I would say it depends on how much you need the tank and how much you use the restoration staff. I went to a respec shrine and reset my familiar to clanfear because I always use a restoration staff while soloing. I found myself having to explode the familiar manually to much.

As far as DPS goes I think they are the same since their damage is based on your max magicka. The clanfear has more health and/or armor...I think.

I don't really use summons anymore since Coldharbour.
But whenever i hit a bigger hard hitting mobs like storm attronachs, i pull out my trusty Clannfear and Restoring Twilight.
Equip a healy staff, and just let them kill the boss as i act as a healer.
Clannfear might not do huge dps (that's what the Twilight is for), but if healed, it can tank pretty well.

Lazarus_Long wrote: »

As far as DPS goes I think they are the same since their damage is based on your max magicka. The clanfear has more health and/or armor...I think.

While all summons use Max magicka as their damage stat, they can be set to scale differently off that stat.

I went for the clanfear myself, but was reading a post by somebody who went for the unstable familiar. He lets it get close to mobs and detonates it, causing huge damage, then resummons it immediately. This might chew up Magicka a bit though.

@kyosji, Clanfear works like a champ and gets right in there...

Something to keep in mind, you can always break out both summons regardless of what they are. Regardless of life, dps, armor...sometimes their key benefit is that they provide two other targets that are not you...

As long as one of them keeps ticking, you can usually have time to resummon the other. Just remember to move away from your twilight, as she tries to stay at a distance.

Personally, I was a little disappointed that you couldn't keep the Scamp and have the Clanfear (The Twilight's HP's just seem so low), but I am hopeful that they expand on the Summoning line at some point, whether with additional summons or buffs/skills for the summons.

There is much potential with Skeletons, Daedroths, Daedra, Wisps...then there are natural familiars: bears, wolves, foxes... Swarms of minors (rats, skeevers, wasps, spiders, bats) that would have fewer HP's but could show up en masse that could have interesting effects.

It shouldn't take an explosion to let you know your summon has passed, but until they give us a secondary health bar, an icon, or the ability to have your summon look somehow different than everyone elses, it's almost what it takes.

Passive rebate is worth sinking a couple points into.

Nothing worse than being in a good spot in a fight, going to resummon your assumed deceased familiar only to hear the scream and watch it dissipate before your eyes - usually right at the moment the boss looks up and says "Oh...I didn't realize you were over there..."

I personally chose the clannfear, because the familiar is annoying as heckie and the clannfear is a nice adventuring partner.

mark.markandb16_ESO wrote: »

Why choose one or the other? I have em both up together...best of both worlds

The original question was about the Clanfear versus the Volatile Familiar, both of which are morphs for the Unstable Familiar, you can't have both.

I may be a bit late but I just started a new character, an altmeri sorceress and choose the clannfear because of the healing but wasn't sure up to unhappy so I googled a bit about opinions (even though it was too late lol) but I've played with the clannfear for some time now and it's great.

If anyone has problems with choosing, the clannfear is definitely great.

Kyosji wrote: »

This is the question I must ask, which is more beneficial? How much damage does each actually do, and how much more health does the Clannfear have over the familiar?

I currently run with the Clannfear, and I enjoy using him, but I figure that the Familiar may be a better option for solo play. He is supposed to deal 20% AoE damage of my max Magika upon death, which at this point is around 300 damage at level 36, and it stuns for 2 seconds. Definitely enough time to summon another. It also helps me notice when my summon actually dies.

So, does the actual damage between the two identical? Also, what is the health difference really between the two?

Familiar for DPS, Clannfear for extra tankiness.

dpencil1 wrote: »

I think necroing posts may be against the forum rules. You should just make a new thread, not comment on a thread from 2014.

Yes, I think it is. ... But then if you make a new thread, people will scream at you "USE THE SEARCH!!!" and "helpfully" post links to these old threads while saying "Search moar, noob!" LOL. So basically, no matter what you do, someone will be nasty. (Sometimes the posting of links isn't meant to be nasty, but sometimes it is.)

I started reading this thread again today not realizing it was necro'd, and it's still an interesting discussion. It's worth a second look.

*EDIT* I went looking through the forum rules to see if necroing threads was against the rules, and didn't see it. I know of a case where a mod locked an old thread that was necro'd, though, and they posted that we should create new threads instead.

@jmrathbun
The damage difference between Clannfear and Familiar is night and day. Think of Familiar like a mobile Liquid Lightning that also stuns enemies. It's seriously the 2nd most powerful skill in the mSorc's kit. Clannfear damage is a joke. That's not what he's there for. He is a tank/healer. Use what suits you. If you prefer a more relaxed solo experience where the Clannfear keeps you safe, great. Nothing wrong with that. He's not appropriate in group play where your have actual people dedicated to tanking and healing.

Personally, I run the Familiar and the Twilight Matriarch. Using Daedric Prey buffs both of them, and the Matriach is powerful also, usually contributing about 7% of my total dps. So she provides the heals instead of the Clannfear. Yes, the mobs will attack you more, but you will kill them quickly and if you just use Empowered Ward before combat, trash mobs will never even get a chance to get to your health bar. Bosses are a little trickier, but it just takes getting used to balancing attacking and shielding at the appropriate times, and using the Matriach heal in "oh crap" moments.