'Companions'?

princeofjudah

I am assuming companions are AI party members. I am going to need these as it takes too long to get a party of similar level characters which often breaks apart when people have to leave, myself included. I keep seeing complaints about the cost of companions. What is this about? In STO you don't have to pay anything for companions. As they are necessary, do I only have to pay for special ones of some kind?

empa88

at level 10 you get a mission to pick up a companion .. or if you have a character over lvl 10 so you can buy one and send it to your character

mrspuma

Companions (as combat help) are not "necessary" in the PvE game. You can only have one active at a time - eg, you can't have a "party" of companions following you around. While companions during solo/story questing are fun/helpful, the game is perfectly doable without one.

They aren't going to do much to help you run Dungeons all by your lonesome, if that was your concern, unless you're very over-leveled for the dungeon, but then you wouldn't need a party for that anyway.

Complaints about expense are from the Zen or AD acquired (whether from the Bazzar or from the AH) ones, because most people want blue or purple, or the augments (can't be bought for gold).

sternerr

princeofjudah wrote: »

I am assuming companions are AI party members.

They are nothing close to party members, at best they are weak thrash mobs which fight on your side, and you can only have one active. To give you an idea, I have lvl 30 phoera which is supposed to be DPS companion, the mob I kill with 3 at-will strikes phoera kills for 2 minutes and often ends up unconsious.

mrspuma

Yeah, companions aren't about damage..they don't do enough of that after a certain point. They're about distraction, healing, or buffs. That sort of thing.

sockmunkey

You get a free companion at 16, not 10. You can use a companion at any level after the tutorial.

Companions are nothing like an STO away team. You only get to have one summoned at a time. You cant issue it orders, it does what it likes. Companions tend to be fairly fragile and thier damage is largly ignorable.

Companions are only useful for two reasons. Passive buffs or active powers they can offer you. A pet that can offer potion free healing, or a utility move, like providing knock down attacks. Are examples of useful powers without any concern for real damage. Other pets can offer buffs that boost you stats passively. Either by being summoned for huge boosts, like the can or ioun stones. Or a lessor bonus simply due to having the pet slotted, summoned or not.

moods

This could be me, and I might be wrong, but seems hard to quest solo without a healing companion or am I doing something wrong? seems without a healer you needa chuck alot of healing potions.

werealchemist

moods wrote: »

This could be me, and I might be wrong, but seems hard to quest solo without a healing companion or am I doing something wrong? seems without a healer you needa chuck alot of healing potions.

Depends on the class. Clerics, wizards, and rangers often benefit more from the tank companions until they start dying too fast.

GWF and GF should take the healers.

TR are a bit of a toss-up Deflect rogues take the healers, Glass cannon builds take the tank, and perma-stealth is better off without one.

elcymerian

moods wrote: »

This could be me, and I might be wrong, but seems hard to quest solo without a healing companion or am I doing something wrong? seems without a healer you needa chuck alot of healing potions.

Depending on the character class/powers & feats, you are correct. On second thought at some point that is true for nearly everyone's characters. Healing companions don't do much after a certain point either. But that's what the gold is for; potions, potions, and more potions.

adinosii

werealchemist wrote: »

Depends on the class. Clerics, wizards, and rangers often benefit more from the tank companions until they start dying too fast.

Well, you don't take a tank companion into an epic dungeon boss fight ... poor thing does not have the sense to stay out of red circles. However, for all solo content, the companions are just fine, and don't necessarily die as long as you don't take them into anything tougher than, say, Celadine's tower.

Just make sure you outfit them with +Regen and +LifeSteal items (and maybe +Defense too) ... don't bother with +Crit, +ArPen, +Power or +Deflection....and you will see a massive boost in their survival rate.

darkjeff

Note that +Recovery will lower their cooldowns. So a cleric will heal more often, and so on.

They also seem to get considerably more out of +LifeSteal than a player. I didn't find +Regen to do anything notable though.

moods

not sure if its worth spending AD on upgrading my cleric, 300k a pop seems expensive.

beckylunatic

moods wrote: »

not sure if its worth spending AD on upgrading my cleric, 300k a pop seems expensive.

It won't improve her healing, and is unlikely to do much for her survivability. If you want to invest in your cleric, get her some rank 5 defensive runes (profane?) and a good icon and neck combo. Mine wear level 60 green gear with defense+recovery, but you could look at other stats. Honestly though, I've taken to using DPS pets when not using an augment, and relying on regeneration for healing. It makes things go faster.

lissaanne

As someone who has upgraded thier cleric companion, She's blue now, I can actually say the healing is improved and her survivabilty is massively improved. Before upgrading her I did Gnarlroot caves solo by using anywhere from 6-10 health potions a run and revivng the cleric 3-5 times because she went down so dang fast. After I ran Gnarlroot and Celandine and I think out of about 10 runs I had to revive her twice and I used an average of 2 potions a run.

The companion system is really mostly an experiment for everyone in the game, especially while they keep adding new features to them. So, try out a few combos and see what works for you and your play style rather than listening to anyone giving you what they see as the bottom line in an ever changing system.

sockmunkey

Perhaps its just a case of perception. But they really dont heal for more. The cleric companions own power, healing word, has it clearly stated as healing for 20% of the summomers health. That is a fixed value that does not change with quality.

dardove

sockmunkey wrote: »

Perhaps its just a case of perception. But they really dont heal for more. The cleric companions own power, healing word, has it clearly stated as healing for 20% of the summomers health. That is a fixed value that does not change with quality.

I know I did some testing on my lillend a while back and when I increased the power on my lillend, it healed for slightly more. I believe it is % listed + power bonus.

beckylunatic

lissaanne wrote: »

As someone who has upgraded thier cleric companion, She's blue now, I can actually say the healing is improved and her survivabilty is massively improved. Before upgrading her I did Gnarlroot caves solo by using anywhere from 6-10 health potions a run and revivng the cleric 3-5 times because she went down so dang fast. After I ran Gnarlroot and Celandine and I think out of about 10 runs I had to revive her twice and I used an average of 2 potions a run.

The companion system is really mostly an experiment for everyone in the game, especially while they keep adding new features to them. So, try out a few combos and see what works for you and your play style rather than listening to anyone giving you what they see as the bottom line in an ever changing system.

By way of comparison, my clerics have pretty much only gone down in any Sharandar areas when attacked by spiders (which are hugely damaging to anything they focus), or if swarmed by a really bad pull. They can get whalloped by Giantsouls and barely take a scratch. And healing potions are consumed rarely, if and only if I screw up. A normal run of anything is 0 potions, 0 companion downs.

lissaanne

What class, beckylunatic ?

beckylunatic

lissaanne wrote: »

What class, beckylunatic ?

Mostly a GWF that has used a cleric in Sharandar, though I have used one at least part of the time while levelling every class.

tornnomar

My poor little Generic Cleric has been with me through thick and thin. I loaded up on defense and she actually survives most emcounters now. She now gives a regen perk too. I play TR's and there are times where one of her quick blasts has saved my bacon.

I do tend to dismiss her when I need to move without attracting attention and in boss battles where she's not needed. Then I'll rely on potions.

bioshrike

princeofjudah wrote: »

I am assuming companions are AI party members. I am going to need these as it takes too long to get a party of similar level characters which often breaks apart when people have to leave, myself included. I keep seeing complaints about the cost of companions. What is this about? In STO you don't have to pay anything for companions. As they are necessary, do I only have to pay for special ones of some kind?

Think of a companion as your sidekick - a helper that follows you around, but also sometimes gets themselves into trouble. There is no doubt that some can be very helpful - the cleric can greatly reduce downtime between battles and saves on potion use, for instance. I also see them as a way to accentuate your character - maybe you want a cool warrior to follow you around, or a loyal animal companion. They can also, (at least marginally), help compensate for your character's weak points - maybe you need a little aggro management or some extra ranged punch...

bendalek

Practically speaking they are pretty much just an extra few Enchantment/Rune slots, in other words, they are like an extra damage buff, or healing buff.

In reality they quickly end up meaning as much to you as a childhood pet ... I also have a CD and I upgraded her all the way to purple. She has been with my GF since just after his first steps in PE (yes I bought her form the AH, before I knew you got one for free!)

She is an absolute trooper who has never complained about being the meat shield/ wall fodder / aggro magnet for him. I've stocked her up with lvl 60 gear plus runes for HP and Recovery and of course an Eldritch to give me a boost.

She rarely falls in battle, even on bosses, though skirmishes/dungeons can sometimes put her on her knees.

And now, because they always try and 'follow' you from the same position and distance, I actually find myself playing and moving with her in mind, like moving in certain directions to position her out of harms way, before attacking.

She is great for bosses with my GF. because I have set my GF up with as close to nil aggro as I can, so she gets their attention and I can, goose them while she takes the hits

I must say that Cryptic did a way better job of companion "pathfinding" than many other games, as they will happily jump up/over/off things to follow you, (yep, she even followed me off one of the broken piers in the pirate Skyhold, Lol) I just wish they would teach them that the red circles on the ground? That they are bad! ... DO NOT STAND IN RED CIRCLES! And the 30ft tall guy/demon over there, with the GIANT SWORD/HAMMER??? Do not stand right in front of him!