Companions: Basics, Traits, and Abilities

phaneub17_ESO

Disclaimer: Why is this not in Players Helping Players or Player Guides forum?
Because I could be totally wrong about everything, its mostly theory building and personal observation.

< Companion Basics >

Armor
- Light: Increases healing done by 1-7% and reduces the cooldown of Break Free by 5-35%. Epic provide 900 armor.
- Medium: Increases damage done by 1-7% and reduces the cooldown of Roll Dodge by 5-35%. Epic provide 1900 armor.
- Heavy: Increases healing received by 1-7% and increases the amount of damage blocked by 1-7%. Epic and shield provide 2900 armor.
- Maximum Armor rating a companion can achieve is 23,200 with 7 Epic heavy armor and a shield.
- Restoration staff ability Combat Prayer can add Minor Resolve to companions for an additional 2974 armor.

In order to level an armor type on a companion they must wear at least 5 pieces to gain experience with that armor type. While you can mix-match if you want to, they won't gain any experience with any armor type unless they have 5 of the same equipped.

Weapons
- Tank: One-Hand and Shield or Frost Staff.
- Melee: Sword, Axe, Mace, or Dagger; Two-Handed or Dual-Wield.
- Ranged: Bow, Restoration Staff, Flame Staff, or Lightning Staff.

In the case of melee weapons, the type used does not affect their damage or status effects as they are all the same. Having a companion with Dual-Wield Daggers has no difference than using a Sword, Axe, or Mace; only the appearance is different.

Ability Damage Calculation

hrothbern wrote: »

The formula for what I name Base Power
For a level 20 Companion:
Base Power = 1.5 x tooltip Weapon Damage + 3000

A LA without racial or other Damage Buffs and before Armor Resistance is then for a twohanded purple weapon:
Damage = 1.5 x 900 + 3000 = 4350

And for example the Damage Shield of Bastian is then also 4350, that same base power.
Abilities are in general a factor times that base power:
For example Sniping Silver Damage is 2*BP and with for example two handed purple without buffs 8700

With S&B and a purple sword (weapon damage 450) the BP becomes 1.5*450 + 3000 = 3675 and Sniping Silver 7350
(and with for example the 3% damage buff of Bastian for purple S&B the damage is 1.03*7350 = 7571
The same math for white, green, blue weapons with 600,700,800 as weapon damage (or 300,350,400, for S&B and DW)

That 3000 is companion level related (NOT weapon related) and from my notes the formula is:
Lvl Comp * 75 + 1500
At level 20 this becomes 3000.
Health buffs like Vigorous do not change those values.

Roll Dodge
Roll Dodge is the highest prioritized action the companion will perform above all else and have two charges, base cooldown is 8 seconds while with 7 Medium armor equipped reduces it to 5.2 seconds. When they Roll Dodge is dependent on what weapons they have equipped.
- Tank weapons will not Roll Dodge until they are critical =< 25% health and the target they are focused on attacking is close to them.
- Melee weapons will not Roll Dodge until they drop to =< 50% health and the target they are focused on attacking is close to them.
- Ranged weapons will Roll Dodge immediately when the target they are focused on attacking comes close to them. They can be surrounded by enemies and not make a move, but once the target they are focused on attacking comes close to them they will take action.

Break Free
Break Free base cooldown is 12 seconds while with 7 Light armor equipped it is reduced to 7.8 seconds.

Blocking
Companions will perform a block when the target they are focused on attacking is performing a Heavy Attack. It does not matter if the target is you, the companion, or anyone else; they will brace for an attack regardless how far away their focused target or who is its intended target. Companions also will not block an attack from an enemy who they are not their focused target they are attacking and will eat the Heavy Attack.

Bashing
Companions will perform a bash/interrupt when the target they are focused on attacking is casting (flashing red) and are in melee range to do so. They will ignore all other enemies around them that are casting if they aren't their focused target they are attacking.

Strafing
"All Companions will now occasionally dynamically strafe in both melee and ranged combat."
What this means is they will take 3 steps either to the left or right moving in a semi-circle around their target. They will periodically move around, whether or not they are standing in a damage area effect. There is a cooldown, but I haven't figured out what it is or how they decide which direction to move, if at all. They can even move into a damage area effect when they weren't standing in one before if its cast at someone else and they happen to be close to it.

For most players this is a nice addition, for those who know how to control their companions to pin a boss between them and an obstruction may find it annoying when the companion moves around and starts Bashing their target away from the obstruction. Or you want your companion Roll Dodge to go in a certain direction to prevent them from going too far or anywhere at all like against a wall, but now are getting out of place as they strafe left or right from your planned spot.

Player Buffs
This may be the most confusing of all, which Player buffs affect your Companion? This depends on the way abilities and passive apply their buffs, if it's a blanket effect with no target like Molten Weapons or Frost Cloak, it will not affect the Companion. However Class-specific passive effects like Minor Sorcery from the Templar's Illuminate will apply to your Companion. Also any abilities or Ultimate that provides a buff to a target entering or in range of the effect will buff the companion as well. Interestingly enough Aggressive Horn and Light's Champion... does not buff your Companion. I don't know if base game can show it, I use S'rendarr Add-on to see the buffs apply to them and test in combat.

Or if you just want a run-down of what works, what I have found so far:
- Dragon Knight: Mountain's Blessing - Minor Brutality.
- Nightblade: Path of Darkness - Major Expedition, Consuming Darkness - Major Protection, Hemorrhage - Minor Savagery.
- Sorcerer: Exploitation - Minor Prophecy.
- Templar: Illuminate - Minor Sorcery.
- Warden: Any healing spell that can target your Companion - Minor Toughness.
- Necromancer: Nothing.
- Restoration Staff: Combat Prayer - Minor Resolve and Minor Berserk.
There's probably more out there, I haven't found yet.

phaneub17_ESO

< Companion Traits >

Disclaimer: this is mostly based in what I have observed in my experience with them and may not entirely reflect actual in-game data. Some of my info could be flat out wrong. The numbers given in this info sheet are if you were to stack only that stat with Epic (purple) quality items equipped. I have updated the info to include Ember and Isobel added with High Isles.

Aggressive: Increases your companion's damage done by 20%
It's pretty straight forward as it affects both abilities and auto attack damage. You don't need every slot filled with epic items while the total amount attainable is 20.4%, that little extra 0.4% adds only a minor boost in damage output so you could have a Jewelry piece in Superior(blue) quality and be 20.1% as your final value. Its up to you if that 0.3% difference matters.

Augmented: Increases duration of all companion buffs and debuffs by 31%
The problem is the majority of abilities that it affects the durations are between 4(5) to 8(10) seconds; anything that has a duration of 3 seconds or lower gain no actual benefit. While it does increase the damage and healing potency by increasing one additional tick, other abilities gain nothing extra from it and may not even benefit at all. Basalt Barrier for example in most serious fights never lasts more than a couple seconds as the shield amount is consumed in one hit from most elite mobs, adding an extra 1 second isn't going to change anything. Searing Weapons lasts an additional 2 seconds, but its better to go with Quickened, its an uptime of 10 seconds with 6.2 seconds downtime vs an uptime of 8 seconds with a downtime of 3.4 seconds between casts. It doesn't even work as a filler stat, it has to be stacked to at least 25% to provide any benefit at all; getting to 31% only benefits Crimson Font, Savage Instinct, or Provoke.

Bolstered: Reduces companion damage taken by 20%
Another straight forward stat, it's nice to have a 20% damage reduced always active. You can never be too careful when sudden unexpected damage happens; however, like with Augmented it can be overcome with Quickened making abilities such as On Guard, Solar Ward, Hurricane Visage, Razor Cape, or Drake's Blood active nearly all the time with a few 1-3 seconds of downtime in between casts. The difference is up to you as this does free up one ability slot with around 6-8 seconds of downtime between stacking with an ability or using two abilities that share the same effect overlapping more frequently.

Focused: Increases companion critical strike chance by 31%, Ember 34%
The problem with this stat is their base critical strike chance is 0% with no Focused items equipped and their critical damage modifier is the base 1.50% which cannot be raised, there are no major or minor force buffs that affect companions that I know. Nightblade's Hemorrhage or Sorcerer's Exploitation can raise companion's critical strike chance by an additional 6%.

Fennwitty wrote: »

any purple focused armor/jewelry/1-h weapons gives 569 crit. 2-h weapons gives double that, 1138 crit. So for all intents and purposes, equipping entirely Focused sets gives a total of 569 x12 = 6828 crit.

Disclaimer: I'm not great at math.

If Focused numbers work the same as +crit numbers for players, we can grab Alcast's 219 player Critical = 1% crit chance. You didn't like his companion breakdown, but presumably he understands player numbers.

6828 / 219 = ~31.18 crit chance.

Prolific: Increases companion ultimate generation by 156%
Its only useful when you already have a companion at level 20. For companions ultimate is generated from core combat actions like Auto Attack and when taking damage; maybe even from Blocking or Bashing (unconfirmed). Abilities generate no ultimate with the exception of Parallel which gives 50 on use. Auto Attacking generate small amounts of ultimate and continues to generate for a few ticks afterwards. The fastest way to generate ultimate on a companion is with weapon auto-attacks with an ability-free (no attack spells) action bar except for Parallel, then Second Wind and/or Haste to refresh Parallel; fill in the remaining slots with self-heals, executes, or defensive abilities. The optimal amount achievable with weapons and 7 armor pieces in epic, jewelry has no armor rating so those can be superior for 150%, the last 6% is up to you.

Shattering: Increases companion penetration by 15,600
If you're only doing Overland, Delves, and Public Dungeons all you need is 7 pieces (9100) without any source of Major or Minor Breach needed, you can add 5 Aggressive (8%) to fill out the rest for maximum damage output. If you go with 5 Aggressive you can use 4 Epic and 1 Superior as the difference would be 8.2% vs 8.5%. If you're doing Group Dungeons and Trials then full stacked 12 still requires a Minor Breach debuff for companions to reach maximum penetration. You can stick with the 7 piece (9100) if you have a reliable source of Minor Breach, Major Breach, and Crushing Enchant for Group Dungeons and Trials.

Soothing: Increases companions healing done by 20%
It's not that this stat is bad per se, the problem lies with the companion's conditions and ai script behavior that can make it a bad stat. Unlike with players who can spam their healing abilities, move around to hit multiple targets, or choose when to use their abilities; companions aren't that complex. Companions cast their healing spells when it's off cooldown, conditions are met (target =< 75%, 50%, 25% health), and is next on queue whether or not anyone needs the healing. They usually exhaust all their spells in one chain salvo, everything is on cooldown, and spend the rest of the time auto attacking. You cannot directly control them to heal on demand when you need it, only that they will do it when its available.

Vigorous: Increases companion maximum health by 31%
Companions at level 20 have 30,000 base health, Bastian has an extra 3% from his racial passive. Mirri, Ember, and Isobel would have 39,300 health while Bastian would have 40,200 health. Abilities affected by Vigorous: Solar Ward (4912), Drake's Blood, Twilight Mantle, On Guard, and Skeletal Aegis.

Quickened: Reduces companion ability cooldowns by 31%
20% values are 8s -> 6.3s, 12s -> 9.5s, 16s -> 12.7s, 36s -> 28.5s
26% values are 8s -> 5.9s, 12s -> 8.9s, 16s -> 11.8s, 36s -> 26.6s
31% values are 8s -> 5.5s, 12s -> 8.3s, 16s -> 11.0s, 36s -> 24.8s
Isobel adds are 8s -> 5.3s, 12s -> 7.9s, 16s -> 10.5s, 36s -> 23.7s

Remember to include the ability's cast time in the final number. For example at 31% Drake's Blood has a duration of 8 seconds, a cooldown of 8.3 seconds, and a cast time of 0.4 seconds; he'll have at most a downtime of 0.7 seconds should he need to recast when the buff expires. I'm biased towards Quickened as I see it as the best overall stat for all roles. For me its about having the companion at their most active with as little downtime as possible, all other stats will always have a long dead space of auto attacking while waiting for the next cooldown to finish. I'll include summaries in the spoilers below.

Tanking

There is a benefit to all 3 stats with Bolstered you always have 20% damage reduction active while everything else is on cooldown. Vigorous gives them more health to survive one-hit kills should they take more than 30k in a single attack like a dragon's overhead breath. Quickened increases the odds at which they cast buffs, healing, and defensives when they may need to recast earlier thus keeping their buffs rolling with less downtime being defenseless. Which is the better tanking stat Vigorous, Quickened, or Bolstered? My preferences are Quickened (26%) / Vigorous (5%) for Overland, Delves, and Public Dungeons; Vigorous (23-26%) / Bolstered (3-5%) for Group Dungeons and Dragons; Bolstering (20%) if you're unsure which direction to go, its always on.

Healing

As I mentioned with Soothing about companion's ai script and conditions, Quickened can overcome the problem by increasing the frequency of the casts thus increasing the odds they will be active and ready to cast again when you need the heal. The downside is the amount healed would be smaller, the upside is that spells with a duration buff will have more uptime and they spend less time auto attacking.

Damage

Aggressive and Shattering are still in the top spots when it comes to straight damage without much else on your part. Quickened has a theoretical increase in power over them, but requires extreme precision to pull it off and without extensive testing can be difficult to prove which is better. The Quickened method is about sacrificing raw damage for more rapid casts, this means instead of going 7 medium you go with 7 Light armor and Haste giving you an opening salvo of 8 spells per chain instead of 5, repeating every 25.4 seconds with also far less time spent auto attacking. As long as nothing interrupts their cast chain they would do more damage in long, single target boss fights than their Aggressive or Shattering companions.

Support

Bastian: Crimson Font, Ritual of Salvation, Basalt Barrier, Searing Weapons, Skeletal Aegis. If you have absolutely no other use for companions then a support build might be your style. This combination gives you two sources of Undaunted Command Synergy bonus, one heal over time effect, 3 damage reduction effects, and one weapon damage buff. You might think Augmented, but no its better with Quickened for reduced downtime between casts over increased uptime on buffs with long cooldowns of them doing nothing.

phaneub17_ESO

< Companion Abilities >

Does the position of abilities matter on their action bar, sort of? This takes some understanding of how each ability is categorized, the way they target, and how they function that the average person probably wouldn't give much thought into it. Well, you have me. There are 4 basic types of abilities: melee, ranged, target slam, and no target slam. Melee and ranged are simple to understand, if a target is in range they will use that ability if not it skips to the next one on their action bar until something can hit. If you have a combination of melee at the front of the action bar and ranged at the back, their target is further away it will skip the melee abilities and go straight to using the ranged abilities first until the Companion can reach their target to use melee abilities. If neither melee or ranged abilities can hit the target they are focused on attacking then they will use their no target slam type abilities while making their way to the focused target.

I won't go over all abilities, but a select few I think are noteworthy.

Gap Closers
There are 4 abilities to close the gap between your Companion and their focused target, these are: Bastian - Blazing Grasp (single target), Mirri - Warp Strike, Isobel - Gallant Blitz, and One-Hand and Shield - Bashing Bulwark. I like to point out these are useless when used with ranged weapons as roll dodge takes highest priority over all actions. You can try give Bastian a Flame Staff with Blazing Grasp, he will pull his target to him then immediately roll dodge out of the way. However if you use them with a Frost Staff which counts as a tank weapon, you can get away with abilities such as Elemental Barricade, Arcane Nova, or any similar abilities more effectively hitting more targets without roll dodging away right after.

Ranged Abilities

Starfall
This isn't unique to Starfall, but all ranged abilities, this one just highlights the problem with both visual and audible cues. When a companion tries to use a ranged ability, but the target is not within line of sight, instead of trying to get into a valid range they will repeatedly cast the first ranged ability in their list spamming it until it does hit. Starfall is the best ability to have in your first slot if you plan on making them ranged attackers as you'll see a visual blue ring and the sound spamming if they are not within line of sight, you can then move the target into range they can see to continue attacking. If you use any other range ability, they won't have as much of a notice that your companion is not in line of sight and will experience the same problem.

Target Slam Abilities
These are confusing as they would appear to be ranged abilities, but actually are not. They won't cast these unless a valid target walks in front of them up to the maximum range, sometimes at the very end of the covered area. These would be abilities like Elemental Barricade, Trick Shot, Mending Incantation, Spear of Light, and Entomb to name a few. Some of these abilities are also tied to ranged weapons like Bow and Staff, but because of the roll dodge mechanic can reduce their effective range if their focused target gets too close. As mentioned above with Gap Closers, you can fix that problem for many of them.

No Target Slam Abilities
These are most general abilities like Hurricane Visage, Solar Ward, Searing Weapons, and even Haste unfortunately. If the Companion's focused target they are attacking is not in range or there is nothing to heal, these are the first to cast while they are on the move regardless of where you have it positioned on the action bar. This does mean its possible to have Haste, that which resets all other ability cooldowns, can cast as their first action if no other ability conditions can be met. You'll know Haste is cast when you see a flash of blue light that does nothing else. Keep this in mind when you engage combat, if the target is too far away it might be best to get in closer first before initiating.

Executes
Personal Opinion: I hate these abilities, they're basically a wasted action slot for most of the fight from 100% to 26% health, you have an action slot that does absolutely nothing. If you're fighting weak enemies, its another wasted slot as they can die from any other ability all the same. I rather fill that slot with an active damage ability that helps bring my target down to 25% the entire fight than wait for the enemy to be at 25% for one ability to be used. And unlike a player, Companions don't spam the execute ability it still has a cooldown between uses. Abilities like Spinning Steel and Raging Storm are an exception as they don't count as executes the same way, rather they do bonus damage when a target is low in health. I don't understand why they don't make these abilities function the same way.

Kr4ftw3rkub17_ESO

Excellent write-up. I doubt many people have put in the time to figure out the stats as you did. Very helpful. Thnx

Hotdog_23

Quickened is my go-to trait for everything. Mostly blue still as the epic just hasn't drop for me yet in Quickened. My thinking has been more skills used equals more damage/healing.

Agree it would be nice to see companion stats.

Really hope the armory system is implemented for them as well. Plus, they need to be able to carry say at least 20-30 companion only items to help use them in different builds. Currently mine stay in one build and never change.

Wish they would add at least one more companion so we could have one tank, healer and dps each then for me at least the ability to change their builds would be a moot point as I could just call the one I needed for whatever the situation needed.

Stay safe and happy hunting

EF321

I prefer quickened too, simple for the versatility of it, as it adds to every spec, so all you need to do is swap skills from damage to support/tank and you are ready.

Mirri wears 5 light armor, 1 medium, 1 heavy. All the gear is quickened and haste is always slotted.

By default I use dual wield and damage skills, and the reason for using dual wield for damage spec is purely inventory space saving - I only need one shield in bank to replace one of the weapons, instead of storing both shield and weapon. In total bank keeps 2 items constantly, quickened shield and resto.

5 light armor is not a huge issue for tanking, at least Mirri did fine job replacing fake tanks in vet vanilla dungeons, as in she could hold boss in place and not die, just need to slot mitigation abilities.
Damage obviously benefits from allowing ability spam and good DoT uptime, and healing benefits from quickened/haste in the same way.

Maybe you cold make them a better dedicated role by choosing better fitting armor weights and traits, but hybrid approach is just good enough.

Araneae6537

This is super helpful — thank you!

phaneub17_ESO

Updated for 2022, High Isles. ZoS PLEASE don't move my thread.

hrothbern

@phaneub17_ESO thanks for all this info given in a structured way

I have in fact a lot of basic questions and also some findings to add.

First question: is this a good thread to discuss the mechanics of Companions ?
(just mechanics and no opinions on what we would like or not... just facts and findings)

Second question:
I was for several years not playing ESO, too busy in RL.
Is the Armor Resistance cap for 50% damage mitigation for NPC still 25,000 ?
(not the 33,000 of players)

Third Question:
IF Q2 is yes, is the Armor Resistance cap for Companions then the same as for NPC, 25,000 ?

phaneub17_ESO

hrothbern wrote: »

@phaneub17_ESO thanks for all this info given in a structured way

I have in fact a lot of basic questions and also some findings to add.

First question: is this a good thread to discuss the mechanics of Companions ?
(just mechanics and no opinions on what we would like or not... just facts and findings)

Second question:
I was for several years not playing ESO, too busy in RL.
Is the Armor Resistance cap for 50% damage mitigation for NPC still 25,000 ?
(not the 33,000 of players)

Third Question:
IF Q2 is yes, is the Armor Resistance cap for Companions then the same as for NPC, 25,000 ?

Any discussion, criticism, or constructive arguments replies are welcomed in this thread.

As for your second and third question... I don't know. I can only post on numbers that I see externally as Zos doesn't let us see companion's stat sheet. We know the maximum armor a companion can get via gear is 23,200 with 7 heavy armor and a shield. All the abilities that would give Major Resolve to players, the companion's variant of those same abilities give 20% damage reduction. There is only one source of Minor Resolve that I know of you can give to companions and its with Restoration Staff ability Combat Prayer.

Damage dealt numbers of fairly consistent so testing with Shattering and Aggressive are straight forward, its safe to assume the amount of penetration companions need is in line with the same value as players. The critical strike value is assumed to be the same as players as well and if the numbers are correct then its maximum at 31% is in line with all other companion stats being either 20% (Aggressive, Bolstered, Soothing) or 31% (Augmented, Quickened, Vigorous).

Jpk0012

Does focused work for heals?

Also, I personally don't like using ranged on the companions, because they aggro so easily and will run ruining my own dps and sometimes resetting the boss. For some reason melee seems to not trigger aggro like the ranged does. I have never had them aggro from healing. Problem with that is most content heals aren't needed. I'd rather them dps.

phaneub17_ESO

Jpk0012 wrote: »

Does focused work for heals?

Confirming this, yes Focused does indeed work on heals. I don't generally pay attention to heals when they happen, I also haven't used Focused trait on companions because of how low the maximum critical strike percentage they can reach and there's no way to boost their critical damage/healing numbers. However if you're going a hybrid build that has both heals and damaging abilities wanting a trait that affects both Focused might be the better choice aside from Quickened. With Ember it should be at least a third of the time.

Vaoh

Awesome post!!

One question, does the Parallel ability (generates 50 Ultimate) get increased by the Prolific trait?

So for example, with the full 156% Prolific buff, would it give 128 Ultimate or remain at 50 Ultimate. I would assume it is buffed but I’m not in the position to test this, and don’t want to level Mages Guild just for the sake of testing.

phaneub17_ESO

Vaoh wrote: »

Awesome post!!

One question, does the Parallel ability (generates 50 Ultimate) get increased by the Prolific trait?

So for example, with the full 156% Prolific buff, would it give 128 Ultimate or remain at 50 Ultimate. I would assume it is buffed but I’m not in the position to test this, and don’t want to level Mages Guild just for the sake of testing.

Okay, My Zenithar boxes gave me a ton of Ultimate generation gear so I could try it out. Parallel does not seem to get boosted by Prolific gear which makes sense to me. Prolific affects the ultimate generated by the action's fixed amount when the action is used, Parallel has 0 ultimate generation so its 0 x Prolific = 0, the 50 it creates is its own effect. Bastian did some actions that gave him a huge boost and it wasn't an ability, I think it was a block or interrupt that gave him a huge chunk so probably melee oriented combat gives them more ultimate than range does if you want the most out of it. I don't think it affected any abilities at all, just melee and core combat abilities so him auto attacking, blocking, and interrupting does it all.

Test 2: An empty action bar builds faster ultimate than one with abilities, abilities don't generate ultimate or if they do its very small and the bar doesn't move. Auto Attack definitely, Block and Bash maybe, are the source of ultimate generation, so I went with Drake's Blood, Kindle, Bashing Bulwark, On Guard, and Parallel. He has one ability to get in to melee faster and the rest are self-heals with high Prolific.

Test 3: Mirri, holy hell... I went with Dual-Wield, 150% Prolific. 5 Light Armor, 2 Medium. Twilight Mantle, Parallel, Warp Strike, Razor Cape, and Haste. Warp Strike to get into melee sooner, the rest is just to protect her health so she doesn't die. Let her go to town with just auto attack, block, and interrupts. Her Impeccable Shot was more like a regular ability than an ultimate, going off quite often. Never expected abilities to be a hindrance, if you want that 20% damage boost and nothing else out of companions this is the way to do it lol.

Edit: @Vaoh I hate you for dragging me down this rabbit hole that is Prolific. I updated my findings on Prolific in the Traits section, though its still a work in progress until further testing can be done.

hrothbern

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

Awesome post!!

One question, does the Parallel ability (generates 50 Ultimate) get increased by the Prolific trait?

So for example, with the full 156% Prolific buff, would it give 128 Ultimate or remain at 50 Ultimate. I would assume it is buffed but I’m not in the position to test this, and don’t want to level Mages Guild just for the sake of testing.

Okay, My Zenithar boxes gave me a ton of Ultimate generation gear so I could try it out. Parallel does not seem to get boosted by Prolific gear which makes sense to me. Prolific affects the ultimate generated by the action's fixed amount when the action is used, Parallel has 0 ultimate generation so its 0 x Prolific = 0, the 50 it creates is its own effect. Bastian did some actions that gave him a huge boost and it wasn't an ability, I think it was a block or interrupt that gave him a huge chunk so probably melee oriented combat gives them more ultimate than range does if you want the most out of it. I don't think it affected any abilities at all, just melee and core combat abilities so him auto attacking, blocking, and interrupting does it all.

Test 2: An empty action bar builds faster ultimate than one with abilities, abilities don't generate ultimate or if they do its very small and the bar doesn't move. Auto Attack definitely, Block and Bash maybe, are the source of ultimate generation, so I went with Drake's Blood, Kindle, Bashing Bulwark, On Guard, and Parallel. He has one ability to get in to melee faster and the rest are self-heals with high Prolific.

Test 3: Mirri, holy hell... I went with Dual-Wield, 150% Prolific. 5 Light Armor, 2 Medium. Twilight Mantle, Parallel, Warp Strike, Razor Cape, and Haste. Warp Strike to get into melee sooner, the rest is just to protect her health so she doesn't die. Let her go to town with just auto attack, block, and interrupts. Her Impeccable Shot was more like a regular ability than an ultimate, going off quite often. Never expected abilities to be a hindrance, if you want that 20% damage boost and nothing else out of companions this is the way to do it lol.

Edit: @Vaoh I hate you for dragging me down this rabbit hole that is Prolific. I updated my findings on Prolific in the Traits section, though its still a work in progress until further testing can be done.

That interrupts and blocks add good ultimate is new for me. Makes certainly sense !

Perhaps good to add that the auto LA of companions is doing already good damage compared to abilities in the overall DPS.

The formula for what I name Base Power
For a level 20 Companion:
Base Power = 1.5 x tooltip Weapon Damage + 3000

A LA without racial or other Damage Buffs and before Armor Resistance is then for a twohanded purple weapon:
Damage = 1.5 x 900 + 3000 = 4350

And for example the Damage Shield of Bastian is then also 4350, that same base power.
Abilities are in general a factor times that base power:
For example Sniping Silver Damage is 2*BP and with for example two handed purple without buffs 8700

With S&B and a purple sword (weapon damage 450) the BP becomes 1.5*450 + 3000 = 3675 and Sniping Silver 7350
(and with for example the 3% damage buff of Bastian for purple S&B the damage is 1.03*7350 = 7571
The same math for white, green, blue weapons with 600,700,800 as weapon damage (or 300,350,400, for S&B and DW)

That 3000 is companion level related (NOT weapon related) and from my notes the formula is:
Lvl Comp * 75 + 1500
At level 20 this becomes 3000.
Health buffs like Vigorous do not change those values.


EDIT
I did measure that LA damage by testing using AUI to see the damage done by a companion whereby the trick is to kill the monster with an ability (I used an executing Mirri ability) to get "clean" total LA damage you can divide by number of LA attacks without a LA attack at lower value because the monster had less health than the last LA damage.
I used Betty netches and a full shattering armor.

For shields it is easier because you can see the value of the shield you get for example from Bastian.
And with the knowledge that this Bastian Shield is your easiest window in what BP you have, you can also easy test Armor sets that buff your companion like Power Assault

phaneub17_ESO

I'm not actually sure that Block and Bash adds ultimate, its really hard to tell, but there are times when I see big jumps in ultimate gain that isn't from Parallel. Auto Attacking is consistent like players Light Attack generating some upfront then continuously a few extra ticks afterwards. Taking damage may also contribute to ultimate gains, maybe they take a big hit and that grants them extra ultimate?

hrothbern

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

I'm not actually sure that Block and Bash adds ultimate, its really hard to tell, but there are times when I see big jumps in ultimate gain that isn't from Parallel. Auto Attacking is consistent like players Light Attack generating some upfront then continuously a few extra ticks afterwards. Taking damage may also contribute to ultimate gains, maybe they take a big hit and that grants them extra ultimate?

I did some watching but I think I better make some vids with a companion without abilities except ultimate.
Seeing the same over and over again will perhaps help to nail down the math.

Are there NPCs/monsters that do only light attacks ?
Then we get a value without blocking

Preferrably of the same type to get the same damage which could help guessing/finding out the damage mitigation of companions (25k cap or 33k cap for 50%)

MindOfTheSwarm

Why do companions only get one ultimate option? At least weapon ultimates should be available .

Jim_Pipp

I saw an interesting question on Reddit the other day, so I'm designing an experiment to test it after the eso+ grind ends.

Augmented... Does it only increase buffs cast BY the companion, or does it include buffs we apply to our companion.

Buffs like minor/major courage, brutality, force etc all effect companions, as do unique buffs like powerful assault. Does anyone already know if these buffs have there duration increased by augmented?

Any suggestions on how to test it? - I guess I'll compare a companion with no augmented with one fully equipped in augmented against slimecraw, using a healer who has olorime on one bar, and then use a stop watch to time the increased damage.

phaneub17_ESO

Jim_Pipp wrote: »

Augmented... Does it only increase buffs cast BY the companion, or does it include buffs we apply to our companion.

Buffs like minor/major courage, brutality, force etc all effect companions, as do unique buffs like powerful assault. Does anyone already know if these buffs have there duration increased by augmented?

Counter-question, will it matter after the next update when they increase the duration of buffs?

I spent a good amount of gold testing out Prolific and as a goof trying out a full medium Focused with Ember which I now am loving it. I don't know if I want to spend any more gold on testing Augmented on player buffs then turn into a crap-shoot.

I don't have access to buff sets, most of them anyway, to see which buffs those provide that affect companions so I'll take your word on that. I can see which buffs affect companions with the addon Srendarr.

There is a sort of "target dummy" in the game that companions can attack in Stormhaven's public dungeon in the Event room. You can't target it normally you have to drop a damaging AOE on the skeleton sitting on the throne and your companion will start attacking. It can take damage just fine and while it can't die, it won't give you feedback after you stop.

phaneub17_ESO

Which trait is the absolute best for increasing companion damage output?

That really depends on which companion you're using, which class you are pairing with them, and what abilities you are utilizing in conjunction with your companion. There are primarily 5 traits to look at when considering their damage output: Aggressive, Focused, Quickened, Shattering, and the wild card Prolific.

Aggressive is 20% increased damage done, its the most simple and the most sought after so often the most expensive, but it may not even be the best stat overall. It's good that you don't have to think about how it plays out; however, it may actually be the least impactful.

Shattering depends on the content you're doing, it works just like player's penetration and can stack with Minor Breach, Major Breach, and Crushing enchants. 7 item slots with Shattering is 9100 which is enough for overland, delves, and public dungeons to maximize penetration or roughly a 13% increase in damage pair it with 5 Aggressive item slots which gives you 8% increased damage and it does a combined 21% increased damage done.

Now if you're doing group content such as group dungeons, arenas, and trials you could opt for full 12 item slots of Shattering for 15,600 penetration or roughly 23% increased damage done. Add a source of Minor Breach and you could potentially raise it up to 27% increased damage done. The downside of stacking Shattering in 12 slots for overland, delves, and public dungeons won't go above 13% increased damage done. If there are other players or other sources of Major Breach, Crushing Enchant, or unique sources like Crystal Weapon you would have to adjust their gear with Aggressive or other traits.

Focused increases the companion's critical strike chance by up to 31%, Ember can get up to 34%; comparatively its about your companion dealing 20% increased damage all the time vs dealing 50% increased damage one third of the time. Focused also works on healing too not just damage if you want to mix up their abilities. If you pair Ember with a Nightblade or Sorcerer, and utilize abilities that activate Hemorrhage or Exploitation, you can increase Ember up to 40% critical strike chance to deal 50% increased damage and healing. Ember's Ultimate and Executes, they can also critical strike.

Quickened increases the frequency at which abilities are used, reducing cooldown by up to 31%, Isobel brings the total to 34%. A rough estimate 8 second cooldown abilities cast 47% more frequently in one minute, 12 second cooldown abilities cast 40% more frequently in one minute, 16 second cooldown abilities cast 33% more frequently in one minute, and 36 second cooldown abilities cast one additional time in one minute. I don't know how much increased damage done it would be, but if you're stacking 8 and 12 second cooldown abilities, it's got to be greater than 20%.

Prolific is the wild card as it only works with Auto-Attacks, abilities do not generate ultimate, and Parallel is unaffected by it. Despite that, Mirri's Impeccable Shot unique 20% increased damage done for 3 seconds does stack with other damage increasing sources like Minor Vulnerability, Major Vulnerability, or Nightblade's own Deathstroke. Ember's Raging Storm has an execute mechanic as well, with it casting more often can deal considerable amount of damage during that time.

Prolific builds would focus less on casting abilities frequently and more on emergency heals, executes, and cast & forget types so they can spend more time auto-attacking. Razor Cape/Hurricane Visage is a good choice, Parallel obviously, Searing Weapons is perfect, Light Armor for Haste to double cast Parallel. Avoid invisibility like Twilight Mantle or Vanish as it stops them auto-attacking.