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What are some of the "better" companions?

shakota#7594 shakota Member Posts: 18 Arc User
I am a relatively new player here. No 70's yet, but going a little alt-crazy right now.

I am not looking for "best in slot" or "best for end game". I am looking more for simple PVE leveling and solo play.
Curious as to which of each type seems to offer the better stats, and seem to perform well for their class / role.

I found that Barbarian Shaman is a good leader / healer. The Apprentice Healer works better than I expected for one at entry level.
I found Water Archon is a good controller / dps. The Wayward Wizard works better than I expected for one at entry level.
I haven't found a defender / tank that I am fond of yet, but haven't tried too many.
I don't feel the War Dog helps much as a defender, I am rather disappointed in it's performance. The reduced threat is nice though.
I was able to get the Armored Orc Wolf, and it seems to be a good striker / dps. And the +100 crit is nice as well.
The "free" Damaran Shephard is rather weak, but the +100 crit is nice to have if you have the room for an extra companion.

I mostly play DPS classes (TR, CW, GWF, SW, HR and now a OP (healer)). So I am looking for someone to either support my DPS or be helpful in keeping mobs off of me.

Also, is a Leader always going to be a healer? And a Defender always a tank? I see some on the Zen market that are one or the other, but their skills make me 2nd guess their class.

Many thanks in advance.

Comments

  • suicidalgodotsuicidalgodot Member Posts: 2,465 Arc User
    Best tank for little AD IMHO: The Frost mimic. Don't buy one right now, you'll be able to grab one (per char) for some of the best fun low grind during Xmas/new Year event. At least the last two years this was the case...
  • karakla1karakla1 Member Posts: 1,355 Arc User
    Is your forum handle the same as your ingame handle? If yes i can send you a mimic for free
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  • shakota#7594 shakota Member Posts: 18 Arc User
    karakla1 said:

    Is your forum handle the same as your ingame handle? If yes i can send you a mimic for free

    Yes, same handle. And many thanks!
  • suicidalgodotsuicidalgodot Member Posts: 2,465 Arc User
    On a different note, your other question (RL interference, sry.):

    Some Leader companions: are rather controllers, with no heals at all (e.g. Priestess of Sehanine Moonbow). But all Defenders have the aggro-amp trait, and are hence Tanks. This makes them somewhat unsuitable for later-on Bossfights, because the will steal the aggro from the party Tank. Also they - and the Mimic especially :^/ - are really cuddly and always will find new friends / toys...

    Still, looking for an affordable, robust tank, Mimic it is. Don't forget to stash him when sneaking is asked for, then they're terrible spoilsports...
  • shakota#7594 shakota Member Posts: 18 Arc User
    Many thanks for the feedback. I will check out the mimic and hope to still have toons to level by the holiday event. :)
  • karakla1karakla1 Member Posts: 1,355 Arc User
    i tried to send it to you but it says the account doesn't exist.
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  • shakota#7594 shakota Member Posts: 18 Arc User
    Is there a PM feature on these forms? I haven't found it if there is. (PM - private message)

    Karakla1, That's weird. I know when I go to my mail (in game) I can send to @shakota#7594 to get mail to myself.
  • zekethesinnerzekethesinner Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 805 Arc User
    Imo yeti is best tank. Especialy for procing bonding (and he is one cool fella ;p)

    Sune priestess is one of best healers, but not so good at procing bonding unfortunately.

    For strikers i like only Hawk, but that coz i was owining one myself at some point. There is ofc Slaad which is one of best companions in game, or magus (and both r darn expensive). Also zen warlock. U never should consider striker companion as replacment of ur own dmg, Unfortunately. Tho Honey Badger is one vicious companion with nice aoe, but he is still bugged afaik, which makes him kinda useless :/

    About controllers i have no idea.

    Most if not any avialable companion in game u can find here: http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Category:Companion (it have upper hand on ingame collection coz of cooldowns included for most companions and boons for each quality)

    (Sin)cerely
    Kain


  • karakla1karakla1 Member Posts: 1,355 Arc User
    edited October 2015
    Leader - Not all Leader heal, some do but they (the class) also Buff you or give temporary hitpoints.

    Controller - Most Controller stun/root/slow a group of monster or a single monster (1 or 2 times every minute). Some are debuffing monsters, like the Rust Monster Companion. As example: The Rust Monster uses two debuffs on enemies. One that reduces the enemies armor to allow you and your party to deal 5% more damage and it also reduces the attack damage from monsters by 8% (Corrosive Bites that partial destroy the weapons and armors of enemies as Fluff Text).

    Defender - Plain Tanks. They often have different attacks in which they generate threat (in an AOE around them, cone in front of them, etc). DON'T get the Helmit Paladin Ghost. He is a horrible Tank and can't hold aggro (so far the only one that doesn't do his job, maybe because of another ability that allows you to heal a target that also the Helmit Paladin Ghost attacks). Most/All Defender get AOE Damage Immunity at Quality Epic.

    Striker - Plain Damage Dealer. Their damage is far inferior as of an Damage Dealer Character or more specific as any class in the game. At Epic they deal like 2,000 - 3,000 DPS while even GFs have like 13,000 DPS and Damage Dealer Classes start at least at 20,000 DPS (fresh level 70 character). But they often has abilities that can increase your damage by reducing enemies armor or granting combat advantage and classes that lack of DPS it can be a nice addition. I made the experience that in level 5-60 Areas the Striker deals really good damage (Rank 35 Epic Striker) compared to a leveling character and can kill easily kill an enemie monster with very few strikes but this perk vanish more and more if you get closer to level 61 and the new areas.

    Augment - They transfer their stats to your character which means you have three equipment slots more and three runic slots which is really nice. The augment companions are unattackable and doesn't attack and can't pull threat. BUT they are expensive.


    Which is know the best class of companions?

    Many say that Augments are the best because of the constant stat buff you receive and a few say Active Companions (Leader, Controller, Defender and Strike). But they are hard to compare because in a Dungeon Group they can add usefull abilities to your parties and can also transfer a part of their stats with bonding runestones to their Summoner.
    Bonding Runestone have a certain % chance to activate a Buff called "Companions Gift" that transfer a certain % of their stats (hit points not included) that depends on their quality (+20% from Lesser; +35% from normal; +50% from greater and +65% from perfects). The Buff can stack up three times. Which simply means at Normal Bonding Runestones you get 105%. Each Buff keeps activated for 20 seconds which simply means they slowly start to stack and then slowly runs out (at it peak you should have allö three buffs for like 12 seconds in total before they running out and start from a new, imagine a sinus curve).

    A full equipped GWF player mentioned in another thread that he used a maxed out augment and an maxed out striker and his damage was in comparsion only 2-3% lower as to the augment. So they are viable (every class of companions) and it depens what you like the most.
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  • bioshrikebioshrike Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,729 Arc User
    The angel of protection, in addition to the direct heals, grants an extra 5% damage resistance upon reaching level 30 - this is great for a tank.

    I quite like the war dog or wild hunt rider for tanking. The wild hunt rider has a sword knot slot, and you can get the companion-only one that grants them extra threat, pretty cheaply on the AH.
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  • ghoulz66ghoulz66 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,748 Arc User

    Imo yeti is best tank. Especialy for procing bonding (and he is one cool fella ;p)

    Sune priestess is one of best healers, but not so good at procing bonding unfortunately.

    For strikers i like only Hawk, but that coz i was owining one myself at some point. There is ofc Slaad which is one of best companions in game, or magus (and both r darn expensive). Also zen warlock. U never should consider striker companion as replacment of ur own dmg, Unfortunately. Tho Honey Badger is one vicious companion with nice aoe, but he is still bugged afaik, which makes him kinda useless :/

    About controllers i have no idea.

    Most if not any avialable companion in game u can find here: http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Category:Companion (it have upper hand on ingame collection coz of cooldowns included for most companions and boons for each quality)

    (Sin)cerely
    Kain

    Dunno, my badger has recently started auto-reviving now. Renegade invoker is the only other striker with beastly damage capabilities.

    Sune priestess is pretty amazing for a GF. 5 ticks ranging from 8000-17000 per tick on my GF with 119k HP.

  • kemi1984kemi1984 Member Posts: 849 Arc User
    bioshrike said:

    The angel of protection, in addition to the direct heals, grants an extra 5% damage resistance upon reaching level 30 - this is great for a tank.

    I quite like the war dog or wild hunt rider for tanking. The wild hunt rider has a sword knot slot, and you can get the companion-only one that grants them extra threat, pretty cheaply on the AH.

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  • raksha69raksha69 Member Posts: 8 Arc User
    And what do you think about Priestess of Sehanine Moonbow?
  • suicidalgodotsuicidalgodot Member Posts: 2,465 Arc User
    raksha69 said:

    And what do you think about Priestess of Sehanine Moonbow?

    I really like these - great for crit-builds in growth, astonishingly survivable, good combat AI, can turn the tides if party dps is lacking. Also her "close in, debuff, then stealth & confuse"-tactics are sometimes extremely helpful in terms of aggro-diversion, so they also buff the char survivability.

    High price tag, initially, though it's an account-wide unlock, and hence the price should be divided by the number of chars you plan to use her on.

    In the long run, beyond Lvl 70, I eventually almost always put them in the idle tab, though. Direct passive boon is just not good enough to keep her on the frontline, and there are other companions that give better boosts out of the slot... ...but occasionally pull them out again, e.g. for weaker parties. But they're only really useful when they're the active companion. And another drawback is that the first few seconds you have no buff at all, plus, in order to actually get the buff, you have to be near the melee.

    Still, I never felt sorry for all that ZEN I spent for that bundle.
  • lirithiellirithiel Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    bioshrike said:

    I quite like the war dog or wild hunt rider for tanking. The wild hunt rider has a sword knot slot, and you can get the companion-only one that grants them extra threat, pretty cheaply on the AH.

    My SW Archer uses the Wild Hunt Rider and more recently the Young Yeti, the latter which I am less impressed with because it doesn't hold aggro as well as the former, although that might have something to do with the Yeti only being green, while the Rider is purple.

    My Combat HR uses the War Dog, which does an amazing job of both tanking and proning mobs. Wish I had the War Dog on my Archer though.
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  • grimahgrimah Member Posts: 1,658 Arc User
    I'm curious about the priestess of sehanine. From what i read, she has zero attacks? all she does is go stealth (10 sec cooldown) and do the crit debuff/buff (6 second cooldown.)

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  • beaghan1beaghan1 Member Posts: 404 Arc User
    I've tried quite a few companions. I like Phoera maxed out as a striker. I've been looking for the highest dps companion overall, I know that some situations some will be better than others but has anyone noticed any exceedingly higher dps when they are at max level? Also are there any defenders that do good dps? The character that I want that one for doesn't need the defender to tank but needs the dps with the aoe immunity that they get at max level. Is the cave bear or wild hunt rider any good at dps? Or any others? I've played a long time but I see a ton of companions on the auction that I've never seen in game or heard of before.
  • suicidalgodotsuicidalgodot Member Posts: 2,465 Arc User
    grimah said:

    I'm curious about the priestess of sehanine. From what i read, she has zero attacks? all she does is go stealth (10 sec cooldown) and do the crit debuff/buff (6 second cooldown.)

    Well, the Moonbeams debuff is technically an attack - though it doesn't do HP damage. But it draws aggro. Also: >30% crit debuff on the reds means that most of them never ever crit. Further tidbit: When the Priestess crosses the Lvl 30 mark, the debuff duration goes up to 9 seconds. Cooldown stays at six seconds, though.

    Stealthing also confuses/dazes the aggroed mobs, and increases her survival time.

    But you got that right: she does neither damage, nor heals.

    Another buff she gives is Combat Advantage, in the classical, basic sense: She stays close enough to the Mobs to trigger that, so you only have to go around them. Or wait until / make the mobs get closer to you. Then she typically stays on the other side, unlike other pets that come back to you...
  • bioshrikebioshrike Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,729 Arc User
    grimah said:

    I'm curious about the priestess of sehanine. From what i read, she has zero attacks? all she does is go stealth (10 sec cooldown) and do the crit debuff/buff (6 second cooldown.)

    The stealth confuses enemies, causing them to sometimes attack their allies. She's quite good on someone like a TR, who can easily dump aggro.
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  • dufistodufisto Member Posts: 537 Arc User
    edited November 2015
    healers: none of which are usefull for bonding
    barbarian shamans are good for pretty much everyone but tankadins and gwf's, tankadins dont need the temp hp and external temp hp mess with gwf's unstoppable. needs upgrade to purple to help it survive however as its a melee range healer. single target heal is a little lacking but the ae temp hp are really nice. load her up with crit gear. she tanks for my tr.....
    battlefield medic: no pet will dump more hp to you and your group faster. load him up with commander gear and azure/profane.
    priestess of something moonbow: best buff pet in the game , 15% crit at blue, 17% at purple from her moon beams.
    i see tons of folks with the fawns. but i havent played with it.


    tanks: all suffer from fairly poor ai. but once engaged do a reasonable job. and you cant send them in 1st to grab agro.
    yeti: great. but needs to be upgraded to survive harder content. also really good in an active slot for tanks or if you run a different tank pet.
    earth archon: ( buy at purple). amazing tank. good bonding proccer. good bonus.
    war dog: if you're using a tank pet. having it lower your threat is a good thing. works better on single targets than groups.

    strikers: if its not purple it should be a ranged attacker so it doesnt die all the time.
    sprites ( all 3): reasonable dps ( for a pet) and who doesnt like more ap. all make good bonding proccers
    z warlock: simply amazing bonding proccer. and reasonable dps.
    fire archon/air archon: good dps. good proccers. good bonus.
    death slaad: moderate dps. great bonus. stupidly expensive unless you got lucky during the 3 hour window.
    intellect devourer: moderate dps. decent bonding proccer. the hold actually works. 3 defense slots however which is odd for a striker. recommended for warlocks (who can use the extra defense) or tanks that want bonding proccers.
    and finally the scarecrow nice fast attack reasonable damage. and extremely easy to farm right now

    controllers: most of them dont control very well. so unless you're using it for a buff or bonding. i'd recommend using something else.
    beaghan1 said:

    I've tried quite a few companions. I like Phoera maxed out as a striker. I've been looking for the highest dps companion overall, I know that some situations some will be better than others but has anyone noticed any exceedingly higher dps when they are at max level? Also are there any defenders that do good dps? The character that I want that one for doesn't need the defender to tank but needs the dps with the aoe immunity that they get at max level. Is the cave bear or wild hunt rider any good at dps? Or any others? I've played a long time but I see a ton of companions on the auction that I've never seen in game or heard of before.

    the earth archon at purple does pretty nice damage and is one of the cheaper epic pets. so does the iron golem. the yeti at purple is also good. but really expensive to upgrade currently. the yeti also has the bonus of no listed cooldown and 3 offensive slots which helps his dps considerably. ai on the yeti is somewhat lacking compared to the archon. but once he's on a mob he sticks to it like glue.
    Post edited by dufisto on
  • lirithiellirithiel Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    dufisto said:

    battlefield medic: no pet will dump more hp to you and your group faster. load him up with commander gear and azure/profane.

    Medic has 2 defensive slots and 1 offensive slot. The Loyal Commander gear has one defensive and offensive slot each. What you you suggest gemming for each? You said Azures and Profanes so only crit and defence all round?
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  • dufistodufisto Member Posts: 537 Arc User
    edited November 2015
    lirithiel said:

    dufisto said:

    battlefield medic: no pet will dump more hp to you and your group faster. load him up with commander gear and azure/profane.

    Medic has 2 defensive slots and 1 offensive slot. The Loyal Commander gear has one defensive and offensive slot each. What you you suggest gemming for each? You said Azures and Profanes so only crit and defence all round?
    thats how mines geared. he gets alot of agro, so i wanted him to live. you can swap an eldritch in one of the defensive rune slots ( thinking of it it probly makes more sense to do that) to pass some of that crit/power/recovery/defense.

    the main reason i went commanders is for the 30% extra heals which adds more than the extra crit from avengers gear does. but crit > power on leader companions so azures/profanes for the offensive slots helps him out more. he has no attacks so he gains nothing from lifesteal which is what i load in the defense slots on all my non leaders gear. to be honest i didnt try radiants in the jewlery's defense slots.
  • suicidalgodotsuicidalgodot Member Posts: 2,465 Arc User
    edited November 2015
    dufisto said:

    lirithiel said:

    dufisto said:

    battlefield medic: no pet will dump more hp to you and your group faster. load him up with commander gear and azure/profane.

    Medic has 2 defensive slots and 1 offensive slot. The Loyal Commander gear has one defensive and offensive slot each. What you you suggest gemming for each? You said Azures and Profanes so only crit and defence all round?
    thats how mines geared. he gets alot of agro, so i wanted him to live. you can swap an eldritch in one of the defensive rune slots ( thinking of it it probly makes more sense to do that) to pass some of that crit/power/recovery/defense.[...]
    You could also put Bondings into the Def slots - because they also give the companion tons of Defense...

    ...more than EqRank profanes. Might be more expensive, though.
  • dufistodufisto Member Posts: 537 Arc User
    edited November 2015

    dufisto said:

    lirithiel said:

    dufisto said:

    battlefield medic: no pet will dump more hp to you and your group faster. load him up with commander gear and azure/profane.

    Medic has 2 defensive slots and 1 offensive slot. The Loyal Commander gear has one defensive and offensive slot each. What you you suggest gemming for each? You said Azures and Profanes so only crit and defence all round?
    thats how mines geared. he gets alot of agro, so i wanted him to live. you can swap an eldritch in one of the defensive rune slots ( thinking of it it probly makes more sense to do that) to pass some of that crit/power/recovery/defense.[...]
    You could also put Bondings into the Def slots - because they also give the companion tons of Defense...

    ...more than EqRank profanes. Might be more expensive, though.
    true would be a suitable replacement for defense. but they are considerably more expensive. and the medic has slow cast times so dont expect lots of stacks.

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