ZOS, Why is companion aggro not fixed?

Sevalaricgirl

Aggro should be based on what weapon they are using. I am CP700 and have to use either Isobel or Bastian because I am sick of chasing down enemies on my melee characters. ZOS fix this. New players with low level characters aren't the only ones who like to use companions.

Kisakee

I don't understand what you are saying. What exactly is the problem?

Sevalaricgirl

Kisakee wrote: »

I don't understand what you are saying. What exactly is the problem?

You do know what aggro is right? The enemies instantly go after the companion you have out. Every...single...time...unless...you..taunt.

zaria

Sevalaricgirl wrote: »

Kisakee wrote: »

I don't understand what you are saying. What exactly is the problem?

You do know what aggro is right? The enemies instantly go after the companion you have out. Every...single...time...unless...you..taunt.

Companions does not pull aggro, same is true for combat pets. Try to sneak.
but they will attack hostiles like enemies spawning or if you engage / get detected.
However if you pull on they will follow.

FluffyBird

Companions DO steal aggro like crazy.

I attack the monster, couple of hits in - and they ignore me and go after my companion. Any companion. Melee or ranged. Every. Single. Time. And what does the companion do? They run and roll. I got bosses reset more than once because of that.

I agree with the idea that they should never get aggro unless they specifically use a taunt ability.

AcadianPaladin

Just ran normal DS1 and CoH1 this morning with a duo. Two magplars and two dps Embers. No tanks no taunts. The most 'in your face' capable of the four was my magplar (sweeps) so she would get in each boss' face to initiate boss fights. I was pleasantly surprised that every boss stayed focused on her for almost the entirety of each fight. They almost never turned to the other magplar or either Ember. Make of it what you will.

Kisakee

Sevalaricgirl wrote: »

Kisakee wrote: »

I don't understand what you are saying. What exactly is the problem?

You do know what aggro is right? The enemies instantly go after the companion you have out. Every...single...time...unless...you..taunt.

That's because your companions don't have any delay when starting the fight, you're most likely slower as you need to draw your weapon first. And then there's this thing called initial aggro which is a soft taunt for 7 seconds.

Besides that aggro switches all the time in battle when nobody taunts, it's just that your companions will most likely die when the world boss decides to attack them and they're not a tank. Never had any problem with unwanted companion aggro.

Jpk0012

zaria wrote: »

Sevalaricgirl wrote: »

Kisakee wrote: »

I don't understand what you are saying. What exactly is the problem?

You do know what aggro is right? The enemies instantly go after the companion you have out. Every...single...time...unless...you..taunt.

Companions does not pull aggro, same is true for combat pets. Try to sneak.
but they will attack hostiles like enemies spawning or if you engage / get detected.
However if you pull on they will follow.

Tell me you don't play ranged companions without telling me you don't play with ranged companions. BTW, OP is talking about combat, not whatever you're talking about.

Snamyap

Sevalaricgirl wrote: »

Aggro should be based on what weapon they are using. I am CP700 and have to use either Isobel or Bastian because I am sick of chasing down enemies on my melee characters. ZOS fix this. New players with low level characters aren't the only ones who like to use companions.

The answer is in the weapon type. Give your companions melee weapons or an ice staff to stop them from running away.

Sevalaricgirl

They aren't running away. They are standing at distance and the enemies run directly toward them.

Sarannah

Companions should never get aggro, unless they specifically use a slotted taunting ability.

Auldwulfe

I have seen it with Mirri, especially
I think it's because she'll use a skill that immediately puts her on the "that must die now" list in the enemy program.

I have her set as an archer, to support my Magica Sorcerer, and in about 2/3rds of the fights I end up in, she pulls whatever onto her, and starts rolling around, while I blast from range.......

Auldwulfe

Holycannoli

FluffyBird wrote: »

Companions DO steal aggro like crazy.

I attack the monster, couple of hits in - and they ignore me and go after my companion. Any companion. Melee or ranged. Every. Single. Time. And what does the companion do? They run and roll. I got bosses reset more than once because of that.

I agree with the idea that they should never get aggro unless they specifically use a taunt ability.

Are you slotting taunting skills?

Auldwulfe

Holycannoli wrote: »

FluffyBird wrote: »

Companions DO steal aggro like crazy.

I attack the monster, couple of hits in - and they ignore me and go after my companion. Any companion. Melee or ranged. Every. Single. Time. And what does the companion do? They run and roll. I got bosses reset more than once because of that.

I agree with the idea that they should never get aggro unless they specifically use a taunt ability.

Are you slotting taunting skills?

If I remember it correctly, it happens a lot if your companion heals you.... that seems to immediately move them up to the "must die now" category for every mob in the game.

Auldwulfe

FluffWit

I was gonna say you guys are exaggerating so I went and pulled some zombies. 6 pulled two immediately made a beeline for Ember, the other 4 slapped me for like 2 seconds then got bored and all ran off to play with Ember. 🤦‍♂️

spartaxoxo

Sevalaricgirl wrote: »

They aren't running away. They are standing at distance and the enemies run directly toward them.

They are standing at a distance because they aren't melee range combatants. Give them an ice staff/melee weapons and they will move to the enemy. If you have a mix of abilities, have them start combat with the one they gotta get close to use.


I agree the ranged weapons one do this way too much.

Mascen

Holycannoli wrote: »

FluffyBird wrote: »

Companions DO steal aggro like crazy.

I attack the monster, couple of hits in - and they ignore me and go after my companion. Any companion. Melee or ranged. Every. Single. Time. And what does the companion do? They run and roll. I got bosses reset more than once because of that.

I agree with the idea that they should never get aggro unless they specifically use a taunt ability.

Are you slotting taunting skills?

Nah I have a similar issue with my Bow Mirri. Harrowstorms, World Bosses, you name it one arrow or ability and they're going after her even if I was just engaging them with biting jabs.

@Sevalaricgirl
IMO its like a combination of enemy AI, companion abilities, and companion AI; usually the latter two. IME it feels like its mostly the companion AI making alot of bonehead decisions; that is to say they'll often do things directly stand smack dab in the middle of an enemy AOE, try to charge a ranged enemy with melee, or not take evasive maneuvers even with defensive and healing abilites slotted. They definitely need to fix the AI so that they do more evasive/smart actions when dealing with enemies that can one shot them into a smear on the ground.

Other half is class abilities. Blackwood companion class abilities are clearly inferior to the High Isle companion's class abilities. Mirri's problem is that they gave her none of the Nightblade AOE and ranged abilities, basically forcing you to give her a bow or staff if you don't want her to be a melee glass cannon. Meanwhile it looks like ZOS was trying to make Bastian more of a DPS/Tank type, but he has only one AOE and his ability constraints make him less effective at tanking than Isobel, and has only one healing ability while his support abilites are more useless than anything.

Overall the blackwood companions definitely need an overhaul.

AvalonRanger

I don't know bug or not. But my Amber cat keep taunting enemy without any of
taunting skill. And she is too much aggressive, usually can't control situation,
so I let her die so many times.

TheGreatBlackBear

I’m fairly certain that if you’re doing the most damage you’ll have the lead in agro. What exactly are you doing?

Marto

FluffWit wrote: »

I was gonna say you guys are exaggerating so I went and pulled some zombies. 6 pulled two immediately made a beeline for Ember, the other 4 slapped me for like 2 seconds then got bored and all ran off to play with Ember. 🤦‍♂️

It's because you're standing there without attacking, and Ember *is* attacking

Gnesnig

Agro without taunt from my observations is DPS based. If your melee char is engaging 3 or more mobs, they most likely don't have enough DPS to outperform a ranged companions Acid Spray or equivalent. On my NB Soul Tether is pretty much the only way to guarentee I don't have to chase them down.

Companions also don't follow your target, so if you switch, you'll likely loose the agro.

You'd have to slot something like the "shadow + full heal" on Mirri to get agro back, but that has backfired quite a bit giving me adds I wasn't ready for yet

My 2c.

Fennwitty

Unless there was a secret change to the game's targeting system, there's no "aggro" in the normal sense.

Taunting forces a target's attention for 15 seconds.

Being the first to hit an enemy outside of combat gives you the target's attention for about 6~ seconds, unless someone taunts.

Every ~6 seconds after that, if nobody's taunting, the enemy chooses a new target out of targets currently engaged in combat with it. Essentially the next target to do "something" to it after the 6 seconds is up gets their attention.

Dealing damage, Healing someone who is currently engaged in combat. It doesn't matter if one person does 20 times more damage than another, the NPCs aren't that smart. They simply choose a new target from the pool of enemies "engaged" with them IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE INITIAL AGGRO DROPS OFF.

A ton of passive or reactive abilities, HoTs/DoTs in a fight make it extremely difficult for humans to predict the next 'aggro' recipient.

If it's just you and your companion, you can increase your chances of being the aggro target primarily by taunting -- but otherwise you can ensure your actions per minute is significantly higher than your companion's. If you're doing 40 things to the enemy while your companion is doing 10 -- given that it's hard to tell exactly when the switch is coming -- you're more likely to be the one to have annoyed it first each 6 seconds.

So if your companion's very consistently healing, applying DoTs, using their basic attacks every possible instant they can while you're spending time doing heavy attacks or dodging AoE broadcasts or dodge-rolling, then your companion's performing more actions per minute than you are.

Companions running Ice Staves and Frost Clench have a taunt skill, as do Companions running sword and shield with the Puncture-type skill.

alanmatillab16_ESO

Sevalaricgirl wrote: »

Kisakee wrote: »

I don't understand what you are saying. What exactly is the problem?

You do know what aggro is right? The enemies instantly go after the companion you have out. Every...single...time...unless...you..taunt.

Enemies go after dps/healers in a group if they heal or dps before the tank hits the target and they need to use a taunt to get the aggro back. Why should companions be any different?

Treat companions as if they are the type of player that does a boss fight with one eye on the damage meter and one hand down their pants when they see the DPS number and always stands in the stupid because moving would "waste a GCD". Once you are used to that then they become far less of a problem.

kargen27

I would really appreciate if a change was made so that we had the option to tell our companion to never get more than 12 meters away from us. If that can't be done maybe let them mostly side roll to escape instead of back roll. Sometimes they act like a gymnast on their final pass of the floor exercise and the floor is half a mile long.

alanmatillab16_ESO

kargen27 wrote: »

I would really appreciate if a change was made so that we had the option to tell our companion to never get more than 12 meters away from us. If that can't be done maybe let them mostly side roll to escape instead of back roll. Sometimes they act like a gymnast on their final pass of the floor exercise and the floor is half a mile long.

lol thats true, ive had world bosses reset a couple of times because Mirri chose that moment to practise her gymnastics routine for 300 metres.

Auldwulfe

That is a VERY good description of Mirri ---- It's even more fun when you have the boss down to just one or two more good hits..... and it's reset ..........

And yet, I like her comments enough to keep her around........ can't stand Ember, although Isobel is growing on my Paladin Templar

Auldwulfe

Gnesnig

Auldwulfe wrote: »

And yet, I like her comments enough to keep her around........

Agreed. My only beef is Torchbugs and Butterflies. I need them .

WinterHeart626

Yep. I’ve had that.
Whack a world boss, world boss aggro goes right onto the companion.
Queue me saying every expletive under the sun as the companion RUNS AWAY. Yep, companion steals the aggro then kites off like a fresh lv10 who’s just realised the world boss doesn’t want to give gentle hugs…….
Definitely needs a fix up.

Prof_Bawbag

I've seen so many world boss resets since they were implemented, it's not even remotely amusing any more. I don't use them myself because of their inane chat, but if there's a grp of folk with them, there's a high chance the boss will run out of bounds and reset.

alternatelder

And why does Mirri still try rolling backwards all the way to Mournhold when she aggros a WB?

Sevalaricgirl

alanmatillab16_ESO wrote: »

Sevalaricgirl wrote: »

Kisakee wrote: »

I don't understand what you are saying. What exactly is the problem?

You do know what aggro is right? The enemies instantly go after the companion you have out. Every...single...time...unless...you..taunt.

Enemies go after dps/healers in a group if they heal or dps before the tank hits the target and they need to use a taunt to get the aggro back. Why should companions be any different?

Treat companions as if they are the type of player that does a boss fight with one eye on the damage meter and one hand down their pants when they see the DPS number and always stands in the stupid because moving would "waste a GCD". Once you are used to that then they become far less of a problem.

I'm a dual dagger nightblade werewolf. I do major damage but as soon as I hit the boss or any enemy, it instantly goes after my weak ass companion. That is not how the companions are supposed to work. Why should I as the player who is major dps have all my enemies go after my level 1 companion. Mind you, I don't need companions but I like having them around because playing the game solo can get very boring quickly and Ember is pretty funny at times. She's like having a little sister who appreciates the crimes my Bosmer gets up to.