Baffled by Companion balance.

KeiRaikon

So the universal things I have been seeing about companions is that they aren't effective as tanks because they die to almost all AoE attacks and that they don't really have great DPS but they are decent healers so what did ZoS decide to do. Nothing to really address the Tank and DPS concerns outside of a roll dodge rework that doesn't seem to actually fix the problems and NERFED the effectiveness of several healing and support based buff skills.

It would be nice if they explained why they made these changes and didn't make others because to me this further cements that companions are for RP purposes not to actually help with content like was previously advertised.

rei91

Yeah... They are basically saying "yeah we're done with companions, everything as intended, why are you complaining guys".
- no increase in battle strength, nerfing some skills instead lol
- no big increase in survivability
- no acknowledgement of rapport increase so slow it looks like bugged and frozen
- no companion's own inventory or collection tab for their gear, and no adjustment to the drop rate

They missed all the vital points. I think I'll miss out the chapter for now they do have nice quests and personality, but this is just not enough.

(Well, that's with horribly done tutorial which should not go live like this, not very exciting main plot, rather bland zone and nerfs to solo pve with proc monster sets)

opaj

Have you tested their survivability in the new patch? I had a similar thought as I was reading the patch notes, but they also fixed an issue where their armor values weren't being calculated properly. It's a long shot, but maybe they aren't so squishy now?

Maybe?

Shantu

I laughed out loud at the patch notes. It's hard to refrain from cynicism...so I'll shut up.

DarcyMardin

Yeah, just read the patch notes, hoping for companion buffs. Got companion *nerfs* instead. Sigh. This game....SMH.

crjs1

It’s totally insane, it’s inexplicable.

Very very rarely do we see concensus on PTS about anything lol. But from what I have seen there had been 100% consensus that companions are too weak, too little dps, generally poor ai….. So what is done - a nerf to the only near viable skills they had…..

coop500

crjs1 wrote: »

It’s totally insane, it’s inexplicable.

Very very rarely do we see concensus on PTS about anything lol. But from what I have seen there had been 100% consensus that companions are too weak, too little dps, generally poor ai….. So what is done - a nerf to the only near viable skills they had…..

Yeah that's what I was thinking.

Almost EVERYTHING in this game, people have different opinions on what is weak and what is strong and blah blah blah.
But I have NOT seen a single soul who actually used them say they were meaningful or powerful in any way in terms of combat.