Companion Different Builds for Different Characters

Ardaghion · March 2

Until now I haven't had the same companion on more than one character. It looks like rapport and possibly some outfit and/or mount customization is per character. I've had Ember on my main character for close to a year, I just did the companion quest to get Ember on a lower level character.

Am I wrong in assuming that the companion's build and XP level are account wide?

I can see that the XP and equipment on Ember that I got today is the same as my main's Ember. Am I missing something that will allow me to have different builds per character with the "same" Ember? At the very least it seems this would be something that the armory station should include.

Erickson9610 · March 2

Companion builds (equipment + skills) are account-wide, and there is no method of making them character-specific.

Personally, I think Companion builds should stay account-wide. Not only does this save time on trying to level up and equip Companions, it also encourages people to use multiple Companions for different roles. For instance, I currently find a different Companion better for each role; I wouldn't reuse the same Companion for different roles, even if I could swap their build with a single button press.

Ardaghion · March 2

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Companion builds (equipment + skills) are account-wide, and there is no method of making them character-specific.

Personally, I think Companion builds should stay account-wide. Not only does this save time on trying to level up and equip Companions, it also encourages people to use multiple Companions for different roles. For instance, I currently find a different Companion better for each role; I wouldn't reuse the same Companion for different roles, even if I could swap their build with a single button press.

Leveling isn't an issue with XP being account wide but skills might need to be leveled on different versions of the same companion. So I don't really see why they need to have account wide builds. There are only 8 companions and you can have up to 20 characters, seems like it would be difficult to have a different companion for each character.

I don't need to be encouraged to use different companions, I use the ones I want or like. I think Ember is a good sorcerer but could also make a good healer. I don't want to have to unlock a different companion with their own pet-peeves just to get a healer build. I already have Isobel and Mirri but I really don't like many of the other ones and have to be careful with the rapport just because I grabbed a torchbug.

spartaxoxo · March 2

Skills and gear are account wide. Rapport is character specific. The collectible they give you is account wide, so you only need to unlock it on one character.

Sarannah · March 2

Only companion rapport is characterbased, everything else about companions is accountwide.

Companion builds should stay accountwide. Though personally I am hoping ZOS adds companion builds, so that we can switch between atleast 3 different companion builds per companion at will(similar to player armory). In the companion menu where we can select "Outfit", ZOS could add a "Build" dropdown as well. It's basically only the skills and gear that needs to be saved for a different companion build(maybe outfit too depending on weapons).

Ardaghion · March 2

Sarannah wrote: »

Only companion rapport is characterbased, everything else about companions is accountwide.

Companion builds should stay accountwide. Though personally I am hoping ZOS adds companion builds, so that we can switch between atleast 3 different companion builds per companion at will(similar to player armory). In the companion menu where we can select "Outfit", ZOS could add a "Build" dropdown as well. It's basically only the skills and gear that needs to be saved for a different companion build(maybe outfit too depending on weapons).

I agree that companion builds should stay account wide, I didn't think about the ramifications of having builds be character based.

I like the idea of companion builds as you have described, it would allow people that want different builds on the same companion to have the utility. It wouldn't prevent people from having a single build as we have today..

AcadianPaladin · March 2

I've long recommended a simple improvement where companions have a small inventory that holds only companion gear. If a companion could carry up to perhaps a dozen items of companion gear, any of your characters could do a gear swap on them. Changing skills is the easy part - hunting down different companion gear from your bank or other characters is the hard part, and allowing a companion to carry their own alternate gear would ease things alot.

katanagirl1 · March 2

I’m not sure having different builds per companion would be useful, they do so low dps it is better to have them work as a support character - tanks especially but maybe healing. I find a tank companion invaluable for harder content but have never had need for a healer.

It would be nice to have more ultimates to choose from for them.