Companions

Wydupiator

New Member
Joined
21/10/2020
Messages
7
Hello. I just finished SoH and wanted to farm up my character a little bit so i can max out my abilities and complete the build. Was using tank griss through the whole game on 2 playthroughs and was wondering if shes better than hirge or not. Whenever i see some crazy guy complete this game on iron man he uses hirge. From my experience (as i used hirge for few dungeons to try her) i would say shes only good for farming as we dont want to use potions and lose time on farming. Whats your opinion on hirge and griss? Maybe it depends on our clas and build?
 

Duck123

Loreseeker
Joined
13/05/2017
Messages
346
I almost always use griss or adaon. The only time I ever used hirge was as a healer build for my warrior and it didn’t work very well. Any other time I think another companion is better. For my iron man cleric I built him as a tank and used adaon. For either mage or rogue I use griss as a tank. Of course this is all just my opinion I’m sure there are ways to use hirge well.
 

VDX_360

Staff member
Moderator
Joined
20/01/2017
Messages
6,126
Companion choice is very dependent on playing style, player preference, and build, etc. There's not really a clear objectively more useful Companion.

Some general notes:
You can get Gris a lot earlier in the game.
Gris tends to better at crowd control due to Warrior skills Cleave etc.
Gris tends to be more durable for longer fights (esp with a shield).

Hirge can use magic, including healing spells, scrolls and some useful attack skilss.
Hirge can be build as an undead killing beast (esp useful in the Pit).
At upper levels, Hirge can serve as a walking HP-tank for your Character.

The biggest drawback to Hirge is her AI. If given active skills she tends to use them at all the wrong time. (Arbeno's Might against fire elements, or against very weak enemies). One can make adjustments to when you use her to help minimize this, take only on crypt or ice runs, etc.

Players often simply skip the AI issue with Hirge by not given her any active skills other than Heal. She becomes a pretty durable tank that can heal herself and you.

It's not uncommon for people to re-spec Gris from 1-hand weapon user to a 2-H weapon user later in the game. Or to keep her 2-H the entire way. Same with Hirge.
 

VDX_360

Staff member
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As for mana pot usage, if tend to find enough scattered around to give Hirge a few without having to buy them. Plus, every time you use a recovery, she gets re-charged.
 

Wydupiator

New Member
Joined
21/10/2020
Messages
7
So just after i started this thread i picked up Hirge for lvl 22 dps 2H warrior. I built her full tank, from active skills i gave her only heal of course and few other passives for even more tankiness. It worked out surprisingly good. For example, when i was farming sunken citadel with tank griss i often had to wait until she takes aggro or wait for my cooldowns, one restore was mandatory if i didnt want to lose too much time, sometimes even 2 restores.

With Hirge i was just going in not caring about tanking dmg, not waiting for cooldowns, not using potions or restores, i was on about 200 hp after last enemy and hirge had no mana of course but it was way way way faster than with griss and definitely more fun.

After trying her on sunken citadel and receiving quest for forbidden pit from her i went straight to speedrunning it. Wasnt waiting for any cooldowns and not using potions just going full leeroy Jenkins all i had to use was just all of my two restores to get to void lord, it would be probably enough to kill him too but i wanted to try soloing him and with few potions it was just a piece of cake. (i definitely advice challenging yourself and ur character even if it can cost you a lot because the feeling after winning is more than worth it)

Definitely going to try Hirge on my future playthroughs from the start (i always speedrun griss). Im also going to try her with different builds for my current warrior (cant wait to level up to 25 and respec) and update this post so other EK enthusiasts will make use of it.
 

VDX_360

Staff member
Moderator
Joined
20/01/2017
Messages
6,126
At upper levels, all the Companions do very well, esp if they've completed their personal side-quest.

Unless your build is based around a certain Companion, it really is a personal choice.
 

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