Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Most Unfortunate Feature of the Presence Stat

I've been collecting augments for the 1.2 megapatch. I figure being ahead of the stat curve will give the guild a bit of an edge over the next content.

Some augments are excellent (power, crit, willpower).  Some are ho-hum (looking at you, absorb rating).

And then there is presence.

I'm positively overflowing with presence augments.

But then again... I can crit-craft gear for my companion. And maybe... just maybe... the companion could benefit from +presence on its gear...

Presence. I have it.
I crafted two identical implants, but crit-crafted one with an augment slot. I put a +8 presence augment into that slot.

From the SWTOR formula list, that should give a +40 boost to the health of my companion.

First, I started with only the un-augmented implant on my companion: 4860 hp.

Placing the augmented implant on my character, I get the expected bonus: 4900 hp. Swapping the implants between the two, so that the companion has the +presence augment on her implant: 4860 hp. I checked the companion's bonus damage, and found the same pattern: the companion only benefited when the +presence augment was on my character.

Putting a +presence augment on a companion's gear has no effect on their stats.

So what to do with +presence augments?

With most legacy unlocks requiring a companion present, I think 1.2 may start a mini-game where I attempt new and ridiculous acts of extreme soloing. Might as well put together a gear set for that. Soloing HM BT? Here I come...

7 comments:

  1. I've wondered the exact same thing. Presence only works if it is on your character, not on your companion. It's kinda wierd because I don't really know anyone who would want use a presence augment over their primary stat.

    - Aefa Freesky @ Red Eclipse

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  2. I've got 6 companions giving the +10 presence, and at no point would I have used an augment slot for Presence.

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  3. I've got 6 companions giving the +10 presence, and at no point would I have used an augment slot for Presence.

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  4. It's more of a common sense thing, because it's YOUR presence that affects your companion, and it's not meant to be some uber-stat you can make for your companion. It may seem troublesome to you, but it's there so the game isn't ridiculous or unbalanced or the like.

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    1. Troublesome? Nah, I just wanted to check how it worked. At the time, I'd seen players argue that presence benefited the companion even if it was on the companion's gear. Not so much, it turned out.

      Plus, way back then, augments weren't crafted, they were randomly returned from slicing missions. As others noted, putting presence on a character's gear was kinda useless... so I was vaguely hopeful I could turn Khem Val into a super-tank dungeon companion. Oh well.

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