6561

So, trying to figure out the gear situation at level 50. I’m kind of not interested in raiding but I’m fine with doing PvP and heroic mode instances. Tell me what I’m missing or where I’m wrong here:

  • For PvP you collect the 200 Warzone/200 Mercenary boxes and hope for tokens you need

  • At some high valor level that’s retarded you can qualify for awesomer PvP gear. This seems far off so I’m not too worried about how to get it.

  • For PvE: daily quests on Ilum and Belsavis get you epic mods and commendations you trade in for epic gear and armoring slots for orange gear? Do these commendations buy you a full set of gear or is it just like ear/implant type stuff?

  • For crafted PvE there are patterns that require drops from heroic mode FPs but this crafted stuff isn’t as good as the PvP gear? Is that right? But it’s possible to discover higher level crafted gear either through (I’m not sure) reverse engineering or just from schematics that drop off bosses (heroic FP bosses or only raid bosses?)

Where do drops from heroic mode FPs fit in? Are they better or worse than the stuff you get from doing dailies? I am wondering if, in a few months from now when everyone has better gear if we will just run our guildies through heroic mode FPs to gear them up quick and they will mostly skip the daily grind.

6562

Inquisitor here, level 32. I’ve got a dilemma.

Up until shortly ago I used Khem Vhal, as a tank he was my natural choice. I level with a healing build, but I find my DPS is still quite nice and the survivability bonus is good.

Thus, I tought that Khem val (Tank/DPS) would be my optimal companion (Heal/DPS). However, due to a story mission I had to use a pure DPS companion, a mercenary I think. And WOW, things went so much better! Khem Vhal was getting pretty squishy, but I think the merc is nearly as good as tanking, but his DPS output is so much better. The problem with Khem VHal was that when I was healing him, my dots starting falling off and our DPS plumetted, but this is not a problem with the merc companion. Even if I cant do DPS since I am healing him, he keeps butchering enemies.

Perhaps this is due to me chronically being 2-3 levels above enemies?

Anyways, the dilemma is that now I need to start choosing quest reward gear for either khem val or the merc and I’m not sure which I should go with.

Is the merc being so comparatively good only a fluke? Perhaps because his equip was comparatively better than Khem Vhals at the moment when I got him? Or is he a better companion for me?

Thanks!

6563

It’s not a big deal if you choose the wrong companion gear. If you decide to switch up companions later on you can gear them up at the auction house. Companions use the same stats players do. So, for example, (I don’t know Inquisitors, but) if your tank companion wears heavy armor that has Aim on it you can probably just buy the same stuff that would be good for a bounty hunter tank.

If using the mercenary was fun I’d say just go with that until it stops being fun and worry about it then.

6564

How do you gear up companions that use weird equipment like the robots? I think they have a slot for Motor and stuff and I’ve only see those once in a while from quest rewards.

6565

I thought I read somewhere GW2 doesn’t even go into beta until late in the year. My guess is it’s a 2013 release.

The out-of-game clue searching in Secret World interests me. The game itself I am guessing will be pretty ordinary, but I hope I’m wrong and it’s actually really fascinating.

6566

The AH has a whole section in it for droid components (motors, cores, sensors, parts). Everything else on a droid companion (weapons, offhand, implants, ear things) are common with everyone else.

6567

Apparently Cybertech makes those. You can probably find them on the AH. The quest rewards I’ve seen for droid parts are almost always orange so once you have one of each part you just need to get some new mods to keep them up to date. I’ve also seen droid parts as random drops.

6568

Cybertech does make robot parts. I’m always switching between companions for variety, just for fun, and because they won’t all be uber geared up I’m fine with being a level or two over the content I’m in. It’s still challenging enough (without being frustrating). And different companions work better in different situations. My two go-to’s, as a Sawbones (healer) Smuggler, are Bowdaar (Wookiee melee tank/dps) for just about any big messy battle or boss fight and Risha (human sniper) for more delicate operations where I’m using CC to manage the situation. Bowdaar’s always got his tanking toggle on and Risha always is toggled for single target DPS with most of her AOE attacks turned off.

That covers just about everything. They’re all handy. Even my healer (Mon Cal sawbones) who seems a bit redundant makes me very resilient. With two healers it’s hard for anyone to kill either of us but battles do take forever.

Corso probably sees the least use (ranged tank - NPC vanguard type but can use pistols as well as rifles) but he’s perfectly good.

Akaavi Spar is a blast. Melee DPS Zabrak and renegade Mandalorian but uses Aim instead of Strength. She’s just a big wrecking ball with her AOE flamethrower attacks and she’ll bound across the map to engage targets with her techstaff. In fact, she’s the most fun to watch. Still she doesn’t ever like the usually light-side or altruistic decisions I make so I often just don’t have her out. Just not worth the hassle of summoning someone else just for quest acquisitions and turn ins. It’s also next to impossible to find good techstaffs on the market. I resort to NPC weapon vendors.

6569

Interesting comment about Akaavi – I haven’t used her at all, so I have absolutely no idea if she’s any good. I may have to kit her out and take a look at her combat capabilities now. I’m a gunslinger rather than a scoundrel, though, so I find my choice of companion to be more limiting. I will almost always use either Bowdaar (for tanking) or Guss (for healing) since I cannot do either of those functions myself. I haven’t used Corso since I unlocked Bowdaar, and I find Risha to be redundant as a party member since my PC also fills the ranged dps role.

I certainly found that the game eased quite a bit after I unlocked Guss. Prior to having a healer companion, taking on a solo gold elite was a very challenging prospect. I could usually pull it off, but the fights were always close and required me to use my cooldowns and a medpak. With Guss, fighting a gold elite is only marginally more difficult than a standard pack containing a silver strong and 3-4 regular mobs.

6570

Still she doesn’t ever like the usually light-side or altruistic decisions I make so I often just don’t have her out. Just not worth the hassle of summoning someone else just for quest acquisitions and turn ins.

Honestly, you don’t really need to worry about this stuff.

You can do things that they absolutely hate, and then for 200 credits buy them a present which will more than offset it.

“Sure, you hated that I killed that bus full of orphans, just for fun, but hey… here’s a new TV!”

6571

True, Timex, but why bother? Why not just keep around an NPC that tends to like my decisions and watch their loyalty meter go up and up and up for free?

6572

GW2 is in closed beta currently.

6573

As long as they do the job you need, and you can play how you want, then that’s great.

I’m just pointing out that if that’s not the case, you don’t need to worry too much about it.

6574

Akaavi is most similar to Risha. She’s melee dps instead of ranged, with slightly better aoe and slightly tankier, but worse single-target. Doesn’t rival Bowdar for a tank. I’m a scoundrel, but I’m healing specced. I use Bowdar when I’m alone, or Risha when I’m in a group.

Maybe give her a try, but since you don’t find Risha useful I doubt you will find her useful either.

6575

Check the Commendation Vendors, IIRC a few of them have Orange Droid Gear. Once your Droid is wearing all Orange upgrades are easy. try going up and down the entire Commendations row.

6576

There is no Quesh vendor on the Imperial Fleet, only on Quesh. How stupid is that?

6577

Well, that entire planet is pretty much half-done, so I’m not surprised.

6578

It’s very annoying. Given that some of the commendation vendor stalls already have three vendors in them, I don’t understand hey they didn’t take one of the two-vendor stalls and switch it to a three-vendor stall with Quesh in it.

6579

Annoyingly, since I really quite liked it ><

6580

$0.02 on gunslinger companions. Spelling may be wrong on some of them :)

  1. Bowdaar seems to be a better tank/melee guy than Akaavi Spar. He just seems more survivable. I gave Akaavi all the best gear for a few levels, and Bowdaar still seemed better.

  2. It’s better for a smuggler to use either Bowdaar or Akaavi than Corso or Risha. The logic of hanging back killing things while your companion attracts all the aggro is obvious, especially when you get some nice concentrated aoes like freighter flyby. Obviously, any foe that does aoes will hit you if your ranged companion hangs back with you even if they do have aggro, and if you have to move away, you are wasting a few seconds.

  3. Sadly, Guss Tuno is superior to all the others due to his mad healing skillz. Despite going against what I said above (he hangs back with you, doesn’t draw aggro, and is generally annoying) he just seems to make combat easier. If you are annoyed at recuperating and watching that damn coin-shooting demo all the time, Guss Tuno will help you avoid such episodes. Oh yeah, and he will cc the targeted foe for a few seconds, which is great for working on strong+normal groups.