I've noticed lately that as a lvl65 buccaneer whose finished Aquila, that players my level tend to use the same companions unless they've bought them from the crowns shop. The reason is pretty obvious to players with a page or more of companions. Some of them are completely useless. A few companions I put in this category are Shiruku Neko, Scratch(85% of the time he's in this category), and 5 companions I get from cool ranch excluding Billy the Kid(All of my companions are 61 and up by the way). Shiruku having problems in just about every stat at my 62, and at lower levels, health, defense, damage, accuracy, dodge, she excels in none of these. My Scratch has improved mojo blast 2, and mojo echo 2, he is a great companion when he hits, which now is almost never. As a witchdoctor his health and defense I don't really complain about, but the accuracy is a real problem, and for some reason he dodges more then Shiruku even though they have a 49 dodge stat difference. Now here is where the promotions come in, companions like these don't have to have more than one promotion(would be cool if they did), or a quest(would be even cooler), but they should have more epics, or at least be able to choose epics in Shiruku's case. I also think that these second and third string companions are in real need of new attack animations. An Idea that I think would be a great addition to the game would be companions have unique powers, epics, or passives that only they have. Ratbeard's Clear the Decks, Bonnie's Stock Assault, Zenna's Rain of Fire, and Gracie Conrad's Construct Golem and Proximity Mines being prime examples. A few suggestions I can come up with right now are Bagha Khan a kurga, having some sort of bloodthirst or battle hungry passive ability that increases either damage or accuracy whenever he gets a last hit on an enemy. Or Shiruku Neko having a smoke bomb ability(maybe 2?) where she throws a smoke bomb at a target and they're accuracy and dodge go down, and the next attack against them does 1.5 more( x2 would be a little overpowered considering the stat decrease) and it lasts one turn. Or how about Catbeard getting a passive ability that lets him gain a bit of health(100-200) when he gets a last hit, you know how he eats a fish whenever he defeats an enemy?

I'd like to see if anyone else agrees, or has any other ideas, looking forward to your replies!

Wolf S Ire on Sep 18, 2013 wrote:

I've noticed lately that as a lvl65 buccaneer whose finished Aquila, that players my level tend to use the same companions unless they've bought them from the crowns shop. The reason is pretty obvious to players with a page or more of companions. Some of them are completely useless. A few companions I put in this category are Shiruku Neko, Scratch(85% of the time he's in this category), and 5 companions I get from cool ranch excluding Billy the Kid(All of my companions are 61 and up by the way). Shiruku having problems in just about every stat at my 62, and at lower levels, health, defense, damage, accuracy, dodge, she excels in none of these. My Scratch has improved mojo blast 2, and mojo echo 2, he is a great companion when he hits, which now is almost never. As a witchdoctor his health and defense I don't really complain about, but the accuracy is a real problem, and for some reason he dodges more then Shiruku even though they have a 49 dodge stat difference. Now here is where the promotions come in, companions like these don't have to have more than one promotion(would be cool if they did), or a quest(would be even cooler), but they should have more epics, or at least be able to choose epics in Shiruku's case. I also think that these second and third string companions are in real need of new attack animations. An Idea that I think would be a great addition to the game would be companions have unique powers, epics, or passives that only they have. Ratbeard's Clear the Decks, Bonnie's Stock Assault, Zenna's Rain of Fire, and Gracie Conrad's Construct Golem and Proximity Mines being prime examples. A few suggestions I can come up with right now are Bagha Khan a kurga, having some sort of bloodthirst or battle hungry passive ability that increases either damage or accuracy whenever he gets a last hit on an enemy. Or Shiruku Neko having a smoke bomb ability(maybe 2?) where she throws a smoke bomb at a target and they're accuracy and dodge go down, and the next attack against them does 1.5 more( x2 would be a little overpowered considering the stat decrease) and it lasts one turn. Or how about Catbeard getting a passive ability that lets him gain a bit of health(100-200) when he gets a last hit, you know how he eats a fish whenever he defeats an enemy?

I'd like to see if anyone else agrees, or has any other ideas, looking forward to your replies!

This makes sense, mate. As for Catbeard, I think that would be reasonable fair he get a little 'boost' in health after he defeats an enemy. I would love it if KI could possibly give every companion a unique talent that no one else can learn or train for (you know how people keep saiyan how everybody is unique in their own way). This could be that unique factor that separates every companion from each other.

Some people are just able to make use of every companion in every fight someway/how and come up with strategies that works best for each of their companions and never loose, but unfortunately, that just isn't a lot of people's 'strong suit'. I'm okay in 'strategy', but I'm not too good at 'improving' my weaker companions, since I just usually go for the best 3-4 no matter what (Subodai, Bonnie Anne, El Toro, and as of right now in Aquila, Zeena)... It would be nice to see some of the 'weaker' companions toughen up and be of better use later in the game, like the main companions are. However, I have seen a post made by Blind Mew, saying somewhat how they made the side companions 'weaker' on purpose, in order to expressed the importance of the main companions and their use. The side companions are great fighters for their world, but in later worlds, it's kinda like their fish out of water...

That makes sense with me as well, since it always seem like as soon as we leave that world we got our 'siders' from, they slowly start becoming useless (not all, but most)...

You are really thinking things through and have some good points.
Welcome to the message boards Wolf S Ire. I hope to be hearing a lot more of your ideas. You really get us thinking.