Bastian's ultimate doesn't work if he has ranged weapon equipped

MreeBiPolar · June 18

Or at least, a bow. He never uses it when set to cast ultimate automatically, and trying to trigger it manually gives a message that he can't use it right now.

Araneae6537 · June 18

Is that what the issue is? I have him leveling destro staff now and get this message soooo frequently and haven’t been able to figure out why.

ZOS_Kevin · June 18

@MreeBiPolar What platform are you playing on? And do you know when you first noticed this issue? We can escalate to the team with that added information.

Soarora · June 18

I know what the issue is! It’s because for some reason he needs to be by an enemy for his ultimate to trigger and giving him a ranged weapon keeps him away from the enemies. Unless there’s an enemy attacking him anyways, he won’t use it. It’s probably to keep him from using all his ult just to completely miss every single enemy but if that’s the problem maybe his ult should be reworked.

MreeBiPolar · June 23

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

@MreeBiPolar What platform are you playing on? And do you know when you first noticed this issue? We can escalate to the team with that added information.

PC/NA, and as Soarora mentioned, it's likely because of the ult range. He doesn't use the ult because of range issues. Looks like either his ult needs to be remade to work at range, not around himself, or it needs to be coded to have him close in to use it.

FreyaMikaelson · June 27

Same problem here. Won't use his ultimate when it's charged up.

And lately, it won't even charge.

I'm on PC/EU.

Araneae6537 · June 27

I tried waiting until it looked like enemies were within range in the chaos of a Mirrormoor incursion but I still could not get him to use it. I gave up and switched him back to S&B and put ultimate on auto use.

MreeBiPolar · July 2

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

@MreeBiPolar What platform are you playing on? And do you know when you first noticed this issue? We can escalate to the team with that added information.

Another problem with Bastian's ult is its cast time. When set to auto and he's equipped with melee weapons, by the time it actually fires, usually, there are no enemies left standing (at least in range) anyway...

harvey07 · July 2

i use him exclusively and with a bow. he uses is ultimate each time it is ready because i always see his crossfire of flames shooting out.

Araneae6537 · July 2

harvey07 wrote: »

i use him exclusively and with a bow. he uses is ultimate each time it is ready because i always see his crossfire of flames shooting out.

Maybe the issue is with the trigger then? I should go back to staff and put the ult on auto to test. 🤔

MreeBiPolar · July 6

Araneae6537 wrote: »

harvey07 wrote: »

i use him exclusively and with a bow. he uses is ultimate each time it is ready because i always see his crossfire of flames shooting out.

Maybe the issue is with the trigger then? I should go back to staff and put the ult on auto to test. 🤔

I've been trying it on auto, and with ranged weapons, he literally never used it. The only two times he did were me directly commanding him to initiate combat by casting the ult.

Maybe some skills slotted get him in range and it triggers, but if you need to have specific skills slotted just for him to use an ult... That's messed up.

M1SHAAN · July 6

From this incredible guide to companions by @phaneub17_ESO (who apparently has been banned?):

This ability has a hidden condition that requires Bastian to be within melee range for 2 seconds with his attacking target before it will cast for another 2 seconds. This means it takes 4 seconds in total for it cast his ultimate making it the longest cast time for any companion ability. If the target moves out of range Bastian will cancel casting, but not consume the ultimate. Crushing Claws can help increase the chance of him casting this successfully against most targets.

Having this as Bastian's only ultimate is a very ... interesting ... choice considering his default weapon is a flame staff. I think all the companions should have at least 1-2 more ultimate choices so you can tailor it at least a little bit to what their role is.

MreeBiPolar · July 7

M1SHAAN wrote: »

From this incredible guide to companions by @phaneub17_ESO (who apparently has been banned?):

This ability has a hidden condition that requires Bastian to be within melee range for 2 seconds with his attacking target before it will cast for another 2 seconds. This means it takes 4 seconds in total for it cast his ultimate making it the longest cast time for any companion ability. If the target moves out of range Bastian will cancel casting, but not consume the ultimate. Crushing Claws can help increase the chance of him casting this successfully against most targets.

Having this as Bastian's only ultimate is a very ... interesting ... choice considering his default weapon is a flame staff. I think all the companions should have at least 1-2 more ultimate choices so you can tailor it at least a little bit to what their role is.

More like, their ultimates should be usable at any reasonable range.

Necrotech_Master · July 9

isobel has a much worse ult in terms of cast time

i would agree bastians ult is kind of meh if you have him set up as anything other than melee, or with an ice staff

with any other range weapon he wants to dodge roll away, ice staff will prevent him from rolling but then you cant make him a healer at all

i do see him use the ultimate on the very occasional times he gets stuck in a corner and his dodge roll is on cooldown, or a ton of enemies spawn on top of him and his dodge roll is on cooldown

MreeBiPolar · July 10

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

isobel has a much worse ult in terms of cast time

i would agree bastians ult is kind of meh if you have him set up as anything other than melee, or with an ice staff

with any other range weapon he wants to dodge roll away, ice staff will prevent him from rolling but then you cant make him a healer at all

i do see him use the ultimate on the very occasional times he gets stuck in a corner and his dodge roll is on cooldown, or a ton of enemies spawn on top of him and his dodge roll is on cooldown

Does ice staff prevent dodging? O.o

Necrotech_Master · July 10

MreeBiPolar wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

isobel has a much worse ult in terms of cast time

i would agree bastians ult is kind of meh if you have him set up as anything other than melee, or with an ice staff

with any other range weapon he wants to dodge roll away, ice staff will prevent him from rolling but then you cant make him a healer at all

i do see him use the ultimate on the very occasional times he gets stuck in a corner and his dodge roll is on cooldown, or a ton of enemies spawn on top of him and his dodge roll is on cooldown

Does ice staff prevent dodging? O.o

ice staff gets treated as a tank weapon, so they will stand their ground unless they get severely injured and only dodge roll at like <25% hp

just make sure you do not give them the first destro staff skill, as that skill does get treated as a taunt if they have an ice staff equipped

MreeBiPolar · July 23

... And turns out, Bastian's ult is even more useless than it seemed. The blast is shaped like a X, not a + (upwards being the enemy he faces) so half of the effect ALWAYS misses by design.

Necrotech_Master · July 23

it has both an aoe + the fire lines

i agree the fire lines are less effective because its hard to control which way the companion is facing, sometimes he will turn awkwardly and then use it and its unpredictable where the lines will go

the aoe that does the burst/stun does about 4x as much dmg as the fire lines anyway

MreeBiPolar · July 23

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

it has both an aoe + the fire lines

i agree the fire lines are less effective because its hard to control which way the companion is facing, sometimes he will turn awkwardly and then use it and its unpredictable where the lines will go

the aoe that does the burst/stun does about 4x as much dmg as the fire lines anyway

Yeah, it does less than the main blast, but the main blast is also much shorter range (remember what this all started from?

so even if he has mid-range skills allowing him to use the ult with ranged weapons, it still doesn't reach the target, and the cross (which is longer range) misses it, too, unless he for whatever reason faces 45 degrees off just before it fires...

Necrotech_Master · July 23

i dont disagree that his ult has problems lol, it would be nicer if it was centered on the target and hes not the only other one with ult issues

isobels is extremely underwhelming and has a nearly 4 second cast time, which is almost double bastians, does less dmg, and if you have her tanking makes her extremely susceptible to getting clobbered during the cast time (it was so bad i actually removed it from the bar so she cant use her ult lol)

Yudo · July 24

I use Ice staff with Bastian and ultimate also does not fire (on manual)
I noticed it is both a range and target issue. If I hover my crosshair onto an enemy that is close to Bastian when I press the ultimate sometimes it works, but does not appear to work in the same way on bosses.

MreeBiPolar · July 24

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i dont disagree that his ult has problems lol, it would be nicer if it was centered on the target and hes not the only other one with ult issues

isobels is extremely underwhelming and has a nearly 4 second cast time, which is almost double bastians, does less dmg, and if you have her tanking makes her extremely susceptible to getting clobbered during the cast time (it was so bad i actually removed it from the bar so she cant use her ult lol)

... Definitely needs a per companion auto/manual cast setting...

Necrotech_Master · July 24

Yudo wrote: »

I use Ice staff with Bastian and ultimate also does not fire (on manual)
I noticed it is both a range and target issue. If I hover my crosshair onto an enemy that is close to Bastian when I press the ultimate sometimes it works, but does not appear to work in the same way on bosses.

to be honest ive never noticed the manual trigger companion ultimates to cast properly lol, its actually more reliable just to let them cast it as soon as its available lol

Necrotech_Master · July 24

MreeBiPolar wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i dont disagree that his ult has problems lol, it would be nicer if it was centered on the target and hes not the only other one with ult issues

isobels is extremely underwhelming and has a nearly 4 second cast time, which is almost double bastians, does less dmg, and if you have her tanking makes her extremely susceptible to getting clobbered during the cast time (it was so bad i actually removed it from the bar so she cant use her ult lol)

... Definitely needs a per companion auto/manual cast setting...

i personally prefer auto cast

if your on PC at least, you can unslot it from the bar and leave it blank which is the same effect of manual cast (not using it), i dont know if that works with a controller for controller UI on pc or on consoles though

i personally also wish the companions had more ultis to choose from, like at least 1 per class skill line so you could further specialize their build