ottobot wrote: »

...is this it?

4 total same-as-everyone-else companions who you can't even put a helmet on, whose cosmetic choices are limited to the neck down, costumes only, that you can barely build with a tiny little boring skill set, and some itty bitty RNG stats on their otherwise wholly boring gear choices?

I can't even change their haircut? Give them a single set? They can't even wear hats? They don't even give me an extra bit of inventory?

They only work....in embarrassingly easy overland content where no one needs any help anyway? Useless meat shields with the capacity for maybe 20% of anything a normal player could pull off in vet+ content, if you're down a person? Might be kinda useful in solo Trials and stuff....if they even work there? Could be cool in PvP....but they don't come in with you.

I dunno. It's a cool thing, cool system, but talk about underwhelming. Maybe I'm missing something?

Lazy approach ?
Use them for a support role in not-overland content.
That will enable you as player to do more damage in not-overland content.

When I duo with my ESO buddy, and both companions do support, with Quickened trait to throw out faster support abilities with high uptime and HA for more survivability, much content goes much faster for us.

EDIT
Because we as players can put on more offensive sets and abilities and do more damage

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

You can apply an outfit to them in addition to costumes.

Technically, you can put something slightly on their head using the Mannimarco costume but that's the extend of it.

The lack of customization to the head area has been a long term complaint.

Something to keep in mind is that most of ESO's players don't min max that much which means if the companions pack much more of a punch they'd be better than many players.

Oh yeah I know you can apply costumes, that's what I meant from "the neck down".

Trust me when I say I am one of those players that don't minmax much. I really don't think we'd be in much jeopardy of antiquating players themselves by letting companions do a little more than barely anything. If it gets to a point where people are like "Don't invite actual people let's just use our companions they are better" than it has gone WAY farther than anything I'm suggesting or asking for in any way.

hrothbern wrote: »

When I duo with my ESO buddy, and both companions do support, with Quickened trait to throw out faster support abilities with high uptime and HA for more survivability, much content goes much faster for us.

EDIT
Because we as players can put on more offensive sets and abilities and do more damage

Of course they're gonna add a little bit in a duo setting, and that's great. The options to build them though are very very limited, and I'm certain most people build them for support, even on support builds. Every companion I see has a resto staff or sword/board because even if you're a healer or tank, you're gonna want a healer or tank for this content, because doing enough damage is almost accidentally possible. The poor pool of skills to chose from leads to a very easily stagnant meta and takes away from how interesting they could be, and the lack of being able to craft companion sets to give them that extra bit of functionality that a group member may have, leaves them even more cookie cutter and further detracts from another easily cool aspect, where you can focus your character more on a single aspect.

I may sound like I'm saying they're totally useless, and they're not - they're underwhelming and barebones and less than what I'd expect from ESO, IMO.

Dragonlord573 wrote: »

Worst part is that they're also as deep as vanilla Skyrim companions. If you max out their rapport they don't really get any new dialogue or anything. Rich at one point mentioned that romance might be an option in the future, but who wants to romance a cardboard cutout that says 4 lines of dialogue that everyone else hears?

Real question is how are you gonna romance someone that everyone else can summon up out of a bag? In a room with 25 Bastian Hallix's lookin for your specific boo.

One of my biggest gripes with MMO's in general is how it treats every single individual person as the exact same chosen one out of a million chosen ones, and that everyone for some reason all has to kill the same single bad guy a million times, like....way to make no one feel unique in any way shape or form....and this does that in a big way.

Hope the companions will all use a double saddle mounts and ride with their owner/player instead of riding on their own mount. There is so many companions running or riding around. They make an unnecessary crowd and this mess of the same looking clone companions is a bit annoying for those who prefer a solo questing.

ottobot wrote: »

They only work....in embarrassingly easy overland content where no one needs any help anyway? Useless meat shields with the capacity for maybe 20% of anything a normal player could pull off in vet+ content, if you're down a person? Might be kinda useful in solo Trials and stuff....if they even work there? Could be cool in PvP....but they don't come in with you.

I've found that the companions make decent tanks and I use them to help me solo World Bosses and Dungeons. I could do these without their help but it goes a lot faster with them.

I only use them in overland when I'm still leveling them.

ottobot wrote: »

Dragonlord573 wrote: »

Worst part is that they're also as deep as vanilla Skyrim companions. If you max out their rapport they don't really get any new dialogue or anything. Rich at one point mentioned that romance might be an option in the future, but who wants to romance a cardboard cutout that says 4 lines of dialogue that everyone else hears?

Real question is how are you gonna romance someone that everyone else can summon up out of a bag? In a room with 25 Bastian Hallix's lookin for your specific boo.

Eh, I know what my Bastian looks like and for my character he is the 'real' Bastian . I actually like looking at other peoples' companions and checking out their outfits anyway. I guess I find it easy to ignore things which are obvious game things. Its something you have to deal with when it's an MMO.

p00tx wrote: »

I think they're primarily for the roleplay people. They're an interesting addition, but not really good for much else but overland roleplay stuff.

If they were for roleplayers they'd be more customizable.

Anhedonie wrote: »

20% capacity of a normal player? Whoa that's rich.
I'd say it's more like 5%.

I agree with everything the OP said even if they are late to the party, especially about the hats. Companion's are less powerful than you might expect, but they are more powerful than we give them credit for.

A well built companion is much more impactful than making your gear gold quality, and probably more impactful than most champion points, or the difference between the most meta sets. People spend a lot of time choosing and upgrading their gear and CP, but making a companion that compliments your build is a more significant power-up in (in the easiest content).

If you are a tank or healer a companion can be buffed to add a fair few thousand more dps, if you are a dps then you have a pocket tank or healer to take the pressure off. As companions cannot be as powerful as a player they don't really need any specialist role except to compliment your build.

ForzaRammer wrote: »

I am sure useless companions running around is great for game performance

Most performance issues are in PvP, where there are no companions. Sorc and Warden pets? Maw and other proc creatures?