Lots of misinformation here. The ONLY difference is in their 'passive buff' and one equipment slot. The cat: 225 crit/recovery buff has a belt slot. The stone of allure: 150 crit/power/recovery buff has an icon slot. Both companions will give you 100% of the stats from ALL items you equip (except for the +maximum health…
The armor debuff % from Plague Fire only stacks once PER PLAYER. If you have 2 players with plaguefire, the armor debuff stacks twice, three players: three times, etc. The stacks that you see on your debuff are the damage over time stacks, as adozu mentioned.
I have noticed this as well. If you cast Icy Terrain on mobs that are immune to CC, it disappears shortly after being cast (within 2-3 seconds) instead of lasting its full duration. This spell also cannot crit.
I will not be quitting of course, neverwinter has been lots of fun for me so far. Sure, there are tons of bugs/exploits, class imbalances (GWF doing zero damage in comparison to TR, LOL), downtime, etc. But all of this is to be expected really with the launch of any new game.
Fzoul Chembryl was the leader for a long time, but when he was killed after the spellplague, Manhoon's clone, Orbakh, took over and is now the current leader.
A full wipe and giving people the original amount of ZEN that they purchased through the website (they must have the transaction history) is the only option.