Don't they have health bars over their heads? Or do you mean else where on the screen? If so, yeah I agree, would be nice to see it else where on the screen since lots of times I never know where she is.

Davor wrote: »

Don't they have health bars over their heads? Or do you mean else where on the screen? If so, yeah I agree, would be nice to see it else where on the screen since lots of times I never know where she is.

Yeah that's what I meant. The pet will disappear out of view and it's anyone's guess as to what the pet's health is at.

First of all, it's a she Not only is her name Matriarch but she also has very distinctive visual signs of uh...female gender.

Second of all, she is ~80% immune to AoE so basically only things killing her are direct attacks and some special stuff like the totem in vet RoM on last boss. That's why you use Hardened Ward(or the other morph) when you know there's a lot of possibly untaunted melee around(trash packs included). Next, you now MUST cast Twilight heal every once in a while even if no groupmates require it, in order to heal Twilight herself since ZOS removed in combat pet health regeneration and your other heals may or may not hit her.

She is actually pretty sturdy, you just need to know when to use shields and heals. You also should not be relying on her as one and only heal. Twilight died? Well turn around and burst heal with Combat Prayer then, then spam a couple Springs and then as Springs ticks use that safe time to re-summon the pet.

I do agree a more visible health bar would be nice indeed though. Perhaps an optional toggle in settings adding your pets' health to the group/near your own healthbar or something.

Edit: Oh and yes. She taunts. Not sure why but it actually does come in handy sometimes. You need to make sure that your tank is taunting(her taunt will not steal that of an actual tank) on bosses and if she gets stuck behind fighting a lonely zombie on a trash mob, just y+rmb her(if on PC, not sure on console), this will make her stop fighting and come to your side generally(and the stray mob will follow).

Um...wut? The Matriarch is great. You need to add the heal in as part of your rotation along with Empowered Ward being up at all times as stated above.

The Matriarch is not bad. The only times it dies is vMA round 7 when the Behemoth screams. Otherwise I seldom have to re-summon her. But I guess it's because the constant shielding is a habit I got through PvP.

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

exeeter702 wrote: »

Matriarch is a powerful burst heal with a greater application range and higher potency than bol. The trade off is needing to double bar it and managing the pet.

Yes it's a great heal but the bigger issue, as OP points out, it's unreliable. When you need to use such a heal I needs to be available then.

Which is a user error more than anything. If our trial healer can maintain matriarch in vet trials, i dont see how it is an issue for anything below that for pve.

Pvp however is a slightly different story.

Magdalina wrote: »

First of all, it's a she Not only is her name Matriarch but she also has very distinctive visual signs of uh...female gender.

Second of all, she is ~80% immune to AoE so basically only things killing her are direct attacks and some special stuff like the totem in vet RoM on last boss. That's why you use Hardened Ward(or the other morph) when you know there's a lot of possibly untaunted melee around(trash packs included). Next, you now MUST cast Twilight heal every once in a while even if no groupmates require it, in order to heal Twilight herself since ZOS removed in combat pet health regeneration and your other heals may or may not hit her.

She is actually pretty sturdy, you just need to know when to use shields and heals. You also should not be relying on her as one and only heal. Twilight died? Well turn around and burst heal with Combat Prayer then, then spam a couple Springs and then as Springs ticks use that safe time to re-summon the pet.

I do agree a more visible health bar would be nice indeed though. Perhaps an optional toggle in settings adding your pets' health to the group/near your own healthbar or something.

Edit: Oh and yes. She taunts. Not sure why but it actually does come in handy sometimes. You need to make sure that your tank is taunting(her taunt will not steal that of an actual tank) on bosses and if she gets stuck behind fighting a lonely zombie on a trash mob, just y+rmb her(if on PC, not sure on console), this will make her stop fighting and come to your side generally(and the stray mob will follow).

Pets do not taunt. Pets may sometimes draw aggression in the same way a wayward dps would; by attacking something not taunted. Taunts will always override a pet attacking something. Command your pet to stand down (Y+ Right Click on PC by default) if you don't want it attacking active enemies. Heavy attacks will re-enable its aggression, as they serve as a target beacon for pets. It would be great if that were a toggleable OPTION, but I digress.

ecru: Your Sorcerer class ward protects your Daedra as well, cast it.
Ground heals (Healing Springs, Combat Prayer, other people's class abilities) will heal Daedra in their radius. Cast them.

The Matriarch's heal is op especially on build with 50k magicka, the heal is strong and fast and better than BoL. The real disadvantage is the pet itself, the annoying dimensions and animation. It must be turned into parrot or humming-bird that are small but also fly. The Matriarch is just too big and often covers the screen with wings and body which is bad for the gameplay.

Is this thread click bait? I mean other than her penchant for running off and getting nachos when I'm not looking she does a pretty good job.

Why necro this?

Matriarch works if you more or less constantly recast shield. Which, as a for-instance, is pretty much one decent way to run vMA.

If you do not, then she wipes a lot the moment you hit veteran-level content. In my personal experience. And even if you keep her alive in decent groups her utility is limited as you are a) avoiding the really bad mechanics; b) shielding moderate damage and c) have a healer that heals. Not to mention the fact that if the fight is going badly enough that you need an emergency burst heal, you are probably also having other issues (mana, snare/slow, et cetera) and ought to prioritise those first. Or the fact that you can use the slot for Power Surge, save the slot on the other bar, and get a steady once-per-second heal so long as you put out enough attacks (and maintain the buff, of course).

So on balance, she is sort of useful but not really, not the least due to the babysitting aspect of things.

Jarryzzt wrote: »

Matriarch works if you more or less constantly recast shield. Which, as a for-instance, is pretty much one decent way to run vMA.

If you do not, then she wipes a lot the moment you hit veteran-level content. In my personal experience. And even if you keep her alive in decent groups her utility is limited as you are a) avoiding the really bad mechanics; b) shielding moderate damage and c) have a healer that heals. Not to mention the fact that if the fight is going badly enough that you need an emergency burst heal, you are probably also having other issues (mana, snare/slow, et cetera) and ought to prioritise those first. Or the fact that you can use the slot for Power Surge, save the slot on the other bar, and get a steady once-per-second heal so long as you put out enough attacks (and maintain the buff, of course).

So on balance, she is sort of useful but not really, not the least due to the babysitting aspect of things.

I get where you are coming from. Just wanted to point out that Power Surge is not a necessity.
I use an Essence of Spellpower potion that grants Major Prophecy, Major Sorcery and Major Intellect for 47secs with a cooldown of 45secs.

This free's up the slot I would otherwise use for Powersurge / Magelight

I love my Josephine when I (usually solo) play. She's my partner in fight and source of.......staying alive...very often not only to me
She seldom dies.

She is far from being terrible nd useless.

Also, you have to have her slotted on both bars.
o_0

The Matriarch is powerful, not useless at all. As others probably already said (no time to read all now), you must preserve her, activate in rotation.
On the other hand, if you find the pets dying too much compared to the past, you can thank who at zos thought it was a great idea to nerf them, there was a time their survivebility was great, e.g. the clanfear had a real meaning in solo content, that's something I can't forgive to developers, that was a truly useful skill worth to slot for certain situations that became useless, so much about nerfing something no one ever complained about, it wasn't about damage, just support, gj zos ***.