WHY CHOOSE THE SPELLSTORM RENEGADE PATH?
The Spellstorm Renegade brings a lot to the table, both in solo and group play. Specific to the path, Renegades bring two very powerful buffs to groups. Here's some of the key features of a Spellstorm Renegade:
Nightmare Wizardry is a feat that gives you a chance to grant combat advantage against a target when you critically hit, granting players a substantial damage boost against that target. The combined AOE and high crit rate of the Renegade path gives this buff virtually 100% uptime.
Chaos Magic is a buff that is randomly applied to all players within 50' when the Renegade CW damages a target. Each buff lasts 10 seconds, and can only apply once per CW. Chaotic Nexus gives a flat bonus of 30% Armor Penetration and 30% Critical Hit rate. Chaotic Fury gives a flat 30% damage boost and 10% Lifesteal boost. Chaotic Growth gives a large Heal over Time to all group members equal to 250% of your weapon damage every 0.5 seconds. Chaos Magic is incredibly powerful in that it affects all players within 50'...so just imagine how powerful giving 24 other players a 30% damage boost is in fights like Tiamat.
Storm Spell is a class feature that gives you a 30% chance when you crit to strike the target for additional damage. Unfortunately, this ability just took a bit of a nerf. It has a 0.5 second internal cooldown and can no longer critically hit. It may very well still be a great source of damage for CW's, but the devs are aiming to see this be more like 18% of your damage instead of 30-40%. Special note that the offhand power for Storm Spell gives you a 5% chance to proc it on ANY hit, so these bonus hits may or may not be critical hits.
Chilling Advantage is a feat that gives you an additional 2/4/6/8/10% chance to crit when Chilling Presence is slotted. Chilling Presence itself was buffed in Module 5, and now with Rank 4 available in Mod 6, we get an extra 8% damage per stack of Chill on a target, which is doubled to 16% if the target is frozen(48/96% total bonus at 6 stacks). This buff gives Renegades a compelling reason to NOT use Eye of the Storm, which has been mandatory since the class was introduced.
In addition to some very powerful buffs and damage features, Spellstorm Renegades also utilize the usual control + damage spells typical of any CW: Steal Time, Conduit of Ice, Icy Terrain, Oppressive Force, etc, bring to the table just as much CC as any other build.
So you have it all in one neat package with amazing group synergy: Buffs, Damage and CC. Everything a dungeon group needs to blow through content with ease.
Feats
The core of the build is very familiar for those already playing it. The big changes come by working in two new and very powerful feats.
There's always going to be a lot of debate about this versus that. Is 1% here better than 1% there? Sometimes it comes down to personal preference. Place points where you like in the Heroic Tier, but there are a few feats I consider mandatory: 3/3 Weapon Master, 3/3 Toughness, 3/3 Wizard's Wrath, 3/3 Focused Wizardry and 2/5 Learned Spellcaster.
As for the Paragon Tier, I recommend you go as written. These feats are going to maximize your damage output, as well as synergize best with a high crit/high severity/combat advantage build, which is what Renegades are all about.
I opted to go with Uncertain Allegiance over Abyss of Chaos for two reason. One, critical strike is extremely important to the build, and an extra 5% is huge. Second, we're a team player and being able to share that 5% critical strike with our group is double huge. Unfortunately as the module was tested, Abyss of Chaos got nerfed from unbelievable to pretty good to lackluster.
Second, I went with the Thaumaturge feats instead of Oppressor. After testing a few runs at level 70, the minor control boosts just did not help much. Unfortunately, level 73 mobs have so much control resistance, increasing the duration of control effects didn't have much practical effect. I decided that the substantial cooldown reduction from Spell Twisting was substantially more powerful that Icy Veins. And the very cool thing about Spell Twisting is the faster your powers come off cooldown, the faster you can use them...which builds stacks of Spell Twisting even faster. This allows us to do two things we can't do with Icy Veins. One, more encounter powers equals more damage. Two, more encounter powers equals more control thanks to higher up times on CoI, ST, and IT.
My other big qualm with Icy Veins is the range. Fifteen feet is very, very close...too close if you ask me. The feat works fantastic outside of T1/T2 dungeons where the mobs are slightly less lethal, but I found that getting close enough to make Icy Veins effective in dungeons put me way to close to the danger zone.
My power selections keep CoI on tab, Icy Terrain and Chilling Cloud (plus the Artifact power to stack chills) so chills still stack up very fast without Icy Veins.
If you absolutely feel like you need to sacrifice a DPS for more control, you can opt to put those 15 points into the Oppressor Tree. I would pick Bitter Cold, Severe Reaction and then Icy Veins.
Stats
Stats is always a tricky discussion. When talking about what to do, it's more of a matter of what do you NEED? Module 6 has also changed the stat curves at 70. The stat curves also allow you to push much deeper into the stats before hitting diminishing returns, so "stat stacking" is the new thing. How this plays out as we get more and more gear is yet to be determined. But here's some guidelines so far:
Armor Penetration: 100 equals 1%
Recovery: 200 equals 1%
Everything else: 400 equals 1%
Character Creation: Maximize Intelligence and Charisma. Every stat increase should go here.
Armor Penetration: Your single best return point for point for damage. Your first priority should be getting his as high as you can. Right now, the general consensus is to get about 40%. Word is Tiamat is the highest with 60% armor, so that should be a long term goal. As we get more information about the Armor Penetration needs, I'll update accordingly.
Critical Strike: More is better. Critical Strike use to severely diminish after about 2500. With the new stat curves, my first instinct is to see how high I can stack critical strike, since it's so important for this build. Ultimately this change should make us even stronger. I'll be waiting for the next double RP weekend to start building more Azures instead of Radiant enchantments for my offensive slots, and report the results.
Power: Power increases the base damage of all your powers, so you'll never be at a disadvantage for stacking more and more power. Power use to be the "stack stat" but I think that's going to change to critical strike for wizards in Module 6. I would still grab power where you can, I just wouldn't gem for it (at this point).
Critical Severity: The more crit you have, the more valuable critical severity is, and vice versa. There are only a few ways to get critical severity, and this build will take advantage of them.
Lifesteal: Llifesteal was nerfed in Module 6. AOE's have a 30% chance to proc it, it also became more important to stack higher amounts of this .This is still your best defense. The more damage you do, the more health you steal and the harder you are to kill. Unlike previous Modules, you need to get into the 20%'s before you start seeing a lot of reliable lifesteal procs. I've started swapping Radiants in the defensive slots for more Darks for the lifesteal bonus. With the right boons and active companions, getting at or over 25% isn't out of reach for CW's. More on this later.
Combat Advantage Rating and AP Gain: I'll mention these both since they scale the same. Both are hard to get, but you don't need a lot. These hit huge diminishing returns right at about 700 points. You can get both from Boons, Artifacts or you power on the Artifact Offhand (and jewelry reinforcement kits for AP gain). Combat Advantage damage is more important that AP, so get that to about 700 first, then go for AP gain.
As far as everything else, just take what comes on your gear.
Boons
I also took the opportunity to redo my boons. At the end of the day, boons are more of a personal reflection on your playstyle. You can utilize some of these pretty unique effects to fill in weakness or augment strengths as you see fit. If you prefer to use a boon that's not listed here, that's fine. I don't think they ultimately turn the tables on anything. But here's my slate of boons for Module 6
Key notes:
I went with the two T4 boons in Dread Ring and Sharandar that offer the heals on hit, versus the extra damage. Getting 20k HP as a reaction is fantastic, and could potentially save your life. An extra 20k damage on hit every now and then? With all the numbers flying around in this build, you won't even notice.
I switch to Elven Ferocity in Sharandar because 30 stacks of 135 power is about a 10% damage boost, which is lovely. You should be killing fast enough to keep good uptime on those stacks.
In ToD, I dropped the 10% control strength in favor of 10% incoming healing. Staying alive in this module is very important, so every bit of extra healing counts.
In terms of getting your boons, I personally feel like the Dread Ring and Tyranny of Dragon boons are substantially more powerful than Sharandar and IWD, particularly in the 4th and 5th tiers, which are the hardest to get. If you're feeling a little burned out on campaigns, I would get the first 3 in IWD and Sharandar, and then focus on getting the 5th tier of ToD and DR first. Then when you've had a chance to relax, get the other boons as you can.
Powers
No surprises here. The load outs are pretty typical of most CWs. If you need to tweak something because of personal preference, that's cool. Thanks to the changes in playstyle for Module 6, combine with a couple new powers, the discussion around the "perfect" load out is a little different.
Here's some discussion on what I consider the "key" powers. To keep things easy, I put the standard power abbreviations in parentheses...I don't want to assume everyone's an expert who knows all the lingo.
At Wills
Chilling Cloud - (CC) This is your "go to" at will. It does a lot more than just damage, so it's important to understand what's under the hood here. First, the cast speed is the same as magical missile. The animation isn't as "bouncy" so it might feel slower, but it isn't. Second, the third hit is stronger and hits in an AOE, but even in single target situations it should be your primary attack. Third, it actually debuffs enemies' damage by 2.5% per rank, which is great. Fourth, the first two hits refresh chill, and the third hit adds one. Combined with the Artifact Weapon power that gives all hits a chance to add a chill stack in an AOE around the target (which is bigger than the 3rd hit radius) makes it very potent at quickly stack and maintaining chill stacks.
Ray of Frost - (RoF) This is you alternate at will. It's one of only 2 attacks that actually freeze targets. The other is Icy Terrain. Use this when you need to get something frozen ASAP or when something has six stacks and you want to freeze it. Otherwise, for general DPS and mob clearing, always use CC.
AOE Powers
Conduit of Ice - Conduit of Ice (CoI) has a small radius and a 5 target cap. On Tab the radius is increased, it adds chill stacks and does more damage for each stack of chill on the target. It does NOT freeze targets. I generally prefer to keep CoI on tab because it substantially increases the power of CoI, but because it's a multi-hit AOE, it should be on your bar somewhere. If the initial hit of Coi crits, all the hits will crit, making it a potent weapon for unleashing Storm Spell Procs.
Sudden Storm - Sudden Storm (SS) is powerful when it hits. It has a short range (30') and a narrow cone, but hits unlimited targets. Sudden Storm also refreshes chill stacks on bad guys, and arcane stacks on you. The key to effectively using Sudden Storm is to unleash it on lots of tightly packed mobs. Most of the T1 and T2 content in Module 6 is smaller packs, which cuts down on the effectiveness of Sudden Storm, but it's still a great AOE power. Tab adds an arcing DoT to the power, which ups it's damage by about 20%.
Icy Terrain - Icy Terrain (IT) works like CoI in a way, but you drop it at your feet. It stacks chill (1/sec) on anything caught in the ice, and will freeze bad guys. The initial hit of IT will also root enemies caught in the ice. The damage is lackluster, but if the first hit crits, they all crit, so it's another amazing power for proc'ing Storm Spell. Tab allows you to target IT instead of dropping it at your feet, so if you're doing a lot of dungeon pulls that don't allow you to survive right in the thick of things, you can consider moving IT to tab to take advantage of the range. But generally this power is great in a regular slot.
Steal Time - Steal Time (ST) is another staple AOE power that hits hard. Also, all the "slow" ticks have a chance to proc damage effects, like Storm Spell, so that ups the damage potential substantially. While it does have a slow cast time, the slow and then stun are powerful CC effects, just make sure to time your cast as the monsters are running to you, before you get surrounded. On Tab ST gives you and your group a run speed boost and combat advantage, but you should always be granting combat advantage with Nightmare Wizardry and the speed boost is too short to be really useful. So avoid tab here.
Shard of the Endless Avalanche - Poor Shard of the Endless Avalanche (SotEA). This use to be THE power. It's not amazing like it once was, but it's still very, very good. Your first cast summons a giant magic bowling ball, and the second cast pushes it towards your targets. It first knocks stuff down, then it can blow up for a second hit and another knock down. The push effect also has about a 30' range, so you can stand back from the fight a little bit for extra security. The only weakness of this power is that the bowling ball won't explode until it hits something twice, or more than two things, making it unwieldy in pulls where only one target is left, or things are really spread out. Tab turns this one into a ground target spell, which makes it a lot easier and accurate, but otherwise doesn't add much.
Oppressive Force - Oppressive Force (OF) is one of the best CC powers we have, as well as bringing a lot of damage to the table as well. It has an unlimited target cap, dazes targets as soon as it's cast and continues to daze for a few seconds after it explodes. The beauty of the daze effect is that dazed targets can't take actions, so they just kind of muddle around for a bit. And while OF has an "explosion" at the end that pushed monsters a little bit, since all they can do is run after the explosion, they tend to group right back up, so it's not something you should worry about. OF should be your "go to" daily in nearly all AOE situations, as it does a lot of damage, CC's all the mobs and covers a very large area.
Singularity - Singularity (Sing) has been nerfed to the point of being nearly useless. The target cap was dropped to 8, and it now does a very bad job of pulling in any monsters that have decent control resist. So in most situations, even ones where you think it's going to be useful...it's not. I have it on my bar for "old time's sake" but it really doesn't get cast much, at all. Tis a shame.
Single Target - Discussion coming soon on single target
Icy Rays - Icy Rays (IR) is a great single target power. On tab, the damage is increased, which makes it a consideration for that spot in single target situations. It also briefly immobilizes targets, and it's extremely difficult to dodge, making it nice for PvP.
Chill Strike - Chill Strike (CS) in my experience does the same DPS as IR, but trades damage for a faster cooldown. The stun effect is nice, but the cast time is slightly longer than IR. While leveling, the tab function is amazing since it makes it a very powerful AOE, which works great for young CWs since we don't get a lot of AOE early. Once you've grown up, it's rare to put CS back in tab. If you're in a situation where you're doing ST add duty (like ToS), CS might be better than IR because of the more frequent stun, but if you're just doing straight damage I typically prefer IR.
Disintegrate - Disintergrate has no standard abbreviation yet, but it doesn't need one. It's a hard hitting single-target power with a very short cooldown. The extra benefit of it "instantly" killing an enemy under X% weapon damage health is near useless in PvE because it will ALWAYS hit for more than that threshold. I guess in PvP their could be situations where that's not the case, so the instant melt might be nice. It's powerful enough that I now keep it on my bar pretty much full time. Plus, the first time you disintegrate something big, like a dragon, it's hard to NOT want to keep using this.
Ray of Enfeeblement - Ray of Enfeeblement (RoF) is a staple on single target fights because of the debuff. The damage ain't bad on it either, and it's a ticking DoT, so that helps with Storm Spell procs. It's tab power isn't great since it only gives you two charges with the same recharge timer, and the damage from each cast overwrites itself. Typically I just keep this on my bar for single target boss fights.
Ice Knife - Ice Knife is your go-to single target daily. It hits for massive amounts of damage, prones targets and adds chill stacks. But here it's all about the damage. There's no other daily choice for single target fights.
Class Features
The only three to even consider are:
Storm Spell - Always on. Once you get this power, it never gets unslotted. It does very large amounts of damage, but only has a 30% chance to activate on a critical hit. Which we do a lot of. The benefit to hit activating on a critical hit is it will also be a critical hit. The off-hand class feature adds a 5% chance for Storm Spell to proc on ANY damage, and if it hits on a non-critical hit, it may or may not crit, so you won't see 100% critical hit if you log your damage.
Chilling Presence - Another big boost to damage. Gives you a damage bonus of 8% per stack of chill, doubled on frozen targets. And with Chiling Advantage, another 10% critical strike. I've found that depending on your critical strike, Eye of the Storm adds about 10% more critical strikes over the course of a dungeon, so this is an easy replacement of it when doing PvE content.
Eye of the Storm - Use to be THE reason to go Spellstorm. Now with the buffs to the Renegade Tree and Chilling Presence, I only slot Eye of the Storm (EotS) for PvP to give me an initial burst that will (hopefully) tear someone apart in the first few seconds of a fight.
My Favorite Power Load Outs
AOE/Trash
Tab - CoI
Encounters - Icy Terrain, Disintegrate (or Sudden Storm), Steal Time
At-Wills - Chilling Cloud, Ray of Frost
Pretty default load out here. I'm not using HV anymore, but that doesn't chance much of the rotation at all. Use Conduit of Ice on tab and Icy Terrain to keep things frosty, as well as Chilling Cloud. Keep those chill stacks up to maximize your damage. Unless you really need to pull things together, use Oppressive Force as your go-to at-will. The daze affect is great for reducing the damage your group takes, and it hits an unlimited amount of targets pretty hard. Especially if you're doing big pulls...when Singularity got nerfed to 8 targets, it really cut down on it's usefulness. With Steal Time, the key is to cast it as enemies are running into range, so they get hit with the slow and stun before they start to clobber you.
I keep Disintegrate in for AOE clearing because it hits so hard, has a short cooldown (which helps proc more Spell Twisting stacks), and generally most T1/T2 pulls consider of a couple very tough mobs, so Disintegrate helps cut does down very fast once the smaller mobs are dead. Plus seeing a target actually disintegrate when they are killed with this power is really sweet...especially when it's something big like a dragon.
If you're doing pure, big AOE pulls, sub in Sudden Storm for Disintegrate.
Single Target
Chilling Cloud
Ray of Frost
Conduit of Ice in Mastery
Chill Strike
Disintegrate
Ray of Enfeeblement
Storm Spell
Chilling Presence
Ice Knife
Oppressive Force
I still keep Conduit of Ice on tab for Single Target, for the damage, storm spell procs and chill stacking. Chill Strike equals Icy Rays in DPS when not in tab. Since we're no longer relying on the HV set, I swapped in the new Disintegrate spell for Steal Time. I'll also swap out for these powers during the head phase of Tiamat. Keep plugging away with Chilling Cloud when your encounters are on CD to make sure 6 stacks of Chill stay up at all times.
Gearing up these days is very different. There's a huge number of "shortcuts" to achieving gear that far surpasses anything available prior to Artifact Gear. With that, here's a special disclaimer on Artifact Gear, from Poppa Zerg:
Artifact gear, even at green or blue, is still BEST IN SLOT
Don't sweat the mountain you have to climb to get to Legendary status. Legendary status is mostly just epeen stroking. Sure, you'll be a few percentage points more powerful, but the cost to achieve that is astronomical. Here's the math:
RARE: Level 15, 42,000 RP
EPIC: Level 35 571,200 RP
LEGENDARY: Level 60 4,645,200 RP
So getting an piece of Artifact Equipment to Epic takes about 12% of the RP needed to go all the way to Legendary, for a small increase in stats and weapon damage. Yeah. Don't worry about it until you get to the point where you have way too many AD, and not enough things to spend it on.
That being said, you should be starting the Tyranny of Dragons campaign as you level up. This will be the single best thing you can do to get yourself ready to experience Artifact Equipment once you hit 60. And as you level up, I'd highly recommend doing Jewelcrafting, since the things you can make are basically BiS for your rings, and anything you put on your augment:
Here's what you should aim for.
As for Enchantments...
Perfect Vorpal is your ideal weapon enchantment. You're focusing on critical hits and crit severity, and Vorpal is the king daddy of crit severity boosts. The more you crit, the more you get out of a Vorpal enchant. And Renegades...they be critting plenty.
Soul Forged is the go to armor enchantment. It'll resurrect you once every 90 seconds when you die, and with the low defenses of a CW, one-shots happen. But at least you'll be able to pop back up. The heal from Soul Forge isn't enormous at higher levels, so most people are absolutely fine with saving a lot of AD and just using a lesser.
Dragon Hoard enchantments should fill your utility slots. With the massive amounts of death you're bringing, you'll rack up the kills and the chance for a free refinement stone, which are extremely valuable. These are easy to get from the Tyranny of Dragons campaign, or on the AH. It's generally a lot cheaper to make them yourself.
..and Artifacts
Artifacts can be an expensive piece. My first advice is to just use whatever you can get your hands on. When you can make a choice, use the stats on the artifacts to balance out the rest of your stats.
For those looking for a very value conscious artifact slate, here's where I'd go:
Leveling up, pick the Lantern of Revelation at level 20. The stats are great: Armor Penetration, Critical Strike and Combat Advantage Damage. Plus, the active power is very good for increasing the damage of a group for a few seconds. And it's free! You can stick with this one your entire career if you like.
Other two "free" artifacts that are amazing are the Sigil of the Devoted and the Sigil of the Great Weapon. The Devoted has an amazing power (quickly fills up AP), and the stats are very good. Power, Defense and Incoming Healing (which also boosts lifesteal) are a welcome defensive addition to any CW. The Great Weapon comes with HP, Power and Armor Penetration, another fantastic stat combo.
The only catch is you have to level up a Cleric and GWF to 60 to get these from the class artifact quest. But again, they're "free" and fantastic. If you have multiple toons, you'll like get a lot of use from these, so consider it if you're thinking of an alt.
Personally, I use the Devoted, Great Weapon and Kessell's Spheres of Annihilation (Power, Armor Pen, Combat Advantage). Kessel's is a great one, but it's expensive on the AH (3 million+)
Otherwise, if you've been lucky with other artifact drops, or have the money to spend, look for Power, Combat Advantage and/or AP gain from your artifacts. Combat Advantage and AP gain are harder to come by, so you'll want at least one artifact with one of these.
Companions
Active Companions
Companions that focus on Crit Severity, Combat Advantage Damage or raw damage increases are ideal.
Keep in mind that active bonuses max out at Epic, so there's no need to take all your companions to Legendary status. All you need in your active slots is one Legendary companion, and when you summon a companion, you will receive the 15% bonus stats from that companion. I don't know if that's how it was intended to work, but the tooltips are ambiguous and as of right now that's how it DOES work.
From what I've read, the 15% Legendary bonus is not being conferred to summoned augments that aren't Legendary.
I know people have their own personal preference, as well as different levels of access, so I'm going to share a range of companions that I think suit this build or are useful to CW's in general.
Bonuses are listed are for the Epic versions, but these pets are all still very good at any level.
The Erinyes is from the Scourge Warlock Pet. Starts at blue for a 5% incease in Crit Severity. 10% at Epic.
The Cambion Magus was a special charge reward bonus pet that also gives you a 10% increase in Crit Severity. Only place to get him now is off the AH, probably for a ridiculous amount of AD.
The Blink Dog and Intellect Devourer are available for cheap on the AH (due to the Winter Event). The Intellect Devourer was dropped only from a Call to Arms, so definitely pick him up before he gets expensive again. The Blink Dog is a rare drop in Celadrine's Tower in Sharandar. Both increase Combat Advantage damage by 5%.
The Wild Hunt Rider is available via the Zen store (800), or on the AH. 5% chance to increase damage by 10%, which procs a lot for CWs.
The Air Archon provides a 5% bonus to damage against targets NOT at full health. He drops from lockboxes or Troves (which can come from lockboxes ), so check the AH.
The Fire Archon provides a 7% bonus to targets below 50% health, which is another nice DPS boost. Again, check the AH for this guy
The Cantankerous Mage gives you a 25% increase to control strength at epic, which is a substantial boost to the duration of your controls spells. Any time you need a little better CC, slot him in. Available n the Zen Store.
The Will O'Wisp is another great control pet, giving you a 15% increase to control strength and 25% bonus to control resist, which reduces the duration of CC effects on you. Available in the Zen Store.
Summoned Augments
Most people still prefer using an Augment as their summoned companion, which is fine. The great news here is that pretty much all the Augments are useful, since the Sword Coast Adventures (the dice game on the Gateway) is now dropping a wider range of BiS companion gear.
Look for Loyal Avenger gear. The rings are painfully expensive, but the other Loyal Avenger gear is more reasonable. If your companion has a belt slot, look for "of the Striker".
If your pet has all Offensive slots, that's great. Use whatever runestones you need to increase your stats. Keep in mind that Bonding Runestones (while the bonus ability doesn't activate) provides a lot of power for their cost. If your Augment has Defensive slots, use Eldritch runestones for the +%stats bonus.
Summoned Companions (non-augment)
For those that want to push into new territory, there's ways to make a summoned non-augment an extremely powerful (but expensive) tool in your companion arsenal.
The trick here is to maximize the benefit from Bonding Runestones. These runestones proc when your companion uses an ability. This buff is called Companion's Gift. Each bonus will transfer 20/35/50/65% (lesser/normal/greater/perfect) of your active companion's stats to you. You can slot three Bonding Runestones, which can stack three times. With Perfects, that's a 195% stat bonus from your companion to you.
The Runestones have a 20 second uptime, and a 10 second down time (30 second cooldown from when they first proc).
That's extremely powerful. If you have a companion that attacks rapidly, it's very possible to start each fight with three stacks, giving you a substantial boost over an augment at the beginning of the fight. This works beautifully for trash, and the way the cooldowns tend to work, the buffs will overlap during longer boss fights, so you should expect to average 2 stacks at any time.
But we all know if your companion is dead, they're not casting and you'll stop getting the bonus (note: if a companion dies while you have the Companion's Gift buff, you keep the buff until it wears off). So the trick is to keeping them alive. There's some very "easy" ways to do this...easy is in quotes because it's expensive.
First, get a Lliara's Bell of the AH. As of this post, they're dirt cheap. The bell will not only resurrect your companion, but it will return them to full health AND make them immune to damage for a short time.
Second, make them Legendary. It's expensive, but a Legendary companion has inherent bonuses which allow them to deal more damage and take more damage. In addition, if they do die, they'll self-rez every 5-10 seconds and get themselves back in the fight.
Third, pick the right pet
My personal favorite is the Zhentarim Warlock. From a gear perspective, she uses two talismans, which are crazy cheap as far as the Loyal Avenger gear goes. She has a 40 ft range on her two spells, and she attacks very, very fast. Of all the companions, she might be the only one that doesn't have a cooldown on her main attack. She'll cast Eldritch Blasts just like a normal warlock, meaning she stacks Companion's Gift very fast.
If you want to use a healing companion, nothing can beat the Acolyte of Kelemvor as a healer. Unlike traditional healers, she doesn't really heal you directly (although her Rank 30 ability bonus will). She provides two buffs to you. One reduces the damage you take by 10%. The other gives you a massive (Over 4000 points) to your lifesteal stat. I have about 10% lifesteal on my CW. With her slotted (and utilizing bonding runestones and dark enchantments in the defensive slots), it jumps to over 26%. And that basically "feels" like old school lifesteal. I used her leveling to 70 and anytime I'm trying to solo major HEs, and sometimes it feels like cheating
Those are my two recommendations. Running dungeons these days, my Warlock Anne Loade is my primary companion. If you have a favorite companion that you love, bust him or her (or it) out and be proud. Beyond the awesome Bonding Runestone buff, companions also contribute to DPS, Healing and Tanking. They'll eat up damage meant for the PCs, which is always a swell thing for a henchman to do, and I've see Frost Mimics and Young Yeti's tank bosses effectively (at least in T1's) so don't be afraid to try it.
There's no wrong way to play, and don't let someone bully you into stowing that companion because "augments are obviously always better". They're not.