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Welcome to the ESO Azandar Al-Cybiades Melee DPS builds! Azandar Al-Cybiades is an older Redguard Arcanist, who becomes a little of a cross between a father figure and an eccentric professor mentor figure to the player character. Players will quickly discover that he has a hyper-focus on his endless pursuit of knowledge.
By Pixel | Updated for Necrom Chapter, U38 on June 3rd, 2023
Should you use Azandar Al-Cybiades DPS build?
Companions, just like players, come with class presets. Azandar Al-Cybiades Arcanist builds work at some of the hardest content in the game and can work for you!
Companions are non-player characters who can aid you on your adventures throughout Tamriel. Once called to your side, these stalwart allies will assist you in combat. To unlock the Azandar companion, you need to own the Necrom Chapters.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Powerful Offensive Buffs | No Unique light or heavy attack buff |
| High Durability | Lacks burst heal |
| Great utility |
How to unlock Azandar, and where do I find him? Azandar Al-Cybiades quest, “The Fateweaver Key”.
You can find Azandar in the Apocrypha zone, the entrance is tricky to find, but you can check our guide for more info. Once there, head to the Cipher’s Midden village, he’ll be waiting for you next to the bridge.
Follow the quest(around 20-30 min) he gives you. Upon completion, he’ll be added to your collection and available to summon at any time.
After you complete the quest, you can find Azandar and all unlocked companions in your collections menu. Press the default key “U” on your keyboard or go to the collections tab, pick Allies from the list and then Companions.
Progression
Companions are similar to players, and here are some focus areas for you while optimizing your companion.
Obtain multiple gear sets: You’ll want flexible options once you hit the end game, even if you plan on leaving him as a DPS. You can find gear by looting defeated enemies or in various chests and boxes almost everywhere in the game. Or you can go to any town Armor and Fine Garments store and pick up light, medium and heavy companion gear. I’d also go to the woodworker and weapon smith and pick up sword and shield, and various staffs. Swap a gear or weapons and level skill lines because you never know if you want to switch!
Combat Level: Start levelling up your companion. Companions level up, similar to a player, by killing enemies and eventually reaching level 20 (currently max). So you can grind with your companion (grinding video click). The exception is the guilds’ skill lines (Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, Undaunted), to level them up, you need to complete the guilds’ daily quests. You can find them in Grahtwood (map click), Stormhaven (map click), and Deshaan (map click).
Focus on Guild Skill Lines: You’ll want to prioritise completing the guide-specific daily quests in order to unlock the most powerful skills in the game.
Gear: Now start collecting pieces of gear to optimize your DPS. The best trait for companion DPS is Aggressive, increasing damage done. Also, The Shattering (Penetration) and the Focused (Critical Strike Chance) are good choices.
Azandar Al-Cybiades and Player Best Build Combo
ESO companions are a great way to have a helper in battle, but they can also be easily killed. This build will increase their survivability and your questing or even dungeon experience.
The secret is a five-piece craftable set from the Necrom Chapter Telvanni Efficiency. This combination reduces the cooldown on companions’ abilities allowing them to heal, evade and defend easier.
Here are examples of how it’ll help your builds:
- Tank companions commonly use the Fighters Guild ability Ritual of Salvation to reduce damage by 20%. With this five-piece active, the duration of the ability along with the cooldown is 8 seconds so hypothetically nearly 100% uptime.
- Damage Dealers use the medium armor skill Vanish for survivability, providing a full healing every 36 seconds. With 50% less time, every 18 seconds, your companion will outlive nearly anything as a DPS.
- Healers rely on the Restoration staff abilities, which can be cast repeatedly along with the Haste skill. This turns your companion into a spam casting machine and huge heals per second.
To further augment this effect, you can combine the armor trait “quicken.” This armor trait at purple quality gives a 2.6% reduction on ability cooldowns per piece with 5.2% on both weapons. So the new cooldown for the Vanish skill becomes only 5.7 seconds! Everything the companion does becomes radically improved.
To further aid in this, Isobel has a buff to light and heavy attacks after using penetrating strikes. Bastion has a buff for light and heavy attacks as well. In fact, each companion has some aid and utility to provide, and the reduction in cooldown means nearly 100% uptime giving them much greater survivability and utility.
How to modify your build?
We suggest a modified heavy attack/oakensoul build. With the recommended gear sets, you will have high health, mitigation and damage. You always equip 5 medium Telvanni’s on your body and use Sergent’s Mail for heavy attack damage along with the Empower buff from Oakensoul.
Video
Azandar Al-Cybiades Melee DPS build
Skills
Companion abilities work on a cooldown system, unlike players and often have 16 seconds before the skill can be used again. Thus, placing a skill on the first spot vs the last has a great impact on its frequency.
An example:
Scout skills – The Dual Wield (Daggers)
- Tendrils of the Colorless Sea (Skill line: Companion Scholar of Apocrypha) – hard hitting area based damage that adds a debuff for 5% increased damage taken.
- Razor Cape (Skill line: Companion Dual Wield) – AoE damage opener that gives damage reduction by 20%! This is very good for melee builds in the first position so you get high uptime on damage reduction.
- Swift Assault (Skill line: Companion Dual Wield) – good single target damage ability while in melee range.
- Spinning Steel (Skill line: Companion Dual Wield) – great execute ability that when an enemy drops below 25%, this will do a ton of damage!
- Vanish (Skill line: Companion Medium Armor) – “oh crap” ability when in trouble so companion can stay alive independently of a healer. This ability heals companion health, dropping in stealth but be aware of a long cooldown. Slot another DPS ability Fighters Guild Sniping Silver if your companion never gets in trouble due to off healing.
- Ultimate: Vigorous Tentacular (Skill line: Companion Scholar of Apocrypha) – a high damage ultimate ability with a stun and a debuff giving major vulnerability increasing damage taken to enemies hit.
Warrior skills – The Two-Handed (Greatsword)
- Tendrils of the Colorless Sea (Skill line: Companion Scholar of Apocrypha) – hard hitting area based damage that adds a debuff for 5% increased damage taken.
- Sunder (Skill line: Companion Two Handed) – AoE damage opener that gives a great DoT to start off combat.
- Staggering Swing (Skill line: Companion Two Handed) – great attack because the damage is high, and it provides a long stun and knockback.
- Sever (Skill line: Companion Two Handed) – great execute ability that when an enemy drops below 25%, this will do a ton of damage!
- Vanish (Skill line: Companion Medium Armor) – “oh crap” ability when in trouble so companion can stay alive independently of a healer. This ability heals companion health, dropping in stealth but be aware of a long cooldown. Slot another DPS ability Fighters Guild Sniping Silver if your companion never gets in trouble due to off healing.
- Ultimate: Vigorous Tentacular (Skill line: Companion Scholar of Apocrypha) – a high damage ultimate ability with a stun and a debuff giving major vulnerability increasing damage taken to enemies hit.
Gear
All medium armor gear pieces give the best possible damage potential. The frugal shopper will look to Shattering or Focused rather than Aggressive, but for raw damage, Aggressive performs the best. You can use the mix of the tree and still have great results:
| Aggressive | Shattering | Focused |
| Increases damage done by 1.2% | Increases Penetration by 900 | Increases Critical Strike Rating by 394 |
| Increases damage done by 1.5% | Increases Penetration by 1100 | Increases Critical Strike Rating by 481.5 |
| Increases damage done by 1.7% | Increases Penetration by 1300 | Increases Critical Strike Rating by 569 |
Companion DPS Traits Priority:
- Aggressive (Increases Damage Done)
- Shattering (Increases Penetration)
- Focused (Increases Critical Strike Chance)
- Prolific (Increases Ultimate Generation)
- Quickened (Reduces Skills Cooldown)
- Augmented (Increases Ability Buff and Debuff Duration)
- Bolstered (Reduces Damage Taken)
- Vigorous (Adds Max Health)
- Soothing (Increases Healing Done)
The Dual Wield (Daggers) gear setup
| Slot | Weight | Set | Trait |
| Head | Medium | Companion’s Helmet | Aggressive |
| Shoulders | Medium | Companion’s Arm Cops | Aggressive |
| Chest | Medium | Companion’s Jack | Aggressive |
| Legs | Medium | Companion’s Guards | Aggressive |
| Gloves | Medium | Companion’s Bracers | Aggressive |
| Boots | Medium | Companion’s Boots | Aggressive |
| Belt | Medium | Companion’s Belt | Aggressive |
| Weapon | Destruction Staff | Companion’s Inferno Staff | Aggressive |
| Necklace | Companion’s Necklace | Aggressive | |
| Ring | Companion’s Ring | Aggressive | |
| Ring | Companion’s Ring | Aggressive |
The Two-Handed (Greatsword) gear setup
| Slot | Weight | Set | Trait |
| Head | Medium | Companion’s Helmet | Aggressive |
| Shoulders | Medium | Companion’s Arm Cops | Aggressive |
| Chest | Medium | Companion’s Jack | Aggressive |
| Legs | Medium | Companion’s Guards | Aggressive |
| Gloves | Medium | Companion’s Bracers | Aggressive |
| Boots | Medium | Companion’s Boots | Aggressive |
| Belt | Medium | Companion’s Belt | Aggressive |
| Weapon | Bow | Companion’s Inferno Staff | Aggressive |
| Necklace | Companion’s Necklace | Aggressive | |
| Ring | Companion’s Ring | Aggressive | |
| Ring | Companion’s Ring | Aggressive |
Melee DPS companion Tips and Tricks
Control: Just like commanding a pet, you’ll need to hit the default key “Y” and the left mouse to attack or the right mouse to return (no PC). Companions don’t know when to move out of bad AoE’s or mechanics. So you as the player must make this a priority.
Combat: You’ll want to start the combat first, while your companion will stay out of enemy range and deal damage to the enemies from the distance. Just like players, companions have multiple buffs and AoE synergies. So stay close enough to your companion to receive those buffs, but don’t be too close, so your companion will be safe behind you.
Melee DPS: Make sure Azandar will always leave the enemy’s damaging AoE. She is less likely to die in combat if she won’t hold a boss or multiple minor enemies aggro.
Provide shield and healing: Every class or combat style has some type of shield or damage reduction. Pick at least one extra shield or protection skill for your companion. This small bit of protection will help your companion survive. That’s why the armor skill line is so vital to prioritise and use. You may slot extra off healing ability to help your companion survive.
Make companion your own! These tips can help you out but the end result is up to you. Experiment, try things outside of the box and meta ideas. You’ll be surprised at just how effective these things can be.
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