[Subjective] This is the story about how Infinite Archive is not really fun

Oceanchanter

I know that there have been topics and posts about Infinite Archive not being fun, but I wanna share my own opinion.
Perhaps some people here might give me tips, although not required.

It reached the point where I dread the moment ZOS adds class equipment for skill lines I actually use most of the time (like Sorc's Dark Magic).
The TL;DR is that IMO there's a need for slight adjustments, mostly in the Companion side of things, or rather monsters targetting companion in IA.

I run IA with Tank Companion, which is a blessing.
My most succesful character is barrier-focused Templar that is a sub-dps healer.
The same Templar I take for Trials, both veteran and normal.
He gets the job done keeping people alive and dishes out decent damage.

Because of that, he also is a victim of my experiments with builds.
I also have a tank Templar that is more of an eye candy, but I did try to run IA with him to no better results.

After running IA for hours everyday, farming for 4 sets, I realized it's not really neither of Templar's fault I can rarely get past second fight with Tho'at and die somewhere afterwards.
It's one thing to fail a run because you're dealt bad hand with Visions and Verses, or because you got sloppy and fell off the boss platform.
But another when the games tells you "you die, lol, there's little you can do about it".

Companions do not exist
Whenever monsters spawn, my Companion is ignored until they are taunted or damaged most of the time.
With Elemental Explosion + Warmage's Defense, and - funny enough - Prayer Shawl from basic dungeon I can keep up most of the time, at least in the first 2 Arcs.
But it is annoying to see that mobs/adds/whatever you wanna call them ignore a bulky Khajit of my Companion running through them, and just go straight for my throat.

I don't know why there's a point of having a Companion in IA, other than to tank bosses, if most of the time they are ignored.

Marauders
Building up from the previous pain in the behind I have.
Marauders just chase you relentlessly, ignoring everything else in their path, and isekai you into another MMO with 35-45k damage in one blow.
You could have a Companion + 4 Apocryphal wraiths or whatever their name is, and still they will chase after you.
And should your Companion not refresh their taunt on them (its a miracle in they taunted them in the first place), they are back to chasing you.

Being one shotted from a Marauder that spawns randomly is definetly demotivating.
It would be less if I just got sloppy and got in their lane of fire while they are busy with my Companion.

No save points
This really grinds my gears for two reasons.
Sometimes I just want to stretch or get my cup of coffee, but I do so running around all anxious because I don't want to be booted from the server for inactivity, losing progress.
I lost all my progress once when I needed to relog and check something on my other character, so it is a valid fear.

Another one is that there were cases of me going very far, getting visions that did make difference, but I really need a nap, it's so late I should go to sleep, or I see a Trial I want to do popping up and it's one of those Trials that aren't popular.

Aramril
I sinply cannot defeat her. I just skip her.
The crystal always targets me with the barrage, burns through my shields and heals.
Tried to do it with my tankier Templar. No budge. He survived for even shorter than my healer-sub-DPS one did despite doing well in other parts of AI content and tanking bosses himself.

And the biggest pain with this random event/wing is that Visions and Verses get disabled there

To build on the first topic of criticism, everything ignores my Companion.
The crystal, Aramril herself, everything that can target.

The unmentioned things are fine I guess.
Like Filer's Wing can be done and it's up to your strategy, or Echoing Lights where you just need to balance fast you go.

Frequently Heard Tips
"Run IA with a friend"
I don't have any friends, much less tank friends I could run IA for hours whenever I want.
That's why I have a tank Companion that works really well in everything but the things I mentioned.

"Git gud scrub"
My blood pressure can get only so high, please don't.

"Build a tank"
Already tried with my Tank Templar and Healer Companion i made specifically for him.
Results are similar, if not a little bit worse probably because being a tank is not my playstyle and he doesn't have the same damage output.

"Oakensoul ring?"
I don't have it. Maybe I'll get enough leads to scry it one day.
I do doubt having every possible buff in the game at the cost of your backbar will change something.
I have plenty of buffs on me on my Templar without it.

SeaGtGruff

Oceanchanter wrote: »

Companions do not exist
Whenever monsters spawn, my Companion is ignored until they are taunted or damaged most of the time.
<snip>
I don't know why there's a point of having a Companion in IA, other than to tank bosses, if most of the time they are ignored.

I don't run IA very often, and almost never make it to the first Tho'at, so my experience certainly isn't typical, but...

Whenever I run IA with Bastian (which is pretty much whenever I run IA), he is definitely getting targeted by mobs and bosses. And to be ckear, I don't have him set up as a tank with taunts, because I make sure he doesn't use any skills that could taunt anything, since I don't enjoy having a boss reset because he drew it outside of its territory.

Anyway, I was just thinking that if you're finding that your companion is being left alone, maybe it would do well as a healer?

karthrag_inak

Khajiit has a delightful time in IA, both with other players and solo.

Oceanchanter

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Oceanchanter wrote: »

Companions do not exist
Whenever monsters spawn, my Companion is ignored until they are taunted or damaged most of the time.
<snip>
I don't know why there's a point of having a Companion in IA, other than to tank bosses, if most of the time they are ignored.

I don't run IA very often, and almost never make it to the first Tho'at, so my experience certainly isn't typical, but...

Whenever I run IA with Bastian (which is pretty much whenever I run IA), he is definitely getting targeted by mobs and bosses. And to be ckear, I don't have him set up as a tank with taunts, because I make sure he doesn't use any skills that could taunt anything, since I don't enjoy having a boss reset because he drew it outside of its territory.

Anyway, I was just thinking that if you're finding that your companion is being left alone, maybe it would do well as a healer?

Two healers running the IA? I don't think its going to work but worth a try.
I do have Bastian unlocked and built as a healer for my tank Templar.
I'll try both options next time.
As I finished farming Monolith of Storms for my shock sorc I'm less inclined to do IA.

I have more confidence in Zerith cause he does have that Necro armor skill that pulls and taunts should he get hit.
And he stays pretty much in one place while tanking the boss. The only time he moves is when the boss moves; like Lady Thorn.
He performs his duties well.

Maybe not being targeted by Marauders and most mobs is Zerith-only problem?

Ugrak

Aramil has defeated me many times, but it isn't too bad a fight. It's crucial to interrupt her channel and to have enough DPS to take down the active crystal before it's damage ramps up too high. Also the nightmare adds put heavy pressure on your stamina from either blocking, rolling or breaking free from stuff. I'd say it's more about staying calm and doing mechanics, but it does seem to demand showing up with sufficient player skill and build. I'd say mine is just passable.

My least favorite side portals were the filers wing and the one with the ghost wisp herding. In the end I did them all though. It took patience, learning from failures and a bit of luck.

Marauders can be a pain, and I've often ended up barely defeating Gothmau through kiting him around the map while dodging thrown axes. Weakening builds (e.g., infused heartland+torug on NB) made the marauder and boss fights a lot less dramatic, but also depends on luck with the verses and visions.

Oceanchanter

Ugrak wrote: »

Aramil has defeated me many times, but it isn't too bad a fight. It's crucial to interrupt her channel and to have enough DPS to take down the active crystal before it's damage ramps up too high. Also the nightmare adds put heavy pressure on your stamina from either blocking, rolling or breaking free from stuff. I'd say it's more about staying calm and doing mechanics, but it does seem to demand showing up with sufficient player skill and build. I'd say mine is just passable.

My least favorite side portals were the filers wing and the one with the ghost wisp herding. In the end I did them all though. It took patience, learning from failures and a bit of luck.

Marauders can be a pain, and I've often ended up barely defeating Gothmau through kiting him around the map while dodging thrown axes. Weakening builds (e.g., infused heartland+torug on NB) made the marauder and boss fights a lot less dramatic, but also depends on luck with the verses and visions.

That's the thing.

I interrupt her channel either by bash or Force Shock.
Proceed to DPS the crystal, trying to burn it before it burns through my initial barriers, activate Reviving Barrier when the crystal ramps up.
At best I can get the crystal to 50% of HP before I cannot keep up.

And only somewhere today I've learned she will pull out another crystal from where sun never shines.

I've yet to take my stamina NB made for stealth killing for a roll in IA to see how he would fare, but for now I'm just too demotivated.

The only moments I killed Marauders were when I activated Mystery Transformation Verse and got something that allowed me to summon my own adds to keep enemy adds a little busier, or the Ice Avatar or whatever has Whiteout synergy-like skill.
Werewolf "Behemoth" does not give HP increase and I'm definetly not approaching a Maruder for meele combat.

StarOfElyon

There can never be enough people saying how boring and irritating infinite Archive is.

ESO_player123

Are you sure your tank companion has Taunt slotted? The only Marauder that consistently ignores Companion taunting is Gothmau (this is the persistent issue from the introduction of IA). The rest will be happy to turn their attention to the Companion when taunted. At least that is my experience with using Bastian.

Oceanchanter

ESO_player123 wrote: »

Are you sure your tank companion has Taunt slotted? The only Marauder that consistently ignores Companion taunting is Gothmau (this is the persistent issue from the introduction of IA). The rest will be happy to turn their attention to the Companion when taunted. At least that is my experience with using Bastian.

Yes. Zerith-var has both Provoke from One Handed and Shield he wears since I recruited him, as well as Perigean Armor
He has not one, but two taunts on his bar, one of which activates when being hit.




I probably met all 3, but I don't have an opportunity check which Marauder is dropping on me like a ton of bricks.
I try to either find cover and roll the dice on Mystery Transformation Verse (cause it worked when I actually killed a Marauder or two) or I get deleted from the game if I'm not fast enough, so I don't think I ever got a good look.

I posted the only screenshot I bothered to take in this comment in another thread
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8247994/#Comment_8247994

Out of countless hours of doing IA and farming 4 sets, I managed to kill only 3 Marauders according to my achievments.


Idk exactly which one is the werewolf behemoth, but when Zerith miraculously taunted him (and this was the first time he did taunt a Marauder) I could see the Marauder turning to my direction right after the taunt expired.
Gladly, Zerith applies taunt the moment it ends, so it was creepy to see a massive werewolf rotating in your direction for a split second.

Avran_Sylt

I have mine as a healer while I glass-cannon DPS with Brawler (damage +shielding) (and my class spammable Concealed)

But I also do run https://eso-sets.com/set/telvanni-efficiency
And have full blue cooldown gear so all their abilities are like 1.8s - 5.7s cooldown. (changing based on the default cooldown value)

Oceanchanter

Avran_Sylt wrote: »

I have mine as a healer while I glass-cannon DPS with Brawler (damage +shielding).

But I also do run https://eso-sets.com/set/telvanni-efficiency
And have full blue cooldown gear so all their abilities are like 1.8s - 5.7s cooldown. (changing based on the default cooldown value)

Hm, that's worth looking into it. Most of the gear generates ultimate.
I'm broke right now so I cannot test it by switching gear on Zerith any time soon.

I was thinking about running Telvanni, but I recently spent resources to come back to Prayer Shawl (https://eso-sets.com/set/prayer-shawl) which completes my barrier/shielding + heal playstyle, and Tarnished Nightmare (https://eso-sets.com/set/tarnished-nightmare) for both fashion and frequent triggers from DoTs I apply.

Munkfist

Being a templar, be sure you're not also running Explosive Charge, as this is a taunt ability.

I run templar more than any of my characters, usually farming to Arcs 7-9, depending how Visions are going and how my attention span is handling it. Builds make a huge difference in there. There's a fine line between survivability and doing enough damage to keep on surviving.

Make sure you're targeting your companion to taunt the targets you want taunted (Y + Left Click target).

For me, IA is some of the most fun I've had in ESO in ages, the only gripe I have is the odd lag spike that happens since a few patches ago.

I would suggest looking into a build specific to running Archives, it really makes a difference. I run Deadly Strikes/Aetheric Lancer + False God's for everything below Arc 8, and just make sure you have 30K+ health and 30k+ resistances, the rest is doing mechanics, or killing before the need to.

Oceanchanter

Munkfist wrote: »

Being a templar, be sure you're not also running Explosive Charge, as this is a taunt ability.

I run templar more than any of my characters, usually farming to Arcs 7-9, depending how Visions are going and how my attention span is handling it. Builds make a huge difference in there. There's a fine line between survivability and doing enough damage to keep on surviving.

Make sure you're targeting your companion to taunt the targets you want taunted (Y + Left Click target).

For me, IA is some of the most fun I've had in ESO in ages, the only gripe I have is the odd lag spike that happens since a few patches ago.

I would suggest looking into a build specific to running Archives, it really makes a difference. I run Deadly Strikes/Aetheric Lancer + False God's for everything below Arc 8, and just make sure you have 30K+ health and 30k+ resistances, the rest is doing mechanics, or killing before the need to.

I play Templar in "caster style". I don't have any taunts.
It's my healer-subdps Templar I take on Trials and Dungeons.
My bread and butter is weaving Reflective Light with basic attacks, and using Fiery Explosion with Warmage's Defense.

As for my values...weeeeeeel...yeah my HP is not the highest, that's why I focus on barriers.
The runs are indeed better when I eat HP-Magicka-Stamina increasing chicken, although I ran out of the food long time ago.

Good heavens, I didn't know you can command your Companion like that.
I used Y bind to toggle walk, I brought it back to default and just tested it on some mobs.
It does work. I didn't know Companion counts as Pet.

This might be the game changer for me.
I'm going to give it a try later on.

Munkfist

Oceanchanter wrote: »

Munkfist wrote: »

Being a templar, be sure you're not also running Explosive Charge, as this is a taunt ability.

I run templar more than any of my characters, usually farming to Arcs 7-9, depending how Visions are going and how my attention span is handling it. Builds make a huge difference in there. There's a fine line between survivability and doing enough damage to keep on surviving.

Make sure you're targeting your companion to taunt the targets you want taunted (Y + Left Click target).

For me, IA is some of the most fun I've had in ESO in ages, the only gripe I have is the odd lag spike that happens since a few patches ago.

I would suggest looking into a build specific to running Archives, it really makes a difference. I run Deadly Strikes/Aetheric Lancer + False God's for everything below Arc 8, and just make sure you have 30K+ health and 30k+ resistances, the rest is doing mechanics, or killing before the need to.

I play Templar in "caster style". I don't have any taunts.
It's my healer-subdps Templar I take on Trials and Dungeons.
My bread and butter is weaving Reflective Light with basic attacks, and using Fiery Explosion with Warmage's Defense.

As for my values...weeeeeeel...yeah my HP is not the highest, that's why I focus on barriers.
The runs are indeed better when I eat HP-Magicka-Stamina increasing chicken, although I ran out of the food long time ago.

Good heavens, I didn't know you can command your Companion like that.
I used Y bind to toggle walk, I brought it back to default and just tested it on some mobs.
It does work. I didn't know Companion counts as Pet.

This might be the game changer for me.
I'm going to give it a try later on.

Hopefully it works out! AOE is also your friend in Archives, the quicker you melt the smaller adds, the easier everything else will be. And life/resistance is huge there, make sure to cast Rune Focus for your Major Armor + some resource Sustain. Purifying Light/Power of the Light for some nice burst also helps a lot.

DenverRalphy

Oceanchanter wrote: »

ESO_player123 wrote: »

Are you sure your tank companion has Taunt slotted? The only Marauder that consistently ignores Companion taunting is Gothmau (this is the persistent issue from the introduction of IA). The rest will be happy to turn their attention to the Companion when taunted. At least that is my experience with using Bastian.

Yes. Zerith-var has both Provoke from One Handed and Shield he wears since I recruited him, as well as Perigean Armor
He has not one, but two taunts on his bar, one of which activates when being hit.

<sip>

I probably met all 3, but I don't have an opportunity check which Marauder is dropping on me like a ton of bricks.
I try to either find cover and roll the dice on Mystery Transformation Verse (cause it worked when I actually killed a Marauder or two) or I get deleted from the game if I'm not fast enough, so I don't think I ever got a good look.

I posted the only screenshot I bothered to take in this comment in another thread
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8247994/#Comment_8247994

Out of countless hours of doing IA and farming 4 sets, I managed to kill only 3 Marauders according to my achievments.
<snip>
Idk exactly which one is the werewolf behemoth, but when Zerith miraculously taunted him (and this was the first time he did taunt a Marauder) I could see the Marauder turning to my direction right after the taunt expired.
Gladly, Zerith applies taunt the moment it ends, so it was creepy to see a massive werewolf rotating in your direction for a split second.

Zerith's taunt works against monsters using ranged attacks. With a couple of exceptions, Marauders tend to walk up and thump you on the head with melee. Azandar's taunt is much more effective against Marauders, as well it has a shorter cooldown.

Looks like you could do with some Quickened to bring the cooldown timers down a bit too. Because if a Marauder pops just after their taunt skill is used, 15 seconds can be a long time to wait.

If your companion has Sword & Board taunt, make sure you target the Marauder and give your companion the Attack command to ensure they're targeting the right monster. On console while targeting the Marauder, hold both stick buttons down and tap right trigger. [edit] actually, good practive regardless which taunt skill.

katanagirl1

My tank Bastian can successfully deal with the marauders except for Gothmau. I have never got past him. I don’t have time to hard target or do the multi button command thing, but Bastian’s first skill is a taunt and it seems to work for other marauders. I ran IA last week and Bastian got me through the Minotaur marauder and did an awesome job. I hope someday ZOS will read the thread about companions not taunting Gothmau and fix it someday.

I agree about the Amaril duel thing. She goes invulnerable for a few seconds, then the crystal starts pulsing, then you have to go and interrupt Amaril, then get back to the crystal that is way on the other side of the arena…yeah it’s not working at level 5 for me.

EDIT: typo

spartaxoxo

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I agree about the Amaril duel thing. She goes invulnerable for a few seconds, then the crystal starts pulsing, then you have to go and interrupt Amaril, then get back to the crystal that is way on the other side of the arena…yeah it’s not working at level 5 for me.

Don't head to the crystal right away. Just toss your ult and any ranged skills/dots but stay on Amaril until the interrupt.

Sakiri

One thing I noticed is you need to be resist capped. Both spell and physical. I'm running sergeants and Alessia on my ia build. Oakensoul sorc build. Crit surge, twilight matriarch, hardened ward, wall of elements, elemental susceptibility.

You make up for the damage with visions and verses. You can't heal through damage at a certain point and you can't kill it before it kills you on a pure dps build after a certain point. This build I'm running is super hard to kill.

Companions in there scales it like you're running with a friend. You're better off going without and using a tanker build.

spartaxoxo

Sakiri wrote: »

Companions in there scales it like you're running with a friend. You're better off going without and using a tanker build.

The Infinite Archive does not offer scaling. So, you're better off running with a companion unless you're specifically aiming to get on the solo leaderboard.

Sakiri

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

Companions in there scales it like you're running with a friend. You're better off going without and using a tanker build.

The Infinite Archive does not offer scaling. So, you're better off running with a companion unless you're specifically aiming to get on the solo leaderboard.

It does.

Difficulty goes up when there's two in there but doesn't go back down when you lose them.

And when that companion is dead or useless, it's a waste.

I run as a pair of sorcs, both of us use that same gear build I posted. Skills get swapped a bit as a duo.

The op is doing something wrong.

spartaxoxo

Sakiri wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

Companions in there scales it like you're running with a friend. You're better off going without and using a tanker build.

The Infinite Archive does not offer scaling. So, you're better off running with a companion unless you're specifically aiming to get on the solo leaderboard.

It does.

Difficulty goes up when there's two in there but doesn't go back down when you lose them.

And when that companion is dead or useless, it's a waste.

I run as a pair of sorcs, both of us use that same gear build I posted. Skills get swapped a bit as a duo.

The op is doing something wrong.

Difficulty doesn't scale. The warning is there because of the leaderboard.

UESP wrote:

Solo, Duo, Companions
While the Infinite Archive is neither normal nor veteran, the ramping difficulty is static regardless of whether you play solo or as a duo.

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Infinite_Archive

Ph1p

Oceanchanter wrote: »

I run IA with Tank Companion, which is a blessing.
My most succesful character is barrier-focused Templar that is a sub-dps healer.
The same Templar I take for Trials, both veteran and normal.
He gets the job done keeping people alive and dishes out decent damage.

It's a bit difficult to say without more details on your build, but it sounds like you need to focus a bit more on dishing out damage and less on keeping up shields or heals. Especially as a templar, you should have more than enough healing from your Puncturing Sweeps and Radiant Glory. Throw out Caltrops for an AoE debuff, have a burst heal for emergencies, and you can literally jab your way through the first few arcs with 4 skills and little difficulty. If you have the Pale Order Ring, it becomes even easier.

Avran_Sylt

Oceanchanter wrote: »

Avran_Sylt wrote: »

I have mine as a healer while I glass-cannon DPS with Brawler (damage +shielding).

But I also do run https://eso-sets.com/set/telvanni-efficiency
And have full blue cooldown gear so all their abilities are like 1.8s - 5.7s cooldown. (changing based on the default cooldown value)

Hm, that's worth looking into it. Most of the gear generates ultimate.
I'm broke right now so I cannot test it by switching gear on Zerith any time soon.

I was thinking about running Telvanni, but I recently spent resources to come back to Prayer Shawl (https://eso-sets.com/set/prayer-shawl) which completes my barrier/shielding + heal playstyle, and Tarnished Nightmare (https://eso-sets.com/set/tarnished-nightmare) for both fashion and frequent triggers from DoTs I apply.

I use Ember who has a medium-cooldown execute thunderous strike, turns the 16s cd into 8s before factoring in any other quickened gear. As well as the fighters guild Sniping Silver that deals double damage to undead and daedra (12s->6s)

I view all the extra casts added by these cooldowns as extra “procs”, like with a set like Tarnished, just that it also reduces the cooldown for any other skills I have slotted on the companion too (like heals, or in your case, taunts).

I’d recommend it over tarnished, IMO (when using a companion in IA). Especially with the quickened trait on gear. (As all the cooldown % are additive to one another, not multiplicative).

Sakiri

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

Companions in there scales it like you're running with a friend. You're better off going without and using a tanker build.

The Infinite Archive does not offer scaling. So, you're better off running with a companion unless you're specifically aiming to get on the solo leaderboard.

It does.

Difficulty goes up when there's two in there but doesn't go back down when you lose them.

And when that companion is dead or useless, it's a waste.

I run as a pair of sorcs, both of us use that same gear build I posted. Skills get swapped a bit as a duo.

The op is doing something wrong.

Difficulty doesn't scale. The warning is there because of the leaderboard.

UESP wrote:

Solo, Duo, Companions
While the Infinite Archive is neither normal nor veteran, the ramping difficulty is static regardless of whether you play solo or as a duo.

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Infinite_Archive

I stand by my opinion that companions are useless. Dps ones are dead, healer ones are dead, and tank ones don't get aggro.

You're better off building yourself to be tanky.

And they feel like they scale to me. My friend has even commented about it when carrying my fresh Alts through it for reasons (if you stay alive the xp isn't awful and it's less boring than doing the same grind over again). Feels like they've got more hp to account for the extra person.

Sakiri

Ph1p wrote: »

Oceanchanter wrote: »

I run IA with Tank Companion, which is a blessing.
My most succesful character is barrier-focused Templar that is a sub-dps healer.
The same Templar I take for Trials, both veteran and normal.
He gets the job done keeping people alive and dishes out decent damage.

It's a bit difficult to say without more details on your build, but it sounds like you need to focus a bit more on dishing out damage and less on keeping up shields or heals. Especially as a templar, you should have more than enough healing from your Puncturing Sweeps and Radiant Glory. Throw out Caltrops for an AoE debuff, have a burst heal for emergencies, and you can literally jab your way through the first few arcs with 4 skills and little difficulty. If you have the Pale Order Ring, it becomes even easier.

Pale Order + Sweeps + 33k resists = lawlarchive. What little damage you take is healed right back up.

You will not typically use the same build for archive as you do trials and dungeons. It'll be VASTLY different. Build for survivability and make up the damage with visions. It'll get you through first six arcs easy. I haven't been able to get past six due to lack of time. I just can't sit in the archive longer than a few hours.

spartaxoxo

Sakiri wrote: »

I stand by my opinion that companions are useless. Dps ones are dead, healer ones are dead, and tank ones don't get aggro.

You're better off building yourself to be tanky.

And they feel like they scale to me. My friend has even commented about it when carrying my fresh Alts through it for reasons (if you stay alive the xp isn't awful and it's less boring than doing the same grind over again). Feels like they've got more hp to account for the extra person.

Well, IA is both daily and weekly today so I decided to just show it.

First cycle 64k with and without companion. The warning is just for leaderboard.






As for companions joining you, I'll just leave this video here. First part is the add health without companions where I die on purpose on a DPS. And the second part I let Azandar solo Arc 1, Cycle 1. He's a tank companion so his damage is really bad even for a companion, so I sped that part up. It's moreso there to illustrate how having a companion can draw stuff away from you. And also to see the health.

The second part is he holds aggro of a Marauder, specifically the minotaur. He holds it mostly consistently too. That part starts at about 5 minutes and 14 seconds in.

https://youtu.be/5SkIEV8PpHM

Personally, I think it's better to start with more damage and then as you get further into IA, it's better to swap gear and get more tanky. But to each their own.

SilverBride

I used to enjoy the IA a lot but once I earned all the perks there was nothing new to work for. If we had a save I could experience some higher Arcs I haven't completely yet. But I can only sit for so long at a time. So I finally just resigned myself to the fact that I'll never see the higher Arcs.

fall0athboy

I agree with you on the Marauders. They are just not fun at all.

Oceanchanter

I've almost got an aunerism.

I tested sending my Companion to fight a Marauder, and everything went fine...
...until Marauder simply dissappeared and I had to start the stage from scratch.

I didn't die, I was damaging the Marauder just fine so I didn't leave it to my companion.

I didn't lose a Thread either.

Is this normal?

Necrotech_Master

Oceanchanter wrote: »

I've almost got an aunerism.

I tested sending my Companion to fight a Marauder, and everything went fine...
...until Marauder simply dissappeared and I had to start the stage from scratch.

I didn't die, I was damaging the Marauder just fine so I didn't leave it to my companion.

I didn't lose a Thread either.

Is this normal?

that sounds like a bug, i have very rarely had instances where it acted like i died and all the mobs reset even though i didnt die (one case i was too far from the spawned mobs and its just like "well the player isnt here lets just go")

Vulsahdaal

Oceanchanter wrote: »

I've almost got an aunerism.

I tested sending my Companion to fight a Marauder, and everything went fine...
...until Marauder simply dissappeared and I had to start the stage from scratch.

I didn't die, I was damaging the Marauder just fine so I didn't leave it to my companion.

I didn't lose a Thread either.

Is this normal?

Its rare, its happened to me 2 or 3 times as well. Just like finishing the stage, collecting your new verse and then suddenly a new baddie arrives. Guess his bus to the archive was running late?

IDK, but archive glitches do happen, some more than others.