After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic, as it's asking the community for help.
Well, you can just do a google search for "eso companion build" and you'll get several sites. However, I've learned that many of those builds are designed for how THEY play the game or utilize companions... so I tend to take their suggestions with a grain of salt, and just design my own build using skills that fit with my personal playstyle or how I want to utilize each companion.
However, I've learned that many of those builds are designed for how THEY play the game or utilize companions... so I tend to take their suggestions with a grain of salt
That is right. And I go so far to say that most have NO BLOODY CLUE about companions.
They recommend the most generic and unoptimised setups, without doing calculations or testing, wether what they recommend is actually the best thing to do!
Want examples? Take the companion builds of Alcast and you will see he always recommends all heavy armour Bolstered traits for Tank builds, all light armour Soothing traits for healer builds and all medium armour Aggressive traits for DPS builds. He does not deviate from that.
And on the first glance it makes sense, right? More healing for healers, more damage for DPS? Because it makes sense for players to have this, it must be the best for companions, right? .... Wrong!
But not for companions. Their abilities have long cooldowns. Over a fight that lasts more than a couple of seconds these recommendations make no sense, because after they used their abilities, there will be a considerable downtime where the companions will be doing nothing except standing around and light attacking. So much for damage.
On top of that, most Streamers/Youtubers and Website hosts have no clue about how the game engine prioritises companion abilities. The slots are numbered for a reason! Number one slot has the highest priority and number 5 the lowest.
So why do all the Streamers/Youtubers recommend to put a burst heal on the number 5 slot? After all, you want the companions to prioritise their health over anything else, right? It should always be in number 1 slot!
..... NO BLOODY CLUE! .....
If you want to learn about companions, you should search the forums for topics related to companions and read thouroughly what is being discussed. @phaneub17_ESO for example, has done extensive testing and calculations and he shares them in detail. I would trust his word over any youtuber/streamer, anytime.
If anyone here says: OH! But, PVP! I swear I'll ...
Thank you for the valuable input and respectfully recommend to discuss that aspect of ESO on the PVP forum.