Changes

Followers are only usable in single player games; they return to town and will not assist you when playing with other players. While the initial plan was for Followers to only be usable through [[Normal]] difficulty, fan feedback influenced the developers to revise the system to make Followers viable companions throughout [[Nightmare]], [[Hell]], and [[Inferno]] difficulty. <refname=viability>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/followers-viability Follower viability] - Blizzard CM, 07/01/12</ref>

Followers can only equip weapons, rings, and amulets (shields as well on the Templar). In addition all three have their own special class-specific item slot too which allows the [[Templar]] to wear [[Templar Relics]], the [[Scoundrel]] to equip [[Scoundrel Tokens]] and the [[Enchantress]] [[Enchantress Focuses]]. There are no legendary follower-specific items. As different attributes increase the damage they deal many of those items will increase that stat in particular:

==ReferencesFollower Achievements== There are a number of achievements players can earn that are related to Followers. {{achievement header}}<achievement type="single">The Comfort of Strangers</achievement><achievement type="single">Dirty Little Secrets<font size/achievement><achievement type="single">The Art of Conversation</achievement><achievement type="single">For the Order</achievement><achievement type="single">Secrets of the Ages</achievement><achievement type="single">To Catch a Thief</achievement><achievement type="single">A Guiding Light</achievement><achievement type="single">Me, Myself & Eirena</achievement><achievement type="single">Stolen Moments</achievement><achievement type="single">Friends with Benefits</achievement><achievement type="single">I Got What you Need</achievement><achievement type="single">I'll Be Your Wingman</achievement>  ==Follower Development==  '''Only Viable in Normal - May 2011''' The initial plan was that Followers would not be viable past [[Normal]] difficulty, as Bashiok explained in May 2011.<ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/official-3"followers-page-plus-blue-answers Followers in Normal difficulty] - Blizzard CM, 13/05/2011</ref>  <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.... 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. ...(snip)...  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. 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>  After players talked about finding ways to make Followers viable in Hell, especially for their Magic Find and other item finding bonuses, Bashiok made the developer's intentions even clearer.<ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/official-followers-page-plus-blue-answers/ Preventing use on higher difficulties] - Blizzard CM, 13/05/2011</ref>  <blue>Followers will not stay alive easily past Normal, and if they’re not alive you aren’t going to be getting their bonuses. I’m sure people will try to game this, and ideally they will fail. If not we will ensure followers are not part of the end-game MF equation. They are not intended to be, and we will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure they cannot be.</blue>  '''Now Viable in Higher Difficulties - October 2011'''  The developers changed that design theory later in development, and announced at BlizzCon in October 2011 that Followers were being rebalanced to remain viable throughout the higher difficulty levels. Bashiok added an update on that in early January, 2012.<ref name=viability/>  <blue>A lot of us wanted to see followers become viable throughout the game too, and agree they really add something to the experience as a whole. One of our main driving forces in making this decision was the benefits of the co-op experience, and the disadvantage of playing alone in the Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulties. Followers won’t follow you into co-op games because you’ll already have the superior firepower of your friends to help you, but playing alone you’re going to want to take advantage of their benefits. We’ve made the later difficulties of the game brutally difficult, and we realize that for those attempting to tackle these later difficulties alone, they’re really going to actually want some additional support in the form of the followers.   Some players didn’t like their experience with mercenaries in Diablo II. We took feedback regarding mercenaries very seriously when designing Diablo III followers, and they differ from mercenaries in a few key ways that we think set them apart and resolve many issues. First of all, there is no resurrection or cost to your followers’ deaths, which makes their upkeep far less intrusive. When a follower takes enough damage to “die”, they simply take a knee, catch their breath, and after a few moments are back in the fight. That downtime could potentially have an effect on your own survival, but it’s unlikely to create a situation where you’re worrying about them or constantly working to keep them alive. We don’t want to turn what could be a fun benefit into a punishment by making players pay for their followers’ poor combat choices.  Secondly, when you die, so does your follower. These aren’t characters that can hope to compete or continue on without you. While some players prefer to be the lone wolf taking on the forces of evil, our intent isn’t to dilute the hero aspects by adding more wolves to your wolf pack. We want followers to be an extension of your bad-assery, not a liability. The followers could almost be considered automated buffs/damage skills, but of course with quite a bit more flavor and customization options.  We still have some tweaking to do with the followers, including their skills and end-game balancing. We continue to discover cool little ways to improve how each follower performs and the complements the different heroes. Our intent is to ensure players who take followers along find them to be helpful additions to their single-player experiences.<references/blue>