The great companion debate

telprydain · February 2016

So, as a spring board off of a discussion we were having in guild-chat last night; What is your favourite companion, and why?

The current trend is to have a summoned quick-attacking companion with three bonded rune-stones, hoping that they will die, revive and then attack again to proc the effect multiple times.
But I still tend to prefer the augment companions for several reasons… not only do I prefer the guaranteed stat boost, but I find that in dungeons and heroic encounters, summoned companions still tend to steal heals and buffs from other players. Nothing’s more irritating than trying to target a specific ally, only to have a mercenary run past and collect it instead.
With the current choice between cat, chicken and the various stones – at the moment I favor the chicken, both for look (adorable) and utility (the active is good for my tanky character). It's a bit costly, but at the moment it's about the same price as you'll pay for the cat.

What about you? What style of companion you favour (augment, striker, controller, etc).
Which specific companions do you like?
How have you got them set up?

rhadamathys · February 2016

We discussed this on the ranger board...top 5 companions... Ultimately it comes down to what you can afford... The mercenary is the best companion if you can afford rank 10+ bonding stones...here's the numbers...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fZt4W_SIDx9tMFcJLet5gevDmls1dyti88_G5j5kmR8/edit?usp=docslist_api

Long story short... Cat aka augment will get you a consistent 13,331 total points...

The merc routinely gets 3 procs right away and 4-5 isn't unheard of... He dies and comes back right away to proc more...Those 3 procs get you 34,800 total points...even if you don't get 3, 1 proc is 12968, 2 is 23,884...

Additionally the merc deals damage (decent dmg), bleed damage, grants you combat advantage since he gets behind the mob, and he'll occasionally draw aggro, freeing u up...

Btw, I play a trapper and a permabubble... Both run a legendary merc, both routinely have insane stats

firepats12 · February 2016

Mercenary? I'll go Warlock all day everyday.

rhadamathys · February 2016

Merc is from heirloom zen market...warlock and merc are pretty equivalent with regards to how fast the proc and damage done

telprydain · February 2016

Without Zen: Auction house, CtA events, special campaign tasks

chromedfish · February 2016

favorite- white rarity - dog
Hes always there for me from when i first started til now. All my toons have some type of dog but the white 2 gold dog was the 1st and has helped me through alot of content.

soonergm · February 2016

The warlock is nice too, but the merc is the fastest procing companion for runestones.

raymond00713 · February 2016

Active companion, it's not even close

armadeonx · February 2016

My cleric absolutely needs to use an Ioun - the amount of times auto-targeting has swung me around to place a heal on a companion instead of where I'm aiming is ridiculous.

amafia313 · February 2016

Active companion. Period. Hands down. If you know what you're doing

wdj40 · February 2016

rhadamathys said:
We discussed this on the ranger board...top 5 companions... Ultimately it comes down to what you can afford... The mercenary is the best companion if you can afford rank 10+ bonding stones...here's the numbers...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fZt4W_SIDx9tMFcJLet5gevDmls1dyti88_G5j5kmR8/edit?usp=docslist_api

Long story short... Cat aka augment will get you a consistent 13,331 total points...

The merc routinely gets 3 procs right away and 4-5 isn't unheard of... He dies and comes back right away to proc more...Those 3 procs get you 34,800 total points...even if you don't get 3, 1 proc is 12968, 2 is 23,884...

Additionally the merc deals damage (decent dmg), bleed damage, grants you combat advantage since he gets behind the mob, and he'll occasionally draw aggro, freeing u up...

Btw, I play a trapper and a permabubble... Both run a legendary merc, both routinely have insane stats

Exactly this... If anyone goes onto the HR board you can find a video or 2 that I did (of my old rotations) with the Merc, through the Dread Legion Skirmish etc. He was that good I upgraded him to Orange

Not just that, the Merc can have 3 double slotted items and has 3 Offensive Rune slots. Mine has 3.6k power and 1.7k crit along with a few other stats like 660 Life Steal. Getting 65% per proc is amazing from this guy, also at some points I have 4 procs of Gift without him actually dying.

thejawlives · February 2016

Active companions for the win...way way way too much DPS, at least for me, to ignore

stpensive · February 2016

armadeonx said:
My cleric absolutely needs to use an Ioun - the amount of times auto-targeting has swung me around to place a heal on a companion instead of where I'm aiming is ridiculous.

You need to turn off AOE assist in the options menu. Even without companions, I could no longer take getting yanked to the wrong target. It takes some getting used to but well worth the effort.

xalorus · February 2016

I'll go warlock. Merc is nice but is often nuked compared to the warlock who manages to stay out of harms way. Someone said above merc procs faster....please show me a vid of this. Warlock x3 are almost instant. I tested yeti, merc, warlock, and recently air archon. Warlock has been consistent. Tc and have fun.

telprydain · February 2016

I'd suggest that perhaps if you're AD rich and you're a DPS focused class, active companion is the winner.
But some of the most emphatic arguments are coming from DPS classes (for whom stacking power via the bonding runestones is helpful) and folk who think that the ability to have 3 double slotted items actually matters (I haven't got that for ME yet, let alone the companion).
Fair point about turning off auto-target though (although even with it off, companions taking buffs/heals is still a potential issue if you're in an instance of 5 players + 5 active companions).

zman81420 · February 2016

Companion:
1) know how to stack them.
2) Fast attack, multiple procs of companions gifts
3) You can gain over 4 fold the stat gain over a 100% uptime augment when managed properly
4) Choose a companion that can fit your needs, stack offense or defense.
5) If this is still a debate I will have given up on humanity and its reasoning.
6) Buy a Lliiria bell to revive your companion instantly...continued gift proc.

Research this for you are honestly are being left behind. And for those who don't believe just try it and be happy you did.

telprydain · February 2016

Again, it assumes that Rank 10 runes is affordable for the person, and that Power/Def are stats they want to stack.

soonergm · February 2016

@xalorus that was me. I am still using the warlock so i do not have a video. However, you are the first person that i have seen that has tested both and concluded the warlock is faster. As I said, the warlock is great as well.

@telprydain you asked what people prefer, or what they think is the best. Affordability does not effect what is BiS. Also, you can customize stats with the equipment just like an augment. Once amplified by companion's gift, those stats are increased dramatically. You can upgerade your runestones over time.

I bought my companions, got runestones up to rank 9, not 10, put equipment in the slots and it cost me about 600k AD. I did not buy the best talismans, and the stat boosts stil blows away my ioun stone. 600k AD sounds like a lot but it's a lot cheaper than many other upgrades for my character and much more effective.

indylol · February 2016

I find it odd no one mentioned a Jelly Cube for an Augment that procs bondings.

rhadamathys · February 2016

It's being fixed in a week...

bahamutzero · February 2016

I just bought the Mercenary a couple of days ago and am working on ranking it up to open up all the stone and gear slots (should be ready tonight). I tried the R12 Bonding Runestones which I already had on my Ioun Stone on the Air Archon & Fire Archon just to get a feel for what's to come. Although they take a while to put up multiple procs (I hear the Mercenary gets 3 almost instantly), as soon as they do everything dies in seconds. If the Mercenary really can proc as quickly as suggested, I can't imagine the change it will make to DPS.

indylol · February 2016

True its being fixed, but still odd no one would even bring up how rediculous an augment that gives nearly 300% stats can be lol

soonergm · February 2016

Because nobody wants to be band for promoting an exploit.

armadeonx · February 2016

stpensive said:

armadeonx said:
My cleric absolutely needs to use an Ioun - the amount of times auto-targeting has swung me around to place a heal on a companion instead of where I'm aiming is ridiculous.
You need to turn off AOE assist in the options menu. Even without companions, I could no longer take getting yanked to the wrong target. It takes some getting used to but well worth the effort.

I'll give it a try today

cscriv79 · February 2016

How do you get the double slotted talismans on Xbox One for the warlock, I have seen they use an app for the companions to get the items on the PC called 'Sword Coast Adventures'.

The great companion debate

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