I tend to use the Enchantress for the 3% IAS and for the gold find. I have her equipped with a Sultan of the Binding Sand (~25% GF 2h). No other followers can equip it, so she wins by default.
I’ve been running with the Scoundrel for my Critical Mass build. I currently have him on Anatomy, but since my crit chance is close to 50% anyway maybe I should use Hysteria, which would basically be a permanent 5% damage buff.
Ooh, I’d forgotten that the Scoundrel had those crit skills. Maybe I need to consider using him with my Demon Hunter.
What is a sultan of the blinding sand?
Can someone give a breakdown on the benefits the followers offer? I have been using the Templar with my monk because of his healing skills. He doesn’t heal that much, but in some of the tougher battles (bosses, champions, etc.), it has definitely made a difference. However, his dps sucks. Monk and Templar are both lv 60, but one has a 14k dps and the other 800. Yes, eight hundred, and that’s with a 500+ dps weapon. So what is dps and skills of the other followers like? I haven’t bothered to equip any of the others.
All of the followers have DPS based on their weapon and prime ability scores, just like the main characters. But I think that followers have an across-the-board reduction by a factor of 10. They do contribute some damage, but that’s not the primary reason you use them.
The followers gain triple benefit from the main stats (vitality, int, strength, dexterity) so you should load them up with their main stat for better damage. If you give the enchantress a 220 int amulet for example, she’ll get 660 intellect out of it. The utility spells are very useful, but they can do very decent damage when you gear them with their main stat and a good weapon. My enchantress is at over 5000dps, and she doesn’t have any very expensive gear.
I use the templar on my DH, nothing but vitality. He has 86k health, good enough to tank normal mobs without a death and can hold his own against certain champs/elites for enough time for me to fire and run.
On my barbarian the enchantress does have 6k dps, but dies to fast to be any help at all with dps. So she is stacked with MF and her CC abilities plus attack speed/armor buffs make her a great choice imho for melee.
I have never used the scoundrel but I am with Chronos, I may give him a go on my DH check his crit abilities.
In addition to the crit abilities, the Scoundrel’s dialogue is kind of funny.
I’ve actually used all three of them at one point or another, as they all have their good points.
Templar:
Gives life regen
Gives resource regen aura
Has two kinds of heals
Can taunt and stun
The only follower that can actually tank a few hits
Can have the most magic find gear, thanks to his ability to wear a shield
Scoundrel:
Gives a 3% crit aura or extra dmg on crits
Can blind and stun
Equip him with a cold dmg bow, some increased attack speed gear, and with the multishot skill he effectively gives a permanent slowing effect to groups of mobs, very useful in later difficulties
Enchantress:
Gives 3% attack speed
Gives extra armor or a shield that reflects missiles
Can charm, disorient, and hex
Has an aoe that increases your dmg
1.0.3a is live. Among some minor tweaks, they’ve cut the wear and tear on durability by 1/2 (does not affect the 10% hit upon death). That should be very helpful.
My only question is…when is there going to be an expansion for this game (I know that no one knows the answer to this)?? I’ve played 2 characters through Hell level, and am just waiting for some friends to level up so we can tackle the final level. Already, though, the game has lost some of it’s edge for me…it’s really the same thing, over and over again, just with harder monsters. I know that this is exactly what the first two games were, but this time it seems more stifling for some reason. I want to do more, but like in Skyrim, after I’ve finished and played through with a different character there comes a time (rapidly approaching with D3) where there isn’t anything left for me to do. I still have the final difficulty level and Whimsyshire (I don’t have all the parts yet), and I’ll probably do it with both my DH and Mage, but after that I’m pretty much done…until the expansion comes out. But if they take a year or two I might not be all that excited about an expansion either, unless it’s a really good one. I’m almost at the point now that even a Skyrim expansion isn’t something I’m really anticipating because it’s been so long since I fired the game up.
-XT
Question on the followers: do their buffs only function when they’re active/“alive”?
I expect they’ll announce it during the christmas season to boost D3 sales and release it some time next summer, much like they did with the D2 expansion.
I don’t know, they still haven’t released Heart of the Swarm. They might announce it this year, but Blizzard tends to take their time on actual releases.
OOC, what’s your CM build like? I have a crit-oriented build that centers on “AP on crit” gear and meteor storm. It’s letting me get through inferno at a slow but steady pace, but it does feel like it needs some tweaking.
My build is pretty sketchy; I’ve gotten to the point in Act I Inferno where you meet the scoundrel, so you’re ahead of me there.
Build includes Diamond Skin/Prism (should probably push that to the double-strength one) and Mirror Image/5 duplicates, Energy Shield/Pinpoint Barrier, Arcane Hydra, Magic Missile/seeking, and Arcane Big Ball o’ hurt/piercing. Passives are Evocation (15% cooldown reduction), Critical Mass (chance for -1 second on all cooldowns on a crit hit), and Temporal Flux (arcane damage slows enemies).
I have a lot of plus crit (about 46% total with the bonuses from the scoundrel and the energy shield), some AP on Crit (need more), and otherwise the usual int/vit/some resistances/random. General plan is to use hydra and diamond skin immediately upon contact with the enemy and alternate balls o’ hurting and magic missile as appropriate, making liberal use of mirror image, diamond skin, and good old fashioned fleeing in terror when anything remotely threatening happens.
ETA - this game plan doesn’t work very well against fast elites (like scavengers) especially if they have fire chains, and I’m not too fond of vortex and mortar, either. (and invulnerable minions, which I suppose should go without saying).
Are Evocation and Critical Mass really worthwhile when you only have two cooldown spells?
I’d be tempted to use them both with just mirror image, to be honest, but I play in maximum coward mode. Yes, there’s illusionist, but I like not taking the damage if i can avoid it.
When those two are Diamond Skin and Mirror Image? Critical Mass can frequently get those recharged before they’ve run out, which lets you just outright ignore most generic enemies. I’m not sold on Evocation, though, since all that does is shave off one critical mass proc. It’s only really worthwhile for Archon, IMO.
Point on evocation; I suppose I could drop it for Arcane Dynamo, Astral Presence, or Blur.