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Best secondary companions (and why) ?

adinosiiadinosii Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,294 Arc User
in PvE Discussion
There are different opinions on what is the best primary companion - a stone, or a suitable companion with perfect bonding runestones. However, that is not the concern of this post - my question is, which companion are the best "secondary" companions - those that provide an useful active bonus and nothing else.

I used to have stat-boosting companions (for example for getting a +300 boost to regeneration), but now I am looking at a different set of companions.

My main is a "non-heal" DC - meaning I focus on buffing and debuffing, as well as doing decent DPS, so here is my (tentative) list:

Blacksmith - damage reflection
Cambion Magus, Erinyes or Dancing blade: - bonus to critical severity
Rust monster - damage debuff
Young Yeti - chance for a damage increase

What's your list and why?
Hoping for improvements...
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Comments

  • lirithiellirithiel Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    Anything that gives something other than a stat boost. My Archer currently has (as secondary companions):

    Fire Archon - damage boost to target below 50% health.

    Air Archon - damage boost to targets at less than 100% health.

    Blink Dog - boost to Combat Advantage damage.

    Erinyes of Belial - boost to crit severity.

    My GF obviously has a different setup:

    Blacksmith - damage reflection.

    Battlefield Medic - boost to incoming healing.

    Leprechaun - AoE damage resist.

    Acolyte of Kelemvor - boost to incoming healing.
    Our pain is self chosen.

    The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
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  • thefabricantthefabricant Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 5,248 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    At the moment, my rating for dps secondary companions on CW is:
    Air archon+Fire Archon+the upcoming Siege Master+Blink dog
    then for summoned companion its Lightfoot thief, on all classes.
    Reason being is the 2 archon's bonuses multiply with each other when the circumstances are met, they don't add, making them a whole lot better then they appear of the tooltip, for GWF, you want the earth archon as well because: "at full health" as you can meet this circumstance with unstoppable being the damage buffer. The reason for blink dog is CA bonus damage which is either equal to, or better then crit severity depending on the circumstances and finally, the siege master because its a flat +5% damage which is huge. For other classes, you will have other companion choices though.
    Our Imaginary Friends are better than yours.
  • ghoulz66ghoulz66 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,748 Arc User
    Like the Fire/Water/Earth archon on my DC when fighting from the sidelines without taking loads of damage.

    Owl/war dog on my SW to avoid threat as much as possible.
  • santralafaxsantralafax Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,896 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    Currently my GWF has a bump to crit severity from Erinyes, Dancing Blade, Wild Boar. He has a bump to HP from Rimefire Golem, Iron Golem. One of the golems may go for the Siege Master, however. And, if anyone know a source for a cheap Cambion Magus, under 10,000,000 AD, I'd like to hear about it! (Actually, much less than that.)
  • adinosiiadinosii Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,294 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    The Siege master looks pretty interesting indeed ... looks like a potential bestseller.
    Hoping for improvements...
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  • lirithiellirithiel Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    magenubbie said:

    adinosii said:

    The Siege master looks pretty interesting indeed ... looks like power for sale despite Cryptic's promise they'd never sell power directly in the zen store

    Fixed that for ya. Other than that, I guess you're right.
    They do need Christmas bonuses after the mess they created this year :p
    Our pain is self chosen.

    The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
  • niadanniadan Member Posts: 1,635 Arc User
    Does the Siege Master bonus damage top out at 4% (8% in Stronghold map)?
  • beckylunaticbeckylunatic Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 14,231 Arc User
    niadan said:

    Does the Siege Master bonus damage top out at 4% (8% in Stronghold map)?

    Considering upgrading to legendary doesn't increase the active bonus of any other companion, probably?
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  • suicidalgodotsuicidalgodot Member Posts: 2,465 Arc User
    Angel of Protection is what I'm missing in the list above. IIRC, and unless it's currently broken, the invulnerability works after triggering your Soulforged enchant, too...

    ...but then, they're kind of free to grab for old timers like me. So no reason not to grab it.
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  • thefabricantthefabricant Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 5,248 Arc User
    defiantone99 said:

    Shadow Demon Summoned-it is OP, Death Slaad-Poison, Erinyes, Dancing Blade, Black Dragon Ioun Stone-Crit. Waiting for the next OP companion to replace the Ioun Stone.

    In terms of bonding procs, I rank the shadow demon second after the lightfoot.
    Our Imaginary Friends are better than yours.
  • niadanniadan Member Posts: 1,635 Arc User
    Just so everyone understands, the Siege Master tops out at 4% not 5% in non stronghold maps....still pretty good.
  • darkstarcrashdarkstarcrash Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,382 Arc User
    magenubbie said:

    adinosii said:

    The Siege master looks pretty interesting indeed ... looks like power for sale despite Cryptic's promise they'd never sell power directly in the zen store

    Fixed that for ya. Other than that, I guess you're right.

    Lots of Zen companions increase your dps. Siege Master might give you the most bonus damage, but it's silly to pretend this is the first Zen companion people might want to buy to increase their dps. And the bonus damage is in line with other companions you can buy for less on the AH right now.
  • suicidalgodotsuicidalgodot Member Posts: 2,465 Arc User
    ...another thing, now I re-read your opening post:

    For DCs, the Owl's aggro reduction can be somewhat nice - less time spent dodging, more de-/buffing...
  • santralafaxsantralafax Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,896 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    darkstarcrash said:


    Lots of Zen companions increase your dps. Siege Master might give you the most bonus damage, but it's silly to pretend this is the first Zen companion people might want to buy to increase their dps. And the bonus damage is in line with other companions you can buy for less on the AH right now.

    What other companions add a straight addtional per cent on damage to all foes that is not situational? For example, the elemental archons all seem to require that the foe be at full strength or less than half, etc.

    I'm not saying there aren't other excellent DPS companions, this one seems very straightforward, however.

    Post edited by santralafax on
  • rayrdanrayrdan Member Posts: 5,410 Arc User
    with current lifesteal im either full health or dead. So at least for me earth archon is better
  • urabaskurabask Member Posts: 2,923 Arc User
    santralafax said:

    darkstarcrash said:


    Lots of Zen companions increase your dps. Siege Master might give you the most bonus damage, but it's silly to pretend this is the first Zen companion people might want to buy to increase their dps. And the bonus damage is in line with other companions you can buy for less on the AH right now.

    What other companions add a straight addtional per cent on damage to all foes that is not situational? For example, the elemental archons all seem to require that the foe be at full strength or less than half, etc.

    I'm not saying there aren't other excellent DPS companions, this one seems very straightforward, however.

    Air Archon might as well have the same bonus given that mobs/bosses only have full health until they get hit once.
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  • lirithiellirithiel Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    magenubbie said:

    adinosii said:

    The Siege master looks pretty interesting indeed ... looks like power for sale despite Cryptic's promise they'd never sell power directly in the zen store

    Fixed that for ya. Other than that, I guess you're right.
    Siege Master is the only raw damage boosting companion purchasable on zen store. The archons are NOT available for zen even if the tooltip on collections page says otherwise.
    Our pain is self chosen.

    The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
  • zekethesinnerzekethesinner Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 805 Arc User
    adinosii said:


    My main is a "non-heal" DC - meaning I focus on buffing and debuffing, as well as doing decent DPS, so here is my (tentative) list:

    Blacksmith - damage reflection
    Cambion Magus, Erinyes or Dancing blade: - bonus to critical severity
    Rust monster - damage debuff
    Young Yeti - chance for a damage increase

    What's your list and why?

    Assuming that companions r only meaningful in group content (u dont rly need much to preform well in solo content) all 3 companions, blacksmith, rust monster and young yeti (more or less) should be out. U dont take enought dmg hit per second to have those bonuses doing anything (yeti acctualy can help a bit if u have another tanking companion or himself taking beating, coz when summoned companion gets hit, buff affects also you).

    Having this behind us. what left is those 3 crit sev companion. I always find this funny when ppl without 100% crit take ANY intrest in them, Even if u have, and assuming ur crit sev is 90% then next 10% is exactly 5% dps upgrade. More crit sev u have, and less crit chance u have boost gives by those companions decrase significantly. I assume u dont have vorpal, since u r buffing/debuffing DC. I also assume u r not 100% AA DC, its not dps build after all.

    U can calculate ur dmg from certain crit sev companion by simple formula (rly simple one, u have many other indicators u could take into account, scale dmg to 100, so 10% crit sev = 10))

    true_cirt_sev_dps_boost=current_crit_chance*(companion_crit_sev_boost/[100+ (companion_crit_sev_boost+current_crit_sev)])*100%

    So companions i can recommend. Its rly hard to tell, by far dc is hardest toon to gear up with companions. By far, best u can do is boost ur personal dps, also slot some utility.

    U may use yeti as punchbag, so u can get ur 10% dmg boost from him (and its stackable).

    Beside that:

    -Archons (3 of them, u almost dont take hits, so earth one, any target beside first hit is under max hp, so air one, and from lack of better options fire archon since it also boost both air and earth one by 0.5% each and its not additive (overall companions boost) but multiplicative, so dmg x 1.035 (fire) x 1.07 (earth) x 1.06 (air)).

    If u r out of options for last slot u may take crit sev ones (erynias ofc) but u also may consider some utilty. E.G:

    -chicken - not as summoned, if u want yeti buff, for those rare moments when bosses hits u, they usualy hit hard, so it may help, but its situational companion.
    -one of companions with incoming healing - either u heal or heal not much, it matters
    -one of companions with CA boost dmg (intellect one, or blink dog) - all u need for those companions to be effetive is having gf, gwf, rene cw or hr, in party, or just stand in right spot. Having teamm8 with mark is easyest option.
    -owl or war god - to make sure nothing will focus on u.
    -sylph, as countermeasure for roars, webbs, golem slams as so on.

    There is where my list of ideas ends.

    Also since every1 post here companions on they mains, there is mine:

    GF: sehanine summoned, yeti, dread warrior, rust monster, sylph
    GWF: mercenary summoned, siege master, air archon, earth archon, erynias
    HR: mercenary summoned, 3 archons and sylph

    Sorry for long post.

    (Sin)cerely
    Kain




  • niadanniadan Member Posts: 1,635 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    As CW I currently have summoned Lightfoot Thief with Air/Fire Archons, Siege Master and Yeti.

    Debate for me centers on last spot being a choice between Yeti bonus, Crit Severity or CA bonus.
  • kolatmasterkolatmaster Member Posts: 3,111 Arc User
    Currently I run a few set ups:

    Mostly swapping Shadow Demon (he looks so cool!) or Lightfoot Thief as my Summoned/Active Companion, then:

    Young Yeti / Siege Master / Air Archon / Earth Archon

    Siege Master / Air Archon / Fire Archon / Earth Archon

    Or whatever combination of those really. Just have fun switching them out and seeing what they do...

    Cool factor I love the Siege Masters catapult attack... lol :)
    va8Ru.gif
  • rayrdanrayrdan Member Posts: 5,410 Arc User
    Demon demon and again shadow demon. Cooler companion in game good for bonding procs, nice passive and high dps. In an esot run he did 1.3M damages out of my 13M
  • zekethesinnerzekethesinner Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 805 Arc User
    rayrdan said:

    Demon demon and again shadow demon. Cooler companion in game good for bonding procs, nice passive and high dps. In an esot run he did 1.3M damages out of my 13M

    His dps is a conseqence of a bug.

    Expect it to be fixed.


    (Sin)cerely
    Kain


  • benistvanbenistvan Member Posts: 159 Arc User
    For my CW its:
    Erinyes/Cambion mage
    Air Archon
    Siege Master or Blink Dog if I am on Renegade.

    For my hard hitter SW
    Air Archon
    Fire Archon
    Erinyes
    Siege Master
  • santralafaxsantralafax Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,896 Arc User
    Were the shadow demons in the Zen shop fo awhile, and taken off?
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  • rayrdanrayrdan Member Posts: 5,410 Arc User
    Source?
  • rayrdanrayrdan Member Posts: 5,410 Arc User
    Wtf i spent a fortune for it and it s going to drop from lockboxes
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