The Elder Scrolls Online

(Edited title after testing) Leveling one companion -- 63 quests plus a bunch of combat XP?

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FrancisCrawford
FrancisCrawford
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I zoomed through the PTS-only automatic leveling of my companions, so I don't really know what's involved in leveling them normally. But tea leaves suggest that what you need to fully level and unlock one companion might be:
  • 1 quest to originally unlock them.
  • 2 quests to build rapport.
  • 110 repeatable daily quests each for the Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, and Undaunted skill lines.
  • 1-2 million or so combat XP.

That said:
  • All would be per-account rather than per-character, except perhaps for the two rapport-building side quests.
  • I'm guessing that a quest advances the associated skill line by 10 points. I haven't actually tested that. I also haven't checked whether all 11 levels per guild (at 100 points per level) are actually needed to unlock all the skills.
  • The final skills in each of the guild lines don't look great, so maybe one could skip unlocking them.
  • My guess for total XP needed is very rough, based mainly on the observation that the last level out of 20 seems to take ~145K XP.
  • There's also of course a gear grind.

Does this sound about right?
Edited by FrancisCrawford on May 5, 2021 3:54AM
  • Olauron
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    FrancisCrawford wrote: »
    I zoomed through the PTS-only automatic leveling of my companions, so I don't really know what's involved in leveling them normally. But tea leaves suggest that what you need to fully level and unlock one companion might be:
    • 1 quest to originally unlock them.
    • 2 quests to build rapport.
    • 110 repeatable daily quests each for the Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, and Undaunted skill lines.
    • 1-2 million or so combat XP.
    Do you know whether killing undead/daedra increases FG companion skill line?

    Do you know whether daily random (normal) dungeon XP reward goes to companion as well?
    The Three Storm Sharks, episode 8 released on january the 8th.
    One mer to rule them all,
    one mer to find them,
    One mer to bring them all
    and in the darkness bind them.
  • Fischblut
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    110 repeatable daily quests each for the Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, and Undaunted skill lines.

    Thank you for bringing this to my attention! I used companion booster on PTS as well, so I had no idea about their actual leveling process...No, thanks :o I don't do those quests, I really dislike them. I guess I can forget about ever leveling my companions in future :/
    Edited by Fischblut on April 24, 2021 10:55AM
    "Comments in this thread should contain natch potes memes and hype."

    Please, add ability to use all new idle animations on every mount!

    Please, fix the bugged lights! They ruin visuals of environment and mounts.
  • NoxiousBlight
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    FrancisCrawford wrote: »
    [*] 110 repeatable daily quests each for the Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, and Undaunted skill lines.


    [*] I'm guessing that a quest advances the associated skill line by 10 points. I haven't actually tested that. I also haven't checked whether all 11 levels per guild (at 100 points per level) are actually needed to unlock all the skills.


    Does this sound about right?

    That is a guess considering the dailies are not working right now to advance skill lines. My assumption was each quest will advance them by a level, ending up with 33 dailies required, not 110. Either way we will probably find out on Monday at the next PTS patch when they hopefully fix it.

    In addition levels are indeed account wide, while rapport is per character. So if you have a low level who still needs FG/MG/Undaunted rep you could do a couple of dailies on them instead.
  • FrancisCrawford
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    NoxiousBlight wrote: »
    show previous quotes

    That is a guess considering the dailies are not working right now to advance skill lines. My assumption was each quest will advance them by a level, ending up with 33 dailies required, not 110. Either way we will probably find out on Monday at the next PTS patch when they hopefully fix it.

    In addition levels are indeed account wide, while rapport is per character. So if you have a low level who still needs FG/MG/Undaunted rep you could do a couple of dailies on them instead.

    Bolgrul quests are good ways to get Undaunted rep.

    Fighter's Guild quests are horrible ways to get guild rep; killing things is a lot faster. (Just think of how much rep you'll get from doing the dolmens for the quest compared to the small amount you'll get for turning the quests in.

    Mages Guild quests are pretty bad ways to get Mages Guild rep, but not as completely horrible as in the Fighters Guild case. Further, they take you to public dungeons, which are good places to grind XP.

    I guess they could also coincide with getting you skill points, but out of the 16*18 = 288 dungeon/character pairings that might show up in a quest, I have exactly 3 left for which I haven't already done the group event.
  • FrancisCrawford
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    Fischblut wrote: »
    show previous quotes

    Thank you for bringing this to my attention! I used companion booster on PTS as well, so I had no idea about their actual leveling process...No, thanks :o I don't do those quests, I really dislike them. I guess I can forget about ever leveling my companions in future :/

    You can still have class, weapon and/or armor skills without those quests. You just can't have guild skills.
  • DreadDaedroth
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    Wow so grindy!
  • DarcyMardin
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    For anyone who will be making a new alt with the new chapter, it might make sense to level the companions alongside the baby alt. (I’d be more likely to make buy a new alt slot if we were getting a new class with this chapter...oh well). Is it only through guild quests that the companions level those skills? Because with my already-leveled characters, I have no desire to do all those quests yet again.
  • Shantu
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    If I wanted a grindy little combat noodle who'll leave if I don't talk to them enough, I'd get a 3rd wife.
  • FrancisCrawford
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    DarcyMardin wrote: »
    For anyone who will be making a new alt with the new chapter, it might make sense to level the companions alongside the baby alt. (I’d be more likely to make buy a new alt slot if we were getting a new class with this chapter...oh well). Is it only through guild quests that the companions level those skills? Because with my already-leveled characters, I have no desire to do all those quests yet again.

    Quests only.

    Bolgrul quests give a version of Blood Altar.
    Mages Guild quests give a skill much like the resto HoT (and having more than one seems appropriate).
    Fighters Guild quests give a damage reduction circle.
  • FrancisCrawford
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    The figures that pop up after kills in the lower right hand corner of this video suggest that companions gain XP at a much lower rate than players do. (I'm seeing ratios in the range of 5:1 to 7:1. And it doesn't look like Enlightment is in play, although I'd appreciate other opinions on that part.)

    So leveling a companion will probably take numerous millions of player XP gains.

    https://youtu.be/SKFerji0cPE
  • BalticBlues
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    FrancisCrawford wrote: »
    what you need to fully level and unlock one companion might be:
    • 1 quest to originally unlock them.
    • 2 quests to build rapport.
    • 110 repeatable daily quests each for the Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, and Undaunted skill lines.
    • 1-2 million or so combat XP.

      Daily Quests only:
      • Undaunted Bolgrul quests give a version of Blood Altar.
      • Mages Guild quests give a skill much like the resto HoT (and having more than one seems appropriate).
      • Fighters Guild quests give a damage reduction circle.

    OMG. ZOS, please unlock these skills by doing these quests the FIRST time.
    Having to do HUNDREDS OF BORING QUESTS TO UNLOCK is A REASON NOT TO USE companions.

    Edited by BalticBlues on April 25, 2021 6:15AM
  • NakedPoorNord
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    1 companion exp = 7 player exp

    exp per level of them is bugged and probably will be fixed

    so for now its only 2 millions of player exp

    G9f8OQf.png

  • FrancisCrawford
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    According to today's patch notes, one can now test how much advancement doing a guild quest will provide.

    I'm too burnt out on such quests in general, however, to do an extra one right now just to test.
  • FrancisCrawford
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    Does anybody know which player XP buffs do or don't pass through to companions?

    ZoS stated that drink/scroll and holiday buffs do, but I don't know whether that's been confirmed via testing.

    Enlightenment probably doesn't, but I don't know whether that's been tested either.

    How about the Training gear and ESO+ bonuses?

  • FrancisCrawford
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    FrancisCrawford wrote: »
    According to today's patch notes, one can now test how much advancement doing a guild quest will provide.

    I'm too burnt out on such quests in general, however, to do an extra one right now just to test.

    What's more, I've leveled my companion skill lines to max already, so I CAN'T test. Oops!

  • BoloBoffin
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    It's the second day in a row where I did all three Guild quests to unlock the skill lines for Mirri, but none unlocked. That said, I got the Mirri's Favor achievement, one element of which is doing a Fighter's Guild quest with her! Both times I turned in the FG quest, I got a rapport boost, so that's working right, and it flagged for the achievement. But the actual skill line is still unlocked.

    Also, it would be surprising if the gameplay elements that advanced the skill lines for the player didn't also advance the skill line for the Companions, i.e., killing Daedra, finding the books, or dungeon achievements. Is that the case?
    Been there, got the Molag Bal polymorph.
  • FrancisCrawford
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    BoloBoffin wrote: »
    It's the second day in a row where I did all three Guild quests to unlock the skill lines for Mirri, but none unlocked. That said, I got the Mirri's Favor achievement, one element of which is doing a Fighter's Guild quest with her! Both times I turned in the FG quest, I got a rapport boost, so that's working right, and it flagged for the achievement. But the actual skill line is still unlocked.

    Also, it would be surprising if the gameplay elements that advanced the skill lines for the player didn't also advance the skill line for the Companions, i.e., killing Daedra, finding the books, or dungeon achievements. Is that the case?

    1. Sounds like they didn't fix the bug.
    2. The UI clearly says in each case that only guild quests advance the guild skill lines (and in the Undaunted case it's just Bolgrul quests).
  • FrancisCrawford
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    Today's patch notes say that one can now test how much a guild quest advances the associated skill line.

    Has anybody done such a test yet? If so, please share! :)
  • FrancisCrawford
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    I finally was able to do a test, and it wasn't as bad as I feared.

    A single Mages Guild quest gave 50 points, out of the 100 needed to advance a level. So it probably takes 61-63 quests to level a companion, plus 1 more quest per character of yours, plus a lot of combat XP, to level a companion.

    Note however that 20 of these quests are Fighters Guild quests, which are TEDIOUS (a lot of waiting for dolmens to spawn).


    This is all apart from the companion gear grind, of course.
  • crazepdx
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    FrancisCrawford wrote: »
    I finally was able to do a test, and it wasn't as bad as I feared.

    A single Mages Guild quest gave 50 points, out of the 100 needed to advance a level. So it probably takes 61-63 quests to level a companion, plus 1 more quest per character of yours, plus a lot of combat XP, to level a companion.

    Note however that 20 of these quests are Fighters Guild quests, which are TEDIOUS (a lot of waiting for dolmens to spawn).


    This is all apart from the companion gear grind, of course.

    Am I reading this correctly we are talking about 61-63 daily quests IN EACH GUILD LINE? So roughly 2 months to level a companion fully, plus farming gear?
  • FrancisCrawford
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    crazepdx wrote: »
    show previous quotes

    Am I reading this correctly we are talking about 61-63 daily quests IN EACH GUILD LINE? So roughly 2 months to level a companion fully, plus farming gear?

    Not quite that bad.
    • It's an estimated 20 in each skill line. The 63 comes from 3*20, plus 1 quest to unlock the companion, plus 2 more to build rapport.
    • The 3*20 are account-wide, not character-specific. The other 1-3 are character-specific. This is all per-companion.
    • If you have enough characters, getting through 20 dailies per guild doesn't take much calendar time. Indeed -- with advance preparation and/or working with other people, leveling a companion's guild skill lines in a single day is theoretically possible.
  • Milli_Rabbit
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    crazepdx wrote: »
    show previous quotes

    Am I reading this correctly we are talking about 61-63 daily quests IN EACH GUILD LINE? So roughly 2 months to level a companion fully, plus farming gear?

    Two months assuming you only do guild quests on one character per day. Theoretically, it could take 4 days if you have 18 characters. Assuming 63 is the correct value.

    EDIT: This also is not even considering that you can do the quests in groups so one character could do multiple in one day per guild. This means, assuming 3-4 dailies per guild per character, you could do it in one day if you have the time and setup.
    Edited by Milli_Rabbit on May 5, 2021 4:39AM
  • crazepdx
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    That looks much less insane. Now that we can level guild skills, I'm gonna have to take a run through and see.
  • FrancisCrawford
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    Milli_Rabbit wrote: »
    show previous quotes

    Two months assuming you only do guild quests on one character per day. Theoretically, it could take 4 days if you have 18 characters. Assuming 63 is the correct value.

    EDIT: This also is not even considering that you can do the quests in groups so one character could do multiple in one day per guild. This means, assuming 3-4 dailies per guild per character, you could do it in one day if you have the time and setup.

    1 quest per guild per day would take 20 days.
  • jwellsub17_ESO2
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    FrancisCrawford wrote: »
    The figures that pop up after kills in the lower right hand corner of this video suggest that companions gain XP at a much lower rate than players do. (I'm seeing ratios in the range of 5:1 to 7:1. And it doesn't look like Enlightment is in play, although I'd appreciate other opinions on that part.)
    From my testing it does appear to be between 5:1 and 7:1 at all levels... My level 3 character was getting between 5 - 7 times as much XP as my companion was, which means at lower character levels, it will take forever to level up a companion as a new player / character. To be fair, I didn't test lower levels as long as I tested at higher levels or in as many different scenarios, so I may have missed something.

    Also, I noticed that experience bonuses do apply to companions. So using those XP pots / scrolls will help speed up the leveling of your companions.



  • starlizard70ub17_ESO
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    FrancisCrawford wrote: »
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    Quests only.

    Bolgrul quests give a version of Blood Altar.
    Mages Guild quests give a skill much like the resto HoT (and having more than one seems appropriate).
    Fighters Guild quests give a damage reduction circle.

    I've got a few characters that I'm doing the Bolgrul quests with. So I'll just carry the companion with me and pick up the daily mage quest also. The fighter's quests aren't worth the effort, I'll just kill undead or deadra instead
    "We have found a cave, but I don't think there are warm fires and friendly faces inside."
  • jwellsub17_ESO2
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    starlizard70ub17_ESO wrote: »
    So I'll just carry the companion with me and pick up the daily mage quest also. The
    fighter's quests aren't worth the effort, I'll just kill undead or deadra instead
    My understanding is that killing the daedra, undead, and werewolves will increase your FG level, but will have zero effect on companions beyond just the basic XP.

    I was able to partially confirm this, before the 7.0.2 patch anyway, by spending about 30ish minutes doing the continuous zombie loop in Coldharbour with Bastian. My suspicion is that the same will apply for MG and lore books. Your companions will get XP and raise rapport but will not gain any MG.
  • crazepdx
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    jwellsub17_ESO2 wrote: »
    show previous quotes
    My understanding is that killing the daedra, undead, and werewolves will increase your FG level, but will have zero effect on companions beyond just the basic XP.

    I was able to partially confirm this, before the 7.0.2 patch anyway, by spending about 30ish minutes doing the continuous zombie loop in Coldharbour with Bastian. My suspicion is that the same will apply for MG and lore books. Your companions will get XP and raise rapport but will not gain any MG.

    I think anything related to guild questing before this last patch is tainted results, since they didn't have the guild quests turned on. That said last night I did a couple portals and a bunch of dolmens beyond the fg daily. The only part that raised Mirris fg was the daily quest. So I'm thinking you are correct.
  • Fennwitty
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    Even at a fraction of the amount, allowing Fighter's Guild to raise from killing stuff -- or at minimum defeating any zone invasion event (Dolmen/Geyser/Harrowstorm etc.) whether or not they're related to the Fighter's Guild daily would be a huge quality of life increase.

    Nobody likes Fighter's Guild daily quests. Unless the daily quest is for Alik'r I'm not interested :persevere:

    Though from the dev's perspective, more people doing the FG dailies to grind their companions would be 'revisiting old content' so ...

    EDIT: Has anyone tested the Cyrodiil Fighter's Guild bounty quests? I also did the automax unfortunately.
    Edited by Fennwitty on May 5, 2021 6:00PM
    PC NA
  • Lugaldu
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    To be honest, I don't care how long it takes me to fully level a companion. I want to have him as a long-term occupation/entertainment and not rush through everything within 1 week. But I also see companions more for the RP than as an aid in combat.
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