Companions for Alliance Mod

graygus

I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on what campanion line up to go for with the new mod and the fixing of the bonding stones. It looks to me like warlock will no longer be bis because the stones all proc at once and a companion with all offensive slots will be much better than the warlock. I was thinking about paranoid delusion but rather than just drop $50 on that I thought I would ask for some insight.

jonkoca

I've just been driving myself both poor and insane testing pets for my dps pve build.

This is my final line up, as of right now.

summommed with 10,11,12 bondings: legendary shadow demon (hdps for a pet, all offence slots)
active and all purple: erinyes, yeti, fire archon, water archon.

All told, I get 100% deflect severity, 10% crit severity, and up to 23% damage bonus. Plus, yeti is an amazing tank in case of pug party fails/soloing bosses.

Tested and rejected, wild hunt rider (doesn't proc enough), Combat adv. Pets intellect devourer, blink dog, gargoyle at blue (only boost CA damage by about 15-18% which though is more than they technically should is not as much as I'd hoped, and depends on having a) a pet summoned that stays near you and, b) aspect of pack slotted which kinda gimps your personal damage), paranoid delusion (if you have one, it would be a decent summomed bonding pet, all offence, nice attack, but I like my demon better), earth archon ( good active, but very difficult to stay at 100% HP to take advantage of it.).

PS. If anyone does have 3 purple CA pets on their HR I'd be very interested to see any test data they have, I was doing this on live, amd 1.5million to upgrade 3 possibly so-so pets was a bit steep.

lirithiel

I am terrible at testing stuff, but according to @sharpedge, the Combat Advantage companions provide far more damage than the CA stats and boons put together and are better choices than most of the archons.

I have a Blink Dog at epic level on both my HRs and I use it as a summoned companion for my Archer. I will be testing some companions with 3 offensive slots and decent active bonuses purely to see how much extra damage they provide but I may end up sticking with Blink Dog and Shadow Demon as I have a feeling they are two of the highest damage-dealing companions.

wdj40

We have less Companions on the Xbox, but why do you guys like the Shadow Demon so much? I mean I get it he is an ok Companion but his Equipment slots are not so good?

Unless you guys can equip him with some amazing equipment that we cannot yet I`m thinking.

I found the Merc has much better equip slots. 2 ring slots allow me to put a Ring of Brutality +4 and a Ring of Sudden Deflect +4 on him. This allows my Companions Gift to send over 3 times 95% of those 4000 buffs (he actually sends over 95% of 8k power 3 times).

I give him 3 Life Steal runes and he keeps himself alive a little while. When he dies he procs those Rings and then 3 Gifts. I also found the buff to my Deflect allows me to not run Aspect of the Lone Wolf very often, freeing up a Passive if needed.

lirithiel

I rarely take advantage of the Underdark rings on companions, not like it's needed eh? Also not sure it's actually meant to proc on companions.

Shadow Demon hits like a 10-tonne truck, has stealth which confuses the cr@p out of mobs and comes with 3 offensive slots. Oh ja and it looks awesome. Just slotted with Loyal Avenger gear.

jonkoca

Holy HAMSTER. Companions can wear and proc the brutality etc. rings..? Bravo cryptic. Just bravo.

wdj40

Ha ha I`m surprised you guys did not know they did

I don't see why they couldn`t or shouldn`t though. Gives more variety to their equipment etc... just a shame there are not more Companions with 3 ring slots.

jhpnw

This is my take on Companions.for pc the avenger gear is better than demon encounter rings due to they tend to proct all the time not when you want them to and over all stats are more on avenger sets . Just riding around in PE my +4 ring of brutality procts constantly it is even hard to read my act log while in game due to ring goes off over and over. The Shadow demon is still best due to Damage output. I keep mine @ blue to make him die a lot and the stacks 3 procts in less than 4 seconds and hits like a truck I have seen his dps @ 13mill during a CN run and he can easy do 1.5 mil just piddling in WOD. I hate the thought of putting this here due to some bodies going call for nerf him now. Other thing is he is cheap in trade bar store when have sales.

Added Note: rings or enchants with Hps will not add HP to you when a companion wears them I have tried this several different ways I put 2 savage rank 11s in defense on 2 avenger pieces and on bonding LS shows HPS don't apply

jonkoca

Did some testing, and I've worked what's happening with combat advantage pets.

Was using blink dog, intellect dev, and gargoyle, all blue. 3%x3, expecting 9% boost. Tested in an empty DR instance, no campfire bonus, nobody around buffing me.

1st test, no summomed pet, no CA pets active, no CA. 12 aimed shots, highest and lowest values discarded, only crits counted.

2nd test. Pet summoned - purp fire archon, no bondings, no CA pets, aspect of pack to guarentee CA. Personal CA damage bonus 10%. Same aimed shot crit run. Result as expected, a 10%ish increase in damage.

3rd test. Same pet summoned, no bondings, 3x3% CA pets active, aspect of pack. 10+9% combat adv. Same run of aimed shot crits. Expected 19% increase, but actual result = 28% bonus damage.

I think that added pet CA is applied twice to crits. ie. 9% got applied to the initial aimed shot damage, then 9% got applied again to the additional base shot damage x1.8 (my crit sev) crit damage, then these two numbers got added together and the result flashed onscreen as final crit damage.

So, for a crit build toon, who runs in parties where positioning guarrentees a high uptime on combat advantage, 3 purple CA pets active will boost damage by 30% and not the expected 5+5+5=15%.

In conjunction with buffs - wheel, ITF etc. - if pet combat advantage modifiers are applied AFTER to already buffed damage figures, then you'd see some serious numbers...

lirithiel

So I did a few tests earlier this week using Blink Dog, Lightfoot Thief, Fire Archon, Air Archon and Young Yeti for sh!tz and giggz. I removed all gear and runestones and made them attack target dummy for five minutes each. Only the Fire Archon gave me Combat Advantage damage as it was standing right next to me (I had Pack active).

Blink Dog came in first @ 874k damage. Lightfoot Thief was second @ 840k damage, Fire Archon was third @ 600k, Air Archon was fourth @ 400k and Young Yeti only managed 200k.

I suspect the Shadow Demon will be much higher than the Blink Dog but I didn't test it as it was on my Combat HR.

arksarkserkses

lirithiel said:

[...] Only the Fire Archon gave me Combat Advantage damage as it was standing right next to me (I had Pack active).

If you had AoTP active and you put 3 points in it, the range becomes pretty big, and you should get CA with all companions unless you really run far from them. There is a bug with rank 4 of AoTP tho - with 4 point put into this ability, it's range becomes the same as rank 1. I reported this bug in-game multiple times already. If you want your AoTP to be as effective as possible, leave it at rank 3.

lirithiel

arksarkserkses said:

lirithiel said:

[...] Only the Fire Archon gave me Combat Advantage damage as it was standing right next to me (I had Pack active).

If you had AoTP active and you put 3 points in it, the range becomes pretty big, and you should get CA with all companions unless you really run far from them. There is a bug with rank 4 of AoTP tho - with 4 point put into this ability, it's range becomes the same as rank 1. I reported this bug in-game multiple times already. If you want your AoTP to be as effective as possible, leave it at rank 3.

HAMSTER. I've have Pack at Rank 4 from the start and was wondering why the CA damage wasn't showing up when it should have. Now I know its Cryptic's incompetence.

jonkoca

I noticed the same thing. My shadow demon hits for 100k crits every third strike.

beckylunatic

arksarkserkses said:

lirithiel said:

[...] Only the Fire Archon gave me Combat Advantage damage as it was standing right next to me (I had Pack active).

If you had AoTP active and you put 3 points in it, the range becomes pretty big, and you should get CA with all companions unless you really run far from them. There is a bug with rank 4 of AoTP tho - with 4 point put into this ability, it's range becomes the same as rank 1. I reported this bug in-game multiple times already. If you want your AoTP to be as effective as possible, leave it at rank 3.

Hey ho, @terramak signal

lirithiel

I had AD burning a hole in my pocket so I bought an epic Pseudodragon because reasons. Dunno how much Stamina it provides but the damage is pretty good for a striker. Pseudodragon does roughly the same amount of damage as Lightfoot Thief and isn't far behind the Blink Dog (tests show a difference of about 30k in a five-minute window). There are so many companions with 3 offensive slots that I would love to test but most of them are green so I guess I can shelve that idea.

Does anyone know if there is a minimum range to apply damage bonus for the Hunting Hawk? I know if gives a max of 10% at 100 yards. Even if it gives only 4-5% at 30 yards I guess that is pretty decent.

aasur

Re: shadow demon, I've run ACT through multiple dungeon runs with one at Epic, and he's consistently averaged 5% of my overall DPS. May still not be the best summoned companion, but 5% damage from companion attacks is pretty good to me!

EDIT: I am HR. I suspect the percentage will be much higher if you are not playing DPS build.

lirithiel

aasur said:

Re: shadow demon, I've run ACT through multiple dungeon runs with one at Epic, and he's consistently averaged 5% of my overall DPS. May still not be the best summoned companion, but 5% damage from companion attacks is pretty good to me!

Shadow Demon is by far and away the highest damage-dealing companion in the game to my knowledge. Honey Badger can put out some serious damage but there are conditions involved. Also the Shadow Demon's main attack has a fast animation so it attacks quite quickly - faster than anything else I have seen, Zhentarim Warlock included.

isssssho

Call me crazy but il try something thats either out of the box - or just plain stupid.
Will try using legendary priestess of sehanine (companion from bahamut champion booster pack) to get 20% crit chance buff - that would get me over 100% crit chance atm, but i'll switch some of my brutals and azures for radiants + companion will have only radiants. Downsides are = 3 def slots on companion so i lose about 1500 power compared to my warlock and protectors cam. wont trigger if im correct.
If it doesnt work well, oh well I'll think about it later

silence1x

isssssho said:

Call me crazy but il try something thats either out of the box - or just plain stupid.
Will try using legendary priestess of sehanine (companion from bahamut champion booster pack) to get 20% crit chance buff - that would get me over 100% crit chance atm, but i'll switch some of my brutals and azures for radiants + companion will have only radiants. Downsides are = 3 def slots on companion so i lose about 1500 power compared to my warlock and protectors cam. wont trigger if im correct.
If it doesnt work well, oh well I'll think about it later

Interesting. . . I have that pack as well Isssssho. Let us know in a post how it works out.

lirithiel

Since this new Bonding fiasco I noticed that my Crit chance is 99% in combat so I guess it's time to return to Crit Sev companions for the time being.

jonkoca

Okay, so after a lot of messing about, my final line up is:

1) Summoned bonding pet. Legendary Fire archon. Why..?

3x offensive slots = power. 1x ring of loyal avenger, 1x +4 brutality ring, loyal av. talisman.

He's quick off the mark, stays near enough for constant ca if I run pack. +7% dmg bonus to targets bellow 50% health. Stacks friendship and cameraderie like clockwork. If a +4 sudden precision ring drops, I might slot that instead of avenger, but rngesus has yet to drop me another one.

2) Purple erinyes. 10% critsev. 'Nuff said.

3) Purple air archon. 5% damage to targets not at full health.

The last ones are a pain, the others are no brainers.

4) I usually go with a purple water archon, because I'm most often at full health, due to high LS and damage, and having three archons boosts each by 1% so 7+6(+8) means a fairly dependable dmg increase of 13-21%.

5) A purple paranoid delusion. Mainly because I'm sick of testing pets, he gives +3% dmg bonus to rooted targets.

If I had a cambian mage for another 10% critsev... I'd go with that, but I don't.

On boss fights I swap out the last 2 for a purple intellect devourer and a purple blinkdog. CA is always good.

I tried a sellsword, but they are a bit slow to get into combat, amd by the time they've done their slash, slash, debuff... most mobs are dead. On bosses sure, a sellsword is great, but these days even bosses go down amazingly fast with a good group.

wdj40

On the X1 I have upgraded a Basic (2 Gold) Con Artist to Epic... But I have to wait for the recent changes to Bonding before I can see if he is any good.

2 Offence and 1 Defence slot... then he has 3 Ring Slots... He is a GWF so fairly quick at getting into battle. At the moment though he procs the Gifts fairly slow compared to the Merc... after the change this may be much better. His attack has a 10% enemy defence debuff which is nice and his attacks are AoE.

lirithiel

I'm curious to learn what summoned companion my fellow HRs are running with now. After the Bonding change I bought a Pseudodragon (because almost a dragon) and have been using that is my summoned companion. I did some testing after leveling it up and it only does marginally less damage than Blink Dog or Lightfoot Thief. However, it takes fracking forever for it to get into combat - half the time it just stands next to me like its rooted.

I'm trying to find a companion that has 3 offensive slots and a decent active bonus along with good damage. I absolutely love the Blink Dog - it has teleport so gets into combat real fast BUT it has one defensive slot which is a pity. Same with Lightfoot Thief really. The Fire Archon would be an okay option if I wasn't playing Archer, although it doesn't do nearly as much damage as the other two. The Air Archon is melee at least but its damage is even worse.

isssssho

well im done with testing - sehanine is meh due to her quite long cast time - the spell is not applied to me for about 3 sec while 7 sec is, so 7 out of 10 sec is not good enough with me
I also tested some other companions and for now on top of my list are - con artist, fire archon, air archon.
Con artist have 1 offence slot less but also have skill that reduce enemy dmg resist by 5%
Fire and air archon are pretty much same but I dont want to use fire archon as my active pet so air it is (air archon(5% dmg bonus), siege engineer (4% dmg bonus), erinyes (10% severity), lightfoot thief (bleed on crits), earth archon / dancing blade)

Companions deal around 1% of my total dmg so im not concerned how much dmg is dealt directly by companion, as for crit - due to having 2+ ring slots - ill put +5 sudden precision n brutality and than bonus from bonding should give me 30+% crit + 10% from sudden precision on myself should put it insta 100% along from my base of 60%

durugudesu

i dont know what is with you guys being obsessed with your companion's damage output, now that bondings proc on initial hit, you can simply choose companions over their active bonuses. if you have a fire archon, go use a fire archon, get an air and earth to go with it, 2 slots left. if you are a cw/hr and not using a wild hunt rider, well sorry to say you, are missing out a free 10% damage increase. that leaves you 1 more companion, get an owlbear cub, an erinyes, siegemaster, kobold, whichever fits you. you can also get 3 combat advantage pets, and choose 2 more.

If you want the ring slots and wouldnt mind losing 1 active bonus slot, then go get the free battlerager, it has 3 ring slots.

aaramis75

durugudesu said:

i dont know what is with you guys being obsessed with your companion's damage output, now that bondings proc on initial hit, you can simply choose companions over their active bonuses. if you have a fire archon, go use a fire archon, get an air and earth to go with it, 2 slots left. if you are a cw/hr and not using a wild hunt rider, well sorry to say you, are missing out a free 10% damage increase. that leaves you 1 more companion, get an owlbear cub, an erinyes, siegemaster, kobold, whichever fits you. you can also get 3 combat advantage pets, and choose 2 more.

If you want the ring slots and wouldnt mind losing 1 active bonus slot, then go get the free battlerager, it has 3 ring slots.

Yeah, things have changed now. When this post started, I believe it was pre-Bonding changes.

Now it's more a matter of slots available (3 x offense, etc.) and bonuses, than proc speed.
Lightfoot Thief's value just dropped drastically.

lirithiel

durugudesu said:

if you are a cw/hr and not using a wild hunt rider, well sorry to say you, are missing out a free 10% damage increase.

I heard that the Wild Hunt Rider doesn't proc all that much. @jonkoca tested it and others too, saying it's not as good as it was pre-Mod 6.

jonkoca

Wild hunt procs well for cws, but on my HR it procced once in a blue moon. So no, don't use a wild hunt.

jhpnw

HEARS MINE

jhpnw

heres Mine
1.Shadow demon hits in a second or 2, has 3 offense slots. His ability makes deflect sev 100% . He does 13 mill per CN run DPS. loaded with 3ea rank 12 bonding and all avenger gear with 3ea rank 11 azure offence 3ea rank 11 darks defense. with 50% deflection I deflect 100% damage better than 1/2 of the time and do 3000 damage to who ever caused deflection. With 30% life steal and insignia boost if not 1 shot I heal instantly
2. earth Icon for damage and tanking
3. galebb Duhrr for damage and tanking
4. Dancing blade for crit severity of 5% and gives ca
5. swap between repentant cultist and angel of protection repentant cultist is 5% vs dragons in dragon flight

soonergm

No votes for the Lillend?