Neverwinter Companion Gear Guide for Mod 14
Companions in Neverwinter play an integral part of the gear progression. No matter whether you’re running an Augment or Bonding one, they can transfer a significant amount of stats to your character. That’s why gearing them appropriately is equally, if not more, important than gearing your toon. In this article, which is part of our basic gear guides for beginners, we walk you through the options you have when searching for companion gear.
Preface
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First of all, let’s quickly talk about what kind of gear can be equipped to companions. The different types of gear slots can be divided into two major categories. The first one is “Jewelry”: Ring, Neck and Waist Slots. You can put any gear in there that matches the type. Meaning all rings available in the game can go in the corresponding slots, you are not limited in any way. It’s different with the second category, which we call “Off-Hand” Slots. The Icon, Talisman and Sword Knot Slots cannot hold all player equipment. The reason is that some Off-Hands, like Artifact Gear for example, features way more stats than Jewelry and would completely throw off the balance. That’s why you can’t use them on pets.
Also be advised that while scaling equipment (like Dragon Bone Talisman) works on pets, it applies stats based on the companion’s level (max 40), not the player’s one.
Ring Slots
One important factor of gearing up companions that is not fully covered in this guide are all available options for Ring Slots. Rings are a special case because there are so many that both players and companions can use. While it would make sense to go over the available rings in this piece, we cover everything in a separate guide on player jewelry. Anything in there also applies to companions with ring slots.
With that being said, let’s go through your options!
“Trash” Blue Off-Hands
- Item Level: up to 366
- Example: Gemmed Elemental Talisman of Fire
- PRO: Offers Off-Hand pieces; usually very cheap
- CON: Lowest item level of all choices; only one enchantment slot
Green and blue Talismans, Icons, and Sword Knots are one of the items that can be equipped to Off-Hand Slots. While they feature the lowest item level of all options and only come with one enchantment slot, especially the standard blue level 70 gear (item level 311) is usually super cheap on the Auction House. Additionally it might be hard to fill out the Off-Hand Slots initially. So it can’t hurt to start with “trash” blue gear until you come across something better.
Personalized Gear
- Item Level: 405
- Example: Personalized Aberrant Belt of Piercing
- PRO: Offers waist and neck pieces
- CON: Overpriced for the stats it offers; requires Jewelcrafting level 25
“Personalized” gear dates back to Module 6 and is equally outdated. We wouldn’t generally recommend it if not for the fact that it might be your best shot to get waist and neck pieces. You need Jewelcrafting level 25 on the character that wants to use the gear, because the end product of the recipe chain binds on pickup. Although the required resources are not too expensive, the gear is probably overpriced for the stats it offers. If you do not absolutely need double offensive or defensive slots on your pet, Personalized Gear is indeed viable.
Stronghold Gear
- Item Level: 420
- Example: Mercenary Companion’s Icon
- PRO: Very few entry barriers, available to everyone in a guild; unique stat combinations
- CON: Grind to get specific pieces is annoying; Only one enchantment slot
Everyone in a guild can farm the Major Heroic Encounters in Strongholds for a chance to get item level 420 “Companion Only” equipment. It covers all six available slots and has some unique stat combinations like Power / Life Steal and Crit / Life Steal. Unfortunately the pieces feature the unpopular Overload Slots and since there are 30 different variations, the grind for a specific type can get annoying.
Adorable Gear
- Item Level: 420
- Example: Ring of Adorable Bites
- PRO: Unbound; can be bought; double offensive and defensive slots
- CON: The best pieces are overpriced
“Adorable” gear drops from the New Life Lockbox and Undying Lockbox. Since the reintroduction of the gear in Ravenloft, the Auction House offers a nice supply and except for a few “bis” pieces everything is reasonably priced. Especially the “Off-Hand” choices are pretty much the only endgame alternative to the Illusionist’s Gambit gear for Icon, Talisman and Sword Knot stuff. Just make sure to check very carefully whether the investment is actually worth it.
Gambit Gear
- Item Level: 426/435
- Example: Fierce Belt of the Companion +4
- PRO: Can be farmed or bought; double offense / defense slots
- CON: Horrible grind / absurd prices for specific pieces; no Recovery
Speaking of which, the skirmish that was introduced in Module 11 is the main source of companion gear. Each run grants one piece of “Companion Only” +1 to +5 equipment. It offers all types of slots and covers most needs in terms of stat combinations (no Recovery hurts support builds though). Additionally the +4 and +5 versions have double offensive or double defensive slots, which is great for all you min/maxers out there. So what’s not to like? Well first of all, there are 36 different types. So just like Stronghold gear, getting the one you want requires farming the crap out of the content. +4 only has the chance to drop from a Gold completion and doing those 10-15 minute runs gets boring pretty fast.
The Undying Lockbox present an alternative way of getting the gear and has made it available on the Auction House, but the best pieces obviously cost quite a lot.
Loyal Gear
- Item Level: 840
- Example: Girdle of the Striker
- PRO: Item level 840 thanks to an unfixed design error
- CON: Unobtainable today, sold for tens of millions on the Auction House
“Loyal” gear once dropped from a mini browser game called “Sword Coast Adventures” on the Gateway. The gear was never re-introduced after the shutdown of said Gateway, mostly because, although stated otherwise in the tooltip, it features stats representing an item level of 840. The devs acknowledged that this was a design error, but never nerfed the gear. That’s why experienced players that were around in the Gateway days might be lucky enough to still own the overpowered pieces, while others have no shot at ever getting them. You might find some of the stuff on the Auction House, but expect the better ones to sell for tens of millions of ADs.
Although it has the clear edge in item level, the gear surprisingly is not strictly “best-in-slot” any longer, because it doesn’t feature double offensive or defensive slots. Depending on the stats you aim for, you might get more out of other options.
That’s our beginner’s guide for available companion gear options in Module 14! Do you have further questions or did we miss anything? Post your remarks on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!
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Hi!
I find you make the personalized gear sound too negative, although it is like the best one in the list. You can get jewelcrafting up to 25 for free, by just amassing raw materials. I am using it for all my alts, making the unpersonalized version on my main and just personalizing it on the alt char. The difference in IL is totally unclear to me, a personalized necklace gives 433 armor penetration and power, 866 total stats, adorable gear gives 869 total stats …
Except for my main, no character of mine is so super specialising in offensive stats, that I would mind the offense/defense slot combination – I do quite appreciate it actually, but that might just be personal preference. Additionally personalized gear is the only one with a power/recovery combination (my 11k DC loves it).
The Stronghold gear sounds like worth grinding, but it does not only solely have one slot – it only always has one defensive slot. I am not sure if that is of interest to anybody. Even my DC and Paladin rather stack some arpen or recovery via their companions.
I can’t follow your logic on the Illusionist gambit gear either, there are 6 stat combinations (3 offensive & 3 defensive), 7 items (yes 3 jewelry and 4 off Hand, you forgot about the poor grimoire, no one likes it, I already had 2 +4 grimoires) and in a gold run you get between +3 or +5 item, so 3 options – that’s 42 types as you call them, or 126 possibilities as I see it. Not encouraging, and the less and less so …
If the guide is a bit more aimed towards beginners, why even list adorable and loyal gear in such detail? You make that stuff sound great, but it both sells for more than 10M AD and is basically unobtainable. Quite frankly I can’t understand how you can quote the adorable gear as an alternative to IG.
Last but not least, you can equip other than the companion only off Hands, and that’s blue (and green) gear. May sound stupid but certainly worth for newer characters. I am rocking a Smiting Holy Icon or so on a 14k character. It has 311 crit 311 arpen and one offensive slot, certainly not imba, but I still have to drop something better yet (from gambit). As a word of warning, you can also equip dragon bone / ensorcelled mulhoand off-hands. They will show you level 70 values for your character but only apply level 35 (or whatever your companion level) values to the companion (you can see it in ist stats).
I hope that doesn’t come across too negatively from my side now, so you keep up writing good articles 🙂
Thanks! Very viable hints that we might edit into the article. Cheers!
Nice write-up.
I still have personalised rings and things in the bank. They long ago outlived their their usefulness. But the worst thing for me is that they are character-bound, rather than account-bound. For companions, a pair of Dod or Hellig from the Seal Trader do better, since the Brutality +4 etc stopped proccing on Ioun stones. Yes! Those ones would proc even on an Ioun, as if always in combat! And they could wear two, although the main point was the 2 enchant slots with rank 11 in them. Good times.
I still have some unbound Gear of the Loyal XYZ. Mostly Icons and Talismans. Trying to decide if they are worth using on a Companion with Bondings, and then which companion, and which character. Sadly, I just started farming those when the Gateway came down. They could have surely removed the bottable parts and kept the dice game? Bots undercut. Players gouge.
I use Ioun of Radiance on most of my characters, as I get it free from an Arc Promo. Three offence runes and Ring, Waist, Ring. My main AC and DO have Legendary, most of the others still green. DO has Epic Allure as well, for the Slow effect. One TR has Epic Ioun of Might that dropped from somewhere, also three offence runes and Ring, Waist, Ring, but has a +5% Stamina buff.
My DO has Belt (or Girdle) of the Striker for his Ioun, which was always WAY cheaper on the AH than Ring/Icon/Talisman of the Loyal Avenger, although it has the same stats. Maybe because people did not need a belt for their companion, or perhaps people did not realise that Striker was the name of belt version of Loyal Avenger? He dropped only one Ring of the Loyal Avenger, but also Neck and Icon for his Ioun of Allure, which I used to think was better. But it has only 2 Offence slots.
But I was lucky enough to get Ring and Belt of the Bold +4 in IG. So with a ring of Dod, I now have a full set of account-bound companion gear I can share on my Alts. Makes a big difference on a level 20 character!
Worst thing about IG is the toxic people who only want a Bronze for the AD. Then, four players 8 to 12k vote to play the whole thing to Gold, so the 17k GWF goes afk at campfire.
And yes, a low level character can put rank 70 gear on their companion, and the companion gets the benefit. This is because the item has its own level and stats. Levelling gear, like Thayan/Iliyanbruen rings and cloaks, Ensorcelled, Dragon Bone etc adjust to the companion’s level.