Re: Companion Healing too Weak Now

That might work although now I shudder to think what a completely new player goes through. I don't have all companion conversations finished on my characters but I have several. I may not have anywhere near what is possible but I have more than someone just starting out and I actually know how to play the game now. Yikes. I'm pretty sure at this point just rolling back to the way it was is not going to happen but there will definitely need to be adjustments on the lower end the scale.

However, there was one issue that I am unclear on. Part of the reason I did not load up my companions with gifts is that I thought KOTFE was suppose to organically level your influence with missions. Basically, Comp approves or disapproves now you get your influence. Are companion gifts the only real way to get influence up in a reasonable amount of time? If so, they may be able to buy time with companion gift tweaks while they try to try to find the sweet spot with influence and presence.

I'd try figuring out which flashpoints give companion influence, and which other quests you can do that make the companions happy.

The thing that really bothers me about 4.0 is the older players/companions really do not have a competitive way to level up their influence as we've already completed a lot of, if not all of, our companion's conversations. They did nothing to retroactively give those companions an average boost to their influence or do anything to help us since we will not be able to naturally level them through story progression.

Through story progression I have a trooper that is sitting on an influence level 24 or so companion - she didn't gift that companion at all, but I have level 60+ that are running with level 10 companions because there was no influence conversion for those older characters so I'm now stuck having to gift them up.

That all said, I do have all but one of the class perks  and I am sitting at 498 bonus presence at level 65. I have all datacrons and the race bonuses figured into that. 

I was able to solo heroics on an instant 60 with an influence level 1 companion, but it was a horrible struggle and not one I would ever want to repeat. It was doable, the first two had me thinking it was great, me not having too many issues must have meant the scaling would make up for it, the companion nerf wasn't that bad. After the 3rd I didn't want to hit the 4th, I was playing carefully and trying not to over aggro etc. For a new player or someone without all the buffs I have it's going to be a struggle for a lot of things till they find a happy medium for the nerf/buffs.

I may have gifted that companion a little pre 4.0 while the trooper was sitting in limbo at 11 or so. It was my first companion on her and I had a habit of gifting companions just for crafting even with the alts (I think the trooper just finished alderaan and is on to balmora), but I definitely noticed a difference on how fast my companions gained inf beyond that companion. 

I don't remember where Trais falls in the story vs Balmora for pub vs imp at the moment. 

The big problem I saw is the older companions/players are at a bit of a disadvantage regarding getting companion affection up.

That is what's annoying with those who already had rank 9 and 10 companions coming into the xpac, followed by this nerf. I would not doubt for those struggling with the rank 9 or 10 companion on alderaan, if they had a rank 20 they would have a significantly easier time. Older players are just not able to benefit from the pay off the newer players will see with the companions ranking up faster as they have completed all of those conversation paths while leveling already..