Is the panther supposed to be so weak?

ravenlock99

I really want to keep using the panther companion but I am having a hard time justifying it. It is rank 23 now and does very little damage and never seems to draw aggro. It will go into a crouch attack for 4 seconds and then pounces for 130 damage. Gets about 5 swings in on tougher mobs. It does have a lot of HP's, around 13k, but seems to have no ability to taunt. It definitely lives up to its name as a "companion" because all it does is follow me around and watch me fight.

Are there any plans to improve it, or is this just the way it's supposed to be?

shadow5930

What gear do you have on it?
What enchants do you have on it?

I've tweaked out my dire wolf companion with 60s blues and that makes him a power house. I had to go afk last night and I came back to 75% health and my wolf finishing off the last of 5 imps that had swarmed me. While they may not transfer the stats to you, the gear is still important if you want it to fight for you.

sternerr

I have lvl 30 phoera and all it does is serving as meatshield and augmenting my overall DPS by maybe 4% at best. But think what would be if companions were real hard-hitters, free players would be banned from dungeons outright.

Maybe when server population will go low enough they will remake them into henchmen from GW.

mconosrep

shadow5930 wrote: »

What gear do you have on it?
What enchants do you have on it?

I've tweaked out my dire wolf companion with 60s blues and that makes him a power house. I had to go afk last night and I came back to 75% health and my wolf finishing off the last of 5 imps that had swarmed me. While they may not transfer the stats to you, the gear is still important if you want it to fight for you.

What gear did you find useful on the dire wolf?

ravenlock99

Not sure what gear is on it since I am not home, but I will check later and look at tweaking it if it really does help that much.

I understand they aren't supposed to do all the work for you, but the panther seems to do nothing at all. At least the cleric keeps me healed and is useful. I am trying to keep the panther for role-playing purposes, but it's getting hard to do.

shadow5930

I put power and crit on my wolf. It could be just the fact that it's a triple bite as it's standard attack. On my 60 DC, the wolf is actually at cap of 30. It also procs the interrupt ability and when it does the triple bite will knock things out of their immune to CC stance. I've been happy to use it and I'm glad I got it. The bird I got from the HR booster kit doesn't seem as useful, nor have I found another companion to be at the same level of ability.

... so maybe it's just the wolf is good, the rest suck. please don't nerf the wolf!

rabbinicus

shadow5930 wrote: »

I put power and crit on my wolf. It could be just the fact that it's a triple bite as it's standard attack. On my 60 DC, the wolf is actually at cap of 30. It also procs the interrupt ability and when it does the triple bite will knock things out of their immune to CC stance. I've been happy to use it and I'm glad I got it. The bird I got from the HR booster kit doesn't seem as useful, nor have I found another companion to be at the same level of ability.

... so maybe it's just the wolf is good, the rest suck. please don't nerf the wolf!

Dire wolf is a much better companion than the panther.
Sadly, there have been problems with the panther since launch. It's not a particularly useful companion - unless you find the prone bonus (new) useful.

shadow5930

With a character that can prone? I'd have it as an active standby, just because incidentials do stack up fairly quick.

... If I can't prone em? wouldn't bother. Just like i haven't bothered to get the hawk on my GF/GWF.

bendalek

I have noticed that the Panther attacks less often that the Dire Wolf, but mine does do a reasonable amount of damage and it's also good at getting combat advantage (attacks for behind a lot) which generally crit. I've read the combat logs, and though it doesn't get huge numbers, as a 'companion' it's not bad.
I think the devs just need to tweak it's AI a little to make it slightly more aggressive.

valetudo78

There are a few companions that seem a little slow at engaging in combat. Its not damage that makes the dire wolf a good companion for leveling, its his aggresive behavior and his interrupts.