Cleric Disciple - companion development.

grymdael

Hi all,

my cleric disciple is now at level 20.

I am wondering how best to develop the companion from here.

Which runestones to equip?

What equipment to gear her up with?

Finally is it worth the 500, 000 AD to upgrade her to the next level.

Thoughts, and advice most welcome.

xcessiveforce40

Now that your companion is level 20, can you post the (damage) of her healing flame as listed when you click the icon for it? Default damage at level 15 is something like 44-58 (or something like that). What is it at level 20?

Thanks!

lewstelamon01

I'd vote no on the upgrade. Healing is at a flat percentage and doesn't increase with level. Its skillset is....meh.

walk2k

3 eldritch runes (augments)

purple gear with power/crit and whatever other stats you want. don't spend a lot here because diminishing returns. 5-10k per pc gets you within 95% of stuff worth millions...

don't bother upgrading it, you only get a few stat increases in the single % digits, SO not worth the $$

bioshrike

walk2k wrote: »

3 eldritch runes (augments)

purple gear with power/crit and whatever other stats you want. don't spend a lot here because diminishing returns. 5-10k per pc gets you within 95% of stuff worth millions...

don't bother upgrading it, you only get a few stat increases in the single % digits, SO not worth the $$

I am going to have to disagree here. Since the heal is on a 30 second cooldown, I feel that slotting for recovery is your best bet. In the defensive slots I typically slot for extra HP or defense, so she can survive longer. The rune that gives you a % of her stats isn't really worth it - even at 10% you;d only be seeing like +40 or so to a few stats, and that's with very good gear and such...

leeford

I upgraded my Cleric to 30.
WHY?
Because that is the only pet I ever have out.
The difference between 20 and 30?
Only thing I have noticed is she never dies...at all...ever...
I do suspect that groups are benefiting from her heal having the addition 150% range.
But worth the money? that's extremely subjective. For me, it was AD well spent.
Better spent than, say, selling AD for ZEN to open lock boxes with keys....

xcessiveforce40

Leeford, Can you please tell me the damage (listed) for healing flame. Its the weak power for the cleric vs the strong power (can't remember the name) that does 20 percent heal over 10 seconds. thanks!

dzaims

bioshrike wrote: »

I am going to have to disagree here. Since the heal is on a 30 second cooldown, I feel that slotting for recovery is your best bet. In the defensive slots I typically slot for extra HP or defense, so she can survive longer. The rune that gives you a % of her stats isn't really worth it - even at 10% you;d only be seeing like +40 or so to a few stats, and that's with very good gear and such...

I started kitting out my lvl 15 cleric w/ defense and deflect gear, and she survives longer. Might pop for the next level for her, we'll see, but it beats carrying a sh-tton of healing potions around.

leeford

xcessiveforce40 wrote: »

Leeford, Can you please tell me the damage (listed) for healing flame. Its the weak power for the cleric vs the strong power (can't remember the name) that does 20 percent heal over 10 seconds. thanks!

Sure, I can do that tonight and post it with a followup post.

walk2k

recovery doesn't work on pets. their skills that is, it does work for augments.

if you use 3 eldritch level 6 or 7 that's 8/8.5% x3 = about 25% of her stats as yours. no it's not much but it's better than putting defense or deflect on your level 15 cleric so she can survive 1.02 hits instead of 1 hit just don't put HP on pets it doesn't transfer to you.

I don't know about levelling her up, I think if you are going to spend the 900k it costs (?) better off buying a purple healer snake thing whatever its called (Lillend?)

leeford

xcessiveforce40 wrote: »

Leeford, Can you please tell me the damage (listed) for healing flame. Its the weak power for the cleric vs the strong power (can't remember the name) that does 20 percent heal over 10 seconds. thanks!

Sacred flame is hitting in the 90's and critting in the 200's (note I don't have my cleric well runed or geared really)

beckylunatic

I use rank 5 profane runestones on my Faithful Initiates (green quality tiefling version of the Cleric Disciple) and give them a level 60 green icon and necklace with more defense. Secondary equipment stat, you could go regen. They don't die in Sharandar content, ever, unless the spiders get them. They don't typically even come close in the instance boss fights.

In group content, they still get put away because the party DC makes them redundant.

While playing solo or duo, I would much rather have a battle/healer pet upright and doing something useful than be drawing a small amount of stats from it while it stays alive, for the brief amount of time it's even able to stay alive without giving it some defensive bonuses. If I want my companion to act as an augment, then I'll use an augment companion and get *all* the stats from it.

Incidentally, I find that if I am wearing regen gear, the solo content goes by quicker if I use a properly outfitted battle pet to help with DPS/knockdowns/interrupts instead. The Guardian pack dire wolf is very nice, but you've got a lot of options in all those "useless" green striker companions that have been made available from events.

tinukeda

beckylunatic wrote: »

and give them a level 60 green icon and necklace

Only greens? When blues and even purples are pretty darn cheap?

stabbath

I still have mine at lvl 15. Screw the high cost to upgrade them. If enough people would not spend the ad on it, they'd lower it.

I went all defensive on runes. hp, and def. If and when I get high lvl ones I'll try and figure out what's best to stack. Very hard to do since I don't use wards on them. I save them for my character.

beckylunatic

tinukeda wrote: »

Only greens? When blues and even purples are pretty darn cheap?

You can get 125 each to 2 stats you want on a green, or 250 to a single stat. What combination you want on the equipment depends on what kinds of runes you can put on the companion. Level 60 green items can often be purchased for 1-25 AD, maybe as much as a few hundred. When these are good enough, I find it difficult to justify spending 10k+ just to have a companion in purple gear. Gear on companions used to not bind, which meant you had the option of reselling later if you gave one something really valuable. Now that it binds, I'd say it's smarter to outfit them as cheaply as possible.

On blue items, you can get 133/133/110 or possibly 243/133 to desired stats, but not all stats work on companions, and items can't roll with all possible stat combinations, or they'll only come up on certain unique pieces that either have lower numbers, or add in not-useful stats, or are expensive. If you're looking at a blue "of youth" item, you're getting 110 regen for your companion as opposed to the 125 you'd get from a green.

The most worthwhile stats to look at putting on companions, in my opinion, are defense and then either regen for casters or life steal for fighters. Anything else is far less functional in keeping them up and helping you instead of lying on the ground while you grit your teeth and mutter to yourself about how useless they are.

tinukeda

beckylunatic wrote: »

You can get 125 each to 2 stats you want on a green, or 250 to a single stat. What combination you want on the equipment depends on what kinds of runes you can put on the companion. Level 60 green items can often be purchased for 1-25 AD, maybe as much as a few hundred. When these are good enough, I find it difficult to justify spending 10k+ just to have a companion in purple gear. Gear on companions used to not bind, which meant you had the option of reselling later if you gave one something really valuable. Now that it binds, I'd say it's smarter to outfit them as cheaply as possible.

On blue items, you can get 133/133/110 or possibly 243/133 to desired stats, but not all stats work on companions, and items can't roll with all possible stat combinations, or they'll only come up on certain unique pieces that either have lower numbers, or add in not-useful stats, or are expensive. If you're looking at a blue "of youth" item, you're getting 110 regen for your companion as opposed to the 125 you'd get from a green.

The most worthwhile stats to look at putting on companions, in my opinion, are defense and then either regen for casters or life steal for fighters. Anything else is far less functional in keeping them up and helping you instead of lying on the ground while you grit your teeth and mutter to yourself about how useless they are.

Gotcha, but I think there are probably some purples worth checking out. Thickgristle's Sturdy Belt is under 8k currently and gives 575hp and 144 regen (and some others). 8k is pretty darn cheap in my book (1 day's invocations and some daily events) #justsayin

beckylunatic

Thickgristle's Sturdy Belt is one where I'll grant the exception, especially as a patient shopper can find them for 6k (salvage cost) or even slightly less, though I do find life steal preferable to regen on my melee pets, which are the ones that tend to roll with a belt slot.