[Companions] 4 years later, might be time for another look at the system as a whole.

Khold90 · May 31

Now that the companion system is almost 4 years old perhaps it is time for a look over.

What has worked, what are the pain points (besides standing in fire), what has not worked, what would you have done differently now that there are 8 companions instead of only the two experimental ones.

Like we can already see no more melee range ultimates (RIP mage Bastian) as well as 3/8 already having some inbuilt cooldown reduction and the best gear stats still being even further cooldown reduction. Plus the devs would have data on server strain and use rates.

I love the system and always have a companion active, but sometimes I really feel like everyone is still paying the price Bastian and Mirri paid being the first so they're not OP and players forgo group content.
Like all cooldowns being 8/12/16 seconds baseline.
Or all ranged characters (healer/caster/bow) behaving like Mirri since she can easily disengage when enemies are attacking her.
Or having no option to craft/improve companion gear so we rely on several layers of RNG or paying almost a million gold per slot from guild traders.

Sure I have a list of what I would love (and would most likely be bad for the game and/or game servers) but a solid going over with what you've learnt over the past 4 years to change things around would be great. Especially if that involves Bastian getting a 15m range on his ult and base cooldowns being reduced so quickened isn't the best trait for all roles.

AcadianPaladin · May 31

I too, love the companion system and very much enjoy adventuring with one. My wish list of things to work on going forward would be:

- Ranged companions dodge roll such that they reset bosses. The only solution to this for ranged companions at the moment is to give them an frost staff. Fix their AI or change all ranged weapons to more like frost staves.
- Headgear like helms, hairstyles and circlets on companions. The more distinctive we can make them look the less jarring it is to see so many of the same companions running around. As far as companion identity, since I'm the one using the companion, I submit that perhaps I should be the one to choose how my companion looks.
- Allow companions into houses (not mannequins). I can take my companion into a tavern for a drink but not into my own house? This would also allow me to do parses (with companion) if I have a target dummy in my house. If it is a space/slot thing, have your companion count as a guest when she's in the house. I can bring my bear into my house, why not my companion?
- After traveling with my companion for an extended period, I have learned to live and accept her idiosyncrasies. Can she not do the same for me and simply accept that I enjoy *insert activity your companion dislikes*? In practical terms, I propose a perk that once you have maxed out rapport on a companion, they will ignore the little things that used to irritate them when traveling with that character. Mirri will understand if I accidently grab a torchbug instead of a flower, or Ember will patiently not complain if we go fishing. Managing rapport is not difficult but, for roleplay purposes, I'm quite invested in my companion. We depend on each other and trust each other with our lives as solid adventuring partners should. I find it very jarring to have them whine or belittle my character for minor normal activities. I hunt rabbits to feed myself and Bastion, for example, but he accuses me of having 'no regard for life'? There are several companions (such as Bastion) I will simply not travel with. Tanlorin is another; my mage is very devoted to her guild but Tanlorin whines every time we enter a guildhall. Mirri is my preferred companion and one reason is that I use an addon that can preclude any interaction with torchbugs or butterflies.

katanagirl1 · June 1

The only thing that would improve companions for me would be allowing me to skip the fetch quest for them to get them unlocked on subsequent characters. I won’t make time to unlock them on anything other than my main character because of this. I don’t even have Sharp and Azandar or Zerith-var fully leveled up with skills at this point with my main character.

The only exception for me is that I unlocked Bastian on two other characters. Thankfully Bastian makes a fine tank and has a short fetch quest and that works for me.

I don’t see this changing in the future though, the needless grind seems to be an intentional part of the process.

SilverBride · June 1

I unlocked the first 6 Companions on 7 characters and it was so tedious that I can't do it again. That is one reason I did not unlock the last two. Being able to skip unlocking once it's been completed on one character would be awesome and is the one thing I'd most love to see change.

illutian · June 1

Quest skip for alts would be nice (but not really a big deal now with subclassing).

The big one for me is a stats page.

Sure I can see the HP increase one...but what does 788 Critical Strike Rating even mean? Is it 'zero' without it? Is it an Integer Overflow in the making? Who knows!

Nothing fancy, just add a 'Stats' section under 'Equipment' that jumps us to a section that shows all the numbers.

A bonus would be the ability to order them to move to a spot. Like 'press this hotkey' and the ground target thingy appears and (base it off the Lightweight Beast Trap's ground target size). Obviously if they have melee weapons they'll just run back in. But I'm so frustratingly tired of my companions dying because they stand in The Bad.

At least with the ability to have them move I could just equip a ranged weapon and order them to move out of stuff and they'd stay out of it due to having ranged weapons.

Jim_Pipp · June 2

Companions should not die, but be "downed" for a period, like in Skyrim. It does not make lore sense to use a soul gem to bring them back to life, and it is not good gameplay. (I realise we are getting a craftable gearset (shared burdens) that auto-revives them, but a 5 piece set should not be necessary).

In a rework of companions they need to consider having more companions in a single group, either for 'soloing' 4 man content, or for a mythic that lets you have multiple companions. This just means having companions not try to stand in exactly the same spot, and having coding for their voice lines to come one after the other (as though chatting between themselves), e.g.

Mirri - "Would it kill them to run away. No I suppose not."
Sharp - "Skill issue."

maximusrex45 · June 4

Lots of valid things already listed.

My pain point is companion gear. It's random, it fills my bags with garbage that needs to be managed more directly that almost all other drops, and it hard to get what you want without giving the lucky player a fortune for it.

Companion gear should be craftable, upgradeable, and decontructable.

Thorncrypt · June 5

1. Make it easier to gear up companions (i.e their gear is craftable instead of having to rely on random drops)
2. Create a mythic that makes companions more viable
3. Don't require players to complete the companion quests on each of their 9 - 19 alt characters.