You can also look into the IGN Prime promotion, as it unlocks an account-wide green cleric (if the promo is still running).
I looked it up, I'm not sure if it's still running. Either way, unfortunately you have to be a paid subscriber to them and there's no way I'm doing that lol.
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silverquickMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 1Arc User
edited April 2014
As a CW shockingly for nearly the entire game, up to level 60, the only companion I ever used was the Cleric.
Once I got that high though I started experiementing around because a lot of the companions had some really interesting things. A lot of parties don't like you using companions. But those parties are the type that don't run dungeons for fun anyway and just like to skip mobs and go as fast as possible to the end boss. While I understand this playstyle. It always hit me as screwy, because combat and fighting your way there is fun.
After all once you have a powerful character, whats the point in never actually using that power or fighting with it. So it doesn't bother me personally as I don't skip mobs usually unless that's the makeup of the party and how they want things done.
And there is a point to having many companions.
Even if you use an Augment companion, the other companions active bonus adds to your abilities and powers even when they're not summoned and affect your gear score... So long as they are in one of your active slots and not in your bag, they give you the bonus it says on their description as if they were a piece of gear.
Of the companions I have,
Cleric:
Yes this is an outstanding healer, I used this one for the majority of my time in Neverwinter. Unfortunately once I started to pass a 13k gear score, I just didn't need much healing anymore when doing Foundries or Solo content, or even in dungeons as we always had a cleric healing the party. So this one went by the wayside after a while, but was my favorite for a very long time. I even upgraded this one. +100 regen was nice in your active slot.
Man at Arms:
I wanted this one to work out, and honestly its a good tank. but I only found it useful in tight corridors, otherwise the standard 3 spawn mobs would run right past him and come at me anyway with the exception of like one of them that he would take off me. Never upgraded this one,
Sellsword:
One of the least useful of my hirelings. It doesn't do enough damage to really add anything. And being a CW I don't have to worry about that much. Its kinda pain actually. However... I am looking to upgrade this one anyway. If this one goes to Green and you slot it in your active slot, its +100 power. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Wayward Wizard:
This is actually one of the more useful companions. It actually does pretty decent damage and has several powers that freeze the enemies briefly. Which is actually surprisingly handy in a fight. Not worth upgrading for me though as the Active Bonus at green is +100 recovery which I am not in need of. And... I don't like Drow much.
Some of the fun ones...
Ghost:
I just love this one, It actually possesses one of the enemies attacking you, turns it on the others and starts attacking them. Lol, its hilarious to watch. especially if you're in group with someone and they run up to attack a mob and suddenly it turns blue and they're sitting there confused wondering why they can't attack the mob, and why that mob is suddenly attacking the other ones heheh. Yes one of my favorites. But I don't get to use it that much. Surprisingly as useful as this pet is, there are others that are even more useful to me.
The Active bonus on this one, only applies to other Companions, so its not really worth slotting unless you plan to pull it out. Then its great.
Blink Dog:
Just recently pulled this one out of Celendain Tower. This one is one of the most useful pets I own. It blinks behind the target and puts it in a combat advantage situation for you, increasing your overall damage by 15% on that target. Which I can tell you for a Renegade spec CW is great because one of your feats increases the Crit damage you do by 15%. I can easily see this thing being a rogue favorite too. It seriously increases your damage if you've got a lot of combat advantage multipliers. The damage it does is irrelevant compared to the added damage YOU cause. Plus... slotting it in your active slots increases your combat advantage damage by 3% even when its not active. Again great when you have the Renegade CW spec'd with Nightmare Wizardry allowing you to put foes in a combat advantage situation, then increase your damage by 3%. I did not think this pet would be as good as it was, but after giving it a whirl, its got major benefits.
Moonshae Druid:
This one when you pull it out can be really good. It has a stun spell on it that interrupts the targets that are casting their big red area spells on you and stops them dead in their tracks. This one strikes at the most opportune times. This one makes me smile, because it always seems to be johnny on the spot with the stuns. The active slot bonus on this one is 255 health and +55 recovery. Which when combined is a pretty nice little boost. But the reason this one went into my bag has to do with the other pets.
Wild Hunt Rider:
This one is actually a surprisingly good tank. Mostly because, unlike the other tank pets, it will spring right into the group of mobs and suck up their attention like its nothing. This one actually occupies all of them, unlike some of the other. So its tanking ability is surprisingly good. Stack this one with a bunch of defense and health and it goes a long way. And the active bonus on this one is superb. It actually has a 2% chance to increase your damage by 10% for 5 seconds when its in the active slot. I can tell you, being a CW, that that's the proc rate of Eye of the Storm passive class feat. Which seems like a low chance to go off, but because you constantly attack over and over repeatedy, it procs a great deal of time. Very useful pet. I just don't use tanks anymore, at my gs level.
Frost Mimic: Actually this is one indestructible tank pet. When this one does its lid close maneuver the bad guys can barely scratch it. And it holds agro surprisingly well. It actually is my preferred tank pet, its really one of the best ones available, but because the active bonus on the Wild Hunt Rider is more useful than the +100 defense this one gives me in the active slot, I generally have the Rider Slotted instead.
Great Slotted Pets:
Orc Wolf:
This one has a bite that actually bleeds the target, and its useful, but because Striker pets in general do horrible damage, I don't generally get much use out of them. I love this pet and spent a great deal of time in the Orc skirmish to win it. BUT... I don't generally pull this one out much as its a striker pet and relatively useless. The Active bonus is what keeps this pet slotted though. +100 Crit is something I just can't turn down in my active slots. So this one tends to stay slotted a lot.
Dog:
Again a striker pet, but doesn't really knock enemies down enough to be worth it. I don't ever use this pet... but... I did upgrade it in order to get the +100 Armor Penetration bonus when its slotted. This makes the entire pet worth it and the upgrade money I spent. Once you get a higher gear score, it gets harder and harder to find things that give a good stat boost that aren't just small upgrade over what you've already got. So... something like this is very nice.
Great Pets I love... but aren't worth slotting, and I never get use out of.
Green Slime Pet:
This pet has one of the coolest and most useful control moves I've ever seen... unfortunately I'm a CW so I can already do that. It does exactly what a Gelatanous Cube does, it goes flat, grabs all mobs in an aoe around it, and pulls them all to the center. Great for something like a GWF or a GF. Its like their own personal crowd control. Lol but kinda useless for a CW. Still the merits of this pet are excellent. I cannot dog on this pet for being useless... its far from that... its just that, I can't get any use out of it as a CW.
Pets that seriously cheese me off...
Wererat Theif:
Ok this pet has an excellent interrupt strike that is incredibly useful... except for a mage attempting to AoE things in a group. The spinning blade move knocks things all over the board and always seems to do that right when I'm lining up a Sudden Storm on a group or, a Boulder to blow them all up with. Ohhh I cannot tell you how often this pet has cheesed me off. I don't use it anymore, unfortunately for me, it has a really good active bonus, a 2% chance to poison a target when I'm casting. Which is really good. But now that I have the Wild hunt rider and the Blink Dog, I just don't need that poison DoT anymore. And the other two slots I keep the ArP and Crit ratings Pets.
Those are the ones I can think of right off my head that I own and do get use out of.
Yes... My Ioun Stone of Allure is the best pet for grouping in dungeons as it adds a good 2500 points worth of ability scores once its summoned and it doesn't die or get attacked.... but the other pets I have are indeed very useful.
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nightspiritgMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 102Arc User
edited April 2014
I play for fun so when it comes to stats and numbers I get lost,but I collect companions and find the blue Ioun stone best for my ranger and wizard. But for fun I like the way the ghost posses's the enemy's,and I can help but laugh when my character is walking and the little dragon is waddleing around or flying after the enemy. Someone mentioned the cave bear,I made mine purple too and like it,though its to @#$% expensive to upgrade them or I would all of them.I found the renegade wizard useful for my low level toons but I run solo and dont pvp yet,but just for fun there are a few good ones.
Comments
On topic: Thanks.
Off topic: Haha. Another WoTer. Haven't seen any in game so far, not that it's easy to keep track in game. Make a sub-forum, start a guild!! Lol
I looked it up, I'm not sure if it's still running. Either way, unfortunately you have to be a paid subscriber to them and there's no way I'm doing that lol.
Once I got that high though I started experiementing around because a lot of the companions had some really interesting things. A lot of parties don't like you using companions. But those parties are the type that don't run dungeons for fun anyway and just like to skip mobs and go as fast as possible to the end boss. While I understand this playstyle. It always hit me as screwy, because combat and fighting your way there is fun.
After all once you have a powerful character, whats the point in never actually using that power or fighting with it. So it doesn't bother me personally as I don't skip mobs usually unless that's the makeup of the party and how they want things done.
And there is a point to having many companions.
Even if you use an Augment companion, the other companions active bonus adds to your abilities and powers even when they're not summoned and affect your gear score... So long as they are in one of your active slots and not in your bag, they give you the bonus it says on their description as if they were a piece of gear.
Of the companions I have,
Cleric:
Yes this is an outstanding healer, I used this one for the majority of my time in Neverwinter. Unfortunately once I started to pass a 13k gear score, I just didn't need much healing anymore when doing Foundries or Solo content, or even in dungeons as we always had a cleric healing the party. So this one went by the wayside after a while, but was my favorite for a very long time. I even upgraded this one. +100 regen was nice in your active slot.
Man at Arms:
I wanted this one to work out, and honestly its a good tank. but I only found it useful in tight corridors, otherwise the standard 3 spawn mobs would run right past him and come at me anyway with the exception of like one of them that he would take off me. Never upgraded this one,
Sellsword:
One of the least useful of my hirelings. It doesn't do enough damage to really add anything. And being a CW I don't have to worry about that much. Its kinda pain actually. However... I am looking to upgrade this one anyway. If this one goes to Green and you slot it in your active slot, its +100 power. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Wayward Wizard:
This is actually one of the more useful companions. It actually does pretty decent damage and has several powers that freeze the enemies briefly. Which is actually surprisingly handy in a fight. Not worth upgrading for me though as the Active Bonus at green is +100 recovery which I am not in need of. And... I don't like Drow much.
Some of the fun ones...
Ghost:
I just love this one, It actually possesses one of the enemies attacking you, turns it on the others and starts attacking them. Lol, its hilarious to watch. especially if you're in group with someone and they run up to attack a mob and suddenly it turns blue and they're sitting there confused wondering why they can't attack the mob, and why that mob is suddenly attacking the other ones heheh. Yes one of my favorites. But I don't get to use it that much. Surprisingly as useful as this pet is, there are others that are even more useful to me.
The Active bonus on this one, only applies to other Companions, so its not really worth slotting unless you plan to pull it out. Then its great.
Blink Dog:
Just recently pulled this one out of Celendain Tower. This one is one of the most useful pets I own. It blinks behind the target and puts it in a combat advantage situation for you, increasing your overall damage by 15% on that target. Which I can tell you for a Renegade spec CW is great because one of your feats increases the Crit damage you do by 15%. I can easily see this thing being a rogue favorite too. It seriously increases your damage if you've got a lot of combat advantage multipliers. The damage it does is irrelevant compared to the added damage YOU cause. Plus... slotting it in your active slots increases your combat advantage damage by 3% even when its not active. Again great when you have the Renegade CW spec'd with Nightmare Wizardry allowing you to put foes in a combat advantage situation, then increase your damage by 3%. I did not think this pet would be as good as it was, but after giving it a whirl, its got major benefits.
Moonshae Druid:
This one when you pull it out can be really good. It has a stun spell on it that interrupts the targets that are casting their big red area spells on you and stops them dead in their tracks. This one strikes at the most opportune times. This one makes me smile, because it always seems to be johnny on the spot with the stuns. The active slot bonus on this one is 255 health and +55 recovery. Which when combined is a pretty nice little boost. But the reason this one went into my bag has to do with the other pets.
Wild Hunt Rider:
This one is actually a surprisingly good tank. Mostly because, unlike the other tank pets, it will spring right into the group of mobs and suck up their attention like its nothing. This one actually occupies all of them, unlike some of the other. So its tanking ability is surprisingly good. Stack this one with a bunch of defense and health and it goes a long way. And the active bonus on this one is superb. It actually has a 2% chance to increase your damage by 10% for 5 seconds when its in the active slot. I can tell you, being a CW, that that's the proc rate of Eye of the Storm passive class feat. Which seems like a low chance to go off, but because you constantly attack over and over repeatedy, it procs a great deal of time. Very useful pet. I just don't use tanks anymore, at my gs level.
Frost Mimic: Actually this is one indestructible tank pet. When this one does its lid close maneuver the bad guys can barely scratch it. And it holds agro surprisingly well. It actually is my preferred tank pet, its really one of the best ones available, but because the active bonus on the Wild Hunt Rider is more useful than the +100 defense this one gives me in the active slot, I generally have the Rider Slotted instead.
Great Slotted Pets:
Orc Wolf:
This one has a bite that actually bleeds the target, and its useful, but because Striker pets in general do horrible damage, I don't generally get much use out of them. I love this pet and spent a great deal of time in the Orc skirmish to win it. BUT... I don't generally pull this one out much as its a striker pet and relatively useless. The Active bonus is what keeps this pet slotted though. +100 Crit is something I just can't turn down in my active slots. So this one tends to stay slotted a lot.
Dog:
Again a striker pet, but doesn't really knock enemies down enough to be worth it. I don't ever use this pet... but... I did upgrade it in order to get the +100 Armor Penetration bonus when its slotted. This makes the entire pet worth it and the upgrade money I spent. Once you get a higher gear score, it gets harder and harder to find things that give a good stat boost that aren't just small upgrade over what you've already got. So... something like this is very nice.
Great Pets I love... but aren't worth slotting, and I never get use out of.
Green Slime Pet:
This pet has one of the coolest and most useful control moves I've ever seen... unfortunately I'm a CW so I can already do that. It does exactly what a Gelatanous Cube does, it goes flat, grabs all mobs in an aoe around it, and pulls them all to the center. Great for something like a GWF or a GF. Its like their own personal crowd control. Lol but kinda useless for a CW. Still the merits of this pet are excellent. I cannot dog on this pet for being useless... its far from that... its just that, I can't get any use out of it as a CW.
Pets that seriously cheese me off...
Wererat Theif:
Ok this pet has an excellent interrupt strike that is incredibly useful... except for a mage attempting to AoE things in a group. The spinning blade move knocks things all over the board and always seems to do that right when I'm lining up a Sudden Storm on a group or, a Boulder to blow them all up with. Ohhh I cannot tell you how often this pet has cheesed me off. I don't use it anymore, unfortunately for me, it has a really good active bonus, a 2% chance to poison a target when I'm casting. Which is really good. But now that I have the Wild hunt rider and the Blink Dog, I just don't need that poison DoT anymore. And the other two slots I keep the ArP and Crit ratings Pets.
Those are the ones I can think of right off my head that I own and do get use out of.
Yes... My Ioun Stone of Allure is the best pet for grouping in dungeons as it adds a good 2500 points worth of ability scores once its summoned and it doesn't die or get attacked.... but the other pets I have are indeed very useful.