Endless Archive and the Companion Patch Note

Toxic_Hemlock

An update:

Thanks to my companion living longer I got to see, and defeat, my very first marauder today at the beginning of arc 2. I don't know it's name but he summoned whirlwinds around him. This in itself made it difficult to see as I had a totem spawner in the room with him leading to an effects overload, but I prevailed. I went on to do the first two easier bosses in arc 2, but I didn't go further as I know my limits. I turned in the quest then, so it looks like I may be able to unlock a few of the weapons from there eventually, mind you it goes outside of my normal "fun" wheelhouse.

I died once to Symphony of Blades but was able to defeat Lady Balane and Tho'at was easier as I could concentrate on the blobs while sharp kept her occupied. The visions I shared with sharp got were good too, so no complaints there, I'm just hoping I can keep completing it as a daily. All in all it should have been like this from the start, but I am happier with it...

Disclaimer: I may change my mind, if and when, faced with the more difficult bosses and die repeatedly, but so far so good.

LouisaB75

EdjeSwift wrote: »

Edit: Also, it does show that Scorching Support DOES work on companions, I kept trying to get it last night but never got the chance until late and even though it does seem to work for her, it doesn't seem to do nearly as much damage for her as it does for me.

Thanks for the confirmation on that. I had scorching support today (and FINALLY got the iron avatar achievement) and thought I had seen it spawn under Isobel but it was a bit hard to tell at times.

I managed to get past Tho'at 2 with Isobel today. Still lost two threads on my first two attempts. She survived but I was dying to the AOEs. Lost a third thread when I got booted from the server and it took too long to get back into the game again. My fourth thread I lost to the second boss in arc 3 when his AOE sent me flying from the platform, which was entirely my own fault because I was chasing the loot goblin, though goodness knows why considering the loot isn't that great for me.

Pretty sure that Isobel died about the same number of times as I did, but not at the same time as me. Mostly she was dying in mob packs and once at the second attempt of the Tho'at 2 fight (which is partly how I died because I hadn't noticed she was down).

I am really happy with the update to companions.

EdjeSwift

LouisaB75 wrote: »

Pretty sure that Isobel died about the same number of times as I did, but not at the same time as me. Mostly she was dying in mob packs and once at the second attempt of the Tho'at 2 fight (which is partly how I died because I hadn't noticed she was down).

I am really happy with the update to companions.

Do you have her with a heal and a shield skill? Cause with those things on her bar she does amazing and facetanks nearly everything.

daemondamian

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the most annoying is the infuser which does a large burst heal (i think it might be 15-20% max health heal or something) and a small increase in the enemy dmg (this can stack)

For me, the most annoying is the tho'at shards in later rounds of arc 4, because they don't stop spawning. So, you have to interrupt constantly the whole round while dealing with things like the infusers.

ESO_player123 wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ESO_player123 wrote: »

Just tried with a companion. Is this how a Tho'at fight looks like when going duo with a tank? It was quite pleasing.

Companion does not give much help with trash packs. This time got killed mid arc 3 by some persistent trash pack that kept spawning some totems(?) that kept firing fireballs at me at very rapid speed. I think this is the kind of pack that usually stops my runs in arcs 3 or 4. Can someone suggest me how to deal with these totems? They keep killing me so fast I cannot do anything.

The totem master spawns far away from the rest of pack, and will usually try to do some damage and heals before attempting to spawn a total. Kill him first (unless an infuser also spawned as that's a common second shield mob with totem masters) and then you win have to deal with the totem mechanic.

Honestly, most of the worst stuff comes from the tall guys in the back, so that's a good general rule too.

Thank for the tips. The problem is that it's so many of them it's hard to see anything. Also, my dps is too low to kill them quickly enough. The setup I have is mostly for survival and I seem to be getting a lot of visions for marital attacks even though I'm a magsorc.

ESO_player123 wrote: »

cozmic72 wrote: »

A ranged interrupt is very useful in EA.

It is, but unfortunately it can be a hindrance for the the other types of trash packs where that slot can be used more efficiently. And you never know what you will get. Besides, in trash packs sometimes it's very hard to target the one that is channeling from a distance.

In case it hasn't been mentioned here (I read it in another thread somewhere) and/or some people are still struggling with interrupts on trash pack mobs (particularly Fabled & Tho'at shards) I use Deadlands Demolisher (with Ironblood, Oakensoul & 1 Lord Warden) to mass interrupt everything (solo sorc).

You still need to gather/pull the trash mob into a small as space as possible. It's near impossible (for me) trying to tab target the Fabled amongst the group of trash so instead I do - aoe - wall of elements, storm attro, heavy lightning attacks, dodge roll from one side to the other, bash attacks for mass interrupts as necessary.

When the mob thins out then you can tab target Fabled if still there.

Another thing helpful which some people may have figured out already and I'll share (because I don't care about leader boards and want people who want to finish Arc 4 to be able to) is my cp choices:

If you can get sufficient Focused Efforts (and other related good visions/verses), use Elemental Susceptibility and a lightning staff then try out using Occult Overload:

Whenever you kill an enemy under the effect of a status effect, they violently explode for 1037 Oblivion Damage per stage to all other enemies in a 4 meter radius, and applying a random status effect to each enemy hit. This effect can occur once every second.

Sure the explosion might not do a lot of damage but it applies status effects to all other enemies when you kill one enemy and if you have 1 or more Focused Efforts status effects can be doing damage on top of that and it can daisy chain even without applying elemental breach to another target.

You can also use Force of Nature to get more penetration:

Increases your Offensive Penetration by 660 for every status effect your target has.

I had burning do 36% of my damage on my first Th'oat Dragon fight and that was only from using Elemental Susceptibility as far as I remember.

Araneae6537

daemondamian wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the most annoying is the infuser which does a large burst heal (i think it might be 15-20% max health heal or something) and a small increase in the enemy dmg (this can stack)

For me, the most annoying is the tho'at shards in later rounds of arc 4, because they don't stop spawning. So, you have to interrupt constantly the whole round while dealing with things like the infusers.

ESO_player123 wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ESO_player123 wrote: »

Just tried with a companion. Is this how a Tho'at fight looks like when going duo with a tank? It was quite pleasing.

Companion does not give much help with trash packs. This time got killed mid arc 3 by some persistent trash pack that kept spawning some totems(?) that kept firing fireballs at me at very rapid speed. I think this is the kind of pack that usually stops my runs in arcs 3 or 4. Can someone suggest me how to deal with these totems? They keep killing me so fast I cannot do anything.

The totem master spawns far away from the rest of pack, and will usually try to do some damage and heals before attempting to spawn a total. Kill him first (unless an infuser also spawned as that's a common second shield mob with totem masters) and then you win have to deal with the totem mechanic.

Honestly, most of the worst stuff comes from the tall guys in the back, so that's a good general rule too.

Thank for the tips. The problem is that it's so many of them it's hard to see anything. Also, my dps is too low to kill them quickly enough. The setup I have is mostly for survival and I seem to be getting a lot of visions for marital attacks even though I'm a magsorc.

ESO_player123 wrote: »

cozmic72 wrote: »

A ranged interrupt is very useful in EA.

It is, but unfortunately it can be a hindrance for the the other types of trash packs where that slot can be used more efficiently. And you never know what you will get. Besides, in trash packs sometimes it's very hard to target the one that is channeling from a distance.

In case it hasn't been mentioned here (I read it in another thread somewhere) and/or some people are still struggling with interrupts on trash pack mobs (particularly Fabled & Tho'at shards) I use Deadlands Demolisher (with Ironblood, Oakensoul & 1 Lord Warden) to mass interrupt everything (solo sorc).

You still need to gather/pull the trash mob into a small as space as possible. It's near impossible (for me) trying to tab target the Fabled amongst the group of trash so instead I do - aoe - wall of elements, storm attro, heavy lightning attacks, dodge roll from one side to the other, bash attacks for mass interrupts as necessary.

When the mob thins out then you can tab target Fabled if still there.

Another thing helpful which some people may have figured out already and I'll share (because I don't care about leader boards and want people who want to finish Arc 4 to be able to) is my cp choices:

If you can get sufficient Focused Efforts (and other related good visions/verses), use Elemental Susceptibility and a lightning staff then try out using Occult Overload:

Whenever you kill an enemy under the effect of a status effect, they violently explode for 1037 Oblivion Damage per stage to all other enemies in a 4 meter radius, and applying a random status effect to each enemy hit. This effect can occur once every second.

Sure the explosion might not do a lot of damage but it applies status effects to all other enemies when you kill one enemy and if you have 1 or more Focused Efforts status effects can be doing damage on top of that and it can daisy chain even without applying elemental breach to another target.

You can also use Force of Nature to get more penetration:

Increases your Offensive Penetration by 660 for every status effect your target has.

I had burning do 36% of my damage on my first Th'oat Dragon fight and that was only from using Elemental Susceptibility as far as I remember.

Thank you for the recommendations! I’ve been mostly playing EA with Oakensorc and now reliably get to arc 3 but the mobs — ugh! I’m usually able to run in as a wave spawns to be ready to focus damage on any Fabled as soon as they lose invulnerability, but then they pull off a one shot before death, so I definitely need to be tankier and if I can add more interrupts without costing more stamina, so much the better! I’m going to try that DD set and the CP suggestions — thank you!

daemondamian

Araneae6537 wrote: »

daemondamian wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the most annoying is the infuser which does a large burst heal (i think it might be 15-20% max health heal or something) and a small increase in the enemy dmg (this can stack)

For me, the most annoying is the tho'at shards in later rounds of arc 4, because they don't stop spawning. So, you have to interrupt constantly the whole round while dealing with things like the infusers.

ESO_player123 wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ESO_player123 wrote: »

Just tried with a companion. Is this how a Tho'at fight looks like when going duo with a tank? It was quite pleasing.

Companion does not give much help with trash packs. This time got killed mid arc 3 by some persistent trash pack that kept spawning some totems(?) that kept firing fireballs at me at very rapid speed. I think this is the kind of pack that usually stops my runs in arcs 3 or 4. Can someone suggest me how to deal with these totems? They keep killing me so fast I cannot do anything.

The totem master spawns far away from the rest of pack, and will usually try to do some damage and heals before attempting to spawn a total. Kill him first (unless an infuser also spawned as that's a common second shield mob with totem masters) and then you win have to deal with the totem mechanic.

Honestly, most of the worst stuff comes from the tall guys in the back, so that's a good general rule too.

Thank for the tips. The problem is that it's so many of them it's hard to see anything. Also, my dps is too low to kill them quickly enough. The setup I have is mostly for survival and I seem to be getting a lot of visions for marital attacks even though I'm a magsorc.

ESO_player123 wrote: »

cozmic72 wrote: »

A ranged interrupt is very useful in EA.

It is, but unfortunately it can be a hindrance for the the other types of trash packs where that slot can be used more efficiently. And you never know what you will get. Besides, in trash packs sometimes it's very hard to target the one that is channeling from a distance.

In case it hasn't been mentioned here (I read it in another thread somewhere) and/or some people are still struggling with interrupts on trash pack mobs (particularly Fabled & Tho'at shards) I use Deadlands Demolisher (with Ironblood, Oakensoul & 1 Lord Warden) to mass interrupt everything (solo sorc).

You still need to gather/pull the trash mob into a small as space as possible. It's near impossible (for me) trying to tab target the Fabled amongst the group of trash so instead I do - aoe - wall of elements, storm attro, heavy lightning attacks, dodge roll from one side to the other, bash attacks for mass interrupts as necessary.

When the mob thins out then you can tab target Fabled if still there.

Another thing helpful which some people may have figured out already and I'll share (because I don't care about leader boards and want people who want to finish Arc 4 to be able to) is my cp choices:

If you can get sufficient Focused Efforts (and other related good visions/verses), use Elemental Susceptibility and a lightning staff then try out using Occult Overload:

Whenever you kill an enemy under the effect of a status effect, they violently explode for 1037 Oblivion Damage per stage to all other enemies in a 4 meter radius, and applying a random status effect to each enemy hit. This effect can occur once every second.

Sure the explosion might not do a lot of damage but it applies status effects to all other enemies when you kill one enemy and if you have 1 or more Focused Efforts status effects can be doing damage on top of that and it can daisy chain even without applying elemental breach to another target.

You can also use Force of Nature to get more penetration:

Increases your Offensive Penetration by 660 for every status effect your target has.

I had burning do 36% of my damage on my first Th'oat Dragon fight and that was only from using Elemental Susceptibility as far as I remember.

Thank you for the recommendations! I’ve been mostly playing EA with Oakensorc and now reliably get to arc 3 but the mobs — ugh! I’m usually able to run in as a wave spawns to be ready to focus damage on any Fabled as soon as they lose invulnerability, but then they pull off a one shot before death, so I definitely need to be tankier and if I can add more interrupts without costing more stamina, so much the better! I’m going to try that DD set and the CP suggestions — thank you!

No worries - I hope it helps

I should mention the following though:
you have to bash to interrupt which costs stamina but aside from Resolving Vigour and Elemental Susceptibility I use all magicka costing abilities (Hardened Ward, Unstable Wall of Elements, Critical Surge, Greater Storm Atronach, or Swarming Scion or Meteor) - my attributes are:



*Stats are *without* having cast Resolving Vigour & Bewitched Sugar Skulls is the food buff & am level 3 Vampire for Undeath passive 30% damage reduction.

I was already running a hybrid sorc for other content (2handed & Lightning Staff) so I already had high stamina.

Heavy armour has passives that restore magicka via being attacked or doing heavy attacks, destruction staffs have a passive from kills and you can get recovery, 6% stat increases or things like dead enemies leaving an aura that returns magicka, or that return all stats & or plus ulti, from several visions as well as verses.

I have Glyphs of Prismatic Onslaught on my lightning staves too which combined with the infused trait and or with the Attuned Enhancements vision means more restoration of health, stamina & magicka with each heavy attack or weapon skill proc (like elemental wall).

I also have a magicka recovery glyph on my Oakensoul ring which has the infused trait.

I generally never run out of magicka (just remember to not panic & do heavy attacks when possible and kite) and the stamina is so helpful for resolving vigour, dodgerolling/breaking free, blocking and bashing.

Unless a skill says otherwise damage scales off of highest stats (amongst other things) too so it doesn't matter if you have a high stamina stat with a lower magicka stat.

I think almost all my armour has the stamina glyph, with three traits in divines and the rest reinforced. With RV I have resistances a little above the cap with IB adding more tankiness on top but you want at least 1 piece of jewellery with the swift trait and the EA speed upgrade for when IB does proc to help counter the 25% movement reduction.

LouisaB75

EdjeSwift wrote: »

LouisaB75 wrote: »

Do you have her with a heal and a shield skill? Cause with those things on her bar she does amazing and facetanks nearly everything.

She definitely has a heal. Not sure about the shield. She has a fair amount of taunts as she has been tanking for me for ages.

EdjeSwift

If that taunt is plural because she's running two, that might be the issue. Really only need to either run the Staff or the S&B one, the Undaunted one is not worth it due to the cooldown, even with TE or Quickened it's bad.

These are with TE equipped; all three taunts have the same up time, but wildly different cooldowns and only one can be recast before the taunt ends.

jaws343

EdjeSwift wrote: »

If that taunt is plural because she's running two, that might be the issue. Really only need to either run the Staff or the S&B one, the Undaunted one is not worth it due to the cooldown, even with TE or Quickened it's bad.

These are with TE equipped; all three taunts have the same up time, but wildly different cooldowns and only one can be recast before the taunt ends.

Interestingly, seeing that gives me an idea to stack taunts and use heavies to get 3 enemies taunted.

Dagoth_Rac

daemondamian wrote: »

In case it hasn't been mentioned here (I read it in another thread somewhere) and/or some people are still struggling with interrupts on trash pack mobs (particularly Fabled & Tho'at shards) I use Deadlands Demolisher (with Ironblood, Oakensoul & 1 Lord Warden) to mass interrupt everything (solo sorc).

Does Deadlands Demolisher require you to actually bash an enemy? Or will just hitting the bash key and doing the bash animation put out the cone that interrupts? Cuz I always have trouble with interrupts, seeing myself bash right in the face of the blob or right in the face of Amaril and the game acts like I am bashing nothing. So, if bashing in midair sends out the interrupt wave, that would be very helpful for me.

daemondamian

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

daemondamian wrote: »

In case it hasn't been mentioned here (I read it in another thread somewhere) and/or some people are still struggling with interrupts on trash pack mobs (particularly Fabled & Tho'at shards) I use Deadlands Demolisher (with Ironblood, Oakensoul & 1 Lord Warden) to mass interrupt everything (solo sorc).

Does Deadlands Demolisher require you to actually bash an enemy? Or will just hitting the bash key and doing the bash animation put out the cone that interrupts? Cuz I always have trouble with interrupts, seeing myself bash right in the face of the blob or right in the face of Amaril and the game acts like I am bashing nothing. So, if bashing in midair sends out the interrupt wave, that would be very helpful for me.

I think it just requires you to hit the bash key - just remember to be close enough that the cone radius will hit. You can actually see the effect and there's a sound effect as well. Definitely helps if you're not right next to whatever you want to interrupt

Araneae6537

daemondamian wrote: »

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

daemondamian wrote: »

In case it hasn't been mentioned here (I read it in another thread somewhere) and/or some people are still struggling with interrupts on trash pack mobs (particularly Fabled & Tho'at shards) I use Deadlands Demolisher (with Ironblood, Oakensoul & 1 Lord Warden) to mass interrupt everything (solo sorc).

Does Deadlands Demolisher require you to actually bash an enemy? Or will just hitting the bash key and doing the bash animation put out the cone that interrupts? Cuz I always have trouble with interrupts, seeing myself bash right in the face of the blob or right in the face of Amaril and the game acts like I am bashing nothing. So, if bashing in midair sends out the interrupt wave, that would be very helpful for me.

I think it just requires you to hit the bash key - just remember to be close enough that the cone radius will hit. You can actually see the effect and there's a sound effect as well. Definitely helps if you're not right next to whatever you want to interrupt

I tried it out tonight and found it very helpful! You do have to be close enough for bash to interrupt an enemy — it didn’t look like the effect triggered otherwise, but you don’t have to be right on top of them for it to work. I hope that helps!

daemondamian

I decided to try using Azander again to do EA but with my Arcanist character and it did seem like he stayed alive longer but I use/d him as a supplemental healer & de/buffer, not a tank.

He's almost at medium armour 20 and then I can slot in the Vanish skill which might keep him alive even longer.

I used Order's Wrath but swapped over to Deadlands Demolisher for the trash mob parts Arc 3 onwards.

I actually almost made it to Arc 6 which really surprised me but I only had one thread left in the Tho'at fight & wasn't quick enough and or paying enough attention.

CGPsaint

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

my guess is they fixed the companions so that the ramping dmg is not being applied to them

ice patches and eye beams both have ramping dmg, and both start out fairly low, no ramping = low actual dmg taken by the companion

plus if they reduced how much dmg they actually took too it is probably compounding on that

Is this change live on console as well? I ask because I rolled through EA with Isobel in full purple Vigorous heavy armor using taunt, shield, and 3 heals, and she still gets absolutely folded any time there are AOEs on the ground. Tho'at? Dead. Marauder AOE? Dead. Fabled AOE? Dead. Any end of cycle boss AOE? Dead. I honestly see no purpose in using companions or pets if that's how it's supposed to work.

fizl101

CGPsaint wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

my guess is they fixed the companions so that the ramping dmg is not being applied to them

ice patches and eye beams both have ramping dmg, and both start out fairly low, no ramping = low actual dmg taken by the companion

plus if they reduced how much dmg they actually took too it is probably compounding on that

Is this change live on console as well? I ask because I rolled through EA with Isobel in full purple Vigorous heavy armor using taunt, shield, and 3 heals, and she still gets absolutely folded any time there are AOEs on the ground. Tho'at? Dead. Marauder AOE? Dead. Fabled AOE? Dead. Any end of cycle boss AOE? Dead. I honestly see no purpose in using companions or pets if that's how it's supposed to work.

Yes it rolled out with the patch on wednesday. My Isobel would die in less than 5 seconds on the forst Tho’at before the first patch. Throw her the odd heal now and she survives it

katanagirl1

fizl101 wrote: »

CGPsaint wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

my guess is they fixed the companions so that the ramping dmg is not being applied to them

ice patches and eye beams both have ramping dmg, and both start out fairly low, no ramping = low actual dmg taken by the companion

plus if they reduced how much dmg they actually took too it is probably compounding on that

Is this change live on console as well? I ask because I rolled through EA with Isobel in full purple Vigorous heavy armor using taunt, shield, and 3 heals, and she still gets absolutely folded any time there are AOEs on the ground. Tho'at? Dead. Marauder AOE? Dead. Fabled AOE? Dead. Any end of cycle boss AOE? Dead. I honestly see no purpose in using companions or pets if that's how it's supposed to work.

Yes it rolled out with the patch on wednesday. My Isobel would die in less than 5 seconds on the forst Tho’at before the first patch. Throw her the odd heal now and she survives it

I’m looking forward to doing EA sometime this week and seeing how it goes. I haven’t had as much luck with tank Isobel so Bastian has been my tank. He did decently well before the patch.