Best GWF pets for proccing stones

santralafax · December 2016

So I finally switched to a fire archon after going months with a shadow demon. I did this to get use of his ring fingers. He can now mingle with the thousands of other fire archons I come across. Does it matter much what companion you use for bondings since the rules changed a few months ago? Or do you just go for a good active daily and the right loadout for the equipment you have on hand

dupeks · December 2016

There are a few things to consider:
1) Offense vs. Defense slots. For DPS you're hoping for all 3 offense slots.
2) Summoned companion attack buffs. Some Companions have great attacks that buff team DPS. The ones that come to mind are Sellsword, Con Artist, Ambush Drake, and Dancing Shield.
3) Companion gear slots. Having a ring slot or two can be great because you can use a ring of brutality on there. Otherwise Loyal rings (unless you're on console) can be very expensive.
4) Active bonus (nice if it's not worthless)
5) How fast & reliably it procs Protector's Camaraderie (depends on attack speed).

For the most part, I personally run Sellswords on my DPS toons because I like the offense slots and defense debuff that the Sellsword gives (this debuff only is mitigated once by RI vs DR and can stack from multiple pets). But it's a melee pet which dies pretty frequently. Some prefer ranged pets, or ones with a ring slot.

You see a lot of fire archons because it was a good compromise when bonding stones had to stack separately. But since this got changed, most companions can keep up Companion's Gift reliably so it's not necessary anymore. But the offense slots ring slots are nice, and the active bonus is solid as well. That said, I think it's over-represented because of historic reasons (and folks are lazy to change).

santralafax · December 2016

I was toying with Duergar Theurge: 3 offense slots and 2 ring slots, ranged weaponry. But he's a loudmouth. I want to like my companions. I'm thinking Storm Rider now, an archer with three offense slots and at least one ring. Her active bonus is kinda meh, but not useless. I'd have to upgrade her some, she's only green and I want stats from the legendary bonus. Sellsword might be worth another look....

rinat114 · December 2016

dupeks said:
There are a few things to consider:
1) Offense vs. Defense slots. For DPS you're hoping for all 3 offense slots.
2) Summoned companion attack buffs. Some Companions have great attacks that buff team DPS. The ones that come to mind are Sellsword, Con Artist, Ambush Drake, and Dancing Shield.
3) Companion gear slots. Having a ring slot or two can be great because you can use a ring of brutality on there. Otherwise Loyal rings (unless you're on console) can be very expensive.
4) Active bonus (nice if it's not worthless)
5) How fast & reliably it procs Protector's Camaraderie (depends on attack speed).

For the most part, I personally run Sellswords on my DPS toons because I like the offense slots and defense debuff that the Sellsword gives (this debuff only is mitigated once by RI vs DR and can stack from multiple pets). But it's a melee pet which dies pretty frequently. Some prefer ranged pets, or ones with a ring slot.

You see a lot of fire archons because it was a good compromise when bonding stones had to stack separately. But since this got changed, most companions can keep up Companion's Gift reliably so it's not necessary anymore. But the offense slots ring slots are nice, and the active bonus is solid as well. That said, I think it's over-represented because of historic reasons (and folks are lazy to change).

I'll disagree here. When bondings stacked separately the Zhentarim Warlock was BIS, after the bonding change I took the opportunity to switch out my companion for the Fire Archon because it's literally the best option for a GWF. As a melee character, having a melee companion will gimp me more than help me, despite the Sellsword and the Con Artist having 10% debuff, it's more expected of the support classes to use those companion, not that they're unhelpful for a DPS character, just not needed. You can solo everything on your own and kill everything with one swing, might be nice for dungeons since the debuff stacks with other people's companion but again, not needed. Fire Archon becoming a trend doesn't mean it's a choice out of laziness. Yes, people like me recommend it so it'll increase in popularity, but I have reasons and a whole paragraph about why the companion's excellet for a GWF. Doesn't make any other choice invalid of course, most companions can be almost as good post the change, but as I see it the Fire Archon is just the best for a GWF.

dupeks · December 2016

rinat114 said:
I'll disagree here. When bondings stacked separately the Zhentarim Warlock was BIS, after the bonding change I took the opportunity to switch out my companion for the Fire Archon because it's literally the best option for a GWF. As a melee character, having a melee companion will gimp me more than help me, despite the Sellsword and the Con Artist having 10% debuff, it's more expected of the support classes to use those companion, not that they're unhelpful for a DPS character, just not needed.

Thanks for the correction, I was wrong and you remind me that Warlock was BiS before the bonding change. Fire Archons became popular after the bonding fix. Apologies for my misstatement.

I agree that Sellsword and Con Artist have some significant downsides compared to Fire Archon (melee=dies, ring slots, meh active bonus). But I also think that for large-scale group content (like MSVA) debuffing pets can really help the group DPS (since everyone benefits from the debuff, and there is no cap to defense debuffs as far as I am aware), the more the merrier. Admittedly you can say that this is the job of tanks and support classes, and you can instead optimize your personal DPS (and I would defer to Lia here - sounds like Fire Archon is the choice to go with).

micky1p00 · December 2016

rinat114 said:
... As a melee character, having a melee companion will gimp me more than help me....

Why is that? Wouldn't it be more beneficial considering a DC can buff you both (with the bonding power loop) if it's a melee companion, and much less likely to work well for a ranged.

But even without the debuff, strike companions don't overtake aggro and revive faster than the bondings CD. So I'm not sure why they are worse than ranged. (Except blink dog on turtle in FBI)

rinat114 · December 2016

micky1p00 said:

rinat114 said:
... As a melee character, having a melee companion will gimp me more than help me....
Why is that? Wouldn't it be more beneficial considering a DC can buff you both (with the bonding power loop) if it's a melee companion, and much less likely to work well for a ranged.

But even without the debuff, strike companions don't overtake aggro and revive faster than the bondings CD. So I'm not sure why they are worse than ranged. (Except blink dog on turtle in FBI)

Surprisingly, my archon almost always gets all AA and power sharing buffs from OP'S and DC's, I thought that would be an issue as well initially, but it proved to not be a bother at all. The Archon stands in a comfortable range and not toooo far away so it still gets the buffs for the most part. It also draws zero aggro, at least no noticeable aggro that can compete with a GWFs (despite the DS aggro nerf). Aggro might be an issue for other classes like TR's though.

santralafax · December 2016

rinat114 said:

but I have reasons and a whole paragraph about why the companion's excellet for a GWF. Doesn't make any other choice invalid of course, most companions can be almost as good post the change, but as I see it the Fire Archon is just the best for a GWF.

I read that paragraph, and that is a big part of how I came up with the Storm Rider. She's ranged--so she's out of the way and has 3 offense slots. She generally doesn't bump into all the fire archons I meet

I recognize your skill at the game and take notes, but I refuse to be cookie cutter.

And I do have a fire archon in an active slot--I just don't summon him.

ijonum · December 2016

Anyone tried Air Elemental Cultist? I just browsed thru the collections to find a companion that has three offense slots and an Icon slot (as I have an Icon of Loyal Avenger, would be a shame to waste it and Loyal Avengers items became very expensive) and this one has - but is it ranged attack?

Edit: Oh, I'm such a moron! If the attack tooltip says it has 80' range then this indeed might be ranged :P Also, it has 1 second CD, interesting. But virtually no damage at all and only one ring slot.

wayne · December 2016

I use the alchemist experimenter, 3 offensive slots, hes ranged, and decent active bonus. Any opinions on him?

rinat114 · December 2016

wayne#8013 said:
I use the alchemist experimenter, 3 offensive slots, hes ranged, and decent active bonus. Any opinions on him?

It has a terrible active bonus, +165 to crit/armpen if I remember correctly? Also bad cooldown, not a good companion for a GWF. It's in melee range at most as well.

Edit: Nope, it actually has a 2s cooldown, I was so sure it had more than that as I was using it back in the day (wayyyy before bondings were a valid option). Guess it's fine, but far from BIS.

treesclimber · December 2016

rinat114 said:

wayne#8013 said:
I use the alchemist experimenter, 3 offensive slots, hes ranged, and decent active bonus. Any opinions on him?
It has a terrible active bonus, +165 to crit/armpen if I remember correctly? Also bad cooldown, not a good companion for a GWF. It's in melee range at most as well.

Edit: Nope, it actually has a 2s cooldown, I was so sure it had more than that as I was using it back in the day (wayyyy before bondings were a valid option). Guess it's fine, but far from BIS.

The advantage of alchemist experimenter is proccing out of combat, if you have a wounded ally he will heal him and so proc the gif, in situations like that big hit in sva, lothmauth center etc he will be more likelly to keep the bonus up, the active bonus would be decent if the arrangements were correctly made, 5% dps from a companion = 2000 power(at it's very base, so in BiS player it can go up to 5000 power or more), crit and power have diferent advantages like increased healing/power share, something around 1500 would be more than aceptable, but.....we know nothing is going to be changed about that.

treesclimber · December 2016

And lets make 1 thing clear that many people are missjudging rings, rings are not absolute if you dont have decent ones, the only mighty rings are brutallity +5 and rising power +5.
To this only excludes trash cleaning where the uptime of brutality is greater, consider this from a full dps perspective, not in mob trashing:

Loyal piece of gear:
652 power
652 crit
435 arm pen
435 * 0,25 = 109 (Discilple of war)
700*0,2 = 140 (steely defence)
+ 3 stat enchantment = 920 (May have 460 recovery)
Total: 2908
Without Arm pen effectivness = 2473

Rings (the only 3 that can compete, rising accuracy may be a option as well, ring of adorable bites is inferior to all of these so i didn't include it)

Greater ostorian ring of Dod
475 power
475 crit
2*3 stat enchantment 1840
Total: 2790

Ring of brutallity:
Average 1333 power
2*3 stat enchantment 1840
Total: 3173

Ring of Raising power(some stacking problems in some companions)
Total: 3190

Not having Arm pen enough in your unbuffed GWF is perfectly possible, specially with orcus set, so from a loyal avenger piece you may be abble to take all stats.

So.... the best companion in NWO for a dps GWF is the sellsword with 3 loyal avengers at "full gas" and just behind, If you have those 3 last rings is the con artist inspite of the defence slot their added offencive stats with black ice enchantments will become very close to the sellsword.

I also considered the Dancing shield, that has a massive debuff but the uptime of the debuff is not as good as either one of those and it's single target as both sellsword and con artist affect multi targets.

Best GWF pets for proccing stones

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