How good are the high isle companions?

Biscuit_290 · February 2023

Been playing with Mirri as a healer for months now and I found it severely underwhelming. So much that I completely forget that I even have a companion active till I see them lying dead with resurrect button suddenly popping on my screen. Bastian as a tank was slightly better but still dies faster that I can heal him despite wearing blue heavy armour.
How is this supposed to help me? I have to struggle to heal them instead of dealing damage, only to see them die and end up with no magicka myself and the wb still at full health. They can't do damage, they can't keep the boss's attention, they can't block half the time...
Are high isle companions the same? You all say they are supposed to be a "small help" and "not a replacement for a player" but all I see is a bot doing something like 1-5 dps and dying 10 seconds into the world boss.

Snamyap · February 2023

You're not giving me enough information to really see where it's going wrong. All I know is that Bastian is doing just fine tanking world bosses for my two heavy attack characters. My other two main characters can take enough of a beating and use either Mirri as ranged dps or Isobel as a close quarter healer.
Sure, sometimes they die but a little extra healing is usually enough. You didn't say what class you're playing but some classes have skills that heal two targets, they work great with companions. And yeah, purple armor, especially in the "proper" traits is expensive, but imho worth it.

Tesman85 · February 2023

Isobel is quite good at keeping herself alive with her healing skill, and serves as a passable tank (for me at least). Of Ember I can say nothing since I haven't unlocked her.

amig186 · February 2023

Yes, I have a max level Ember DPS and she is pretty useless. At best she will finish off a low health mob from time to time. Purple gear might make a world of difference over blue though, one user on this forum (spartaxoxo) was able to complete all of the DLC dungeons by herself with just Bastian as a tank. For normal gameplay it doesn't seem to be worth the investment, purple companion gear with the proper traits is rare to drop and expensive to buy. Speaking of keeping the boss's attention, that seems to be something they often do when they shouldn't, it's always 'fun' when someone's ranged companion leads the world boss away and resets it.

opalcity · February 2023

I've had a lot of success with Bas as a tank. World Bosses and dungeons.

Mirri has been better for me as a ranged dps, as long as I use a taunt. Didn't have much luck with her as melee.

Ember I've only used as dps, it's early days but she's coming along.

I like Isobel, and I'm trying to build her up as a decent healer, but I'm definitely not there yet.

Imho it's good to have better gear, but it's better to work out what powers to use and what order the companions use them in.

Khenarthi · February 2023

I usually set my companion for healing, since extra dps is not really something I need for overland, and I prefer to tank when faced with a Worldboss. With that in mind, Ember keeps us both alive pretty well, and so does Bastian. I find Isabel and Mirri annoying, so I do not use them.

Please bear in mind that the equipment you give them, and what skills you slot for them (and in which order) will influence how your companions fight.

Biscuit_290 · February 2023

Snamyap wrote: »

You're not giving me enough information to really see where it's going wrong. All I know is that Bastian is doing just fine tanking world bosses for my two heavy attack characters. My other two main characters can take enough of a beating and use either Mirri as ranged dps or Isobel as a close quarter healer.
Sure, sometimes they die but a little extra healing is usually enough. You didn't say what class you're playing but some classes have skills that heal two targets, they work great with companions. And yeah, purple armor, especially in the "proper" traits is expensive, but imho worth it.

Mirri had a purple healing staff with the wrong trait and some heavy armour with increased damage and critical rate. She had slotted 2 skills from healing staff line and 3 from her class healing line. Bastian idk I slotted the few skills I had unlocked. Ironically he survived longer than Mirri.

Biscuit_290 · February 2023

Tesman85 wrote: »

Isobel is quite good at keeping herself alive with her healing skill, and serves as a passable tank (for me at least). Of Ember I can say nothing since I haven't unlocked her.

Is Isobel better than Bastian or the same?

Biscuit_290 · February 2023

amig186 wrote: »

Yes, I have a max level Ember DPS and she is pretty useless. At best she will finish off a low health mob from time to time. Purple gear might make a world of difference over blue though, one user on this forum (spartaxoxo) was able to complete all of the DLC dungeons by herself with just Bastian as a tank. For normal gameplay it doesn't seem to be worth the investment, purple companion gear with the proper traits is rare to drop and expensive to buy. Speaking of keeping the boss's attention, that seems to be something they often do when they shouldn't, it's always 'fun' when someone's ranged companion leads the world boss away and resets it.

I've been told that but I just can't see how pruple makes any difference. It's only 100 more armour value a piece, so 700 extra. The traits like focus and soothing only have a 1% increase compared to their blue counterparts.

phaneub17_ESO · February 2023

Bastian is my primary tank for World Bosses and Group Dungeon Bosses that are particularly annoying to deal with solo. He has all Epic, Heavy, Quickened with 1h and shield, rarely ever dies and often doesn't need much healing from me unless there are multiple targets. Magicka characters that have a Resto Staff I still use Ward Ally and Radiating Regeneration; Stamina characters have Echoing Vigor.

You can't just slap on any random gear, fill their abilities with whatever, and think they're going to do everything all fantastic. I did a lot of research on their gear, abilities, and AI script to plan out how I use each one of them. I use all 4 of them in different ways, none of which are healers though. Isobel is all Quickened, 2H AOE smasher; Mirri is 7 Shattering, 5 Aggressive, DW suicide bomber; and Ember is all Focused, Ice Staff Single Target ranged striker. They all do decent damage on their own and rarely ever die, I don't need to pay attention to what they're doing I let them go loose on whatever they want.

BretonMage · February 2023

If you fully level Bastian, equip him with all heavy armor of desirable traits (vigorous, bolstered or quickened), equip his healing and shield abilities, then he should survive most, if not all, of the base game WBs. For DLC ones he will probably need a few heals from you. I have Isobel levelled as well, and I find her about as effective as Bastian.

I do find purple armor better than blue, but they are expensive.

Biscuit_290 wrote: »

Bastian idk I slotted the few skills I had unlocked.

Yeah, they're not too hardy until they're max level.

AnduinTryggva · February 2023

I personally think the companions are not really meant to replace other players and hence will not come close in terms of combat performance of whatever role. They were not designed for and should not do that. We are playing a MMORG and no solo player game.

In terms of personality I like high island compagnions a bit better. While Bastian is ok and I somehow like his optimistic view Mirri is a bit annoying. Ember is very much fun and so is Isobel.

Tesman85 · February 2023

Biscuit_290 wrote: »

Tesman85 wrote: »

Isobel is quite good at keeping herself alive with her healing skill, and serves as a passable tank (for me at least). Of Ember I can say nothing since I haven't unlocked her.

Is Isobel better than Bastian or the same?

Well, I can't say since I have used Bastian only as a dd so far. I have never quite figured out what would be the best role for Bastian. Mirri is a clear dd and Isobel shines as a tank, but with Bastian I'm for some reason quite unsure. I have to set him up as a tank some day and try that out.

ZOS_Icy · February 2023

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic.

Thank you for your understanding.

SkaiFaith · February 2023

I got all of them maxed with blue gear plus some purple gear all in good traits (quickened, aggressive and soothing depending on role).
I built Mirri as a Healer first, and she's good with healings but since I have her on Light Armour she dies easily when hit by one-shots.
I then built Isobel as a heavy tank and she is really good at it, she dies very rarely and generally stays alive without me having to worry. She made the game extremely easier for me.
My Ember has medium bow and makes 6K DPS. I don't use her much so I can't say if she would really survive.
Ultimately, my Bastian has all Heavy Quickened with resto staff but I use him just for Searing Weapons skill which buffs my DPS with Oakensoul. He has less survivability than Isobel but usually can keep up even with hard WBs if I slot a taunt.

To answer your question, I think Isobel as a tank is probably the most useful companion right now. Still they need the grind to max them and the gold to gear them, and still they won't be a massive help as an high level player could be, but I think they are useful enough - as others said, you can clear dungeons and WBs you could not otherwise.
Maybe it's fair to compare them to the buff a Mythic item would give. Not essential but nice to have.

Biscuit_290 · February 2023

Thanks for all the explanations, everyone

AcadianPaladin · February 2023

I like Mirri as a tank for several reasons. Her fear skill is pretty good crowd control. Her Twilight Mantle skill lets her disappear and heal for a few seconds. When she disappears, the boss loses her so most damage stops and her self-heal is therefore pretty effective. The duration is short enough however, that by the time the boss decides to go for another target, Mirri is back in action and promptly retaunts the boss. Finally, I like Mirri's personality and quirks better than any other companion but that is subjective of course.

Necrotech_Master · February 2023

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

I like Mirri as a tank for several reasons. Her fear skill is pretty good crowd control. Her Twilight Mantle skill lets her disappear and heal for a few seconds. When she disappears, the boss loses her so most damage stops and her self-heal is therefore pretty effective. The duration is short enough however, that by the time the boss decides to go for another target, Mirri is back in action and promptly retaunts the boss. Finally, I like Mirri's personality and quirks better than any other companion but that is subjective of course.

the twilight mantle actually makes mirri fully invulnerable while she is invisible, its helped her stay alive outside of the bubble in say vaults of madness lol

for the OP, i find the high isle companions to be better, but they arent so much better that the original ones are not worth using (any companion can fulfil any role with the right skill selection)

Biscuit_290 · March 2023

got it