Friday, May 4, 2012

Pick your follower

In about 10 days we are going to have to make some tough choices, specifically which follower, out of the three possible choices, to pick. Templar, Scoundrel or Enchantress?

In the beta the Templar acted mostly as a meat shield, dealing puny amounts of damage despite being the most melee oriented class out of the three. Equipping him with the best javelin I could find barely increased his DPS to a little over 2. I guess this is Blizzard's not-so-subtle way of telling us that followers aren't supposed to be used to enhance our damage. This may obviously change later but that's the impression I got.

Instead, followers might be better suited in an utility role. The Templar has a bunch of tanking and defensive skills available, including a heal and a taunt. The Scoundrel is a ranged class with various shots that poison or cripple enemies. The Enchantress is a ranged magic user which also brings some interesting utility to the table. If you think about it, these 3 types faithfully mirror Diablo 2's companions, but thanks to their skills they offer a lot more versatility and control.

I'm very very very (did I mention very?) grateful that followers don't die like they used to in Diablo 2. I hated having to pay exorbitant amounts to resurrect them. Very often in Hell it wasn't even worth running with a companion due to the fact that it died too quickly and cost a lot to revive.

Since my main will be a Demon Hunter, it would make sense for me to choose a melee follower, namely the Templar. However, the Scoundrel sounds more tempting, even though he's yet another ranged class. I will definitely try all 3 but I heard the Scoundrel has a very wacky back-story and I'm interested to hear it.

Unfortunately, in groups, followers seem to be even less relevant, which is a shame, but I realize that it wouldn't have been very pretty if each group member ran with their own follower, not to mention potential summons like the Witch Doctor's Zombie Dogs.

Anyway, the Scoundrel holds the most interest for me. What about you?

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