Getting the most out of your Followers in Diablo 3 (Part 1)

Followers in Diablo 3 are weak when compared to the majestic ones Diablo 2 had, but that does not mean they can’t be made to be useful. You probably know by now that the only customizable things on your Follower are his armor and his skills, two things I have analyzed deeply to come up with a perfect combination.

This is part 1 of a 3 part series where I will be showing you how to make the most out of Kormac, the Templar.

Kormac the Templar

Kormac is the only melee Follower in the game, giving ranged classes such as Witch Doctors a little tanking power. The standard Follower dies pretty quickly in Inferno even against normal monsters, but should survive long enough to at least provide a distraction with the following changes.

Note: Patch 1.0.5 is buffing all Followers, making this the perfect time to gear them up!

The Build

This part is debatable but I had the most success with the following combination:

• Intervene – Pulls all enemies off of you when you hit 50% life. Much better than a 5k heal!
• Loyalty – 115 extra life regeneration sounds a lot better to me than a little movement speed debuff to the monsters.
• Charge – A 2 second AOE stun versus a 200% damage hit against a single target. The choice is obvious here!
• Inspire – More resource = more power!

Remember to try your own combinations. Just because it worked for me does not mean it will work for you.

Equipment

Here is where it gets fun! I found three Legendary items that work wonders on Kormac. Don’t worry if you think they are expensive, because they aren’t. Most of these items are useless to your normal character, thus their price is very cheap.

• Skycutter – An average sword with an awesome proc. The “Chance to summon angelic assistance when attacking” does exactly what it says: it summons an Angel that fights by your side for about 20 seconds. The Angel does little damage but can be really helpful by blocking/distracting elites. The proc chance is pretty good too, causing the Angel to spawn almost every fight.
• Lidless Wall – Remember the “Shielding” affix found on elites? This is exactly what Kormac gets when you give him this shield. Every hit has a chance to cause him to “bubble”, making him immune to all damage and movement impairing effects for about one second. I have found this to be way more effective than other shield no matter how much Vitality or Resist All it has.
• The Star of Azkaranth – A perfect amulet for our friend. Not only does this amulet always roll a Crowd Control affix that can go up to 5% chance per hit, but it also has vitality, bleed (not shown on the armory page, it is bugged), and life on kill.

For the other equipment you can get some basic rings and a relic, but patch 1.0.5 will bring your Follower another upgrade. The hellfire rings that you can get from the Uber Bosses have an amazing proc that deals around 4 million AOE damage, and it works on Followers too!

Thanks for reading this article, and stay tuned for part 2 where I will talk about Eirena the Enchantress!