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Advanced Companion Utility Ideas
harnel
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
This is a thread for your ideas on how to improve the companion system in-game. Let's hear your thoughts!
This was an idea I had while browsing the Companion Arena thread elsewhere in this particular forum. The idea is that, for a reasonable requirement (perhaps an astral diamond cost, like we have to do already, or maybe a once-per-character unlockable token) we could upgrade our companions past epic level to legendary quality.
The proposed idea would be that legendary quality, unlike previous quality upgrades, would take the companion up to rank 40. There's a few reasons for this.
1. Companions, other than augment companions and leaders (and very rarely defenders), are basically useless in epic dungeons. As an example, Szarn, my Vicious Dire Wolf, can only deal about 400 damage per strike at rank 30. In a game where even the tank and support classes deal upwards of 1200 damage per hit, this is simply not enough in any way to really contribute in a dungeon. Allowing one to get up to Rank 40 would allow it to reach damage values appropriate to a dungeon-running character. Extrapolation puts Szarn's damage, at Rank 40, at about 1000 damage per hit which, while not massive, is certainly more respectable than the piddly amount he's doing now.
2. The defenses of certain companions aren't in question - gods know, a Neverember guard of a Galeb Dhur can tank a few hits from a boss before being pasted - but the simply fact is that companions simply can't survive in epic dungeons if they're targeted by enemies. Even healer companions with no attack ability whatsoever get targetted; a Fawn of Shiallia in the last Spellplague Caverns run I took part in got punted by several nothic mindwarps. Because of this, many people believe that companions are largely useless if they can be targetted at all - companions get their HP multiplied in a dungeon, but that barely means anything when they charge headlong into a boss' AoE and take a third of their HP in one hit. Increased defensive stats and HP progression, while it wouldn't fix this, would make them at least viable for survival. Going back to the Szarn example, he doesn't even do enough damage to pull any aggro, but he still dies in epic dungeon constantly because of all the AoEs being tossed around.
3. Following the development pattern of companion skins, a new one would be available at rank 40, and this alone would get people to buy them. In the case of Szarn, He'd likely get bigger and more spikier - can you imagine commanding a dark furred beast nearly the size of a horse to kill your enemies? What about the Man-at-arms white companion at Legendary quality? What sort of spectacular armor would he have then? You can't tell me that wouldn't be awesome.
I'd I'd also like to recommend the implementation of a command system revolving around four things - Targeted Attacks, a "Retreat" command, an Active mode, and a Passive mode. Active mode would be how companions currently act - they just start trying to eat whatever has their aggro, which is respectable in itself but extremely limited in utility, as there's no way to dictate when your companion is going to swap targets or any way to prevent it from pull aggro at inoportune moments (we've all been there). Passive mode is the idea that the companion does nothing but follow you around while it's active - extremely useful in events such as doing your best to avoid pulling too much aggro - who reading this hasn't seen a companion run off into the middle of a horde of enemies while you're fighting a group and end up dropping more on your team than it can handle?
The targeted attacks command would let you pick a target and force your companion to attack that target. For example, you're a wizard with a defender companion; You order your companion to attack the boss so that you're free of distractions while you're taking care of his adds. A "retreat" command would work the other way - you order your companion to abandon what it's doing right then and come to you - useful if you, say, want to pull it out of an AoE before it gets stomped flat enough to mail.
These are just my ideas on the subject. If you have any ideas, please, go ahead and post them. Who knows? Maybe there'll be a gem among these that the cryptic devs pick up on and decide to include. But they won't unless the suggestions are somewhere they can see them!
This was an idea I had while browsing the Companion Arena thread elsewhere in this particular forum. The idea is that, for a reasonable requirement (perhaps an astral diamond cost, like we have to do already, or maybe a once-per-character unlockable token) we could upgrade our companions past epic level to legendary quality.
The proposed idea would be that legendary quality, unlike previous quality upgrades, would take the companion up to rank 40. There's a few reasons for this.
1. Companions, other than augment companions and leaders (and very rarely defenders), are basically useless in epic dungeons. As an example, Szarn, my Vicious Dire Wolf, can only deal about 400 damage per strike at rank 30. In a game where even the tank and support classes deal upwards of 1200 damage per hit, this is simply not enough in any way to really contribute in a dungeon. Allowing one to get up to Rank 40 would allow it to reach damage values appropriate to a dungeon-running character. Extrapolation puts Szarn's damage, at Rank 40, at about 1000 damage per hit which, while not massive, is certainly more respectable than the piddly amount he's doing now.
2. The defenses of certain companions aren't in question - gods know, a Neverember guard of a Galeb Dhur can tank a few hits from a boss before being pasted - but the simply fact is that companions simply can't survive in epic dungeons if they're targeted by enemies. Even healer companions with no attack ability whatsoever get targetted; a Fawn of Shiallia in the last Spellplague Caverns run I took part in got punted by several nothic mindwarps. Because of this, many people believe that companions are largely useless if they can be targetted at all - companions get their HP multiplied in a dungeon, but that barely means anything when they charge headlong into a boss' AoE and take a third of their HP in one hit. Increased defensive stats and HP progression, while it wouldn't fix this, would make them at least viable for survival. Going back to the Szarn example, he doesn't even do enough damage to pull any aggro, but he still dies in epic dungeon constantly because of all the AoEs being tossed around.
3. Following the development pattern of companion skins, a new one would be available at rank 40, and this alone would get people to buy them. In the case of Szarn, He'd likely get bigger and more spikier - can you imagine commanding a dark furred beast nearly the size of a horse to kill your enemies? What about the Man-at-arms white companion at Legendary quality? What sort of spectacular armor would he have then? You can't tell me that wouldn't be awesome.
I'd I'd also like to recommend the implementation of a command system revolving around four things - Targeted Attacks, a "Retreat" command, an Active mode, and a Passive mode. Active mode would be how companions currently act - they just start trying to eat whatever has their aggro, which is respectable in itself but extremely limited in utility, as there's no way to dictate when your companion is going to swap targets or any way to prevent it from pull aggro at inoportune moments (we've all been there). Passive mode is the idea that the companion does nothing but follow you around while it's active - extremely useful in events such as doing your best to avoid pulling too much aggro - who reading this hasn't seen a companion run off into the middle of a horde of enemies while you're fighting a group and end up dropping more on your team than it can handle?
The targeted attacks command would let you pick a target and force your companion to attack that target. For example, you're a wizard with a defender companion; You order your companion to attack the boss so that you're free of distractions while you're taking care of his adds. A "retreat" command would work the other way - you order your companion to abandon what it's doing right then and come to you - useful if you, say, want to pull it out of an AoE before it gets stomped flat enough to mail.
These are just my ideas on the subject. If you have any ideas, please, go ahead and post them. Who knows? Maybe there'll be a gem among these that the cryptic devs pick up on and decide to include. But they won't unless the suggestions are somewhere they can see them!
Post edited by harnel on
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Comments
IF the companions were allowed to become legendary, I think there should be a system that prevents this progression until the player reaches level 60, or they could become quite OP at lower levels...it would be fun for a while, but it would ultimately take away from the player experience if the AI did all the work. Maybe Epic dungeons could drop Rare Companion Growth Tokens, or something similar, to make end-game companion leveling a smooth part of player progression.
I agree that better control would be nice. Companions have done 3 useful things for me: increase my stats, heal me, and set up combat advantage. Being able to set up combat advantage by flanking an enemy is a nice perk from companions while soloing, but the current AI can make it quite frustrating. I would love if you could set your companion's AI to "run behind your target".
However, augments and leaders would still be better than strikers, controllers and defenders. If revolutionary change is on the table, I would create a consumable that can convert a leader, striker, defender, or controller to an augment. Basically you could have an augment Frost Mimic, if you're willing to pay.