DEVs, seriously what is the point in having comps in this game anymore.
Mod 16 completely changed everything, rending nearly all combat comps (Xuna and Chicken being the exceptions) completely obsolete and in the same process making augments (particularly the bulette pup) useful.
Now with Mod 20 even augs are virtually useless.
How I see it either 2 things have got to change.
1) Augments either give 100% of their stats + 20% of their bonus stats or raise their base stats higher. Combat comps either need a increase to their base damage, a increase to their attack rate (or give them at-wills) or go back to when they gave buffs/debuffs.
2) Completely remove them from the game and just up the stats on gear
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Lets all play solo and stop worrying about the companions - give us a fair trade in and get rid of them.
Let's wait until the changes go live, things are changing on preview ALOT.
Alot of bis DPS players are trying to maximize their glass cannon builds but we don't even know if they will be able to survive the bosses big attacks with these builds.
The average player might actually need the extra stats from the augments to bring their defense and awareness high enough that they are not going to get one shot during the boss fights.
They can be situational, but are viable and can be fun. I've done tomm with bulette pup, quasit, splinters(broom), batiri, and a few others summoned(Yet to try the chicken tho). The stats are achievable for the content once you're toon is built up.
Once you figure out the mechanics and know when to burst in and attack and when not to burst in and attack you can use just about any companion, many different gear combos, and different stuff altogether. There might be different pets that you'll do better with than others but all CAN be used. It's gearing up to learn that pulls everyone toward the current meta simply because people won't take you in content if gear isn't ideal in most cases.
Make like most companion have a buff/debuff skill... and low dmg on companion is irrelevant.
Right now companions only matter for the buff in status they give to player in the 5 slots we have.