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Follower Mechanics

Last Updated:January 7, 2024|Changelog

Introduction

Followers are powerful companions who join you in battle. They’ll accompany you on ventures outside of the safety of town and attack any threats you come across. They have unique abilities that can slow/weaken enemies or heal you. With Patch 2.7.0 and Season 23, Followers have been reworked with additional item slots, new abilities and the Emanation of certain Legendary Powers.

D 3 Follower Mechanics 3 Follower

Overview

Followers fight automatically, but you can choose skills for them that affect their behavior in combat. For example, if you choose the Charge skill for the Templar, he’ll begin fights by rushing at enemies with a stunning attack while Heal will cause him to stay back and restore your Life during battle.

Followers who aren’t currently traveling with you remain in your camp. To recruit a Follower to join you (replacing your existing Follower if you have one), walk to their location, interact with them, and select ‘Hire’. You can also talk with them and learn about their history or ask for their advice on your current quests.

As you grow more powerful, your Followers will gain experience and unlock new skills. You should also improve their gear often by accessing their inventory page:

  • PC: Hit the “F” key or by clicking on their portrait in the upper left corner of the screen.
  • Console: open the character menu (Xbox 360 and Xbox One: BACK; PlayStation®3 and PlayStation®4: SELECT), and navigate to the party menu.
  • You’ll see two available skills per category. You can highlight any skill to learn about it before choosing the one you want, and you can retrain your Followers’ skills here as well. To equip your Follower, click on the item you’d like them to wield, and drag it to the appropriate slot in their inventory.

Choose the Follower and skills that best complement your play style. If you like to fight on the front lines and soak up damage, pick a Follower that will heal you or delay your enemies’ attacks.

Mechanics & Stats

Generally there are no hard mechanics rules for Followers. In our extensive testing some stats and effects randomly work while others simply don't. We will give our best to showcase these here:

General Rules

  • When the Player dies the Follower also dies and all skill Cooldowns are reset (including the cheat death skills: Fate's Lapse, Vanish and Guardian).
  • When a Follower dies while the player stays alive, the Follower revives automatically after 20 seconds.
  • Your Follower automatically teleports to you when you are more than 75 yards away from it. This is used to reposition it at will in higher Greater Rifts.
  • Only 1 Follower can fight alongside you at a time while other allies, like pets or major NPCs, can join you simultaneously (except with Asheara's Vestments).
  • Followers can only be used in solo play (except with Asheara's Vestments).
  • You can change Follower Skills anytime (asides while being in a Greater Rift) but cannot unlearn them. If you picked a skill you don't want, your only option is to make a new character.
  • Cooldown Reduction from Follower tokens work for all their active skills, but not for their cheat death procs.
  • Follower’s powers are based on their main stat (maxed at 25.000, but they have a 2.5x multiplier so you only need 10,000). This means we stack Intelligence on the Enchantress, Dexterity on the Scoundrel and Strength on the Templar.
  • Guardian's Jeopardy (3) Bonus works for followers by improving their inherent stat multiplier from x2.5 to x3.5, making it slightly easier to hit the 25,000 main stat threshold if needed.
  • Followers share 20% of their Experience, Magic and Gold Find stats with you.
  • Legendary gems do not work on followers, except Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard.
  • Cooldown Reduction does not work for any follower skill except the Templar’s Heal.
  • Followers never deal significant damage; you’re on your own to clear the content.

Main Stats

All 3 Followers have different main stats (see below) and get a 2.5 multiplier per stat point of Dexterity, Intelligence, Strength and Vitality. The normal class bonuses apply (Dexterity & Strength = Armor, Intelligence = All Resistance, Vitality = Life). The individual main stat increases their damage and scales their skills power linearly capping at 25,000 main stat for the maximum value.

Other Stats

Most of the normal stats work on Followers:

  • Area Damage
  • Attack Speed
  • Block Chance
  • Critical Hit Chance
  • Critical Hit Damage (capped at 150%)
  • Elemental Damage
  • Elite Damage
  • Life per Hit
  • Life per Kill
  • Life %

Attack Speed makes your Follower attacks faster. However all their special abilities have a cooldown, which means it simply makes them auto-attack faster. As a result, the only benefit from Attack Speed is to help them proc items like Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker and Blind Faith.

Cooldown Reduction works as well but only for Templar's Heal. Born’s Command and Captain Crimson's Trimmings Cooldown Reduction bonuses both work for Templar's Heal as well. Additionally, Followers share 20% of their Experience, Magic and Gold Find stats from equipped items to the Player.

Legendary Gems

Followers do not benefit from Legendary Gems equipped on them except Esoteric Alteration & Mutilation Guard. This is extremely useful to help them survive in speed content and use a token that gives Follower all skills or halves its Cooldowns.

They do benefit from Enforcer if you have it equipped. While the damage multiplier is rather useless, the 90% damage reduction works and allows builds that use this gem to make their Follower survives without immortality token in higher Greater Rifts.

Buffs & Crowd Control

Followers benefit from defensive buffs like Ignore Pain Mob Rule, War Cry and Monk's Mantras. Followers are subject to Crowd Control effects (Stuns, Freezes...) but are immune to Knockback. However Crowd Control Reduction on items work to mitigate those effects. Ice Climbers work as well and grant them immunity to Freeze, Slow and Root (Jailer) effects which is very useful in Greater Rifts.

Set Bonuses

Set bonuses like Endless Walk or Bastions of Will, Movement Speed bonuses and any Resource related bonuses do not work. Damage multipliers and damage reduction effects like Captain Crimson's Trimmings (3) Bonus, Aquila Cuirass, Stone Gauntlets, Bane of the Trapped, Legacy of nightmares and Legacy of Dreams do not work. Guardian's Jeopardy (3) Bonus works for followers by improving their inherent stat multiplier from x2.5 to x3.5, making it slightly easier to hit the 25,000 main stat threshold if needed.

Item Effects

  • Oculus Ring works on Followers.
  • Ring of royal grandeur works on Followers.
  • The Executioner doesn't work on Followers.
  • Unity works on Followers, effectively acting as a 50% damage reduction in solo.
    This requires your Follower to have an immortality token equipped!
  • Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander only works if the Follower gets the kill, rendering it useless.
  • Strongarm bracers work on Followers!Windforce and The Ess of Johan can proc them.
  • Cord of the Sherma works on Followers which is nice for Krysbin's Sentence in speed content.
  • Ice Climbers works on Followers, preventing them from being frozen or jailed.
  • Leoric's Crown works on Followers.
  • If your Follower has a Cold Damage Range on its Weapon, it procs your Lost Time Movement Speed buff if you have it equipped as a Necromancer.
  • Similarly, if they have Frostburn equipped, a Cold Damage Range allows Followers to proc the freeze effect with their attacks.

Emanation

T16 Enchantress

Followers have 14 equippable items, the 13 standard ones your character uses plus the follower specific item. A new feature called Emanation was introduced in patch 2.7.0 which allows players to gain the effect of certain Legendary Powers equipped on hired Followers:

  • Broken Crown
  • Homing Pads
  • Spaulders of Zakara
  • Goldskin
  • Custerian Wristguards
  • Nemesis Bracers
  • Gladiator Gauntlets
  • Gloves of Worship
  • Dovu Energy Trap
  • Rakoff's Glass of life
  • Avarice Band
  • Krede's Flame
  • The Flavor of Time
  • Sage's Journey (3) Bonus
  • Cain's Destiny (3) Bonus

These emanated powers work as if you were the one wearing them. Items with variable powers (Homing Pads, Dovu Energy Trap, Rakoff's Glass of life) need to have good rolls. Emanated items are snapshotted on Pylon click (The Flavor of Time, Nemesis Bracers) but are not shared in groups when summoned by Asheara's Vestments.

Gameplay

The main way to "use" a Follower is to constantly be aware of where they are standing via the purple dot on your mini map. Example on Solo Barbarian Push: Pull an entire Festering Woods to a big intersection. Ideally group up enemies on to your Follower.

If you don't do that, inevitably 10-40% of the monsters will walk over to where your Follower is instead and attack them. If instead you gather them up on the Follower, you are guaranteed that the monsters will walk over to you, the player! Once you are close to your Follower, only then do you worry about re-positioning them on top of Elites or in an Oculus Ring.

Followers can be force teleported onto you by moving around 2 screens away from them if they are not crowd controlled or performing an attack animation. When kiting monsters, you have to move far enough forward to teleport your Follower to the next screen, and only then go back and pull the monsters. Be careful when you run back though as running too far will re-teleport the follower back to where it was and you’ll make no progress.

Followers can bodyblock enemy attacks for you (especially useful on Rift Guardians) by positioning them in front of you in a narrow spot and standing behind them.

Common Items

Followers have 13 item slots (Templar has 14 with Shield). Here is an overview of the commonly used items:

SLOTITEM
WeaponThunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker
Pig Sticker
Azurewrath
Buriza-Do Kyanon
Cluckeye
The Sultan of the Blinding Sand
Shield on TemplarFreeze of Deflection
Wall of Man
HelmLeoric's Crown
Blind Faith
Sage's Apogee
Cain’s Insight
Mempo of Twilight
GlovesGloves of Worship
Cain's Scrivener
Sage’s Purchase
ShouldersHoming Pads
ChestTal Rasha's Relentless Pursuit
Goldskin
PantsCain's Habit
Captain Crimson's Thrust
BootsCain's travelers
Captain Crimson's Waders
Sage’s Passage
Ice Climbers
AmuletThe Flavor of Time
The Ess of Johan
Ring 1Oculus Ring
Avarice Band
Ring 2Unity
Ring of Royal Grandeur
Hellfire Ring
Wyrdward
BracersNemesis Bracers
Strongarm Bracers
Unique Follower ItemEnchanting Favor
Skeleton Key
Smoking Thurible
Hand of the Prophet
BeltSage's Ribbon
Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle
Vigilante Belt
Cord of the Sherma

The Templar

251 F 8208 Templar 1 337 X 506
Templar

Kormac, the Templar is a dedicated master of melee arms and armor. You encounter him during the Campaign Mode in Act I.

Item Slots
Weapon: All one-handed melee weapons (Axes, Daggers, Maces, Spears, Swords)
Shield: All normal Shields in the game
Unique Item: Templar Relics - Rare or Legendary: Hillenbrand's Training Sword, Enchanting Favor, Relic of Akarat

Stats
Main Stat: Strength (increases damage and skill power)

Skills
Strength scales the following skill powers capping at 25,000 for the maximum value.

Heal

Intervene

Loyalty

Intimidate

Charge

Onslaught

Inspire

Guardian

GR Pushing Templar

GR Pushing Templar

For Greater Rift pushing we recommend this Templar setup for the sustain from Heal, 10% increased damage from Onslaught, and the very powerful cheat death mechanic from Guardian. This is the only follower build that stacks Cooldown Reduction because it works with Heal. Since we take the immortality relic, we do not need any survivability stats.

Strength > Cooldown Reduction > Attack Speed.

Stat Priorities:

Since we have the immortality relic, we do not need to stack survivability on our Templar.

Strength > Cooldown Reduction > Attack Speed.

Key Items:

  • The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
  • Nemesis Bracers: For more progression from Elites.
  • Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
  • Unity: For 50% damage reduction if you're also wearing one.
  • Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
  • Leoric's Crown and Captain Crimson's Trimmings: For more Cooldown Reduction on Heal.

The Scoundrel

13 B 5 B 761 Scoundrel 1 337 X 506
Scoundrel

Lyndon, the Scoundrel, a selfish rake skilled in larceny and ranged weapons. You encounter him during the Campaign Mode in Act I.

Item Slots
Weapon: Bows, Crossbows (cannot use Quivers)
Unique Item: Scoundrel Tokens - Rare or Legendary: Skeleton Key, Slipka's Letter Opener, Ribald Etchings

Stats
Main Stat: Dexterity (increase damage and skill power)

Skills
Dexterity scales the following skill powers capping at 25,000 for the maximum value.

Crippling Shot

Powered Shot

Hysteria

Anatomy

Piercing Shot

Multishot

Vanish

Night's Veil

GR Pushing Scoundrel (Normal Version)

GR Pushing Scoundrel Normal Version

For most Greater Rift Pushing builds we recommend this Scoundrel setup for the Critical Hit Chance from Anatomy, 10% increased damage from Piercing Shot, and the insane Critical Hit Chance cloud from Night’s Veil. Don't choose either of the first skill options as they apply crowd controls that we want to avoid. If you accidentally select one, you'll either have to live with it or make a new character to fix it as there is no way to de-select a follower skill :(.

Stat Priorities:

Since we have the immortality token, we do not need to stack survivability on our Scoundrel.

Dexterity > Attack Speed.

Key Items:

  • The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
  • Nemesis Bracers: For more progression from Elites.
  • Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
  • Unity: For 50% damage reduction if you're also wearing one.
  • Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
  • Leoric's Crown and Cain's Destiny: For more Experience and Attack Speed.

GR Pushing Scoundrel (CC Version)

GR Pushing Scoundrel CC Version

For a very few Greater Rift Pushing we recommend this crowd control Scoundrel setup for the stun from Powered Shot, Critical Hit Chance from Anatomy, 10% increased damage from Piercing Shot, and the insane Critical Hit Chance cloud from Night’s Veil. Since we take the immortality token, we do not need any survivability stats.

Stat Priorities:

Since we have the immortality token, we do not need to stack survivability on our Scoundrel.

Dexterity > Attack Speed.

Key Items:

  • The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
  • Nemesis Bracers: For more progression from Elites.
  • Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
  • Unity: For 50% damage reduction if you're also wearing one.
  • Blind Faith & Cord of the Sherma: For the chance to Blind.
  • Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.

The Enchantress

F 8725 C 47 Enchantress 1 337 X 506
Enchantress

Eirena, the Enchantress, a mysterious magic-user who can confuse and debilitate enemies. You encounter her during the Campaign Mode in Act II.

Item Slots
Weapon: One and Two-Handed melee weapons (Axes, Daggers, Maces, Spears, Swords, Two-Handed Axe, Two-Handed Mace, Two-Handed Sword, Staff)
Unique Item: Enchantress Focuses - Rare or Legendary: Hand of the Prophet, Smoking Thurible, Vadim's Surge

Stats
Main Stat: Intelligence (increases damage and skill power).

Skills
Intelligence scales the following skill powers capping at 25,000 for the maximum value.

Charm

Temporal Pulse

Amplification

Prophetic Harmony

Powered Shield

Erosion

Focused Mind

Fate's Lapse

T16 Enchantress

T16 Enchantress

For T16 we recommend this Enchantress setup because she is the only follower that gives Cooldown Reduction, allowing you to spam your abilities more. Since this is T16 content, she’ll stay alive with Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard and use Hand of the Prophet to gain all skills. This will give us Cooldown Reduction, Elemental Damage, Reduced Damage from Ranged Attacks, Armor, Attack Speed, and a Cheat Death.

Stat Priorities:

Since we do not have the immortality focus, we need to stack survivability on our Enchantress.

Intelligence > Vitality > Life % > Armor > All Resistance > Life Per Hit > Attack Speed.

Key Items:

  • The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
  • Nemesis Bracers: For extra Elites, Death’s Breaths and In-geom procs.
  • Avarice Band: For the insane pickup radius.
  • Ring of Royal Grandeur: To complete our sets.
  • Gloves of Worship: For 10 Minute Shrine Buffs.
  • Sage’s Journey: For double Death’s Breaths.
  • Cain’s Destiny: For 25% more Greater Rift Keystones.

Speed GR Enchantress

Speed GR Enchantress

For speed Greater Rifts we recommend this Enchantress setup because she is the only follower that gives Cooldown Reduction, allowing you to spam your abilities more. Since this is speed content, she’ll stay alive with Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard and use Hand of the Prophet to gain all skills. This will give us Cooldown Reduction, Elemental Damage, Reduced Damage from Ranged Attacks, Armor, Attack Speed, and a Cheat Death.

Stat Priorities:

Since we do not have the immortality focus, we need to stack survivability on our Enchantress.

Intelligence > Vitality > Life % > Armor > All Resistance > Life Per Hit > Attack Speed.

Key Items:

  • The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
  • Nemesis Bracers: For more progression from Elites.
  • Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
  • Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
  • Hellfire Ring, Leoric's Crown and Cain's Destiny: For more Experience and Attack Speed.

GR Pushing Enchantress

GR Pushing Enchantress

For Greater Rift Pushing we recommend this Enchantress setup for the Slow from Temporal Pulse, Cooldown Reduction from Prophetic Harmony, Damage Reduction and Armor from Powered Shield, and the Attack Speed from Focused Mind.

Stat Priorities:

Since we have the immortality relic, we do not need to stack survivability on our Enchantress.

Intelligence > Attack Speed.

Key Items:

  • The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
  • Nemesis Bracers: For more progression from Elites.
  • Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
  • Unity: For 50% damage reduction if you're also wearing one.
  • Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
  • Leoric's Crown and Cain's Destiny: For more Experience and Attack Speed.

Fun Fact
Some Solo Necromancer players use any Weapon with Cold damage and choose none of the skills to proc Lost Time permanently.

Asheara's Vestments Mechanics

zDH with Asheara's Vestments

Asheara's Vestments can be crafted at the Blacksmith and consists of four pieces:

  • Asheara's Custodian
  • Asheara's Finders
  • Asheara's Pace
  • Asheara's Ward

It is a very underused set but provides multiple Follower bonuses and brings them into group play. Here are the mechanics of Asheara's Vestments (4) Bonus:

  • Summons all 3 Followers to your aid.
  • Works in groups.
  • Followers fight with you for 30 seconds.
  • Cooldown of this effect is 60 seconds.
  • 20% chance to proc per hit (influenced by the proc coefficient of the skill the player attacks with).
  • Oculus Ring does not stack (only 1 ground effect procs).
  • Unity does not stack (max. 50% damage reduction).
  • Emanation only works for the one currently hired Follower and only for the player that summoned the Followers with Asheara's Vestments.
  • Followers cannot proc Asheara's Vestments themselves.
  • Summoned Followers give the full benefit of their skills and items to the player that summoned them.
  • Skill effects do not stack with each other if multiple party members use Asheara's Vestments.
  • Debuffs from Onslaught, Piercing Shot and Erosion are additive and stack additively with each other (for a maximum of +30% with all 3 Followers skills active) and also work for party members.
  • Scoundrel's new Critical Hit Chance debuff Night's Veil works for party members. That is especially useful for the Rift Guardian.
  • No other Follower skills work for party members.

Video Guide

Full Follower Overview

Patch 2.7.0 brought Followers back to life and makes them pretty useful! This feels good for solo players and closes the, until now, ever growing gap between group and solo gameplay. Enjoy Season 24!

Credits

Written by Rob with special help from Northwar & Chewingnom.
Updated by Chewingnom.

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