not enough to complete H2+, but it is slightly better.

 

Which boss do you mean by second? The Robot room? If so its actually easy... The trick is to realize some of the fights require changing priorities. I do this on my Jedi Guardian BTW. I leap, you would use force speed. AOE them down as best you can, ST mob up, if need be, ST taunt boss from range to keep them on you.

 

Also I only have to do that when I do not interrupt his summoning them in the first place. They do not HAVE to spawn, you can interrupt the summons and just stay on him.

 

If it is another fight I can explain that too and, not saying good or bad but you better get used to it. They said they would be adjusting the H2+ SF to match the new healing companion. In their words they want players to aspire to completing it and thus learn their class very well, get gear upgrades, companion affection etc. I did it for the first time post buff yesterday... Lana never dropped below 75%, if that, because I had done the fights during the nerf successfully and learned how the devs want you to do them and this is how we will HAVE to do them again in the near future.

 

I do wonder based on your stated gear if you are trolling though... Just saying because I have less gear and was purposefully sloppy on all fights to really test the healing and no deaths.

Edited November 25, 2015 by Ghisallo

[DarkSaberMaster]

nice, we have godmodlike companion again. My only hope rhat bioware well lern word balance sometime.

 

They won't. I just don't see why they don't just make all our characters immortal and give us the /kill dev command. Hell. If you're going to trivialize your game, why not go all out? Since that seems to be what this "playerbase" wants anyways.

[DarkSaberMaster]

Essentially this is what you are hearing. Despite the demontrable fact that you can clear HM Ops content. You are a crap player and that's your problem. Lern 2 play n00b.

 

I guess that is an easier response then, you know, focusing on things like balance issues, considering that is essentially how you have been responded to.

 

More like he was carried by his guild to get the best gear. But yes. I agree that he is a subpar player if he can't complete SF being over geared by that much.

Edited November 25, 2015 by DarkSaberMaster

[sentientomega]

Again it makes no sense... IF you look at it logically and aren't looking for something you can turn to serve an agenda in the hopes BW will back down on their vision for the H2 SF, and the buff they intend to put on the content to counteract the companion buff.

 

I'm perfectly happy with BW:A buffing the SF H2+s, so long as I can solo them with reasonable gear (208s/216s, maybe even the radiant crystal stuff) with reasonable companion Influence (25-30+), and the alliance buffs, and even then, I don't want that to be particularly easy.

 

Doable, but not a breeze, even with the buffs; in fact, I'm fairly confident I can say that BW:A intended that most, if not all, players would use the alliance buffs.

Edited November 25, 2015 by sentientomega

[Xtro]

Your level : 65

Roughly Average Item Rating: 204/208

Profession: Gunslinger

Discipline: Sharpshooter

Companion: T7-01

Companion role: Tank

Companion Influence level: 26

Which Mission or Star Fortress are you playing (Solo Mode? Heroic Mode?): Heroic 2+

Your personal experience while playing this content: Want to sell T7 for scrap parts....

 

Any experience I have had with any other tank so far seems like heaven after doing a few heroics with T7. He is broken and incompetent. When he "charge" opponent he send a jolt and stand still, like he had his old jolt power instead of the charge power that is in his power bar. He does not aggro opponents except the main target and generally is useless. That was not a pleasant experience.

 

I have noticed that the different companions do not follow same tank script when tanking, and I am assuming you intended to let all tank follow same tank script. Some companions do not start with the charge but taunts instead and then jump. Please make sure you fix the script they follow or you will make some companions pretty useless as tanks even after you fix the now very bad tanking capability.