What companions are most people using?

merik1999

for DPS I have been using the Xuna and the Air Archon for solo stuff and they are awesome. Most dungeons I use Xuna or and Augment, but I really score much higher with my Xuna or Air Archon in the Damage Dealt for my DPS because I think they take out the trash mobs.
anyone else liking other things out there?

megajuif666

Deepcrow hatchling, it boost stats alot.

drartwhodent

The Bulette Pup. Supposed to be slightly better than the hatchling since it gives an extra power boost.

sandukutupu

merik1999 said:

for DPS I have been using the Xuna and the Air Archon for solo stuff and they are awesome. Most dungeons I use Xuna or and Augment, but I really score much higher with my Xuna or Air Archon in the Damage Dealt for my DPS because I think they take out the trash mobs.
anyone else liking other things out there?

Xuna is listed as "invoker" type, I have her at orange rank 40 on Silvane Stardust, (my rogue) when doing most anything combat related. However I also have a Watler augment for more discrete encounters where stealth is more important. Along with Xuna the other invokers are, 3 epics; Erinyes of Belial, Redcap Powrie, Battlefield Medic, and one rare Ghost (Theratra). It is of course much cheaper to buy epic companions in the AH, than to upgrade them using AD. Also at level 80, Sybella's 3 weeklies give you companion tokens at a rate of 5 per week.

Since the beginning most of my characters use some form of invoker. Ever since the changes of module 16, the companions are not as "active", so don't expect a lot of horsepower from them. But my other rouge, Goro Thay has a Wayward Wizard at rank 40, who is often asked to distract monsters by getting eaten or killed by them. In my opinion, it would be nice to be able to issue some simple commands to the companion. However, if wishes were horses, then beggers would ride.

hustin1

With 19 alts I use a lot of different companions, but the one most used among them is definitely the Redcap Powrie. One reason for this is that one of the things I like to do for my alliance for Winter Festival is buy a ton of Simril boxes from the zen store so I have lots of gifts to open for them, and that has left me with an *army* of the little gals in the bank. Anyway, I spend most of my time soloing and I've had years of practice positioning myself so that my companion is behind an enemy and can light them up with Murderous Doom. That said, I really miss the days of Mod 15 when a Powrie with all rank 14s (one being an Indomitable) could light up an enemy for up to 200k and that's before the Indomitable added another 70% from a DoT. Now that was "Powrie Power"

For augments, the floating goldfish is really growing on me, mainly because it's *quiet*, as opposed to the Deep Crow Hatchling that is annoying like nails on a chalkboard.

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zimxero

I am assuming you have OFF + OFF + OFF + DEF + UTIL

I recommend the following by slot type (in order of preference)

UTIL: Baby Owlbear, Golden Lion, Energon, Pig
DEF: Minstrel
OFF: Deepcrow Hatchling(mandatory), +any 2 you like (good for swapping by situation)

Summoned Companion: Bulette Pup or Quasit (best), use Deepcrow until/unless you get one of those two.

akuarmoton

On my paladin Im using Light of Simril, and all my alts use Black dragon Stone.

jman3l

Absolute best in slot for DPS:
Bulette pup summoned
Potent precision for crit sev
Deepcrow slot for 8k power
Velociraptor slot for 10k power
Batiri for 4% boss dmg or any 4% crit sev
Alpha compy utility is BIS but expensive, so owlbear or storm rider is second best.

santralafax

jman3l#5579 said:

Absolute best in slot for DPS:

Bulette pup summoned

Potent precision for crit sev

Deepcrow slot for 8k power

Velociraptor slot for 10k power

Batiri for 4% boss dmg or any 4% crit sev

Alpha compy utility is BIS but expensive, so owlbear or storm rider is second best.

Are Velociraptor and Batiri both for offense slot? I guess Alpha Compy doesn't matter, >10kk AD to get one.

merik1999

jman3l#5579 said:

Absolute best in slot for DPS:

Bulette pup summoned

Potent precision for crit sev

Deepcrow slot for 8k power

Velociraptor slot for 10k power

Batiri for 4% boss dmg or any 4% crit sev

Alpha compy utility is BIS but expensive, so owlbear or storm rider is second best.

Why do you think Bullet pup summoned is BiS?
have you used a Xuna? or do you really believe that having the highest stats matters? What are you basing this on? a website that told you this? if you can afford a Xuna or a Air Archon try them. solo a dungeon or area and see what goes faster. you and your companion or you and an augment.
I like the Xuna best but the Air Archon is very cheap and almost as good...very close. And I do more damage in group dungeons with them rather than the augment.

mentinmindmaker

While I did not test this myself, so it is second hand information:
Best solution for summoned pet is to use an augment pet. The added stats give you a damage increase far beyond what any combat pet can give you.

Actually, you will struggle to reach stat caps if you do not use an augment pet.

I see a lot of low-performing people when I run PUG RQ's.. and always they turn out to not use the standard augment+bondings setup.

This is the common understanding in the community. If you want to challenge that I suggest you install ACT and do some testing with both options on a dummy. I will be happy to be corrected based on real tests.

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jules

merik1999 said:

jman3l#5579 said:

Absolute best in slot for DPS:

Bulette pup summoned

Potent precision for crit sev

Deepcrow slot for 8k power

Velociraptor slot for 10k power

Batiri for 4% boss dmg or any 4% crit sev

Alpha compy utility is BIS but expensive, so owlbear or storm rider is second best.

Why do you think Bullet pup summoned is BiS?
have you used a Xuna? or do you really believe that having the highest stats matters? What are you basing this on? a website that told you this? if you can afford a Xuna or a Air Archon try them. solo a dungeon or area and see what goes faster. you and your companion or you and an augment.
I like the Xuna best but the Air Archon is very cheap and almost as good...very close. And I do more damage in group dungeons with them rather than the augment.

Depends on what kind of content you want to run.
Like @mentinmindmaker said, if all you do is solo (lower tier dungeons), you will do good with a combat companion. However, if you run any new(er) dungeons, you will need a legendary augment. The difference between an epic deepcrow and Xuna may be fine for you, but Xuna in her current state is not that much better of than other summoned companions, and you will really NEED the stats of a leg augment.
Quasit and bulette are simply BIS for their extra power. Bulette is better for the extra CA. If you cap CA anyway, it won't matter.
That aside, I really don't think @jman3l#5579 is making assumptions based on nothing

merik1999

I respectfully disagree with this. I have run LOMM and I score much higher in DPS than those with Augments and have higher stats than I do. Xuna and Air Archon can kill a mimmic on their own. granted not every time as their skills have a long reset but they decimate trash mobs in EVERY dungeon and skirmish. (I have not tested this in TOMM yet) But they are MUCH better for me in every Dungeon and skirmish than the Bullet and Quasit. If you don't have one of those and are just reiterating what everyone else says then thats ok. Maybe its just your play-style which is fine.

I have ACT. If you base your output damage just on ACT then you are using it wrong. what you do is you use your ACT on the Dummies. try it with an Augment for about 20 seconds. Then try it with Xuna or Air Archon for same time. Add up the total damage and I bet you see that your damage with the Companion is MUCH higher. Thats how you use ACT.

But I am trying to find out what people are using for DPS or Tanking or Healing and it seems that everyone is Fixated on High stats rather than playing their roles...

sandukutupu

To be honest, roles (classes) got creamed in M16. You can't fix it with an augment, companion, or mount. The new builds are what they are; very basic. No amount of number juggling is going make you say, "Oh thank Heavens, I had that companion equipped!" Because the companions are almost as generic as our class builds. The thing about Xuna over Makos companion is ultra simple; Xuna has bloodbath on infinite loop. My rogue cannot use bloodbath daily as much as she does. Makos has meteor storm that "randomly" drops fire over an area. Xuna hits all the time. I don't want to keep discussing this, because next thing you know, one of the developers will pop in here and announce how they knew all about the Xuna bug and it will be fixed (nerfed) in the next patch.

I am glad you enjoy playing with Xuna and I do too!

greywynd

I've been running Xuna as active on my wizard. Looking to upgrade her this week.
Rogue and Ranger have been running top-end Zhentarim Warlocks.
Fighter still has his manticore.
Cleric has his lion.
My Warlock, Paladin, and Barbarians tend to use whichever comp is their best regardless of anything else since they are pretty far behind in development compared to the others.

mentinmindmaker

merik1999 said:

I have run LOMM and I score much higher in DPS than those with Augments and have higher stats than I do.

There is one situation where a combat pet could be better: If you have high enough stats that removing the augment will not send your stats below cap. This could very well be the case for many players now if they build to ToMM requirements. But you will still take a big Power loss in those cases.

For 'normal' zones cap is 60, for LoMM 68. Replacing the augment pet with a combat pet might not send you below those caps if you are at 80k ToMM levels.

But for the rest of us, augment pets likely are the best option.

Saying 'I outparse xx and yy and zz' is not really interesting. It could say more about the low performance of xx and yy and zz that about your performance. The interesting comparison is how YOU perform with the various options. A dummy parse is the evidence we need.

namelesshero347

My Palidin tank has a purple Xuna so I tried her out for this week's weekies. I let Xuna do all the work. It was fun watching her murder everything with bloodbath. But there is a CD of about 20 seconds. The weeklies took a lot longer because of waiting for bloodbath to kick in.

With an orange deepcrow hatchling, I have all stats but deflect and CA capped.
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With a purple Xuna, I only have defense capped. Quite a difference.
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So no, I will stay with the deepcrow hatchling. All my other toons, Rogue, Fighter, Wizard, and Cleric, uses the hatchling also. Any my Rogue has Bulette pup for summoned.

schietindebux

Bluette Pub for striker, Polarbear cup for Healer.
On my Dreadnaught I run a Black Death Scorpion as active companion, spending 100% combat Advantage on singel targets, wich is a decent buff for you and for the hole group, since that comapnion spends CA for all yur teammates too even though the stats you get from active companion can be considered low same as they don't give HP buff.
Active companions are obviously not ment to play any role in group content in cryptics game, wich is a misconcept right from the start.

zimxero

ACT is a useful tool & I use it occasionally, however I like including reality checks as well.

I find a timed test useful using the following areas:

Master of the Hunt (solo)
Lair of the Mad Mage (solo) - up to Arcturia save circle (to the beholder if you cant make it past that group).

These areas provide a nice reality DPS check based on completion time. LoMM is good when you want all stats to count. Master of the Hunt is good for build comparison (nerfed version), with some level-setting betweeen diff characters.

thefabricant

I use a Bulette pup. If you actually do damage its BiS.

rustyroo13

I pretty much switch between my Swift Golden Lion and my Alpha Compy (the compies are known affectionately as "The Babies"), both of which are up to legendary. On "no pressure" questing, I'll run my Snowy Faun just for light healing and because she's really cute.:)
I want the Deepcrow Hatchling, but right now I can't afford the AD.

melotai

As of mod 16, when not leveling a companion, I only use augments for all my characters but one. For that one I just use my best attack companion for everything as none of his augment companions seem to work.

I could be wrong of course, but I have observed that for all of my other characters replacing an attack companion with any augment I have available for them increases power and other stats by a significant amount while the stats for that one either gets reduced by a small amount or just stays the same depending upon which augment I try summoning in place of my attack companion. To my way of thinking that implies that the augments are simply not working for that one.

Nevermind, figured out the problem. it turns out it is just the bonding runestones messing with my augments and preventing them from working properly because without them everything works as expected.

aganway

I use a cat summoned. I have always used a cat on my wizard. Because I like cats and I don't give a rats if it's not the best. I know there are probably better companions I could use. Sometimes you just like to have something hanging around regardless just because it makes u happy. :-)

rustyroo13

aganway said:

I use a cat summoned. I have always used a cat on my wizard. Because I like cats and I don't give a rats if it's not the best. I know there are probably better companions I could use. Sometimes you just like to have something hanging around regardless just because it makes u happy. :-)

I completely agree! I'm not going to use something if I find it absolutely butt-ugly. lol

greywynd

Augments require that the player do all the lifting. Running with an active, they actually help beyond just adding stats.

aganway

greywynd said:

Augments require that the player do all the lifting. Running with an active, they actually help beyond just adding stats.

Well this is true, depending on what a player needs. I remember way back when I was playing Cleric, I found that a defender companion made my life a whole lot easier. Before I started using one the mobs (when I was soloing) would just rush up to me and swamp me and I spent most of my time being so squishy at the time dashing around trying not to get hit and pushing them away, when I used the defender he ran up way ahead of me and they focused on him and stayed way ahead attacking him while he kept them busy and I had a lot more breathing space and it made life a lot easier while I hit them from a distance and they weren't all over me. Another thing I remember was when I used the Mirage set I had Tom D1ck and Harry appearing all the time to keep me company, I found them very helpful because often I would think (again while soloing, it's what I do the most) that I had finished all the mob, but one of them would turn around and start hitting something hiding in some corner and they often showed me that there was one sneaky one left and exactly where it was hiding. Active companions can be useful. Like using the defender for a ranged class to keep mobs at a distance, they can fill a gap u have or tweak how your game goes. My preference now is to have all the control over what I do and what gets hit and aggro'd. My cat doesn't aggro anything or hit anything so doesn't start fights I don't want to have and I have full control over where my damage goes, when, and to whom.

mentinmindmaker

greywynd said:

Augments require that the player do all the lifting. Running with an active, they actually help beyond just adding stats.

That is true. In some situations(typically soloing) combat companions can be useful, typically in a tanking role.

However, don't forget to mention other downsides to combat companions beyond not giving as much stats: They are unreliable. They tend to die or run too far away from you so you get no effect from your bondings at all. They are also known to do a lot of unauthorized pulling.

For dungeons and other heavier work, use an augment.

greywynd

Downside? The mobs don't get pulled. They get dead. All I have to do is go pick up the drops.

cdnbison

merik1999 said:

for DPS I have been using the Xuna and the Air Archon for solo stuff and they are awesome. Most dungeons I use Xuna or and Augment, but I really score much higher with my Xuna or Air Archon in the Damage Dealt for my DPS because I think they take out the trash mobs.
anyone else liking other things out there?

I don't run ACT, personally, so haven't bothered to test how I'm doing.

As for what *most* people run, I suspect you'd find a lot of Energon being used - cheap, epic level, good bonus. Deepcrow Hatchling, while not as cheap, is a solid choice, and highly recommended (and therefore often used). Bulette pups, while theoretically BiS, won't be as common, because they are expensive, even at Uncommon. Minstrel probably gets used plenty too, because you get it from the Third Eye intro campaign.

What I personally run on my main (Cleric) are:
Devout: Rebel Mercenary, Quickling, Ioun Stone of Radiance (Feywild), Neverember Guard, Polar Bear Cub.
Arbiter: Tamed Velociraptor (+Power), Deepcrow Hatchling (+Power), Mercenary (+Power / CA), Black Ice Prospector / Winter Wolf (Deflect / Crit Avoid on both), with my utility slot bouncing between Gith / Owlbear cub / Energon.