Feedback on the PTS is pretty underwhelming. More grind, more inventory management, for a squishy wet noodle in combat. And a "Rapport System"? You end up with a companion who does pretty much nothing except occupies space and takes a hike if you don't talk to it enough. I can already see 20 of these things running around Vivec blocking crafting stations. I'll pass.

I saw Hack the minotaurs new vid where he leveled up the companions and shows their skills & fighting. And I went on PTS and got Mirri to level 4 did daily mage/fighter/undaunted quests and Elden Hollow 2 (did 2 instead of 1 because pledge). I will say I like the companions so far.

1. I think some cooldowns are too long and some damage can be buffed but overall they seem very usable

2. on hacks vid he had bastian blocking heavy attacks from world boss and that looks pretty good

3. with Mirri on the dungeon she died several times but only at the end, against shadow guard, she dropped the AOE on Mirri but unlike other time when Mirri actual was rolling out of red, she just stood there, I rezzed her 3 times

4. On Bogdan Mirri didn't get any fire dropped on her but on dragon stomp she died instantly every time, I rezed each time

5. combat metric didn't have the damage output for Mirri (or couldn't find it) so I don't know how much she was doing, but I like that she does lots of light attacks 800, and it did seem slightly better than pure solo

I actually think there is massive potential for these companions. I can see as DD or healer they could be much better than standard pug pretty easily, as tank they'll be way better the fake tank but not as good as OK real tank. So this could solve the fake tank problem, for instance, any time you see a fake tank immediately kick, pull out companion.

Ideally if we can do all normal dungeons and group arenas with them it will be a success. And I think we should be allowed to also do Vet content with them. I think a super easy way to make this possible would be to just buff the companion damage/health etc by the same amount as monsters in vet when they enter. Kind of like 'battle spirit for vet dungeons'.