I have a follower-can't-die one, but only for scoundrel...who I've never, ever, ever used. The Crusader's a useful tank, the Sorceress is a nice AOE caster/charmer. What do I need a mediocre ranged attacker for?
They all give you specific things. Think of them like a fifth passive combined with an extra equipment slot.
Templar: Melee and healing
-Increased healing/Life regen
-Increased resource generation
-Tanker/Minor
crowd control (taunt/slow/stun)
Scoundrel: Ranged and crit-focused
-Increased crit chance OR increased damage after landing a crit
-Built-in "I'm not dead yet" ability* (Vanish)
-Minor crowd control (blind/slow/stun)
Enchantress: Ranged and crowd control
-Increased attack speed
-Increased damage reduction
-Minor crowd control (confuse/charm/chickens/knockback)
All Followers:
-Benefit 250% from listed item stats. Giving a follower a ring with +150 (str/dex/int/vit) will cause that follower's (stat) to actually go up +375.
-Benefit from stats the same way as players (Templar/Str, Scoundrel/Dex, Enchantress/Int) as far as damage amplification (+100 prime stat = +100% base damage)
-Do NOT start with 5%chance/50%damage like players, any crit stats they get are
entirely due to skills/items (so don't give 'em a huge crit damage unless you also give them some items with crit chance!).
-
Continue to give their passive benefit even when they are "dead" or "missing (such as the Scoundrel's 'vanish' or when trapped in a bone cage)"
-Can still benefit from most legendary item/affixes and a few set bonuses (e.g., equipping your Enchantress with
The Tormentor and
Overwhelming Desire on top of her normal ability will cause her to charm things A LOT).
-Will share with you 20% of the following stats: Magic Find%**, Gold Find%, Bonus exp/kill, Bonus exp%. So an item worn by your follower which would grant you 25% extra gold and +180 exp/kill if you wear it will still grant you 5% extra gold and +36 exp/kill if your follower wears it.
Advice, then:
-If you are gearing your follower with the idea to benefit from bonus MF**/GF/XP items then USE THE TEMPLAR. The templar has an extra equipment slot (1H + shield v. 2H for the others) which means you can stack one additional item with that stat into that mix. His shield slot also means he can potentially get up to an extra 10% crit chance.
-If you are gearing your follower for maximum damage to help you out, then USE THE ENCHANTRESS. 2H maces are by far the highest damage weapons in the game, and she can use them.
-If you're depending on
anything that depends on critical hits (arcane regen,
pain enhancer gem, various skills), then USE THE SCOUNDREL. A flat +3% crit chance may not sound like much, and when your base chance is low it really isn't, but as you gear your character's crit chance up higher and higher, the ability to get a guaranteed 3% boost on top of that will make exponentially more and more difference.
-For the most part, you are going to want to choose the complimentary follower to your character. That means unless you need something specific that they offer, pick a ranged one if you are melee (Monk/Crusader/Barb), and pick the templar if you are a ranged character.
-There is a legendary item
for each follower that makes it so your follower can't die. With this in mind, you may want to collect a set of follower gear that ignores Vitality completely, selecting crit damage or some other stat in its place, since Vit is completely irrelevant if your follower can't die. Same goes for +Block Chance.
-Unless you have enough items with crit
chance to make it worthwhile, your follower will probably benefit more from socketing a ruby than an emerald in whatever weapon is being used (
unless of course you are using the gem of ease for exp gain Doesn't work that way. Boo.).
Wow, this ended up being a long post.
--Patrick
*All player classes have some sort of ability that lets them cheat death once in a while. The Scoundrel is the only Follower that has such an ability.
**Since Loot 2.0 came out (i.e., after the expansion was released), they changed the way MF works, so while boosting your MF will get you better quality yellow/rare items, its boost to finding legendaries was shrunk
so much that you really should just rift, instead (see
this video for the explanation).
