Fire Archon Companion

imabigdawg

So I just got a fire archon with three bonding rune stones lvl 8.... I am a great weapon fighter, lvl 70... I also have a black dragon ioun... Anyways, why do many people have fire archons?. Aren't there better companions out there?. I'm not to savvy on the companions.... I have a black in which increases my stats a lot... Trying to get used to the fire archon lol...But just curious to hear ur thoughts on best companions and why everyone is favoring the archons ... Thanks,

talifeexpectancy

The fire archon is a solid striker companion pet, but it has a tendency to take longer to proc the bonding runestones, and still has low survivability. People prefer the mercenary companion because 1) it's account-wide if you buy the pack that contains it, so you have a decent bonding proccing companion on EVERY character 2) it procs the bonding runestones much faster than many other strikers, for whatever reason.

A lot of companion choosing comes down to what slots they have too. Obviously most DPS classes want 3 offensive slots for the bonding runestones, but beyond that most people want rings or talisman slots for the equipment because of the Adorable Bites gear, which comes in a ring and a talisman form, and has two offensive slots rather than one offense and one defense. Of course you could grind castle never and edemo for the +5 offensive rings too, but that's RNG and can take millenia, and then you might not get the one you want (rising power, rising precision) and instead get a crappy offensivive +5 (lifesteal), whereas the Bites gear has power/crit, which are both great stats for DPS. Defensive classes vary on what they want.

But anyway like I said fire archon is decent. I actually blue 2.7million AD buying a talisman of adorable bites so that I could try running a fire archon instead of my merc. Both have 3 offensive slots for the bonding runestones, but the fire archon's gear slots is Ring, Ring, Talisman (which means I have SIX offensive enchants on him running all bites gear). The merc has Ring, Ring, Belt, so you only get FIVE offensive slots on him. The speed with which the merc procs the runestones outweighs the fire archon's extra offensive slot though, for now.

Once the patch comes that changes how the bondings work, though, it's likely going to be better to run a companion with greater survivability, because (if I understand it right), the bondings will be up 100% of the time as long as your companion is alive, so it's best to have a companion that stays alive, even if they take a little longer to proc the runestones.


One last thing: You MIGHT be better off running an ioun stone for now, at least until you get your bondings up to like rank 10. I'm not 100% certain of the math on it and at what point it becomes better to run bondings on a striker companion, but I do now that at lower ranks, the bonding runestones become less and less "better" than running an ioun stone, since you get 100% of the stats on the stone at all times. It may be something to talk to an experienced player in your guild about, at least.

I hope this wall of text helps!

Oh, one last thing: a major factor in choosing companions is what their active bonus is. It's much better to have something like an Archon, which gives a flat % damange increase like 3%, 4%, 5%, even if that increase is "when enemies are below half health" like a fire archon, than to have a companion that just has a measly 120 power or something like that as its active bonus. Having the right 5 active companions with proper % bonuses (whether it be to damage, crit, or whatnot) is much better than having a hodgepodge of crappy active bonus companions. Personally I run two archons, two companions that give combat damage % increase (since I almost always have combat advantage as my TR), and then either my merc or my fire archon as my 5th one, which is my summoned one.

robdingowarrior

In my opinion if you're gonna use an archon, you need all 4 types. As long as they are all active give you an additional .5 stat boost per archon.

imabigdawg

Thanks a lot for that great answer... so you can have two fire archons so it would be 10 percent crit chance when enemies are lower then half health? They stack?? And i understand, that all companion abilities are ACTIVE even when they are not summoned correct?

Mount stats however are always active, correct... all mounts you have in your stable give u 100 percent of their stats even if your not riding them.

oldbaldyone

robdingowarrior said:

In my opinion if you're gonna use an archon, you need all 4 types. As long as they are all active give you an additional .5 stat boost per archon.

Not sure I would go that far to say 4. The Water Archon (increased damage against enemies at full health) is largely worthless, so even though its .5 stat boost, you should be able to find a more impactful active to raise your effectiveness.

robdingowarrior

you can only have one of each archon: earth, wind, fire, and air. I'm using archons for the time being bc they stack and are quite a bit less expensive then other companions. TY for the insight oldbaldyone :)

speedokillz

oldbaldyone said:

robdingowarrior said:

In my opinion if you're gonna use an archon, you need all 4 types. As long as they are all active give you an additional .5 stat boost per archon.

Not sure I would go that far to say 4. The Water Archon (increased damage against enemies at full health) is largely worthless, so even though its .5 stat boost, you should be able to find a more impactful active to raise your effectiveness.

I kindof agree with the 'use 1, use all idea.' Imo is that the only reason to use archons is if you are dps class and you would probably striking first and at 'full health,' so you should strike with your highest dps encounter to get to the 'less than full' and 'below half' bonuses as your team mates and you smash away....

Again, only my mentality when choosing the Archons.

mordekai

I asked about archons the other day, and following some good advice I decided to go for all 4.
My 2.5 TR now dps's like a HAMSTER' compared to before, and i have buffed the earth archon with hp and a bull ring and I dance round mobs while he takes the pain and stays on his feet for ages.
I am an archon convert now, and since my basic game plan involves not getting hit, Ioun Stones aren't an option.
I just wish there was a fifth element so they could have another to fill that last slot..

wdj40

talifeexpectancy said:

The fire archon is a solid striker companion pet, but it has a tendency to take longer to proc the bonding runestones, and still has low survivability. People prefer the mercenary companion because 1) it's account-wide if you buy the pack that contains it, so you have a decent bonding proccing companion on EVERY character 2) it procs the bonding runestones much faster than many other strikers, for whatever reason.

A lot of companion choosing comes down to what slots they have too. Obviously most DPS classes want 3 offensive slots for the bonding runestones, but beyond that most people want rings or talisman slots for the equipment because of the Adorable Bites gear, which comes in a ring and a talisman form, and has two offensive slots rather than one offense and one defense. Of course you could grind castle never and edemo for the +5 offensive rings too, but that's RNG and can take millenia, and then you might not get the one you want (rising power, rising precision) and instead get a crappy offensivive +5 (lifesteal), whereas the Bites gear has power/crit, which are both great stats for DPS. Defensive classes vary on what they want.

But anyway like I said fire archon is decent. I actually blue 2.7million AD buying a talisman of adorable bites so that I could try running a fire archon instead of my merc. Both have 3 offensive slots for the bonding runestones, but the fire archon's gear slots is Ring, Ring, Talisman (which means I have SIX offensive enchants on him running all bites gear). The merc has Ring, Ring, Belt, so you only get FIVE offensive slots on him. The speed with which the merc procs the runestones outweighs the fire archon's extra offensive slot though, for now.

Once the patch comes that changes how the bondings work, though, it's likely going to be better to run a companion with greater survivability, because (if I understand it right), the bondings will be up 100% of the time as long as your companion is alive, so it's best to have a companion that stays alive, even if they take a little longer to proc the runestones.


One last thing: You MIGHT be better off running an ioun stone for now, at least until you get your bondings up to like rank 10. I'm not 100% certain of the math on it and at what point it becomes better to run bondings on a striker companion, but I do now that at lower ranks, the bonding runestones become less and less "better" than running an ioun stone, since you get 100% of the stats on the stone at all times. It may be something to talk to an experienced player in your guild about, at least.

I hope this wall of text helps!

Oh, one last thing: a major factor in choosing companions is what their active bonus is. It's much better to have something like an Archon, which gives a flat % damange increase like 3%, 4%, 5%, even if that increase is "when enemies are below half health" like a fire archon, than to have a companion that just has a measly 120 power or something like that as its active bonus. Having the right 5 active companions with proper % bonuses (whether it be to damage, crit, or whatnot) is much better than having a hodgepodge of crappy active bonus companions. Personally I run two archons, two companions that give combat damage % increase (since I almost always have combat advantage as my TR), and then either my merc or my fire archon as my 5th one, which is my summoned one.

Um just want to point out the Merc has 6 slots too.

2 on each of the 2 Rings and 2 on a Belt.

wdj40

robdingowarrior said:

In my opinion if you're gonna use an archon, you need all 4 types. As long as they are all active give you an additional .5 stat boost per archon.

Apart from Fire Archon. On the description it does not have this .5 increase as a bonus.

Also as others have mentioned the Water Archon Active is not worth equipping at all.

zak3056

As @oldbaldyone notes,The Water Archon is basically useless. You can get a LOT more mileage out of MANY other easily obtainable companions.

speedokillz

Well, I disagree with the broad sweeping "Useless" that is being thrown around here. Try a trickster rogue coming out of Stealth with First Strike and Lashing Blade... feeeeeeel the pooooower!

But guess I'll agree that the usefulness of the Water Archon is limited.

oldbaldyone

speedokillz said:

Well, I disagree with the broad sweeping "Useless" that is being thrown around here. Try a trickster rogue coming out of Stealth with First Strike and Lashing Blade... feeeeeeel the pooooower!

But guess I'll agree that the usefulness of the Water Archon is limited.

If you can always get that first hit, I suppose its not totally useless. But the others are more widely useful. Getting yourself to 100% health isnt hard, getting them below 50% is going to happen with all of them and so is getting them to be not at full health. While adding in Water does get you a 2% bonus to them all, mobs are only at 100% health for that very first hit and then never again.

So basically its a worthless active for most classes, and adds 2% to the other bonuses when you have the other 3 also equipped. Im not a companion expert but I would think you could get another companion with a better active that also adds 2% to dasmage.

speedokillz

^^^^^ Maybe you could get another companion that also adds 2% damage... but I see Water Archon on the AH right nor for only 3000-4000 AD. Sounds like a bargain to me.

soonergm

speedokillz said:

^^^^^ Maybe you could get another companion that also adds 2% damage... but I see Water Archon on the AH right nor for only 3000-4000 AD. Sounds like a bargain to me.

you could have gotten an intellect devourer for free during a CTA, an even better bargain for a better companion for a dps class. but yes, i can see the benefit for a water archon as a temporary fix in your situation, until you are able to get something better.

speedokillz

Another situation where one class may benefit from the Water Archon is the SW. Curse a mob then Dreadtheft the lot of them... The Scourge could, by themselves be the first strike at full health to everything in the room, immediately have the enemies less than full health, then allowing them to be less than 50% a little faster.

I know the general consensus is that you guys do not see value in this particular archon, but for the price the damage potential is probably much better than many believe.

mordekai

Have to agree that with first strike a water archon is a good add on for a TR. I've not crunched the numbers, so my point is anecdotal, but it helps a LOT in getting big bads down to the 50 percent where the other bonuses a TR has start to kick and build as you get them down to 30 or less.
That AND the +0.5 certainly makes it a stayer for me for a while.

imabigdawg

I'm a lvl 70 GWF.... 2744 item level... With the fire archon with three lvl 8 bonding stones and drowcraft rings ... Then as we know I have the ioun stone... I got the cleric that came with the story line, who's lvl epic lol.... And then I have a HAMSTER HAMSTER one I got from the maze engine .... After reading this I still have 2 or three spots for companions... Maybe I should hit other spots with other archons ?..

lordknightx11

I got to admit, after reading all of this, I didn't know some players were so hardcore about stats. No wonder I hear people getting kicked out of dungeons runs, I assume they mean about the 70+ I guess it's a good thing this game adjust to all players and not just hardcore dungeons players .

armadeonx

Don't forget the water archon will also add an extra .5% to the effectiveness of your other archons.

bozgreen

I take archons, without the Water, plus a Stone for its augmentation, for most of my DPS.
But I do take water for my CW.
Always upgrade your companion. There's usually a big difference. Water can go up to 6% Dmg increase when it's Epic.
Then there's the .5% stack.
Anyone uses CW knows how it works. The first strike matters a lot.
And I usually solo. (This is where it's very important)

When there's no Water, I usually fill the 5th spot with Siege Master, which deals 4% more damage all time, and 8% on a stronghold map.

speedokillz

Just curious, what first strike power do you used as CW that makes Water so neat?

reg1981

I'm just browsing from the PC forums but have a question, have they updated the bonding procs on xbox yet to start with the fight or do your companions still have to proc each stack of companions gift individually?

If your waiting for the companion to proc(Old way) then the Zentierium Warlock or the Lightfoot Thief are great procers! If they proc when you first start the fight then it doesn't really matter when it comes to bonding procs. Many of us on PC have switched to the Air/Fire Archons or the Paranoid Delusion/Pseudodragon.

When choosing a companion you have a few things to consider:

1. Active bonuses
2. Proc Speed
3. Equipment slots(Ring, Neck, etc) and Runestone slots(Off/Def) - The more rings the better! The new underdark rings like Brutality +4 will work on your companion. I like to use the sudden power and sudden crit rings on mine. The rising power/crit do not work.
4. Insignia bonus proc'ing and Underdark ring proc'ing - This is where a companion will make a difference. A companion that has to walk all the way into battle and hit something is going to proc these slower than a ranged companion or one that can teleport in.
5. Survivability - Now there is an item called the Lliras Bell that will revive your companion from death and make him immune for 20 seconds. Get your hands on one of them and survivability doesn't matter as much.


If you want to do DPS Fire, Air, Earth Archons + siege master are amazing DPS boosts. Anything with a straight % DMG buff is where your going to spit out HDPS. The water archon does offer a similar bonus but it's only on the first hit and a small % toward the other archons. My personal layout at the moment on my SW is Fire, Air, Earth, Siege Master, and the Enryies of Belial from the warlock booster pack. Now that my crit sev is as high as it is I will soon swap out the Enryies for something different. The Dread enchant put my crit sev way higher than it has ever been so the Enryies is not as necessary as it once was.