f13.net

Companions are awesome.  This should be without question.  Although I still just have Kaliyo and my ship droid, looking ahead for the career of my IA, I don't really see myself using anyone else other than Kaliyo.  I mean, she tanks, I heal and DPS.  While I'm going to get a couple more tank companions (SCORPIO, Dr. Lokin-beast mode), I fail to see the point in investing in multiple companions.  So everyone else is going to be craft-bitches as far as I can see.  I just don't see myself using dedicated DPS companions, unless I just happen to find a 2-man quest/dungeon and the person I group with just happens to also be a tank.

Or am I wrong and I'm completely missing something?  :?

They all have personal storyline/quest stuff you unlock by getting them to certain levels of affection, for one thing. Said quests give rewards; I got a very nice implant for hitting a particular threshold with Kira.

EDIT: You might want to spoiler that bit about the good doctor.

Well, Warrior's companion for the first 16 levels is strictly DPS, so there will be plenty of temptation to try someone with Healing when they come available. Other than that, if it works the way I suspect, you'll still have the option of grabbing companions to do their individual plotlines.

Tell us those who played in the Beta: do the companion plotlines actually involve seperate questlines that you go out and do, or is it all strictly conversations on the ship?

That's personal preference, right there.

Healers have the luxury of switching out companions if they feel like it moreso than the other types, from what I can see. If I'm killing a bunch of scrub crap on normal quests, I'm totally going to have a DPS pet out instead, probably. And I might get along better with companion A than companion B (Qyzen and my sage are starting to come to an Understanding, but she's way too selfless and humble for his tastes generally, for example). Plus sometimes you just want something different.

Nothing's stopping you from just using Kaliyo forever, of course, but I am the exact opposite of you. I fail to see the point in limiting yourself to just one, forever. Personal preference.  :oh_i_see:

Is a companion's affection purely on a scale of 0 - 10000?  Or once you hit 10000 does it go up to a new tier?

Don't get me wrong, I 'want' to use my other companions...maybe I'm just locked into the whole 'role' thing too much and need to branch out, once I get some more 'real' companions.  (Sorry, ship Droid, I built you a whole suit of armor, but you still suck :P)

The tiers are within that 10k afaik, how gift giving works:

Tier 1 0-1999
Tier 2 2000-3999
Tier 3 4000-5999
Tier 4 6000-7999
Tier 5 8000+

(I might not have that exactly right but close enough for the explanation.) Gifts come in 5 tiers. You get full value for a gift of your current tier or higher. A gift one tier below your current tier is only 50% effective; anything below that is 0.

Companions also have certain categories they like and certain ones they are indifferent to. If they're indifferent the gift does nothing. NOTE: Your ship droid is indifferent to everything; do not waste gifts on him, you cannot raise his affection.

The actual quest conversation stuff is gated both with affection levels (more granular than those tiers) and sometimes by main story quest progress. For example, I had Kira at something like 3000 affection and she wasn't talking to me, until I hit a certain point in the main quest; once that happened we had like 4 conversations in a row due to how high her affection had gotten in the meantime.

I wish I could go with mr. roboto (not the protocol droid) on my tank-spec trooper, but alas I am glued to the only healer-spec companion (Dorne) TF2 heavy/medic style. I tried to give cat-dude a try, but above level 30 shit gets annoying fast... going with one of the tank companions is even worse. Dual spec needs to get implemented yesterday!  :awesome_for_real:

Thank you for this :)

Since you're heal specced, yes, you are too locked in and should try branching out once you get more real companions. The ship droid does suck, but he tells you several times he's not REALLY built for fighting. Perhaps you should take him at his word.  :oh_i_see:

I whip out the ship droid in lieu of channel-healing myself between combats.  This way I dont have to stop to heal.  Just hit the swap button and run.  Tis a bit catass though I know, but I imagine it'd come in handy for timed missions or when you're trying to beat respawns.

:facepalm:

I had to think hard on which smily summed up my feelings on that.

Depends on the companion... but yes there are some actual quest lines tied to your companions.



Ghambit, that doesn't seem any more efficient then just using your recharge ability or whatever.

      :drill:
   /
 O-  :facepalm:
   \
      :pedobear:

I love Mako as my healing companion.  I love Blizz more though.  Unfortunately, playing as a DPS BH, Blizz and I get totally owned.  I'm pretty much stuck with Mako to make things about right for leveling.

Thanks! 

But shit, I should have saved those tier 5 gifts I acquired.  Oh well, I imagine by the end that will be all you are getting anyways.

Make sure you dont waste tier 2 gifts before you actually GET to tier 2.  The affection gain is minimal if you spend the extra 400 creds between tier 1 and 2.  Kaliyo gives me +96 for a 200cred t1 weapon and +104 for a 600cred t2 weapon.   :oh_i_see:

Keep in mind item quality factors into it as well, so make sure you are comparing greens to greens, or whatever.

Are you guys using credits to buy companion gifts or grinding them out through crafting/forage skills like diplomacy?

Mostly Underworld Trading for me.

I just made an alt to farm more tradeskill items... Course now, I'm enjoying playing that alt too.... GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

I've only used underworld trading stuff. I doubt that giving Khem more gear makes him happier. I just play the doucher inquisitor and that seems to please him.

I would imagine that shit changes once I get past the teens.


I did not realize that you could go back to the fleet and train up goddamn crew skills before you could be sent there by the storyline. I was playing with Lant the other day, and she mentioned that she'd trained the crew skills at something like lv 2.

It's too bad that we're playing Empire, because I've done Jedi Knight to 9 and I could easily make him my crafting gimp.

Or am I having a Slack moment?

I've got Mako all worked up, but she popped her mission on me around lvl 20 and it's a level 30 mission iirc. So I'll just be getting around to it as I wrap up Nar Shaddaa (I'm about 27 and all that's left is heroics and bonus).

Not sure I'll use another, since my tanky ass needs a healbot. Maybe with a good dps pet or bouncing aggro back and forth with blizz I could get by with just healing between fights. I had really good results grouping with a Jugger, but then...we did have Mako. Almost wish they gave out two healing companions, especially to non-healing ACs. Good idea for future content publish.

I mean, with all they've talked about their metrics, they've got to see every PT using Mako, right?

I really hate how I'm level 25 and I still only have Mako and my ship droid.  I need more crafting slaves.

Also I can't wait for Blizz.  I want to play a healer, but I need a tank companion to do so.  Once you get a vehicle, getting around is so much more enjoyable.

They didn't stagger the companions very evenly.  They are all dependent on your personal story line but different classes get companions earlier than others.  Some will have 3 by level 30 and others will only have 1.

I usually don't even have a companion out though, mostly they are off running missions.  It is annoying when I need one and have to wait for the mission to finish first though.

My Jedi Knight had 3 by 18, and I think I actually got the third a couple levels before that.

Technically, I don't count the ship droid as a companion. You can't adventure with him, he's basically just a butler.

(http://content6.flixster.com/question/36/52/10/3652104_std.jpg)

So, question. Are all of the companions preordained, or do we at some point get to pick and choose companions from a lot of them?

Preordained by class. They're all related to your class plot I believe.

So you just get what you get. No picking and choosing. That's kind of a let down, but I understand.

I mentioned this in guild chat but it's so amusing to me I'll post it here for general consumption.

If you hit Rank 2 social you can buy your female companion (or yourself if you're a light armor class w/ a female avatar) a set of Slave Girl clothes in Nar Shadda.  These are orange, totally moddable and only 300 credits for each slot. (But come with no mods in their slots)

I shall fill them with delight and joyfulness.  :why_so_serious:

I need to group more. That's a long climb for someone who doesn't group regularly. Basically you need to do flashpoints, as most heroics don't have enough to get much out of.

As soon as the flashpoints don't have rape-you-in-the-face four horseman fights, I'll be all up ons.  That fight in Mandalorian Raiders though.. :ye_gods:

I can't figure out why the first companion for some classes doesn't offer a healing or tanking option and why the second companion doesn't offer whichever the first one didn't. DPS-only companions are a huge pain in the ass; you need to rest for a couple seconds after each fight.

It seems like this would be an obvious design win.

I kinda wish they'd kept the companions and their roles separate, so that I could use the companion I like the most and have them perform the role I need, rather than adventuring with the companion that's most beneficial to my chosen spec. I assume it wasn't done this way because of gearing issues or something else I'm not seeing.

The ship droid is a heal-bot.  You can't outfit it with weapons, but if you equip it with some nice +Aim gear, he can heal alright through trash and stuff.

Do you get social points for PvP?

Oh? Didn't realize I could take him. I guess that might be nice for soloing heroic areas, but for grinding out quests and whatnot you'd probably go faster with a DPS companion. Obviously someone like Mako who can simultaneously DPS and heal would be ideal.

I did better with Vette than I did with the HealBot doing elite groups for Hadra's defeat quest. The heals weren't enough to overcome the damage and his added dps is well.. not.

I keep wanting to turn her into a straight healbot, but she does pretty good at cleaning up the extra mobs after I've softened everything with a few AEs.
Group conversations, so no.

If people don't mind slumming it, I'm happy to run lowbie instances.  You should still get social and dark/light points.

I'll run any dungeon, any time.  I like them and want to see more of 'em.

Just ran the A-whatever one with Tannhauser yesterday.  Quite the snore fest other than the big animal that kicked my ass over a wall into a group of mobs;  So watch out for that.

Yeah, I haven't done a single flashpoint yet, but I'll do any of them, even if I've possibly out-levelled them. I just want to play through some with guild folks. I've had two non-horrible PUGs so far, but who knows when that luck will run out.

Ditto. Only one I would be hesitant to run would be the Mandalorians, because of the bugged treasure chest (the chest for the 4 republic heroes didn't open for us).

But if I'm on, feel free to ask me. The more tanking experience I can get before the operations, the better! I've got a five day weekend coming up, so if I'm on, I'm not engaged in family stuff :) I hope to catass through at least Thurs and Fri  :drill: Starting Wed night, I'm calling for a BC flashpoint blitz!

Is there any penalty to taking lowbies through FPs?

I am curious as to this as well. Obvious this does not affect the quest xp outcome, but I am wondering if the trash/boss xp is cut up as typically done on these games.

Which could be a good thing, xp is CRAZY in this game. Half of my mods are still level 20, I'm just getting Nar Shaddaa mods at level 27 (they're 24?). Major factor in my sticking with armormech, it's currently the way I can stay in level-appropriate gear.

How did you beat the four horsemen of the apocalypse?  My group had a hard time overcoming.

When I did it, we basically just had the tank running around like they were insane while the DPS picked something and wasted it.

I think we did the tank (for no sane reason), the healery ranged, the other ranged, and finally the nuker.

Four (?) wipes. I was actually getting frustrated and glad I tried it again. I was under-leveled as the tank and that was destroying us. The other guys were proper or a bit over level, the dps was good, healing was fine except me getting whomped. Levels are just so huge in this game, I'm thinking from 25 on I won't try tanking anything over my level as a rule.

We put trooper last the first couple times and his mortar volley was  :ye_gods: We tried a couple different kill orders and almost wiped again when Cho (?) was able to kite the last mob (Consular) and killed her with 230 or so hp left  :drill: It was a great fight, but just really tough to crack for some reason, the ramping up of abilities is nefarious. That Jedi Knight made me stabby with always breaking off me and jumping on someone across the room or force pushing me into a corner, we moved her to first in order just to slow things down and make it more organized. We got no lewtz and I got a 2.5k cr repair bill. Finaly order iirc was Knight, Smuggler, Trooper, Consular.

Then I saw a video on the tube (out of curiosity) and a Jedi just force lifted whatever CC on of the mobs for most of the fight. Dammit. Then again, they were all a few levels over, as well.

That video is either old, or the tooltips are wrong. All the boss characters had a CC immunity buff up. I was planning on space-sapping one but the buff told me I shouldn't.

My group tried three times.  On the third, we tried the ZG tiger boss tactic of "kill the first two outright, bring the last two down to 10% or less health, and then burn them down together".  Would have worked beautifully if not for some not avoiding AoE properly.

I've got to learn the translation of everyone's character to f13 names...but the awesome assassin I've grouped with a few times (sorry!) said as much about a few fights. We'd been using the sap to great effect on some Heroics, but not an option for the tougher FP fights. Reason #8 why I want multi-spec, I'd talent electrodart in a second if it worked on bosses (it's great for pvp but almost useless in pve).
That was our next plan. And to be honest, some of the AE was tough to avoid. I swear I was slowed somehow every time the trooper lit up his mortar volley circle (since I play BH, I'm used to seeing the big circle and instinctively start moving). I ended up getting hit with AE pretty much every single time, despite watching for it.

The fight, IMO, is just a bit overtuned for it's level.  I felt we were doing some kinda of WoW-BC Heroic boss.  I expect some patch notes soon.

That fight is actually pretty easy, you burn the dual sabers bitch first. Then u damage other 3 guys to about half hp bars, then finish em off. That is because they increase in damage with each death

Should probably encourage people to add a note under the Guild window with their F13 name. I noticed a couple people have. Would be easier than printing out the Roster list like I was debating doing...

I did put a note in the roster thread to do so, but I'll update the silly message of the day to be serious for a bit.

As companions go for solo questing, I've entirely switched over to a DPS pet for my medic smuggler. We're a bit less care-free than my corso pairing, but it turns out I'm pretty much invulnerable to anything under a gold with non wussy friends. It's a bit of an odd playstyle difference going from healer/dps for my tank pet, to pure healer that's trying his hardest to keep threat off my crazy dps companion putting out numbers twice as high as anything I can even think about.

For those that care about looks and have a medium-armor companion they use a lot (Mako):

There's a nice Nar Shadda Commendation headgear for med. armor that isn't terrible.   It looks like snow goggles when your companion is wearing it.

Oh God, thank you, Tharan's headgear has been making me cry every time I look at him. When I get back from NJ I will have to start the commendation farming process. :P

To be clear I mean the type the Inuit on this page is wearing, not ski goggles.
http://www.glenbow.org/thule/?lang=en&p=inside&t=enhanced&s=4-2&q=2&mi=1&si=5

It may have cheek guards, but I can't tell due to Mako's hairstyle.

Hm, I just looked and didn't see anything like that, maybe it's only for Empire people or something. It's no big, I'm sure I'll find a medium helmet for him that isn't 100% terrible. Some day.

Found it on TORhead.  <type> Coordination Headgear.  They're orange.

http://www.torhead.com/item/AtQdR4

It looks like the icon does.  Which, as I mentioned, I can't totally tell because Mako's a cyborg and has shit on her cheeks anyway and long hair that hides the rest.

Does the gear not have to say "Requires Mako" in order for them to wear it?

No, they can use any armor of the type they can use. The "Requires X" shit is just unique to them.

And Ghambit's head hit's the desk in 5... 4... 3... 2...

 :why_so_serious:

 :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh:

oh god... all the gear I've vendored.  Oranges even.  :dead_horse:
Oh well, at least I caught it now rather then later.  Explains alot.  She should be tanking better.  Tbh though, the "requires Kal" gear is much better looking for the most part.

Except when you get oranges, of course.  My Kaliyo and I have matching Hammer Station blaster rifles (hers swapped out with +Aim stuff, of course)   :grin:

Wow.. that sucks Ghambit.


I'm debating sticking my heavy armor companion into the Sith Trooper armor the CE versions get.  It'd look silly on a Bounty Hunter, but on him.. maybe not.  It's not like his face isn't at that silly angle to begin with.

It annoys me that it does not display your companion's items in the compare tooltip. It should at least do it when you have their character sheet up, right?

There is a GUI option for that. Its a setting.

Preferences -> User Interface and scroll down to the tooltip section.

Quit taking away things for me to complain about!

DOH!  I was muttering about that last night.  I think I need to go spend a few minutes with the preferences gui.

I think I am going to shift my movement keys over to ESDF giving me more hotkeys in finger reach while I am at it.  Should give me easy access to QWRTAG1234567 and then tie the left hand quick bar to the numpad keys.  Hopefully that will last me for a while.

Oh the irony, after mocking me for years about being a raider, you're turning into a catass raider!  Are you trying to get Dark Side points?

I don't like raiding, I like bioware star wars games  :drill:

The finest trolls assure me that the end game raid content is horrible and will never be fixed.