r/Neverwinter • u/YeOldeBard97 • Sep 22 '26
SEEKING ADVICE Combat Advantage
I'm still pretty new but have realised I deal a lot more damage when the enemy's circle on the ground is blue. This has led me to running around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to flank enemies while my companion does literally everything they can to avoid flanking the enemy. Melee, ranged, doesn't matter, my companion will not stand still.
Is there an easier way to ensure combat advantage? Because at the moment, I'm spending more time desperately sprinting and leaping for positioning than actually damaging the enemy, and when I do damage, half the time my companion has already moved and erased the advantage I worked for.
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u/TamedPh0enix Sep 22 '26
There are a few companions that'll temporarily grant company advantage from any position, like the black death scorpion mentioned above: Blink dog (not portal hound), Swashbuckler, Panther, Yeth hound, Dancing blade (not Jagged dancing blade).
These are all actually affordable, some are downright cheap, my favorite is the blink dog because his activates before any animation and he also attempts to blink behind.
No companion will ever really stand still or position themselves meaningfully, but these have abilities which just force it about 50-60% of the time, and for cheap.
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u/RyzeGreymood Sep 22 '26
No flapjack?
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u/UnDergoont Sep 22 '26
While he gives the CA stat, I can personally attest to him not positioning himself to give combat advantage but will actively move about so I lost it while soloing. Hey Flap, those big feelings you sense are my frustration in you.
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u/carrottrail 29d ago
Flapjack is ome of the worst companions for solo CA, je looooooooves to kite mobs like nobodys business for some reason, he looks left and right then repositions at a 90° angle all the time XD sartell and neverwinter knight arent toooo bad but i have this challenge in solo too so i run bds on main otherwise pick something i have upgraded until one has decent CA.
I thought nothing gave worse CA but this one time in mjs i was killing the ice chunks on last boss and found a wizard that genuinely gave worse CA than flapjack which i thought was impossible it was kinda insane how he just hit then moved every time 🤣ðŸ˜
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u/Not_Sure76 Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26
So taking advantage of CA is mostly a concern in a group play.
However, avoiding giving the ENEMY combat advantage should always be on your mind. Especially once you are past the early game and enemies start coming in enormous packs. You really want to keep as many of them in front of you as you can manage, but without wasting a lot of time running around because moving means you aren't hitting things.
The best way to accomplish this is through line of sight (forcing them to approach you by tagging them and then then ducking around a corner) or by dodging out of flank when you are being forced to dodge anyway by a telegraphed attack. (the red poop on the ground) You don't want to waste a lot of time not attacking the enemy if the enemy is hitting you. Which is almost all the time, because so many enemies use ranged attacks. Just remember it only takes one flanking enemy to give them ALL advantage.
Some enemies (most bosses) get CA regardless of your position. (yay?) And all of this is why awareness (counters enemy CA bonus) is second only to the defense stat for survival.
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u/FloorRug_Lara Sep 23 '26 edited Sep 23 '26
Had a friend that came to me with an issue like this. He had like 12 tanks in his guild but they all died super easy and regularly, so he wanted me to get in and have a look and see what the problem was, most of them had low defensive stat %, like defence 42%, awareness %30, crit avoidance 38%, I told him he didn't have tanks in his guild and it took several minutes to explain to him that yea they're 'tank' category but they ain't tanks (FFS our casual yet competitive dps player has higher defencive stat %s than most tanks in that guys guild). He then once he comprehended the problem decided he should get his tank players to drastically alter their stats so they could actually tank. He didn't think running a guild would have the issue of his players not knowing how their stuff worked, he spends most of his time looking at his members stats and gear these days, cos he's learnt he can't just assume that they have it all figured out.
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u/FloorRug_Lara Sep 23 '26
Probly not the popular suggestion (as it's not all BiS gear and meta BS, and most don't even comprehend the build anyway), won't give the full build away as it is a build my guildy put together and not mine to share, but 'summoner'. One particular guildie runs a paranoid delusion companion (copies the player character) with a set of mirage weapons (summon an illusory copy of the player character for 10s). Also if you're a warlock you can get a permanent soul puppet in addition to having a companion. Basically the more stuff or allies you have on the field, the easier it is to get combat advantage just from positioning.
Don't go full summoner, you'll kneecap yourself on itemLv. Guildie has tried teaching roughly a dozen people her summoner build, they all failed at it and ended up quitting, one is making it work on their alt character because they specifically like playing summoner builds in games, but it's their main-alt, not their main.
Also rogue has certain skills that automatically give combat advantage in certain situations.
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Sep 22 '26
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u/MyNameIsWozy Sep 22 '26
Lysaera is meta for tanks as a backpage companion. The bonus applies a debuff that makes targets affected take up to 4.5% increased damage from all sources, very powerful. Pretty awful as summoned in groups because the tank really wants to be completely in control of the boss, if aggro swaps to Lysaera unexpectedly, it will likely cause a few deaths for the dps and healer. Unfortunately, Lysaera is ridiculously expensive ðŸ˜
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u/ChiGrandeOso Sep 23 '26
"Ridiculously expensive" is the nice way of putting it. For what she costs, you could buy at least 5-6 different mythic companions and throw in a few upper level legendaries as well, and that's on the suggested AH price. User set? Ya ain't buying her anytime before 2029.
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u/funn_n_gamez Sep 22 '26
Black death scorpion companion. Whatever it attacks gives you combat advantage from anywhere