PTS Update 44 - Feedback Thread for Companions

ZOS_Kevin

This is the official feedback thread for the new companions coming to U44, Tanlorin and Zerith-Var. Specifically, the focus is on companion quests, operation, acquisition and synergy with your character. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

Companions

• Did you run into any issues unlocking or acquiring Tanlorin?
• Did you run into any issues unlocking or acquiring Zerith-Var?

Companion Gameplay

• What type of Content and Gameplay were you doing with your companion?

Companion Combat

• What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?
• Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?
• We have made some improvements to how your ultimate is saved when traveling. Do you feel like you can cast your ultimate with more frequency?

Companion Customization/Progression

• How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, and/or improvement in rapport?

Companion Rapport

• Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?
• Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?

Companion Response Behavior

• Did you feel the Companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?
• We have expanded some response behavior to be more specific to your activities, e.g. harvesting materials, incursion activities. How does it feel to have more curated responses?

Companion Quests

• How deep into each companion quest did you get?
• Ideally we’d like everyone to play through all four quests for each companion.
• Feel free to use companion rapport so you qualify quickly for each quest.

Companion General Feedback

• How did each companion measure up to your expectations?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

BlueRaven

I have not tried either yet, but in the future, please, please, please, focus on races that have not had an associated companion yet before repeating races.

Bosmer, orc, and nord do not have companions yet. Please create companions of those races before repeating races.

xclassgaming

Love Tan; they are a beautiful soul with beautiful rep, thank you for them ZOS

Their soul magic kit is interesting to play with; although i wish we got more soul magic then Dragon knight tbh. 2/3 dragon knight-y when we already have bastian is a little eh, so i would of preferred it if it was 2/3 soul magic; but what can you do, their soul magic skills are fun.

grzes848909

I hate the fact you have to buy 2 new companions from update 44 separately. Should have been part of the golden road considering the pattern with previous 3 expansions: Blackwood, High Isle, Necrom. All 3 of those expansions have brought 2 companions each with no extra cost or strings attached; you bought the expansion; you get to unlock new companions. If you must put them separately in the crown store then at least let the people who have golden road have them for free regardless if you have eso plus or not. Otherwise I would like to hear the explanation to why this pattern has been changed and why we have to pay for something that has been previously included in multiple previous expansions for no extra charge.

Silaf

Please add helmets. Having 10 Bastion running around is not helping with the immersion or in making them unique.

Joarik

I'm wondering if it's intentional that the new companions both have defensive skills granting Major Resolve when most of the existing companions (excepting Azandar, that is) have 20% damage reduction in similar types of skills?

Erickson9610

Joarik wrote: »

I'm wondering if it's intentional that the new companions both have defensive skills granting Major Resolve when most of the existing companions (excepting Azandar, that is) have 20% damage reduction in similar types of skills?

I do miss the 20% damage reduction ability in the Companion toolkits. At the present moment, I still think Isobel is the best tank, due to her 20% damage reduction skill also being a damage shield skill, making it insanely useful. I'd like to use the new Companions for tanking, but it doesn't feel worth building them for the tank role if they only have access to Major Resolve.


That being said, I am very impressed with some of the functionality in Zerith-var's toolkit. As far as I know, he has the first negative effect purge ability of all of the Companions, so I will definitely be using him in the Infinite Archive to get rid of those deadly damage over time effects! I'm also particularly glad that some of his abilities create corpses; this has proven useful for me in Werewolf form, as well as in human form with the Templar skill Repentance slotted. I'm sure his abilities would also prove useful for (and synergize with) the player's Necromancer skills. His Racial passives are also really good; it's great that he doesn't use the same Racial passives that Ember has.


I'm also fascinated by the direction taken for Tanlorin's toolkit. The Empathic Fighter skill line as we see it on Tanlorin is a nice damage dealer skill line. Tanlorin's other two skill lines, Draconic Armor and Radiating Heart, share the same name as the corresponding skill lines from Bastian's toolkit. Some abilities are identical between Tanlorin and Bastian, such as Kindle, while some are like different morphs (Searing Weapons on Bastian vs Volcanic Arms on Tanlorin) and some are entirely different Dragonknight abilities which haven't been given to Companions yet.

I'd like to comment that I personally find Bastian's skill, Searing Weapons, to be the superior version of Tanlorin's skill, Volcanic Arms. I find the Major Brutality/Sorcery from Volcanic Arms to be redundant with most of my builds, while Bastian's version of the skill still gives a unique damage bonus to Light and Heavy Attacks. Like the situation with Major Resolve instead of a unique mitigation buff, it feels like some (but not all) of these abilities on the new Companions are marginally weaker than the skills that the other Companions have access to.

xclassgaming

The "Gardener" in Tanlorin's 2bd quest is naked; i don't believe this is intentional.

Wolfkeks

Companions
Did you run into any issues unlocking or acquiring Tanlorin?
No worked just fine!

Did you run into any issues unlocking or acquiring Zerith-Var?
All good!


Companion Gameplay
What type of Content and Gameplay were you doing with your companion?
Normal question, overland. Not different from playing with other companions.


Companion Combat
What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?
Still testing but they feel okay powerwise. Though another soul ability for Tanlorin would've been nice.

Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?
Yep.

We have made some improvements to how your ultimate is saved when traveling. Do you feel like you can cast your ultimate with more frequency?
Feels more smoother than on live.


Companion Customization/Progression
How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, and/or improvement in rapport?
*still testing*


Companion Rapport
Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?
*still testing*

Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?
Yes.

Companion Response Behavior
Did you feel the Companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?
*still testing*

We have expanded some response behavior to be more specific to your activities, e.g. harvesting materials, incursion activities. How does it feel to have more curated responses?
Feels smoother.


Companion Quests
How deep into each companion quest did you get?
Tanlorin second quest. Zerith-Var second quest.


Companion General Feedback

How did each companion measure up to your expectations?
Both seems nice. Zerith-Var seems to be more like a classic hero quest while Tanlorin is a bit more chaotic, both good in their own ways - so far the quests and personalities are fun!

Do you have any other general feedback?
Love the voice actors!
https://youtu.be/68Fc4hWLhmo

Also there is a naked NPC in Tanlorin quest o.o

LinusMain

Hello! Avid companion user here. Would like to express praise to the team for the companions, especially Zerith-Var. The team did an amazing job making them feels unique. Have a small QoL feedback to make them feel better to use:

Companion Combat

What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?

1. So that they have a consistent taunt, please make it so Tanlorin's Blazing Grasp no longer have a minimum of 10 meters range to cast:



This would allow them to tank while wielding a two handed sword, something only Azandar could do until now.

As of now, Zerith's main heal is worse than all the other companions:



It heals the same amount as the other companion's (Kindle, Quick Fix, etc.), but with a downside of inflicting himself with Minor Defile. Please consider adding a little extra benefit to compensate, e.g., by slightly increasing the heal or letting it heal both himself and an ally at the same time.

Necrotech_Master

please include an optional way to bypass companion intro quests if you have already done them before

i get the RP reason that each character needs to meet the companion, but as a player i dont want to have to redo the same quest 10+ times, this removes any enjoyment about the quest and actively makes me dislike the quest, the dislike is proportional to the length of the quest (longer quest = more dislike and refusal to partake)

Sharrum

Companions

Did you run into any issues unlocking or acquiring Tanlorin?

No issue, worked fine.

Companion Gameplay

What type of Content and Gameplay were you doing with your companion?

Overland questing, gathering and one or two world bosses

Companion Combat

What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?
Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?
We have made some improvements to how your ultimate is saved when traveling. Do you feel like you can cast your ultimate with more frequency?

Overall i'm pretty happy with Tanlorin skills, feels pretty unique and thematically it's beautiful. Would change their Blazing Grasp to not have a minimum range, so they can taunt enemies at melee range.

Companion Customization/Progression

How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, and/or improvement in rapport?

No comment here as i used the instant max companion item from the PTS.

Companion Rapport

Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?
Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?

I think their dialogue give plenty of hints about how to increse( and decrese) rapport. Needs more testing.

Companion Response Behavior

Did you feel the Companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?
We have expanded some response behavior to be more specific to your activities, e.g. harvesting materials, incursion activities. How does it feel to have more curated responses?

I normally play with max reaction from companions on live. I like that they interact quite a lot on mundane activities and they seem to have a very ample range of dialogue on combat which is pretty good imo.

Companion Quests

How deep into each companion quest did you get?
Ideally we’d like everyone to play through all four quests for each companion.
Feel free to use companion rapport so you qualify quickly for each quest.

Completed all of Tanlorin questline. Loved it. The undertone is pretty obvious but still done in a way that fits the world.
The gardener appeared unclothed all the time though. It was an amusing bug.

Companion General Feedback

How did each companion measure up to your expectations?
Do you have any other general feedback?

I enjoyed Tanlorin way more than i thought i would to be honest. Feels a little like a mix of Ember and Naryu. They come across as a little naive on some things which makes them endearing and then they have another side way more resolute and flirty. Overall they are a fun,engaging companion.

If i had to say something negative it would be that i had really hoped to RP/headcannon some of my characters pursuing a romantic interest with her (companion romance when zos, we wont forget :S) but they are very very very clearly only interested into girls. Even more so than Izzy. Its basically impossible to go around that. Maybe add a little nudget that they not only kissed girls? If you cant do voice acting again then maybe a line on their letter? Change the khajjit merchant to a male?

Bo0137

Tanlorin and Zerith are an indicative that we are going on the right path. Give us more crazy ideas for companions. Dare to dare!

I specially like Tanlorin because they have soul magic skills. That's cool, give us more crazy combinations! Give us even skills that are not available for players!

Zerith theme and story are really really cool! A time traveler! Nice!

Dare to dare!!

M1SHAAN

I'm not rigorously testing, moreso just messing around, but I'll add feedback to this comment if things come up.

Companion Combat

• Tanlorin's Explosive Fortitude skill seems to create a circle around them that's the same color as bad AOEs (tested with custom colors), which has been spooking me during combat. I think this should be changed to a more distinct visual for clarity.
• I don't love that Tanlorin and Bastian share two abilities, considering that all the companions' class skill lines have been completely unique thus far. I suppose with enough companions in repeat classes it might not be possible, but I wish each companion's class abilities were unique to them.

karthrag_inak

Wolfkeks wrote: »

Do you have any other general feedback?
Love the voice actors!
https://youtu.be/68Fc4hWLhmo

Is our new khajiit friend voiced by Clancy Brown?!?! Certainly sounds like it.
EDIT: apparently his voice actor is Darin De Paul. From what khajiit has heard, he has done a delightful job with it.

-squeeee!- Regardless of yes or no, khajiit heartily approves of his voice, although he had wished that would Zerith-Var adhere to more traditional Khajiit grammar and usage, but alas, the old ways are dying out, it is known.

Ratzkifal

General Feedback:

It's weird to be selling these separately without including them in a DLC or making them free. Companions are already gimmicky as they need considerable investment to function properly, yet even then they are still lacking. The only use case I've come up with was to assist healers and tanks get through quest content a bit more quickly. A bit more utility to companions in general would be much appreciated, like them being able to carry more companion equipment than just the equipped pieces.
Having said that, is the only feature being sold here the associated questline and the parasocial bond to that NPC? I think the bond would be pretty much the same if they weren't companion NPCs but just regular quest NPCs. So the only thing that appears to have any value here is the questline.
I don't like the sound of being sold singular questlines now. Maybe it's just companions for now, but next thing you know this new guild questline is being sold separately. If I had to guess, these are scheduled to hit the store for 1500 crowns each (already too much), but I can see a reality where these are sold for 5000 crowns like the assistants because they are "assistants".

Think of it this way. A dungeon DLC has a dungeon. A zone DLC has a zone with multiple quests, possibly even multiple questlines. These are priced around the 1500 and 2000 crown mark. Do not sell us a singular questline for 1500 crowns, ZOS. You've already given us outfit slots for 1500 crowns that are PER CHARACTER and armory slots that are also PER CHARACTER, which is both outrageous enough already. Not to mention empty houses that cost more than the entire game, or the cure for vampirism/lycanthropy, which is 400 gold btw, sold for an utterly ridiculous 800 crowns. This is the stuff that turns new players away from your game. This is why people say the game is overmonetized.
Let this be the only time that companions are sold outside of a DLC, because I do not like the direction we are headed in if you don't.

RaddlemanNumber7

I'm really impressed with Zerith-Var. His story is based solidly on some of the deep Khajiit lore we discovered in Northern Elsweyr, and expands on that lore a bit. Zerith-Var feels like a TES character through-and-through. It's going to be really easy to pair him up with one of my storied RP characters.

BetweenMidgets

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

please include an optional way to bypass companion intro quests if you have already done them before

i get the RP reason that each character needs to meet the companion, but as a player i dont want to have to redo the same quest 10+ times, this removes any enjoyment about the quest and actively makes me dislike the quest, the dislike is proportional to the length of the quest (longer quest = more dislike and refusal to partake)

I could not agree with this more, especially as you all are making the questlines more and more time consuming (ie. public dungeons and stuff that we had to go through for Azander and Sharp)

I also VERY much agree with @Ratzkifal in that I do NOT appreciate being sold these independently from the chapter. I do not like the idea of being sold a questline. [snip]

[edited for bashing]

WhiteCoatSyndrome

BetweenMidgets wrote: »

I could not agree with this more, especially as you all are making the questlines more and more time consuming (ie. public dungeons and stuff that we had to go through for Azander and Sharp)

Fair warning, most of Tanorlin’s quests go through at least one public dungeon (I want to say all, but haven’t finished the questline yet).

Zerith’s first quest did too IIRC, haven’t gotten farther than that on him to check the rest of it.

CoolBlast3

The good:
I love Tanlorin's design, their voice, their personality.

The bad:
Crown store companions, really? These should just be included with Gold Road or Blackwood. Blackwood especially would be better for non-new Chapter zone companions because as it stands, Blackwood's chapter feature is literally just Mirri and Bastian. In other words, Blackwood has no actual chapter feature.

But main point is yeah, selling these two separately is ridiculous and the only saving grace is the ESO+ exception, but still...

Mooncake

Hi all. I'd like to know what's the best role for each of these new companions.

I have truckloads of companion gear in storage and I need to clear space, so I would like to know what to keep and what to sell, please.

Lets make it two best roles for each, shall we?

Tanlorin:
Option 1:
Option 2:

Zerith-Var:
Option 1:
Option 2:

Thank you!

LinusMain

Mooncake wrote: »

Hi all. I'd like to know what's the best role for each of these new companions.

I have truckloads of companion gear in storage and I need to clear space, so I would like to know what to keep and what to sell, please.

Lets make it two best roles for each, shall we?

Tanlorin:
Option 1:
Option 2:

Zerith-Var:
Option 1:
Option 2:

Thank you!

Tanlorin:

- Probably the best ranged DPS among all companions. Companion DPS is not at all reliable though so your mileage may vary. Bow Tanlorin with a combination of Shattering and Aggressive on either Medium or Heavy armor. Can also give themself Major Brutality.
- Terrible as both tank and healer. Their only saving grace is being able to grant everyone Major Brutality and Sorcery, but the uptime isn't very good. (They can also grant everyone Major Resolve, but unlike their 28m Major Brutality buff, the range is only 12m. It'll miss a lot as both tank and healer. They share the same problem with Sharp, whose major resolve is also only 12m)

Zerith-var:

- Amazing tank: the only one who has a functional "pull" in the form of his necromancer armor skill. Can also inflict AoE major breach. Also boasts strong self heal with Scythe and Penance of Lokharj. Boasts the best utility among all companions as a tank, although some other companion like Isobel or Bastian are somewhat tankier. Heavy armor with either Bolstered or Quickened. I am really looking forward to using him in Infinite Archive.
- Good utility healer: inflicting AoE major breach is always going to be useful. Plus, his healing skills (e.g., the healy ghost) is good. Light / Heavy armor with Quickened.
- Probably the best melee DPS among all companions. Again, companion DPS is not reliable so take this with a grain of salt. Has two 8 seconds cooldown damaging skills in the form of Scythe and Skull. Also, his scythe skill not only heals, but inflict damage in an AoE. This is very rare for a companion (no other AoE DPS skill has 8 seconds of cooldown). Inflicting AoE major breach is also... going to be useful as always. Heavy armor with Quickened probably.

Mooncake

LinusMain wrote: »

Tanlorin:

- Probably the best ranged DPS among all companions. Companion DPS is not at all reliable though so your mileage may vary. Bow Tanlorin with a combination of Shattering and Aggressive on either Medium or Heavy armor. Can also give themself Major Brutality.
- Terrible as both tank and healer. Their only saving grace is being able to grant everyone Major Brutality and Sorcery, but the uptime isn't very good.

Zerith-var:

- Amazing tank: the only one who has a functional "pull" in the form of his necromancer armor skill. Can also inflict AoE major breach. Also boasts strong self heal with Scythe and Penance of Lokharj. Boasts the best utility among all companions as a tank, although some other companion like Isobel or Bastian are somewhat tankier. Heavy armor with either Bolstered or Quickened. I am really looking forward to using him in Infinite Archive.
- Good utility healer: inflicting AoE major breach is always going to be useful. Plus, his healing skills (e.g., the healy ghost) is good. Light / Heavy armor with Quickened.
- Probably the best melee DPS among all companions. Again, companion DPS is not reliable so take this with a grain of salt. Has two 8 seconds cooldown damaging skills in the form of Scythe and Skull. Also, his scythe skill not only heals, but inflict damage in an AoE. This is very rare for a companion (no other AoE DPS skill has 8 seconds of cooldown). Inflicting AoE major breach is also... going to be useful as always. Heavy armor with Quickened probably.

This is awesome, thank you!

Erickson9610

While I find Tanlorin's mixed Class skill kit interesting, I wish we could've gotten 3 Dragonknight skill lines and let the Soul Magic skill line be its own separate skill line in the World category, rather than replacing one of the Class skill lines with Soul Magic. We could've gotten more build diversity for Tanlorin than we actually did.

I think the best way to incorporate new Companion skill lines (like Werewolf, Vampire, Soul Magic, Psijic Order, Assault, and Support) would be to have them be located in the appropriate directory, but to have them level up with XP gained, the same as with the Companion weapon and armor skill lines. As is the case with Tanlorin, only specific Companions would have access to specific skill lines.



While I could see Tanlorin's placement of the Soul Magic skill line working for characters like a Sorcerer Psijic or a Nightblade Vampire, I have a hard time imagining how this would work for a Werewolf.

The Companion Werewolf skill line would surely have to be separate from their Class skill lines, right? You couldn't fill the healer, tank, and damage dealer skill lines with just Werewolf skills, even if you included Werewolf Behemoth's skills. Plus, replacing their Class's damage dealer skill line would mean their human form couldn't utilize it, due to differences in the animations used between forms.

This is why I think the Companion Werewolf skill line needs to be in the World category, rather than in their Class skill lines. Whatever the catalyst may be for triggering the transformation — whether it be an Active/Ultimate Ability that is slotted on their human form bar, a Passive Ability which activates upon a Health threshold or if the Player transforms, or anything else — the Werewolf form is an entirely different gameplay style that can't be mixed with the human form, and the location of the skill lines should reflect that.

virtus753

Companion Rapport:

Does Zerith-var really have only the one +125 rapport gain, which is locked behind two chapter prologue quests?

If so, do you have plans to remove the prologue prereqs from the Defense Force dailies?

This would be only the second time a companion has had only one +125 gain. The other companion is Bastian, whose dailies have a negligible prereq (join the Mages Guild via a short dialogue) and can be spammed via shares so he now maxes rapport in a day. (Bastian was not retroactively adjusted to get only one 125 rapport boost from each source per reset.)

The Defense Force dailies can only be gotten after the Elsweyr prologue (The Demon Weapon and The Halls of Colossus). They can only be shared with a character who has done both of those.

We already have to go through the acquisition quest on every character who wants to use the companion. Now we’ll have to do two further quests on each character before we can get his big rapport gain even just once per day? This feels like a big step away from what many players have already expressed in asking for less quest gating.

I hope I’m missing something here. Does he have a second source of +125 rapport?

ETA: I’m seeing ToT dailies mentioned as his other 125 rapport gain. Those are thankfully much faster to get to on alts, since you can skip the tutorial. But the base game source remains locked behind two unstoppable prologue quests per character.

Aliyavana

RaddlemanNumber7 wrote: »

I'm really impressed with Zerith-Var. His story is based solidly on some of the deep Khajiit lore we discovered in Northern Elsweyr, and expands on that lore a bit. Zerith-Var feels like a TES character through-and-through. It's going to be really easy to pair him up with one of my storied RP characters.

Yah, the writers for him did a great job

ThelerisTelvanni

Sadly neither of the new companions were interesting. So I did noth try them out.

I'd love to have one of my alts as companion or a sellsword companion that I can customise freely. I do not need a race class combination with a personalety that I do not care about. I'd rather have a blank page I can fill out myself, than another "interesting companion" that I do not care about, since they do not hit the theme I want.

TX12001rwb17_ESO

Probably be more visible if it was posted here instead of on the Bugs thread but wouldn't it be best to remove any mentioning of what year ingame it is during the introduction with Zenith'Var.

How can it be 2E 582 when New Life events have occurred?

virtus753

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

Probably be more visible if it was posted here instead of on the Bugs thread but wouldn't it be best to remove any mentioning of what year ingame it is during the introduction with Zenith'Var.

How can it be 2E 582 when New Life events have occurred?

According to one of the loremasters it’s always that year in game:

https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/bwdb0r/comment/epwvu1a/

They also retroactively removed the reference to 2E583 from Wrothgar.

Syldras

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

How can it be 2E 582 when New Life events have occurred?

It's funny. Considering the moon cycles, it would be 2E 625 by now. Which means that since the beginning, 42 years had passed.

Elvenheart

The Tamriel we live in is like one of those movies where you wake up and relive the same day over and over.