We have been making adjustments to companion powers to address the drastic imbalances across them.

ewjax

@nitocris83

I noticed the post indicated that the HDPS comps would be balanced, what about all the completely useless LOW DPS striking comps? Granted there a few that have a eDPS 25k+, what about the dozens that are under 10k? Displacer Beast being the absolute worse of the bunch at 2k eDPS.

Our guild has everything from endgame, to complete new players, when you released the fey lockbox with the displacer I saw so many people that were silly enough to waste resources upgrading them.

My point is balance can be balance not just nerfing, would be great to see some fixing. If your going to balance add some balance, otherwise leave them be, with some good and some bad.

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kir4me8604

It would be nice to see more companions get BUFFED.

kir4me8604

While we are making suggestions about everything companion related:

Instead of putting everything in the Zen market, how about pulling that Emporium vendor out of the Manycoin Bank and reworking her for the Adventure Guild.

She could offer monthly rotational companions at different rarities up to epic for astral diamonds only no tradebars.

adakite

Please don't forget that, in some cases, imbalance is what makes the game interesting. Testing to find the companions that do great damage and then saving up AD if necessary to get them. At the moment it feels like companions only do great damage by accident and the goal is that all companions are made equal.
How boring would the game be if the answer to "which dps companion should I get?" was "it doesnt matter, get any"

I know that isn't the case and the real game plan is to just cycle which companions are "broken" to keep the $$ rolling in. I know I wouldn't be surprised one bit if one of the companions in the zen store soon becomes the new bis.
But Cryptic talk about transparency in their post. How about they be genuinely transparent for once.

Ps. Also, why are the changes made to companions different, which means that they can't be described transparently in the patch notes?

kir4me8604

They were Targeted! Just like the Air Archon. Crabs in a bucket effect: One or more companions rise just to get knocked down by nerfs. I pray one day the bucket just tips over so all those crabs could just walk out.

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armadeonx

The primary differentiators between companions should be their role (ST/AE/Healer/Buffer), stat & active bonuses and any additional support values (e.g. Regis providing 3% recharge speed to a group)

Outside of that there really should be minimal difference of total output in the dps range (imo)

kir4me8604

Rather a companion is good or bad, BIS just takes away from player choice and funnels everyone down the same road: nerfs.

Design and Improve these companions to do what they are intended to do: HEAL, DAMAGE, and TANK. Not sit and stare at the enemies as we run around popping potions, artifacts, mount powers just to save us during long cooldowns.

Take a page from Dragon's Dogma, the Pawn System in that game is serious. Those companions fight with you, make recommendations, pick you up if you go down, warn you, give you items and potions. LOL.

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rikitaki

You can interpret the official post in two ways:
a) accept what is written there - and assume they fixed an unintentional AoE effect of an power, while they have no idea their touch to a power that barely mattered somehow significantly tanked everything - including ST performance of the companion in a trivial dummy test... (not exactly unlikely)
b) accept the game cash mechanics - too many people have the mentioned companions (Air Archon, Xuna, Abyssal Chicken, Black Ice Prospector, and Cold Iron Warrior) on the mythic quality and it is necessary to motivate those to further invest in their chars... (true)

Either way, it is really a continuous process. You should not expect the game you play today to be played the same way tomorrow. Which means: if you like and enjoy anything here at all, or are proud on your progress... oh, boy, you are in trouble.

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rockster

Augments were also nerfed to the point I, who used to use one exclusively for years, had to finally accept defeat and swap to an active companion who does damage because it made no sense anymore to use an augment. The pathetic stats from an augment now (only slightly above an active anyway) are just not worth it. They used to be. The trade-off by losing direct companion damage was offset by the stats you got.

edit: where is the post I replied to gone? This forum is all sorts of screwy. Anyway, someone said they were using ioun stone saying how worth it it was and I was replying to that.

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greywynd

New companions will always outshine the old. It generates revenue. Then, later, they will be neutered, and the cycle will happen again.

kir4me8604

All of those companions getting nerfed are all old companions. Xuna is not new. Air Archon is not new. Black Ice Prospector is not new. Nor is the Cold Iron Warrior.

plasticbat

kir4me8604#8436 said:

All of those companions getting nerfed are all old companions. Xuna is not new. Air Archon is not new. Black Ice Prospector is not new. Nor is the Cold Iron Warrior.

A way to make new companion to outshine the old one is to nerf the old one. New does not necessary a totally new created from scratch one but can be (say) new in Zen store.

rockster

They need a transparent companion policy which is established and does not change and most importantly is conveyed to the players clearly once and for all so everyone knows what to expect from this time forward. One such policy could be that when new zen companions are introduced all previous 'premium' companions are adjusted down to match all the others to prevent power creep, this way players would know and expect that at some point newer more elite companions were eventually adjusted down to settle-in along with the rest and not again changed, and they effectively got a minor benefit from new ones for a period of time but at some point those companions would also match all the others in power. This would do two things, first it would mean players who wanted to have the absolute best and continually chase that, would be able to do so seeing they don't care about anything other than having the best there is regardless of what the companion looks like and could just keep upgrading and swapping-out, and it would also allow everyone else to understand that most companions were in a pool of comparable ones and sooner or later no matter what companion it was, it would eventually join this pool. It would also be nice to have new companions released on some kind of regular time calendar arrangement which did not alter so players had certainty on how long a new premium companion was going to be viable for ('x' months for example) and plan ahead for the next one's release.

greywynd

And once again, the ToS spells out that they can change whatever they want whenever they want. If they made such a policy as you suggest it would only be smoke on the wind.

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greywynd

ewjax#5077 said:

Of course they can change whatever and whenever they want, but they need to wake up to the fact that the current nerfing stuff but almost never fixing stuff is causing player more resentment. Every time they do a major rework such as the combat changes the games looses so many players. If they had a good track record for fixing the game, we would not keep resenting the little changes and nerfs, and rage quit for the really big changes.

As I mentioned earlier, I supportive of Cryptic adding some balance as long as they are adding balance to the broken content too. For me personally, just nerfing the good content and not fixing the bad content is causing a lot of resentment. I already have some friends that have moved to newer games. Any more whatever/whenever that keeps breaking my good items/comps/etc and not fixing the bad items and I will join them.

They want our opinions.

And then generally ignore everything we offer them.

I don't see their work process along these lines changing. Like ever.

silente07

The companions as a whole no longer perform their stated roles, defender, striker, healer.

All we have are Strikers and they keep getting nerfed.

Healers won’t be fixed because they want you to rely on healer potions or stones, so solo content with any kind of companion other than a striker is pointless at this time. Because of the combat system.

Lastly, if this quest for balance makes them all the same. What’s the point? What is there to strive for? If they are interchangeable why go after or buy or level any of them since they won’t be doing much, except for Soriadel, who will continue to get in everybody’s way and block the screen. 😄

People like to feel special and have cool stuff, turning a Corvette into a Corolla certainly isn’t the answer.

Lastly, there are so many more issues that need fixed far and above Companion doing damage.

You’re polishing a lamp while the boat continues to spring more leaks.

rockster

silente07#2597 said:

except for Soriadel, who will continue to get in everybody’s way and block the screen. 😄

This. xD

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