Official Blizzard Quote:
We're not quite ready to talk about our approach, but I will say it's something that's been a part of the game since before announcement. We have a very solid direction for them.
In Diablo II, there was a different type of hireling for each act, with the exception of Act IV. The first act gave you access to a ranged Rouge mercenary after defeating Blood Raven. Once you progressed to Act II you were allowed to enlist the help of a Desert Mercenary. After that, Act III gave you access to the Iron Wolf mercenaries. Without the Lord of Destruction expansion, hirelings could not equip items, did not level up, and were only available during the Act they were bought in, but all of that was changed with the expansion. Lord of Destruction also added a Barbarian mercenary in Act V. Hirelings could be selected from long lists of many different options, for example the Rouge could fire arrows imbued with different elements depending on your selection. However, despite these options the only noticeable differences were between hirelings from different acts.
In Diablo III, the hireling system has gone through an overhaul. They are now called followers, and they have been split up into two different groups. The first type, as seen in the announcement video, are temporary followers.
Official Blizzard Quote:
As you saw in the demo, if you got the quest where you could rescue the adventurers or their leader, those guys are a light level, where they are just along for the quest or they are just cannon fodder. You can't really control them or have anything to do with them at all.
The second type of follower seems to be closer to the hirelings we know from Diablo II.
Official Blizzard Quote:
When you have what we are calling followers, they are the guys you can equip, give them different weapons, you can give them different armor. They will probably have some quests that involve them. Much more than in Diablo II, you could equip them but they were more like a game mechanic in a body of an NPC. Where this time, were making them much more individuals with their own back story and their own reason for being in the world.
[There will be different types to hire but this time they will be] much more specific. They were very interchangeable in Diablo II, they just had different skills. These ones are going to be much more geared toward certain gameplay types you'd say. Depending on how you play your class...I might be a barbarian, so I don't want another tank, I want a range or, I might want another tank.
So now that you know how hirelings worked in Diablo II, and how they are expected to work in Diablo III, which system do you like more? Would you like Diablo III to feature a system similar to the previous game? Do you just want temporary followers, or do you not want followers in Diablo III at all? Vote in the poll above and express your opinion in the topic below
Last week's poll was essentially a split decision between people who will strike a balance between PvE and PvP (29%), those who will PvP once in a while (27%), and the most popular choice was "Maybe once I'm done with PvE" (31%). If you would still like to vote in that poll, or just want to talk about PvP, head over to the thread in the link above.
"Other" and you explain your reasoning
And I can also go for the temp hirelings where you only get them through quests.
that would be i dont want followers ;D
I didn't really like the merc's in D2 because they always got themselves killed or did other stupid things. Sure, the AI might be better now, but I'd rather just rely on myself and my friends in co-op. So if they do add proper merc's similar to D2, I just won't recruit any.
ie: slightly more detailed and expanded on the diablo 2 system
This :Thumbs Up:
I'm all for the advanced follower system, so 2 and 4.
I like this idea, I'm down.
there wasn't when i posted it, for all those people who decided to point that out
Random comment: I would buy a single player WoW if I could have a group of 25 followers like mercenaries, which I could fully equip, customize and order, to raid.
I'm totally in love with the concept of having allies you can equip and build up.
To some people, nothing replaces a human being. To me, good CPU > the majority of human beings I'd encounter on the net.
If I could have a team of 4 with 3 mercs, and the mercs would be based on the available classes, I totally would love it. Of course, we won't get that much.