Iron/Steel Companion Ehancement

[Phaeton_Seraph]

Just a little heads up to anyone who might consider taking this enhancement.

For those who don't know, the ability to summon an "Iron Companion" which looks just like an Iron Defender or dog-shaped Warforged, is an enhancement that comes with being a Rogue Mechanic or having a Dragon Mark of Making (not sure if Least or Lesser).

There is a second level at which one can summon a "Steel Companion".


Thing is, it's not very well documented, in the game, or even on the wiki.

Hovering over the enhancement tells you the requirements, but does not hint at what CR level it is summoned at. There is no mention about cooldown.


So I thought I share my discovery and dislikes.


The Iron Companion, summoned on my lvl 11 Artificer was a CR:3.
The cooldown was 300 seconds (5 mins)


It strikes me that this is a ridiculous enhancement hardly word taking and, in fact, not to be taken by an Artificer, ever.
Why doesn't a summon that comes from an enhancement line scale to the summoner?
Why a 300 second cool down?

Why would summoning a WF creature on an Artificer have a 5 minute cool down?
This does not make it useless for an Artificer, it makes it the opposite of useful, it's actually harmful.
While that cool down timer is in effect, a character cannot summon any other creature, and an Artificer cannot summon a Turret. 5 minutes is long enough to make it unsummonable for the better part of many quests.


I can provide pictures of the summon, cool down and enhancement description if anyone really wants it.

[MsEricka]

Fact: Pets suck

We've known this for a long time now. The only time they were useful was when you could summon unlimited earth elementals to do your bidding. Now those were good times.

[bbcjoke]

Fact: Pets suck

We've known this for a long time now. The only time they were useful was when you could summon unlimited earth elementals to do your bidding. Now those were good times.

Or a Wight party.

[Phaeton_Seraph]

Fact: Pets suck

We've known this for a long time now. The only time they were useful was when you could summon unlimited earth elementals to do your bidding. Now those were good times.

As a guy who's main toons are an artificer and a druid, I disagree. When you have augment summons, you should use the added DPS/aggro magnet whenever possible, IMO.

My Artie always carried summon monster scrolls to try to cast above lvl as well as at-lvl scroll. I found them very useful.

My Druid is forced to have summon spells in its set spell list, so I pretty much always summon (unless it's one of those quests). Things almost always go easier that way.

However, the summon in the OP seems to be a useless waste of an enhancement. My lowbie artificer can use scrolls for better creatures with little cool down, not preventing me from using turrets.

The above summons gimp any summoner and the summon is rubbish compared to the ones you can get from special events (which also gimp summoners, but don't suck as bad).

[Charononus]

Fact: Pets suck

We've known this for a long time now. The only time they were useful was when you could summon unlimited earth elementals to do your bidding. Now those were good times.

motu beta (think it was open beta) had this back in it. I was running around the underdark with 20 of em following me, their fireballs may be small individually but 20 at a time hurts.

*fire elementals is was I used

[Gabrael]

Iron/Steel/Mithral/Adamantine Companion

that enhancement is not best used on an Artificer for sure, and is not an 'artificer' enhancement

it requires one of:
Skill Focus: Repair (feat)
Self Sufficient (feat)
Least Dragonmark of Making (feat)
Improved Repair II (enhancement)
Warforged Mechanics II (Warforged Enhancment)
Rogue Mechanic I (Rogue prestige Enhancement)

if you have an odd build using one of these feat - or a rogue Mech - or a non-caster Warforged, and with no summon ability, this could be for you.
Each one of them can be summoned once, they can make very good diversion on a rogue.
Of course If you don't get the higher tiers as you level up, their ability to survive quickly fall behind
If you have a cleric hire, the pet may live long enough to vanish on its own
their level progression is 1/4/8/12

the exception would be a 3x druid past life with augment saumoning for a whole +10 in all stats, but by that time you might already have a more reliable summon clickie/spell

edit: also don't mix an arti/druid pet, with this companion summon, the former act like a hireling, the latter act like a summon with no control bar, also be warned, it likes to spew grease, if that,S your thing

[Bonulino]

My Rogue toon took the companion enhancements, and I am finding them very useful. There are 4 levels, and the highest level companion is the Adamantine Companion. He is level 12, so more durable than the first level Iron Companion. I find them very useful for getting the aggro of enemies, which then allows me to come in with a sneak attack. Their grease and spitting fire has been the downfall of many monsters. Another nice thing is that if you have more than one level of the companion, you can use one until it dies or expires, and then use one of the others before you need to shrine. So, if you got all 4 of the companions you could call four of them before needing to shrine.

[Khatzhas]

The Iron Companion, summoned on my lvl 11 Artificer was a CR:3.
The cooldown was 300 seconds (5 mins)


It strikes me that this is a ridiculous enhancement hardly word taking and, in fact, not to be taken by an Artificer, ever.
Why doesn't a summon that comes from an enhancement line scale to the summoner?
Why a 300 second cool down?
I think that like most enhancements, as you get to higher levels, the higher level enhancements are more useful than the lower level ones. A level 1 summon is not going to help much in a level 11 dungeon.

If you had pulled out the Mithral Companion, that would have been more useful for example.