Companion Change Feedback

[nimmerstil]

Conclusion:

The fight against Arcann is, in story terms, a bit contradictory. In the actually fight the player learns that Arcann is a pathetic looser who is completely unable to causs any damage with his lightsaber at all and I could waste him any time I want to. In the video sequences Arcann defeats the player character, unless they accept Valkorian's help.

 

Help? He was the distraction that gave Arcann the opportunity to the surprise attack

I wish my Inquisitor could just redeem Valkorian, but I doubt Force Plot will give her the option

[Raphael_diSanto]

No difficulty whatsover observed. His powers simply do not deal damage. I even wasted my best defence on something unimportant and had to suffer a "Master Strike" without anything I could do about it. I did keep on eye on my hit point bar, but it was nailed at 100%. I did evade the floor effects he summons (i.e. when a red circle appears at my feet during the fight I step out of it and don't try to find out what it does. It's safe to assume that I won't like it. Consequently I don't know how difficult the fight would have been had I not stepped out of it.)

 

Cutscene power and mechanical power always vary, although as you say, it's very egregious in this case.

 

I thought that what would be cool would be if, in that last fight, Arcann is actually essentially unkillable and whittles away at the PC's health until the character's almost dead, and then Valkorian pops up and offers the chance for assistance.

 

I mean, whether you take Valkorian's help or not, your character, story-wise, loses that fight. Without Valkorian's intervention or Koth/Lana's intervention, the PC is toast. No bones about it. Arcann kicks the PC's butt, and if that had been reflected in the actual fight, I think it would have been cool.

 

Of course, that would probably have garnered shouts of rage and tears of frustration from all the people who play video games so they can feel uberleet and powafull or whatever the heck it is they feel when pushing buttons to make pixels fall over.

 

I think it would have been an interesting social experiment though. See how many players, when faced with what would seem to be imminent death would actually have taken the aid from Valkorian. Obviously, it would only work the first few times, because once people understood that the PC, as always, has plot armor, and survives losing the fight, more people would still say 'no'.

 

But the first time out? I think it would have been interesting to see our big tough keyboard warriors humbled and how many accepted the aid.

Edited November 26, 2015 by Raphael_diSanto

[Lord_Sleepy]

you used absolutely no punctuation at all how do you expect anyone to be able to decipher your reply?????????????????????????????????

 

He was saving his punctuation points to put them all on exclamation point.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Why you might ask. I could spend forty minutes slowly fighting my way through. Pressing one button at a time killing slowly mobs of three. The mobs aren't hard or challenging. They are a grind. It's a tedious one that some people on here seem to have confused certain things like time consuming and well an actual literal challenge.

 

Or you could learn to play better and use all your abilities etc. instead of "1 button at a time" - I say if the mobs are killing you then yes are challenging - at least for the person getting killed by them.

Some people play the "theres 4 mbos so aslong as I kill 2 of them then die then res I'll only have 2 left to kill" angle and that's fine but you can't do things that way and say that content isn't challenging, it is challenging and you fail at the challenge and instead do it the grindy way.

 

 

Of course your reply if not a serious one. As I seem to have stunned you literally in place. The way you use phrase "Past me" is literally the same thing I said. Expect you don't use those certain words in your speech . So you are you are trying to literally use my own words to sound smart. Again I will repeat this silly notion that you are pushing. The only thing you are doing is punishing lower levels.

 

Why are you ignoring the question? How does increased healing significantly make your experience shorter? Oh that's right because the content was actually challenging, you were dieing because you're not very good and it becomes less grindy because you're not dieing now ( thus made challenging content easy ).

 

Quite a simple concept to understand, give it a go.

 

People right now can buy a level 60 token and just skip all the levels. It's a slow boring burning grind. I know I have done it several times on each side. Many people have said the buffs were the most fun they ever had in years in playing the game. That's the point. The fun. No matter how you try to spin this or even literally use my word for word against that I just said to you. It won't change the fact its not fun. Why on earth do you think its fun to spend extra hours killing crowds of mobs. Do you think people enjoy spending that much time killing the name NPC clone they killed five minutes ago.

 

And there it is - viewing it all as a slow grind. Soon enough people like you will be bored and off annoying/ruining some other gaming community somewhere whilst we're left to suffer with decisions made by the developers to cater to people who don't have any interest in the gameplay what so ever, they just want to get to the end of it.

 

 

Of course. I never heard of someone say. Please make these NPC fights even longer then they have to. Please I enjoy these NPC fights in crowds of three so much I want to last. That was till the companion buff. I never seen so many people complain to take fun out of a video game. For myself. I love PVP.

 

No people say they want more challenging content, if that becomes longer content for you because you suck well that's hardly anyone else's fault but yours. Get a group, it will go quicker.

That might require you to become somewhat social so it could be a bit of a push.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

It's supposed to be playable by a beginning player, with no experience, no legacy boons and little influence.

 

What is? Story yes, everything else no.

 

They're required to gain influence with your Alliance, which will affect story.

 

I say this won't matter jack for the actual "story" beyond a cutscene at the end of everyone you recruited celebrating or something stupid like that.

Call me on it if I'm wrong, it would be nice to be but this "choices matter" so far is a crock of crap.

 

I don't see them gating other people out or making the story content more difficult if they chose to not do all the alliance stuff. I'll let you know because I'm skipping pretty much all of it now.

[Raphael_diSanto]

Why are you ignoring the question? How does increased healing significantly make your experience shorter? Oh that's right because the content was actually challenging, you were dieing because you're not very good and it becomes less grindy because you're not dieing now ( thus made challenging content easy ).

 

Quite a simple concept to understand, give it a go.

Because increased healing means I don't have to stop after each fight and pop my regen button. It also means I have to use less CCs and defensive buttons and can use more attacks and offensive abilities, thus making the fights themselves go faster. Got nothing to do with dying in the fights and everything to do with making the fights themselves just quicker, faster and less annoying.

 

And there it is - viewing it all as a slow grind. Soon enough people like you will be bored and off annoying/ruining some other gaming community somewhere whilst we're left to suffer with decisions made by the developers to cater to people who don't have any interest in the gameplay what so ever, they just want to get to the end of it.

Please provide some evidence to back up your assertion that "people like [that] will be bored and off annoying/ruining some other gaming community." Hyperbole and rhetoric. Always good to fall back on when you don't actually have anything else, eh?

 

At the end of the day, you just don't like the changes. And that's fine. No one says you have to. But manufacturing reasons out of thin air as to why it's "bad for the game" is pretty weaksauce, my friend.

Edited November 27, 2015 by Raphael_diSanto

[Cicgnar]

• Your level: 65
  
• Roughly Average Item Rating: 216+, except main hand. Augmented; but barely any Datacron and not all classes buff
  
• Discipline: Sorcerer Madness
  
• Companion: Lana Beniko
  
• Companion role: Healer
  
• Companion Influence level: 35+-
  
• Star Fortress Heroic over Nar Shaddaa, for the One and Only Achievement
  
• Your personal experience while playing this content: Well, I wasn't able to do it in 4.0, in a heal spec, but then I was on a much lower influence companion nad somewhat lower gear.
   
  Tonight I did it. YAY! It was a) challenging, b) hard and c) long. I was BARELY able to survive the first Paladin, even with CC and some kiting. I might be able to do something more (popping Heroic Moment earlier, same with stuns) but it would have made little difference, IMO. Praetorian was piece of cake (provided I killed fast its summons), though... until it dropped my companion out of the platform. Had a hell of a time and using everything in my arsenal to survive. Won, with less than 5% life. Second Paladin was easier, since he wasted time casting abilities that do less damage than his auto-attack, but had to make nice use of CC to keep it smooth.
   
  The ambush went also easier than expected, but because I lucked out. The weak enemies were aggroed by my companion, I put one of the Knights on CC and burned the other as fast as I could. Correct strategy+No mistakes= WIN. The platforms before the Exarch, the same story. You either know how to plan the battle, or you're done. There is little margin of mistake there since the two goldens and the other trash can burn you down easily.
   
  The Exarch battle... Man, that was long. Either you know how to kite and pace your cd, and when you can stop and attack (and you need to do so, since the bastard heals himself), or you're in for a solid defeat. Either long, if you can't put enough DPS on the table, or fast, if you let the Exarch catch you easily.
   
  All in all, I think I was able to do it, but just barely. A little less equip or influence on my companion and I wouldn't have been able. I think, atm, it is adequate.
  

Edited November 27, 2015 by Cicgnar

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Because increased healing means I don't have to stop after each fight and pop my regen button. It also means I have to use less CCs and defensive buttons and can use more attacks and offensive abilities, thus making the fights themselves go faster. Got nothing to do with dying in the fights and everything to do with making the fights themselves just quicker, faster and less annoying.[/quest]

 

The few seconds healing after an encounter? The even less time spent popping a DCD? Well we really are grasping at straws if we think that healing in that regards is significantly ( key word here ) reducing the amount of time you are spent dealing with mobs. Which most of the heroics are leaving me wondering why people want to punish themselves in the first place with things they view as monotony or grind etc.

 

Masochists perhaps.

 

Please provide some evidence to back up your assertion that "people like [that] will be bored and off annoying/ruining some other gaming community." Hyperbole and rhetoric. Always good to fall back on when you don't actually have anything else, eh?

 

Oh I see you're one of those people. A "this guy has an opinion I better tell him to back it up with facts". Funny because in another topic you were talking about there being no point in discussing opinion yet here you are doing it again ... maybe it was you like to pick and choose which "opinions" you want to "discuss"

 

In any case I can base my opinion on what we saw occur after launch and how I generally view casual gamers. Meaning they won't stick around for too long doing things they find boring or repetitive when there is a plethora of other games that offer new experiences and entertainment.

 

Now if YOU want to PROVE my OPINION wrong then by all means, show me these facts you seem to love to do so. Otherwise you are only offering up your own counter opinion to mine and are more or less in the same boat.

Just with slightly less logic behind it because to argue my point now would imply you are saying casual players love doing repetitive, boring content ... good luck with that.

 

 

At the end of the day, you just don't like the changes. And that's fine. No one says you have to. But manufacturing reasons out of thin air as to why it's "bad for the game" is pretty weaksauce, my friend

 

At the end of the day I want changes that cater to all parties, as you've previously stressed you're only interested in your own gameplay style so you're rather poisonous to the community as a whole in that regard.

[themasterofevil]

Class - Sorc

Gear Level - 208 w/ 208 Augments (PvP Gear)

Companion - Pierce

Influence - 22

Level - 65

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I did the Heroic 2+ Nar Shaddaa Star Fortress in my PvP gear with Pierce. I was healing and he was tanking. I will say that it did take me a while to kill the Exarch and Elite mobs. However, overall, it seems pretty okay. Pierce did die once during the Exarch fight but that was my fault.

 

I feel like companions are balanced but there are lots of problems with how the AI works. I ran Tactical Red Reaper Solo on my 64 Guardian as Vigi with Kira Healing me. She has 12 influence. I did die about 4-5 times because she would just stop healing me. I don't understand why healing comps STOP HEALING YOU when they have A HEAL THAT HAS NO COOLDOWN? Sometimes she would spam her channeled heal over and over and then she would stop and stand there. Also, the heals weren't enough for her to heal me and her through high damage output from mobs. Many times i would leap in, start attacking and then a bunch of mobs started attacking her so i taunted, kept dot spreading and attacking but she kept getting hammered and she kept dying from weak mobs.

 

However today I was on Yavin on my healing sorc once again and i was world pvping against 2 of my guildies to see if they could kill me. There was a mara and a sin there that joined us and eventually the Mara, Sin and I just started attacking the Temple Ruins Champion Droids. I believe the mara had a INF 50 Lana Beniko or something because I didnt have to heal him at all. Both the Sin and Mara were grouped and they both had Lana out. The Sin only had like INF 7 on Lana. Their HP would go from 45% - 100% in a matter of seconds. I was truely awestruck at how they were being healed through attacks from these Champion Guards. Also, when we were fighting my guildies, the Mara and Sin's healing comps kept them alive. It was truely amazing watching the mara and sin not die from my guildies. I wasn't healing them at all and they just wrecked my guildies who also had healing comps out.

 

Companions are still powerful in world PvP though. I was on Courscant today and there was a sin on there (Hes still there from the 4.0 bug that got patched but hes still there somehow??) and we were fighting. I had my kira out and he had his khem val out. His khem val kept him alive pretty damn well too because I couldn't kill him.

 

>>However, even though they're still somewhat powerful, they DONT need another nerf. Possibly fix your stupid AI first.<<

Edited November 27, 2015 by themasterofevil
Grammar Error

[nimmerstil]

Because increased healing means I don't have to stop after each fight and pop my regen button.

You don't have to be at full health after every fight, as long as the decline is small enough to get you through the next fight.

 

 

What is? Story yes, everything else no.

The point is that you, and I and just about everyone here, have lost contact with the difficulty of the game for new players and are in no position to evaluate the difficulty for them. There are 8 stories, each with it's critical path and none of may get blocked because companions have become too weak.

 

I say this won't matter jack for the actual "story" beyond a cutscene at the end of everyone you recruited celebrating or something stupid like that.

I don't know about that, I would not like it half of the companions wouldn't survive because of low alliance influence, à la Mass Effect.

 

I don't see them gating other people out or making the story content more difficult if they chose to not do all the alliance stuff. I'll let you know because I'm skipping pretty much all of it now.

Thank you, I'll be watching the forums when the coming chapters are released

Edited November 27, 2015 by nimmerstil

[LordFell]

My character: 65 Scoundrel Scrapper

Gear Level: Mostly 208; 186 Relics, 216 Scattergun

Companion: Influence 12 Treek

Content: Alderaan Sky Fortress, Heroic 2+

 

Seems to me you guys are just not playtesting characters in different roles, or companions in different roles. Here's what I mean...

 

Since a Scrapper is a DPS class with Off-Heals, I generally run with Treek in Tank mode. As much as anything, this is so that Treek can taunt an enemy off me, turn that enemy away from me, so I can use Back Blast. But... what I was finding was that Treek's threat level was generally too low to pull aggro off me, even if I use my "Surrender" ability. I also found that her survivability wasn't especially great, damage output wasn't great... overall, there were encounters I just could not do using Treek set as a Tank companion.

 

However... switch Treek to a Healing role and content that wasn't possible just moments earlier is suddenly a face roll. Her healing output is so ridiculous that ... well, she was Crit Healing me for 30K health increments in Channeled heals. Ironically, this makes Treek a better Tank in a Healing role than when she's set to Tank... her survivability goes way up, and being able to spam 200K health in Healing in about 15 seconds generates threat like you wouldn't believe.

 

To my way of thinking, and I've been around the MMO block a few times...

A player in a Tanking Role would or should benefit most from a companion in a Healing Role.

A player in a Healing Role would or should benefit most from a companion in a Tanking Role.

A player in a DPS Role ... has to adjust for their personal playstyle.

 

If the only viable Companion Role is Healing, then you fail at Balance no matter how much you tweak the numbers.

[oneupkev]

My character: 65 BH Powertech

Gear Level: Mostly 190's

Companion: Influence 19 Lana

Content: Tatooine Sky Fortress, Heroic 2+

 

Generally had few major problems, doing it solo with Lana worked but there were one or two areas where it was challenging but manageable.

 

Lana got knocked off the platform in the factory area twice which was frustrating and there was a moment of panic on the final station before the boss fight where myself and Lana went down to virtually no health. Other than that though everything was soloable, albeit a bit slow but i think that's my gear and skill level

[Rabenschwinge]

A player in a DPS Role ... has to adjust for their personal playstyle.

 

I'd say that depends on whether you're a melee or ranged damage dealer. A melee damage dealer wants the enemies in melee, thus a healer companion is better (plus, healer companions are less inclined to break your crowd control effects). A ranged damage dealer, particularly a sniper/gunslinger most certainly does not want the enemies in melee and rather uses a tank (if the tanks were able to hold aggro and suffer the damage, anyway).

Edited November 27, 2015 by Rabenschwinge

[Arlon_Nabarlly]

Just wanted to stop in again and say thanks for ruining the game.

[Makillda]

Just wanted to stop in again and say thanks for ruining the game.

 

Not a problem.

[RogerApple]

Not a problem.

 

Yes we know your point of view. I don't think there's anyone on here who doesn't

 

This is my feedback. Buff companions to the way they were in 4.0. A certain crowd kept saying that this entire thing would be optional. That it would be a choice. Expect it wasn't. Let's be honest the majority of people who do play this game have lives things to do. When you give them the option to use their companions to the max potential. They literally had a blast. I myself leveled 5 different alts not to max level but I played a majority of the day.

 

The Pro Nerf Crowd kept repeating this myth about an "optional" thing expect it never came and now people don't even want say that. pretend like it never existed. I think there should be an optional thing perhaps something you can turn on in vendor fleet. It's no accident or surprise that majority of the people enjoyed the buffs. That's why so many people came on here defending it when you took it away. So much you shifted a bunch of those good topics to off topic.

 

I can't understand why one crowd because they spoke up earlier about it was given more favor. The hardcore elite of the game are not everyone. Their the ones that spend nearly all day on the game. Maybe they find grinding things fun. Maybe they just hate when other people can see the same content they can without being decked out in all purple. My humble point of view and reply. That there should be an optional. Many people have complained they are too weak and I suspect this is reason for buff in the first place. What we find fun in a video game is not a mind numbing grind. It's getting to see the story content.

[LordArtemis]

I hate to say it, but I expect that most folks were pretty happy with how comps were in 4.0...I would even venture to say it was likely a vast majority of players.

 

That much should likely be obvious.

 

Was it healthy for the game? I don't know. There is a discussion to be had there, and I think quite a few folks have made some good points on both sides of the fence. I think how it is now is likely healther for the game, I think 4.0.2 was unhealthy, and to be honest I am not sure that the overall level sync and companion changes that came with 4.0 are going to turn out to be good for the game in the long term.

 

Its a gamble. They changed a mechanic that has been in place for years now...and that is always a risk. In some games drastic changes like this seemed to work (Eve, WoW, FF, Wildstar, STO) and in others it didn't, a few with disastrous results (CoH, SWG, PotCO, Shadowbane, WHO).

 

It remains to be seen what effect this has. I am skeptical that this was wise to release in it's buggy state, improperly tested and balanced IMO. You don't skimp on something this important.

[RogerApple]

I hate to say it, but I expect that most folks were pretty happy with how comps were in 4.0...I would even venture to say it was likely a vast majority of players.

That much should likely be obvious.

 

Was it healthy for the game? I don't know. There is a discussion to be had there, and I think quite a few folks have made some good points on both sides of the fence. I think how it is now is likely healther for the game, I think 4.0.2 was unhealthy, and to be honest I am not sure that the overall level sync and companion changes that came with 4.0 are going to turn out to be good for the game in the long term.

 

Its a gamble. They changed a mechanic that has been in place for years now...and that is always a risk. In some games drastic changes like this seemed to work (Eve, WoW, FF, Wildstar, STO) and in others it didn't, a few with disastrous results (CoH, SWG, PotCO, Shadowbane, WHO).

 

It remains to be seen what effect this has. I am skeptical that this was wise to release in it's buggy state, improperly tested and balanced IMO. You don't skimp on something this important.

 

You DO speak the truth. I know how many people hated how I use the term. The minority people were complaining and I have honestly tried to scale back in using that phrase. Majority of people ...and I know this is a complete shock awe and surprise..they don't like killing eight different mobs. Yes it slows down progression. It's not fun. I just don't don't fun. I shouldn't have to apologize for not having fun killing dozens of clones.

 

The problem is there is no reward. Nothing from killing clones. If they offered some sort of unique weapon or massive EXP boost. Or even at the very basic they had a different face. "Hey Didn't I kill you five minutes ago" there's nothing at all. The majority of people enjoy the healing companions as the poster I quoted mentioned when they were unleashed. We don't care about the threat of dying. Even the threat of dying is not fun. It's just a threat of dying.

 

Maybe people experience games in different ways. I just want play PVP. Get to the class quest so I can make choices. Choices is the literally only reason I favor this MMO over everything else. It's not star wars. It's the choices that we can make that make this game so unique and special. The combat in this game if they want push this as a massive selling point. I don't think that will be good because honestly it has so many bugs in it. In the long term. If you want keep players.

 

Call them over powered companions or EZ Mode. It still boils down to they are fun. You will keep more players casuals in this game, and keep them much happier with companions in 4.0 Then you will in trying to make content very hard. How many other MMO's are out there that have really hard content and are a great success. I can't think of any expect one Dark Souls. Many people don't play it because its so hard. So what's the reason for making things so hard and less fun. I forget.

[Makillda]

Yes we know your point of view. I don't think there's anyone on here who doesn't

 

This is my feedback. Buff companions to the way they were in 4.0. A certain crowd kept saying that this entire thing would be optional. That it would be a choice. Expect it wasn't. Let's be honest the majority of people who do play this game have lives things to do. When you give them the option to use their companions to the max potential. They literally had a blast. I myself leveled 5 different alts not to max level but I played a majority of the day.

 

The Pro Nerf Crowd kept repeating this myth about an "optional" thing expect it never came and now people don't even want say that. pretend like it never existed. I think there should be an optional thing perhaps something you can turn on in vendor fleet. It's no accident or surprise that majority of the people enjoyed the buffs. That's why so many people came on here defending it when you took it away. So much you shifted a bunch of those good topics to off topic.

 

I can't understand why one crowd because they spoke up earlier about it was given more favor. The hardcore elite of the game are not everyone. Their the ones that spend nearly all day on the game. Maybe they find grinding things fun. Maybe they just hate when other people can see the same content they can without being decked out in all purple. My humble point of view and reply. That there should be an optional. Many people have complained they are too weak and I suspect this is reason for buff in the first place. What we find fun in a video game is not a mind numbing grind. It's getting to see the story content.

 

My position is that the companion correction was not game breaking in the slightest. Everything that could be soloed with uber-comps could still be soloed afterwards. Buffing healing did nothing to reduce the "grind" you are talking about as the same number of mobs still take the same amount of time to die. Come up with another argument because that one fails.

 

My comment to Mr The-Game-Is-Broken up there was simply a result of my willingness to openly mock anyone who engages in ridiculous hyperbole. He is pro-nerf, btw.

[LordArtemis]

Well, I would say one thing though....the problem, as I have stated before, and this is just my opinion, was not that companions were OP after 4.0, they were OP before 4.0 as were we if we outleveled the content.

 

The problem was that companions were strong EVERYWHERE, even in the elder game, and players that once had the ability to customize their difficulty level by equipping their companions appropriately lost that ability.

 

Say what you will, minority or not, 4.0 was at the expense of our hardcore population IMO. By the same token 4.0.2 was at the expense of the casual population, which was even more ludicrous.

 

Right now they may have struck a balance that most players will accept....but I tend to think that might be a bad way to go about implementing changes. "I don't like this change but I will accept it" is probably not a good precedent to set.

 

Again, time will tell if this move was a wise one or not. I think that level sync and the companion changes, though good on paper and certainly not without some perks were nowhere NEAR ready for release. And now they will likely have to make a long line of adjustments and fixes to keep both systems in place.

[Cicgnar]

My position is that the companion correction was not game breaking in the slightest. Everything that could be soloed with uber-comps could still be soloed afterwards. Buffing healing did nothing to reduce the "grind" you are talking about as the same number of mobs still take the same amount of time to die. Come up with another argument because that one fails.

 

My comment to Mr The-Game-Is-Broken up there was simply a result of my willingness to openly mock anyone who engages in ridiculous hyperbole. He is pro-nerf, btw.

 

Okay, let me explain how a better healer speeds things up while grinding. At least, with a DPS character.

 

At the moment, the IA of the companions makes them heal their target to the max before switching to another target (from itself to the PC or viceversa). That made some encounters slower than intended because as a DPS you had to lose focus on the damage output for survivability (yours or companion). Remember, I'm not talking in Star Fortress where you should play to your best capabilities if you want the One and Only or even Solo with certain gear, but planetary Heroics which are meant to be grinded weekly.

 

As their healing output was not enough even to surpass the damage a silver elite could do, that meant that if your companion started healing itself, you wouldn't be healed again during the whole encounter, and you had to wait for it to be fully healed before engaging again, which consumed a little more time... which simply adds up because you had to do it quite often!

 

Now, with the recent changes, your companion has enough heal output to raise itself or you back to 100%+- in a normal Heroic pull, so it can switch targets, meaning you NORMALLY don't have to worry about pulling accidentally. Meaning you can simply blast them at the best of your capabilities and leave to your healing companion the task of keeping you alive (why do you want a healer companion if not for that??), meaning the pulls fall a little faster and the downtime between battles is lower, meaning you save a little time... which simply adds up as you have to battle a lot of pulls.

 

What set this apart from 4.0 is that you now CAN overextend and die. Your healer is not a god, just good enough in its job. In 4.0.2 overextending many times meant to be detected by a patrolling mob while pulling a group. Now, that's not a problem; now you need to pull two or three groups at the same time to be overextending (and then again, if you know your class you can survive it. But then you have to wait for CDs to do it again)

 

So see? You save time with a better healer.

Edited November 27, 2015 by Cicgnar

[DarenLoot]

Okay, let me explain how a better healer speeds things up while grinding. At least, with a DPS character.

 

At the moment, the IA of the companions makes them heal their target to the max before switching to another target (from itself to the PC or viceversa). That made some encounters slower than intended because as a DPS you had to lose focus on the damage output for survivability (yours or companion). Remember, I'm not talking in Star Fortress where you should play to your best capabilities if you want the One and Only or even Solo with certain gear, but planetary Heroics which are meant to be grinded weekly.

 

As their healing output was not enough even to surpass the damage a silver elite could do, that meant that if your companion started healing itself, you wouldn't be healed again during the whole encounter, and you had to wait for it to be fully healed before engaging again, which consumed a little more time... which simply adds up because you had to do it quite often!

 

Now, with the recent changes, your companion has enough heal output to raise itself or you back to 100%+- in a normal Heroic pull, so it can switch targets, meaning you NORMALLY don't have to worry about pulling accidentally. Meaning you can simply blast them at the best of your capabilities and leave to your healing companion the task of keeping you alive (why do you want a healer companion if not for that??), meaning the pulls fall a little faster and the downtime between battles is lower, meaning you save a little time... which simply adds up as you have to battle a lot of pulls.

 

What set this apart from 4.0 is that you now CAN overextend and die. Your healer is not a god, just good enough in its job. In 4.0.2 overextending many times meant to be detected by a patrolling mob while pulling a group. Now, that's not a problem; now you need to pull two or three groups at the same time to be overextending (and then again, if you know your class you can survive it. But then you have to wait for CDs to do it again)

 

So see? You save time with a better healer.

 

Nope they don't work that way. They usually heal the lower hp in the group. That is either you or themselves. What I can tell you is that if you use your dcd-s and cc abilities your class offers the right way, the normal H2+ missions should be a breeze at the lower level planets, while becoming a bit more interactive while the planet level advances.

 

Just yesterday I did some of the H2+ missions on Voss and even though my hp went down to half while my companion being in tank role (and not being able to properly keep agro) in the most challenging of the boss fights I never felt anywhere near getting threatened to die (it's true if I wasn't interrupting the boss, or didn't positioned the right way I might have, but that's what personal abilities and field awareness are for).

 

Finished 4 of them in like 15-20 minutes to get the necessary caches for the SF mission on Voss. Well, for non-stealth classes it would probably take a bit longer but it shouldn't be for more then 30 minutes. As for the lower planets H2+ like Alderaan or Tatooine, I could just get between the mobs and spam Lacerate until only the more sturdy remained and then finish them off with a big hit. The groups died in seconds.

 

And what I'm telling you it's from a Tank companion perspective. The healers top tank effectiveness in keeping you alive in the difficult battles any time. If you don't think so, try SF heroic with a tank.

 

So I still have to decline your attempt to explain why healer companions with better healing output make the runs faster. If I don't need a healer companion I won't even bother with one. And if I need it it's either same speed, or not being able to do it at all.

Edited November 27, 2015 by DarenLoot

[MeNaCe-NZ]

The point is that you, and I and just about everyone here, have lost contact with the difficulty of the game for new players and are in no position to evaluate the difficulty for them. There are 8 stories, each with it's critical path and none of may get blocked because companions have become too weak.

 

Sorry but I must have missed all the posts that said "my companions are too weak I can't do the story now" ... was there even one post nerf?

If not then you are more or less agreeing companions were fine where they were if everyone was easily getting through their story content.

 

I don't know about that, I would not like it half of the companions wouldn't survive because of low alliance influence, à la Mass Effect.

 

If they aren't ballsy enough to at least stand behind their difficulty content design decisions and bow down to low/no skilled casual players they are sure as hell aren't going to start wholesale killing off companions under any circumstances.

 

Hey they might ... I can almost hear the rage and taste the tears now if they do though.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

I hate to say it, but I expect that most folks were pretty happy with how comps were in 4.0...I would even venture to say it was likely a vast majority of players.

 

That much should likely be obvious.

 

Was it healthy for the game? I don't know. There is a discussion to be had there, and I think quite a few folks have made some good points on both sides of the fence. I think how it is now is likely healther for the game, I think 4.0.2 was unhealthy, and to be honest I am not sure that the overall level sync and companion changes that came with 4.0 are going to turn out to be good for the game in the long term.

 

Its a gamble. They changed a mechanic that has been in place for years now...and that is always a risk. In some games drastic changes like this seemed to work (Eve, WoW, FF, Wildstar, STO) and in others it didn't, a few with disastrous results (CoH, SWG, PotCO, Shadowbane, WHO).

 

It remains to be seen what effect this has. I am skeptical that this was wise to release in it's buggy state, improperly tested and balanced IMO. You don't skimp on something this important.

 

Depends on your definition of vast ... 60ish % wasn't it from the poll we had agreed they were fine? I think others actual counted up individuals and the views they posted and that number dropped more? *shrug* I wouldn't even want to piss off 20% of my customer base.

We don't really know the metrics - they won't share them. I would be interested to know of the portion who were against the OP companions how does their average subscriber time stack up against those who like the OP companions i.e. 2 years vs 2 months ... that would sway things heaps in my decision making processes personally.

 

I would also say if so many people were happy with it we wouldn't have had pages of debate/argument etc.

Funnily enough I would wager had the comps been around the post nerf level we wouldn't have 100's of pages complaining about them - we might get complaints about the actual heroics but it was BW's design choice to begin with that is utterly ruining this game for many players now.

 

 

Either way you cut it - BW are not catering to their entire community ( which they can do, anyone implying they can't is full of crap - they are choosing at this stage not to is all ).

They've not set precedence with their design choices ( i.e. read the first post from Eric about their intentions of how the content difficulty should be viewed compared to the post from Michael basically reneging on the whole thing ) that are going to be VERY hard to follow up to keep fresh content relevant for people now or to release enough fresh content that people stay subbed.

 

It's all ideally going to be easy mode, people will finish it far too quick with no solo challenge content at all and if they aren't open to grouping they will go elsewhere if they get bored. It's that simple.

[Ramalina]

Tested Voss H2 Star Fortress with 31 influence companion in healing stance, all alliance equipment caches, all alliance buffs, and all Legacy abilities from Heroic Moment with a player character avg gear level about 214, healing sage.

 

A bit slow, but quite doable. Had maybe 2 nervous moments where I made misplays that landed me in chain of knockbacks and stuns, but was fairly easy to recover.

 

Healing companions are definitely strong enough, and have a fairly generous margin of comfort.

 

I'll test again with tank stance sometime soon.