So I was looking over the follower eq list and they had a section for equipment with (for example the Scoundrel) bows that they can use and a level requirement. My question is:
Do followers automatically equip certain items at certain times or do you outfit them with found/crafted gear like you did in D2?
I much prefer the idea of being able to customize them and improve their gear as I find/make better stuff but I can see how having mercs with explicit gear would make working them into balacing the game a lot easier. Any clarification would be appreciated.
Yup, just to support the follower's progression more visually, like the Artisans.
Does that mean there's no armor slot or that there is but the look of the character is level dependent? Just being able to do rings/ammy's and a weapon doesnt seem like you'd be able to change the followers power all that much (weapon obviously is a big one but....)
I guess I find myself thinking too much like D2 - having a merc with a runeword or unique armor made all the difference in the world reagarding their survivorablity - I actually would have loved mercs to have complete equipment loadouts like the character - basically 10 slots for eq or whatever - would have been very complicated to balance though so I guess I see why.
Relieving the followers of the helm and armor slot is intentional, and here's a quote from an interview covering the followers:
Official Blizzard Quote:
How will Followers affect things like loot and items?
Followers don’t have a ton of different items. One of the reasons for that is we didn’t want them to feel like too much of a drain on the player, like you have to keep the Follower equipped. The most important thing is their weapon. Followers tend to use fairly unique weapons; they’re not exclusive to them, but they tend to use stuff that’s not commonly used. It’s pretty easy to choose a follower who just doesn’t conflict with you on that front.
You could say ‘well, I’m a Barbarian, I’m never going to use a crossbow, so I’ll choose Lyndon as my Follower.’ They also use rings and amulets but it’s not such a significant contributor of power to them that you will give them a ring or an amulet before you give it to yourself. You generally give them your hand-me-downs. They also have items that are unique to them, for example the Templar has a holy tome that only he can use – because of that, when you find it, it’s a no-brainer to give it to him.
Items that you give a follower are based upon what you want that Follower to do. We’ve overhauled our attributes system to make them really straightforward. The attack attribute increases all damage, so if you want more damage out of your follower you give him items that have a high attack attribute. If you’re making a more tank-oriented Follower, then you raise his defence to make him tougher.
As for their relics, there was a word on the Templar's Tome around when the Followers were first announced:
Official Blizzard Quote:
Gameplanet: Are there specific item drops just for followers?
Boyarsky: Well they do have their specific item slots, their unique items that you can find for them, but that’s as far as their unique items go.
Gameplanet: Can you elaborate on what those unique items might be?
Boyarsky: I know that one of the ones we have is the Templar gets some special Tomes, and we have some other stuff that we probably really don’t want to talk about! It more lore stuff, it doesn’t change the way they look, it’s more about their lore and their back-story. These things do give them some buffs and some extra [statistics], but they really tie into who they are as a part of the world.
I could read the whole interviews to refresh, your memory on some things, just keep in mind that they've made them viable through the whole game, whereas they were previously only useful in Normal.
I understand the design decision but I never felt like giving something to my follower was a "drain" on my character - quite the contrary it gave someplace for all those heavy armors/badass polearms that my sorc or javazon was never going to use anyway.
Ah well - I guess the tradeoff is they have selectable skills now instead of simply being a might merc or a cold rogue or whatever - I can live with it.
Does anyone know what the follower specific items will do or is it completely unannounced so far? Stat sticks? unique ability buffs? Other?
I don't think we know yet, at least I haven't heard anything. You can view the icons for them on the site though, but currently there's no stats or anything on them.
I really dislike the idea of some Follower-only gear being drops. They should be crafted only. People who play multiplayer games exclusively are getting screwed, not to mention the fact that it's pretty underwhelming to have everything else's drop chance reduced by an item that's for an AI NPC that's balanced to benefit no where near the way you do for items.
I really dislike the idea of some Follower-only gear being drops. They should be crafted only. People who play multiplayer games exclusively are getting screwed, not to mention the fact that it's pretty underwhelming to have everything else's drop chance reduced by an item that's for an AI NPC that's balanced to benefit no where near the way you do for items.
Well, in the end it's just an item like any other you don't need, you can either salvage it or sell on the Auction House or give it to a friend, if you choose not to use it. I don't think that's an issue to be worried about at all.
I get what you mean, but it's no different than any item drop that you don't actually need and let's not forget that his is a result of the randomness in the drop system.
It's now more of those types of items in the list of potential drops. It's not cool. I'd salvage or sell the gear I would replace on the follower from crafting. Win-win. Diluting the drop waters even more for gear going towards a weak NPC (one that you might not even use if you play MP) is extremely fail.
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Do followers automatically equip certain items at certain times or do you outfit them with found/crafted gear like you did in D2?
I much prefer the idea of being able to customize them and improve their gear as I find/make better stuff but I can see how having mercs with explicit gear would make working them into balacing the game a lot easier. Any clarification would be appreciated.
Does that mean there's no armor slot or that there is but the look of the character is level dependent? Just being able to do rings/ammy's and a weapon doesnt seem like you'd be able to change the followers power all that much (weapon obviously is a big one but....)
I guess I find myself thinking too much like D2 - having a merc with a runeword or unique armor made all the difference in the world reagarding their survivorablity - I actually would have loved mercs to have complete equipment loadouts like the character - basically 10 slots for eq or whatever - would have been very complicated to balance though so I guess I see why.
I understand the design decision but I never felt like giving something to my follower was a "drain" on my character - quite the contrary it gave someplace for all those heavy armors/badass polearms that my sorc or javazon was never going to use anyway.
Ah well - I guess the tradeoff is they have selectable skills now instead of simply being a might merc or a cold rogue or whatever - I can live with it.
I don't think we know yet, at least I haven't heard anything. You can view the icons for them on the site though, but currently there's no stats or anything on them.
It's now more of those types of items in the list of potential drops. It's not cool. I'd salvage or sell the gear I would replace on the follower from crafting. Win-win. Diluting the drop waters even more for gear going towards a weak NPC (one that you might not even use if you play MP) is extremely fail.