PTS Update 30 - Feedback Thread for Companions

ZOS_GinaBruno

This is the official feedback thread for Companions. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• General
  • Which areas or zones were you in with your companion?
  • What types of gameplay were you doing with your companion?
• Interaction
  • Was it clear how to access the Companions interface?
  • Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use?
  • Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to?
  • Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?
• Combat
  • What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?
  • Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?
  • Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior? (Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off)
• Customization/Progression
  • How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, improve rapport, or acquire equipment? Was the progress clear in terms of how to access everything?
  • Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected?
• Rapport
  • Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?
  • Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

Sju

Will companions unlock after you do the first quest, or is there a series of quests? It didn't make sense for Mirri to say "you can count on me for help...", then just disappears, and the system doesn't notify like "hey, you've unlocked companions, you can do this and that, etc..."
I don't know if this is because it is already unlocked or you run into them later and do more quests? Any info on this? Possibly bugged?

zvavi

I would love to test companion combat abilities, but they cant enter my house, so I cant.

Alekero

Which areas or zones were you in with your companion?

Blackwood starting area , dungeons and few world boss's locations

Was it clear how to access the Companions interface?

Yes

Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use?

Yes

Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to?

Nope, my dude used heals on 100% hp and didnt tank as supposed to.

Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?

Didnt talk much

What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?

Not powerful at all. Even a small mini-boss is a HUGE problem for full DPS comp. And im not expectin him to take down threats (like in another game with companions) quick af but he didnt even scratched that mod. Only 20% in 2 mins and died.

Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?

I tried and did everything right but its not enough. Healers didnt heal much, DPS didnt damage much and tank didnt tank much (and solo target only).

Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior?
(Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off)

Didnt know it, i thought its his ultimate button lol

How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, improve rapport, or acquire equipment? Was the progress clear in terms of how to access everything?
Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected?

I just used boosts and customization works fine.

Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?

yeh kinda

Do you have any other general feedback?

I only got 2 suggestions (dont know is it possible to implement but anyway). 1) Make em wear usual armor, because i really like the way how customization works in "another game with companions and lightsabers" and with TONS of different styles here we could make our companions like brothers\sisters in arms. We highly limited of costumes and it brings some roleplay limits and stuff.
2) Balance em so they can be really usefull but not overpowered. Because what i saw today is kinda...lvl 1 kid (even if he\she lvl 20) tryin to help lvl 50 beast...
Anyway thanks for your work and i hope to see some good changes of this system on release.

Vercingetorix

Companions absolutely need help. They stand in lethal AoEs just like pets do (but pets are at least immune). The incoming direct damage to companions is also incredibly high with their blocks/evades being very rare or outright not happening.

I propose granting companions the baseline AoE damage immunity that pets currently have and a standard 50% damage reduction to companions. Right now, companions are struggling to survive in purple gear against overworld mobs and being 2-3 shot by world bosses. In dungeons companions are standing in red and dying super fast - on Normal difficulty... PLEASE address this!

GrumpyDuckling

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

• Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?

Not as effectively as I would have hoped.

I wished that I could equip my companions with gear sets that our own players wear. Giving our own gear to companions would create much more customization options, and those customization options would allow us to better equip our companions with gear catered to the roles that we wish them to perform.

Thanks.

SirAndy

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/570790/companions-are-hilarious/p1

SydneyGrey

I'm absolutely LOVING companions so far. I'd gladly pay to get other types of companions, particularly a Khajiit or Orc.

My only comment so far is that it would be really nice to be able to change their hair, and put a helmet or hat on them. It'll do a lot to keep the world from looking like it's cluttered with too many clones.

Epona222

The interface is clunky, I say this every time about new UI elements that are introduced - I think there is a lack of understanding about what works well on PC with KB+M

katorga

Not on PTS yet, work an all, but did you use the SAME keys used to command pets for companions?

Will they switch targets with a heavy attack like existing pets?

FrancisCrawford

I made a template character, and called up Mirri.

I immediately got a notice that rapport had been lowered. Why?

I went into my CP interface, and spent a few points on healing.

I got a notice that rapport had been lowered again. Why?

FrancisCrawford

Skill cooldowns seem kind of extreme. Evidently companions will spend a lot of time with nothing to do.

At least, that's on the few skills I saw. It would be nice to have a template companion with more skills unlocked.

Also -- how many quests will we have to do to unlock guild skills? It's 10 for Level 1, I can see, but what happens after that?

Xebov

I made a template character and went off to Alik'r Desert to kill some normal mobs to get a feeling for the compagnions.

Overall the stock damage they output feels way to low and i doubt that they will be any help at all for anyone. One of the main reasons for this might be the insanely high cooldowns on ordinary skills. It felt like they tried to club everything to death with some skills inbetween. The high cooldowns create a very unimpresive combat scenario compared to players where you see skills left and right.

The itamization of compagnions feels very bad. If i didnt miss anything we are only able to buy white gear and green/blue/purple can only be looted. This is realy bad.
This means:

• The crafting and upgrade system we already have for ages gets completely ignored.
• The collections system is also completely ignored.

Thats a huge limiting factor for improving their gear and forces players to keep gear stocks again like in pre collection times in case their role should be changed. That compagnions dont have a gear inventory just makes matters worse.

The Rapport System feels like a super bad idea. I get the point that some quests are attached to them, but with content liked and disliked i can also see that players are forced into certain gameplay for the sake of keeping their compagnions happy and progress and that some might get trapped in low values. Thats why SWTOR had gifts so players could offset this. The idea that they unsummon themselves on low rapport levels should be a no go. The first rule of that system should be to help the players, not enforce some sort of gameplay.

The customizations feel lackluster. Helmets, Hair, Tatoos, even polymorphs, i expect everything to be on the table. I dont need mr generic to follow me. I want everything about my gameplay customized to my liking, not whatever some designer chose.

The general problem is that you designed compagnions as some sort of group member like they are used in single player games, with some background and story. That might make some ppl happy. Others simply want them to be a walking bot that they can fully customize and that simply brings some damage (or whatever they like) to the table.

Epona222

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

Skill cooldowns seem kind of extreme. Evidently companions will spend a lot of time with nothing to do.

At least, that's on the few skills I saw. It would be nice to have a template companion with more skills unlocked.

Also -- how many quests will we have to do to unlock guild skills? It's 10 for Level 1, I can see, but what happens after that?

Where does it say it is 10 for level 1? In my companion UI it says complete "a" guild quest but I have done so (for both undaunted and mages guild) and those skill lines have not unlocked. Am I missing something?

Scritchel

You can make your companion attack other people's companion if theyre both in combat with the same enemy and you "y" click the ally's companion.







overall thoughts: way too weak. They die if something breaths on them even with max health/dmg reduction traits and abilities.

Fischblut

I only tried Mirri, so all my answers are about her.

1) Which areas or zones were you in with your companion?

In Blackwood, in Vvardenfell.

2) What types of gameplay were you doing with your companion?

Riding, fishing, pickpocketing, killing innocent, killing mobs, coloring costumes.
When we mount up, Mirri sometimes says "Lets' ride!" and "I was tired of walking anyway!" - it is nice

I wish my companion would be able to use "rearing up" animation on their mount when I'm using this on my mount as well. It could look awesome and be good for screenshots.

Mirri didn't say anything about any other activities we were doing together. Regarding criminal activities, she only once commented on me killing somebody's pig: "Ugh, if you are hungry, we can go find a bar" or something

3) Was it clear how to access the Companions interface?

Yes.

4) Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use?

Not at first, but then I understood. I tried to click on empty ability slots from companion's main menu, but nothing happened. Then I had to go into other menu to actually see their available skills.

5) Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to?

I think yes... She even casted meteor on dead mob, it happens on live as well - when enemy dies while meteor is already flying. I can relate to that as player

6) Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?

She didn't say lot of nice things, but I was annoyed by her "idle chat". We stand idling on our mounts, I choose angles for screenshots - and Mirri is bored and says something like: "Are we waiting for someone... something?"

If she will make such comments when I idle, I will very rarely use her - idling on my mount is important part of my gameplay. I often stand in scenic places on my mount and just look around. Having impatient companion is interfering with my peace of mind.

7) Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior? (Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off)

Yes, sending my pet/companion into battle always feels good.
Long time ago I used to play pet sorc, and commanding my clannfear to kill critters for me made me feel like huntmaster

8) Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected?

I was a bit confused at the outfit station, I couldn't understand how to choose companion's menu there. But after careful examination, I found the needed button.

I was extremely disappointed that we can't use polymophs/personalities/skins/hats/hair styles on our companions
This limits customization greatly, and I will not be able to roleplay with my companion cause of it.

9) Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?

No. If I haven't seen preview streams and haven't read additional information on forums, I wouldn't even know what to expect from that. I think, after playing more someday, it will be easier to understand.

10)

Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?

No, same as previous question. When I killed livestock, Mirri commented on it, but I saw no change in rapport system. I have no idea if she was just joking, or disapproving my action.

11)

Do you have any other general feedback?

Thank you fo letting our companions use our mounts This is so far the only thing about companions which didn't disappoint me.

Epona222

I really dislike the comments they give while I am idle - I have already started responding "yes, mum" to Bastian when he starts nagging about standing around because I am having flashbacks to my mum telling me to clean my room - and I am now in the senior citizen bracket.

Not needed and not enjoyable, let us idle without comment.

maximusrex45

Visiting an outfit station allows you to configure a dedicated outfit slot, with each companion having a dedicated slot per account. This outfit can be activated through the overview screen of the Companion UI.

This sounds like the companion will look the same across all of your characters if you try to use the outfit station system to modify their gear. This should be a per character setting so I can customize them per character, or it will be really boring really quickly.

JoSePHRiNG

First and foremost, I have never seen Mirri using her ultimate, maybe she did but I could not see, also the left box near the potion slottable which I assume to show her ultimate ability, I have never seen the number going up.

Companion abilities look cool but I did not try all of them yet so can't say much

I love how we can change the outfit or the costumes also the colors too I really liked that one.

But I could not understand the "Rapport System" she does not tell anything that I do as good or bad.
I wish she and the other guy could tell us right away what they like or dislike maybe???

other than that I don't think I had enough experience to tell what could be improved.

ajkb78

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for Companions. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• General
  • Which areas or zones were you in with your companion? The Cauldron (normal difficulty)
  • What types of gameplay were you doing with your companion? Testing using a maxed companion with full rapport and purple companion gear as a tank to support a DD in a dungeon.
• Interaction
  • Was it clear how to access the Companions interface? Yes
  • Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use? Fairly clear how to add abilities and what each ability does, though it isn't particularly intuitive how they cycle through their skills. Having filled the companion's skill bar I can't say I can visualise any kind of rotation or how they will prioritise reaction to different circumstances that arise as they are cycling through their skills.
  • Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to? It seemed that unless I ordered the companion to attack he was very slow to react and join combat. However I did manage to get him to join combat and once he did he appeared to keep a random add (during add pulls) or the boss taunted, and I noticed at least some other abilities being used.[/b[
    
  • Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances? I noticed him saying a few things. I think these will pretty quickly reach "Dragons! In your own homeland!" levels of annoying and I hope he can be made to shut up entirely.
• Combat
  • What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough? The sword and board taunt seemed to work, though with a cooldown exactly equal to the length of taunt he seemed to lose taunt occasionally, though he did then re-taunt. This could perhaps be fixed with an armor piece of the type that reduces cooldown, I didn't experiment that far. The cooldown on the inner rage equivalent taunt seems excessive: it still only taunts for 15s but has a 36s cooldown, which is useless. There seemed to be a lack of sufficient ultimates, with the only one available supporting damage dealing but nothing like Warhorn that you might expect a tank to utilise (or even anything like Barrier or Magma Shell).
  • Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished? To configure, yes, but sadly he was unable to perform the role I wanted successfully at all. While he did manage to mostly hold taunt and stay alive for Oxblood the Depraved, when fighting the Taskmaster boss he taunted her fine but failed to make the slightest effort not to stand in the big AOE and therefore died almost immediately. I made several attempts at this boss but he died without fail every time. I have never had a worse tank, even in pugs, even with a dd who fake queued. I understand that it may be difficult to program specific mechanics like the pressure pads in Direfrost Keep, but if it's not even possible to program companions to move out of stupid then they are effectively useless. And really, there aren't unlimited mechanics in the game so if companions are to have any kind of long term worth you should make the effort to program key mechanics into them. I later tested my tank companion against an anomaly in Craglorn, and again he died almost immediately when the boss Air Atronach spawned.
  • Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior? (Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off) Kind of. I was using controller mode as I routinely play on PS4 so I used square and L2 / R2. It didn't feel intuitive at all and I'm still not quite sure I was doing it right. Some training tooltips would be really useful when using companions for the first time.
• Customization/Progression
  • How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, improve rapport, or acquire equipment? Was the progress clear in terms of how to access everything? I used the companion maxer as I simply wanted to assess the viability of using a companion in the way described above.[/b
    
  • Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected? Yes, though the inability to hide companion's face is annoying as is the inability to use polymorphs. It would be much cooler for my clockwork themed character to be accompanied by a factotum companion, or my daedric summoning sorcerer to be accompanied by the Baron who moves like this.
• Rapport
  • Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system? Not really. I maxed the rapport using the maxer in the max level template, in case it improved their combat prowess. I guess you avoid stealing if they hint that they're a lawful type etc. but it wasn't something I tested.
  • Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?N/A, see above
• Do you have any other general feedback?There was no ally marker above my companion in the way that there is above my pets or even quest allies. This made it hard to see where my companion was or keep track of what they were doing in a fight. After the bad experience using a companion as a tank I switched to trying him as a healer. This did not work any better as despite now not rushing in to taunt the boss he still failed to move out of the enemy AOE when it was cast near him, and still died very quickly. Currently, at least in the scenario I tested, it feels more like dragging along a particularly inept carry rather than being accompanied by a worthy companion. Sorry my feedback is so negative, but companions appear to be fit only for roleplay in their current state, I don't see why I would bother spending any time to level them up or equip them with decent gear when even in their most powerful state they're less effective than a sorcerer's combat pet.

LeonAkando

General:
Took out Mirri out Cauldron Normal on a Health Tank build. Mirri was running a Crit Stamblade build.

Interaction:
Interface felt intuitive. Wasn't hard to use. Was a little frustrating not being able to customize the helm slot for outfits.

Combat:

She died in the first trash pack. That's when I knew it would be rough. Slotted a defensive ability on her, that helped a lot with survivability. But cut damage.

The dual-wield line feels exceptionally weak. Flurry almost tickled the enemies.
Took a while to down that first boss. Health Tank build did around 10k DPS, and Mirri did only around 4k. For a full DPS build with max gear and max traits, the companion felt too weak. I understand it can't be a "Carry-Me" bot. But it almost feels like it doesn't do enough to justify even gearing it out.

Point-blank, I don't feel like I really got a "Damage Dealer" value out of the companion for the trying to push damage out of the set up.

Progression:
N/A. Used Companion PTS boost.

Rapport:
N/A. Used Companion PTS boost.

lolo_01b16_ESO

The UI seems to be bugged, it always shows that my companion has 0 Ultimate, even right after she used the skill to get 50 ulti.

Lady_Rosabella

lolo_01b16_ESO wrote: »

The UI seems to be bugged, it always shows that my companion has 0 Ultimate, even right after she used the skill to get 50 ulti.

JoSePHRiNG wrote: »

First and foremost, I have never seen Mirri using her ultimate, maybe she did but I could not see, also the left box near the potion slottable which I assume to show her ultimate ability, I have never seen the number going up.

Companion abilities look cool but I did not try all of them yet so can't say much

I love how we can change the outfit or the costumes also the colors too I really liked that one.

But I could not understand the "Rapport System" she does not tell anything that I do as good or bad.
I wish she and the other guy could tell us right away what they like or dislike maybe???

other than that I don't think I had enough experience to tell what could be improved.

Same here, on both companions (I have Mirri and my Husband has Bastion) and their Ultimates stay at 0 and never go up, when you try to hit Y to use it, the game states they can not use their Ultimate.

Btw their skills are maxed and their Ultimates are slotted.

MageCatF4F

General
Which areas or zones were you in with your companion?

RIVENSPIRE. IT WAS MY FIRST TEST WITH COMPANION.

What types of gameplay were you doing with your companion?

FIGHTING THOSE MINI DARK ANCHOR THINGS THAT SPAWN ALL OVER RIVENSPIRE

Interaction
Was it clear how to access the Companions interface?

SURE, MORE OR LESS. COULD BE WORSE.

Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use?

MORE OR LESS.

Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to?

UNFORTUNATELY YES. BADLY.

Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?
Combat

TOO LITTLE, BUT I GATHER THAT IS THE DEFAULT SETTING. i WOULD LIKE THEM TO TALK MORE SINCE THEY CAN'T FIGHT THEY MIGHT AS WELL TALK.

What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?

LOL. I ONLY TESTED MIRRI BUT SHE WAS COMPLETELY USELESS.

Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?

WELL, NO. THEY MIGHT BE GREAT FOR SOME RP PURPOSES

Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior? (Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off)

YES, THAT WORKED FOR ME.

Customization/Progression
How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, improve rapport, or acquire equipment? Was the progress clear in terms of how to access everything?

TOO SLOW. RAPPORT WENT UP A BIT AND THEN SEEMED TO STOP COLD. ONLY FOUND ONE EQUIPMENT ITEM. I DOUBT IT WOULD MATTER. THERE SEEMED TO BE A GRAPHICAL BUG THAT STOPPED SHOWING PROGRESS IN SKILLS WHICH COULD BE WORKED AROUND BY DESPAWNING MIRRI AND RESPAWNING.

Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected?

YES, WHILE LIMITED, IT WORKED WELL FOR ME.

Rapport
Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?

PROBABLY. WE KILLED SOME GIANT SNAKES AND SHE SEEMED TO GET A LITTLE FRIENDLIER - FOR A WHILE.

Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?

MAYBE. THERE WAS NO OBVIOUS INDICATION IT CHANGED, AT LEAST TO ME.

Do you have any other general feedback?

WELL, YOU NERF THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF MY DPS CHARACTER WITH U29 AND NOW THIS, AND IF COMPANIONS COME OUT LIKE THIS (WORTHLESS) THAT WILL BE THE END OF MY MONETARY SUPPORT OF THE GAME.

anadandy

I got Bastian on my regular character via his quest.

Which areas or zones were you in with your companion?: Sunhold Public Dungeon in Summerset

Was it clear how to access the Companions interface? Yes

Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use?: For the most part, though I feel like it's confusing that you have all ability slots blank and you can slot skills in them even though there is the error BONK and "This slot is not unlocked"

Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to?: Yes, though he drove me crazy chaining a monster just as I was winding up my HA

Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?: I felt it was a reasonable amount. He didn't comment after every kill, or every action so it was enough to be sociable but not annoying.

Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior? (Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off): No - there is zero explanation as to how to do this on gamepad. I don't play pet classes so this was a "new" feature for me. I looked it up and its a very convoluted set of button presses, and mostly I end up either setting off my ultimate or Bastian's.The fact that even in this feedback form the gamepad controls aren't even specified says a lot. There needs to be a better solution for gamepad/controller users - especially since console doesn't get the PTS.


Customization/Progression

How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, improve rapport, or acquire equipment? Mostly OK but the companion gear drop rate is pretty low. I ran through Sunhold for about 90 minutes and got Bastian to level 4 and he had zero gear drops. Also, any gear I pick up shows up in Bastian's inventory as the "new item" icon even though it's not companion gear. ( see screenshot) I found that really confusing at first because I thought he had new gear and had no idea where it was



Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected? Yes, it was very easy to assign a costume and a horse.

Rapport

Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system? Kinda? I accidentally killed a harmless critter and Bastian chided me for not valuing life, so I assume my rapport went down - but it didn't seem to register

katorga

Guild skill lines increase through completing specific solo daily quests associated with the guild, for the active companion.

Whoah.

What does this mean?

I have to do Undaunted, Dark Brotherhood, etc. all over again? Or are the new/separate skill lines?

Epona222

anadandy wrote: »

Yes, though he drove me crazy chaining a monster just as I was winding up my HA

Tell me about it, this is an annoying ability when you come across newbies pretty much anywhere in Tamriel using chains to pull mobs out of my aoes and onto their poorly geared characters, seems like the worst possible skill to give to an Artificial Stupidity companion! Giving him talons so he could root mobs would be far far more useful.

Fortunately it can be taken off their skill bar once you unlock something more useful to put on there instead.

Honestly I would prefer more buffs/heals from them. If I could just set one to cast a shield and some sort of damage buff on me and refresh them when they ran out, that would be far more useful than pretending that they could actually help by attacking anything.

frankwchenzo

just ONE feedback

If they are equipped with heavy armors and using a S&B, they should at least PERMABLOCKING, instead of LA weaving...

They got killed in like 10s or less, even just engaging some random stronger mobs in DLC zones or chapter.


They are way too weak even by npc standard

Epona222

OK I get that they cannot follow you in housing.

BUT you should still be able to use outfitting stations in your house to outfit and costume either or both of the companions that the character you are currently logged in on has access to. It feels like the outfitting stations we have in homes now only have partial functionality.

It wouldn't be too difficult to have a button (or if more companions are to be added in future, a drop down box for selection might work better) for each companion so that we can outfit, costume, dye etc in our homes.

We shouldn't be having to go into town to do this when we can do our own outfits at home, it's ridiculous. Please fix this.

(For a start, I have worked hard placing lighting in my home near the outfitting station so that I can see what I am doing, some in the game world are useless after dark or during inclement weather)

karekiz

I attempted to use a Companion as a tank <I was a dps with some heals>. Slotted Sword/Shield - Taunts, hell even a range taunt + Chains + Pierce armor.

They are 100% terrible. About as bad AI as an Everquest 1 pet, and way worse then the EQ1 Merc tank counterpart. The issue is:

They are terrible to control. I get it, they play like pets so you can use pet commands to direct them. The issue. While it works find for pets that just attack, for a "tank" companion it feels terrible. Imagine using a flame staff to Heavy attack a Critical monster, just to have your companion bother to pay attention to it. New players who don't know pet commands are going to have an even worse time with these as they won't know pet back off -> HA directs companions -> etc.

Half the time I was running around in a dungeon, the companion would largely ignore everything unless directed, which plays back into the first issue. I even looked to see if I had set him up wrong

I think 100% companions should gain an PBAoE taunt with a very small Cooldown. The Tank version of inner fire is 36 second CD, which feels far too much. Maybe 10 seconds.

Reasons: They don't act as normal players do, even new or bad ones. While newer or bad tanks might not chain/cc well, they will most likely run around and attempt to pierce armor trash. This guy? Screw that ogre in SCP. I AM TANKING A RAT ATM! Having them PBAoE taunt might also teach newer players to go towards the tank in group content rather then bolt away.

I get you don't want them OP, but they just play and feel like a slapped together pet AI atm.

Epona222

nvm, I found it