Followers

[Tokas]

Who are those? Templar, Scoundrel and Enchantress.
I wasn't following all D3 news closely, didn't want to spoil myself every single bit.

1. Do you buy them in a town?
2. Are they temporal?
3. Can I get then whenever I want and take them where ever I want?
4. What about different acts? They come with me or disappear?
5. From what I've heard I can even give them armor?!

[Deleted]

They're unlocked by completing quest chains (basically as you follow the story).
They will sit in town once unlocked, you can talk to them to choose which one you take with you (you can only take one).
They're only available in solo play (none at all if you're in a co-op mission).
You have limited item slots so you can equip them yes.
They also have a limited skill/talent style tree so you can change them slightly to suit you.

In the beta we only unlocked the templar.

[BLSTMASTER]

You get them through 'events' as you play the game. From the looks of it, there are no way to 'avoid' encountering them but you can choose to have them around or not. (You can change your decision if you want to as well)

There are set pieces of gear that you can give them, but not a full set.

For the later acts, I am not sure but I'm assuming that you will not be limited by acts (as long as you've 'unlocked' them)

So

1. You don't buy them
2. They seem to be permanent (Could be gone in later difficulty, not sure)
3. Yea, as long as you unlock them
4. I think you can have them around for whatever as long as you have them available.
5. You can give them some gear but not fully customizable like a normal character.

[Deleted]

Do you have to play at them to not be at a disadvantage? Or do enemies scale up when you activate one like they would when someone joined your game?

[BLSTMASTER]

Do you have to play at them to not be at a disadvantage? Or do enemies scale up when you activate one like they would when someone joined your game?

I would imagine having them around would 'always' be better than not having them. I haven't noticed any scaling from the mobs in the beta, so any little 'help' you get would be advantageous. They said they wanted to figure out a way to have the benefit of followers without actually having them around, but nothing has been officially stated.

[Tokas]

Oh so no Followers in multiplayer... I guess that's good, less confusion on the screen

[Deleted]

Do you have to play at them to not be at a disadvantage? Or do enemies scale up when you activate one like they would when someone joined your game?

There's no scaling at all, so I'm guessing if you were playing solo and choosing not to take one, you would be putting yourself at a small disadvantage.

[Guldur]

From D2 and from my D3 Beta experience, the monsters will not get stronger if you have one around, meaning you are gimping yourself by not having one, once unlocked.

1. Not bought, unlocked through quests and when they die they just respawn (according to D3 Beta)
2. No, you can have them permanently if you choose to and it will be greatly beneficial
3. yes for single player, no for coop (any time you play with 1-3 friends you can't take them)
4. Once unlock any of them comes with you in any act (from D2 experience)
5. 2H or 1H and offhand, and 2 rings and 1 necklace (from beta experience)

[Sylla]

As far as I know though, they will be practically useless on the harder difficulties to the point they will be hardly worth using.

[Postaldude]

As far as I know though, they will be practically useless on the harder difficulties to the point they will be hardly worth using.

Which is to say you know nothing since you have not played the game on a higher difficulty nor have you any experience with the followers apart from what was offered in the beta or perhaps the gamescom beta.


To answer your question OP I believe an old post from early this year Bashiok made about followers should suffice but the truth is we have no idea until we get there ourselves.

http://blues.incgamers.com/Posts/10/...ower-viability

[Deleted]

As far as I know though, they will be practically useless on the harder difficulties to the point they will be hardly worth using.

I remember Jay Wilson saying at interview that the wouldn't be much help outside of normal.

I'll see if I can find it.

[CheeseDoodlez]

I also remember Jay saying that, but thats just half of the story. He said followers would be fairly useless after normal mode, they received lots of QQ for this. So they went back on it and made them viable for the rest of the difficulties as well. I don't have source for it, but Im pretty sure it was the same interview as the one you heard him say it wasnt much help outside of normal

EDIT: found bluepost about it. http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3161501347

[Edgetroll]

I also remember Jay saying that, but thats just half of the story. He said followers would be fairly useless after normal mode, they received lots of QQ for this. So they went back on it and made them viable for the rest of the difficulties as well. I don't have source for it, but Im pretty sure it was the same interview as the one you heard him say it wasnt much help outside of normal

EDIT: found bluepost about it. http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3161501347

From what I noticed based on the beta and looking at their talents as they leveled up, I don't think that followers will be viable from a dps standpoint, but will rather be viable through a support role. At least looking at the Templar, he gains a lot of talents that either serve to distract/taunt mobs and keep them on him, or provide some decent healing to reduce downtime to the players. I noticed even giving him high dmg rare weapons, it was still negligible, but he was useful with the passive regen bonus he gave and the minor heals and what not.

[Deleted]

EDIT: found bluepost about it.

Nice find, thanks for this!

[Sylla]

Which is to say you know nothing since you have not played the game on a higher difficulty nor have you any experience with the followers apart from what was offered in the beta or perhaps the gamescom beta.

Hey now, no need to be mean about it. All we know so far is what the blues have said and that is pretty much the impression they have given (as well as how hard the later difficulties are).

At the very least the Templar has a heal, so bringing him around as a healadin will be something even if he dies constantly I guess.