Companions NEED XP Changes/Increases

ADarklore

When Mirri and Bastian were released, ZOS stated they wanted Companions to level 'over time'. However, now that we have FOUR Companions, a new player coming in will be not only hit with the HUGE CP gap but also the prospect of taking weeks to months (or longer) to level a single Companion at the current XP gain. Having Companions only gain XP from 'kills' is an absolute horrible way of leveling them... especially if you don't want to grind for hours upon hours and just want to have them level up while they travel with you. Fact is, at the horrible XP rate now, a new player could probably play the entire game and still not have a Companion fully leveled.

Example: I have been leveling a new character- so leveling my character along with leveling a Companion by doing Dolmen trains using 50% and 100% XP Scrolls. In TWO DAYS running approximately 8 hours of Dolmen runs each day, I think I got Ember up THREE levels! This is an atrocious XP gain rate! Now think of players who aren't grinding and are just wanting a Companion to level while they play, it could take weeks or months for a SINGLE Companion at the current rate.

However, ZOS took notice of the fact that Guild leveling was horrible and made adjustments making it easier, I think they need to re-evaluate the Companion leveling system as well. Why should it be that the player is the only one to gain XP from quest or dolmen completions, didn't the Companion help as well, shouldn't they also gain EXPERIENCE POINTS from it too?!? Surely ZOS could give them even 25% of our XP gain for event completions- quests, dolmens, etc. Eventually more Companions will be added making this worse. And sure, while Companions levels are 'account wide' that doesn't make it any better, especially if you either don't play alts, or simply want a Companion that is actually useful soon after acquiring them. And let's face facts, Companions aren't actually useful until they've acquired access to all their skill slots and gained their full stats, which requires having them fully leveled.

I don't even mind that we have to acquire them on every character and run their individual quests, IMO that's perfectly fine and acceptable. However, the extremely low XP gain strictly from 'enemy kills' is not.

@ZOS_KEVIN

EF321

Dolemns are a great source of jewelry to decon. Terrible source of xp, even more so for companion xp.

Snamyap

Got Ember at lvl 20 and Isobel at 12, without any excessive grinding. /Shrug.

phaneub17_ESO

ADarklore wrote: »

Why should it be that the player is the only one to gain XP from quest or dolmen completions, didn't the Companion help as well, shouldn't they also gain EXPERIENCE POINTS from it too?!?

They did for the first month at least with Dolmens closer exp bonus, but it was considered a bug. I got Bastian to level 20 and Mirri to level 17 before they fixed it so final closer experience on dolmens no longer fed into companions. It made it very trivial to level them.

I currently have Isobel at level 15 and Ember at level 13. I'm also not using any bonus exp scrolls, gear, or ESO+

Dolmen experience is only good if you can tag all the mobs that spawn with ample number of players around to increase the numbers that spawn, but not too many that you can't tag everything. Also hope no one closes all 4 pins before the final trash mobs drop which happens often. Then you have to tag all the mobs in the final phase to get the most out of it.

Public Dungeons are generally better as there are usually 6 or more mobs per pack in the higher zone ones with clusters nearby so you can tag multiple groups at once. This also has issues of being overcrowded with other players making it somewhat a bad choice if you got someone ahead of you or another clearing them before you can hit them.

There are some open areas with a lot of mobs, but those are a bit harder to come by that aren't bot farmed. It also requires more individual targeting than hitting a tightly packed group with one ability. Depends on your speed this could be a better source.

It's also summer break, expect a lot of competition anywhere you go.

carly

Ember is leveling quickly I find and I was surprised today to see that once my alt did the Ember quest - I didn't have to start over with her. I don't know when the change was made to share companion experience across all your alts but I was pleasantly surprised to see it today!

BretonMage

The public dungeon/dolmen grind is too tedious and painful. They should increase companion XP from group dungeons as well, since these are objectively more difficult. Having a wider variety of XP sources would help greatly with the tedium.

ADarklore

I see a lot of people post about 'grinding' to level Companions, but that does nothing for what I was talking about- someone who just wants to do content without having to grind their Companions to level. I don't think it's unreasonable for Companions to gain a small percentage of our XP gained from quests, dolmen completions, etc. This would also help players to level Companions who don't want to face hours of tedious grind just to make them useful... and the more Companions they add.. the worse this will be, especially for new players.

As for people talking about grinding dolmens... dolmens are the best way I've found not only to level my character, but also level Fighters Guild and Blacksmithing, Clothing, Woodworking and Jewelry Crafting skill lines; you gain enough dropped gear to decon to level those crafting skill lines. But yes, they are a horrible source of Companion XP.

I already have Isobel at level 20, but I did so by using 150% XP scrolls and grinding a Public Dungeon for HOURS. Ember is currently level 14, but I had also gotten her to level 11 grinding that same Public Dungeon... but then I ran out of 150% scrolls.

IsharaMeradin

I bought Blackwood in late November 2021. Bastian is already max level and max rapport. Miri is at max rapport and around level 17. For my main Bastian and Miri were not unlocked until AFTER completing all other quests. They were simply leveled by doing the few things necessary to earn the daily and weekly achievements. By the time I purchased Deadlands earlier this year, I was already working on Miri. Miri is taking a bit longer but only cause some activities I still use Bastian due to setting him up as a healer.

At any rate, about 3 months give or take per companion just playing casually and without using experience scrolls. I did not find that to be too burdensome.

ADarklore

@IsharaMeradin I still have not even reached max rapport with EITHER of them... because their rapport is only gained through certain activities that I do not do. Of course that's a whole other topic, but IMO rapport doesn't mean anything to me and it doesn't make them any more or less useful in gameplay.

However, you did help my point... because it's been MONTHS and you still have only one Companion max level. Now, if you're a new player coming in and want all four Companions for various roles... you would either have to grind mindlessly for hours or if you just wanted them to level as you played, in all honesty you could pretty much finish the entire game and not have all four Companions leveled. Without grinding, you cannot level Companions in a timely fashion... and the more they add, the worse this will be for new players.

If ZOS wants to treat Companions as IRL people, then they should also have the ability to gain XP just as the player does, by completing activities along with us.

Bobargus

Zos should:
-Make it easier to level companions up.
-Make it easier to level a companion's rapport up.
-Allow players to summon the companions, if their individual quests are completed by at least one character and at least once, per account.

If people want to do their quests anyway, then let them. But the quests shouldn't be necessary to get immediate access to them anymore, imo.

LalMirchi

Snamyap wrote: »

Got Ember at lvl 20 and Isobel at 12, without any excessive grinding. /Shrug.

I have both Baz & Mirri at level 20 and Isobel at level 12, now Ember is accompanying my characters and I play in a very casual way. However for a very new player this could be a daunting quest.

Snamyap

LalMirchi wrote: »

Snamyap wrote: »

Got Ember at lvl 20 and Isobel at 12, without any excessive grinding. /Shrug.

I have both Baz & Mirri at level 20 and Isobel at level 12, now Ember is accompanying my characters and I play in a very casual way. However for a very new player this could be a daunting quest.

1600+ cp is also a daunting task. What's the difference? Why should everything be accessible to a brand new player?

LalMirchi

Snamyap wrote: »

LalMirchi wrote: »

Snamyap wrote: »

Got Ember at lvl 20 and Isobel at 12, without any excessive grinding. /Shrug.

I have both Baz & Mirri at level 20 and Isobel at level 12, now Ember is accompanying my characters and I play in a very casual way. However for a very new player this could be a daunting quest.

1600+ cp is also a daunting task. What's the difference? Why should everything be accessible to a brand new player?

I am by no way advocating instant god-mode, just reflecting on the fact that XP and other benefits can be gained without relently grinding.

Kisakee

Your methods of farming XP are simply terrible. It may be a good way to level other things at the same time but for simple XP gain there are way better options: BRP as the most efficient, NPC mass murder as second best and Skyreach Caverns.

BRP isn't adding much to the table, mass murder gives lots of gold and in Skyreach you're leveling Fighters Guild extremely fast.

Ilsabet

ADarklore wrote: »

Example: I have been leveling a new character- so leveling my character along with leveling a Companion by doing Dolmen trains using 50% and 100% XP Scrolls. In TWO DAYS running approximately 8 hours of Dolmen runs each day, I think I got Ember up THREE levels! This is an atrocious XP gain rate! Now think of players who aren't grinding and are just wanting a Companion to level while they play, it could take weeks or months for a SINGLE Companion at the current rate.

This brings up something interesting I hadn't thought of before. Companions get exp as a percentage of the player's exp gained from kills. Do player characters get less exp at lower levels? I'm not 100% sure how it works with the way characters scale, but it makes sense for the amount of exp gained to ramp up as the amount needed to level also increases. If so, that would drastically reduce the exp gains for companions of low-level characters, when presumably the exp needed per level for companions is constant.

At CP levels, my companions have always hit level 3 within relatively few kills after I get them and start running around the countryside. Your experience suggests that low-level characters are going to have a much more brutal time gaining companion exp if their own exp gains are commensurately lower for their levels.

Snamyap

Ilsabet wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

Example: I have been leveling a new character- so leveling my character along with leveling a Companion by doing Dolmen trains using 50% and 100% XP Scrolls. In TWO DAYS running approximately 8 hours of Dolmen runs each day, I think I got Ember up THREE levels! This is an atrocious XP gain rate! Now think of players who aren't grinding and are just wanting a Companion to level while they play, it could take weeks or months for a SINGLE Companion at the current rate.

This brings up something interesting I hadn't thought of before. Companions get exp as a percentage of the player's exp gained from kills. Do player characters get less exp at lower levels? I'm not 100% sure how it works with the way characters scale, but it makes sense for the amount of exp gained to ramp up as the amount needed to level also increases. If so, that would drastically reduce the exp gains for companions of low-level characters, when presumably the exp needed per level for companions is constant.

Yes, you get less exp at lower levels, same issue comes with the vampire skill line that also comes from player exp, very slow at low level.

For more experienced players: since overland and quest content is trivial in difficulty just use the training trait on your gear while doing that content with your companions. It speeds things up nicely.

wolfie1.0.

carly wrote: »

Ember is leveling quickly I find and I was surprised today to see that once my alt did the Ember quest - I didn't have to start over with her. I don't know when the change was made to share companion experience across all your alts but I was pleasantly surprised to see it today!

Companion levels have always been account wide. It's rapport that is character specific

ectoplasmicninja

The chapter has been out for less than two weeks and people want to be done with companion progress already?

Maxing rapport for Ember was pretty quick for me, especially since the heists specifically need to be completed poorly in order for them to count - I basically treated them like delves and got 125 rapport for her for no effort at all. Level wise she's only at 11, but I haven't had a ton of gameplay time and I also haven't done any grinding or used any XP scrolls or training gear, so that's just from doing High Isle and regular gameplay.

I expect leveling companions to take some time. I don't think that's unreasonable, especially as their level is account wide. This is an MMO, after all - some in-game tasks are supposed to be long term goals. We can't have instant gratification for everything, or what would be the impetus to keep logging in and doing stuff?

kieso

Level them organically over time.

AcadianPaladin

I don't have a big problem with the leveling pace of companions but do agree it would make sense to have them also gain some xp from completing quests and anything else that levels the player.

Amottica

I would not be against more XP for companions but I doubt we will see a change anytime soon. This was requested last year and did not happen.

Pyr0xyrecuprotite

@ADarklore Don't level up your companions with a new character, unless it's your first and only character. At low levels, characters get a LOT less XP than once you hit level 50, and XP gains for your companions are based on XP that your own character gets. So, XP scrolls and double-XP events etc. all help to level up your companions faster too, but they're kinda wasted if you are doing it on a lowbie. If you really want to level up your companion fast, do typical XP grinds like Skyreach or doing normal DSA with one other person (I'm not sure if that allows companions?). Or just farm your favorite DLC public dungeon for loot as well as the XP. Me, I'm ok with my companion taking a few months to reach max level.

On the other hand, ZoS have already made some improvements in how Companions are levelled up.
- Ember has FOUR different daily quests that each gain +125 rapport with her each day, so you can fairly easily max out your rapport within ten days. (Isobel takes a bit longer.)
- Companions now gain a full level in Guild skill lines from each daily (Mage/Fighter/Undaunted delve) that you complete. This means that you can max out their guild skill lines in ten days. Much less grindy.

ADarklore

Pyr0xyrecuprotite wrote: »

@ADarklore Don't level up your companions with a new character, unless it's your first and only character. At low levels, characters get a LOT less XP than once you hit level 50, and XP gains for your companions are based on XP that your own character gets. So, XP scrolls and double-XP events etc. all help to level up your companions faster too, but they're kinda wasted if you are doing it on a lowbie. If you really want to level up your companion fast, do typical XP grinds like Skyreach or doing normal DSA with one other person (I'm not sure if that allows companions?). Or just farm your favorite DLC public dungeon for loot as well as the XP. Me, I'm ok with my companion taking a few months to reach max level.

On the other hand, ZoS have already made some improvements in how Companions are levelled up.
- Ember has FOUR different daily quests that each gain +125 rapport with her each day, so you can fairly easily max out your rapport within ten days. (Isobel takes a bit longer.)
- Companions now gain a full level in Guild skill lines from each daily (Mage/Fighter/Undaunted delve) that you complete. This means that you can max out their guild skill lines in ten days. Much less grindy.

Yeah, I didn't use my 100% scrolls until after I reached level 50, and that was when I started checking to see how long it was taking to level, and it is miserably slow even at level 50 doing dolmens. I also know the fastest way to level Companions is through dungeons, haven't tried Skyreach but did get Isobel to 20 in a Public Dungeon.

The point being, in order for Companions to truly be useful, they need to be at max level with all skills, otherwise they're pretty useless and pointless. People that constantly complain about them being useless or dying I'm sure are those who haven't leveled them, probably for this very reason, they are a PAIN to level.

As for Rapport, that means nothing to me because it doesn't offer anything; I don't care to have my Companion as a 'house guest'. Honestly, rapport should actually give you something for the work and effort put in to level it other than a couple of extra quests... perhaps an increase in damage done or health, something that's actually beneficial. I have used Mirri and Bastian since they came out, and have yet to get their first quest... I'd expect Isobel and Ember will be the same.

What is odd is that ZOS has seen that people are very unhappy with the grind, at least for Guild skill lines, yet seem oblivious to the pain in actually leveling them. Again, I go back to a new player coming in and being hit with nothing but GRIND... that's not a good way to keep new players nor attract them. I know many new players leave because of the CP grind, and now Companions add another layer of grind... especially if they want all four Companions to be useful. For those of us who have been here for years... it isn't AS bad... many of us have several ALTS and can easily and quickly level all Guild skill lines in a couple of days, a day if I felt like it. Yet, for a new player, this game gets more and more daunting the longer it's been out. ZOS really needs to realize that grind may have been a good thing early on, but now, it's definitely a hindrance for new players... even for those who have been here for years, because eventually 'grind' gets old (new mythic leads come to mind).

zaria

carly wrote: »

Ember is leveling quickly I find and I was surprised today to see that once my alt did the Ember quest - I didn't have to start over with her. I don't know when the change was made to share companion experience across all your alts but I was pleasantly surprised to see it today!

Companion level are shared, report or how much they like you is character based and not important for their efficiency.
If Ember report is raising fast you are an criminal scum and the people Ember like, just listen to her entering an thief guild base.
Think public dungeons are nice for leveling companions, dolmens should works if you have a couple of others and you tags lots of enemies as in not alik'r.
Some say solo / duo normal dragonstar is very efficient. Ember as healer and Isobel as tank should work

zaria

If you are an fat cat like this one, make the 100% xp Aetherial Ambrosia potions, it saves on the perfect roe but cost writ vouchers but have so many of them power leveling this one can burn some.

kargen27

For a new players there is months maybe even years worth of content to experience. A companion taking a couple of months to level considering how much there is to do isn't a problem. New players shouldn't feel the need to almost immediately catch up to players that have been playing for several years. They miss to much of the game going that route.

"What is odd is that ZOS has seen that people are very unhappy with the grind, at least for Guild skill lines, yet seem oblivious to the pain in actually leveling them. Again, I go back to a new player coming in and being hit with nothing but GRIND"

My advice is don't grind. Especially if you are a new player stay away from anything that seems a grind and instead just do what is fun. The levels of your characters and companions will take care of themselves as you play. People being unhappy with a grind and grinding anyway is a player created problem not a game design problem. It can be fixed on an individual basis by ignoring the grind.

Ilsabet

Pyr0xyrecuprotite wrote: »

normal DSA with one other person (I'm not sure if that allows companions?)

Yes indeedy, 2 players + 2 companions can be the 4-person party for DSA or BRP. That's the most efficient way I've found to level companions quickly, and it's also gotten me some weapons I probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I'm figuring to do a bunch of that during the Zeal of Zenithar event, since the friend I go with is also a guildie and we'll be able to rack up event boxes along the way.

Last year I had Bastian with me for (almost) the entirety of Blackwood, and he was level 14 by the end of it. That's about when I resigned myself to the necessity of actively grinding to get them leveled up, and I don't really mind doing it just to have it done. (I would probably mind more if I didn't have an efficient way of doing it.) It would be preferable, I think, if they leveled up more effectively as the player did regular game activities beyond just killing stuff. But at least I have ways of going about it that don't feel as grindy to me.