Who would you remove in this group for Hiravias?

[Elgyn]

I honestly cannot decide.

PC Cipher: Plot armor.

Eder: The tank. Also fantasy version of Sydow may be my favorite companion. He goes nowhere.

Aloth: Went through the growing pains, now finally getting the spells letting him really do work in fights.

Kana Rua: I love his chants, especially rapid reload.

Sagani: Not a huge fan of the Ranger class, but really like her character.

Durance: His character is such a great change of pace from Bioware's Cleric=Elf Priestess formula. Plus, his spells are such a game-changer.

 

I'm torn. I want to include Hirav on this run, but I can't decide who to let go. I suppose Sagani would make the most sense, but I just don't know. I really like her interactions and character.

[RedSocialKnight]

In my party, Aloth and Hiravias switch out with each other, since I use Hiravias mostly as an offensive caster.

 

Edit: I answered on the assumption that you didn't want to cut Sagani for sentimental reasons. Objecively, she is the obvious choice.

Edited April 6, 2015 by RedSocialKnight

[Gallenger]

Aloth, Kana, or Sagani would be who you can cut.  I suppose you could also cut Durance, but why would you do such a thing?   The druid can do DPS, or CC - although I could understand not wanting to drop Kana if you're using his chants to buff *your* ranged weapons. 

[DCParry]

After I finished Sagani's quest she was replaced full time by Hiravias. Especially upon hitting level 9, having him and Aloth in the party made things MUCH easier. 

[Dongom]

Remove Sagani, even though shes so damn hot.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Dongom

[Daemonjax]

Cipher.

 

Just kidding.

 

Toss the ranger.

[AncientToaster]

As great as Sagani is written, she's a craptastic Ranger and must go.

 

Hiravius is just too good to pass up.

[Osvir]

I went (in order) Aloth, Eder, Durance, Kana, Sagani.

Replaced Sagani with Pallegina.

Was going to replace Aloth with Hiravias, but Aloth had grown on me by that time.

*shrug* If you like the characters you have in your party, you can always go with a different setup on a second playthrough. Getting Hiravias after Caed Nua should go pretty quickly after all.

[Cedarstripe]

I'd have to agree, toss Sagani, Rangers are probably the most underwhelming class in the game all in all.

[Jean-Luc]

Replace Sagani (she really does suck) with a gun/arbalest totting Pellegina, feed Hiravias to the creepy blood well. Profit!

Edited April 6, 2015 by Jean-Luc

[PBJam]

Sagani

[Jasta11]

I tossed Sagani for Pallegina and Aloth for Hiravias. Never looked back.

[Hebruixe]

I go back and forth on whether druid is superior to wizard. Wizards have better aoe, but druids offer (in addition to competent aoe) summoned minions, healing spells, absorption shields, and can shapeshift for excellent if temporary melee damage.

 

I keep telling myself druid beats wizard, but I can never quite bring myself to replace Aloth with Hira. I say kick Sagani.

[Magrusaod]

Personally, all of them. However, Sagani first. Then Aloth, then Kana, Then Durance, then Eder, in order of effectiveness.

[Elgyn]

Thanks for all the comments folks, I knew I had to ditch the dwarf, I guess I just had to get over how much I liked her interactions vs how much dead weight she seemed to be.

[Katarack21]

I go back and forth on whether druid is superior to wizard. Wizards have better aoe, but druids offer (in addition to competent aoe) summoned minions, healing spells, absorption shields, and can shapeshift for excellent if temporary melee damage.

 

I keep telling myself druid beats wizard, but I can never quite bring myself to replace Aloth with Hira. I say kick Sagani.

Sagani is a good companion, but I must really suck with rangers because for the life of me she's *useless* on bigger fights. I don't think she dealt a single bit of damage to the Sky Dragon, not even *once*.

[Jasta11]

It really is a shame how much Rangers suck, and even if they didn't her stats are pretty awful. And unlike with casters who have more wiggle room, weapon using classes absolutely require good stats to be useful. I'm already planning to min-max my second character so that I can have Sagani in my party as a semi dead weight. 

[durbal]

Rangers are a dumb class IMO.  They always do one thing.  This game tried to make them a bit different, but in the end they just do one thing still.  I also don't understand why every developer needs to include a standard pet class.  I can't imagine the cat lady market for CRPGs is that big.

[Matt516]

Seeing some comments about playing with certain companions for a while, then switching them out. How does this affect XP gain? Do companions not in the party gain any experience? I'd personally like to run with Sagani for a while, then switch Hiravias in. For the time being I've just got the original 4 and my Monk adventurer, though. And I'd be loathe to give her up. Might drop Kana.

 

But all this is moot if non-party companions gain no XP. I don't want to be playing musical chairs if it'll gimp my party's growth and effectiveness.

[Yenkaz]

I'd say toss Kana out instead if you're only keeping him for gameplay reasons. You do not need an optimized party to win and I would rather have interesting characters with me.

[Katarack21]

Seeing some comments about playing with certain companions for a while, then switching them out. How does this affect XP gain? Do companions not in the party gain any experience? I'd personally like to run with Sagani for a while, then switch Hiravias in. For the time being I've just got the original 4 and my Monk adventurer, though. And I'd be loathe to give her up. Might drop Kana.

 

But all this is moot if non-party companions gain no XP. I don't want to be playing musical chairs if it'll gimp my party's growth and effectiveness.

I sat Sagani in my SH for all of Act 2 and when I pulled her out in Act III, she automatically leveled up to my parties level.

[Jasta11]

The base concept of a pet class isn't bad, but the pet in PoE is just... there. It has almost no abilities, and becomes a liability if it dies so you will only use it in battles where it doesn't have a chance of dying, which are battles that are so easy you probably don't need your pet in the first place.

 

First thing they should do is remove the debuff Ranger gets when a pet goes down. The pet going down and shutting off many class specific talents (including that juicy +20 accuracy) is enough of a consequence, no need to give the Ranger penalties on top of it. Second is give pets more abilities, not really damaging ones but for crowd control and escapes, it's an animal, it should be more mobile and cunning than a kith IMO. Third is making them less vulnerable to AoE attacks, either with a flat damage resistance to them (a talent?) or just increasing their Reflex so they don't instantly get gibbed by bosses such as dragons.

 

Increasing the Ranger class's damage output could probably help. Or maybe make it a more effective debuff class or something. In terms of damage, rogues seem to be much better than them even counting the pet.

[Matt516]

 

Seeing some comments about playing with certain companions for a while, then switching them out. How does this affect XP gain? Do companions not in the party gain any experience? I'd personally like to run with Sagani for a while, then switch Hiravias in. For the time being I've just got the original 4 and my Monk adventurer, though. And I'd be loathe to give her up. Might drop Kana.

 

But all this is moot if non-party companions gain no XP. I don't want to be playing musical chairs if it'll gimp my party's growth and effectiveness.

I sat Sagani in my SH for all of Act 2 and when I pulled her out in Act III, she automatically leveled up to my parties level.

 

 

Oh really? That's amazing. So companions autolevel to your party while in the stronghold? Awesome.

 

Sure, it's not the most realistic thing ever (though you can explain it via them doing their own questing/training if you choose to do so, which I do), but it's absolutely wonderful from a quality of life perspective.

 

Are you sure this is a thing, though? I could've sworn I'd seen other people talk about having to level up companions that had been sitting in the SH for a while.

[AncientToaster]

I have a hard time ditching Kana because that Phantom Summon is great, and Sure Handed Ila is still good even after the nerf, and if you're using Guns it's great to have around.

 

Aloth is flat out garbage until you hit about level 6 or so then he starts to become pretty damn good, but Hiravius is also good.

[Katarack21]

 

 

Seeing some comments about playing with certain companions for a while, then switching them out. How does this affect XP gain? Do companions not in the party gain any experience? I'd personally like to run with Sagani for a while, then switch Hiravias in. For the time being I've just got the original 4 and my Monk adventurer, though. And I'd be loathe to give her up. Might drop Kana.

 

But all this is moot if non-party companions gain no XP. I don't want to be playing musical chairs if it'll gimp my party's growth and effectiveness.

I sat Sagani in my SH for all of Act 2 and when I pulled her out in Act III, she automatically leveled up to my parties level.

 

 

Oh really? That's amazing. So companions autolevel to your party while in the stronghold? Awesome.

 

Sure, it's not the most realistic thing ever (though you can explain it via them doing their own questing/training if you choose to do so, which I do), but it's absolutely wonderful from a quality of life perspective.

 

Are you sure this is a thing, though? I could've sworn I'd seen other people talk about having to level up companions that had been sitting in the SH for a while.

 

I know for a fact that this happened to me, because I was so surprised. I was expecting to have to go get XP to level her up, but I didn't; I just had to click the +. I can't speak for anybody elses gameplay experience.

Edited April 7, 2015 by Katarack21