The Blackwood Expansion in The Elder Scrolls Online brought a lot of new features to the game and one of them is Companions. Companions are incredibly helpful and they can make your life a whole lot easier when venturing down dangerous delves or defeating world bosses. But you have to choose the right Companion build to go with your own. So, what are the best companion builds in ESO? This guide explores just that.
Unlocking the Companion
Before getting into Companion builds for ESO, you need to get yourself a Companion. Now, there are currently two companions: Bastian and Mirri, and you can unlock them by completing the associated quests, in Blackwood. There is little to no difference in terms of skills between one or the other, so feel free to choose whichever you prefer.
To unlock Bastian, you will have to head down to Deepscorn Hollow, on the southwest coast of Blackwood. The quest you will have to complete is Competition and Contracts. As for Mirri, you will have to head North and complete a quest called Shattered and Scattered. Both quests are fairly simple and quick to complete.
Once you have finished either quest, you will be able to summon your Companion simply by opening the Collections Menu, clicking the Allies option, and setting the desired Companion to Active.
Healer – Infusor build
The infusor build is my absolute favorite for a healer Companion. Simply put, this build focuses entirely on providing as many heals as possible to you and your allies. The way this is done is by stacking heals over time.
Which Companion should you choose for this build? Both Bastian and Mirri can play the healer role, but Mirri is the best fit for the Infusor build. The reason why I prefer Mirri is that this specific build is focused on Blood Magic healing, and as Mirri is pretty close to a Nightblade, it makes her the best option.
- Gear & Gear Traits
In order to create the Infusor Build, you will focus all of your Companion’s gear traits to Quickened, as it will reduce the ability cooldown per piece equipped, and we definitely want our Companion to constantly use her skills. As an alternative to Quickened, you might want to go with Soothing, which increases healing done per piece equipped.
As for the armor itself, choose Light Armor whenever possible, as you will be activating the Flow passive, which increases healing done for each piece of Light Armor equipped. The other desired passive is Dynamic.
- Skill bar
The Companion system in The Elder Scrolls Online made it so that your Companions use their skills in order from the first ability to the last, meaning that the order you choose for their skills is important. On the following table is the recommended order for the skills bar:
Tank – Guardian Drake build
Mirri rocks the Infusor build but Bastian is the star for the Guardian Drake build. This build is all about sustaining Bastian’s Health, so that he can kick ass when fighting tough enemies.
- Gear & Gear Traits
As it is normal from a tank build, your Companion will be wearing Heavy Armor all around. The Gear traits, however, will be spread between Quickened and Bolstered.
You will want to set your One Hand and Shield and all accessories (necklace and rings) to Bolstered, which will reduce damage taken. The rest of the armor will be set to Quickened, to reduce ability cooldown.
Choose Tough and Firmness as the Companion’s passives, as they will increase their max health, damage done, and healing received.
- Skill bar
Like I already mentioned above, Companions use their skills in order, so if you are going for this build, it is important that you set the skill bar in the order from the table below:
DPS – Deadshot build
There are many DPS Companion builds in ESO, but the Deadshot build is, in my opinion, the absolute best.
It is a bow build and it has awesome damage-dealing abilities. You can go with either Bastian or Mirri, but I think Mirri works best.
- Gear & Gear Traits
Unlike the Healer and Tank builds, you won’t be placing the Quickened trait on any of your gear. Instead, you will be using the Aggressive trait for both weapon and armor, and the Vigorous trait on all of your accessories. The Aggressive trait will increase damage done, while the Vigorous trait increases maximum health per piece equipped. You will also be wanting to equip your Companion with all Medium gear.
In terms of passive abilities, you will want the Dynamic and Flexibility, both of which increase damage done and the latter even decreases the cooldown on dodge roll.
- Skill bar
In order to make the most of your DPS companion, be sure to use the following skills, in the exact order as you see in the table:
And that’s it! Those are the three best Companion builds in ESO for Tank, Healer, and DPS. These Companions will help you quite a lot, but keep in mind you can’t take them everywhere, as they are not allowed in PvP areas, solo arenas, and housing instances. They also cannot be summoned mid-combat and you will always need to build rapport with your Companion, otherwise, they’ll gain the ability to unsummon themselves.
