Companions are hilarious!

Grandchamp1989

Also they might be needing a buff before it goes live. haha

Max level Bastion specd for tank with full on Vigorous heavy armor gear (40k max health) sword & shield all maxed out lvl 20 Bastion in all skills.
I equipped him with 2 taunts, self heal and chains so he can hold back many of the horrors of Tamriel.

Off we went!

Fungal Grotto 1 normal:
Bastion went to the nearest goblin and faitfully held back a single goblin so I could deal with the other 5. That's when I saw true potential.

I learned that you can control Bastion like the pets by telling him which target to go for.. I was ready.

First boss - Taskmaster - Fungal 1 Normal

I told my faithful companion to go hold back the Taskmaster!

Unfortunately.... he got stuck in a rock on the ground. After we got him out of there he put up a brave fight, he only died twice to the first boss.

Got out of fungal grotto and went to the nearest world boss in Stonefalls..

I once again told my brave companion to tank the world boss. The world boss did 3 fire whips within the span of 3-4 seconds and down went Bastion for another nap.

On a good note - it seems he enjoys when you pick up ressources. That's nice!
But I don't think these guys will replace much of anyone as it is right now haha

*Disclaimer this is just released in PTS and many improvements can happen still, and likely will - just found my first impression hilarious*

Radiance

Yeah kinda figured they'd be near useless perks after Mirri almost died to a single open world mob during the Companion Stream...

kadochka

Poor dude! he got a rear-whoopin (err, whipping??) within seconds? Wouldn't mind seeing them buffed...
If you notice anything else that particularly affects him, good or bad, I'd love to hear. I am not one to upset my NPC-mates!

radiostar

Oh boy. I was hoping to use my companion with my tank as DD. Now, not so sure it'll work.

gepe87

Maybe they are useful only as healers

SirAndy

In order to be useful, a fully leveled tank companion needs to be the equivalent of the Sorc Clannfear pet in terms of taunts and survivability.

SeaGtGruff

SirAndy wrote: »

In order to be useful, a fully leveled tank companion needs to be the equivalent of the Sorc Clannfear pet in terms of taunts and survivability.

Ha ha! Do you know how often I have to resummon my Clannfear in a fight?

Grandchamp1989

Update:

Bastion as healer seems to be much more reasonable with quickening for faster casts.
I think this is my favorite for him.

He even got a spell that will give you 10k resistances...

Bastion doesn't take a hit well, even as healer, but he impressed me quite a bit when he climbed a tree to save his faithful partner:

redspecter23

What sort of gear did you have on him? Max health might seem good at first glance, but the other traits may have more use. Some of those gear traits might be mandatory to get reasonable use out of them. Up to 12 slots worth of traits could have a huge impact on performance overall.

Grandchamp1989

redspecter23 wrote: »

What sort of gear did you have on him? Max health might seem good at first glance, but the other traits may have more use. Some of those gear traits might be mandatory to get reasonable use out of them. Up to 12 slots worth of traits could have a huge impact on performance overall.

As healer (which is the best result thus far) 6 quickening (light armor) with 1 heavy chest piece of vigorous for health. He is at around 30k health with that and cast heals reasonably quick. I could actually feel the back up.

As Tank I went full Vigorous for max health which put him at around 40-41k health but sometimes it doesn't look he takes hits well..

Dmg dealer I have yet to test.

SirAndy

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

In order to be useful, a fully leveled tank companion needs to be the equivalent of the Sorc Clannfear pet in terms of taunts and survivability.

Ha ha! Do you know how often I have to resummon my Clannfear in a fight?

Dunno, but on my MagSorc, the Clannfear can hold its own during most boss fights while soloing vet group dungeons.
It doesn't die that often at all.

kojou

SirAndy wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

In order to be useful, a fully leveled tank companion needs to be the equivalent of the Sorc Clannfear pet in terms of taunts and survivability.

Ha ha! Do you know how often I have to resummon my Clannfear in a fight?

Dunno, but on my MagSorc, the Clannfear can hold its own during most boss fights while soloing vet group dungeons.
It doesn't die that often at all.

I thought pets were mostly invincible in group content?

Alekero

Its not SWTOR when you can beat some [snip] from almost everything with companion (Shae ftw) but a good (small af but good) step forward to right direction. Someday companions will tank as their bros n sis in swtor lol

[Edit for censor bypass.]

GrumpyDuckling

Seems like companions could use better gear options. Hey ZOS, want to let us equip companions with our own gear? Thanks.

SirAndy

kojou wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

In order to be useful, a fully leveled tank companion needs to be the equivalent of the Sorc Clannfear pet in terms of taunts and survivability.

Ha ha! Do you know how often I have to resummon my Clannfear in a fight?

Dunno, but on my MagSorc, the Clannfear can hold its own during most boss fights while soloing vet group dungeons.
It doesn't die that often at all.

I thought pets were mostly invincible in group content?

@kojou

Not when you are running solo ...

katorga

Do companions count as pets, i.e. proc necropotence or be buffed by Ritualist set?

crjs1

Hmmm that sounds a bit disappointing was looking forward to a tank buddie! Hopefully they can be tweaked.

Tanking is probably the hardest role to design a decent AI for, but if they are going to be advertised as being able to tank then they should be able to at least do somthing in normal dungeons

Waffennacht

Op loved ur post so much. Hope u follow up with more

Sandman929

But are they great company? I've always wanted a bot to talk to

Dragonredux

Out of curiosity, i took Bastion out on a dragon with full reduce damage gear and he died in 2 bites. 17k and 22k hit. Can't tell if he blocked any of those.

My man needs to learn to defend himself.

phaneub17_ESO

I have no plans on using them for anything other than a buffer/debuffer type, as long as they can throw out some damage boosts and heals, its all I need from them. I figure they have no sense of looking out for danger with the AI Script unable to detect incoming attacks. No matter how much you boost their health and damage reduction stats, they're going to die frequently to the simplest things a player would block, dodge roll, or preemptively shield up against.

Fischblut

I love this thread

Bastion doesn't take a hit well, even as healer, but he impressed me quite a bit when he climbed a tree to save his faithful partner

I think he climbed the tree mostly to save himself. Events of the past, when he died to bosses, traumatized him If he is safe himself, he can then safely heal you

I ordered Mirri to kill a target. Mirri made sure that the target was dead dead

https://youtu.be/3qWjnmcS6Yw

Opening and closing the fight with Meteor. Meteor which lands on already dead target always reminds me of Skoria proc

https://youtu.be/zj5cQfQg4sQ

I also saw Mirri's AI struggle when we started the fight with other two wolves. I started attacking them both first, and Mirri started casting meteors on each of them - but she couldn't stay focused and decide which wolf to target, so it looked like those circling meteor outlines changing from one wolf to another. She could actually land any attack in that fight

I hoped for some more advanced AI for companions

Pretty much the only thing which I like about companions so far: they can use mounts.
Stylish synchro mount performance:

https://youtu.be/RwTRqdyk__M

Shiny synchro mount performance

https://youtu.be/Y6N6pAPGNo8

GreenHere

To be fair to poor Bastian, that Golden Saint WB is tough as nails compared to the average base game world bosses. Her whips hit like a truck if you're not blocking or dodging them, and IIRC you suffer greatly for not interrupting her at certain times as well. It's been years since I messed with her, but the fact that I even remember that fight says something about her, I think. :P

Does he Interrupt, or interact with mechanics in any way? Haven't had time to hop on the PTS yet...

Marcus_Thracius

And ppl said they would replace players - haha

fred4

That particular Stonefalls boss hits really hard. He is perfectly soloable with the right build and, even when you're a pure DD, you can either bash or block his whip (I forget which) and he will not go through with it. However, if you get CCd and he whips you thrice, you may very well die as a player too. Disappointing to hear Bastion won't work as a tank on that boss, as it's exactly the kind of thing you would think a companion is good for ... with a name like Bastion too. Looks like companions are intended solely for role-players.

Tannus15

I'm sorry, if tanking nFG1 first boss is too much to ask then things need a serious rework.

Ryuvain

SirAndy wrote: »

kojou wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

In order to be useful, a fully leveled tank companion needs to be the equivalent of the Sorc Clannfear pet in terms of taunts and survivability.

Ha ha! Do you know how often I have to resummon my Clannfear in a fight?

Dunno, but on my MagSorc, the Clannfear can hold its own during most boss fights while soloing vet group dungeons.
It doesn't die that often at all.

I thought pets were mostly invincible in group content?

@kojou

Not when you are running solo ...

Pretty sure pets can't take damage or even get aggro in true dungeons, not open world.

But seriously? Just let pets take damage again and taunt at this point, clanfear was at least a meat shield.

At least pets won't backtalk or leave me randomly while also dying even faster.

The leaving part seems so annoying but I haven't tested yet.

"I forgot how fragile mortals are..."

kojou

Ryuvain wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

kojou wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

In order to be useful, a fully leveled tank companion needs to be the equivalent of the Sorc Clannfear pet in terms of taunts and survivability.

Ha ha! Do you know how often I have to resummon my Clannfear in a fight?

Dunno, but on my MagSorc, the Clannfear can hold its own during most boss fights while soloing vet group dungeons.
It doesn't die that often at all.

I thought pets were mostly invincible in group content?

@kojou

Not when you are running solo ...

Pretty sure pets can't take damage or even get aggro in true dungeons, not open world.

But seriously? Just let pets take damage again and taunt at this point, clanfear was at least a meat shield.

I said *mostly* because I know there are a few cases where they will die to mechanics, although I think they are not supposed to in a group.

I was not aware that they could die if you enter a group dungeon solo, but @SirAndy would likely know, so I will take his word for it.

stefj68

he can't tank 1st boss in fg1 lollllllllllllllllllll

Ryuvain

kojou wrote: »

Ryuvain wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

kojou wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

In order to be useful, a fully leveled tank companion needs to be the equivalent of the Sorc Clannfear pet in terms of taunts and survivability.

Ha ha! Do you know how often I have to resummon my Clannfear in a fight?

Dunno, but on my MagSorc, the Clannfear can hold its own during most boss fights while soloing vet group dungeons.
It doesn't die that often at all.

I thought pets were mostly invincible in group content?

@kojou

Not when you are running solo ...

Pretty sure pets can't take damage or even get aggro in true dungeons, not open world.

But seriously? Just let pets take damage again and taunt at this point, clanfear was at least a meat shield.

I said *mostly* because I know there are a few cases where they will die to mechanics, although I think they are not supposed to in a group.

I was not aware that they could die if you enter a group dungeon solo, but @SirAndy would likely know, so I will take his word for it.

Just saying that at least before current live update they can't die at all in a multiplayer group dungeon. Don't know if something changed since I'm not at home to check. Soloed Stone Garden and they never died or grabbed aggro, not even clanfear.

I hope they do grab aggro again, would be nice.

MythrialDrow

Glad I’ll wait until it’s on sale or buffed. There’s nothing in this chapter that warrants £35 . Meh