Serana is eh. I try to finish the DG questline as fast as I can due to her raising everything on sight.

I don't want my save on my PS3 bloating up.

Which is nice, I suppose, but if it takes him 3 hours to plink an enemy to death with the piddling little Sparks spell he insists on using, it's not overwhelmingly great.

Plink, lol. Have to agree there, not a fan of J'Zargo either. Marcurio and Ilia do have the highest level spells, so you feel like you're fighting alongside an equal, more or less.

ARGIS THE BULWARK FTW

Eh. Marcurio is decent, but he couldn't even take on a Deathlord yesterday at Forelhost.

The major difference between the followers in terms of usefulness comes from their passive racial power and their highest level. Most warriors are roughly the same, the "best" ones being the one with good racial stats(Nords, Bretons and Dunmer mostly. The rest doesn't have passives that affect their usefulness and followers doesn't use the activated abilities). The stealth ones are the same.

Among mages, J'Zargo is the most powerful(and he has heavy armor skill) I think.

Some followers to avoid(on usefulness) are Farkas, Erandur, Adelaisa Vendicci and Sven, because their skillsets are rather useless.

Marcurio I never grow tired of that guy. I think I've used him in every singly playthrough. He's got an attitude, but he has something to back up that attiude! He's good for melée or archer characters (since he keeps himself out of the way), and he's a great complement to another mage. Intelligent use of spells and potions on top of that.

Currently I'm travelling with Vilkas again. If you don't play a sneaky character and want a melée back-up, he's one of the most efficient killing machines in the game - almost too efficient! I almost began to laugh when I saw http://i.minus.com/iiFyKPyLa5QFH.jpg (which not even is his vanilla max level at 50). He has a fortify health enchantment on his armor here, but it's only 34 points, so even without it, his health is pretty high... (Much higher than my own character's!) He IS a disaster if you like to sneak though, since he's one of those aggressive followers that will leave sneak mode and just attack anything dangerous as soon as they spot it.

I think he's essential until you've done at least one of the quests post-Companions (either Purity, or Dragon Seekers, or possibly both) - I haven't done any of those quest, and despite that I use a follower mod that (among other things) allows me to change follower's essential/non-essential status, I can't make him non-essential right now. I now he won't stay essential though (since he's died on me a couple of times in a previous playthrough).

Awesome Mjoll.

Faendal is a decent sort. I like it when he says "Greetings sister Elf". I think he looks older than his voice sounds in the game.

Never use mages. I have my 'big voice' for that.

I've never really had a mage follower but I imagine that they end up hitting you with their spells, especially if they have area destruction spells like fireball and you're a warrior fighting what they're throwing spells at. I don't really like followers in general even when they're not stupid (which is rare ha) unless I need a pack mule to help me carry precious booty

I've never felt that getting hit has been a big problem for me with mage followers. It happens, but hey, sometimes warrior followers hit you as well... And you hit them... (Well, now I have a mod to take care of the friendly fire, but I didn't feel it was much of a problem on console either.)

Don't bring a dog when you have a mage in tow, though. That's an accident begging to happen!

ha true, the most annoying thing for my warrior when I have a warrior follower is when they step in to attack as I'm starting to trigger a kill cam finisher and stop the whole process. One time a follower did this and the person I was about to kill ended up killing me because we were both near death...that's pretty much what made me stay solo when I can avoid having a follower.

Dogs are terrible in the game, as much as I love them in real life I can't stand them for a follower in Skyrim...especially Barbas

IMO

J'zargo for the best spell caster.

Janessa or a follower from the DB for an assassin / stealthy player.

Mjoll, Derkeethus, Kharjo or any Orc from the strong holds for a warrior player.

But mostly I stick with Janessa and Kharjo, both keep their place when in battle ( by your side ), neither babble on too much and both are pretty good all around warriors

It also depends on what kind of character you're playing. For a warrior, a mage follower is not optimal because they'll keep hitting you with their spells. But for another mage, they're quite good, since you're both staying back flinging spells. I usually advise warriors to take archer followers: that way, you can get up in the face of the enemy, and your companion can stay out of your way and support you with arrows, which have no AoE like spells.

A good mage follower for a warrior is Brelyna from the CoW. She tends to stay back and use summons. Maneuvering around her summons is sometimes a little tricky, but she won't usually fry you with her spells! (Be careful what staves you give her, though--she can certainly fry you with those!)

Best mage follower: Lydia

Best stealth follower: Lydia

Best warrior follower: Lydia

/End thread.

Edit: Also, just to throw it in there, once you get Hearthfire, the best steward is none other than Lydia!

Well, my personal favorite is Lydia. I would say the actual best is

, though.

Marcurio. That dude is best as a back up support when your PC is a warrior (which my PCs are). Close to him are the priestess of Azura, Illia (if you do not dismiss her after making her a follower [a bug], and, not a magical NPC, Erik the Hoe-push, err, Erik the Slayer ( , had to make fun him for his dialogue ).

Erandur is my favorite vanilla follower, but the best would probably be the immortal DB assassins or Mjoll (if you visit Riften at a high level the first time).

Illia.

My warrior charac can't stop drooling over Serana.. I had to dress her up in armour to minimise the distraction.. but those eyes!! and she's pretty handy in combat, balances out my melee style.. .lol.. but like in a lot of games that have option of followers, they CAN and DO get in the way especially indoor environments... If my charac does'nt have enough skills or perks against levelled enemies for effective solo combat, then having follower is must have.

All other things being equal, NPCs with the same weapons and same skill values will deal the same amount of damage. Ergo, what you are looking for in each are their perks. Numeric level and skill values don't hold a candle to perk effects. Also, for any follower who uses weapons, they won't be nearly as effective without good equipment, which you will have to provide them with.

A follower with no level cap seems good on paper, but the return on their usefulness falls sharply once their skills reach their maximum values, at which point the only thing increasing level will do is to increase their health by a marginal amount.

im on pc and i don′t find many problems with her

Marcurio is my favorite mage follower.

Erik, Argis or Vorstag are good tanks. I like their dialogue.

I haven't used a ranged follower except when the questline mandates it.

I really like Marcurio's dialogue, attitude and watching him change cloths depending on the situation, it's hilarious. I will smith up really good armor for him, usually with fortify health and/or magic. I've geiven him Sanguine Rose, cause if "I" keep it, he get's in fights with the Dermora, but take away any area affect staff.... and he has looted a couple on his own.

I always run into Aela at low level, however she and other followers gain health fast, at level 30 or something I hit her with an 400 hp damage bow and it took less than 10% of her health.

That would make her pretty much impossible to kill for enemies at least with weapons.

At low level they have pretty little health.

One weakness with Aela is that she tend to stay so far behind she easy get stuck pathfinding and you have to finish the dungeon without her or go back to find her.