now that we have 4 companions, who are you using and what's your build?

phaneub17_ESO

If you haven't unlocked the Blackwood Chapter on your account, but do have ESO+ you'll now have access to Bastian and Mirri.

I plan on keeping all 4 companions. I like Quickened, its not the best stat but a good universal stat for any role. I don't like ranged weapons because of the dodge roll mechanic so I avoid using Bow, Restoration, Flame, or Lightning Staff. Frost Staff counts as a tank weapon so won't dodge roll until critical =< 25% health.

Bastian: One-Hand and Shield, 7 Heavy Armor, 12 Quickened.
Kindle, Drake's Blood, Provoke, On Guard, Ritual of Salvation.
My tank for harder world bosses and specific group dungeon bosses while solo. Isobel could replace him and still heal, but I don't want to abandon him entirely.

Mirri: Dual-Wield, 7 Medium Armor, 7 Shattering, 5 Aggressive.
Warp Strike, Masque of Torment, Razor Cape, Life Siphon, Spinning Steel.
Using Mirri with my Hybrid characters who, while are fun to play, don't do high damage and she supports them with extra AOE damage against large groups.

Ember: Frost Staff, 7 Medium, 12 Quickened.
Starfall, Crystal Blast, Sniping Silver, Shocking Burst, Shared Wards/Second Wind.
Using Ember with my Stamina characters, she's basically a glass cannon single target, rapid striker until she dies and she dies a lot. Her purpose is served.

Isobel: Two-Handed, 7 Light, 12 Quickened.
Blessed Sacrament, Sunder, Holy Ground, Sun Brand, Beam of Reproach (currently using Reverse Entropy until leveled).
Using Isobel with my Magicka characters, setup as a mostly supplemental healer with two attacks that deal damage over time while staying in melee range.

SgtWinnie

I just use Isobel as a tank. She's pretty good in that role. Sword+ Shield+ 7 heavy all in Bolstered.

tsaescishoeshiner

I find they all have bad survivability in AoE and bad damage output, so they're all in heavy armor with a resto staff, letting me focus on damage.

Rowjoh

not using them as they're next to useless, unless you're levelling, ultra casual, or a role-player.

they would be useful if summonable in Solo arena's. But they're not.

markulrich1966

Mirri

all heavy armor, resto staff, traits increased healing and/or damage reduction/max health, skills:

Twilight Mantle
mending incantation
Ghostly evasion
Mystic fortress
Rejuvenation
Impeccable Shot

With this setup she can solo the Brood Queen Worldboss in the center of Stormhaven.
The queen just sporadically attacks me when Mirri gets invisible to heal herself, so I just block to check if Mirri can handle it alone.

I tried a tank setup, too, but this kills Mirri before the queen is down to 93% health.

Screenshot: Mirri the Worldboss-Slayer in action

emilyhyoyeon

I use Isobel on one character for rp reasons and I haven't paid much attention to gear traits yet. I have her in full heavy and sword & shield for the looks. I'm sticking to giving her full utility skills. Right now she's only level 10 but I want her to have:
blood altar, templar ritual, fighters guild circle thing, breath of life, snb shield, and the heavy armor skill

I might swap out BOL for a taunt if I want her to tank something. She's the first companion I've ever used so I haven't been able to tell yet how realistic it is for her to tank for me with proper gear, traits, skills. I think I'd rather her use a restoration staff but I really like the look of SNB on her.

SammyKhajit

SgtWinnie wrote: »

I just use Isobel as a tank. She's pretty good in that role. Sword+ Shield+ 7 heavy all in Bolstered.

Isobel is nearly impossible to kill in that set up. This one masquerades as a healer (when half the time skill lines don’t fire or you are stuck and can’t break off - it’s very frustrating) and supports now and then when skill keys work.

AcadianPaladin

Mirri. As a tank.

Bastion and Isobel whine when I steal. Ember whines when I fish. I use an addon to disable torchbugs/butterflies so Mirri never ever whines.

Now, in some fairness, I am still leveling up Isobel and Ember (around L12 now) so am leaving some benefit of the doubt as they continue to develop.

Khenarthi

I'm still levelling the two new ones so nothing is set in stone yet, but I was thinking leaving Bastian to heal, Isobel to tank, Mirri as stam DD with two axes (I like the look of 2 axes, and her fear/immobilising skill for groups of mobs) and Ember as mag DD with a frost staff (just to avoid her rolling away too far).

Of all this, I'm a bit worried about Bastian rolldodging away and resetting bosses with a resto staff, I need to see if his non-resto buffing and healing skills are good enough so I can leave him as sword and shield instead.

shadyjane62

I find the companions very annoying. I got Mirri and decided to put her in a box and never take her out again. Bastion holds no allure for me so I never did the quest. In fact I found Blackwood to be a boring and unattractive place with even the survey maps are a pain due to obscure placement.

I have a year sub which I regret getting and am filling out achievements. Deleted all my working chars save my main due to AWA which I detest.

I have some small chars that I get Skyshards for but they just do crafting dailies and nothing else.

For me the AWA changed the nature of my game and not for the better.

I'm old and on a fixt income and wasted all my gaming money on the year sub. I won't do that again. This is first time in 8 years I did not buy the new chapter. That's my two cents. Card games and annoying npcs who require a great deal of time grinding, I don't miss.

Jim_Pipp

I'm still testing stuff with Ember and Isobel, but they are looking incredibly strong in the AoE DPS and tank/healer role respectively.

I keep going back to Bastion as a 2 handed buff bot, who does some damage and boosts mine.

I've tweaked my Mirri independent, almost unkillable, all-rounder build a bit since I shared it, but I can't imagine changing her significantly again.

"Fair weather friend" - Mirri Build
Using abilities that naturally have a 100% uptime countenances vigorous gear traits that boost max health, so skills that scale off of health work better, and for Mirri those skills grant invisibility, and INVISIBILITY IS IMMUNITY TO DAMAGE (except channelled damage over time). High health and damage immunity is powerful for a tank; yet invisibility drops aggro so the taunted boss will start to move to a new target... COMPANION TAUNTS RESTART AFTER INVISIBILITY ENDS, so most bosses don’t manage to attack anyone else before returning to Mirri! It’s not the best tank, healer, or damage dealer, but using the signature skills of all three roles synergises into a surprisingly strong all-round build that focusses a boss away from you, does 4k+ dps, heals you, and rarely dies because she disappears to heal herself when in trouble.

Gear
Ice staff, 5 medium Armour, 2 heavy. 8-10 vigorous traits, 2-4 prolific traits
5 medium armour is necessary to use the Vanish skill (see below for a heavy armour version). More medium armour is slightly more damage, light is slightly more healing, but I prefer 2 pieces of heavy armour for more damage mitigation.
Traits - vigorous helps take more damage, and makes Mirri’s self-heals heal more. Mirri’s ultimate is a powerful, controllable debuff, so prolific makes a noticeable difference. Feel free to experiment or just use what you have, but DO NOT USE QUICKENED OR AUGMENTED on this build, it won’t improve the uptime of damage or healing, and can upset the ability to hold a taunt on the priority enemy.
With an ice staff equipped companions taunt from range and stand their ground, they will roll dodge when below 25% health, which rarely happens because Mirri disappears at 50% health; so I call her a fair-weather friend.

Skill Order
1. Twilight Mantle – 3 seconds of invisibility and 25% heal, used at 50% health. Conditional skills should always be slotted first (so they are used as soon as needed) and this is slotted firstest because it has a shorter (16 second) cooldown than…
2. Vanish – 6 seconds of invisibility, restored to full health, used at 50% health, 36 second cooldown. (Alternatively run Ghostly Evasion and full heavy armour for more damage mitigation rather than damage immunity)
3. Destructive blast – 15 second taunt, with 16 second duration – this is a semi-conditional ability, but it is the first skill used in a fight, and is reapplied as soon as it is available (the duration of the taunt needs to be slightly less than the cooldown to stop Mirri casting it on a new untaunted target, leaving her unable to maintain taunt on the priority target). Remember you can direct companions, if you want Mirri to taunt a specific boss.
4. Elemental Blockade – 8 second AoE DoT, with 8 second cooldown – perfect! This skill is cast at the primary target as soon as the enemy is in range, and as the primary target has been taunted the enemy is likely to run down the frosty corridor straight to Mirri, it just works.
5. Blood Transfusion – 8 second heal over time, with 8 second cooldown – perfect! Mirri cannot cast this on herself, but will keep it on an ally nearly 100%.
Impeccable Shot – An amazing ultimate – does great damage, and during it’s 3 second cast time the target takes an extra 20% damage from all sources. It’s so powerful I’ve increased the number of prolific traits; remember you can choose when companions use their ultimate, so use it when you are doing the most damage. Ultimate is generated by using light attacks.

Thanks for reading
This build began as an experiment in not using the quickened trait, but it has become my favourite build for solo play. She is so self-reliant compared to my pure tank or pure damage dealer builds as they need to be buffed and looked after, but this fair-weather friend is just with me…until she disappears.

Sevalaricgirl

Bastian is sword and board tank, Ember still has her staff, Mirri has a staff now and Isobel is staying with her sword and board. This may seem strange but it works that I have Bastian with my stam DK. I use Ember with my necro khajiit and nb khajiit because she doesn't complain about a little stealing. Isobel is with my stamden and templar who are righteous citizens of Tamriel.

AzuraFan

Isobel as a tank right now, until she's fully levelled and at full rapport. Then I'll switch to Ember and do the same - probably use her as DPS or heal. Haven't decided yet.

Mirri is still my favourite so far. I use her for heals and support. But the newest two have time to grow on me.

ZOS_Hadeostry

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic.

Thank you for your understanding.

Necrotech_Master

mirri is my single target heavy "stamina" dps

have her using a bow with the skills: poison arrow, starfall, sniping silver, life absorbtion and twilight mantle


bastion i have as a healer, mostly because i dont particularly like him

hes using a set of all healing skills right now (not in game and dont remember names)


ember im using as my mag dps, using starfall and crystal shards as dmg, entomb for immobilize and heal, shared wards for shield and more heal, and the skill that resets her cooldowns by 5 seconds to help further spam starfall and crystal shards

i have also considered making ember an ult spammer with the companions mage skill that grants 50 ult along with her skill that reduces cooldowns by 5 seconds


isobel i have set up for tanking

using taunt, solar shield, on guard (companion 1h/shield skill), the breath of life variant, and purifying light variant

i am not a huge fan of isobels ult though, with its insanely long near 4 sec cast time