New Update For Companions Idea:

Gray_howling_parrot

I want to propose three very simple improvements for companions to improve their effectiveness and overall usability in combat (overland, dungeons, endless archive, etc). Currently, their AI intelligence is about as simple as a rock. They completely ignore the fact that they stand around in fire like everything is totally fine. Most of the time that I've been using them, they prefer to roleplay as a carpet rather than engage in combat. Healers are fine - they just die too quickly. DPS companions are more useful as ranged simply because they are less likely to be able to stand in stupid and die. Tanks can only taunt one enemy at a time, and often die for the same reasons. Here are my proposals:

1. I want to propose that companions, in the future, are completely unable to die via ground AOEs and can only die from direct melee damage or ranged attacks. If the AI is not going to be improved to where they can engage in simple mechanics like this, they should be treated like pets in combat and unable to die to this kind of stuff.
2. Tank companions should 100% have an AOE taunt inherently available to make them desirable. There will never be a circumstance where companions' usefulness will surpass that of a player due to player sets. BUT - this would increase their effectiveness ten-fold.
3. Boost their damage and healing (buff them) by x %. That's for y'all to figure out math-wise, but they simply need to be buffed.

I would VASTLY prefer to see improvements to the system and its functionality rather than adding an endless number of useless companions. Are they fun? Sure. Their voice lines are hilarious - especially Sharp's "skill issue" one. BUT, in actual content, they're useless.

Erickson9610

I have a different suggestion

1. Companions being unable to die by ground AoEs is a cheap solution to the problem. I'd rather their AI be reworked so they know where to move to get out of those ground AoEs — this could be as simple as always making the companion roll to the side when they take ground AoE damage (orbiting their target enemy), or as complex as pathfinding to the nearest node on the ground which isn't covered by AoE.
2. Rather than make all taunting abilities AoE, instead rework the Companion AI to switch between targets every time a taunt ability fails to be used on an enemy due to that enemy already being taunted. This ensures that the Companion will have more opportunities to use their taunt, and they would taunt multiple enemies.
3. I disagree that Companion damage and healing should be buffed. Perhaps the Aggressive (damage done) and Soothing (healing done) traits could be buffed instead, so that they become competitive against Quickened (cooldown reduction), because Quickened by far outweighs the other traits.

Gray_howling_parrot

Yes I agree

Erickson9610 wrote: »

1. Companions being unable to die by ground AoEs is a cheap solution to the problem. I'd rather their AI be reworked so they know where to move to get out of those ground AoEs — this could be as simple as always making the companion roll to the side when they take ground AoE damage (orbiting their target enemy), or as complex as pathfinding to the nearest node on the ground which isn't covered by AoE.
2. Rather than make all taunting abilities AoE, instead rework the Companion AI to switch between targets every time a taunt ability fails to be used on an enemy due to that enemy already being taunted. This ensures that the Companion will have more opportunities to use their taunt, and they would taunt multiple enemies.
3. I disagree that Companion damage and healing should be buffed. Perhaps the Aggressive (damage done) and Soothing (healing done) traits could be buffed instead, so that they become competitive against Quickened (cooldown reduction), because Quickened by far outweighs the other traits.

1. Main assumption here is that reworking the companion AI is much more complicated than simply giving them this capability thats already used by in-game assets. Could be used WHILE WORKING on improving AI, but improving functionality in the meantime should be a goal
2. I still would vastly prefer an AOE taunt - specifically could be given to isobel with their explosive charge ability like if a templar tank used tormentor
3. Companions still do negligible damage. Doesn't matter if the traits are re-worked a bit unless aggressive gives them a MUCH higher percentage of damage. They're still barely doing any damage honestly. BUT id vastly prefer a big buff to their health and resistances than damage personally so they dont have the capability to replace another player

Gray_howling_parrot

Yes I agree

Erickson9610 wrote: »

1. Companions being unable to die by ground AoEs is a cheap solution to the problem. I'd rather their AI be reworked so they know where to move to get out of those ground AoEs — this could be as simple as always making the companion roll to the side when they take ground AoE damage (orbiting their target enemy), or as complex as pathfinding to the nearest node on the ground which isn't covered by AoE.
2. Rather than make all taunting abilities AoE, instead rework the Companion AI to switch between targets every time a taunt ability fails to be used on an enemy due to that enemy already being taunted. This ensures that the Companion will have more opportunities to use their taunt, and they would taunt multiple enemies.
3. I disagree that Companion damage and healing should be buffed. Perhaps the Aggressive (damage done) and Soothing (healing done) traits could be buffed instead, so that they become competitive against Quickened (cooldown reduction), because Quickened by far outweighs the other traits.

Appreciate your reply here - all great ideas BUT you are assuming that they're going to take a lot of time and effort to implement these complex fixes. I TOO want what you want here, I just dont see it happening, so I proposed much simpler fixes. Thats all

Ingenon

I have a different suggestion

1. Agreed, apparently, it is too hard for ZOS to get them to not stand in ground AOE, so just make it so standing in ground AOE does not kill them. Note that this also need done in Endless Archive, where both companions and pets die quickly in ground AOE according to numerous posts.
2. Agree with above post, rather than make all taunting abilities AoE, instead rework the Companion AI to switch between targets every time a taunt ability fails to be used on an enemy due to that enemy already being taunted. This ensures that the Companion will have more opportunities to use their taunt, and they would taunt multiple enemies.
3. Disagree that companion healing and damage need buffed. I don't want them replacing players. I would be happy if they didn't die so quickly.

LunaFlora

Yes I agree

agree mostly, but aoe taunts are unlikely to happen unless we get them as well

M1SHAAN

I have a different suggestion

1. I'd rather the AI attempt to get out of the AOE, especially if the (completely unsubstantiated afaik and I don't remember where I read it) rumor is true that rather than an AI issue this was a deliberate choice to keep companions less powerful than players. You could for example choose a probability for the AI to 'notice' it's in an AOE and thus try to escape it, so even if the AI is better at physically getting out of the AOE than players this 'noticing the AOE' percentage can be tuned so they still are worse at it than players overall.
2. A short range AOE taunt would be interesting. I'm nervous about adding more target switching AI because I've been burned by tank companions switching targets before. I *almost* had an Arc 2 Gothmau down, but then a new wave of adds spawned, companion lost taunt, and I went down almost immediately lol
3. I don't have an opinion because I haven't invested significant effort into making good healing/dps builds yet. I work on the companion once I have the character in a place I'm happy with, and my only 'somewhat finished' character uses a tank companion.

I also want to note that if you're willing to compromise your own build a bit, Telvanni Efficiency is crazy for buffing tank companions at least. You can get 100% uptime on Ritual of Salvation with no quickened, for example. In the aforementioned Arc 2 Gothmau incident I was running Telvanni Efficiency in a dps build as a dk with no selfless heals, and Bastian was able to tank Gothmau with no issues until he got distracted lol. I assume he had to use his emergency heals which means he wouldn't have gotten full uptime on the skills down the line, but still. Ritual of Salvation with near 100% uptime against a daedra = 40% damage mitigation. Drake's blood presumably also with a high uptime because Gothmau is slicing and dicing him = another 20% damage mitigation. Then you have on guard with a lower uptime, but with all traits vigorous (but not purple) that's a nearly 10k damage shield you get for a decent amount of the time. So at any given moment it is more likely than not that he has 60% damage mitigation, and he might also have a beefy damage shield.

This is far from a perfect build, and I haven't tested it an any vet or most normal DLC dungeons because I need to git gud, but apparently it's good enough to facetank a blender and survive. The only glaring issue is the taunt targeting / lack of ability to taunt multiple targets well. The next time I fight Gothmau I'd really rather not have to do the pet commands version of nonoNO TAUNT THE BOSS! THE BOSS!! while being turned into steak tartare haha

Erickson9610

I have a different suggestion

M1SHAAN wrote: »

I'm nervous about adding more target switching AI because I've been burned by tank companions switching targets before. I *almost* had an Arc 2 Gothmau down, but then a new wave of adds spawned, companion lost taunt, and I went down almost immediately lol

There is a workaround to this. Companions (and other pets, for that matter) will update their target to be the one that you heavy attack or use the Y + Left Click keybind on. It's also worth mentioning that you can make a Companion or pet stop attacking and return to you by using Y + Right Click.

As for the idea of Companions switching targets when using taunting abilities, there are two ways I'd imagine this might be implemented:

1. The Companion does not switch their primary target back to the initial target — they would taunt a nearby enemy if the main enemy is still taunted, and would make the new enemy their new target. The aforementioned workaround can be used to manually change the Companion's primary target back to the initial target.
2. The Companion automatically switches their primary target back to their initial target — they would taunt a nearby enemy if the main enemy is still taunted, but they would continue to focus the main enemy. This is likely the implementation that would be given to Companions, in an effort to reduce the micromanaging that players have to do.

phaneub17_ESO

I have a different suggestion

1. Better controls that don't involve using the Heavy Attack/Block to issue commands, I find that very cumbersome. If I could have it my way I would use L1 + Square/X command as "Move Here" causes your companion to run to that location your cursor is pointing at and stay there for at least 2 seconds before returning to other actions. L1 + Triangle/Y Orders them to attack and L1 + Circle/B tells them to stop attacking, return to me.
2. Dictate their Roll Dodge parameters so it isn't tied to their weapon, let me control when I want them to roll dodge.
- Foolhardy =< 25% current health
- Brave =< 50% current health
- Cautious =< 75% current health
- Cowardly = any health
3. Weapon Swapping. Dual roles would be nice, I still have to talk to them out of combat to have them switch weapons, but they would already be equipped with the secondary weapon and swapping automatically changes their action bar so you're not spending extra time fiddling with it.