I have not tried either yet, but in the future, please, please, please, focus on races that have not had an associated companion yet before repeating races.

Bosmer, orc, and nord do not have companions yet. Please create companions of those races before repeating races.

I hate the fact you have to buy 2 new companions from update 44 separately. Should have been part of the golden road considering the pattern with previous 3 expansions: Blackwood, High Isle, Necrom. All 3 of those expansions have brought 2 companions each with no extra cost or strings attached; you bought the expansion; you get to unlock new companions. If you must put them separately in the crown store then at least let the people who have golden road have them for free regardless if you have eso plus or not. Otherwise I would like to hear the explanation to why this pattern has been changed and why we have to pay for something that has been previously included in multiple previous expansions for no extra charge.

I'm wondering if it's intentional that the new companions both have defensive skills granting Major Resolve when most of the existing companions (excepting Azandar, that is) have 20% damage reduction in similar types of skills?

The "Gardener" in Tanlorin's 2bd quest is naked; i don't believe this is intentional.

Hello! Avid companion user here. Would like to express praise to the team for the companions, especially Zerith-Var. The team did an amazing job making them feels unique. Have a small QoL feedback to make them feel better to use:

Companion Combat

What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?

1. So that they have a consistent taunt, please make it so Tanlorin's Blazing Grasp no longer have a minimum of 10 meters range to cast:



This would allow them to tank while wielding a two handed sword, something only Azandar could do until now.

As of now, Zerith's main heal is worse than all the other companions:



It heals the same amount as the other companion's (Kindle, Quick Fix, etc.), but with a downside of inflicting himself with Minor Defile. Please consider adding a little extra benefit to compensate, e.g., by slightly increasing the heal or letting it heal both himself and an ally at the same time.

Companions

Did you run into any issues unlocking or acquiring Tanlorin?

No issue, worked fine.

Companion Gameplay

What type of Content and Gameplay were you doing with your companion?

Overland questing, gathering and one or two world bosses

Companion Combat

What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?
Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?
We have made some improvements to how your ultimate is saved when traveling. Do you feel like you can cast your ultimate with more frequency?

Overall i'm pretty happy with Tanlorin skills, feels pretty unique and thematically it's beautiful. Would change their Blazing Grasp to not have a minimum range, so they can taunt enemies at melee range.

Companion Customization/Progression

How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, and/or improvement in rapport?

No comment here as i used the instant max companion item from the PTS.

Companion Rapport

Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?
Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?

I think their dialogue give plenty of hints about how to increse( and decrese) rapport. Needs more testing.

Companion Response Behavior

Did you feel the Companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?
We have expanded some response behavior to be more specific to your activities, e.g. harvesting materials, incursion activities. How does it feel to have more curated responses?

I normally play with max reaction from companions on live. I like that they interact quite a lot on mundane activities and they seem to have a very ample range of dialogue on combat which is pretty good imo.

Companion Quests

How deep into each companion quest did you get?
Ideally we’d like everyone to play through all four quests for each companion.
Feel free to use companion rapport so you qualify quickly for each quest.

Completed all of Tanlorin questline. Loved it. The undertone is pretty obvious but still done in a way that fits the world.
The gardener appeared unclothed all the time though. It was an amusing bug.

Companion General Feedback

How did each companion measure up to your expectations?
Do you have any other general feedback?

I enjoyed Tanlorin way more than i thought i would to be honest. Feels a little like a mix of Ember and Naryu. They come across as a little naive on some things which makes them endearing and then they have another side way more resolute and flirty. Overall they are a fun,engaging companion.

If i had to say something negative it would be that i had really hoped to RP/headcannon some of my characters pursuing a romantic interest with her (companion romance when zos, we wont forget :S) but they are very very very clearly only interested into girls. Even more so than Izzy. Its basically impossible to go around that. Maybe add a little nudget that they not only kissed girls? If you cant do voice acting again then maybe a line on their letter? Change the khajjit merchant to a male?

I'm not rigorously testing, moreso just messing around, but I'll add feedback to this comment if things come up.

Companion Combat

• Tanlorin's Explosive Fortitude skill seems to create a circle around them that's the same color as bad AOEs (tested with custom colors), which has been spooking me during combat. I think this should be changed to a more distinct visual for clarity.
• I don't love that Tanlorin and Bastian share two abilities, considering that all the companions' class skill lines have been completely unique thus far. I suppose with enough companions in repeat classes it might not be possible, but I wish each companion's class abilities were unique to them.

General Feedback:

It's weird to be selling these separately without including them in a DLC or making them free. Companions are already gimmicky as they need considerable investment to function properly, yet even then they are still lacking. The only use case I've come up with was to assist healers and tanks get through quest content a bit more quickly. A bit more utility to companions in general would be much appreciated, like them being able to carry more companion equipment than just the equipped pieces.
Having said that, is the only feature being sold here the associated questline and the parasocial bond to that NPC? I think the bond would be pretty much the same if they weren't companion NPCs but just regular quest NPCs. So the only thing that appears to have any value here is the questline.
I don't like the sound of being sold singular questlines now. Maybe it's just companions for now, but next thing you know this new guild questline is being sold separately. If I had to guess, these are scheduled to hit the store for 1500 crowns each (already too much), but I can see a reality where these are sold for 5000 crowns like the assistants because they are "assistants".

Think of it this way. A dungeon DLC has a dungeon. A zone DLC has a zone with multiple quests, possibly even multiple questlines. These are priced around the 1500 and 2000 crown mark. Do not sell us a singular questline for 1500 crowns, ZOS. You've already given us outfit slots for 1500 crowns that are PER CHARACTER and armory slots that are also PER CHARACTER, which is both outrageous enough already. Not to mention empty houses that cost more than the entire game, or the cure for vampirism/lycanthropy, which is 400 gold btw, sold for an utterly ridiculous 800 crowns. This is the stuff that turns new players away from your game. This is why people say the game is overmonetized.
Let this be the only time that companions are sold outside of a DLC, because I do not like the direction we are headed in if you don't.

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

please include an optional way to bypass companion intro quests if you have already done them before

i get the RP reason that each character needs to meet the companion, but as a player i dont want to have to redo the same quest 10+ times, this removes any enjoyment about the quest and actively makes me dislike the quest, the dislike is proportional to the length of the quest (longer quest = more dislike and refusal to partake)

I could not agree with this more, especially as you all are making the questlines more and more time consuming (ie. public dungeons and stuff that we had to go through for Azander and Sharp)

I also VERY much agree with @Ratzkifal in that I do NOT appreciate being sold these independently from the chapter. I do not like the idea of being sold a questline. [snip]

[edited for bashing]

The good:
I love Tanlorin's design, their voice, their personality.

The bad:
Crown store companions, really? These should just be included with Gold Road or Blackwood. Blackwood especially would be better for non-new Chapter zone companions because as it stands, Blackwood's chapter feature is literally just Mirri and Bastian. In other words, Blackwood has no actual chapter feature.

But main point is yeah, selling these two separately is ridiculous and the only saving grace is the ESO+ exception, but still...

Mooncake wrote: »

Hi all. I'd like to know what's the best role for each of these new companions.

I have truckloads of companion gear in storage and I need to clear space, so I would like to know what to keep and what to sell, please.

Lets make it two best roles for each, shall we?

Tanlorin:
Option 1:
Option 2:

Zerith-Var:
Option 1:
Option 2:

Thank you!

Tanlorin:

- Probably the best ranged DPS among all companions. Companion DPS is not at all reliable though so your mileage may vary. Bow Tanlorin with a combination of Shattering and Aggressive on either Medium or Heavy armor. Can also give themself Major Brutality.
- Terrible as both tank and healer. Their only saving grace is being able to grant everyone Major Brutality and Sorcery, but the uptime isn't very good. (They can also grant everyone Major Resolve, but unlike their 28m Major Brutality buff, the range is only 12m. It'll miss a lot as both tank and healer. They share the same problem with Sharp, whose major resolve is also only 12m)

Zerith-var:

- Amazing tank: the only one who has a functional "pull" in the form of his necromancer armor skill. Can also inflict AoE major breach. Also boasts strong self heal with Scythe and Penance of Lokharj. Boasts the best utility among all companions as a tank, although some other companion like Isobel or Bastian are somewhat tankier. Heavy armor with either Bolstered or Quickened. I am really looking forward to using him in Infinite Archive.
- Good utility healer: inflicting AoE major breach is always going to be useful. Plus, his healing skills (e.g., the healy ghost) is good. Light / Heavy armor with Quickened.
- Probably the best melee DPS among all companions. Again, companion DPS is not reliable so take this with a grain of salt. Has two 8 seconds cooldown damaging skills in the form of Scythe and Skull. Also, his scythe skill not only heals, but inflict damage in an AoE. This is very rare for a companion (no other AoE DPS skill has 8 seconds of cooldown). Inflicting AoE major breach is also... going to be useful as always. Heavy armor with Quickened probably.

While I find Tanlorin's mixed Class skill kit interesting, I wish we could've gotten 3 Dragonknight skill lines and let the Soul Magic skill line be its own separate skill line in the World category, rather than replacing one of the Class skill lines with Soul Magic. We could've gotten more build diversity for Tanlorin than we actually did.

I think the best way to incorporate new Companion skill lines (like Werewolf, Vampire, Soul Magic, Psijic Order, Assault, and Support) would be to have them be located in the appropriate directory, but to have them level up with XP gained, the same as with the Companion weapon and armor skill lines. As is the case with Tanlorin, only specific Companions would have access to specific skill lines.



While I could see Tanlorin's placement of the Soul Magic skill line working for characters like a Sorcerer Psijic or a Nightblade Vampire, I have a hard time imagining how this would work for a Werewolf.

The Companion Werewolf skill line would surely have to be separate from their Class skill lines, right? You couldn't fill the healer, tank, and damage dealer skill lines with just Werewolf skills, even if you included Werewolf Behemoth's skills. Plus, replacing their Class's damage dealer skill line would mean their human form couldn't utilize it, due to differences in the animations used between forms.

This is why I think the Companion Werewolf skill line needs to be in the World category, rather than in their Class skill lines. Whatever the catalyst may be for triggering the transformation — whether it be an Active/Ultimate Ability that is slotted on their human form bar, a Passive Ability which activates upon a Health threshold or if the Player transforms, or anything else — the Werewolf form is an entirely different gameplay style that can't be mixed with the human form, and the location of the skill lines should reflect that.

RaddlemanNumber7 wrote: »

I'm really impressed with Zerith-Var. His story is based solidly on some of the deep Khajiit lore we discovered in Northern Elsweyr, and expands on that lore a bit. Zerith-Var feels like a TES character through-and-through. It's going to be really easy to pair him up with one of my storied RP characters.

Yah, the writers for him did a great job

Probably be more visible if it was posted here instead of on the Bugs thread but wouldn't it be best to remove any mentioning of what year ingame it is during the introduction with Zenith'Var.

How can it be 2E 582 when New Life events have occurred?

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

How can it be 2E 582 when New Life events have occurred?

It's funny. Considering the moon cycles, it would be 2E 625 by now. Which means that since the beginning, 42 years had passed.