Companion Health and Companion Strength focuses

[Kedrin]

In light of the 02/04/2012 patch:

-Companion Health and Companion Strength focuses have changed somewhat. The intention of these focuses was always to only apply while worn, however due to the way pets worked, they worked just by having them in when summoning. These two focuses have been changed to only work while equipped as was always intended.

I'm not sure if my post here was not the sole reason for this change. It was a very hacky mechanic in the game that should have been fixed quite a while ago. So I am happy that it is fixed and working properly. It's also cool to see pets have a bit more hp across the board. Now that it is fixed we should move on to improving the game even more, and hopefully make the game more enjoyable for everyone.

In anticipation of this change, a large number of items throughout the tiers have been given Companion Health and Companion Strength.

This is the most important part of the patch notes. I feel this is what people should be focusing on.

I am not sure how many items have been changed but it seems like a lot of higher end items are still lacking. Perhaps they will be added in a second round of buffs? I feel the problem is deeper then just adding the two focuses to more items however.

Let me start off by saying I clearly see the need of both the Companion Health and Companion Strength focuses. You improve your character with gear far more often then you get new pets. As content gets harder your pet needs more hit points to survive the fights and your pet must also do more damage to scale with the higher hit points of the harder mobs.

This however leads to a problem: I feel that pet classes (Mages, Beastlords and Necro mainly) get the short end of the stick.

These classes need to get every other other classes that use mana: Casting Speed Increment, Damage Increment, Range Increment, Mana Conservation, Duration Increment (not super important for necro, mage), Affliction Enhancement(not super important for mage), as well as elemental focus of at least 1 type. This is a minimum of six Focus Effects even before looking at Companion Health and Companion Strength (or haste for the BL).

I am sure most people know that trying to upgrade your gear around 8 "must have" worn effects on your gear is difficult. The real problem is that these classes are forced to deal with two extra that no other class has to deal with as well as deal with the extra upkeep of their pet to preform a similar job as other classes.

I feel that this should be changed, now its time for a hand full of ideas I have to make gear for pet classes less of a headache. Feel free to voice your opinion on which of my ideas you like, dislike, You can also add your own ideas you would like to see... or just call me dumb.

1) At the very least I feel that the Companion Health and Companion Strength focuses should be combined into one focus. You could call it whatever you wish. "Pet More ++ Gooder" would work. The focus would Increase Pet's Maximum Hit Points as well as Increase Pet's Maximum Hit Damage. I am not sure Companion Strength does anything for the new necro pet. I know that my bird does so little dps that Companion Strength is worthless for me also. I think Companion Strength is really only used for two classes (I clearly could be wrong), It seems rather odd to dedicate a whole focus to so few.

2) Tevinter kinda beat me to the punch since I was at work and couldnt post but:

Instead of making more focus effects required to be worn(theres already like 10 or something) we could combine Pet Strength with Damage Increment, and Pet Health with Healing increment. The focus can still be the same % etc, but it would be part of DI and HI (more common focus that more than 3 classes actually want)

Just my 2cp

Making Damage Increment = Companion Strength seems rather fare, more so if I'm correct that Pet Strength doesn't help the new necro pet do more dps as well as the mage runic 1 swarm pet nuke harder.

Healing Increment = Companion Health also seems fare since necros and necros really do not benefit from Healing Increment too much in the first place.

I currently don't have a Healing Increment items so this isn't just me being selfish.

3) Add Companion Health on more higher end items. Strands of the Severed Fate, Windblaze, Signet of Worship to give some ideas. Clearly I only used three items I use at all times.

 

[Zapple]

1) At the very least I feel that the Companion Health and Companion Strength focuses should be combined into one focus. You could call it whatever you wish. "Pet More ++ Gooder" would work. The focus would Increase Pet's Maximum Hit Points as well as Increase Pet's Maximum Hit Damage. I am not sure Companion Strength does anything for the new necro pet. I know that my bird does so little dps that Companion Strength is worthless for me also. I think Companion Strength is really only used for two classes (I clearly could be wrong), It seems rather odd to dedicate a whole focus to so few.

this is The Good Shit

 

[Sinnni]

ya if we have to use the item w/ ch and cs all time make it one focus and rep all the old raid loots w/ ch / cs to have the new 2in 1 focus !!!

 

[lynnettell]

Love the idea of making CS & CH the same. Hate the idea of making healing increment or damage increment stack with pet stuff.

Mages already complain about their heals (justifiably) and taking something that is truly a healer focus and putting it in with a pet class focus will end up with nothing but headaches. Cleric only has Healing Inc 5, and a Healing Inc 7 item drops. Pet classes = OMG! It will make my pet that much better, I must have! So due to simply upgrading a pet, rather than a healer, you just gave the RL a bitch of a headache. Ditto with combining Damage Increment with strength. Wizards are gonna want to hunt you down & shoot you, because they just lost their pew pew power to someone's pet.

 

[Tevinter]

Love the idea of making CS & CH the same. Hate the idea of making healing increment or damage increment stack with pet stuff.

Mages already complain about their heals (justifiably) and taking something that is truly a healer focus and putting it in with a pet class focus will end up with nothing but headaches. Cleric only has Healing Inc 5, and a Healing Inc 7 item drops. Pet classes = OMG! It will make my pet that much better, I must have! So due to simply upgrading a pet, rather than a healer, you just gave the RL a bitch of a headache. Ditto with combining Damage Increment with strength. Wizards are gonna want to hunt you down & shoot you, because they just lost their pew pew power to someone's pet.

CLR/DRU/SHM arent the only classes who can benefit from healing increment. Beastlords and mages and necros (and every other class) all benefit from healing increment. And beastlords and mages and necros(to a much lesser extent) benefit from damage increment. Its not like mages are going to suddenly only want damage increment for their pet only and not use rains.

On a side note, if you cleric only has healing inc5, tell them to stop being a slacker and go get http://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Immaculate_Crystalline_Orb. And if your guilds loot council decides to give a non-healer a healing increment upgrade over an actual healing class, something is going wrong.