Companions dropping combat early...

Xenite · February 2022

Me and my wife do dungeons daily and we use Miri and Bastion as a healer/tank combo. Problem is for awhile now Bastion has been near useless as a tank as he constantly drops combat, puts his weapons away and runs back to us. Sometimes he does this over and over again during a fight. I tried to search for a solution but all I could find was similar complaints posts going back about 6 months or so.

Is this a known issue? I really hope it gets fixed.

CP5 · February 2022

Normally at dragon fights there can be half a dozen companions running around, and when they're not dead they're often running back to their player, weapon stowed and all. It happens all the time pretty much.

katanagirl1 · February 2022

Personally I think the companions should have their weapons out whenever I have mine out and be ready for battle. It wouldn’t make sense for them to put away their weapons until I sheathe mine.

The opposite should be true as well, if my character draws weapons then they should do the same, rather than just stand there doing nothing.

Xenite · February 2022

Well this doesn't appear to be a new issue, I've found posts like this dating back for awhile:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/585512/companions-disengaging-from-combat

They seem to perform as tanks a lot better when not in a group. I've had Bastion tank world bosses when I am alone with no issues at all. But when in a group with someone else at times he's next to useless as a tank.

I haven't been able to find a single post that Zenimax acknowledges the issue though. *sigh*

AcadianPaladin · February 2022

I've had this problem routinely for at least a couple months now whether using Bastion or Mirri as a tank. They decided in the middle of a boss fight to stow their weapon, run back to my character, then realize the fight is still on and go back to fighting. In the meantime, they've dropped taunt, the boss has moved out of the 'killing zone' and in my face. This happens rarely if at all when I'm solo, but routinely when I am grouped. And the groups never include another real or companion tank that could be interfering. The friend I often duo with reports she has another friend who runs a companion tank with the same problem.

Would love to hear some acknowledgment that the devs know about this and have plans to fix it.

votan73 · February 2022

You also hear "That was easy." mid-fight.

Even worse:
If you are alive the companion goes back fighting. But if you are dead, they stand by you and letting the others down.
If your companion was the tank, the other player now has more important things to do than rezzing you.

Of course the answer is: Do not die!

CP5 · February 2022

Just wanted to chime back in and say I just did a harrowstorm where someones companion was standing afk for the entire duration until being one shot by a boss aoe. Thought they were a player at first since they normally at least move, but this one decided not today.

perfiction · February 2022

From my experience companions don't like necro pets, whenever blastbones/arcanist/mender dies they have a chance to be like "oh, someone died, combat is over".

VindictiveRidge · March 2022

perfiction wrote: »

From my experience companions don't like necro pets, whenever blastbones/arcanist/mender dies they have a chance to be like "oh, someone died, combat is over".

It's not just Necromancer pets, though that's where the problem first became obvious for me. The Sorcerer ultimate Storm Atronach expires? Companions drop out of combat. The Warden's bear ultimate dies? Companions drop out of combat. This can be a problem when trying to use one of them as a tank, to say the least.

The other part of that pattern is that, in my experience, it ONLY happens WHILE GROUPED. If I'm soloing on my Warden or Necromancer, the companion does NOT drop combat when the pets die. But if I'm grouped, and there are more companions active than just my own? ALL of the companions drop combat when the summoned pets go down. I've filed bug reports on this to no avail.

UntilValhalla13 · March 2022

I've been soloing normal frostvault with healer bastion for that stupid inferno, and he just shuts down after the laser centurion. He doesn't respond to heavy attack commands or "passive/attack" inputs. He just stands there until you unsummon and resummon him.

PS/NA

AcadianPaladin · March 2022

This is still a problem after U33. When grouped and using Mirri or Bastion as a tank, they will periodically, drop combat, stow their weapons and run back to me. Then decide to get back in the fight. Very irritating since the boss is normally still taunted on them when they run back to me - dragging the boss out of the AoE killing zone and into my face. Once again, would love to hear if ZoS is aware and has plans to fix.

Xenite · March 2022

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

would love to hear if ZoS is aware and has plans to fix.

Sadly, I'm not sure Zenimax has ever even acknowledged the issue.

Dietche · March 2022

My Mirri is doing all of the issues described here, except she isn't even set as a tank!!
She's set as dps, and *still* doing this crap.
On top of that, she does it when I'm solo, and I don't use ANY sort of pet or summons.
Just little ol' me and mah gyrl Mirri, and she still constantly goes out of combat while dps'ing.

Necrotech_Master · March 2022

i definitely notice the issue more when im playing on my necromancer tank, regardless of which companion i have out or how i have them set up

votan73 wrote: »

You also hear "That was easy." mid-fight.

Even worse:
If you are alive the companion goes back fighting. But if you are dead, they stand by you and letting the others down.
If your companion was the tank, the other player now has more important things to do than rezzing you.

Of course the answer is: Do not die!

i think if YOU die then the companion will always just stand there and do nothing lol
they should not be reacting at all to summons though

Xenite · March 2022

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i think if YOU die then the companion will always just stand there and do nothing lol
they should not be reacting at all to summons though

It's kinda weird, I've seen them do both. We was doing a dungeon a few days ago and my wife got one shot but Bastion kept tanking like a champ the whole boss fight. Other time I've went down and Miri just stands there having a existential crisis.

No real idea what triggers the AI to be so glitchy. Sometimes Bastion will tank great, sometimes he just drops combat over and over. I know someone suggested it may have to do with boss phase changes making the companion AI think combat is over.

At any rate they have become a large part of game play for a lot of players, so I really hope they put some work into fixing these issues and not just adding new characters.

AcadianPaladin · March 2022

@Xenite very much agree. Really enjoy the companions and hope AI refinement is ongoing.

Necrotech_Master · March 2022

Xenite wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i think if YOU die then the companion will always just stand there and do nothing lol
they should not be reacting at all to summons though

It's kinda weird, I've seen them do both. We was doing a dungeon a few days ago and my wife got one shot but Bastion kept tanking like a champ the whole boss fight. Other time I've went down and Miri just stands there having a existential crisis.

No real idea what triggers the AI to be so glitchy. Sometimes Bastion will tank great, sometimes he just drops combat over and over. I know someone suggested it may have to do with boss phase changes making the companion AI think combat is over.

At any rate they have become a large part of game play for a lot of players, so I really hope they put some work into fixing these issues and not just adding new characters.

ive never built my companions for tanking, but in a healer or dmg spec, they never once continued combat if i was the one who died lol

granted it is pretty rare that im the one who will die before they do lol

my necromancer is the only one i consistently see the buggy AI behavior almost entirely because of blastbones, if i dont use blastbones i dont have a problem

VindictiveRidge · March 2022

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Xenite wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i think if YOU die then the companion will always just stand there and do nothing lol
they should not be reacting at all to summons though

It's kinda weird, I've seen them do both. We was doing a dungeon a few days ago and my wife got one shot but Bastion kept tanking like a champ the whole boss fight. Other time I've went down and Miri just stands there having a existential crisis.

No real idea what triggers the AI to be so glitchy. Sometimes Bastion will tank great, sometimes he just drops combat over and over. I know someone suggested it may have to do with boss phase changes making the companion AI think combat is over.

At any rate they have become a large part of game play for a lot of players, so I really hope they put some work into fixing these issues and not just adding new characters.

ive never built my companions for tanking, but in a healer or dmg spec, they never once continued combat if i was the one who died lol

granted it is pretty rare that im the one who will die before they do lol

my necromancer is the only one i consistently see the buggy AI behavior almost entirely because of blastbones, if i dont use blastbones i dont have a problem

Question: Do you notice the buggy behavior when you're soloing with a companion and using Blastbones? I only see it when I'm in a party.

Necrotech_Master · March 2022

VindictiveRidge wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Xenite wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i think if YOU die then the companion will always just stand there and do nothing lol
they should not be reacting at all to summons though

It's kinda weird, I've seen them do both. We was doing a dungeon a few days ago and my wife got one shot but Bastion kept tanking like a champ the whole boss fight. Other time I've went down and Miri just stands there having a existential crisis.

No real idea what triggers the AI to be so glitchy. Sometimes Bastion will tank great, sometimes he just drops combat over and over. I know someone suggested it may have to do with boss phase changes making the companion AI think combat is over.

At any rate they have become a large part of game play for a lot of players, so I really hope they put some work into fixing these issues and not just adding new characters.

ive never built my companions for tanking, but in a healer or dmg spec, they never once continued combat if i was the one who died lol

granted it is pretty rare that im the one who will die before they do lol

my necromancer is the only one i consistently see the buggy AI behavior almost entirely because of blastbones, if i dont use blastbones i dont have a problem

Question: Do you notice the buggy behavior when you're soloing with a companion and using Blastbones? I only see it when I'm in a party.

i would have to test it again as i dont fully remember when solo, but i can confirm ive seen it happen in a group though