Facebook
Reddit
Email
Welcome to the ESO Bastian Hallix Melee DPS builds! Companions, just like players come with class presets. Bastian is a Dragonknight, His Radiating Heart class skill line has decent self-healing but Bastian shines in crowd control, shields and survival. He has good DPS focused skills and AoE ultimate that deals a significant amount of fire damage. Pair this with outside skill lines from dual wield or two handed and guilds skill trees and he’s damage per second producing companion. The ESO Bastian Hallix Melee DPS builds work, at some of the hardest content in the game and can work for you!
By Pixel | Updated for Necrom Chapter, U38 on June 3rd, 2023
Bastian’s unique perk gives a 30% chance for potions, looted from chests and monsters, to be improved by Bastian’s Insight. A very practical ability for your travels!
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Fantastic survivability and group utility | Not many good damage abilities |
| Provides improved potions |
How to unlock Bastian and where do I find him? Bastian Hallix quest, “Competition and Contracts”.
You can find Bastian’s quest in the Blackwood zone. You’ll find him easily next to the Blueblood Wayshrine. Simply follow the road from the wayshrine to the Deepscorn Hollow cave, he is sitting on the ground and tight up to a pillar.
After you complete the quest you can find Bastian 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 areas of focus for you while working through optimizing your companion.
Obtain multiple gear sets: You’ll want flexible options once you hit the end game, even if you plan on leaving his 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 companion gear, light, medium and heavy. I’d also go to 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 are guilds’ skill lines (Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, Undaunted), to level them up you need to complete 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. More about gear and Bastian guide HERE.
Companion 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. You will have high health, mitigation and damage with the recommended gear sets. 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
Bastian Hallix Melee DPS build
Companion abilities have a cooldown, unlike players and often they have 16 seconds before the skill can be used again. Thus, skills order has a great impact on its use frequency.
An example: Bastian has a unique skill: Searing Weapons, the ability last 8 seconds, with a 16-second cooldown. If you put it in the first spot on his skill bar, the companion will activate it first, and immediately when it comes off cooldown, giving you a consistent boost to team DPS. For the best results follow the skills listed here but also be knowledgeable about how it works. Now when you’ll make changes, you get the most out of the performance of the companion’s skills.
Scout skills – The Dual Wield (Daggers)
2
3
1. Searing Weapons (Skill line: Companion Radiating Heart) – very useful buff that increases light and heavy attack damage. This gives both you and Bastion a big boost in DPS and it has a good up time in the first position on our bar.
2. 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.
3. Swift Assault (Skill line: Companion Dual Wield) – good single target damage ability while in melee range.
4. Spinning Steel (Skill line: Companion Dual Wield) – great execute ability that when an enemy drops below 25%, this will do a ton of damage!
5. 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: Unleashed Rage (Skill line: Companion Ardent Warrior) – The explosion around Bastian stuns the enemies and deals damage.
Warrior skills – The Two-Handed (Greatsword)
2
3
1. Searing Weapons (Skill line: Companion Radiating Heart) – very useful buff that increases light and heavy attack damage. This gives both you and Bastion a big boost in DPS and it has a good up time in the first position on our bar.
1. Sunder (Skill line: Companion Two Handed) – AoE damage opener that gives a great DoT to start off combat.
2. Staggering Swing (Skill line: Companion Two Handed) – great attack because the damage is high and it provides a long stun and knockback.
4. Sever (Skill line: Companion Two Handed) – great execute ability that when an enemy drops below 25%, this will do a ton of damage!
5. 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: Unleashed Rage (Skill line: Companion Ardent Warrior) – The explosion around Bastian stuns the enemies and deals damage.
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 One | One-Handed | Companion’s Dagger | Aggressive |
| Weapon Two | One-Handed | Companion’s Dagger | 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 | Two-Handed | Companion’s Greatsword | 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 too close, so your companion will be safe behind you.
Melee DPS: Make sure Bastian 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. Thanks for reading!
More ESO Articles, Guides and Builds
Thank you for reading the ESO Bastian Hallix Melee DPS guide! Check out more companion builds and a comprehensive companion guide and video. Also, consider watching me on Twitch, feel free to ask me questions about my builds and games I play or check out my YouTube Channel.
