Companion upgrades

sador

Is it really necessary for it to cost 300,000 astral diamonds for our companions to be able to go from 15 to 20? Or 500,000 from 20-25(or 30? I haven't managed either yet)?

imsmithy

Yes that is the only way to upgrade companions and in all likelihood it will remain that way for the foreseeable future.Also it is 300k 15 - 20 , 500k 20 - 25 then 750k 25 - 30 ludicrous figures to upgrade somewhat similar to the idiotic cost to upgrade mounts.

sador

Let's stop and consider this for a moment and compare it to STO, Cryptic's best title. They're basically charging you the equivalent of $20 to upgrade a companion that YOU CAN'T PLAY WITHOUT(*cough cough cleric cough*) to get a version that can keep up with you at late levels. I suppose I could stay away and cast Invocation 15 straight days, yeah that's reasonable.

hudman21

I would like to know what companions have Offense/Defense slots and what the best runes would be for those slots.

Would also like to know what is the best lvl 60 item to give them and what enchants to put in those items.

i.e. Cleric Disciple has up to 3 defense runestone slots available at level 15. Add Empowered runestones for added HP
Item Slots: Icon, Neck (what enchants to slot)?

Choice of free (choose one at beginning) Companions:

Dog
Man at arms
Cleric Disciple
Sellsword
Wayward Wizard

What do you slot your companions with?

burkaanc

slot stone for stats, other companion items dont matter

the only white companion i will upgrade is sellsword - for power bonus

sockmunkey

sador wrote: »

Let's stop and consider this for a moment and compare it to STO, Cryptic's best title. They're basically charging you the equivalent of $20 to upgrade a companion that YOU CAN'T PLAY WITHOUT(*cough cough cleric cough*) to get a version that can keep up with you at late levels. I suppose I could stay away and cast Invocation 15 straight days, yeah that's reasonable.

Actually you are wrong here. Companions are just a bonus, a luxury. The healing companion simply saves you potions. In nearly all cases a companion wont make or break a character. You cant even use them in PVP. Obviously builds there are functioning just fine without them.

The are totally unlike an STO away team. STO away teams are as much a part of your build, as your skills. You actually have to spend your skill points to select skills to make the best use of them. You can teach them, trade them, customize them, and give them orders. You can do none of that here.

I agree, that companions and the method of raise their ranks are both obsurdly expensive. But id rather the expense be on a piece of fluff, that I can choose to ignore, and still do just fine. Rather then having to pay for core powers and abilities.

kurisanton

You actually dont have to upgrade any companions and when you can play the game without them out. Its more convienant to have them out but not necessary.

That said, the upgrade costs are completely unacceptable and with the new active companion bonuses I feel like the game is treading into pay to win territory once again. I get that they want an AD sink but with the enchanting system overhaul they have it. Companions dont need to have these vast costs anymore. If cryptic wants us to upgrade companions they need to drop the price to something reasonable not the equivilent of a Teir 2 piece of gear per upgrade

melodywhr

i can assure you that if no one is paying to upgrade companions, they know about it through internal metrics. however it is pretty obvious that some people are. i've seen it here in the forums. but whatever that number is, if it's important enough to the company to lower those costs to make it more available to everyone, then it will be done.

personally, i'd like to see this option as an incentive in SCA. but if that doesn't fit within their business model, then it won't happen.

jegerwulf

If you level up your leadership on all your toons, you will eventually have the money. Until then, don't level any pets up. Buy a cheap purple pet until you can afford more.

mconosrep

For solo content, even the standard Cleric slotted with defense/HP/Regen is fine (although the aggro issues are ridiculous in the latest patch). If you want a companion to boost your stats for more than one character than the Dire Wolf pack is great value - $60 for a purple companion for all your toons, some AD and a tier 3 mount.

However, if you are into serious PvE dungeoneering than you need to buy a Cat or Stone

nimbleminx

Well, I just ran into a serious problem with "unwanted" companion upgrades. Apparently I just spent 300,000 AD to upgrade the basic cleric so she can level to 20; the problem you ask? I DID NOT WANT THAT (I have higher level companions that I decided to invest in) -- not sure how the face I just spent 300K in AD got past me -- but that is a serious problem. It was a serious waste of AD -- and support will not refund the AD to me. I have been playing for almost a year and instead of the experience getting better, I feel like they are taking more and more opportunities to take money for basically useless stuff. I think it is time to consider WoW again. At $175/year + content expansions the value of that game is WAY better!!!!

beckylunatic

Sounds like you got nailed with the offset confirmation bug.

Now, did you click on the cleric upgrade, cancel it, and then click a different companion upgrade, which actually brought up the cleric upgrade interface, which you clicked "yes" on thinking you were confirming upgrading a different companion?

Lots of people have lost AD or items from this bug (deleting mail, rushing training, selling/equipping the wrong thing), but because it comes up so sporadically and under different circumstances, nailing down a cause so as to fix it is... difficult.

I'm starting to think it now gets triggered by backing out of a prior confirmation, but more data is needed.

pprandom

Yeah, but when you consider that you can but epic companions in the AH for 400k to 800k why in the mother of god would you pay 1.500k for a common companion, not to mention the only really useful things you can buy are the stones or cat.

mconosrep

pprandom wrote: »

Yeah, but when you consider that you can but epic companions in the AH for 400k to 800k why in the mother of god would you pay 1.500k for a common companion, not to mention the only really useful things you can buy are the stones or cat.

Well Epic Cleric Disciple gives +300 Regen....

chemboy613

Companion upgrades seem rediculous, but it's only because the +stat companions tend to be ineffcient at endgame.

AT endagame, say you are 15K GS +, and your stats are well balanced. By this point, you are near the soft cap on almost everything. Take my CW for example (15.7K) about
3200 power
2900 crit
2600 arp
3700 recovery
2000 defense
1200 deflect
1500 regen
1000 lifesteal.

I know the lifesteal is low, but i have consumption so i basically don't use potions That said, while I could probably could get more defense and deflect, it's not going to make a huge night-and-day difference.

Now look at the companions I'm using, all at epic

Wisp
Cat
Mage
Wild Hunt
Fire Archon - probably switch for lightfoot thief once i farm one.

The cat i upgraded because for 750k I get about 130-140 stats (better than upgrading four enchants 7->8), an extra 90 or so deflect (useful) and now 50% reduced falling damage, which has saved my life at draco more often than I'd admit to.

The cantankerous mage i upgraded from blue (15% control bonus) to epic (25% control bonus). When you are fighting monsters that have tons of hit points - whights, red wizards, etc... - that extra 10% can matter and it's lifesaving.

The wild hunt rider I upgraded from green (2% chance) to purple (5% chance) and the effect is noticable. In a 5 minute draco fight, it procs about 30-40 times, whereas a a green one might be 10-20. This increases my DPS more than 300 stat points anywhere would

Then the archon and wisp can't be ugpraded by they are useful.

So was it worth it? yes, but why? At this point i have all my gear (four sets, fomorians), I have two perfect enchants and three epic artifacts, and I ahve the budget for these things. BUt these white companions, going from +25 to +300 absolutely _does_ matter, but at endgame it is not night and day you'll replace them for something better.

So I think upgrading these pets is relatively pointless and at least economically inefficent. At the end of the game, you would have sunk 1.55M into something you aren't going to use anyway, and those diamonds can absolutely be used better. (Maybe for silly hats?)

As for companions being mandatory - it's obviously not. A white cleric companion is nice while leveling, but not necessary, as leveling to 60 is pretty easy regardless. In dungeons, I think an augment is extremely useful and you'll find all high-end PvE groups have them, but the rest of the pets are for people in endgame, who by that time, can afford them.