I SWEAR Mirri's Routing AI is 1000% Worse Than Mjoll + Lydia + A German Shepherd Combined......

KyleTheYounger

....because seriously. She has the most persistent and obnoxious habit of barging in front of you in combat. Then proceeding to die almost instantaneously because she doesn't have all purple gear on and her skills are n00b.

It's even worse in non combat situations because she's 1E+06 times worse than your typical German Shepherd. Who exists to cut you off whenever you try to walk them.

Especially the latter when you're trying to open a dungeon door on the fly to escape dungeon mobs. And she forces you to end up having a civilized conversation with her. Just in time for said mobs to hit your toon. So you're forced to fight to the death (since you're officially out of soul gems since you wasted ALL of them on her)

Or the simple act of opening a door--ANY door. Be it in a town or the wilderness out of combat. Same maddening AI pathing behavior.

Or trying to use the blasted shrine. Or talk to another NPC. The bloody list is just ad infinitum to ad nauseum.

EVERY. Single. TIME

Give me back Mjoll and Lydia ZoS. At least Mjoll was a reliable tank even when she insisted on turning herself into a bullet sponge target dummy in every combat situation. And Lydia didn't drive you insane every time you killed bugs to forage for your potions supplies on the fly when adventuring. My alchemy stock is tanking to zero thanks to her anti insecta fixation....

phaneub17_ESO

I gave her warp strike to go into melee, do lots of AOE, and purposefully die. I have fun watching her die. She does her job.

kargen27

"because seriously. She has the most persistent and obnoxious habit of barging in front of you in combat. Then proceeding to die almost instantaneously because she doesn't have all purple gear on and her skills are n00b."

I wish that were the case for me. I would almost pay gold for that. Instead she gets aggro on something then runs half a zone away. Usually it is the one thing in the fight you actually need to kill. And she never dies. Just keeps pulling and running.

xeNNNNN

H-H-H-Heeeyyy now.. leave lydia alone

Shantu

My favorite is when she starts barking about what I should do in combat...just before she takes another dirt nap.

SirAndy

I have her setup with all skills that are 28m in range, gave her a mix of green/blue medium armor and an inferno staff.

I can't even remember the last time she died and she does do decent damage.

Old_Foggy

5 purples rest blue items and I'm no expert at all but this is how I have her skills and I can't remember the last time she died, might have been once last week.

KyleTheYounger

Yeah but is really sucks iif you're under CP 50. Especially if you restarted with a fresh toon from the new portal room. And yean, while 100% purple is always boss from armor rating perspective, it's not her armor as much as her fighting tactics...

Purple gear or not, she'll always end up dying if she uses her only get out of jail for free dodge card. After expending that particular AP, she predictably plants both feet firmly into the ground--before my CP 499 toon. And takes root there forever more. Or at least until she dies, you die or combination of both.

And so most annoyingly, the Companion content is turning out to be another (well executed and implemented) grind

Red_Feather

I made a topic about how when I stop to pick something up mirrir runs ahead of me and then stops right at the crosshair where I am aiming to pick something up. It is so consistent that it's infuriating.

svendf

Never experience what is claimed here regarding Mirri. I use her as dd bow, maybe it´s how she is setup.

Red_Feather

svendf wrote: »

Never experience what is claimed here regarding Mirri. I use her as dd bow, maybe it´s how she is setup.

I have her as a healer with resto staff. If I stop from running, she will keep running until she can stop right in front of me. So that I can stare at the back of her head I guess. I'd like to kill her honestly.

Prof_Bawbag

For folk who claim ESO isn't really a TES game, they've pretty much nailed followers in the tried and tested TES tradition.

Can not think of a single follower that I haven't dismissed after the first cave or 2, or the first proper combat encounter. I only ever ran with that Bosmer dude in Riverwood because I liked to abuse the training thing that you could do in Skyrim. It saved having to go back to Riverwood and hoping you'd find him easily. So he tagged along until archery was at 50.

For followers to work in any given game, the game has to be built from the ground up with them in mind. Similar to how both BioWare and Lionhead managed to give us non obnoxious followers. Even helpful followers/companions.

ADarklore

Here is the problem I see most people having... our companions will keep running for a few seconds after we stop... so what I do is I stop a few feet ahead of what I need to unlock, wayshrine, etc... and companion will run up next to me and stop. Then I casually walk to the place to unlock and I never have a problem. But the fact is, our character stops on a dime and we somehow expect our companion to do the same, but they don't. So people have to learn to stop AHEAD OF the location, give the Companion a sec to catch up and stop, then walk forward... it's not that difficult.

I don't know what people's companions are dying too... or what content you're running... but the only time I've had a companion die is when I've found a World Boss with three 'bosses' and left the companion (set as a tank) to fight one while I fought the other two. Otherwise, if I fight along side of them and offer them heals on occasion, they do fine. I now have Bastian set as a healer in all blue heavy and use him while I tank WB's and he has never died since, nor have I because he keeps me healed. I have Mirri set as a 2H with all blue Medium, and she has never died at all.

The problem that I keep seeing over and over among those who have Companions dying... is 1) They don't slot more than one defensive skill for them. 2) They have their skills in the WRONG order... prioritizing damage over defense. 3) They haven't leveled the Companion to 20 so they have higher health.

People need to learn HOW to use their Companions effectively before complaining about them dying... especially when 9 times out of 10, it does come down to 'user error'.

ADarklore

Foggy_Atsea wrote: »

5 purples rest blue items and I'm no expert at all but this is how I have her skills and I can't remember the last time she died, might have been once last week.

You should put Slayer's Blade FIRST!! Any skill that has "use when xx%" should always be slotted first because they will not use them until that criteria is met... when that criteria IS met, you want them to use it right away before using a different skill that might just have come off cooldown.

I do see you're train of thought thought... you want her to use the ranged skills first then Warp Strike in and use Slayer's Blade to finish them off. However, should 'snipe' or any other prior skill come off cooldown before the enemy reaches 25%, she will use those skills BEFORE Slayer's Blade. So it's best to always slot any of those "use when xx%" first so that no matter what skills comes off cooldown, those take priority as soon as the % criteria is met.

rpa

I only have experience of Mirri from early PTS but she was no better or worse than Valaste at Eyevea during final part of Mages Guild questline which I did on another alt just before. I think the quest followers and companions share the same obnoxiously terrible AI now.

Old_Foggy

ADarklore wrote: »

Foggy_Atsea wrote: »

5 purples rest blue items and I'm no expert at all but this is how I have her skills and I can't remember the last time she died, might have been once last week.

You should put Slayer's Blade FIRST!! Any skill that has "use when xx%" should always be slotted first because they will not use them until that criteria is met... when that criteria IS met, you want them to use it right away before using a different skill that might just have come off cooldown.

I do see you're train of thought thought... you want her to use the ranged skills first then Warp Strike in and use Slayer's Blade to finish them off. However, should 'snipe' or any other prior skill come off cooldown before the enemy reaches 25%, she will use those skills BEFORE Slayer's Blade. So it's best to always slot any of those "use when xx%" first so that no matter what skills comes off cooldown, those take priority as soon as the % criteria is met.

Thank you so much ADarklore for this information and advice, I'm no expert when I get back on the game I'll do as you advice and put the slayers blade in the 1st slot. Have a great day and Happy Hunting.

KyleTheYounger

Foggy_Atsea wrote: »

5 purples rest blue items and I'm no expert at all but this is how I have her skills and I can't remember the last time she died, might have been once last week.

Is all the armor purple heavy and what are the traits on each piece? Seems 100% purple heavy armor with

5 / 7 armor = soothing/quickened (i.e. head + arms + legs) for healing and increased survivability
2/ 7 armor = prolific/focused (i.e belt + shoulders) to tactically boost crit & ultimate regen skills

All weapon slots = aggressive/shattering mix (i.e. 2H + 1H or 2H + 1H + shield and/or bow/staff) is blue/purple mix & ideally purple for ranged weapons
)
all 3 jewellry slots = focused/prolific (i.e. neck + 2 rings) ia blue/purple mix & ideally purple to improve crit strike

thinking that would work best for pure 70% offensive (strategic) to 30% defensive (tactical) when engaging combat....

Howevever then again, my toon solo combat expereince has proved the best offense is defense. The warrior who is last left standing in the everyman for himself deathmatch is typically the one who wins. So maybe more passive armor traits like:

Mix of vigourous + bolstered for all armor slots? With And all weapons aggressive/piercing. With all gear & weapons being blue/purple & ideally purple quality as before? That combination would work better with 70% defense (strategic) to 30% offense (tactical) when engaging combat?

My toon being the gourmet chef and master alchemist that he is can work magical wonders with his food/drink and potion mag/stam/health buff durations. So seems the system taps into that buff vat and siphons a percentage to the companions.

Finally got a purple chest & head armor drop with Augumented. Mirri's survivability seems to have benefitted a small bit from from my toon's maxed out provisioning/alchemy constellation skills since. But that could just be my imagination

KyleTheYounger

Red_Feather wrote: »

svendf wrote: »

Never experience what is claimed here regarding Mirri. I use her as dd bow, maybe it´s how she is setup.

I have her as a healer with resto staff. If I stop from running, she will keep running until she can stop right in front of me. So that I can stare at the back of her head I guess. I'd like to kill her honestly.

Yes. This has been my experience 100% of the time since acquiring her. Regardless of what equipment or school of magic weapon types she's carrying >,<

ZoS really needs to revise this behavior in the next hotfix patch. MIRRI'S FOLLOWER AI NEEDS TO BE MORE LIKE PHIRRI THE SMUGGLER ZoS. SHE NEEDS TO FOLLOW THE PLAYER AROUND THE WAY PHIRRI DOES.

Especially so that when she says "You take lead!", that she follows through on her own advice -- by doing just that.

Because Phirri NEVER RARELY gets into the player's way by jumping in before them. This is regardless whether you're skulking around town/the markeplace, helping out as a mule in buying stolen junk while on your dungeon crawls, or when doing your typical home invasion business for the guild. Phirri typically tends to remains BEHIND the player and follow their lead in all her interactions 99% of the time. And favors a crouching/sneaking stance when not being addressed by the player.

This sort of defensive tactic is crucial if Mirri is in a healer role capacity. Where your toon is tank and/or using mix or melee/ranged weapons. It's also logically necessary since the default distancing (especially when wielding ranged weapons)
would tend to keep her safer. Which btw, would drastically increase her survivability chances at the lower/below CP levels

This follower/ranged strategy also btw, works like a charm in dangeous combat situations. Like in PvE dungeons with lots of mobs with the tougher/OP bosses. Where strategically, my maxed DB Assassin/Master Thief prefers/needs to tactically sneak/flank to assassinate the enemies.

Instead of directly engaging with the blundering blind man/scorched earth policy that 99% of players apparently have the moment they barge their way into a dungeon. LOL. So much for my solo assassin immersion experience.

Prof_Bawbag

ADarklore wrote: »

Here is the problem I see most people having... our companions will keep running for a few seconds after we stop... so what I do is I stop a few feet ahead of what I need to unlock, wayshrine, etc... and companion will run up next to me and stop. Then I casually walk to the place to unlock and I never have a problem. But the fact is, our character stops on a dime and we somehow expect our companion to do the same, but they don't. So people have to learn to stop AHEAD OF the location, give the Companion a sec to catch up and stop, then walk forward... it's not that difficult.

No matter how you spin it, that is still a pretty intrusive walk around. Fine for the first dozen or so times, but like anything in this game, when you're doing it repeatedly for weeks or even months, it becomes an issue. Most people want from A to B asap when doing something for the 1001st time. Imagine if you had to run clockwise once around a node before being able to harvest it. It would get old fast. Even though doing so would take a second or 2.

KyleTheYounger

...or when you CAN'T run clockwise once around. Because it so happens a mountain, precipice, tree, or very bloodthirty bunch of beasts/hostile NPC obstacles are obscuring that circuitous path

Old_Foggy

KyleTheYounger wrote: »

Foggy_Atsea wrote: »

5 purples rest blue items and I'm no expert at all but this is how I have her skills and I can't remember the last time she died, might have been once last week.

Is all the armor purple heavy and what are the traits on each piece?

No it's a mixed bag from drops. This is what I have so far and I know it's nowhere near right but it's all stuff I have collected from drops and will replace stuff when I get better ones drop as I won't be buying them. I'm a Scot we don't give up gold easily

SickleCider

You're wrong

German shepherds have excellent routing AI

They solve crimes

KyleTheYounger

^^
My German Shepherd Megan would have to disagree with you. She always mistakes me for a shep whenever we go for a walk. Or a duck. Or just about any animal beloning to the Mamilia class. Anything but a *** Sapiens. Her herding instincts would take this border collie to school

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpjP3mxv21s

omegatay_ESO

I swear sometimes zos in the planning meetings ask one another what they can implement to irritate there players.