Once you get to Claviger’s Landing in Avowed and acquire Kai as one of your companions, you’ll have to progress quite a bit of the main story before getting another. This means that you’ll be fighting alongside only one companion, which will show you their importance, especially on high difficulties.
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Once you get to Paradis and wake up from your demise, you’ll finally meet your second companion in the form of Marius, who will also help you deduce the identity of your assassin. He’s one of the most valuable companions you’ll get if you build him properly.
Marius’ Abilities, Explained
Whenever you get a new companion in Avowed, you can check out their abilities by going to the companion screen of the upgrade section. Here, you’ll find their three active and one passive abilities, with the first active ability being unlocked automatically.
Apart from these abilities and their upgrades that you mostly use in battle, companions also have a special ability that helps you with exploration. Marius’ special ability is likely the most useful as it can mark all the enemies, collectibles, and treasures in a small radius of activation.
You can see a shining orb at the location of anything that you can collect and defeat on your screen.
Here’s what you can expect from Marius in battle:
|
Binding Roots |
Upon activation, Marius can bring roots out of the ground at the target location and immobilize the enemy for eight seconds. With upgrades, you can make this ability trap multiple enemies and deal stun or bleed to them. |
|---|---|
|
Heart Seeker |
As a bow user, Marius shoots one strong arrow toward the target enemy that is guaranteed to hit the target and deal high damage. With upgrades, you can increase this ability’s damage to low-HP enemies and reduce its cooldown. You can also activate Twinned Shot where it will damage another enemy after hitting the primary target. |
|
Shadow Step |
Upon activation, Marius can quickly appear beside three random enemies and slash them with his dagger before returning to his position. The amount of attacks done by this ability can also be doubled with upgrades. Furthermore, you can increase its overall damage and let Marius instantly defeat the most stunned enemies with it. |
|
Wounding Shots |
Once this passive is unlocked, Marius can apply bleed on enemies with his attacks. You can also slow enemies, reduce their damage, and increase the damage taken by them with this ability’s upgrades. |
Marius Upgrade Priority
Now that you understand Marius’ abilities, it’s also important to learn what you should upgrade when you get companion ability points for him as getting these points is quite difficult:
|
Unlock Priority |
Ability Name |
Upgrade Priority (Left to Right) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Binding Roots (already unlocked) |
Grasping Roots |
Constricting Roots |
Thorny Roots |
|
2 |
Wounding Shots |
Exposing Shots |
Maiming Shots |
Impending Shots |
|
3 |
Shadow Step |
Assassinate |
Shadow Mastery |
Devastating Blow |
|
4 |
Heart Seeker |
Quick Draw |
Twinned Shot |
Sharpshooter |
When Should You Use Marius?
Apart from having one of the most useful special abilities in the game, Marius also has a combination of high damage and support utility for his team, making him one of the most flexible characters. You can focus on his DPS abilities if you have a fighter/tank build and his support abilities if you’re using Ranger or Wizard.
This allows him to be used in almost every situation. You can use him alongside Kai to distract enemies from him or Giatta who can keep him alive for longer in battle. Either way, Marius will give you a ton of value up until you unlock your fourth companion.
Next
Kai is one of the first companions you’ll unlock in Avowed, and here’s everything you need to know about him.