Companion sets Combat Analysis. [The Multi Update]

Resawar · Oct 25, 2023

When I go to the warp points and pick who I want to party with, many thing effect who I'll take such as combat ability, who can comment on what, and whatever else I would need them for. But one thing I know everyone looks at when choosing who they party with is combat effectiveness, I mean really who wants to do bad at combat? If a player surrenders or just happens to want to lose that's one thing, but you need to win some time and to win you must fight.
Preamble aside I want to go into each companion set, powers, and stats. And like my post on how great Banishment is describe why each are great in their own way, I will also mention bad things if a particular thing has problems. And for the stats I mention please refer to the wiki page.

As the last note I would like to say that with every new set added old sets get more and more powercrept, sets such as Vestal's Raiment blowing the Witch Gear so far out of the water and it even power creeps other companions like Atugia's Knight set. My small point is in comparison to older sets new sets get custom powers, straight up new ones or direct upgrades to old powers to make sure the new sets are competitive in relation to the old ones, it just feels like power creep somewhat. With that tangent aside time for the analysis.

I'll being doing our best cat girl Cait first and writing up the others later. 1: Because she is our first companion and 2: it would take so long to write them all up in one post, and I'm not sure on a word limit per post so I'm splitting it up for all the sakes including mine.

Our first companion and one of the most versatile companion we have, she can work it almost any party no matter the need as she can be a tank, healer or a damage dealer in all flavors. She come with five sets and all the potential you could need in companion. Her ultimate Devotion just like her versatility is great, who would turn down a free kittydown once a day. She has two level three perks one being Take Comfort in Me and the other being Arcane Infusion, both are great and it's really up the the player if they want the plus 10 Spellpower or plus 10 Focus. Her Level five perk can be Focused Will or Commanding Presence, With one adding to you Magic Resistance and the latter adding to your Mental Resistance.

Caits starting set and a good all around set, she can heal, she can do some damage, and she can buff/debuff, what more could you want from your healer. Her level seven perk Overcharged Healing can come in handy sometimes but as it can only proc on a crit you shouldn't rely on it, with her level one being Healers Hands which lets her heal when she heals others. Heal is a good power and you can't go wrong with it as it heals up to 54% of a allies max HP, White Fire is a fine spell with one recharge and comparable damage to other one recharge powers and a good damage type in holy to even out with fire with a change to burn for ok damage. For support Sun of Jassira is similar to smoke bomb with okish damage for one less turn of blind for a four turn recharge, but unlike Smoke Bomb you don't get obscurement and the attack is pure fire which bounces off demons . Now spirit veil feels like a bad power and weak but in essence it's a combo of Guarded Stance and Mirror Image without the threat generation but the recipient gets extra armor in exchange, but that still doesn't get rid feeling of it doing nothing or feeling like a wasted turn when you could be healing someone or hitting them chip damage.
{Stats: This set has high Spell Power, Spell Penetration, and high Magic Resist but nothing else to speak about other then ok evasion and almost 400 health. She has low focus, ok armor and almost no resistances other then a little blight and fire but a weakness to ice.} (Set Summery: A white mage healer with some damage but nothing special)

The defensive healer set with no damage potential, you trade out almost all of Cait's damage for the ability to heal more and delay damage with evasion and shield HP. This set has the same level one, three, five, and seven perks as Passion Priestess and those work well on this set. Heal is heal, it cures bleeding. Her other heal is Eternal Light which heals over time for the same amount has heal and with a one turn recharge it's quick to come back so you can use it on a target and have them heal somewhat while focusing on healing your main hit taker, the power itself could be buffed to also do something else along with healing as with resolve removed it's just heal overtime. Shield of Light is a good spell for letting the recipient take a hit or two with out digging into their HP, with the added bonus of receiving healing while under the effect. Mirror image give 10 evasion to the whole team until Cait is tripped or knocked down which is good even if a bit bland for an encounter power, but it's not like she has much else to do other then heal so you might as well see if you can get a free dodge when everyone is topped off.
{Stats: High Spell Power, not that it mean anything on this set offensively, ok Magic Resistance but lower then Passion Priestess, good evasion, and almost 400 HP. A descent Crit stat and cunning mean you fish for Overcharged Healing Procs. Otherwise this set is just worse stats wise then Passion Priestess and is very passive other then healing or setting up a shield every three turns.} (Set Summery: A supportive healer that becomes very passive when not healing)

Caits big offensive set, a powerful Spellblade with great damage types. The level one and seven perks both boost her damage up a level with Twist the Knife any debuff gives her a 50 attack power boost on melee attacks, and with Arcane Penetration it boosts all her damage and not just her melee attacks by negating 15 points of resistance from the enemy as long as their not immune to the damage type. Charge Weapon is a great power due to dealing holy damage on attacks and getting free chip when combat starts, it also fully benefits from both her high Attack Power and Spell Power. Shadow Strike is a rather bland power but not bad at all, 100 Attack Power and 50 Accuracy with one turn of Obscurement. It does have a four turn recharge which is a small wait. Next up is Leech and it's good power with a bad damage type in blight, can't scoff at a healing attacking move but it won't do much to a demon and such. Leech and other blight based attacks would be 100% better if we could boost them with Devious Ruse or even Trick like we can with fire and grease, but alas that power is unavailable to us unless we use Kiyoko. Last up we have Smite Evil which is a solid all around power that deals holy damage and can even heal allies a bit, no Attack Power boost but it does have plus 50 Accuracy which is nice.
{Stats: High Attack Power and Spell Power with great evasion, ok Penetration and good Accuracy. She has Low Armor, Ward and Focus with only a 338 HP stat, and like her other sets she didn't escape an 11 Initiative. She also inherits her first sets small weakness to frost and resistance to blight and fire} (Set Summery: A SpellBlade with great offensive prowess that can hit with both magic and physical damage, but can caught powerless in recharge turns due to the semi long recharge requirements of her powers if it takes you that long to defeat your enemy's with her around)

A supportive charmer setup is quite nice, with added bonus of diversifying you damage output, even if she struggles into lust immune enemy's. Her level one and seven perks are all different then her other sets but fit well, with Enchanting Acts being overshadowed due to her having Sun Dance to use in her recharge turns but mini allure on normal tease could be nice to have. Now Dance of the Dunes it great as it gives her recovery for doing what she was already going to do which is tease damage, but with her powers you won't be teasing every round to take advantage of this perk. With mention of her powers lets talk about Sun Dance first and it's really good it deals decent tease damage and give all allies health, it could heal more but it is both an attack and a heal on a at-will so it won't be the best ever. Allure is every charmers bread and butter for it's good damage, semi quick recharge, and AOE effect plus it can give a status which is always good, there is no real downside to allure other then the threat gain which might get her under fire if your tank is not keeping up on threat generation. You can't go wrong with blessing a good all around set up power that grants plus 100 power to attacking stats for one turn, it only lasts one turn but that should not be something to hold against it. Now Enamoring is a great debuff to have available as it half's the enemy's main defensive stats plus it's also a tease attack, the damage is minor but your not using this power for that purpose.
{Stats: One of the best focus tanks in the game with okish Magic Resistance, good Sexiness, ok HP, ok armor, and good evasion. Surprisingly low Temptation but high Spell Power with no way to use it, a low Crit chance and damage and no real resistances with a small frost weakness. I will also mention a low Initiative for such a Agility and fast pace focused set.} (Set Summery: A charmer with great powers and debuffs to apply, that's also not completely dead weight vs tease immune enemy's due to blessing)

Her newest set and what a set it is, she has most of the stats and all the powers to be a great tank and it shows. Her level one and seven perks are the same as both Passion Priestess and Witch Gear, she can make just as good use of them as her other sets can. First on her power list is Vestal's Embrace which is just better Lay on Hands for the most part, while also being a better heal especially for a tank. It can generates threat rather then taking half of it from the target, which can be useful in some situations. Next up is Searing Aegis and it gives the whole party plus 50 Armor, Ward, and Focus for a turn while dealing both fire and holy damage, a good power that can both protect the team draw more agro to Cait. Her second to last power is Sun of Jassia again and it works quite well on this set if you have a free turn, it's the only real debuff she can apply to the enemy's plus a little chip damage. The last power is named Seal of Light and when used it deals damage so it generates some threat and by using it she gains 30% more threat till she gets tripped up or stunned, it also gives her plus 50 Armor, Ward, and focus until the stance is ended. A real solid power and defensive tool that can some real mileage later on in the future turns after you use it, the only thing this doesn't do it heal but that's not saying much.
{Stats: Great Spell Power with good Armor, Warding, and descent Evasion. She also comes with almost 400 HP, her Magic and Physical resistance is really good with descent Crit stat to help proc Overcharged Healing. This sets only downsides are the lack of Focus and Mental Resist, no Initiative whatsoever, and lack damage type Resists, she also lack Penetration for her spell damage.} (Set Summery: A tank that preforms well with relatively few downsides, she doesn't have damage but she has healing and bulk to get you along. Even recharge turns are no big problems due to you being able to use Vestal's Embrace to heal because it's an At-Will power, overall this set is one of the better ones in the game)

Next up is Brint/Brienne so make sure to check back later for it, just watch the thread or something.

Resawar · Oct 28, 2023

These top sections are going to be my preamble and talking parts for the most part, I will most likely mention game balance issues I Have up here too but those will have their own spoiler as to be easily avoided. My biggest hope for these write up is that can help someone out, sounds cheesy but I'm trying to bring out the best in each set to show what each one can do. I will not avoid bring up if a power/set is outclass or could use some balancing work, such as Eternal Light sucking even if does have a use. Also sometimes a power is just fine or good, so in cases after I mention it I'll bring up related stuff.

I just wanted to touch on her weapons and gear for a second as I really didn't talk about it and I'll try to bring it up more in future companions, she has mostly the same gear in all set but she does get some stuff. She comes with a bunch of random gear that gives her stuff like a plus five Ward or plus three Spell Power, your companions main gear is what really matters and gives all sorts of boosts to their base stats while equipped. As for her weapons she has "two" in her staff and her spellblade, her staffs do crushing damage but there are in reality 4 or so staffs she can have depending on her set with there stats changing per set. Her spellblade is the same as the one the PC gets which means it changes it's damage type everyday like the Spiral Blade itself, they appear to be the same damage type every day so you can just check your own if you want to tell what her bonus damage type is that day. But with the damage changing on her weapon the SpellBlade set does have massive variance in it's day to day power, i.e some days she just can't hurt demons as well. I also want to bring up when you get some sets, most you can get by just walking around and talking to people, battling stuff, or doing a quest or two. Witch set can be gotten from not Baba Yaga, dancer silk can be gotten day one by just talking to Cait, SpellBlade from doing Caits quest, and Vestal can be gotten in town from Ogerish after finishing Caits temple quest with by building it or not.

As I said I have problems with stuff and this times is how we just don't get some power that would be perfectly health to have as the PC, is the pc using trick really gonna break the game? Some are super dumb to give to the PC like Precise Thrust's plus 500 Attack Power two turn recharge, but some are reasonable like does Poison Edge really break the bank on power scaling? A plus 200 Attack Power with plus 25 Accuracy and 3 turns of 15 plus Cunning blight damage, Dastardly Trick has the same bonuses with more Accuracy, the ability to hit all enemies and it can stun.

Our second companion coming in with "four" sets from tank to damage dealer, our best cow Brint or Brienne and one of the first companions with a real choice. Do you pick Brint or Brienne well that's up to you based on what you want, with the choice of one or the other you get a unique set. With Brint you get the Winter Knight set and with Brienne you get the Pyromancer set, I will cover both in this post as technical they as one entity have four sets. Their Ultimate By the Horns changes to account for a higher Spell Power or Attack Power while dealing half Crushing and Penetrating damage, it's damage scales with how many targets there are increasing with few around but some enemies can be immune to this power due to their taxonomy. Some of the best times to use this power is when you need both damage and to knockdown all opposing enemies or when there are only a few enemies left and it can deal closer to max damage, with four or five enemies being a common group size the total damage out put comes out a bit higher then normal attacks in those cases. Their only level three perk is Eye of The Storm which gives plus 10 Attack power, a useful perk if some what misplace on few of their sets. Their other perks are mostly unique to their sets other then Wayfarer and Arena sharing Iron Will as a level five.

This is our Bovine berserkers first set and set they come in when recruited, this set is build for tons of physical damage and not much else as the only other thing they can do a bleed DoT. The cows are bulky enough to only start feeling weak in latter levels, their threat generation is ok due to the pure damage dished out but they have no dedicated threat generation skills or perks so if you out damage them your going to get targeted. This set is also blanked by ghost and whatnot due to only having a two very similar damage types in penetrating and crushing, it also can have problems with flying enemies such as harpys. Perks like Cleaving Strikes gives them mini cleaves on normal attacks which can help on recharge off turns, Frenzy reduces their armor but ups attack and a few other stats such as Focus, Crit, and Lust Resistance. Our Bovine friends first power is rather unique with it allowing the use of two non light weapons to hit twice at a minus five Accuracy cost, other then the Accuracy penalty nothing is bad about this power but the two weapons they use a Mace and a Battle Axe are similar in power to most light weapons the damage comes out only a bit high due to both having 20 AP. Next power is Cleave and you cant go wrong with Cleave as it's just a normal attack vs all enemies at full damage, it's only real downside is a three turn recharge. Rend is ok power for when they use it they get plus 50 Attack Power and a chance to bleed for 2 turns, this is their only non purely attacking move which is not saying much as it's just a attack with a status effect added on. Their last power is Execute which increases in damage with lower enemy HP left from a minimum added Attack power of 75 to just over 270 with scaling Accuracy too, this power is great for finishing off weakened foes.
{Stats: All into Attack Power and Armor Penetration with ok armor, good evasion, nice Accuracy, and a 401 HP stat. All their other stats are meh to low and they even have a massive 75% weakness to blight and pheromones, they would also have a good Initiative if not for the heavy tag and lack of Veteran.}
(Set Summery: A great all out attacker with good physical damage, decent bulk, and really good basically no down side powers. This set is really good early game as it can dish out high damage while only take some in return but once you hit act two the enemies start having higher armor which this set can't really get around and more blight based attack show up which hit super hard into the blight weakness.)

Our bovine companions tank set that is available to us right at the start of the game, it has some of the same weaknesses as Wayfarer in that it can't hit ghosts, it only really has tow damage types in penetrating and crushing. For Equipment this set comes with a Trident which helps negates the troubles Wayfarer had with flying enemies and can make some of their attacks inflict bleed, they also have a Great shield which makes them immune to Crits an gives them the stats from it. As for perks Veteran works well as it gives them an immunity to Staggered and 25% more threat generation, it also helps keep their Initiative in the positives due to negating the heavy tag downside. With Tough Skin they gain a 20% to all damage type which helps them tank hit quite well, it also reduces their blight and pheromone down from a 75% weakness to 55% which is always good. A key power in this set is Duelist Stance giving them a massive threat boost along with a counter to abuse with their good Evasion and the added Evasion from the power, this power keeps them competitive in the Threat generation game because they can just turn it off and on to gain threat. Next is a great defensive power in Shield Drive which give you plus 50 boost to Armor, Ward, and Focus while also damaging the enemy, being able to inflict staggered, and it generates threat while clearing sundered, there is one down side to this power in that it eats the defend action defending buff while it's buff is active due to it being the same buff and defending twice in a row has no benefit as it just wastes your turn. CC or Crowd Control gives this set a way to get more then one enemy with a plus 50 Attack Power boost on the selected target and minus 25 for everyone else, I have nothing else to say about but I will mention that for some reason ranged non spell attacks always have some random boost or effect and then a downside like this. Lastly Net Throw is good as its both a guaranteed staggered debuff and a stun change with damage, encounter powers like this are good because you just throw a lot of shit at an enemy and it will at least do something unlike some encounter powers where they are all or nothing or just weak and it feels bad for it to fail or barely do anything because you only get one per battle.
{Stats: This set has some real good armor with tons of resistances and even a ok Initiative with 401 HP, damage penetration all sit around 24 but bleed on all weapons attacks semi makes up for the lack of AP. Now this set also has less then stellar stats too such as Focus being dead in a gutter and Ward not looking to good either, also Tough Skin can only do so much for the beast Taxonomies weaknesses. Accuracy is good but Mental and Magic Resist are doing somewhat bad}
(Set Summery: This is pretty good standard for what a good physical tank should be and what they can bring to the table, with that said this is a physical tank and even with 401 HP and a 20% a tease or magic attack is still going to due a chunk to this set due to how low the other armor stats are. This set is also make for a great tank because there should never be a passive turn due to the many things they can be doing, even on recharge turns they can make things bleed, re up your threat by resetting your At-Will, and can even tease somewhat ok due to the little bonus from Duelist Stance)

An Ice themed set for our bovinian boy Brint that turns him into a wizard that can also cast punch, this set is gotten somewhat late into the game as it becomes available once act two is started and you can travel to the Glacial Rift. Brints Equipment here is a Mace for using Frigid to it's full potential and what might be a Great Shield. His third level perk should be changed from Eye of the storm to something else, this attack boost barely helps this set do its two main thing which are set up for burst damage and gain threat, the sets level three perk could be something like the frost equivalent of Heat Treatment but it's not, and it also makes so that you can't do some amazing interactions with the set due to the boost, I will bring up that last point more in depth in the stat section. The Level one perk is quite good as it can heal Brint, gives him Frigid immunity, and lets him gain more threat, all of which is important for this set to function. The next perk is the level seven perk Attention Grabber that just doubles all threat gains which is nice, it also helps enable hit attacks to gain threat easier. Frozen Edge is a great power as it's similar to Charge Weapon but with a flat plus 10 frost damage, plus 20 Armor, and damage on assuming the stance to gain threat which gets doubled from Attention Grabber, Frozen Edge doesn't scale in damage so it will only ever be a measly plus 10. Entropic Winds does minor frost damage to all enemies and inflicts them with Frigid for two turns which can combo with Cold Blooded, the damage is pretty low all your really using this for is to get the status to proc Cold Blooded. Wintery Bellow is split frost and crushing damage AoE that can double in damage if the target is Frigid, this and Cold Blooded are your two things to set up with this being the damaging half of it and it does fairly well in that case as not many things resist frost. Freeze Solid is a solid power as it has good damage, a stun effect, and can give 3 turns of Frigid, this power is an outlier in a way as you can use it for both utility and to enable the set which is great for it's versatility.
{Stats: high attack and high Spell Power, with descent Armor and ok Ward. For weaknesses as always blight and pheromones at 75% but now with a 20% weakness to fire and a negative 11 Initiative. But now on to what I eluded to earlier with that being did you know that Brints Spell Power and Attack are only two points apart? Meaning that Brints ultimate can never natively be based on Spell Power, and even worse is that if you tried to boost it with perks such as Arcane Attunement that would be negated by Eye of The Storm giving plus 10 Attack Power. The only way to get a Spell Power based By the Horns is to use an item to boost Willpower on Brint, that means unless you use an item Brint can never use a Spell Power based By the Horns due to Eye of the Storm and the trolly two extra points in Attack Power. If Eye of the Storm got replaced or Brints attacking stats got changed then it could be possible to switch By the Horns from being a physical attack to a magical attack super easy thus giving us a interesting choice and the only way I know how boost Willpower on companions is the wine during the Palace of Ice and if you married Kyioko you can get Bento Boxs.}
(Set Summery: This set does two things with that being Threat accruement and Frigid set up, I wouldn't call this set a full tank as it mixes both a bit of bulk with the ability to do damage and generate Threat. This set is more for drawing agro and doing burst damage then tanking all the hit as we already have a set for that, and as I mentions the By the Horns interaction needs to be fix with Brint getting a new level three perk so he can use both a Attack Power based version along with a Spell Power boosted one.)

Our Cowpanions last set turns her into a blazing bovine sorcerer with a variety of firepower, gotten from the temple of fire this set duel wields fireballs called Conjured Flame that for some reason does physical damage on a spell caster. Her level one perk is Imposing which lets her gain more threat to draw agro and increases her health, she has no threat gaining power so this is her best bet to gain threat. Her fifth level perk is Embers which lets her damage enemies who attack her, this perk combos well with Imposing to make enemies take extra damage. The level seven on this set is Geomancy which reduces enemy resistances by 25 points down to no less then 0, this perk helps this set get past some enemies who would stop it's damage due to reducing some enemies like demons with their taxonomy's given resistances while also not helping boost damage vs opponents that don't resist fire. The last perk on this set it once again Eye of the Storm which frankly I have no idea why she has this, she is a spell caster with her only physical attack being her strangely also physical Conjured Flame. The first power on this set is Firewyrms which functions like as a fire Magic Missile as it increases from a small amount up into a descent amount of damage after fives uses, this has it's use on recharge round but otherwise it's kinda underwhelming as a power. Next is Fireball and it's Fireball, AoE fire damage it's quite the simple power. Flare is a cool power that does some damage while inflicting a semi powerful burning debuff and blinding them for two turns, this power is similar to Will-o-Wisp but instead of doing an extra attack on all enemies when attacking a already burning enemy it instead blind the target while inflight a more powerful burn but less initial damage. Last up is her summon the Flaming Bull which can attack or try to knock enemies down while gaining threat, despite her lack of Presence the Bull seems to do quite well in combat.
{Stats: This set has very average stats overall with Spell Power being the highest at a 95, Accuracy, Evasion, and Crit Chance are all also good to ok. No resists but fire and the normal 75% weakness to blight and pheromones, the only real low stat is Physical Resist. She also has a HP of 436, which does help with the extra agro the set gains.}
(Set Summery: This set does a few things as it can help support with a summon that generates tons of threat and pulls agro and Flare can blind important targets, but the main allure of this set is the pure amount of fire damage this can deal out. With Her level seven perk and a bit of grease this set can go pretty far, but as said above two things need to change with one being that Eye of The Storm need to be changed out for something else and that her weapons need to be change to do magic damage instead of physical damage)

That's Brint/Brienne done, and up next is our best Knife Ear Etheryn. This took some time so next one coming sometime ehh. Also feel free to ask a question if curious about my reasonings, or mention something I missed or something you have to add.

Resawar · Nov 2, 2023

When I write these up as I'm writing I'm also on the side battling with the set I'm mentioning, so it's not unlike I'm talking out of my ass when I write up these. I say this to also give bit of insight into my process, I also uses a few builds to test such as a Charmer "statuser" and SpellBlade so I get a feeling in both my style and a "meta" style. I also do test the sets with complementing archetypes and with the same archetypes as the set, and with tanks I test them getting hit by many enemies damage types.

Power distribution is wild sometimes, why does melee get a big explosive damage encounter moves but magic pfff get out of here and use one of three spells and charmer? You get one power, it's a good power don't get it twisted but you only get one. Charmer only has two real powers anyway Allure and Song of Splendor. Mage gets all sorts of powers but your stuck with three real magic encounter powers but one is just a charmer spell in Grand Finale for single target damage but it can be used more the once if you defeat the enemy it is used on, one is stuck behind the Crown of Winter with DawnBreak, and lastly is Vitality Reap which does low blight damage and heals you for a small amount.

Our elven princess turned queen comes in with four sets from healer to tank, she also has two pusdo Thief Archer Caster sets with one being more Spell power based and one that is more mixed. Her Ultimate is Aurora Arrow which deals holy damage along with frost from her bow and leaves enemies burning with plus 50 attack power, it also gives everyone a HP shield and makes all attacks for the rest of the encounter deal extra holy damage. It's a great power and is worth using, but it does feel a bit shatter shot with all it's minor to major effects. Her level three perk is Ranger's Quarry which gives the whole party plus 10 Initiative, amazing and never useless unless your trying to abuse Initiative to act first after acting last to maximize the debuff timer. A few of her sets share the same perks, I will mentions these in there own sections. All her sets can be equipped with the Crown of Winter which gives her a boost to Focus, Mental Resist, Magic Resist, and SpellPower. Giving her the crown mean you don't get it so if she gets the boost or not is up to the Players needs, you also call her your Queen if you give it to her from what I have seen thought she might also get called that once she is queened I'm not sure.

Our Royals first set which comes with a bow which can be upgraded during a quest to gain bonus holy damage, but with most bows she gets a nasty minus 10 to Crit. Her level one perk is Twist the Knife which lets her boost her damage on debuffed enemies, which helps her eke out a bit more damage. The next perk is Frozen Flower which gives all her weapon and spell attacks bonus frost damage, bonus damage of a good damage type is never unwelcome. As for her first power its called Frost Arrow and it's a regular attack with minor frost damage and the ability to inflict Frigid on a Crit enemy for one turn, for a "special" power you can only get from the WhiteWood Bow it's pretty bad. It's only use is on recharge turns and that begs the question why you would want to rely on this to debuff the enemy because your not using this for the nine extra frost damage, its thematic but it needs a buff so I'll propose one as to not complain without offering something to fix the problem. And what that is, just get rid of the Frigid debuff on Crit and have a Crit reduce the hit enemies Initiative by 5 for one turn, you can even use the new debuff on other powers as we already have buffs that boost Initiative so why not one that reduces it? For her next power is the "newly" added IceBurst Arrow which replaced Entropic Winds, it does AoE frost damage with the ability to inflict Frigid for two turns. This power counts has both the weapons and spell tag which means it scales off of both which is good for her, it's an icy FireBall/Cleave with a debuff to inflict to increase her damage with it being many steps above the aforementioned Entropic Winds. Next up is a support power with Group heal which heals the whole party for about 30 percent or so, it's a nice power to have on an other wise offensive set as it lets her not be the main healer but an extra hand to help keep everyone topped up. The last power on this set is a summon which summons Harrick her loyal hawk, his stats are rather bad and his damage weak and he should be buffed but at least on a positive note he can combo with her to help proc Twist the Knife with his bleed power.
{Stats: High SpellPower and Attack with good Accuracy, Crit Chance, Initiative, and Evasion. she is not bulky but she is not meant to be, she could draw agro so this can come up but she can take a hit or two.}
(Set Summery: A magical thief archer that can help support her team and summon up an extra target, this set is rather weak even with the buffs you can get on it. It could use a few tweaks to be brought up to a good level of balance, but it's not likes she is passive just kinda weak.)

Ryns dedicated healer set and one of the most popular ones too, this set is just Caits Passion Priestess again but with a few different things. For starters her level one perk is Healers Hands instead of Twist the Knife, which it good for this set due to healing the user of the healing move too. She also has Escape Artist again which is actually a downside on this set due to her high Strength and low agility thus making her weak. Her last perk is quite simple as all Expert Inspiration does is double positive combat effects duration, this is one of two reasons this set is so popular. Her At-Will is Heal which again is a heal for about 50 percent or so nothing much to say. Next up is the second part of her bread and butter set up with it being Blessing which gives plus 100 to all attacking stats for two turns now due to her perks, if she didn't have this she would not be nearly as popular. Group Heal is once again Group Heal which is nice to heal multiple allies if they get hit with say a Cleave. Her last power is Spirit Veil which as I said in the Cait set "Now spirit veil feels like a bad power and weak but in essence it's a combo of Guarded Stance and Mirror Image without the threat generation but the recipient gets extra armor in exchange, but that still doesn't get rid feeling of it doing nothing or feeling like a wasted turn when you could be healing someone or hitting them chip damage". This power now revisiting it is rather boring but should in reality it's just another small buff to put onto your main hit taker to help get just a little bit more out of them.
{Stats: High SpellPower and Attack again with some really good Armor Pen and other wise average stats, She has almost 400 HP too. There is no real down sides to her stat line other then she could want a higher Initiative but if you need that is up to the player.}
(Set Summery: A healer who other then two power is just one of Caits sets, but those two power do let her stand out as a overall great healer that can also support the party with buffs. This set if just great and has almost nothing wrong with it, and the few wrong things are not much of a downside.)

One of her "newest" set is the WyldKin which is gotten from helping out the elven druids, which much like the OurRider is a mixed set more so then anything as it a Archer, Debuffer, and Spell Caster it's also similar to Brints Frozen Knight set in a way as it wants set up. Her weapon the SilverThorn bow can apply poison for two turns, like most bows it has a minus 10 Crit stat. This set shares all the same perks with OutRider so I won't retread them much as they all help out in similar ways, but she does get more use out of Frozen Flower as she gets to do some damage that demons don't resist. Twist the Knife is some what wasted on her as she hits with all spells and weapons attacks for reasons other then trying to poison a target are not this sets strong suit, funnily enough there is a perk which she could use and it even fits thematically with it being Twisted Frost which let you deal 20 percent more damage on enemies with a debuff. Earth Ward is a good power and on this set it lets our Elf have comparable bulk to some tanks, this power lets her be a pseudo tank but she lacks the threat generation to make full use of it. Toxic Shock is a good power that deals ok damage but can be boosted to deal very good damage on poisoned targets, this power needs set up to deal really good damage as it's single target which does hamper your group damage but other wise does ok as long as you can set it up. Cold Snap is a stun power with a good damage type in frost, Frigid is an after thought on this power as she can't really benefit from it. Lastly is Miasma which is a high power AoE poisoning attack which lasts for two turns after they are effected by the power, this is a good power that can help rack up damage on non Demon targets.
{Stats: Average stats with slightly higher ward and a good SpellPower, good general resists such as Physical, Magical, and Mental but no damage type resistances. Decent HP with her other good stats being Accuracy, Evasion, Critical Chance but she does have a minus 10 still from her bow, and Initiative.}
(Set Summery: A good alt set with a bad damage type due to one of the most prominent enemies being demons which resist blight by 75%, Her encounter power poison is so strong that it deals what normal poison would do to anyone not a demons to demons, she can be boosted in her damage by such powers as Devious Ruse or Trick. The player can learn neither of those powers so you have to pair this set up with Kiyoko to boost her damage, but at least this set can deal some frost damage with a stun in Cold Snap.)

This set is a capstone in her story as she need to both depose her sister and help out her goddess to get it, the Warrior Queen is a tank set but not one of quite regular methods. Her weapons are a Sun Spear and a Royal Valkyrie Shield, the spear is a throwing weapon so she can worry not about contact plus it deals holy damage. With her shield she gains a Crit immunity, all Crits get turned into normal hits with a shield. This set has Iron Will which boosts her Mental Resist, along with Veteran which pairs with her heavy armor to have her generate threat faster and give a staggered immunity. She uniquely has two level seven perks with the first one being Tough Skin giving her a 20% resist to all damage types which lets her tank better, as for Cleaving Strikes her basic attack is now a mini Cleave and can hit all enemies which helps her gain threat. her first power of this set is Guarded Stance which lets her gain threat better and gives her a small HP shield while also boosting her Armor and Evasion and boosting all threat gain from abilities gained by 20 percent, this power lets her stay competitive in threat gain even if it doesn't seem to help much. Next is Boreal Vanguard with a one turn recharge it buffs her Armor and Ward while attacking with plus 25 Accuracy and bonus frost damage, it's a fine power with a low recharge that can not only buff her but also deal damage in the prosses. This next power is one of her best tools in that it's a support and buff power, it blinds all enemies, generates massive threat, and gives her bonus holy damage on attack for three turns. This powers only real downside is the four turn recharge, just use this and boom more threat then most other powers instantly. Her last power is again summons Harrick which as states before needs a buff because they are weak, just make them like the Roc enemy or just give it an extra attack.
{Stats: She has a little average Armor, Ward, and good Focus. Her Evasion, Accuracy, and Initiative are all just ok nothing super weak but not really high, now for her resists she has a ton with a one of the highest Mental Resists in the game and 20% to all damage types she can take a beating. Her Physical and Magic resist is only ok, and she has a slightly higher then average Hp stat due to having both Toughness and Presence.}
(Set Summery: One of the best focus tanks in the game and can combat demons very well through and through, she might not take all the magic or melee hits forever but she is not going down to only one or two. She has a good power set but needs Sun Blade to keep her threat in the red as her only way to gather threat otherwise is to do basic attacks, the one big weakness in her set is the summon and the fact she has to compete for usage with both Tank Cow and her healer set.)

Next up is Atugia, only two sets but she comes around pretty early so next she goes. This took a little bit longer because I lost half of it when I closed a tab, so next one will be out sometime maybe soon maybe next week you will have to find out when it's posted.

Resawar · Nov 8, 2023

Companion gear is weird sometimes, some get unique gear but then some just get normal gear you yourself can buy. Their armor is odd to look at because they get most of their stats from these piece and it comes out to hundreds of stat "points" like plus 75 ward or plus 45 Physical Resistance several times, companions are usually only wear about one to fiveish pieces of equipment including their weapons so unlike the player companions only really wear less then half the gear a player would. Companion weapons are also odd for instance Brint/Brienne only really ever use a Mace, Battle Axe, or Trident or Arona only ever using a Mast Breaker untill we give her a unique weapon in the NightFang, but someone like Etheryn? Every single set of hers gets a unique with the WhiteWood Bow being upgraded to a special Holy WhiteWood Bow after a quest, and her other sets get a Holy GreatSpear, The SilverThorn Bow, and a Sun Spear.

On to the next Companion this time the Runic woman.

Also since as we can see she only has two sets I will write up a update post on any new sets for all companions that gain one if I remember, I'm not a backer so they will have to wait until the public release but even then I would wait until the pubic version to post it.

I forgot to talk about her healer sets weapons which is a Holy GreatSpear with 40 penetrating damage and 10 holy melee damage, I also forgot in every set so far to mention if they do melee or magic damage and for the most part only one companion seems to do magic damage with Kiyokos weapon Embodiment of Law. Melee vs magic weapons damage is still odd sometimes like me mentioning Briennes Controlled Fire doing melee damage, Atugia also does melee not magic damage despite her summoning her weapon which could be argued for.

Winter Knight Has it's own shield and not the miscalled Tower Shield on my part called The Winter Knight Shield which as all shields grants Crit immunity, it also gives a veriaty of stats such as Evasion, Ward, Armor, and Magic Resist.

Not all companion sets are made for all playstyles, it seems like a self evident statement like no duh. But my point is that even if I can make most if not all companion sets work for me that does not mean every can do that, if you dislike combat taking more then a few turns you should avoid a set like Warrior Queen or the Runic Knight as they not a super fast paced set. Some sets are better for some people, a lot of people find use with sets like Queenly Raiment but you would have to force someone to use base Ex Cultist or Runic Knight.

Our not so headless horseless horsewoman that is also a conjurer with her summoned weapons, unlike our other companions she is rather out of the way to get as unlike the others being on the beaten path she is up in the castle HawkThorn which you are only really going up there for Ryn's quest or because you wanted to check the tutorial area. Well she would be out of the way if not for her attacking you starting on day three or so when you leave the FrostHound, this is a benefit because until I heard about her from her author and where she was I didn't even know she existed. She shares no perks between her sets other then Cherish This which gives plus 10 Magic Resistance, if power is going to being shared across all sets then that's not a bad thing as it contributes to to hit taking which is important. Shell is her Ultimate which scales with Toughness or Strength and give a massive almost extra health bar HP shield, some will say this is a bad power and I say that it makes her a massive target and gives you a respite from getting attacked all for a few turns all this power needs is some way to negate or reduce damage to allies and it would be a perfect defensive ultimate.

Atuigas stating set which has her Foci take the shape of a halberd aptly named the Summoned Halberd, it deals physical melee damage of a 40/10 split of Penetrating and Psychic. For why it does physical damage is odd as her best attacking stat is SpellPower and for the fact that it's pretty magical, yes I know magic can be physical thank you summon bound sword but still it could at least be both types. Her first perk is Font of Will which gives her passive regen, it comes to about a tad less then Eternal Lights regen. It could be better but I swear Balak said somewhere that he didn't want it being too high. Her next perk is Iron Will which increases her Mental Resistance. Her last perk is WellSpring which Increases all healing done by your team by 25 percent, which for example can take a Crit Leech on HexBlade Cait from 140 HP back to 175 HP healed back or take a normal heal from Queenly Raiment Ryn from 178 to 258 and her Healers Hands HP gain from 62 to 82 HP back. Her First power is Guarded Stance which lets her gain threat better and gives her a small HP shield while also boosting her Armor and Evasion and boosting all threat gain from abilities gained by 20 percent, even if she is missing a non ultimate power that gives threat it's never a bad power. Her Next Power is Eternal Light which gives a 25 percent heal and a eight percent heal each turn after for three turns at level 7 with the WellSpring boost, this power can be ok but it's math seems to still be tied to the defunct resolve and even better it's not even a At-Will it's a one turn recharge. The math behind this power is only multiplied by 15 when Heal is 30 which is also the multiplier for Cleansing Bell which only has one more turn of recharge and removes all negative effects, this powers regen is also only a times five multiplier for the same math Bark Skin is a times seven and only a division of 100 instead of 200 with Eternal Light and Holy Ward giving you a times 25 for the cost of a At-will and Stance. Her next power is Ancestor's Judgement which gives Shield HP to her allies and transfers all of the damage to the Shield HP to her while boosting allies Armor, Ward and Focus, this power can sponge one maybe two hits at high levels from bosses, general mooks fall on the two to three hit scale. So both this and Battle blessing could use a buff but if they did get one then your tank might just explode if nothing else is changed. Her last power and her encounter power is Echos of Life which deals melee damage to all enemies while healing allies and inflicting terror on all opponents, this power sucks on this set and in general. It deals completely weapon based damage on this set with no boost to damage which amounts to minor damage and the healing is about 50 percent worse then a basic Heal spell from my testing also you don't get to see the heal amount which makes this a pain in the ass to test HP back, also only one turn of Terrified also I'm sorry what kind of power slot is this oh an encounter power huh. If you want to fix this power boost something like holy shit why is this so weak for an encounter power or just change her weapon to do magic damage and add the spell tag to it, you get to use this once and for what minor damage and healing with a debuff that help only the most niche of party's for one turn? Also why does this not give bonus threat?
{Stats: You'd think she would have good Ward but no it comes out to about lower then average with just below great Armor and average Focus, for resists she has ok Physical Resist, semi ok Magic Resist, and Great Mental Resist, she has ok Evasion and not high but ok Crit Chance and Initiative. For damages resists she has a small weakness to fire, frost, and crushing with a ok blight and penetrating resistance.}
(Set Summery: A "tank" with high armor, ok Physical Resist, and High Mental Resist, she's an odd combo of a healer and hit taker so in essence she is a Paladin without the religious connotations or big damage even if she is called a Knight. This is a a good supportive set with otherwise bad to outclassed powers, with a few buffs she would be an amazing companion to take along with your healer.)

A more offensive set that is gained by taking Atugia to the Orc camp, armed with her Foci turned into twined lightning axes once again aptly called Lightning Axe which deal penetrating and storm damage and are described as "never keeps a solid shape" very physical. One of her many perks is Storm Strikes which functions like both Frozen Flower and Righteous Fury in that it give all weapon and spell attacks bonus storm damage, very useful never a bad thing bonus damage that is. Next is Static which functions like Embers in which getting hit makes enemies take take storm damage, it's not the highest damage but its not bad and it's a good damage type. Last up is Frenzy which reduces her armor but ups attack and a few other stats such as Focus, Crit, and Lust Resistance, she needs to be below 60 percent to keep it active which could be a bad thing for longevity along with the reduced armor. The At-Will of this set is DeflectingStrike which as lower attack power then a normal attack but uses you normal attack as a base while granting a small HP shield hit or miss, it's a damaging At-Will with temp HP to gain which while not powerful is still useful. Her next power is Storm Rage which functions like leech as it is a attack with half the damage as recovery, it has a better damage type and is melee so it gets boosts from stuff that improves melee. Her Third power is BoltCloud Barrier and it is a AoE blast of both crushing and storm damage while granting 25 storm resistance, evasion, and more threat gain, this power is one of her best and helps her gain agro to redirect hits. Her Last power is Cornered Beast which a basic attack with plus 50 accuracy and doubled threat gain, it also gives a three turn buff to Armor, Ward, and Focus increasing with lower HP up to 65 with a minimum HP left being at or below 20 percent. This power is just siting there wait for you to use it when Tui is finally low health, but in odd combo with Frenzy I would not recommend waiting for the maximum potential as what you think at 20 percent or lower HP even with plus 65 Armor but still halved armor she is taking the next hit and surviving? Crazy to put it but yeah you never going to get the max potential out of this unless you healer is literally next, but hey it can be better then all others defense boosts if used right.
{Stats: Good Attack Power and great SpellPower with decent Penetration and ok Armor, Ward, and Resists. Evasion and Initiative are pretty good with a ok Crit Chance, her Accuracy is good which is great for her being a duel wielder. Now for the bad well she is not reaching the 400 HP mark by about 50 points and has no resistances for someone wanting to take hits but does has a small weakness to frost, her Physical, Magic, and Mental resists are average with funnily enough lower physical resist while Focus us also really low.
(Set Summery: You may not like to hear it but this set is not a tank but a bulky SpellBlade simple as, semi jokes aside this set can take a hit and dish back out the damage while being able to heal. This set perfectly pairs with Crackle Powder or Primal Scar and of course any storm power from the pc as the only other companion currently as of public 0.6.24 with storm damage is Viviane and her Ultimate which adds bonus damage to weapon attacks, later on if another companion gets a set with storm damage then a full storm team is possible. Her only obtuse power is Cornered beast due to her having Frenzy but other wise this is a good set, also Shell is weaker on this set but does help her survive longer vs bosses so it turns out ok.)

Next up is Quin, this took a week as I took a break but next one will be up sometime.

Resawar · Nov 20, 2023

It's a real shame that we get that CG of Quins ass butt as it seems we will never get to use it, his ass that is. Anyway I don't really use Quin that much so I'll be the first to admit that I may miss something on this, what I could miss combat wise I don't know but I feel like I should state it anyway. But I do like Quin somewhat, even if lacking some options it's a good selection of options.

Alright item time, first up some weapons:

(Bone Seax: 30 penetrating damage one handed weapon with 15 Accuracy and 10 Evasion, it's a one handed "A defensive knife" Catalyst that I don't see the point of using over other Catalysts as a stat stick or a real weapon also is a plus 10 Evasion stat really enough to call something "defensive". I can see this items niche of what it can do and what it should do but other items look more appealing for what they can do, only one other item that fulfills the same niche is the Eternal Delusion which has the positive Evasion but is magic and deals mind damage.)

(Bows: This more catch all kind of thing as all bows just have a negative Crit chance, which makes me hesitant to use them as most of my builds run Cunning as a high stat. I don't get why they do have this as it implies what, that they lack precision?)

(Seasonal Rhapsody: This is by far the "weakest" scroll as it does mixed fire and frost damage which is fine but what are it's stats, 10 fire and frost resist which helps who as why would a tank or defensive player want to run this item. When ever I use the scrolls I use them for the stats or maybe even the damage type, this one offers nothing really positive that you can't get else where.)

Caits Passion Preistess set armor comes with a hidden bonus, as pointed out by QuedzaDrake in the CoC2 wiki thread Caits Armor gives a bonus 1.1 multiplier to healing done with it on. It only comes in practice to about an extra percent or two of healing.

Her Vestal's Raiment set also has a weapons I forgot to mention with that being the Shielded Tomb, it functions as a shield so she has a Crit immunity but it also gives her a few other stats such as Armor, Ward, SpellPower, and some Accuracy.

I just wanted to add that you can lock off getting her by going to castle Hawkthorn before day four or so and talking to her once thus avoiding having her as a companion, I bring this up because most companions from here out can be removed or over wise avoided from being recruited.

Our Bun companion who can be saved from from cultists down in Harvest Valley, you don't have to save him by just not encountering him or you can just tell em to fuck off to remove him from the game. His only weapon is a Short Sword which deals a ok 35 penetrating damage, your not using this much unless you need to gain some threat on one of his sets. He shares a few perks with Hearts Desires coming first which gives the whole party plus 10 temptation which is just tease penetration, useful with charmers and very situational with any other team compilation. Next is Filthy Tease which half's tease damage once per round once, useful into any demon or charmer and with his already massive focus and mental resist makes him a great focus tank. Enemy npcs makes better use of it as you need to stack tease damage to bypass it on them unlike it on you or a companion where enemies can attack the same target multiple times per round, any random tease damage no matter amount can break it for this turn which is easier to do from the enemy side compared to yours. Last for the shared perks is Stylish which increases his sexiness by a multiplier of three while wearing light armor, this use to be only times two and it was ok but now with a times three it's great. His ultimate is Mind Snap which deals quite a high amount of damage while stunning the enemy, for an ultimate depending on the target it can do an almost max Assassinate level of damage or just thud into them and do weak to nothing damage the power could use some bonus temptation but other wise it's mostly fine.

Quins starter set and proof of his connection to the cult, a tease focused set that has the appropriate level seven perk Enchanting Acts which gives all his basic tease attacks a mini cleave effect for 40 percent of the normal damage. His first power is Soothing Dance which sort of like Heal but only heals a set amount not a percent and removes the aroused condition instead of bleeding, the HP back is lower then Heal and this power is really only useful in a pinch but even then it could be changed for the better. It's description should be altered and the power should also remove terrified along with aroused as it already is kind of a worse heal with resolve being gone, if it was able to remove both it would move up to being a great power in combating opposing charmers, bards, and warriors. His next power is "Cultist Allure" i.e Allure with a different combat text with them both just being a AoE tease attack that can inflict aroused, it's a fine power like all other Cleave esc attacks. Next is one of the more creative powers in the game with FireWalk Quin gets a whole portrait change while exploding like a FireBall dealing magic fire damage to all enemies, this power also increases his magic and physical resistance by 15 and when any enemy attacks him they take tease damage all for the cost of eight HP per turn. This power is good if you are already running Grease strats as it can combo with it and it gives you a different damage type on your team, other wise this power is just an ok AoE with some Static or Ember interactions that can add some else to a full charmer party. His last power is Lust Tag which is a weak tease attack if it hits that can inflict a "massive" debuff that lowers the effected opponents lust resistance by 15 and makes them take 50 percent more from drug, pheromone, tease, and mind damage, this power plus Song of Splendor is great and if you add on Enamoring or Entropic Fortune(if it worked correctly) then you can deal quite decent damage the effected opponent and it can help full charmer party's nuke faster on tougher enemies.
{Stats: Very good Evasion, Focus, and Mental Resist with an ok SpellPower, Initiative is average and so Armor with surprisingly ok Armor Penetration. He has a whopping 50 percent fire and tease resistance with everything else being zero, averagish HP for his level but only slightly higher due to investing in Presence. For his other stats he has a very low Ward along with a low Physical and Magic Resist along with a low Crit Chance, his Spell Penetration and Temptation is low with average Attack Power and high Accuracy.}
(Set Summery: This set was at one point considered quite weak but with the combat updates and changes to resolve the Ex Cultist set seems to have settled into a still unremarkable state in the eyes of the community. It's better now then it was ever before, back before the combat update I would scoff at the thought of using him over Dancer Silk Cait for good reason. But now after my testing it is evident that despite this sets still bad rep it's now an ok set and can work quite well on a few team styles, it's not for everyone so keep that in mind)

Quins newest set and a defensive threat redirecter, he takes a lot from his teacher Agutias kit while also improving it in some ways. His first and only "unique" perk is Threat Grabber which as with Winter Knight doubles all threat gain, this helps him do a better job then his mentor as keeping all of those eyes on him is important. His At-Will is the same as a few other of our companions as this point with that being Guarded Stance which gives shield HP and a buff to Armor, Evasion, and bonus threat while also boosting all threat gained by 20 present, this power not only gets doubled bonus threat gain per turn from Threat Grabber but also all the bonus 20 percent gained threat is doubled making this a power that works hand in hand with the the perk to do as it's name states. His next power is Heated Defense which deals both fire and crushing damage while on a Crit a HP shield is gained, this power seems quite unreliable and yeah it is as the wanted effect is wholly based on your luck to Crit something other wise it's just a normal magic melee attack with a chance to gain a HP shield that can take about one hit. The next power is called Battle Blessing which functions identically to Ancestors Judgment which gives Shield HP allies and transfers all of the damage to the Shield HP to the user while boosting allies Armor, Ward and Focus, as noted with Atugia this power can take a hit or two but that's it and if it was buffed in the shield HP amount then your tank might explode. His encounter power is Threat Manifest which is a mix FireBall and FireWalk in which is deals a burst of fire damage and on a Crit it will burn the opponents, the second half of the power is the high amount of fire contact damage dealt when hit for two turns after. This power is quite good as said before it's a FireBall that can do more the just damage so you can't go wrong with it.
{Stats: High SpellPower, Physical Resist, Mental Resist, and Armor with good Sexiness, Armor Penetration and Crit chance, with an ok Attack Power, Evasion, and Magic Resist. His weaker stats are mainly Ward, Accuracy, and Focus with good HP but a rather bad negative Initiative, as for resists he has the same ones as his Ex Cultist set in which he has a 50 percent fire and tease resistance while also gaining some penetrating and crushing resistance.}
(Set Summery: Unlike his mentor he has better powers over all as they are not only fully functionally and follow the new power design compared to her having to deal with the old version, this set still has a stinker in Heated Defense why is this power so bad but considered so good that you need a two turn recharge it doesn't even give bonus threat. This set works well with Grease support, while also working well as a semi slow roll kind of threat gainer. Threat Manifest is a cool power as it also changes his combat bust while also being a good mixed potential power. This set overall is good tank with some tricks up it's sleeves but it's no Arena Armor)

Got sick, so it took a bit. Next up is the Orc Arona but it might take awhile as I don't have a save with Exile Arona, so it will also be done some time.

Resawar · Nov 29, 2023

Armor Time:
(Most High Temptation Gear: They're worse then the Bondage Gear by a few points in various stats, it's odd how the other sets have a stat at 10 or below but the Bondage Gears lowest is 15)

(Hoplon Helmet: Ok I get it's a early game armor but that shouldn't apply because the devs not wanting a gear tread mill, but with an item like this who would use this or ever want to keep using it when it only has five physical and mental resist as almost every other helmet in the game is better)

(Horned Helm: Minus five armor for five physical resist and 20 percent more threat gain, are the nonexistent stats worth the special effect? I don't think so, I think there are better items to use and if you need the threat just get something else for it.)

Our orc companion that can be gotten from the Kervus Camp or left for dead in an ogres rampage, depending on how you help her you can get a proud chief or a ruthless berserker but your not going to use that set or her base one as everyone only ever seems to use her ghost buster set. All her sets share three perks with the first being Iron Will which boosts her mental resist by half of her Toughness, her next shared perk is War Paints which just boosts all of the parties resistances by five which is never not helpful. Her last shared perk is Veteran which does a lot but to be simple if your using heavy armor or using a shield you get more threat and are immune to stagger but if you are forgoing both of those you get a nice bonus of plus 25 attack power, you all juts in general ignore the Initiative penalty from anything with the heavy tag. Her Ultimate got stolen by that rat bastard the Faceless Blade to the bane of many players, which to be fair should speak to how good the power is. For the power itself you make an attack vs all enemies and assume a stance that grants you 100 attack power and crit chance while also boosting you resistances by 40 percent, this is quite the powerful Ultimate and it shows in practice how useful it is. A majority of her sets use the same weapons with that being the Mast Breaker which deals high damage with good stats all for a minus five to accuracy and this will be important later, it is the source of her all her sets but one major weakness which is she can't hit ghosts but everyone seems to use the ghost buster one so that's not a real problem for most people.

Also this is my opinion but she also has the juiciest looking tits in the party from her art work and you can fight me on that, her nude busts also look adorable.

Aronas first set and the similar set she fights you in as a enemy encounter, this set falls under the has a clear weakness type of companion sets. This sets unique perk is Tough Skin which give her a plus 20 percent resistance to all damage, while not a bad perk it does nothing for her on this set other then negate her ice weakness and I guess make her take less damage. For her first power she has Guarded Stance which generates bonus threat while in the stance and gives Armor and Evasion, I'll be honest despite having a few tanking abilities I have a hard time seeing this set as a tank or hit taker. Her next power was Dominance but she lost that in favor of Shield Dive which lets her gain plus 50 Armor, Focus, and Ward for two turns while staggering the opponent and dealing damage, good for hit taking but she is not build stat wise for that. Her next ability is good old Cleave which lets her do an attack vs all enemies, never a bad power. Her last power is Prime Target which gains plus 100 Attack power while also making a normal weapons attack vs a single target but it also makes a tease attack vs all enemies, this power use to suck back before the combat update but now it's ok and deals decent damage.
(Stats: High Attack Power and Sexiness with great Armor Penetration and Physical Resist, mostly average to low other stats with a particularly low Accuracy, Crit Chance, and Magic Resist. She also has a almost great Evasion stat with a low Focus and from her perk she has a base 20 percent resistance to all damage but frost which is zero due to the perk negating her weakness. Her HP is good on this set as she has both Toughness and Presence)
{Set Summery: Can't hit ghosts so it's hot garbage, joking but that is a weakness for this set other wise this set is just not popular with people it seems as I have said many times while talking about it. On a positive note this set does good damage with both melee attack's and tease attack's and this set can take a hit, her powers are good and this set is fine and works quite well. This sets Accuracy being so low really kills the set half the time which is the same amount of the time she hits, this set is overlooked in favor of the power of the Spirit Totem but I mean how often to you encounter ghosts in which War Hides does worst. Despite the lower armor this set does quite well in taking a hit compared to the high armor Chieftain's Bronze.}

The set Arona gets for deposing her brother with your help in a fair fight, fair by orcish standards I mean I kind of always beat Argoths head in with the poison being the only scary thing. This sets unique perk is Eye for Weakness which doubles all inflicted status effect durations, it works well with the two powers that get affected. The first power on this set is Wide Sweep which for minus 50 attack power you can inflict minus 20 Accuracy to all opponents, the power is currently bugged but might get fixed other wise it's not a bad power but more like a Smoke Bomb but it's an attack. The Next power is Inspire Wrath and it gives plus 100 SpellPower and Attack Power for a turn while also buffing Accuracy by 10, it's kinda just worse Bless wait scratch that no her card just lies the power gives the blessed status effect so it's just Bless which is a good power. Her next power is Cleave once again and like before it just a AoE melee attack, never a bad power to have. Her last power is Thunder Strike which gets a mighty plus 150 Attack Power while also Sundering the opponent and on a Crit they are knocked Prone, this power is great and combos well with Eye for Weakness.
(Stats: Really good Attack Power, Sexiness, Armor Penetration, Physical Resist and Armor while also having a good Crushing Resist. Her other stats baring HP are rather low with a very low Ward, Focus, Accuracy, Magic Resist, Evasion, Mental Resist, and a low but not negative Initiative. This set also a a minor crushing weakness but eh who cars about 10 percent?)
{Set Summery: I'll start by saying this set is once again glossed over in favor of the Spirit Totem, this set is fine and puts in the work to do great. Also I assume 99 percent of people have this set over the Berserker set due to wanting to bang the orcs in the camp, so might as well give this set a try. This sets one big down side is holy shit does she miss a lot, I wish we has easier ways to buff the whole party with booze. Also this set is not left wanting for things to do which is good as you have at least three things you can do on recharge rounds between Wide Sweep, attacking, or teasing. Oh by the way you still can't hit ghosts.}

Ok so I'm sure a majority of players have never used this but if you have then "you stupid dog your making me look bad" jokes aside I assume most people want to be able to go back to the orc camp so this set should be rather unused. You get this set by ambushing Argoth thus getting Arona exiled and after a few days she is trained up by Garth and ready to go, but you lose access to the orc camp so you have to make a choice if you want to use this set. This sets unique perk is Cleaving Strikes which gives all her normal attacks a mini cleave effect, 40 percent is an ok amount of damage for a AoE attack you can do every turn. The first power is once again Wide Sweep which is an attack with minus 50 Attack Power but reduces all enemies Accuracy by 20, a ok support tool that can also deal damage. Her next power is Shell Cracker that has a plus 50 Armor Penetration and Accuracy and if it hits then it Sunders the hit opponent for two turns, a rather good power for a damage dealer. Her next power is well was War Cry but it got replaced with Kiaijutsu which deals minor damage, gives her a small attack boost, and can knock prone a target, over all it's a good buff and support power. Her last power is Execute which increases in damage with lower enemy HP left from a minimum added Attack power of 75 to just over 270 with scaling Accuracy, on this set it's a good finisher for the weakened foes.
(Stats: Once again really good Attack Power and Sexiness with good Armor Penetration and ok Physical Resist, her other stats baring HP are low with Ward, Focus, Accuracy, a very low Magic Resist, Evasion, Mental Resist, and a low but not negative Initiative. She also has a frost weakness of 20 percent, with no other resists. An ok Armor stat with a decent Evasion.)
{Set Summery: As I stated early in this section this set is set up for failure as it in for all intensive purposes locked behind the "bad ending" of Aronas recruitment, which means that it is more rarely seen. But the set is good for a damage dealer and using it feels nice as it naturally works as a better Wayfarer Leathers, but also like that set and like most of Aronas sets it can't hit ghosts.}

This set is concocted when our friend here learns that you can't stab a ghost, so our great witch friend Viviane crafts her a set that can from a ghostly direwolf. Her weapon of choice changes from the MastBreaker to the Night Fang which deals penetrating and holy damage, so those pecky ghosts can't dodge all the damage. Her unique perk on this set is Righteous Fury which deals bonus holy damage on both spell attacks along with melee attacks, bonus damage is never a bad thing so extra damage to smack things around is always welcome. Her First power on this set is Charge Weapon which deals some initial damage on assuming the stance then afterwards any melee hit deal bonus holy damage on top of the damage it was already doing, as with Righteous Fury you should never scoff at extra damage. For her next power she gets the power Holy Shock which is just a melee attack that counts a ranged for effect and deals SpellPower boosted holy damage on top of the attack, like power wave you can't go wrong with a normal attack that can't be counter by Flying and what not with good scaling magic damage on top of it. Her next recharge power is Steady Strike which a weapon attack with plus 200 Attack Power that can heal the whole party for 60 HP, this power augments this set from pure damage nuke to nuke with the ability to help the party restore a little HP which the added support is never a bad thing. Her Last power is Smite Evil which is a weapons attack with plus 50 Accuracy and scaling SpellPower boosted holy damage while also recovering an ok amount of HP to the whole party, this power is another tool in this sets tool box that helps change this set from pure damage dealer to damage dealing semi support with the HP recovery.
(Stats: High Attack Power and SpellPower with good Armor Penetration, along with almost very high Mental Resist, good Accuracy, and ok HP. Her other stats as with the other sets range from average to bad such as her Magic Resist still being in the dumpster along with Evasion being bad, this set has low Focus and only ok Armor and Ward with a low Crit chance. For the rest of her resists she has quite the low Physical Resist and she only has a low resistance to holy and frost damage.)
{Set Summery: You can tell why people like this set so much, it's a semi supportive damage dealer that can nukes things while also restoring a ok amount of HP to the whole party. This set is a more consistent spellblade then Cait with a wholly better damage type on all of this sets attacks, it's a small wonder people use this set quite often as it puts in the work on both a magical and physical level and can with support clear whole encounters in just a few rounds. My only complaint about this set is it's funnily enough slow speed to kill groups as it has no AoE powers, this is conversely the opposite on bosses where her high single target damage is great as she shines as one of the best. This set is so good you can get away with running both it and spellblade Cait along with your pc also being a damage dealer with maybe some knock down power to great effect, and does that not speak volumes to how good this set is at what it does.}

With our orc companion done, the next of our merry band that getting the spot light is our good friend the bee. Azyrran is the next companion in the spotlight and as always will be done when it's done, also on a side note after I do her this will mark the end of the starting area companions.

Resawar · Dec 7, 2023

The new area added a new power in Addling Beam which forces up to two Recharge power to go into recharge for up to two turns, this power was annoying to fight when out testing and I hope it has a limited distribution in the future. On the player side this thing is so useful vs most ememies, even some bosses had to use a basic attack once or twice.

I put this little talk here as to point out that most companion sets kinda get shit on by this power from my testing.

Using all these sets has given me a real idea of what each set does and is best at, I mean I did try out all the sets before the combat updates but back then we has a stinker like Berwyns set and damage was split so nothing meshed. Level seven also helped tie up a few of the sets, we still need another combat update to fix a few thing but I am looking forward to what the next few levels bring.

Her War Hides set uses a Hoplon shield which means she is Crit immune, this helps in her damage taking potential as she can't be randomly hit for extra damage.

The Ex-Cultist set uses a Whicker shield in his off hand which gives this set a Crit immunity, other then the general good that be immune to Crits brings the only real useful thing is that he is better at tanking Focus attacks due to being immune to crits.

Our bee I mean hornet, rather lack of difference if I'm to be honest as both leak honey and the only thing to even tell them apart is the color and over all build. She can be gotten from the Hornet Hive after doing it's dungeon quest, you literally run right into her as you progress the main story. She can be disposed of permanently by pushing her into the honey pool thus losing her as a companion, you can also just not duel her but at that point you can just not talk to anyone and get the same effect but that is lame. All her sets share one Ultimate named three different things, the powers Floral Aegis, Sweet Protector, and Control of Fire all reduces the damage the party takes for three turn by half, while not making you unkillable halved damage is halved damage. Her powers change from NPC to companion, she loses flight for guarded stance in her Hive Knight set. All of her sets share the same level three perk with that being Hive Knight's scent which makes your tease attacks do pheremone damage rather then tease damage and you get plus 10 Focus, with the bonus focus this perk is not useless for most people but with charmers it's a nice thing to have. Her next shared perk on three of her sets is Iron Will which increases Mental resistance with your Toughness, this perk helps counteract her high libido and helps her take mental damage types better.

Her NPC and starting set, her main equipment on this set is the Knightly Short Lance which would be unable to hit ghosts if not for her perk which gives her holy damage on top of her normal damage as the lance only deal penatrating damage and in her off hand is the BlackWood Shield which makes her Crit immune and juts gives her some stat boosts. Her first perk on this is Veteran which due to her shield grants her more threat gen and makes her immune to staggered, this perk helps in her job of taking a hit for the party. Her next perk is Righteous Fury which adds bonus holy damage to all her weapon and spell attacks, useful in making sure she can hit ghosts and you can never go wrong with bonus damage from the best damage type. Her first power is Guarded stance which generates threat every turn and gives more threat from abilities while giving some Evasion and Armor, most "tanky" companions have this power so it really functions the same. Her next power is White Fire which deals split fire and holy damage, power is ok as it can hit demons decently hard but even with Grease the power is rather underwhelming. The next power is Cleave which as always is just a basic melee attack vs all opponents, never a bad power. Her last power is Poison edge which gains a plus 200 Attack Power and plus 25 Accuracy while also poisoning the target, this power is great and scales amazing but this set has no cunning investment so it's doing a low amount of damage but the physical damage from the attack deal a decent bit of damage.
(Stats: Good Attack Power and SpellPower with good Armor and Physical resist, Initiative and Evasion are just ok with a good Mental Resist. Ward is average along with a low Focus, Magic resist is low along with a lower Accuracy. For resists pheromone and drug damage are minorly resisted with a low crushing resist, but she has a small weakness to tease.)
{Set Summery: An ok hit taker but not the bulkiest but she can do a decent bit of damage while taking that hit, she is less a tank and more a defensive damage dealer but not so much damage she will automatically draw all the threat but she can keep up somewhat. Her powers are all good other then White Fire which scales terribly, I feel like Holy Shock would server her better and could b reasonably changed to it. This whole sets pairs nicely as a tank for Charmers as her level three perks is useful for them and can serve as a damage redirector, otherwise you can run it along with a healer such as Vestal, Tui's Knight set, or Queenly for an ok pair.}

Her set that is obtained from the honey core turned accessory that turns our noble knight into a bimbo charmer, her weapon is the Floral Lance which does penetrating damage which is not really this sets purpose and it's not like it boosts her Sexiness or Temptation and in her other hand she has the Beautiful Shield which makes her Crit immune and offers her a few stats. This set has a unique level five compared to the res in Commanding Presence which boosts Mental resistance from presence, always usful in resisting the charms of demons and the like. Stylish is her next perk which lets you have a three times your level of bonus Sexiness which comes out to a decent chunk of bonus power, this perk ever since the combat update has been great even before at only a two times multiplyer it was good to ok so at times three it's great. Her last perk is Enchanting Acts which works as a AoE tease attack for 40 percent of the basic teases damage, not the most powerful but useful on recharge cooldown turns. The first power on this set is not one you would think would be on this set with that being Heal which as the name says heals the target for a decent amount, having Heal on this set unlike Dancer Cait with her Sun Dance means this set can do real healing not the best but a handy amount for what would be a pure damage dealer. The next power on this set is the always reliable Allure which is just a basic tease attack but AoE and on hit it afflicts Aroused for one turn, an AoE is always useful with how many multi ememy encounters there are. Her last recharge power is One-Two which deals both penetrating and drug in a two to one damage ratio that can also inflict the Aroused condition, it's ok damage but it's physical damage on a charmer set. This last power on this set and it's encounter power is Song of Splendor which deals some tease damage while also buffing the whole parties Sexiness for five turns, she can boost her own main damage with a buff that also effect the whole party.
(Stats: Very high Sexiness with good Accuracy, Evasion, and Initiative. This set has over all very average stats with some surprises like a low Temptation, she has decent HP and her resists are ok other then physical. For damage type resists she has a decent drug resist and a small crushing resist but this set does come with a 25 percent weakness to pheromone damage)
{Set Summery: What sets this set apart from the rest of the charmer companion sets is that it has the combo, now what is the combo? Allure plus Song of Splendor is the quintessential charmer combo which is so well known for it reliability to do lots of damage, it's not like there are many other choices for a charmer combo of powers as this the only real one and yes I know War Song technically combos with tease attack due to Terrified but that's not very effective. Anyway after the combat update this set has improved due do dealing damage on the one HP bar, this made having a charmer and a melee attacker on the same team work better. This set is just generally good for a charmer, Song of Splendor on this set can also be used in place of your own Song of Splendor to use another encounter power on your charmer PC.}

Our domineering hornet which is obtained from a magical spear pulled from a dragon, for that weapon the Amazon Spear is a spear that deals penetrating and fire damage with a few stats bonus attached such as Evasion, Accuracy, Armor Penetration. Her first perk is Aura of Domination which reduces all enemy armor by 20, this along with her high Armor Penetration on her weapon means that enemy armor will be more of a non issues to this set. The next perk on this set Veteran which due to her shield grants her more threat gen and makes her immune to staggered, this perk helps her grab threat and make enemies attacker her while also making so she can have her damage reduced by staggered. This sets first power is once again Guarded Stance which generates threat every turn and gives more threat from abilities while giving some Evasion and Armor, on this set the threat is more so she can draw agro away from others while doing massive damage compared to Hive Knight where she wants to takes the hits. Her next power is Dragoon's Rally which heals the whole party for 15 percent of their HP and gives the user plus 10 Attack Power for three turns, for a three recharge, only 10 Attack Power, and only 15 percent HP healed, this power is underwhelming and from my testing rarely has a major effect on combat as it just does so little. Her next power is once again Cleave which is just a AoE melee attack, basic AoE powers usually are great. This sets last power is Queen's Breath which does split fire and psychic damage or half as much on a miss, this power does less damage then most AoEs which are usually a Recharge power but this is an Encounter power so the lack of oomph come as a surprise to me and even with Grease the damage still comes out quite low.
(Stats: High Attack Power and SpellPower with a great Armor Penetration stat, she has surprisingly ok Evasion and Initiative for a set with no stats put into agility but that point does come back to bite her in the abdomen with the low Accuracy stat. Her other stats like Armor, Mental Resist, Physical Resist are good enough for what she wants to do, Ward and Sexiness are middle of the road while HP is good. For her lower stats her focus is only so far off of being single digits and her Magic Resist is also close to that line with her Crit chance being in the single digits. For damage type resists she gets a small weakness to tease attacks which with her already bad focus is not helping and this set comes with her standard 30 percent Drug resist along with a 10 percent Pheromone resist, other then those she has zeros in most other ones.
{Set Summery: This set much like Atugias Knight set suffers from a few bad power on an otherwise decent base, the Dragoon set needs buffs such as Blessed or DawnBreak to function very well unless she is hitting enemy weaknesses. Her sky high attack along with the Armor Penetration do a lot of lifting to help this set not suck but even then things like Grease can only do so much, her other powers do a lot to help make her high damage work out. She is a dmage dealer with that wants to draw agro with high damage but one of her powers do middling damage and her only support move is mediocre, this set leaves a lot wanting unless you buff her up and hit Cleave but most sets with Cleave can do that anyway.}

This set can be gotten from cait after doing both of the girls quests, this set has our hornet take on her Short Lance again along with a Lumian Icon which boosts a few of her stas such a SpellPower. Her first perk is Healers Hands which heal the healing spells uses a bit when they heal a target, useful to keep your healer topped off without wasting a turn healing them. The next perk on this set is Righteous Fury again which as before lets her deal bonus holy damage with spells and weapon attacks, useful in augmenting her main weapons damage with some holy damage along with buffing her fire damage with extra holy damage. The At-Will on this set is Dawn Lance which is a normal weapon attack that heals the lowest member of the party for some HP and if it hits the HP healed is increased by a little bit, useful on recharge turns to both deal damage and heal a bit while also not being a terrible thing to use when needed. Her first Recharge power is Floral Grace which heals the target for a decent amount which comes out to higher then the At-Will spells but with a three recharge and it also heals the target for some HP for three turns after, this is an expanded and better version of Eternal Light but with a three turn recharge. The next power is Argent Smite which is an attack with bonus holy damage and the power heals all allies by 15 percent of the damage dealt, like Dawn Lance a power that is both an attack and a heal is good and this power is some what of a better version of that. Her last power is Banishing Light which is a AoE fire damage attack that heals all allies for a little bit while staggering the opponents for two turns, a useful power that is a great example of what this set does which is attack while healing the party.
(Stats: High Spellpower and Attack Power along with a good Physical and Mental Resist, other wise her stat are average to low. Magic Resist along with Focus are some of the low stats, her Initiative, Accuracy, and Crit chance also stand out as low. Her HP is good with her Evasion come out to almost only ok, for her resists she has the 30 percent drug resist as the only one. She comes with two small weaknesses to Tease and Pheromone damage, otherwise the other resists are just zero.)
{Set Summery: A decent damage dealer with ok healing potential she doesn't excel at ether but she does both ok enough, it's an odd set to use in that with the multiple party members it tired using with her another damage dealer is a good choice but a tank can also work. This set feels slow for my fast paced SpellBlade but for my support charmer PC she was useful in what she did, so if your looking for something fast paced this set is not for you as this set is more for being on the field more then a few turns.}

Next up is our fox Wife Kiyoko, unless you don't like her then you will be left waiting and wanting I guess. It will be out when it is out but I have another idea for a write up I'm pondering so the next analysis might take longer if it go through with my idea.

Resawar · Jan 26, 2024

This is now the third time I am writing this as I was a fool and didn't save my writing to something and the forums deleted my draft, make a fool of me two time.

Took a break from fantasy for a bit as my needs and wants for guns won out, but I'm back with a need for swords and spells, also Super Mario RPG is a great game and a few people standing in a line sounds good about now. This section has gotten smaller and smaller with each rewrite.

The lovely vixen you can claim as your wife or cast away because of parental problems, she has many tricks up her sleeve or rather with her tails but that's another story. Her main weapon is rather unique even if all her sets share it, the Embodiment of Law scales off of spellpower unlike other companion weapons and it does holy damage too. Her perks are shared with all her sets with the first one being Omikuji which works like Cherish This as both increase your Magic Resistance by 10, not useless but nothing notable about it. Geomancy is always useful as it makes all your enemies resistances to your abilities 25 points lower, rather useful to both her offensive sets and bebuffer sets. Countermagic is just a once per round Foxfire attack at an enemy who used a spell on her, it burns on hit and it can miss but chip is chip. Her last perk is Slip of the Mind which is an amazing perk as it reduces her threat gain by 35 percent while also boosting her HP by 20 percent, the reduced threat is great but the bonus HP gives a similar boost as if she had max Presence which none of her sets have. Her Ultimate Kitsunetsuki is a nasty cocktail of debuffs including Sundered, Terrified, Aroused, Disarmed, Silenced, Blinded, and Staggered, all useful debuffs with only some enemies immune to a few of the effects.

(Most of her sets share the same stats other then a few differences base off if she has Toughness or Cunning, the only change is her HP, Physical Resist, Magic Resist, and Critical Chance. Her stats otherwise are a good SpellPower, Accuracy, Focus, Evasion, Mental Resist, Initiative, and a decent HP stat. The other stats are a bad Armor, Ward, Spell Penetration, Temptation, and Armor Penetration, a base line stat amount Attack Power and Sexiness with no investment. Depending on her set her Magic Resist, Physical Resist, and Critical Chance become higher or lower with her first two sets boasting a decent Magic Resist and Critical Chance with a pitiful Physical Resist, her last two sets has a higher ok Physical Resist and a lower but just ok Magic Resist and Critical Chance. For her damage resists she has a base 25 percent resistance to holy, blight, and fire and resists nothing else, for weakness she has a massive 65 percent weakness to frost with a 20 percent weakness to penetrating and crushing. In general Kiyoko is one of if not the best focus tanks in the game, along with some of her sets she is great at combating demons.)

The foxes big offensive set with two subpar damage types in fire and blight, demons are a common enemy with how often the cult show up at this point that blight damage is pretty bad as we can't shore up vs the resist like we can with Grease for fire damage. On the blight side blight weak enemies do show up often enough that it becomes a coin flip of what enemy your fighting, bosses are a different matter.Back on track her first power is Will-o-Wisp which does some fire damage while also being able to burn enemies and if the opponent is already on fire all enemies get hit with some fire damage, does about the normal damage for a At-Will attack but it falls into the At-Will attack trap of you wish you had a utility power or bonus damage on your main attacks instead of a attack you can do whenever. Leech is a healing power that deals blight damage and heals you for the damage done unless used upon a Construct or undead and it also staggers for two turns, are there even undead enemies in the game I can't name a single one and on the power it's a healing power and you can't go wrong with it. Fireball is Fireball, big fire damage AoE can't go wrong with it. Her last power is Mass Drain which is similar to Leech but AoE but it can't miss or crit and it also only does about 66 percent of the damage of Leech, an AoE heal is rather interesting and makes up for the lower damage compared to other AoEs with the only other downside being the damage type.
{Set Summery: This set does fairly well with proper support, by support I mean Grease support. Two resisted damage types for her main powers does hurt somewhat even if your main weapon helps deal with that, plus the At-Will only being ok is not the best. If we had another companion with or the ability to learn DeviousRuse or even Trick then the main enemy type in the game having a 75 percent resist to blight would hurt a lot less. This set is the best FireBaller in the game bar maybe the PC, meaning she will always have a place in a fire team along with her ok selfsustaine in general. On her with this set she does have a lot of selfsustaine with both Leech and Mass Drain off setting her lower bulk, the not tanks in the party are always catching stray hits from AoEs so its good to have some self healing on your damage. Despite my ragging on the set it does fairly well as a damage dealer and the healing does help, there are worse sets in the game.

A debuffer set mixed with a setup set. Her first power is FoxFire which deals fire damage while also inflicting a 3 turn burning debuff, FoxFire is one of the better At-Will attacks due to the higher damage potential and the debuff can help anyone with the Twist the Knife perk get their extra damage. Hex is the next power and it deals blight damage that scales with how many debuffs the enemy has up to four and if they have three or more then they can get stunned, a rather good power despite it's damage type but her other powers on this set help with that as they bring its damage up from At-Will level to decently powerful normal attack. The next power is Devious Ruse which gives all enemies a 50 percent weakness to blight an a random debuff which can seem to be one of Staggered, Blind, Terrified, or Aroused and if the debuff fails to take then the enemies takes psychic damage, the only way to boost blight damage currently and it helps out the set in general. Her last power is EntropicFortune which works like Caits Enamoring as it halfs the enemies Armor, Ward, and Focus, helpful in maximizing damage from Hex and your team.
{Set Summery: As I said before this sets can debuff the enemies protections and give them a blight weakness all while setting up a single target big attack but has the upside of helping the whole team out by letting them deal more damage one way or another, demons can still be annoying but you can debuff them enough to break through them. One down side on this set is once you use all your powers and Hex something then your stuck with hitting anyone else left with a FoxFire or having to wait out the recharge on your powers, this set dos not do very well in a fight that takes more then a few turns. This sets single target damage off of Hex is decently high even on a demon that is properly debuffed, but this sets multitarget damage has to be outsourced to another companion or the PC.}

An interesting set that can do a few different roles. The first power is Immolation which use to deal a high damage burn debuff but now it's damage has been cut by about two thirds but it still also debuffs the enemy Attack Power and SpellPower by 30, the power is ok for the minor damage and defensive utility. Karmic Retribution is a magical power that punishes enemies hitting the buffed users with holy damage and the change to be disarmed, really good into demons. Calamitous Seal is an great ability in which you deal minor blight damage but can strip the buffs from all opponents and silence them, a rather powerful spell in the right situation. Her last power is Mirror Image which increases the whole teams evasion by 10 until she is disrupted, not the best but could be useful.
{Set Summery: A good set with a few bits of history to it, can clear buffs, silence enemies, and put the hurt on demons attacking your tank. Immolation was a old favorite of mine to nuke Gytha before it got in my opinion harshly nerfed, I get it 90 damage burns were a bit much but that was most of the power as those minus 30's where only taking off less then 50 damage. Karmic Retribution was always a bit funny for the Kas nuke but even then demons deserve the to get fucked for how much they shit on two damage types, I harp on the damage type things but you get super blight weak enemies or super blight resistance enemies but holy has no such resistance common enemy like what a kitsune has 25 percent at most. I said it before and I'll say it again Mirror Image needs a second effect or something, like just give it a 10 percent change to deflect a attack back at the target or something because currently it feels like such a dead slot. The fact that Calamitous Seal does all it's stuff and can do the now equivalent of a Ultimate is never not going to be amazing, the silence and buff removal really does screw up a few enemy types.}

Kiyoko's newest set and a interesting one at that, defensive but not a healer. This sets first power is Distract which gives a debuff to all attaking stats of the effected opponent which lowers them by 35, a worse and slightly better version of Immolation. Shield of Light gives a ok sized HP shield with the regen for three turns, this power does pretty ok on this set compared to others. Reactive Ward is a quirky power in that it functions like Shield of Light but replaces the regen with a damage black when it breaks based on how much shield HP is left, it does ok damage about normal for an AoE at max shield. Fortify is another spell in our foxes arsenal that functions somewhat like a Ultimate as it for two turns guarantees that none of your party can take more then 10 percent of your HP in damage, pure damage reduction is very good as some companions or builds will get "few shot" by most enemies.
{Set Summery: A ok defensive set that can help out the whole team. Reactive Ward has a few funny inter actions such as detonating it gives way less threat compared to any offensive attack Kiyoko can do of similar damage, you can also trigger the blast early by putting another shield on the target with my favorite ways of doing it being using Shield of Light on the warded target so the blast goes off and they get another big shield or I used Spirit Veil to Trigger it with one of my healers. The whole shield popping thing does give this set something interesting to do and bring to the party, also if it gets interrupted by an enemy attack the shielded target the attacker and co still get blasted with damage. I wish that Distract helped out a bit more and didn't feel so useless, just have it reduce the targets evasion by a few points or something. I'll come clean and say this set was hard to get going with but once I got the flow it worked out well, this set is a bit funky all thing said so don't sweat it if it just does not work for you.}

Well I wrote this up but the last two only have one set and I don't see that changing anytime soon, they could use the push so people see the good of them but that's will have to wait until next time. Next one will be a coin flip literally as you can get both around the same time so yeah.

Resawar · Mar 4, 2024

I have not done Agnimitra content bar getting her, so I have nothing really to say about her other then her combat ability's. I do think she looks cute, also the image of a moving sunset in the middle of combat does give me a chuckle.

You know what we need? Less balance, Fire Ball should leave the hit targets burning and blinding them for a turn, Ray of Frost should freeze the target and silence them, Arc Cannon can Disarm and Stagger. Jokes aside high tier spells with a few effects would be nice to see start to pop up, damage plus a combo of status effects could be interesting to see in combat.

The bird bard a newer companion and one gotten at the end of act one, a brief journey through a fire temple and a few mysterious ashes later and you got yourself a new phoenix. For her "weapon" she wields the mighty Gittern, a good "weapon" for a bard with a boost to Spellpower, Spell Penetration, Evasion, and surprisingly Initiative. The "weapon" is really an instrument which deals some crushing damage and if you do need to hit something with it do consider what got you here in the first place, the fact that it can be beat several times over an imps head and still be intact speaks volumes about it's construction. Her Ultimate is Solar Cannon not flare and this ultimate power deals a metric ton of fire damage to the target and a decent fire damage AoE to the rest of the combatants, a good magical ultimate even if the damage type could be better but that would ruin the theme. If I had to say anything else about it I would say to add a turn or two of the blind status effect to all enemies, while this is purely for the joke it would still fit the theme of a big fiery attack by blinding everyone with how bright it is.

For her perks I will start with her weakest one with that being Heat Treatment, Plus 25 fire resistance is wholly uninteresting and only useful if you are running a Flames Within build and if you are then this perk is literally saving you time and time again. I would change it personally to boost fire damage by some percent, have her act like a magic pilot light. The next perk to be examined is Bardic Knowledge which boosts her mental resistance by adding half of her cunning, it is never a bad thing is boost you mental resistance especially with how many demons show up in the game. She needs this perk frankly as her high libido, low Willpower, and ghastly Focus leave her quite weak to tease attacks, one would think she could move with the best but it seems she is rather easy to distract with a tease or two. Child of Flame is a rather interesting perk as is makes all fire damage heal her and boost her Spellpower by 50 for a turn, with her high natural fire resistance and her perk Heat Treatment she gain almost a fire absorb effect. It escapes me if any major enemy deals a ton of fire damage so the effect itself seems limited to me and if she was around and had this perk during act one with fighting the Kitsune then she would be great, the Spellpower boost is only really good for her heal but what a heal it is. Lastly the final perk and it is Phoenix Flames which grants her a burn immunity and while under half health she will regain HP every turn, an immunity is never a bad thing and the HP regeneration does mean she can somewhat keep herself healed up as every few points of HP back could be another hit with how her powers combo with this perk. As I said an immunity is nice but what attack is hitting the bard with a burning attack? Why is she being targeted and yes I do know about the few spells that does inflict burning in an AoE fashion but those are A: Rare and B: mostly used by the player, if she was as I said around during the Kitsune Side arc she would be amazing at shutting down them as long as we ignore the blight and tease damage that come along with them.

Support Bard with support powers, this setup is more of a slow roll which most players just don't mesh with.

Her first power is Flametongue which wraps an allies weapon in fire having them deal bonus fire damage and heals them a bit upon activation, this power is a coin flip now that stances auto activate as she has two targets and if you healer or spell caster gets it then that's going to mean a reload of the game or a flee from combat. The power itself is ok as the Flametongue buff counts as a separate buff which if this was an older version would be a good thing as it would not impede any other weapon buff but as it stands it's not much of a positive other then it lasting until she gets knocked down and can be reused, as a heal it does just ok but is counterintuitive as you also want the buff in play. The second Power is Heat Mirage which grants Evasion, fire resistance, and frost resistance all of which last three turns, the Evasion is always nice and its not like she has much to do other wise. Now the fire and frost resistance is good in only two separate occasion with how common they are being up to place and build, the extra fire resistance is nice for once again Flame Within build and the frost is good for any place with icy magic being common. Her last recharge power is Cauterize which is quite the good spell as it for only a few points of fire damage which you negate more of with Heat Treatment and Heat Mirage you get healed for a decent amount of HP, any boost in Spellpower be it from other companion's or PC perks or from her own powers mean that this power could well turn into a full heal every two turns living up to her being a Phoenix a being of revival. Her encounter power is War Hymn which boost the whole party over five turns until combat is over with plus 10 Armor, Ward, Focus, Attack Power, and Spellpower which scales up to plus 50 after the fifth turn, this is a slow roll power through and through and can make the party quite the effective force. As this boosts Spellpower it can turn her Cauterize into a full heal after a few turns, it also makers her Ultimate a really powerful finisher and can make your healer heal more or you do more damage.
[Stats: To be frank she has a few amazing stats such as Initiative, Evasion, and a quite good Sexiness, her other stats range from ok and good to downright bad and horrid. Starting with the good and ok we have good Spellpower, decent HP, a good Critical Chance, good Spell Penetration, an ok Ward, and a good Accuracy, for the bad we have Armor, Mental Resist, Attack Power, Armor Penetration, and Temptation. The really bad stats come in with Physical Resist and Focus which for her means that the oh so common cleave is quite the dangerous thing along with the also common AoE lust attacks. For resistances she has none other then a high fire resist, you would assume a frost resist or something else but no it's only fire.]
(Set summery: I have heard people call this set many things ranging from bad to not very useful outside of the Flame Within users maybe taking her so they can wear some other then a flame cloak and a fox necklace, but the truth is that this set is very useful for greatly expanding the overall bulk of your party. Now I know people don't like combat if it takes more then a few turns but just give her a try along with your spell blades and teamed up with Vestal Cait, or try her with HopKnight Quin and as always disruption works great with her as you can boost her power with Grease. All I'm saying is give War Hymn a chance.)

With this done it marks one more entry left for now, with no new sets in sight this thread will go dormant till then as no new companions can exist. Till next time.

Resawar · Aug 21, 2024

Hey hey people I've being wanting to find a good way to do this joke for almost every post now but it always came out sounding dumb, anyway have some analysis.

It's been a few months and hey here is the next part with those updates I said I would do, half this was written up a few months ago and some was written in the past month. As for Viv I'll tell more in the closing part of this post, so look down there for what I say.

Hive Knight got a better power then White Fire in Argent Smite which does a good job to give the Hive Knight set a push in the right direction to make it feel nice to use over her other more modern sets, it does come with the humorous fact that in the prosses of joining up with the player she realized that she got beat in the hive and decided to change something to be better at combat

Our little kitty has gotten quite a few things recently and shall cover them starting with some minor upgrades she can get now, if you talk with the fox in the shop in mino town then Cait can gain an artifact that seems to boost her fire resistance by 10 point which is never bad. If you turn down getting her new frost set then you can get her other minor upgrade which is a bronze ring from her father that boosts her fire and frost resistance by 10 or so point, a good upgrade for the cat as it gets rid of her small base frost weakness. As for upgrades and new sets? We got upgrades people and a new bust set from Moira. The frosts sets grimoire also gives her a small stat boost, spellpower and some bonus crit chance to all her sets.

This rather weak set got reworked with two new powers with the first one being a slightly more damaging fire bolt with a sunder effect called Scorch Armor, sunder is a nice effect to inflict on enemies even if it only lasts a single turn and does help to improve this sets support aptitude even if pure fire damage is still a weak damage type. The next power is Radiant Gift which is a party wide holy damage buff to your weapons, Radiant Gift is its own status effect so nothing should mess with it but back to balance and power we have a spell that grants the whole party a small damage buff of a great damage type that you would only normally find in a self buff or an Ultimate. The powers are good support powers for Witch Cait as her powers before were just okay to weak, hopefully with sets like the Witch getting reworked Knight Atugia gets reworked sometime.

The Frost Heart is an interesting set as it is meant to fill in as a more magic based HexBlade type set, she has all the same perks too. This set can be gotten from our racoon friends in the woods by buying a book, as long as you keep the book you should get this set. This set does come with a new perk called Twisted Frost which is magic Twist the Knife as any enemy inflicted with a negative status will take 20 percent more damage, a helpful boost to her damage as most of her powers are set up and mainly single target. The first power on the block is Sap Warmth which deals low but not minuscule amount of damage and you heal for half of it or if she is full then the next lowest party member get the HP back, good damage type At-Will clone of the other draining moves but can be spammed every turn even if the HP back is rather low. Her second new power is Celestial Frost which deals a combo of frost and holy damage while also gaining a plus 25 crit bonus if the target is Frigid, a good damage type along with a one turn recharge and the synergy with the rest of the set makes this power real good. Her third new power called Frozen Sun summons a frozen sun that deals some frost damage to the target and give all enemies Frigid and Staggered for two turns, decent power with helpful debuffs no matter the party. Her last power is Rime Veil which increases Focus, Armor, and Ward by 50 points for the rest of the encounter while also having a new thorns effect that makes attackers take damage when attacking the target with melee, this power is a better version of a few other powers and to make it even better it's not a stance.
[Stats: Great SpellPower with good Spell Penetration and great Magic Resistance, quite decent Crit chance with good Initiative, good Accuracy, good Ward, and good Evasion. The rest of her stats range from average to bad such as a low Physical Resist and a okay Armor. For resists she has her frost weakness while getting a few points of Fire and Blight resist.]
(Set summery: This sets combos well with Winter Knight Brint and anything that can take advantage of Frigid, most of this sets damage is from set up other wise the damage overall is just ok. You hit Frozen Sun and then next turn you hit Celestial Frost and then next turn you uhh spam Sap Warmth? One or two targets are going to get really damaged unless you are fighting in the rift, but anything beyond that is not taking much more then 100 about damage until you get Frozen Sun back up and yes Celestial Frost is only a one turn recharge for a better White Fire but still it's White Fire. This set is Burst damage and really terrible self healing and team healing, Cait's base set is good bar Spirit Veil being somewhat bad but this sets has the opposite in a way that the Encounter power is great but the At-Will is just ok but not really helpful in the long run with both recharge powers being very similar. Frost Heart is a semi twist on Passion Priestess where it's basically the same sets with a few different things but the focus on the burst damage while mostly gutting the healing made it really awkward to run even along optimal conditions such as with Winter Knight Brint)

This sets encounter power got changed so it can't end now until combat ends or well she gets a her stance changed somehow which is useful but the loss of the A.O.E fire damage is such a shame, she now has three sets that consist of she can heal, she can deal single target damage with her two recharge powers, and her encounter power is some buff. This change guts so much of her usefulness as it was a really good set and struck all the right keynote of a good support companion, with the main thing being that it dealt ok A.O.E fire damage so she it gaining a ton of threat off it it too but now she can barely keep her threat up out side of using her At-Will.

She got a new set which is fairly good, single target focused but everything else about it is good. It can be gotten by visiting the elf city up north with her in tow, must be done after act one is done. Her Archery weapon of choice is well a GreatBow which is to quote the item "It's pretty great.", solid weapon despite the negative Crit mod other then that it has 50 Penetrating damage, 5 Evasion, and 20 Armor Pen. This sets perks are quite nice so lets start with her level one perk Twist the Knife which grants the user a plus 50 attack power when the attacked enemy has a debuff, a useful power to squeeze out all the damage you can onto a single target and she can even inflict her own debuffs. Her level three perk is the same as always with it being War Paint, it's still an ok perk. Now her level five is Killing spree which grants her a percent of her HP back on a "kill" or rather defeat, I thought this perk would be absurd but she does not have the full one shot damage to make it so out side of buffs. Her level seven perk is Eye for Weakness and what it does is simple double any inflicted debuff, this perk is so useful just in general with any good debuff power. Her first power is Focus Shot which a regular attack with a that inflicts a debuff that increases the attackers accuracy, it's an upgrade over a basic attack. Her next power is Mighty Draw which has bonus attack power and can stagger but comes with lower accuracy while the hit target moves to the last movement slot, the initiative moving effect is really good but there is one interesting thing about it in the fact that if you hit a target who has already moved you cant give them another turn. Her last recharge power is Pierce and Fade which has bonus attack power, inflicts sunder, inflicts terrified, and gives obscurement to the user, useful power that can help with her stealing agro from the tank and with her perks the debuffs are doubled. Her last power is Wyvernbane thats comes with extra accuracy and a massive boost to attack power along with a knockdown effect and plus crit chance on flying targets, a good power that gets added to the "big plus 200 attack" pool of powers that mark the high end of reusable more then once a day powers.
[Stats: Most of her stats are average with the only three real notable ones being a good Attack Power ,a great Armor Pen, and a great Accuracy, other then that she has a good Physical Resist and her Evasion is fairly good thanks to her high agility. Her other stats are all mostly in a middle ground of sorts as she is clearly meant to in this set be a agile archer, she has no resistances and a cold weakness common to her sets because she does not wear much.
(Set summery: Archers have all sorts of tricks they can classically do and as such Arona with this set can also do a few tricks, but she gets the backing of a greatbow to well back it up. Unlike normal archers Arona is shooting what would mostly likely would be a spear sized arrow and thus she gets more powerful tricks to use, she can do things like pin an enemy with a "arrow" to mess with turn order to make sure one of your slower party members can move before them. This set is a damaging debuffer in a sort of way as she can do decent damage while inflicting some decent to powerful debuffs on your foes, she can help your party with inaccurate attacks or general low agility and help somewhat as a disrupter.)

A new set for out bovine friend that imbues them with the power of plants, trees, holy magic, healing and other shrubberies. The Green Knight can be obtained by going to the town church after helping out one of the paladins. Equipped with their Velunite Blade with both Penetrating damage and some holy along with a boost to spellpower and crit chance while holding in their other hand a tower shield to block crits, other then smite the threat generation that a shield would help with is not as useful on this set. For Perk this set is build to be a helpful healer with Healing Hands which lets the healing spell user to regain some HP as they are healing another, it can be stated how useful this perk is as it helps keep the healer up in the face of all the random A.O.E's that the devs give our opponents. Their next perk is Iron Will which boost Mental Resistance by their toughness, extra resistance to demons and the such is always nice. Their second to last perk is the classic Eye of The Storm which give the whole party plus 10 attack power, useful on anyone one with a sword or stick. The last perk is Righteous Fury with it come extra holy damage on all of their attacks, this perk helps make sure their spells and attacks never thud into anyone. The at-will of this set is Regrowth which heals the target by a third or so and grants them some HP regen for a turn after while also granting the thorny buff if the caster casts it upon themselves, it's not as powerful as heal or other high percent heals but it gets the job done as most attacks after the combat update bar those with sundered deal about a third or so of a non tank characters and party members HP. The Next power is Lashing Thorns which deals some Penetrating damage and causes the attacked enemy to become staggered and bleed for two turn, the damage is low even in comparison to White Fire but stagger is a good debuff and bleed is a good dots so it semi balances out and it's only a two turn recharge. Their last recharge power is Briar Armor which gives the resipiant the thorny buff which causes attacks to take damage when hitting the protected person and the briar also gives plus 50 to armor, ward, and focus while also healing the target by a third or so if under half HP, this power can be a great boon to any tank as this does most if not all one would want. The encounter power of this set is the classic Smite Evil which boots accuracy and deals bonus holy damage all while healing the whole party for a small amount, a consistence and great power for any spellblade.
[Stats: Of all the stats on this set the variance is extremely slanted with high armor, decently good spellpower and attack power, and even some great physical and mental Resist. In contrast it has some hot garbage of ward and focus along with a super low magic resist, evasion is low and initiative is worse then wayfarer. Accuracy is lower with good HP, fairly high over all armor and spell penetration along with temptation. For resistances they has some penetrating resist and nothing else above zero, but for weaknesses they have a weakness to blight, crushing, and pheromone.]
(Set summery: This set embodies a magic tree more then a tanky healer, unless you're in Minecraft your not punching this tree down fast but put it to the torch or drug it and it will fall fast. Green Knight has almost no bulk outside of taking a knife well and having good HP, I would say a stiff breeze could tip our cow over but in this game it would be more like a stiff dick. Outside of the bulk problems this set is really good, it could be put in the upper half of all support or healer sets on a ranking chart. Don't think this set can keep threat well as it only can really gain a good amount smiting a demon or two, this set is first and foremost a healer and support set more then a tank. The Green Knight is best when paired with a party that can not die super fast and does not need more then half of their HP healed at any one time, seems like a shit deal late game but it works out with most party set up bar getting sundered and crit. Remember this set is not a pure healer but a support healer with it's various powers, you are only ever going to be healing at most a third of someones HP at a time.)

Ok so those are all the updated and relooked at changes and new set for all our party goers, lots of changes and I hope for more soon to some of the underpowered sets. Next is still Viviane but I'm going to wait for something to happen with her as she works right now but is kinda restrictive and needs something to do better like a power swap or a buff.

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Companion sets Combat Analysis. [The Multi Update]

Resawar

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