The Companion Comparison: The 'Bog Standard' vs. The Cartel Beasts

Of all the Companions we can get in 4.0, very few are as infamous as the Cartel Companions. These are unique creatures and droids which are for most intents and purposes standard Companions; they can Tank, they can DPS, and they can Heal. They can't be sent out on Crew Skills, but otherwise there's nothing that should be standing out.

I was helping a guildie with their Legacy of the Rakata HM requirement for Dark vs. Light the other day when we turned to discussing Companion Tanks. A third guildie who suggested this Flashpoint as the first was using their Vette to Tank (a crime almost as heinous as making T7 and Scourge Heal) rather than my dedicated Tank Bowdaar.

For those who don't know, when Vette tanks she doesn't 'animate' properly; when leaping she stays frozen in place for a few seconds and then magically teleports. Unfortunately, this also results in grouping-up being much harder since mobs will rush to her previous 'reported' position first and then follow her back.

One such pull led to us commenting on how Bowdaar would have made the pull more convenient, and the first guildie opined that the K'lor'slug would also be a viable option.

According to them, at Influence 50, their K'lor'slug Companion would outperform their own Influence 50 Bowdaar as a Tank. This piqued my interest because unlike the vast majority of Companions, some of the Cartel Companions have no weapon slot whatsoever. While equipment is largely no factor for Companions, a different grade of barrel or hilt will still increase damage readouts in the tooltips (and thus actual damage output as well).

Being the proud owner of an Influence 50 Nexu - I'm quite fond of felines in general - I decided to investigate this further.

Long story short, he's (mostly) absolutely correct.

~~~

For this test, I decided to go through the vast majority of Companion 'types' in their DPS Specs and compare their base damage to damage augmented by a rating (208) barrel or hilt. If I really wanted, I could have continually ripped out the spare 220 hilt and barrels I had and sent them around places, but for the sake of this comparison, I figured that the more easily-accessible (read: substantially cheaper on the GTN) would suffice.

This test is done with the DPS Spec for three reasons. Firstly, it's far easier to tell how damage 'changes' with DPS specs over a Tank Spec. Secondly, all Tech Companions - including the Cartel ones - are bugged in Tank Spec so that their AoE ability is a Force Attack. This means that it only deals 3,531 Damage at Influence 50 compared to a Force Tank's 4,533 Damage. Thirdly, Healing does not change depending on weapon grade and should be even across the board unless Z0-0M enters into proceedings.

Incidentally, the Nexu's Kolto Scan ability is substantially lower than a standard Healer's, as it Heals for 9,388 rather than 12,517.

Anyway, back to Damage comparison.

As it happens, the only Companion 'types' I do not have at Influence 50 are the Electrostaff wielder and the Sentinel (edit: and the Commandos). I don't particularly like the Sentinel (or Commando) characters that we currently do have, so there's a chance that I'll never get one of them up to 50.

I suppose if I really wanted I could go reclaim my favourite Electrostaff-wielder Vector on my Sniper and begin working on his Influence, but given that she romanced him I'd far rather be patient and get that nice long-awaited reunion scene in the main story first.

First, here are the totals for each Companion type using just their base weapons:

Companion	Burst Attack	Periodic Sunder	Execute	AoE
Blaster Pistol	10,187 – 10,222	11,291	18,999 – 19,065	4,493 – 4,508
Blaster Rifle	10,193 – 10,216	11,291	19,011 – 19,054	4,496 – 4,506
Gunslinger	10,199 – 10,245	11,291	19,022 – 19,107	4,498 – 4,518
Lightsaber	10,193 – 10,216	11,291	19,011 – 19,054	4,496 – 4,506
Saberstaff	10,202 – 10,230	11,291	19,028 – 19,079	4,500 – 4,512
Sniper Rifle	10,210 – 10,224	11,291	19,042 – 19,068	4,504 – 4,509
Vibrosword	10,195 – 10,215	11,291	19,014 – 19,051	4,496 – 4,505

Now with (208) rating weapons:

Companion	Burst Attack	Periodic Sunder	Execute	AoE
Blaster Pistol	11,156 – 12,020	11,291	20,804 – 22,414	4,917 – 5,296
Blaster Rifle	11,299 – 11,876	11,291	21,071 – 22,146	4,980 – 5,233
Gunslinger	11,458 – 12,582	11,291	21,367 – 23,460	5,049 – 5,542
Lightsaber	11,299 – 11,876	11,291	21,071 – 22,146	4,980 – 5,233
Saberstaff	11,530 – 12,220	11,291	21,502 – 22,787	5,081 – 5,383
Sniper Rifle	11,703 – 12,048	11,291	21,824 – 22,465	5,157 – 5,308
Vibrosword	11,328 – 11,847	11,291	21,126 – 22,092	4,993 – 5,220

This comparison is interesting in of itself, of course (I find it interesting how blaster rifle and lightsaber Companions deal the exact same damage), but how and where do Companions such as the Nexu fit in all of this?

Companion	Burst Attack	Periodic	Execute	AoE
Nexu	20,295	11,291	22,963	5,430

As you can see, these numbers are higher than the vast majority of standard Companions in nearly every single regard, with only Gunslinger (and presumably Sentinel) besting them somewhere along the line. The only ability which does not outperform the other types even with a 208 hilt/barrel is the Periodic ability, which incidentally is not a Sunder for the Nexu. 

So what does this mean? Not a lot, really. It's just fascinating to see a Companion who can't possibly have their damage augmented beyond increase of Influence deal just so much more damage than its (unaugmented) fellows. 

To say that you need to give an 'actual' fleshed-out Companion a (208) Barrel/Hilt or higher to even stand a chance at competing with a weaponless Cartel Companion just feels so very, very wrong. It's clear that they accounted for the lack of weaponry with Companions such as this, but if they were able to clamp down on all Companions such that weapon grade wouldn't play any role whatsoever in Companion damage as originally intended then this wouldn't even be an issue to begin with. 

As things are, at least we can augment the other Companions to compete better. If every Companion was locked at their base values and the Nexu still ended up doing the same numbers then that really would be messed up.