The future of companions

zimxero

Companions are awesome, but most players end up getting an augment and just sticking with it. There is more the game could do.

1) Bolster per category could be increased to 25%, but base it on companion level instead of companion grade. Its the same thing except.. you would only gain the bolster for leveling the companion. (alternately, bolster could be a total of all up to 50%)

2) Add an artifact, item power, or gear stone that lets players bring an additional fighting companion, in exchange for -25% companion boost.

3) Add an artifact, item power, or gear stone that increases companion damage by 25% when there are no other companions nearby.

4) give us an option to designate which companion will be receiving our experience.

drumon88

Companion effectiveness/stats are already tied to companion level, companion quality simply raises the level cap. A purple companion at level 1 will have significantly lower stats than a green companion at level 25, for example. This indirectly effects bolster.

I do agree that the current setup with Bolster feels like a not-so-great AD sink. The stat transfer difference between a level 40 Deepcrow Hatchling with 15% bolster and R15 bondings and a level 40 Deepcrow Hatchling with 12% bolster and R15 bondings is pretty minor, a couple hundred power and less than 1000 in stats you're probably already well over cap in by the time you get R15 bondings anyway. And getting that extra few percent of bolster is ludicrously expensive (1M AD or a ton of companion upgrade tokens). They could perhaps raise the cap of companions that contribute to Bolster without changing the Bolster cap (say, 10 companions for up to 15% bolster) to allow people to get to the cap without having to get 5 companions of the same category to Legendary. Alternatively, raise the Bolster cap and the amount of bolster given by Blue and better companions to 20-25% to make the investment a bit more worthwhile (Legendary comps give 5%, Epic give 3.5%, etc so the gap between qualities is a bit more pronounced and the benefits are a bit better for the AD invested).

I do want more than my active companion to receive experience. This was something that had been a perk of VIP that got taken away with no compensation with Mod16 that I think they could very easily bring back. Even 1% of earned experience spread across the entire roster would be a huuuuuuge help and will help restore some of the value to buying VIP. Companions aren't particularly hard to level (1 invoke will take one from lvl 1 to lvl 12ish depending on your +exp percent, then a full day of dailies will take it into the high 20's to low 30's) but for those that don't have a lot of time to run anything other than the current unscaled content it will give them an option to level their subpar companions without hamstringing them where they actually NEED the stat transfer.

regenerde

Well,
1. fixing companions.
2. - xy. anything else.

I'd suggest they start with using the players weapon damage as base for the damage/healing companion abilities, plus a bonus from the companion level or rarity.
Then every regular companions should get a fast basic attack, and a more powerfull but slower abilitiy depending on their "role", the other two passive companion bonuses should also be improved/upgraded.
Active companion bonuses should get another rework based on player feedback, those new bonuses should fit to the companion "class" and offer a wider spread of choices for players in the end.
Companion movement speed should match the players MS, or give companions a teleport option they can use when they have no clear line towards their player.
The "range" companions should stop running around like headless chickens during fights in general, and they should also stop going into "melee" range during boss fights.

And there should be more "team work" or synergy between player and companion, they shouldn't just be reduced to simple stats carrier. It looks and feels like a lot of hard work if not "love" went into companions, and it's really sad to see them destroyed with Undermountain...

Anyway, to make it short, all companions should become usefull again.

Edit: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1249090/class-packs-temporarily-blocked-on-rca
those class packs should return to the ZEN shop either reduced in price or with epic account-wide companions like most of the older DLCs have.

cheerz4beerz

Just don't let companions take damage...I would be fine choosing between more stats or some extra damage but as companions can die they are just pointless. Augments are the only viable choice atm.

drumon88

cheerz4beerz said:

Just don't let companions take damage...I would be fine choosing between more stats or some extra damage but as companions can die they are just pointless. Augments are the only viable choice atm.

Right now, in endgame gear, an augment is the clear winner. Period. The sheer amount of extra power you can get out of an augment is insane, 20-40k more than a striker companion.

For example, I have a legendary air archon at max level, with 15% bolster. This gives me about 112k total power in YP. If I swap to my Epic Deepcrow Hatchling at level 35 with 11.5% bolster I jump to 131k power, and I expect that once I get it to legendary and 15% bolster I'll be in the neighborhood of 150k power. And I don't even have all my runestones to rank 14 yet, that gap will only get wider and wider as I level those up. The difference between 112k power and 131k power, for me, is about 14% realized dps. Meanwhile a striker companion does about 2% dps. It's a huge difference, enough so that any combat advantage I'd get in solo content from flanking with a striker still won't close the dps gap.

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dennizonn

I would be happy if the roles were clearly defined and recognizable again. By that I mean a healer heals, an augment buffs, a striker adds DPS, and a tank draws aggro; and make them good at it too. One of the reasons I used to love to play GW1 was the excellent companion system, and it wasn't just because I prefer solo play, but it added a level of character development and a sense of party management to my game.

robai

Current companions are at least 100 times less efficient than they were before U16.
So, fixing them should be top priority.
After that we can talk about other things related to companions.

zimxero

Perhaps there is another, more interesting balance fix:

Add ten more levels to each companion grade (Legendary can go to 50 now). The companions stats & powers cap at level 40... but each additional level gives the companion 2% additional damage and 20,000 health. For augments... the three specially augmented stats increase by 100 per level after 40... raising the current +1,000 per bonus stat to +2,000 possible. I would re-arrange leveling costs to "each level" costing Astral Diamonds & Copper Pieces(gold sink), or Upgrade Tokens. By making the cost per level, it is much more affordable to players... in bite-sized chunks.

Level AD & copper pieces - or - Tokens
1 100 1
2 400 1
3 900 1
4 1600 1
5 2500 1
6 3600 1
7 4900 1
8 6400 1
9 8100 1
10 10000 1
11 12100 2
12 14400 2
13 16900 2
14 19600 2
15 22500 3
16 25600 3
17 28900 3
18 32400 4
19 36100 4
20 40000 4
21 44100 5
22 48400 5
23 52900 6
24 57600 6
25 62500 7
26 67600 7
27 72900 8
28 78400 8
29 84100 9
30 90000 9
31 96100 10
32 102400 11
33 108900 11
34 115600 12
35 122500 13
36 129600 13
37 136900 14
38 144400 15
39 152100 16
40 160000 16
41 168100 17
42 176400 18
43 184900 19
44 193600 20
45 202500 21
46 211600 22
47 220900 23
48 230400 23
49 240100 25
50 250000 25

TOTAL: 4,292,500 Astral Diamonds
plus 429.25 Gold Pieces
- or - 453 Companion Tokens (total)

cheerz4beerz

I would love to see companions be as useful as swtor companions. There are so many cool companions in neverwinter and currently we just can't really use them.

regenerde

zimxero#8085 said:

Perhaps there is another, more interesting balance fix:

Add ten more levels to each companion grade (Legendary can go to 50 now). The companions stats & powers cap at level 40... but each additional level gives the companion 2% additional damage and 20,000 health. For augments... the three specially augmented stats increase by 100 per level after 40... raising the current +1,000 per bonus stat to +2,000 possible. I would re-arrange leveling costs to "each level" costing Astral Diamonds & Copper Pieces(gold sink), or Upgrade Tokens. By making the cost per level, it is much more affordable to players... in bite-sized chunks.

Level AD & copper pieces - or - Tokens
1 100 1
...
50 250000 25

TOTAL: 4,292,500 Astral Diamonds
plus 429.25 Gold Pieces
- or - 453 Companion Tokens (total)

No, because upgrading companions is allready way too expensive, not to mention that we need several higher quality companions to get a decent category bonus for them, and considering how they have cut the players AD "income" again and again over the last few modules, it's high time that upgrade costs receive a similar (decreasing) treatment as well.

If they want to add another AD sink to the game through companions, then they should improve all companions offered currently in the Wondrous Bazaar to epic and introduce more usefull companions (former event or promotion companions for example) to the WB on a monthly rotation.

And they should do the same to the Trade Bars Store, but also adjust the trade bar prices of the companions, so that we don't have to wait for another sale before buying those.

Anyway, i'm still waiting on an official word on the whole companion mess, something that goes beyond the "we're looking into it." and explains how the Devs are going to fix this HAMSTER...

hustin1

Adding insult to injury is the fact that they nerfed the Indomitable runestone to the point of uselessness. In Mod 15, a rank 14 Indomitable gave your companion a 70% boost. Now it gives a stingy 12%. Whoever thought that 12% was enough from such a huge investment is tone-deaf in the extreme.

vorphied

hustin1 said:

Adding insult to injury is the fact that they nerfed the Indomitable runestone to the point of uselessness. In Mod 15, a rank 14 Indomitable gave your companion a 70% boost. Now it gives a stingy 12%. Whoever thought that 12% was enough from such a huge investment is tone-deaf in the extreme.

..but the companions still did terrible damage. They should probably just remove that runestone so that people stop mistaking it for a viable choice.

I'm sure that's going to trigger a few people who object on principle to the limitation of player choice, but when new players see these things they tend to assume that they wouldn't be there if they weren't meant to use them...right? Then they get a negative experience when they make friends and visit forums and find out that the choice was a terrible one.

zimxero

Actually I traded some of my unbound enchants for Indomitables when the game went live. Now, I'd like to change them into something else... but the Antiquities dealer wont convert Runestones like it did on the Playtest server. Wasted a lot of money & inventory space there.

hustin1

@nitocris83 @mimicking#6533 You really went way overboard in gimping companions. For example, I just finished an AI basement run. For fun I gave my Zhentarim Warlock an R13 Indomitable. Her DoTs were doing a whopping one hit point of damage. Seriously. ONE HP. I think her largest attack crit'ed for 11 hp. We're talking on the order of several MINUTES for my companion to kill anything at that rate. What is the point of even having an attack companion?

dressroba

i myself think companions in neverwinter are overpowed in 16 just look at the amount of stats they give you now .
what neverwinter need is more dungeons not a new pet system .

regenerde

hustin1 said:

@nitocris83 @mimicking#6533 You really went way overboard in gimping companions. For example, I just finished an AI basement run. For fun I gave my Zhentarim Warlock an R13 Indomitable. Her DoTs were doing a whopping one hit point of damage. Seriously. ONE HP. I think her largest attack crit'ed for 11 hp. We're talking on the order of several MINUTES for my companion to kill anything at that rate. What is the point of even having an attack companion?

https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1249352/owlbear-cubs-presence-doesnt-work-at-all-on-test-server
just add it to the list of broken companion stuff.

Most of the time i've the Black Dragon Ioun Stone from the Dragonborn Legend Pack active now, i mean what's the point in using a regular companion anymore?
They're either simply useless, sometimes even dangerous since they tend to draw more enemies to a fight, or plainly bugged up from here to Hell and back.

autumnwitch

I read all these threads and see ALL these things not working, all these things broke that people paid good money for. At one point I have to wonder when the lawyers are gonna get involved. It's getting out of hand. Either fix the darn game ASAP or shut it down.

thefiresidecat

I think next patch was supposed to be fixing owlbear and the rest in the same class of bugged comps

cabar1

> @autumnwitch said:
> I read all these threads and see ALL these things not working, all these things broke that people paid good money for. At one point I have to wonder when the lawyers are gonna get involved. It's getting out of hand. Either fix the darn game ASAP or shut it down.

LOL.
Mayhap, you could just quit playing?

autumnwitch

cabar1 said:

> @autumnwitch said:

> I read all these threads and see ALL these things not working, all these things broke that people paid good money for. At one point I have to wonder when the lawyers are gonna get involved. It's getting out of hand. Either fix the darn game ASAP or shut it down.



LOL.

Mayhap, you could just quit playing?

Maybe I want to see the game succeed? It's possible to like something and be critical of it, you know. NW is shadow of what it used to be and both as a long time player and whale I want, and have a right, to what I paid for. I'm not asking for special treatment just for the game to work as its supposed to. If you think that is unreasonable, maybe you should quit?

cdnbison

hustin1 said:

@nitocris83 @mimicking#6533 You really went way overboard in gimping companions. For example, I just finished an AI basement run. For fun I gave my Zhentarim Warlock an R13 Indomitable. Her DoTs were doing a whopping one hit point of damage. Seriously. ONE HP. I think her largest attack crit'ed for 11 hp. We're talking on the order of several MINUTES for my companion to kill anything at that rate. What is the point of even having an attack companion?

Not to be terribly nitpicky, but according to the text, the Indomitable runestone only affects "pet's powers that target foes" - and the DoT generally doesn't target anything.

That being said, companion powers could definitely use a bit of tweaking. And fixing.