Realized that racial benefits are very strong for followers

[cityguy193]

You can "cheese" most missons by having at least 2 followers of the same race, and 2 of those same followers + 1 extra follower all having the same racial preference trait. Racial preferences count for more than other traits, and are just under actual counter traits, which means that for many of the bigger raid missions, you can ignore 3-4 of the available counters and just use racial traits to power through most missions.

For example. If you are alliance, you should have the human or draenei preference traits. Horde is much easier, just take orc slayer.

From questing, I got a goblin that had ally of argus, and a draenei that also had ally of argus, and I recruited another draenei that also had ally of argus from my inn. Putting all 3, will allow ally of argus to stack 3x, which gives me as much as a boost to match 2-3 counters on its own. This means on a mission that calls for something like 6 counters, like the Highmaul raid mission, I can reach 90%-100% by just matching 2 counters. It gives me as much of a benefit as matching 5 out of 6 of those encounters + the environmental bonus.

This means, if you can get 2-3 followers of the same race, each with the same racial preference, you have a team that can do every single mission You will be done with the follower game for the rest of the expac. You will not need to level any more followers to epic, you will not have to worry about getting more follower upgrades from salvage yard or warmill/bunker for the rest of the expac once those followers are max quality + ilevel.

This will carry on into future patches, if blizzard adds harder missions with more counters, you may need something like this.

Just an interesting note. You can effectively be done with followers if you can manage this. It may be worth recruiting a human with humanlover, or an orc with an orc preference rather than a 3rd scavenger or epic mount for the next few weeks. There is a chance of not having an orc follower pop up if you request the orc preference, but its worth the risk imo. You only need to have 2 followers in a mission of 3 being the specified race for all 3 buffs to pop up anyways

[Caeth]

interesting point and well worth it. i've got too many followers spread out on ilvl

[Count Zero]

Too many people start doing this, they will prevent stacking the same buff.

Enjoy it while it lasts. This will really hurt people who double/triple stacked scavenger for crazy resources.

[Jester Joe]

That's a good tidbit honestly. In fact, all of your garrison posts have been so far, I'm glad you take the time to share the info here

[c313]

Yeah the Racial traits are incredibly good. I ran a Highmaul mission the other day and only countered 2 of the 6 abilities. But because I had 3 followers buffs I was able to pull a 90%

Have a Draeni with Animal Companion (increase % with a Worgen) a Worgen with Ally of Argus (Increase % with a Draenei) and High Stamina (Increase % when fighting 7 hour or higher mission)

I am not sure if the Racial traits are any better than the others, like High Stamina, or Blooks little unique trait Combat Experience. But I feel that if you're setting up a Highmaul team, It's best to make sure your 3 followers mainly provide a % buff over abilities. Even if you can't make it so they all have different abilities having 3 buffs (or more if possible) is better. The likely hood of you countering all 6 is not that likely in a Highmaul mission anyways. But the buffs alone will make up, hell like I said my Highmaul mission I only countered 2. Normally a way, 40%, maybe less? Due to my 3 buffs it made it a 90%

[DisposableHero]

This is good advice in part. You can set up a more effective cheese team with three difference races where one or more followers have two affinities. The ideal team example would be:

Follower 1 - Human, Ally of Argus, Canine Companion
Follower 2 - Draenai, Humanist, Canine Companion
Follower 3 - Worgen, Ally of Argus, Humanist

This team would stack 6 racial affinity buffs, which means with basically any counter (which between 3 epics I'd expect at least a couple counters to match) will 100% a highmaul raid. Very hard to recruit for this however, basically has to happen organically or you have to spend a huge amount of time recruiting particular races with particular affinities and then leveling them up in hopes that when they hit epic they roll the correct secondary affinity.

[Count Zero]

Yeah the Racial traits are incredibly good. I ran a Highmaul mission the other day and only countered 2 of the 6 abilities. But because I had 3 followers buffs I was able to pull a 90%

Have a Draeni with Animal Companion (increase % with a Worgen) a Worgen with Ally of Argus (Increase % with a Draenei) and High Stamina (Increase % when fighting 7 hour or higher mission)

I am not sure if the Racial traits are any better than the others, like High Stamina, or Blooks little unique trait Combat Experience. But I feel that if you're setting up a Highmaul team, It's best to make sure your 3 followers mainly provide a % buff over abilities. Even if you can't make it so they all have different abilities having 3 buffs (or more if possible) is better. The likely hood of you countering all 6 is not that likely in a Highmaul mission anyways. But the buffs alone will make up, hell like I said my Highmaul mission I only countered 2. Normally a way, 40%, maybe less? Due to my 3 buffs it made it a 90%

The Highmaul missions are the same four ... you can level/gear followers in advance specifically for them. wowhead.com/missions

Before I get three people over 645 at once, I chose the best spread of counters. With those and racial bonuses I should be pretty good

[c313]

The Highmaul missions are the same four ... you can level/gear followers in advance specifically for them. wowhead.com/missions

Before I get three people over 645 at once, I chose the best spread of counters. With those and racial bonuses I should be pretty good

Yeah however I only had enough upgrades to get 3 645s, or a mix of 615 followers, So I wen't with the 3 best with traits, and it worked out well.

[Chain Chungus]

Oh, those racist followers of mine.

So politically incorrect.

[DeadlyAccuracy]

Most of my followers have a combination of child of draenor, death fascination, economist . There wasn't a mission that I couldn't find a 100% combo if I wanted.

[tachycardias]

Ssssssssh. This was my secret. Though you don't necessarily have to have all three the same race. One of my teams is draenei with humanist, elf with argus, and human with child of the moon.

Yeah if I could get a follower with two racial friends traits it would be amazing.

[Tyrean]

So thanks for the tip, and the idea to look at all of the missions. I did a short excel sheet and of the 16 possible missions, there are only actually 4 variants.

1 - Wild Agression, Deadly Minions, Massive Strike, Timed Battle, Danger Zones, Powerful Spell
2 - Deadly Minions, Massive Strike, Timed Battle (2), Minion Swarm, Maic Debuff
3 - Wild Agression, Deadly Minions (2), Timed Battle, Danger Zones, Powerful Spell
4 - Wild Agression, Danger Zones, Minion Swarm, Magic Debuff, Group Damage (2)

So you want some combination of abilities that will allow you to meet those 4 types of missions as best as possible. Until that time though, I thank you greatly for this tip as I am in the 620ish range right now and was trying to figure out who to recruit and who to dump gear into.

[Count Zero]

So thanks for the tip, and the idea to look at all of the missions. I did a short excel sheet and of the 16 possible missions, there are only actually 4 variants.

1 - Wild Agression, Deadly Minions, Massive Strike, Timed Battle, Danger Zones, Powerful Spell
2 - Deadly Minions, Massive Strike, Timed Battle (2), Minion Swarm, Maic Debuff
3 - Wild Agression, Deadly Minions (2), Timed Battle, Danger Zones, Powerful Spell
4 - Wild Agression, Danger Zones, Minion Swarm, Magic Debuff, Group Damage (2)

So you want some combination of abilities that will allow you to meet those 4 types of missions as best as possible. Until that time though, I thank you greatly for this tip as I am in the 620ish range right now and was trying to figure out who to recruit and who to dump gear into.

Awesome, thanks for putting this in an easy-to-read format.

[Thaif]

Ssssssssh. This was my secret. Though you don't necessarily have to have all three the same race. One of my teams is draenei with humanist, elf with argus, and human with child of the moon.

Yeah if I could get a follower with two racial friends traits it would be amazing.

This guy knows whats up.
Also from questing in the zones on alliance, you end up with the most Draenei & Human followers, so I would put Humanist & Ally of Argus at the best traits for stacking. Next in line would be dwarf.

[tachycardias]

Determining the best trait also depends on what you happen to get when recruiting. I happened to get child of the moon x3, so for me it makes sense to develop my night elves. Unfortunately, none of my elves got an upgrade when I got them so they are uncommon, but will become epic eventually and their existing traits are nice. There are lots of humans and draenei to recruit while leveling, so in total I favour humanist, argus, and moon. From the inn, I got an elf with argus which is nice.
I have:
Child of the moon x3- human and 2 draenei
Humanist on a draenei
Argus x2- elf and dwarf
Canine companion x2- human and dwarf, though I only have 1 worgen, I can pair both of them with Fiona for a nice bonus

[cityguy193]

I will be making a guide to get a team of 3 followers that will share 4 racial traits. Thank you for the suggestions above that we can mix and match different races for even more followers.