So now you are a Crew Chief. With your expanding crew it is time to partake in some Crew Management training.Today we bring you, Companion Management 101.
Your first companion is gained towards the end of the class quest story line on your first planet. S/He will be with you for a long time, so go on ahead and start learning this management gig.
This is your companion frame, it is located in the lower left corner of your UI.
Chapter One. Your crew have jobs, responsibilities, and skills. Open your Crew Window by clicking right there on the companion avatar frame.
You will pay them a lot of credits to do chores for you and they will sass you.
Kaliyo: "I work better alone."
Kaliyo: "I work better alone."
Chapter Two. Crew have a lot more abilities and talents than is apparent to the casual observer. Click that + [plus] sign at the end of the frame to open up the full abilities bar.
Chapter Three. Sometimes your companion's sassing and back-talking gets annoying. Or she lays down on the job and won't get back to work. Then you will need to dismiss her. Right click *itch slap that avatar to bring up the Dismiss Companion Option.
Chapter Four. If you find yourself out working and your companion has pulled a disappearing stunt, the companion frame will look like this. Just click the paper doll head in the lower left corner to Summon Your Companion.
Chapter Five. Sometimes your companion is off on useful business; crafting, gathering or conducting important missions. Deployed.
The timer on the panel indicates when she'll be back.
Chapter Six. You can also send your current companion off to vendor all the grey items in your inventory.
This is useful out in the back boondocks when you can't find a vendor. And your inventory bags are full.
Afterall, you need every last credit you can get so you can pay your crew and buy speeder training.
Chapter Seven. Sometimes your companion dies for the cause. And sometimes she holds the mobs and takes one for the cause while I run like a little girl.
If I am within 10 m of my companion's corpse, I can rez her with Revive Companion. Or, clicking her corpse.
From the top menu bar, Abilities, General, Revive Companion. It appears you can Revive Companion in combat.
If you are out of range, you can Summon Companion.
Chapter Eight. It's usually a good idea for a crew to have some affection for their Chief. The more your companion likes you, the faster they preform crew tasks - and the more successfully.
As the affection of a crew member increases, new conversations, quests and story lines open. Affection can be gained and lost during conversations as you chose answers. Answers that your companion agrees with will gain you affection. You can improve affection by giving your companion gifts.
Try to choose gifts your companion will actually like! You can learn more about your companions' personality by reading Mission Log, Codex, Persons of Note.
Chapter Nine. Along the way, you will be improving your Presence stat. Whereas Affection indicates how a particular crew member views you, Presence is a base stat you have that increases the combat effectiveness of your current companion.
As you level up, your Presence stat will improve along with all your other stats. Presence can also be increased with: BioChem, Mods, and probably gear.
Chapter Ten. Just as you spend time understanding your own abilities, you are also expected to be extremely familiar with your crew abilities. As you level up, your crew will also level and gain new and improved abilities. Abilities differ amongst crew. A crew member can specialize as healer, DPS or tank.
Some of the abilities are a stance, much like hunter and warlock pets in WoW. Passive or Defensive. Or Healing. Other abilities are on use abilities.
Study them. Know them. Love them.
Embrace your inner Crew Chief.
On use abilities can be on 'auto' - AI controlled or 'off' - player controlled. Right click the ability to toggle it auto or off. 
The stance, or mode is indicated by the blue rectangular ON along the lower edge of the action.
And lastly, Chapter Eleven. You might not have to feed and train your crew, but you do have to equip them. Find their gear at Character, Companion.
Oh, and their gear does take durability loss as you engage in battle and take damage. Just as your gear does. Don't forget to Repair Gear!
Your companion has almost the same gear slots as you. They do not use Relics, but they do have a Companion Customization slot.
Take a close look at the gear and stats your crew member has when they join your staff of merry maunders. This will give you a good idea of the armor type and stats you should look for on upgrades.
Oh, and it is not cool to roll "Need" on gear for your companion. And we are the kool-kids so we only roll greed, and only on gear appropriate for our companion. Hunters don't need Strength. Just sayin'.
Comparitive tooltips for you and your companion gear can be enabled in Game Menu, Preferences, User Interface, Tooltip. Enable Comparative Tooltips and Enable Companion Comparative Tooltips.
And thus concludes our first Chapter Book, Crew Chief 101. The next Crew Chief Course will start with Chapter Twelve and discuss the beginning companions and their various stats and functions.
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