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The three followers are: Eirena the [[Enchantress]], Kormac the [[Templar]], and Lyndon the [[Scoundrel]]. Followers are powerful combat assistants who can greatly assist a new player in their struggles. There are limits on their utility, though. They can only be used when playing solo, either in a [[single player]] game or while playing solo in a multiplayer game over Battle.net. Also, followers are only meant to be useful during Normal difficulty; they only level up to 25 and are thus useless in Nightmare or Hell difficulty. (This is by design.) Followers should not be mistook mistaken for [[hirelings]], the wandering NPCs who serve may assist a different purpose player during individual quests, but can not be given equipment, leveled up, etc. * {{iw|Mercenary Diablo II's Mercenaries}} were similar NPC assistants in Diablo IIIthat game, and while lacking the customizability of Folloers, they were much stronger and designed to provide combat assistance right through Hell difficulty.
==Followers in Diablo III==
The followers in Diablo III are well removed from the mercenary system in Diablo II. One of the largest differences is in the name itself--followers are not hired, they are recruited through quests. There are three followers in Diablo III, which will all be gained within the first Act.
* The [[EnchantressScoundrel]] (Eirena) entryLyndon is an ex-thief and archer who wields a crossbow. He has numerous bow attacks and can debuff monsers, slowing and poisoning them.
* The [[ScoundrelTemplar]] (Lyndon) entryKormac is a heavily-armored [[tank]], ready to act as a meat shield for your ranged attacker. He can take on large groups of melee fighters and draw enemy attention in the toughest scrap.
===Lore-Abiding Citizens===
Fortunately, there are plenty of words from the men in blue themselves on the aspect of [[lore]] in the follower system, such as these quotes from [[Leonard Boyarsky]] in an interview with FZ.se[http://www.fz.se/artiklar/intervju/20110513/diablo-iii-followers]:
<blue>The first thing that happens when you meet them is that you can play through a short sequence that sort of explains their roles in the world. Then it's up to you whether you want to dig deeper into their stories by completing side missions and such. They’ll also make small talk while you run around in the world and you get to know them that way, too.</blue>
<bluebr>...First, I think they [the followers] are much more distinct characters now than they ever were before. As I’ve already pointed out we’ve put much effort into developing your companion's personalities. We want the players to use them as much for their personalities as for their abilities.</blue>
Continuing on that theme, Boyarsky also conducted an interview with Game Planet[http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/pc/games/156898/features/136995.20110513.Diablo-IIIs-Followers/] where he stated:
<blue>As you’re running through the main story arc, you’ll encounter them doing similar things to you. They’re adventurers fighting the good fight. You’ll interact with them in their story and then they have reason to follow you and to help you in your quest. These happen in the first third of the game, they’re spread out a little bit. Once you’ve unlocked them you can keep them with you or send them back to town and choose which one you want.</blue>
In addition to this, each quest for the follower is character specific so, as an example, a quest for Kormac involved retrieving holy scrolls stolen by [[Lazarus| the Archbishop Lazarus]].
While the mercs in D2 had no personality whatsoever, and were very much throw-away expendable characters, the followers have their own sets of motivations, their own goals, and they also react to the world around them. Boyarsky goes into a bit of detail about this in an interview with Ausgamers[http://www.ausgamers.com/features/read/3058885]:
<blue>We’ve put a tonne of work into their voice-talent and the number of lines they have to talk to you about stuff, to really bring them to life and add a lot to the experience of the world.</blue>
The rather jarring days of having a mercenary step into the [[Burning Hells]] for the first time, and immediately poking things with a stick without so much as a comment, seems to be over.
===Followers in Single and Multiplayer===
Followers can only be utilized in single player, either offline or playing solo in a game on Battle.net. If a another player joins a your game, then the your follower being used will return to town. [[Jay Wilson]] contributes insight to this design philosophy in an interview with Now Gamer[http://www.nowgamer.com/features/1353/diablo-iii-interview-jay-wilson-talks-followers?o=4#listing]:
<blue>Followers aren’t in PvP at all, and in cooperative Followers return to town. We found that having four players and four Followers on-screen all at once was pretty chaotic and hard to tell what’s going on. We logic’d out that a player is better than a Follower, they’re better companionship and they’re certainly more effective than a Follower. We figured any player would prefer to have another player, so at that point we decided to have the Follower return to town. You can always get him back later – if the other player leaves the Follower will return.</blue>
Followers do not die in Diablo III. They are simply incapacitated.
Part of the reason for this is the general amount of frustration of having to go back to town and pay a gold fee to resurrect a mercenary, and the lack of logic that follows from that. The other reason being that the followers are not mercs, they are [[NPC]]s with their own story that is relevant to the overall plot of the game.
<blue>Well, followers are essentially a flavor bonus to those playing through normal the first time by themselves. It provides some story elements, but more importantly it gets the idea in their head of playing with another person. You come across each of them pretty quickly in Act 1, and then they help you throughout the rest of the game if you'd like. They aren't required to beat the game on Normal, even if you're playing by yourself. Feel free to leave them behind if you like. But they are pretty awesome.
<br>
They're also tuned so that they become very weak starting in Nightmare, and then are completely unusable in Hell. Even if you're playing alone, you will probably not be using Followers past Normal - - you can try but they're going to just be one-shot back to back. They're there as a bit of flavor, to help get people into the mindset of co-op if they're a bit reluctant, and... that's about it. They won't be usable at end-game, and they'll never replace the abilities and power that another player can bring.</blue>
===Follower AI===
Most who played Diablo II will have not-so-fond memories of their mercenaries running against a wall, or other nonsensical behavior, and they became quite frustrating. Their help amounted to an aura or other passive ability, and the player often struggled to keep them alive.
'''Jay Wilson''': They were a bit easier because they tend to lean on the monster AI, use a lot of the same things as them. Making the Followers interesting revolved around making our monster targeting systems better. In Diablo II monsters pretty much just targeted whatever was closest to them, which meant if you played as a necromancer, it could be kind of a boring class because you almost never get attacked by anything. Your scouts always moved fast to get in front of you. So we said ‘OK, let’s have enemies that attack in different ways, or choose their targets in different ways’.
<br>Take an enemy that burrows for example – they’re really most dangerous to a ranged class, so that’s what they focus on – they burrow and make a beeline for a ranged character. Whereas a lot of enemies will go ‘I want to attack somebody, but if I can’t reach one of the guys closest to me, or he has a lot of people attacking him already, I’m just going to choose somebody else’. So the attacks get spread out a little more. It makes having a Follower a lot more interesting because they’ll pick up some of the enemies’ focus but not all of it.</blue> Contrary to popular speculation, followers will not be able to be controlled by the player outside of dictating their fighting style by selecting their [[skill]]s. There will be no "aggressive/defensive" toggle, nor will the player be able to dictate precise movements of the follower. Follower AI is modified by the skills that are activated; if they have melee combat skills enabled, they'll tend to tank. If they have ranged attacks, they'll stand back and use them. And so forth.
===Follower Statistics===
The [[attribute]] section of the interface for mercenaries is gone with the introduction of followers. Instead, the relevant statistics displayed are the [[health]] of the follower (current health and maximum health), the range of damage they will inflict with a standard attack, and also resistances.
It is currently unknown what effect, if any, equipping a follower with an amulet containing player [[attributes]] will have, or if there are restrictions on gear or modifiers that the followers will be able to equip.
==Design Goal of Followers in Diablo III==
The function of a mercenary in Diablo II was a permanent helper that would scale with their level. Upon release of the expansion pack, Lord of Destruction, mercs gained a lot of power, particularly due to [[dupe]]d [[runeword]] items. Many [[Magic Find| MF]] characters relied on mercs for defense and damage.
This will not be the case with followers. The design philosphy for the follower differs drastically, where the dev team has stated that they want the followers to be a sort of introduction to co-op multiplayer. [[Bashiok]] expands on this idea[http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=27808220764&pageNo=1&sid=3000#11]:
<blue>Well, followers are essentially a flavor bonus to those playing through normal the first time by themselves. It provides some story elements, but more importantly it gets the idea in their head of playing with another person. You come across each of them pretty quickly in Act 1, and then they help you throughout the rest of the game if you'd like. They aren't required to beat the game on Normal, even if you're playing by yourself. Feel free to leave them behind if you like. But they are pretty awesome.
<br>
They're also tuned so that they become very weak starting in Nightmare, and then are completely unusable in Hell. Even if you're playing alone, you will probably not be using Followers past Normal - - you can try but they're going to just be one-shot back to back. They're there as a bit of flavor, to help get people into the mindset of co-op if they're a bit reluctant, and... that's about it. They won't be usable at end-game, and they'll never replace the abilities and power that another player can bring.</blue>
==Development==
It was said by the D3 development team for ages that they "weren't ready" to reveal mercenaries in Diablo III, or otherwise they "didn't know" what they would do with them. In April of 2011, the follower system was indeed revealed, but to the chargrin of Blizzard, it was leaked by the Korean Blizzard official website on accident. Diablo fans quickly picked this up[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/new-follower-video/] and accepted it as real due to the superb quality of the presentation of the video. The day after, Blizzard unveiled the followers in an official capacity[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/followers-artwork-and-interface-shots/] in a deluge of interviews, information, and new screenshots.
<blue>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. </blue>
==Video==
[[category:NPCs]]
[[Category:Basics]]
[[category:followers]]
