Let solo players use 3 companions in a dungeon

Waylander07

Why can we only use 1 companion at a time, just my thoughts

Toxic_Hemlock

IMO they won't just give it to us...

This will most likely be the next chapters selling point, along with a few more companions so we have more choice.

Sarannah

Would love it if we could random dungeon queue with 3 of our companions.

woufff

That would be cool indeed, but then this will decrease the pug groups drastically I'm afraid, as a lot of players will go with their companions.

ccfeeling

Maybe a good idea , IDK .

I won't play like this , this is MMO

Waylander07

I play mostly solo anyway as I hate rushing through a dungeon with randoms and I haven't found a group of players to regularly play with which would be my first choice and this would make those solo runs a bit more fun.

fred4

I can see the queue for rnd. Other than that, why? They're of very little help when the going gets tough in veteran content. Mostly the opposite. Keeping them alive feels like a burden. I suppose if they start cross-healing each other that might improve things a bit, but as they will keep standing in red I don't think that will ultimately save them either. They basically use the standard NPC AI. If that AI could be improved to where NPCs moved out of red, we'd have a severe PvE meta change on our hands, hehehe.

Of course, if you would only like them for role-playing reasons, then I get that. Now if they started to have some banter among themselves, like your party in Dragon Age, that would be even better. On the other hand it would be totally weird to have this in an MMO where you have real players to play with, wouldn't it? I get that real players frequently break your immersion, especially if you're doing a dungeon for the first time. All the same, is this an MMO or what?

Waylander07

While this is an MMO it was also advertised for solo play as well at launch

notyuu

or they could do away with the forced co-op mechanics when you enter a dungon solo to allow people to solo the dungons to begin with.

imperial city prison levers
fungal grotto 2 sword attack
cradle of shadows teleport dude cc
direfrost keep pressure plate
blackheart heaven bone zone
crypt of hearts 2 sword grab
moon hunter keep pounce pin
warrest sweers 2 soul grabby

are the ones I can think off on the top of my head

Liedeke

I would love for that to be an option, would gladly pay for it if it would come to that even.

Not that I don't like to play with others on occasion. But I like to take my time, look at the scenery, do the quest and listen to all dialogue. I mean, I did pay for the story content as well and I'd like to be able to play that at my own pace.

I found that quite a few people that are okay with others doing quests tend to get a little annoyed after a while no matter how patient they are. And I hate feeling like a (potential) burden to others, so that puts a damper on my enjoyment of the dungeon quest. That or people get annoyed/toxic on the get-go which isn't fun for anyone involved.
(Disclaimer, I generally don't even bother with the quests when joining a random dungeon since most people just want to get through it asap. I do sometimes ask if anyone still needs to do the quest and if they are up for it but I don't push it.)

And sometimes I just don't feel all that social and want to play solo. So yeah, would love to see this be an option sometime in the future.

DarcyMardin

Yes, please! I have pretty much stopped doing dungeons with a random groups because of the runners who zip thru at warp speed, take short cuts I don’t know, skip mobs and sometimes bosses, and ignore my low level characters’ need to finish a quest. I can solo the easy dungeons, but I’d manage the DLC ones a lot better with the use of, at least, a tank equipped companion and a healer/DPS companion.

jaws343

fred4 wrote: »

I can see the queue for rnd. Other than that, why? They're of very little help when the going gets tough in veteran content. Mostly the opposite. Keeping them alive feels like a burden. I suppose if they start cross-healing each other that might improve things a bit, but as they will keep standing in red I don't think that will ultimately save them either. They basically use the standard NPC AI. If that AI could be improved to where NPCs moved out of red, we'd have a severe PvE meta change on our hands, hehehe.

Of course, if you would only like them for role-playing reasons, then I get that. Now if they started to have some banter among themselves, like your party in Dragon Age, that would be even better. On the other hand it would be totally weird to have this in an MMO where you have real players to play with, wouldn't it? I get that real players frequently break your immersion, especially if you're doing a dungeon for the first time. All the same, is this an MMO or what?

While I agree that they don't contribute much, every little bit helps when soloing. Even if they only do 10k dps each and die after the first 20 seconds of a boss fight, they've at least contributed 200k damage each and made the boss fight last that much less.

Riptide

*chuckle, 90% of the game is solo (overland), if not more. Just saying.

Normals you can already solo most of them, and any of them difficult enough not to then companions will die to standing in red within 5 minutes.

As that takes AI work to fix at a level they certainly don’t have in house (their attempt to have companions avoid red put them in walls, and they never substantively came at it again after that first initial go at it) - and they aren’t likely to spend money on outside help for it at this point.

What you’d get is three dead companions on anything but the most trivial of dungeons 🙂

Monte_Cristo

I'd like it. Makes doing the dungeon quests a bit easier.

Sarannah

Riptide wrote: »

As that takes AI work to fix at a level they certainly don’t have in house (their attempt to have companions avoid red put them in walls, and they never substantively came at it again after that first initial go at it) - and they aren’t likely to spend money on outside help for it at this point.

Easy fix: "Companions are no longer affected by AOE and 1-shot attacks."

Riptide

If you think on that a few minutes you can likely come up with several ways you could absolutely break the game with companions, and the things you’d have to do to block those exploits would be cascading.

Not an easy thing to do to have them spatially move out of things in a way that doesn’t put them in a wall, but if immune then at least half the mechanics in dungeons could be skipped.

And overland would become even more absurdly trivial.

MaraxusTheOrc

Sure, as long as you can’t queue for the random dungeon or do veteran dungeons this way. Only story based normal dungeons with NPCs. That would be fine.

ZharaX

No thank you... That would destroy the already ½-broken dungeon daily system...

Waylander07

Maybe companions could resurrect each other just like real players or we just have to accept that they won't last long in a boss fight which is no different from tackling a dungeon with 1 companion which I do on normal and vet.

redlink1979

Companions are not meant to replace players.

BretonMage

MaraxusTheOrc wrote: »

Sure, as long as you can’t queue for the random dungeon or do veteran dungeons this way. Only story based normal dungeons with NPCs. That would be fine.

Why not? I can understand random dailies, but what's wrong with taking companions through vet dungeons?

Waylander07

redlink1979 wrote: »

Companions are not meant to replace players.

So why are they in the game and available for dungeons if that is the case ?

etchedpixels

BretonMage wrote: »

MaraxusTheOrc wrote: »

Sure, as long as you can’t queue for the random dungeon or do veteran dungeons this way. Only story based normal dungeons with NPCs. That would be fine.

Why not? I can understand random dailies, but what's wrong with taking companions through vet dungeons?

The thing about a random is you are usually in it with random other people - so it's not really fair on them to take a companion instead. That's different to other runs where you build a group and if you want to take 6 companions into Sunspire ought to be able to.

EdmondDontes

Waylander07 wrote: »

Why can we only use 1 companion at a time, just my thoughts

MMO means massive multiplayer online. The goal or idea is to play with other players, not just play with yourself.

deleted221205-002626

Using 2 companions might be nice. Mirri as healer has buffs that are considerable greater than mine as templar. My thoughts are that having mirri healer and a tank companion MIGHT survive dragon tanking.

Ive been for fun experimenting with mirri tanking dragons. Its just not doable with any gear or buffs.. Even myself as templar cannot provide her with enough hp or damage reduction for her to survive the BIG CHOMP lol.. I will say it appears she doesnt even try to block it at all which might be the only issue.. The big chomp should be considered a heavy attack IMO!

The only real hope I have left for this is maybe Isobel once i get the new expansion.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on this?

Snamyap

notyuu wrote: »

or they could do away with the forced co-op mechanics when you enter a dungon solo to allow people to solo the dungons to begin with.

imperial city prison levers
fungal grotto 2 sword attack
cradle of shadows teleport dude cc
direfrost keep pressure plate
blackheart heaven bone zone
crypt of hearts 2 sword grab
moon hunter keep pounce pin
warrest sweers 2 soul grabby

are the ones I can think off on the top of my head

Most of the dungeons, including dlc, can already be done with just one companion (or even without, on some fights they can't be kept alive anyway). I also managed some dungeons on that list, with the psijic ultimate for instance. So allowing three companions won't allow stuff that can't already be done, would just quicken stuff up a bit, and it would be fun.

Waylander07

EdmondDontes wrote: »

Waylander07 wrote: »

Why can we only use 1 companion at a time, just my thoughts

MMO means massive multiplayer online. The goal or idea is to play with other players, not just play with yourself.

Zos advertised this game as "Play The Way You Like" not you can only play with others. Most of the gamed can be played solo and the choice is left to the individual. I like this because I play solo unless I am playing with friends as I have no interest in speed running a dungeon with some randoms that barley communicate through the run.

BretonMage

etchedpixels wrote: »

BretonMage wrote: »

MaraxusTheOrc wrote: »

Sure, as long as you can’t queue for the random dungeon or do veteran dungeons this way. Only story based normal dungeons with NPCs. That would be fine.

Why not? I can understand random dailies, but what's wrong with taking companions through vet dungeons?

The thing about a random is you are usually in it with random other people - so it's not really fair on them to take a companion instead. That's different to other runs where you build a group and if you want to take 6 companions into Sunspire ought to be able to.

Yes, I can see the reasoning against companions in random dailies, even premade randoms tbh. I was just wondering why Maraxus didn't like the idea of us doing vet dungeons with companions. Seemed like an odd constraint.

CoronHR

i think this could kill group play, but that has been dying from other causes for quite some time now

Waylander07

CoronHR wrote: »

i think this could kill group play, but that has been dying from other causes for quite some time now

If this does kill group play, then I would say there is a problem already as it should be more fun grouping up with friends on discord than companions. Unfortunately for me all my friends have left the game which leaves me with companions for company until I make new friends.

Syldras

etchedpixels wrote: »

The thing about a random is you are usually in it with random other people - so it's not really fair on them to take a companion instead.

Then they should be disabled for random groups. Soloing vet dungeons with companions should be fine though, as no one else is affected.

EdmondDontes wrote: »

MMO means massive multiplayer online. The goal or idea is to play with other players, not just play with yourself.

"In a recent interview, the head of Zenimax Online Studios argues the massively multiplayer online game Elder Scrolls Online is not actually an MMO."
https://screenrant.com/elder-scrolls-online-not-really-mmo-studio-director/

CoronHR wrote: »

i think this could kill group play, but that has been dying from other causes for quite some time now

Companions will never be as good as real players, so if people don't dislike playing with others, they will always choose a real player over a companion. But those who don't play with friends and don't like random groups because they rush through dungeons not allowing them to read the story dialogues, companions make soloing easier.