I'd like to see everyone consolidate all of the info they find out about their new partner in this thread. Maybe then we can figure out what exactly causes the changes in their advancement.
For starters: As a 75 Bard I took my little henchman out into Rolanberry to fight. She stood around for 38 minutes then left after a battle was over. The leaving dialogue was something like:
Ripokeke: We have fought many battles today! I must take a break.
Kalit defeats the Death wasp.
Ripokeke: It is time for us to part.
Farewell.
Not the exact wording but pretty close. Since it was so close to the death message I wasn't able to tell if she warns you midbattle or not if they're leaving.
As for how I used the partner; I alternated between slaughtering mobs by myself while she assisted and letting her solo melee things while I healed. Since you have to stay in "engaged" mode for them to keep attacking, I switched between hand to hand and just hitting it once then turning around. Unfortunately she was terrible at holding hate against weapons(higher level than her) and my cures alone made me the tank. Against weaker opponents(wasps, quadavs) she had less problems doing damage, taking hits or holding hate. But what caused her to provoke wasn't really certain, since she rarely did it.
After she left, I immediately went to the rendevouz point to see what changed.
Picture here <--
She was still level 30. Still the shield combat type. But three pieces of equipment changed. The gloves and boots changed to the same model as the lizard set(no clue if its the same armor though). The most notable change is that the pants changed to the same model as the tarutaru STARTER pants. What the hell?
Now I have to admit(though unrelated), being a rapid leveling bard at a time when bards were so rare that /sea all brd yielded less than 30 players at all levels, I was able to get away with using some embarrasingly weak armor. But this is just silly. I heard of some people having their partner switch to a few plate items and mine switches to newbie crap. This could be important but I really have no idea what it means yet. Maybe my henchman is turning into a mithakbob vendor.
Due to the stupid 20 hour reuse, I was not able to do any more tests but I'm hoping if everyone submits their info we can find out more. Will eventually try out bringing the low level henchman to a high level area and maybe if she gets level 31, abandon her and get a new one to see if the new one starts at 31 or at 30.
Info i'm looking for : Anything really, but mainly what armor they switch to. How you used them and what race your companion is. I'm sure in a few days we'll be seeing people's companions switch combat types. Emphasis on days due to the retarded 20 hour reuse. :magmad: