Sadly, on stream they mention that there will 3 new mythics but there was no word on new companion, so I guess there won't be new one this time...

And how would they lock it beind blackwood if its in another zone?
Next year with blackwood as part of eso+ i think we may see more of them as the system is separated from the zone

Dark_Lord_Kuro wrote: »

And how would they lock it beind blackwood if its in another zone?
Next year with blackwood as part of eso+ i think we may see more of them as the system is separated from the zone

Lock the companion behind the story finale.

The year long story finishes with a finale that you need to have completed the chapter and the Q4 DLC - so you would need to have finished Blackwood and the new DLC to get the companion. Thus, they lock it behind Blackwood for 6 more months like they want.

Amottica wrote: »

I would expect Zenimax to use chapters for releasing comps more than regular zones.

I'd expect them to use the Crown Store for releasing comps rather than playable content

Wouldn't need to be gated behind Blackwood if a new one was purchasable from the store. This is how I expect most future companions to be released.

Companions are a bad joke. But talkative humanoid pets? Well, I I'd love to have more, looking forward to a Khajiit one.

Monday, PTS patch notes. 2 days and it turns out.

We need a Stibbons. A companion whose boost is something like carrying more 8)

@phaneub17_ESO had you trained your both Companions to level 20 with guild skill lines maxed and at least 2 armor and weapons skill lines maxed ?
If yes, do you really think Companions are useful? Do your Companions stay out of red? Had your Companions learnt not to reset bosses?
if not, why do you need one more Companion to remain underused?

@B0SSzombie, seriously?
In my opinion, Companions, which are the biggest Blackwood feature, are dead on arrival. Braindead to be more precise.
I am patient. I trained my Mirri in Light and Medium Armor to 20, her skills to 20, Bow, Destro and Resto to 20 and (i dont know why, exactly) progressing tank Bastian.
They die too often. There is ni mechanics preventing Companions to stay in AoE.
They reset bosses. Despite game-makers perfectly know what reset radius is.
Companions were initially made cowardly imbeciles, due to a lazy approach "lets just reskin non-combat pets and pay a lot for voice acting". It is more than 3 months since Blackwood release and barely no noticeable Companions AI improvements. I can speak only for myself, but i feel scammed, as Blackwood is 18 skyshadrs to grab and 2 skill points from the public dungeons group events i paid my money for.

@B0SSzombie, could you, please, tell me what certain fun Companions bring you? Maybe i am blind?

@B0SSzombie well.. thank you for your honest answer, my friend.
Guess we ll stay at our points anyway. My point is that Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity, especially if these are rushed and half-baked entities.
Good gaming!

I really want s vampire or werewolf companion. The werewolf companion transforms when you do and the vampire companion likes stealing, backstabbing npc's, etc.

DinoZavr wrote: »

In my opinion, Companions, which are the biggest Blackwood feature, are dead on arrival. Braindead to be more precise.
I am patient. I trained my Mirri in Light and Medium Armor to 20, her skills to 20, Bow, Destro and Resto to 20 and (i dont know why, exactly) progressing tank Bastian.
They die too often. There is ni mechanics preventing Companions to stay in AoE.
They reset bosses. Despite game-makers perfectly know what reset radius is.
Companions were initially made cowardly imbeciles, due to a lazy approach "lets just reskin non-combat pets and pay a lot for voice acting". It is more than 3 months since Blackwood release and barely no noticeable Companions AI improvements. I can speak only for myself, but i feel scammed, as Blackwood is 18 skyshadrs to grab and 2 skill points from the public dungeons group events i paid my money for.

You really do need to be in the right target audience for companions to find them useful. I think that they work best with solo content players, like questing, overland farming, world bosses, and non-vet non-DLC dungeons, or duo players doing slightly harder content.

There will be a point where they are not useful, and I suspect that you are past that point. I expect that the majority of players are not.

Yes, they can taunt bosses out of leash range, and I know that ZOS has heard concerns about this. Two strategies for handling this include making sure that the boss is taunted and not following the companion, or just burn down the boss before they get to the end of the leash.

Yeah, they can die. I find this often happens during messy boss fights with a lot of adds. The companion will become the favorite of one of the adds and if the player does not respond to that, they can die.

Like any player, they can get caught in the red circles and die from AoE attacks. This can happen when there are a lot of them and they reach the limit of their ability to escape.

On the other hand, they can easily take down overland mobs, which is really handy for farming because they keep the wolves at bay allowing the player to farm while the companion deals with whatever accidentally latched on when the character ran by.

They are a combat skill, and like any combat skill, they work better in some situations and play styles than others.

@Elsonso, please don’t get me wrong. I am not about personal attacks, I am very much upset with Companions feature and I am afraid, developers would not improve Companions as players are happy enough with them.

This is the general acceptance is what upsets me the most.
Companions are the boldest feature of the Chapter. Chapters happen once a year. Chapters cost money.
From what I experience (and I honestly did my best to develop my Companions) - they still deserve much much better.
Bethesda could do better:
- I have bought Skyrim and, at least, Lydia carries my burdens
- I purchased Fallout 4 and FO4 Companions have clever dialogues and witty remarks
(not even mentioning SWTOR companions)
What went wrong? Is one year of development is the lack of time? Lack of understanding of game mechanics by the game developers?

Zenimax had a year to develop and tune the best Blackwood attraction. ( (should be “we, but it seems I am a minority here at the forums) have got half-baked feature. Companions might be done way way better than they are now.
We (now actually “we, players” as I read this certain topic) are happy with Companions at theirs current state, I guess, game makers are happy too, so this leaves zero incentives for Companions to become better: not the idiots we have to babysit (the situations I have to heal my pocket healer staying in red are oxymoron for me), but the real “brothers in arms” we can at least partially rely on.
I honestly wonder how do we happily accept Companions with all theirs flaws?

- Companions avoiding staying in AoE
- Companions not resetting bosses
- Companions capable carrying theirs own gear
Possible? - Sure
Probable? - hardly, at least while we, players, demand more of these braindead RP thingies willingly spending our Crowns.
Or do I want/expect too much from Zenimax?

DinoZavr wrote: »

Elsonso, please don’t get me wrong. I am not about personal attacks, I am very much upset with Companions feature and I am afraid, developers would not improve Companions as players are happy enough with them.

This is the general acceptance is what upsets me the most.
Companions are the boldest feature of the Chapter. Chapters happen once a year. Chapters cost money.
From what I experience (and I honestly did my best to develop my Companions) - they still deserve much much better.
Bethesda could do better:
- I have bought Skyrim and, at least, Lydia carries my burdens
- I purchased Fallout 4 and FO4 Companions have clever dialogues and witty remarks
(not even mentioning SWTOR companions)
What went wrong? Is one year of development is the lack of time? Lack of understanding of game mechanics by the game developers?

Zenimax had a year to develop and tune the best Blackwood attraction. ( (should be “we, but it seems I am a minority here at the forums) have got half-baked feature. Companions might be done way way better than they are now.
We (now actually “we, players” as I read this certain topic) are happy with Companions at theirs current state, I guess, game makers are happy too, so this leaves zero incentives for Companions to become better: not the idiots we have to babysit (the situations I have to heal my pocket healer staying in red are oxymoron for me), but the real “brothers in arms” we can at least partially rely on.
I honestly wonder how do we happily accept Companions with all theirs flaws?

- Companions avoiding staying in AoE
- Companions not resetting bosses
- Companions capable carrying theirs own gear
Possible? - Sure
Probable? - hardly, at least while we, players, demand more of these braindead RP thingies willingly spending our Crowns.
Or do I want/expect too much from Zenimax?

Ah, well, there's been some recent threads asking what we wanted from Companions. So even if this thread isn't focused on asking for improvements, others have been.

@VaranisArano, thank you, my friend

i totally realize i am a minority in this general Companions praise thread,
but, still, i am trying to do my best to understand what is GOOD with Companions,
what makes us happy about them?

- Positioning? Nope. I use NoIneract addon to stop Companions preventing me looting
- Drawing Aggro? Nope. They tend to steal bosses aggro to happily die thereafter
- Avoiding damage? Nope. AoE is where they love to chill
- Carrying theirs own gear? Nope. They are weaklings. And there are TONS of burdens to carry.
- Resetting world and dungeons bosses? Yep. Why, Zenimax? Why? You surely know where these fetching red lines are
- Ever repeating "In a big family, you have to know how to scrap", or "They're coming for us!" when you hit a mudcrab, or "Nice haul!" on picking a cornflower - do we have a mute option? - Nope.

A lot of flaws/annoyances which should not exist from the very start or fixed promptly from my humble point of view.
Not that i regret money spent on the Blackwood Chapter, but Companions feature could and should be done way better as they are now.
Sad

edit: added TL/DR;
i am not for more companions, but i am for better companions