Yo fam, I've been playing a Support playthrough with the Companions and coming across LOTS of things I want to fix and improve. This update includes a significant update to the way Companions move while out of combat that makes everything a lot smoother, more like Pact Minions. Pings will now prioritize enemies so you can more reliably mark targets in combat, and Companions will aggro immediately to those marked targets. Without marking targets, Companions will now always attempt to attack the closest enemy. This solves a lot of situations where Companions wouldn't attack because there were other enemies in the way of who they wanted to attack (lol).
While playing support I found that the one skill that stood out as being the most fun has been Bestow Mercy. Throwing a shield at allies to protect them from an incoming attack feels good. Entanglements and Auras, while effective, don't really bring the exciting gameplay I'm hoping for. The Sendatu T2 talents, except for Broad Influence, leave a lot to be desired as well. Expect some changes coming here, and please share any thoughts and feedback you have (Discord actually makes noise, so that is preferred ːsteamthumbsupː)
COMPANIONS
Can now see Companion's equipped skills at their equipment screen
Companions now target closest enemy at all times
Companion out of combat movement has been improved
Shift-Clicking "Set Passive" or "Set Aggressive" buttons will now apply the setting to all companions
Companions aggression state in Town is now saved
Pings now effectively Taunt your Companions to the target
SKILLS
Bestow Vitality/Mercy/Favor now create an AoE where they impact and area increased by 25%
Sporebolt
Damage area increased by 150%
Poison stacks on target: 5->3
Poison stacks per second in area: 3->5
Mana cost: 75 -> 80
IMPROVED
Reduced SFX volume on Entanglements
Pings now prioritize enemies
FIXED
Fixed Bladecrest not benefitting from Verndari Firing Gloves
Fixed Hammer of Conviction not working with Wildshot
Fixed Companion's weird interaction with Leap Smash
Fixed some tooltip issues when swapping between companion equipment
Fixed the Report Bug function not working, please re-send any bugs that may have been missed!