How to Change Companion Gear Traits ESO: The Elder Scrolls Online’s companion system has revolutionized how players approach PvE content, dungeons, and solo adventures. One of the most crucial aspects of optimizing your companion’s performance involves understanding and managing their gear traits. While companion equipment works differently from player gear, mastering trait customization can significantly enhance your companion’s effectiveness in combat.
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Understanding Companion Gear Mechanics
Companion gear operates under a unique system that differs substantially from traditional player equipment. Unlike player characters who can wear multiple trait combinations across different gear pieces, companions have specific limitations and mechanics that govern their equipment optimization.
Companion gear traits function as permanent modifications to equipment pieces, affecting various aspects of performance including damage output, survivability, and resource management. These traits cannot be freely swapped like player gear, making initial choices particularly important for long-term companion development.
The trait system for companions involves several categories of modifications, each serving different tactical purposes. Understanding these categories helps players make informed decisions about which traits best complement their companion’s role and playstyle preferences.
Methods for Changing Companion Gear Traits
Trait Research and Discovery
The primary method for accessing different companion gear traits involves researching and discovering new trait combinations through gameplay. This process requires systematic exploration of various content types, including dungeons, overland activities, and specific quest chains that reward companion-focused equipment.
Players must actively seek out companion gear drops from different sources to expand their trait options. Each piece of companion equipment discovered adds to your available trait pool, allowing for greater customization flexibility as your collection grows.
Crafting Considerations
Crafting companion gear provides another avenue for trait customization, though the mechanics differ from standard player gear crafting. Companion equipment crafting requires specialized materials and knowledge that must be acquired through dedicated gameplay activities.
The crafting process allows for some trait selection during creation, but options remain limited compared to player gear crafting systems. Players must carefully consider their companion’s intended role when selecting traits during the crafting process, as changes become more difficult once equipment is created.
Equipment Replacement Strategy
The most straightforward approach to changing companion gear traits involves replacing existing equipment with newly acquired pieces that feature desired traits. This method requires patience and systematic farming of appropriate content to locate suitable replacement gear.
Equipment replacement works best when players maintain multiple sets of companion gear with different trait configurations, allowing for situational swapping based on content requirements. This approach provides maximum flexibility while working within the system’s constraints.
Optimizing Trait Selection for Different Roles
Tank-Focused Companions
Tank companions benefit most from traits that enhance survivability and threat generation. Prioritizing traits that increase health, reduce damage taken, or improve blocking effectiveness creates more reliable defensive partners for challenging content.
Defensive trait combinations should focus on maintaining consistent threat while providing sufficient survivability to handle sustained damage. The balance between offensive and defensive traits determines how effectively your companion can fulfill tanking responsibilities.
Damage Dealer Companions
DPS companions require trait optimization focused on maximizing damage output while maintaining adequate survivability. Traits that enhance weapon damage, critical strike chance, or penetration values significantly improve combat effectiveness.
Offensive trait selection should align with your companion’s preferred weapon types and combat style. Matching traits to weapon specializations creates synergistic effects that amplify overall damage potential during encounters.
Healer and Support Companions
Support-focused companions benefit from traits that enhance healing effectiveness, resource management, and utility capabilities. These traits enable companions to provide consistent support throughout extended combat encounters.
Healing trait optimization involves balancing direct healing power with resource sustainability, ensuring your companion can maintain support capabilities throughout lengthy battles without running out of essential resources.
Advanced Trait Management Strategies
Situational Trait Swapping
Experienced players often maintain multiple gear sets with different trait configurations for various content types. This approach allows for optimal companion performance across different scenarios, from solo overland content to challenging group dungeons.
Situational optimization requires understanding which traits provide the greatest benefit for specific encounter types. This knowledge comes through experimentation and experience with different content varieties.
Long-term Planning
Effective companion trait management involves long-term planning and gradual optimization rather than immediate perfection. Building comprehensive trait libraries takes time and consistent effort across multiple gameplay sessions.
Planning involves identifying priority traits for your preferred companion roles and systematically working toward acquiring equipment with those specific trait combinations. This methodical approach ensures steady progress toward optimal configurations.
Resource Investment
Trait optimization requires significant resource investment in terms of time, materials, and effort. Players must balance trait improvement with other character progression priorities to maintain overall account development momentum.
Understanding the cost-benefit relationship of different trait improvements helps prioritize which changes provide the greatest impact on companion performance relative to required investment.
Common Mistakes and Solutions
Many players make the mistake of focusing exclusively on damage-dealing traits regardless of their companion’s intended role. This approach often results in suboptimal performance in challenging content where survivability becomes more important than raw damage output.
Another common error involves neglecting trait synergies between different equipment pieces. Companion gear traits work best when they complement each other, creating multiplicative effects rather than simple additive bonuses.
Resource management represents another frequent oversight, with players focusing on damage or healing traits while ignoring the resource costs associated with maintaining optimal performance levels throughout extended encounters.
Maximizing Companion Effectiveness
The key to successful companion trait management lies in understanding your preferred playstyle and content preferences. Companions should complement your character’s strengths while covering potential weaknesses in your overall approach to ESO content.
Trait selection should reflect realistic expectations about your companion’s role in various situations. Trying to create a universal companion that excels in all situations often results in mediocre performance across all content types.
Regular evaluation and adjustment of companion traits ensures continued optimization as you encounter new content types and develop different gameplay preferences over time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I freely respec companion gear traits like player skills? A: No, companion gear traits cannot be freely respecced. You must acquire new equipment with different traits or craft replacement pieces to change trait configurations.
Q: Do companion gear traits stack with player buffs and abilities? A: Yes, companion gear traits generally stack with player-provided buffs and abilities, creating synergistic effects that enhance overall group performance.
Q: What’s the most important trait category for new companion users? A: Survivability traits are typically most important for new users, as they help companions stay alive while players learn optimal companion management techniques.
Q: Can I trade companion gear with other players? A: Most companion gear cannot be traded between players, requiring individual acquisition through gameplay activities, crafting, or specific content completion.
Q: How often should I upgrade my companion’s gear traits? A: Upgrade frequency depends on your progression pace and content difficulty. Focus on major trait improvements when tackling significantly more challenging content or when acquiring clearly superior equipment pieces.