Taunting (most) world bosses keeps them on you. You could use Bastian if you want.

I'm still trying to figure out in what world bosses focusing so much on companions is normal and ok. they should not behave as if companions are actively taunting them, and we should not have to slot a taunt and lose an ability slot just to keep them alive a few seconds longer (since they don't move out of crap on the ground either)

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

EvilAutoTech wrote: »

Taunting (most) world bosses keeps them on you. You could use Bastian if you want.

So, yes if I want my entire back bar to be - Wall, self heal, self shield, Taunt, and 1 other skill.

No thanks. I need more AoE for damage.

I mean, I'm a tank main. I hope I know how to use taunt.

Why would you need all that to slot a taunt? Why would you need to stand there and hold block just because you have the boss taunted? You're not a tank and don't need to do all that. You're just making things more complicated than they need to be when you rely on your companion rng'ing aggro with you.

If your companion vanishes then you're getting aggro anyway. How is it impossible to kill adds when you've got aggro through taunt but easy to kill them if Mirri vanishes and hands you aggro. Are you hoping she provokes the boss when she unvanishes?

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

snip

Not gaslighting, sorry. Am female, I know what gaslighting is. I was explaining. You have misinterpreted. I am going to leave the issue at that. You seem rather upset today.

Gaslighting doesn't require any particular genders. And I did not misinterpret anything. You can't even offer a different interpretation of "this is why slotting a taunt to keep a companion alive is a crappy idea" is somehow not about slotting taunt so you can keep your companion alive because it's extremely explicit. Instead you're trying to convince me something is wrong with me rather than admit you were thinking of slotting a taunt in the wrong way.

The sad thing a tank player thinking like a tank and interpreting "slot a taunt" as "play like a tank," is perfectly normal interpretation. When you slot a taunt it's typical for other players and you take your tank duties seriously. Compamions are also a pretty new system. So it's normal to think that way.

But instead of just admitting it, you've tried to gaslight me. Sad.

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

I'm still trying to figure out in what world bosses focusing so much on companions is normal and ok. they should not behave as if companions are actively taunting them, and we should not have to slot a taunt and lose an ability slot just to keep them alive a few seconds longer (since they don't move out of crap on the ground either)

You may want to re-evaluate your companion's build. Both Mirri and Bastian can heal themselves AND me just fine, and survive anything except sustained boss assault. They do need to be in blue or purple gear, and have all 5 skill slots open. I don't even have ultimates unlocked yet.

my companions do not have builds. they take so slow to level, they are wearing whatever I can find, and using whatever skills i managed to unlock. and yet.. they STILL pull bosses out of my gosh darn AoE/ultimate in normal dungeons and then promptly die. with the mish mash of skills and armor they are wearing, while not even level 10, they should NOT be pulling this much threat, even with a potato like me. THAT... is the core issue. (and btw, Mirri IS using cloak, I have unlocked that much. it doesn't do crap to stop her from pulling threat and then dying at the worst possible moment, UNLESS I slot taunt)

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

I'm still trying to figure out in what world bosses focusing so much on companions is normal and ok. they should not behave as if companions are actively taunting them, and we should not have to slot a taunt and lose an ability slot just to keep them alive a few seconds longer (since they don't move out of crap on the ground either)

You may want to re-evaluate your companion's build. Both Mirri and Bastian can heal themselves AND me just fine, and survive anything except sustained boss assault. They do need to be in blue or purple gear, and have all 5 skill slots open. I don't even have ultimates unlocked yet.

my companions do not have builds. they take so slow to level, they are wearing whatever I can find, and using whatever skills i managed to unlock. and yet.. they STILL pull bosses out of my gosh darn AoE/ultimate in normal dungeons and then promptly die. with the mish mash of skills and armor they are wearing, while not even level 10, they should NOT be pulling this much threat, even with a potato like me. THAT... is the core issue. (and btw, Mirri IS using cloak, I have unlocked that much. it doesn't do crap to stop her from pulling threat and then dying at the worst possible moment, UNLESS I slot taunt)

Cloak isn't going to stop a boss from switching aggro to your companion. All it should be intended for is to stop your companion from dying. BUT you will also need to have a self heal slotted, on the companion, so they can heal themselves. Even on a DPS. Cloak does have that build in.

Yup. This is why it's a good idea to put a taunt in your flex spot. Don't build yourself as a tank because then you wouldn't be doing enough damage, that's obviously not the thing to do. But slotting a taunt is good thing to do and doesn't require any of that.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

@Fennwitty

It is incorrect that having boss aggro means you need to stand and block and can't control adds. If you're not a real tank, you shouldn't play like one. You can often kite the boss around to avoid most big damage and then use roll dodge against heavy attacks.

Furthermore having aggro because Mirri vanished and you're the only person on the field is not different than slotting a taunt except you may get lucky rng when she appears and the boss will target her instead.

If you want to control a boss, either you or your companion can slot a taunt. You can also have a companion slot a taunt at the same time as you do, and have the companion handle any particularly dangerous add. The companion won't taunt anything you taunt.

I'm not saying op's way isn't a good way to do things. Maybe you will personally have better luck with it too. Only that you were correct that slotting taunt to keep aggro off your companion is also perfectly valid way of doing things and does not require you to play like you are tanking with real dps behind your back.

So I think there's different trains of thought going on in this thread.

The information in the OP boils down to, "if you want a healer companion you don't have to worry about, Mirri stays alive better because she has Twilight Mantle, and Bastian does not."

Twilight Mantle
Mirri Elendis shrouds themselves in refreshing shadows, healing for 25% of their Max Health and becoming invisible for 3 seconds.
Used when Mirri Elendis is below 50% Health.

Now slotting a taunt and using it will always help keep aggro off your companions. It's the same Mirri vs. Bastian.

If I want to guarantee as much as possible the companion stays alive, I'm taunting the major enemies.

But as @CaffeinatedMayhem pointed out, sometimes there's a lot of adds. It becomes impractical to taunt all of them (barring Tormentor etc.).

So some of the adds will focus on your companion despite your efforts.

The conclusion being once more that Mirri is better able to stay alive, because she can turn invisible while Bastian can't.

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

I question various claims in this thread.

• The quality of companion gear seems unimportant, for the most part. I've been running Mirri with a purple but bad trait resto staff and Bastian with a blue but OK trait one. Otherwise they've been in white armor, with no jewelry. They seem fine.
• For what fights do you need more AoE than Unstable Wall of Elements? Admittedly, if there are a lot of high-health mobs, you may run into resource issues spamming that skill before they die and give you magicka back, but other tactics would face similar challenges.

If you have no need of better gear, that's fine. I assume you are not soloing World Bosses, such as the ones in Blackwood. If you are, I'd love to see you (alone, companion only) take down Toad Tongue with only Wall of Elements as your AoE! Seriously. Please post.

If you're using a Nightblade or DK, Wall is probably the only AoEyou have. I main magden. So if Iwere to ONLY use Wall as my AoE: no shalk, no winters revenge, no orb. That's most of my DPS GONE. Poor magplars wouldn't get to use jabs if the "only" AoE they need is Wall.

Francis, it seems you may not have considered that other builds exist besides yours, and other people may use different skill sets than you do. Not everyone plays the same way and that's fine.

You're right to assume that I was talking about soloing easier world bosses.

You're wrong to assume that I was talking about cases, such as magden, where AoE skills are so good they belong even in a single-target damage rotation.

In the particular case of magplars, I'm using Puncturing Sweeps ever less. In a fight tough enough that builds matter, I don't like the interruptibility of a channel.

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

I agree that companions do seem to get far more aggro than players do (except in 4 man dungeons, have not run a trial with a companion yet) but, again, it seems intended. All I'm doing in this post is providing one way to deal with it, if you want a healer companion for heavy combat. If all you do is quest or run overland with your companion, you'll probably never run into the situations that I *primarily* use my companions for.

my comment. was. on this. specific. thing. WHY is this intended? and why are we ok with it??? I don't need my companion to quest in overland with, in fact if I didn't need to level them (you need, I would just keep them dismissed, because they get in a way far more then they help. what I need them for is to solo world bosses and dungeons. and in order to get even minimum use out of them, I have to change how I play to the point where its literally easier for me to just.. NOT have them "help"

edited. apparently, i do not have cloak yet. i have a different ability that I have mistaken for cloak. I HAVE to use taunt to have any hope of keeping bosses inside my ground abilities and not resetting cause they are chasing after Miri who keeps randomly rolling away because.. reasons? I'm not getting a cloak for a while yet, because one of the oh so lovely things about companions is that they level SOLELY through combat damage. and they level very. VERY. slowly, if you attempt to do anything other then mindlessly grind whatever place people go to, to grind xp nowadays. just making sure they are out when you are doing whatever it is you do in a normal play time? gives ridiculously low amount of xp. finishing a normal dungeon gave me... a little over 1k? sigh... she is level 10 and to get to lvl 11 I need 54600xp. twighlight mantle is lvl 14. I cannot believe I thought leveling rapport was going to be hard, pfft, its a cakewalk compared to just... leveling. the gear i give her is the gear i managed to have drop for me. now the drops are not as bad as they used to be on pts... but they are not exactly plentiful either, at least in better stats. no i'm not going to spend obsene amounts of money to gear up what amounts to a nuisance that I'm this close to completely giving up on, especially since I already unlocked aforementioned nuisance as house guests.

this is not merely in having to invest some time in developing companions. its about just how much time it takes and even after you do? they still require a LOT of special handling to the point of asking yourself... WHY am I even bothering???

and so I reiterate? why? why are we ok with their current state exactly?