Best role/weapons for Sharp-as-Night?

subarctic

Want him to survive as long as possible. Isobel got nice survivability. Can I make Sharp equally useful? As a tank or healer? If so, which gear and skills are needed?

Ugrak

I put him in heavy vigorous with sword and shield. Skills are short cooldown heals, shields and buffs. I like using warden with this to boost the max health even higher.

I did the same with Isobel but using bolstered instead of vigorous. I often use guard on her and heal her more actively, but she seems very sturdy.

The problem with companions though is ground damage over time. They just fail to ackowledge it and stand in it until they die. Even tanks can die very fast to that. Honestly if they have no way of dealing with it, they shouldn't take damage from it, or at least not to the extent that they currently do.

AnduinTryggva

Yeah, why there is no algorithm on companion movement when there is an aoe on the ground. The game knows its place and surface since calculated in order to depict it. Only thing to be added is an algorithm along these lines:

if centre of aoe + distance(position_companion, center of aoe) < radius of aoe:
take evasive action #such as moving outside or dodging
else:
do nothing

subarctic

Is Sharp a better tank than Bastian?

Ingel_Riday

I use Sharp as a healer and I think he's wonderful at it.

Companions tend to maintain a healthy distance from enemy combatants when they're given ranged weapons, so the whole "flippantly standing in the AOE death-field" issue is not as much of a problem. The cooldown on his dodge roll isn't that bad either, because again... he's at range and usually not in that much danger.

Give him a mix of quickened and soothing kit (I tend to go 5 light armor pieces and then 2 heavy ones to boost his survivability... but I'm paranoid. 7 light would boost his healing more. Your call) and he'll rock it. I think I'm using his own class heal, the three abilities from the restoration staff skill line, and his one ability that gives everyone resolve. Works for me. Great companion.

I will say, though... sometimes he and Ember (my other healer-specced companion) heal so well that they get aggro. On the occasions where that does happen, they tend to roll backwards away from danger and have actually reset fights doing that. If they lead a world boss out of the combat area, the whole fight will reset. I've had some pretty angry players glaring at me in Galen because of it (Ember rolled so far back that the Chimera ran outside of bounds chasing her).

Necrotech_Master

i had initially set up sharp as a tank, but with his class skills he sorely lacks heal over time, which is what a tank companion needs to help, he also lacks dmg shields, which are also important for companion tanks

isobel is probably my best companion for tank, as she has 2 strong shields (on guard (1h/shield), and her sunshield equivalent) and 2 heal over time (her breath of life equivalent, and her backlash equivalent)

my next best companion tank is probably azander, but his problem is that he does not have a lot of great heal over times, his only main heal over time is the arcanist domain equivalent, but that is an extremely weak heal (its bad like 1200 hp over 8 seconds or something at base values)

for sharp, i have him set up as a healer right now, but i think he could be OK as a dual wield DPS, since he can get multiple sources of dmg reduction pretty easy, but the melee companions are very likely to die so i dont like to make them melee unless they are tanks

TybaltKaine

I left him as a DW DPS with a tank skill to help him survive some. I usually keep companions as close to what they start with as I can. Seems like they are designed with a certain role in mind, ya know?

subarctic

I read one review of companions here in the forum where a player said Isobel is the only companion that can survive most world bosses, if I remember correctly. But Sharp is from the Necrom dlc, so assumed he might be even stronger (for some things) if properly equipped. Nice to know when and how it’s best to use him.

Ugrak

Ingel_Riday wrote: »

I will say, though... sometimes he and Ember (my other healer-specced companion) heal so well that they get aggro. On the occasions where that does happen, they tend to roll backwards away from danger and have actually reset fights doing that. If they lead a world boss out of the combat area, the whole fight will reset. I've had some pretty angry players glaring at me in Galen because of it (Ember rolled so far back that the Chimera ran outside of bounds chasing her).

Use the pet control button to prevent that.

i.e., hold pet control and hit block.

There is a rick of them dying though because they disengage from the fight entirely, including healing and blocking and so on.

Also you have to use the pet control button and hit attack or use a heavy attack in order to get them to rejoin the fight.

You can also use this in order to try manually repositioning companions when they're standing in fire.

subarctic

“You can also use this in order to try manually repositioning companions when they're standing in fire.”

Which buttons do you hit?

Necrotech_Master

subarctic wrote: »

“You can also use this in order to try manually repositioning companions when they're standing in fire.”

Which buttons do you hit?

on PC the pet control is by default Y+ left or right click

Y+right click is the "heel" which sets them to passive mode and come back to you (they can still be hit by enemies while passive but will not attack)

Y+ left click, or just heavy attacking is the "attack" command which tells the pets to attack your current target

subarctic

Tnx

Zodiarkslayer

Sharp is an awesome Tank.
Use full purple Quickened gear and his two Tank abilities with the taunt, and the shield from 1H+S plus Fighter's Guild's Circle (too lazy to look up names atm).

Expect Comps to die if you set them up wrong. Wrong gear and false order of abilities are mostly the reason. That and addwaves or when there are multiple BOSSes, that can each deal a ton of damage. And if you do not heal them when they tank.

I SOLOed Zathmos, the goblin Chief from Blackwood DLC, last night and Isobel just couldn't help but dying. Those dogs of his do like 12k damage with a normal attacks. She went down in like 5s.
There are simply Bosses that companions cannot survive.

subarctic

Did Sharp survive Zathmos?

Elvenheart

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

Sharp is an awesome Tank.
Use full purple Quickened gear and his two Tank abilities with the taunt, and the shield from 1H+S plus Fighter's Guild's Circle (too lazy to look up names atm).

Expect Comps to die if you set them up wrong. Wrong gear and false order of abilities are mostly the reason. That and addwaves or when there are multiple BOSSes, that can each deal a ton of damage. And if you do not heal them when they tank.

I SOLOed Zathmos, the goblin Chief from Blackwood DLC, last night and Isobel just couldn't help but dying. Those dogs of his do like 12k damage with a normal attacks. She went down in like 5s.
There are simply Bosses that companions cannot survive.

What order do you put the abilities in for Sharp?

Erickson9610

I think Sharp-as-Night performs the best in a healer spec. I was successfully able to have Sharp-as-Night solo the Telesubi Ruins World Boss in all Quickened Heavy Armor, using 8 blue pieces, 3 purple pieces (restoration staff counts as 2), and 1 gold piece (from the Companion's Ascendant Ring) while I was using Telvanni Efficiency.

I crouch into stealth, use Y+LMB to get Sharp to attack one of the bosses, and stay out of the AoE so the bosses don't aggro on me. I also occasionally refresh Y+LMB on the targeted enemy, because sometimes Companions and their target enemy will stop fighting one another after enough time has passed unless the player refreshes that timer. The bosses have a lot of ground AoE and stun mechanics, and are a good metric for testing solo Companion performance.

It's worth noting that this build, while able to survive the ground AoE and stuns from two bosses, is not able to kill both bosses before the first slain one respawns via the 5 minute enemy respawn timer. This build would need to focus more into damage in order to kill both enemies within the time limit. Despite this, Sharp-as-Night was able to kill both enemies without player interference, even if the first enemy did come back to life halfway through Sharp killing the second enemy.


The skills I slot are the following in this order from left to right:
Snow Squall -> Perennial Bloom -> Fungal Forage -> Skeletal Aegis -> Rejuvenation, while also slotting Sharp's Ultimate, Gore.

I'd upload an image, but the forums currently haven't been letting me do so. I'll update my post with an image later.


Compared to my last build with Isobel Veloise in a Quickened Light Armor tank build, this one is slightly different. I opt for Heavy Armor because I can't fit Sharp's 20% incoming damage reduction skill, Sleetmail, in the rotation, and Sharp naturally gets a +3% Armor and +3% Healing Done bonus through his racial passives, anyway. Heavy Armor provides a bonus to Healing Received, which is functionally the same as the Healing Done bonus from Light Armor when the Companion is solo and is utilizing self heals. I would have preferred Light Armor for the Break Free cooldown reduction, as Heavy Armor's bonus Damage Blocked is largely a wasted stat.

The build primarily focuses on healing over time, with the help of the damage shield from Skeletal Aegis to give Sharp time to heal:

• Snow Squall should be placed before every other skill, because it's Sharp's most effective tool for staying alive – it's both a burst heal and a heal over time, and Sharp can't waste it on a player.
• Then, Perennial Bloom comes before Fungal Forage, because the burst heal from Fungal Forage should be saved for emergencies; it is also better to have HoTs active sooner, rather than later.
• After all those "Used when Companion is below 75% Health" skills, I opt for Skeletal Aegis for the 30% of Max Health damage shield, which can give Sharp time to recover while standing still in AoE – this skill has a long cooldown and is a damage shield, so I place it immediately after the conditional skills.
• Finally, Rejuvenation is a HoT that always targets Sharp and also another ally, so it's another HoT to stack with Snow Squall and Perennial Bloom.
• It's also worth noting that Sharp's Ultimate, Gore, has the shortest cast time of all of the Companion Ultimates and can deal Execute damage, and even with all of the Cooldown Reduction, Sharp still has time to light attack to gain Ultimate, so Sharp is a very good option for a solo Companion.

Zodiarkslayer

Elvenheart wrote: »

What order do you put the abilities in for Sharp?

In priority from left to right:
Snow Squall
Sleet Mail
Provoke
On Guard
Ritual of Salvation

You can switch Provoke and Sleet Mail, if the Boss doesn't hit too hard.
Otherwise it is always better to let Sharp start with +armor and 20% DR and then let him approach the Boss after it already engaged you a little.
Cooldowns are key. With 12 pieces Quickened you can cast Sleet Mail, Provoke and On Guard when they go off cooldown. Snow Squall has a 2.7s gap, I think, but it is strong enough that you barely notice it.
Ritual is imo the best 5th slot choice, especially against Daedra and Undead type of monsters. All other options have cooldowns that are too long or will not reliably target Sharp. His own Warden heals are wicked this way. They seem to be prioritising the player, regardless if Sharp is on his last leg or totally fine.

Zodiarkslayer

Erickson9610 wrote: »

The skills I slot are the following in this order from left to right:
Snow Squall -> Perennial Bloom -> Fungal Forage -> Skeletal Aegis -> Rejuvenation, while also slotting Sharp's Ultimate, Gore.

Criticism:
That is not a good Healer build, imo.
No light armor for healing bonuses, Skeletal Aegis has a bloody long cooldown and Snow Squall does nothing for the player, Rejuvenation will target and top Sharp off just as fine.
Reverse Entropy is the best healing ability for companions. One should always use it.
Fungal Forage is too weak to heal a player as a burst heal. Taking up a valuable slot for little effect.
Optional: Infest and Sweep offer almost 100% uptime on their respective debuffs. If the player build benefits from them, like for example a heavy attack build with no easy access to off balance, one should prioritize these debuffs over teeny weeny mini heals.

Erickson9610

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

The skills I slot are the following in this order from left to right:
Snow Squall -> Perennial Bloom -> Fungal Forage -> Skeletal Aegis -> Rejuvenation, while also slotting Sharp's Ultimate, Gore.

Criticism:
That is not a good Healer build, imo.
No light armor for healing bonuses, Skeletal Aegis has a bloody long cooldown and Snow Squall does nothing for the player, Rejuvenation will target and top Sharp off just as fine.
Reverse Entropy is the best healing ability for companions. One should always use it.
Fungal Forage is too weak to heal a player as a burst heal. Taking up a valuable slot for little effect.
Optional: Infest and Sweep offer almost 100% uptime on their respective debuffs. If the player build benefits from them, like for example a heavy attack build with no easy access to off balance, one should prioritize these debuffs over teeny weeny mini heals.

In my defense, a dead healer does 0 healing per second. The build I provided can solo a world boss without the player's assistance, and therefore can survive a considerable length of time whenever the player isn't crosshealing them. This is useful in instances like the Infinite Archive, because it's better to receive some (albeit minimal) healing rather than no healing.

As for more specific criticisms:

• Light Armor affects Healing Done, and Heavy Armor affects Healing Received. To prioritize survival, I went with Heavy Armor, each piece of which provides 2,000 more Armor than its Light Armor counterpart (for a total difference of 14,000 more Armor using all Heavy vs all Light). I would only recommend Light Armor for a tank build like Isobel's, because she can have high uptime on three different damage shield abilities. Unfortunately, Sharp does not have a damage shield in his Class toolkit, so I opted for a different approach.
• Tying in to that last point, Skeletal Aegis is the only non-Class, non-weapon damage shield ability. I would have used a damage shield with a shorter cooldown and without a proc condition or required weapon if one were available. Since Sharp is using a restoration staff, he couldn't use the damage shield skill On Guard from the One Hand and Shield skill line, and Mystic Fortress is cutting it too close with the 25% Health proc condition.
• Snow Squall does nothing for the player, and Reverse Entropy does nothing for the Companion. I need to emphasize how important it is for a Companion to stay alive, especially when they stand still in ground AoE. I disagree that Reverse Entropy is a must slot skill, and I argue that Snow Squall is imperative to keep the Companion alive. I would rather use Rejuvenation in place of Reverse Entropy because it is guaranteed to also heal the Companion.
• Rejuvenation is one of those skills that targets both the Companion and a nearby ally. It's a good healing over time ability, and I'd actually prefer it to Petals of the Hunter due to the fact that it always ticks regardless of what Sharp is currently doing (which at the time could be roll dodging away or breaking free, instead of light attacking).
• Fungal Forage is strong because of its proc condition. Needing the Companion or an ally to be below 75% Health, which should be situational and not constant, means that the skill and others with that condition are saved for the moment they are needed the most. The result is that these skills are off cooldown and ready to fire one after another.
• As for the final point about Swoop and Infest, this is true if you're in need of those debuffs. Personally, I'd use Azandar for sourcing debuffs for enemies, because he is able to place Major and Minor Vulnerability on enemies via his Ultimate and one of his spammables.

Elvenheart

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

Elvenheart wrote: »

What order do you put the abilities in for Sharp?

In priority from left to right:
Snow Squall
Sleet Mail
Provoke
On Guard
Ritual of Salvation

You can switch Provoke and Sleet Mail, if the Boss doesn't hit too hard.
Otherwise it is always better to let Sharp start with +armor and 20% DR and then let him approach the Boss after it already engaged you a little.
Cooldowns are key. With 12 pieces Quickened you can cast Sleet Mail, Provoke and On Guard when they go off cooldown. Snow Squall has a 2.7s gap, I think, but it is strong enough that you barely notice it.
Ritual is imo the best 5th slot choice, especially against Daedra and Undead type of monsters. All other options have cooldowns that are too long or will not reliably target Sharp. His own Warden heals are wicked this way. They seem to be prioritising the player, regardless if Sharp is on his last leg or totally fine.

Thank you, after reading your first post, I tweaked Sharp’s skills and noticed a positive difference, but I think I need to just work on the order a little bit now.

Necrotech_Master

subarctic wrote: »

Did Sharp survive Zathmos?

i think any companion could as long as you do the mechanic for the dogs

you have to break the barrels to distract the dogs, those things will even kill my tanks if not distracted and have too much health to bother focusing down

Tommy_The_Gun

Garrus Vakarian Sharp-as-Night is a sharpshooter... meaning that he is a Sniper. I gave him a bow & slotted snipe. He actually gives me a lot of covering fire & dmg support while still being able to survive a lot.

LittlePinkDot

He's a Warden so I made him a frost mage