Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Who is Your Favorite Follower Thus Far?

It is still early in the expansion and our opinions might change as time passes but right now I kind of like my followers and their seemingly different personalities.  I understand that much of their personality is really in my imagination.  I doubt blizzard really coded them to all be different but it sure seems like they are.

One of the followers I make sure to get as soon as I can when I first get to draenor is Fiona.  It is not because she has some great abilities that I must have, it is because she is Fiona.  I liked her quest line in the plaguelands and it is kind of cool to be hanging out with her.  Actually I have found her abilities to be quite lacking.  Her herbalism ability of course can come in handy when you get your herb garden up and running but outside of that there really isn't anything stand out about her.

There are a few followers like Blook that are just so huge I never feel as if they fit well in my garrison, but because of their size they can make for some interesting visual effects.  I once saw Blook standing in front of the inn just looking in the front door.  There is no way he can fit, at least not reasonably.  And it seemed as if he knew that.  He was just staring into the inn and I found some humor in that.  He eventually did walk in and it was not exactly what you would call visually correct but in my mind I could just picture him bending over and squeezing himself through the door after those many minutes spent staring inside wishing he could enter.

Pleasure Bot 8000 scares me a little bit and I think he might be a stalker.  I know he is supposed to be some sort of butler unit and not a pleasure bot that some people think of when they first hear the name but the fact he keeps offering to give me a massage I might question that one a little bit.  Lets face it, even if pleasure bot 8000 gives the greatest massages in the world do you really want cold metallic hands being the ones doing it, or more so cold metallic hands that were created with gnome technology doing it?  I guess it is better than if it were goblin technology, so that is something.

Professor Felblast is one of those odd followers that make me wonder why is she even following me.  If ever I see her in my garrison and walk toward her she starts moving away, as if to avoid me.  Even if she was standing still for 10 minutes, the second I make a break for her she apparently has something so much better to do than talk to me.

Then you will always have those followers that have traits you never expected of them, traits that are not listed as one of their traits like my Phylarch the Evergreen has.  More often than not I can find Phylatch either sitting at the bar in the inn or standing right in front of the pet battle ring watching the fights.  So here is this tree, something we consider part of nature, good and pure and natural, that just wants to get drunk and watch caged animals fight to the death.  It just doesn't seem like what I would have expected from a tree.

While playing around with my skyterror personal delivery system from the gearworks I landed on top of my garrison to check things out from above and to my surprise there was one of my followers, just standing there alone on a little patio looking out at everything.  I wonder if he wanted to be alone to think things out, was being protective and seeking a place where he could see everything, or just managed to get lost up there and could not find his way down.  The idea along that the followers moved around like this, even in and to places I did not know existed in my garrison like this, gave them more life in my mind.

I am not sure I have a real favorite yet, but I do have a few I really like and it doesn't really have much to do with their looks or their story or anything else as it has to do with how they act around my garrison.  Even if I make these persona's that they have up in my own mind, it is those little things that make me like them.

Do you have any favorite followers yet?

35 comments:

  1. The two with the Scavenger trait (had to get them from tavern, didn't proc naturally).

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    1. The first guy I got from the lumber mill had it proc naturally for me on one character. So far of the 5 characters on draenor that is the only one I have seen it on.

      That is a great proc. As alliance I have been snagging a few mortal strike characters from the inn as I had only 2 and it seems that every mission for decent stuff I get asks for ir.

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  2. Pleasure Bot creeps me out too. They should have named him Leisurebot or something more innocuous.

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    1. Pleasure bot from a gnome is what makes it really bad. I think it is meant to be the joke we all think of it as and I guess it is working in that way.

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  3. Blook. He's the only one I actually care about for most of the visual reasons you mentioned. While I'm enjoying the mission aspect of the garrison and like seeing the characters walking around providing a bit of life, ultimately they are really just resource machines to me. I've never actually noticed that any of them say anything or do anything. :-/

    Sorry about the posting snafu earlier...

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    1. It's all good, I removed it.

      I think of them that way too but I do tend to notice things. It is in my nature I guess. I love seeing certain ones in what could only be considered odd places or seeing the path they move.

      Next time you send some followers on mission go tot he gate. You can actually see them group up and leave together. Interesting, to me at least.

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    2. Yep, I'll pay closer attention. I like that last one you mention for sure. Great touch!

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    3. I kind of stumbled on that by accident. Just sent out a lot of missions and was heading out and saw a bunch of them walking to the gates. I stood there for a minute watching them as they left. It is a nice little touch. Blizzard is good with stuff like that but most of it goes unnoticed.

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  4. I'm generally not into priests, but Daleera Moonfang and I are getting along pretty well. She came to me Blue, with the scavenger trait, which meant I had to think about her a lot, and used her every mission I can fit her into with garrison rewards, so she grew on me.

    Rangari Chel is probably my favorite, obviously as a hunter, we clicked as soon as we met questing in southern SMV (I think). When it came time to choose between her and the other two, there was really no choice. I also very quickly gave her the hearthstone pro trait, so she gets to spend a bit of time taking lower level followers on missions, showing them the ropes, as well as often assisting with getting level 100 greenies up to rare or epic. I like that she's a team player like that.

    Rangari Erdanii is another favorite, mostly because she came to me Epic. But, even though they're dirty rotten no-good scoundrels, I've always had a small place in my heart set aside for rogues. Perhaps a mutual respect of sorts, after years of battling it out on the battleground.

    I also find myself enjoying seeing Delvar Ironfist hanging around, because in my head, he's Oghren from DA:O. :-)

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    1. Getting a scavenger that early is great and a blue one makes it so much better. Nice get there. Congrats.

      I don't like Delvars default DK voice. Just does not seem to fit him. But otherwise I like him. He was the last of the 5 bodyguards I maxed out and he has a weird habit of dropping DnD anywhere and everywhere, even in the middle of the air which is quite an impressive feat. What is there not to like about that.

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    2. As an aside, how on earth did you max out all of your bodyguards so fast? Was it using the tiny spiders before the nerf? Or are you simply the father of all grinders? :-)

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    3. I have, what is still there, a secret grinding spot. A friend of mine even used it to do the 90 to 100 run in 3 hours. I don't level that way because I like to quest and I don't want to miss out on the resources, followers, etc while leveling. But I am sure someone will find it and post it on the forums somewhere and it will get nerfed. Surprised no one has found it and posted it yet. It is actually quite obvious and you can not miss it if you stumble across it.

      Did all 5 in just a few hours time. The end quests took longer than leveling them. lol

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  5. My favorite so far is my Bird he proced the scavenger trait and it is a really good match I send my bird out for extra shinnies. I also recruited a follower with epic mount to cut some times down proced a blue goblin DK and he's in full on DK gear. Right now I'd say my favorit is my second scavanger whos a BE pally I just recruited last week whose working his way up the ranks he's always off on some foolish mission that I sent him on and seems to have really good luck at 60% and less. One thing that occurred to me is that I'm now basically a NPC that stands in my garrison and gives out quests. I guess you either die the hero or live long enough to become the quest giver.

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    1. That scavenger trait is really huge in the early game. If you can get one while you are leveling it can be amazingly helpful. Lucky get there.

      I thought he same thing too. I am now the quest giver. Kind of funny when you think about it that way but that is really what we are.

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  6. My favorite one is Magister Krelas (he's the Horde equivalent of Magister Serena iirc). His personality is great, he's confident, he's super funny. Very good voice actor.

    Gameplay-wise, I like Penny, since she's got scavenger and Soulbinder Tuulani + Leorajh since they are my only ones with group damage counter.

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    1. Oh, Dagg is pretty funny too. I also found him in Gorgrond with some leaves in his hands pretending to be a palm tree or something.

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    2. Everyone seems to love their scavenger. I know I do.

      I got Dagg this weekend, yes alliance can get him too, and he is great. An orge is exactly what I needed in my garrison. He is still level 90 and I am keeping him at that for reasons I plan to make a make a post about soon, but it is cool having him around.

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  7. Leeroy Jenkins, of course. Gotta love his new devout shoulders. The voice acting during the achievement was funny too!

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    1. I get a kick out of him as well. And in the dungeon what he says is priceless.

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  8. Leorajh is so much fun, I adore him.

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    1. He is one of my favorites too but he seems to die way to easily.

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  9. As horde, I really love Kaz the Shrieker - she's a Laughing Skull orc from the Gorgorond quest chain. She asks, quite respectfully, if she can wear your skull when you die, and I'm rather inclined to say yes.

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    1. That sounds awesome. I have not leveled any horde characters yet but I am looking forward to seeing that one.

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  10. Not sure I have a favorite yet, but I would nominate Tormmok as the creepiest. He seems to stalk me when I am in Garrison, and he continually makes unsolicited comments, such as my Garrison needs more discipline, I was so smart to recognize his talents, etc. He also has no concept of personal space and always follows me waaaaayyyy too close for comfort.

    When I need to make room for better followers, he will be one of the first to go. But please don't tell him!

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    1. Sounds like he is pulling a pleasure bot on you. He does seem to be a little... odd.

      I won't tell him, he might sneak up on you at night and kill you if I did.

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  11. OT: Grumpy, spec MM and go PVP. Hunters are nuts right now, and MM is total nuts. I am two-globaling people as MM. With the artifact in Ashran I'd be one-globaling them, soloing groups of 5+ - 250k aimed, 20k crow ticks, that kind of things. Do it while you can, because this will be fixed.

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    1. I might have to take advantage of that. Thanks for the heads up. Was thinking of when to build my sanctum and now seems like the time.

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  12. Another OT, since I am here. A quick summary of the expansion so far.

    Main point:

    Nothing to do. Three weeks into the expansion, there is effing nothing to do, I am doing alts. Raids / PVP season will help, of course, but I think this is the worst it ever was, and, you know, arenas alone, if there's little else, aren't worth it for me.

    Some detail:

    * Questing is good. Shorter than MoP, but good.

    * Treasure / rare hunting is fine. It'd be better if all rares were giving apexis or something else interesting (rep tokens would be nice). The problem with treasures and rares is that they are mostly a one-shot deal.

    * Instances are fine. I am not a PVE guy, but they look fine to me.

    * PVP is a mess. This is bad, but this is something you come to expect, no surprises here.

    * Holiday events - Molten Core and Tarren Mill vs Soutshore - are stupid. They are horrible, at this level of quality I'd rather they just sent the pets and the mount, and didn't do the events at all. I got both FoSes and I am not doing any of this ever again.

    * Ashran is a stupid zerg which they can't balance number-wise for their life. I am yet to see an Ashran with close numbers - it's always 100 vs 10 all the time, on all servers I play. And even if they balanced it, it would still be a stupid zerg. Ashran truly is beyond repair, another complete waste of time. The game would be better without it, and it would be MUCH better if instead of Ashran we had some actual content worth playing.

    * Professions tied to cooldowns and garrisons are meh. I don't actively hate what they did, but that's just because I am always looking at changes to professions and goldmaking as an opportunity. I think the actual changes are misguided and generally bad, it is just that if you see everything as an opportunity, you will adopt to it, even if it is bad.

    * Garrisons and followers are meh. If you want to play big, you have to have alts. Doing garrisons on many alts gets very boring very quick - they are a big chore. And if you don't want to play them big, they are even more meh, the fun factor subsides after the first hundred of missions. Not worthy of being the central feature of an expansion at all.

    * Reputations are total crap. +5 rep for kills are super-boring. I am not doing reputations this expansion - in all previous expansions I did them.

    * Archaeology and pet battles are super-tedious. Because we have no flight. I am not doing them either until we get flying. This is a pity, because this is where Blizzard would get a plus from me, if only we had flying, but since we don't have it, well, too bad, I am not doing them, they are just too slow now (and they were pretty slow as it is in MoP, especially archaeology).

    All in all, I don't know what the tier / season will be like, I don't expect much, but everything else is 2/10 total. It's a bad expansion.

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    1. Hey, I have been saying it for a while haven't I? This expansion is really light on content. I was not making that up. Give it a few more weeks and everyone else will catch on to that as well. I guess leveling alts I will never be able to gear will be the "fun" thing this expansion.

      I hate one shot rares, they should make them daily, or even once a week at worst, with a chance to drop some other junk, like the baggies from mist had or rep tokens as you mentioned.

      I have yet to try ashran on live but you are scaring me away from even attempting it. Doesn't seem fun like that, not at all. I thought they added tech to make sure it is always balanced.

      I am doing reputations because that is basically the only content left for my main outside of raiding.

      I maxed arch but have not done much pet battling. I will finish the arch achievements and do more pet battling when they add flying. The lack of flying is most noticeable here.

      Listening to trade you would think this is the best expansion ever. I think some people just need some time to realize how light on content it is. It still has the new car smell for them.

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    2. OMG, something that I truly agree with both PVP Anon and you! Did you feel that? yup, the earth a shakin'. Very light on content, very heavy on, heck I know not.

      Having 2 buildings that I did not ask for - Farm and that stupid Menagerie. Can't delete them - would if I could. I will never up the level of the Menagerie from 1 to 2, why? because I have NO PETS higher than lvl 13. Never will. I find pet battles boring and tedious at best and was doing it to the pith helmet. BUT, I can't remove said building. And I had to build a stables to get my stable master (forgot the right name) so I can switch out my hunter pets or put them in to give me more room to capture more.

      as Mama Roo use to say "ya only have the new car smell until someone bloody farts in it".

      -roo

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    3. I like pet battles personally. But I am into that mini game stuff I guess.

      You could have went back to any city and use their stable master and I think there might even be a few of them in ashran, which you have a portal to in your garrison from the top of that tower in the back of a level 3 past the mine.

      The stables are not so bad. If you do all the quests you get 6 mounts and there are 2 achievements you can do from it to get 2 more, if you are into those sort of things. Some of the mounts look cool. I like the snarler.

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  13. Note to self: never again take Trommok along to a treasure hunt. That guy has no sense of personal space.

    Apart from that, I like having him around. The worst "bodyguard" I had yet was that prot paladin (forgot her name), she would taunt elite mobs off my pet and die...

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    1. Funny, I find her one of the best.

      When I was farming for follower rep (got all five to wingman already) she was the easiest because she can solo kill nearly everything without even me needing to be there. I plopped myself in a spot where I knew mobs would pass and went and watched some TV, came back and she had managed to get herself 5K rep without me even being there.

      Sure, all the followers die, but at least if it is not something elite, she can kill it solo.

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  14. yeah she probably does much better with normal mobs, i'm certain. in any case all bodyguard are very squishy, but at least the other ones don't taunt elites off. it's just that i happened to have her with me when doing the apexis dailies and killing rare elites, she'd usually die within the first 5 mobs. my pet can hold aggro and survive no problem, even as MM, but she.. well, she was just stupid. i wish we could turn off taunt and the assist mode, and give them positioning orders.

    good idea on sitting somewhere and letting the follower do the work. i've seen a few interesting spots with large groups of squishy mobs but didn't think of just afking there. i haven't leveled a single follower past the first rank but then i've forgotten to take them along when questing way too often.

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    1. It would be kind of nice if we had a little control over them so we can turn off taunt at moments like that. Or like when in nagrand, when on my coral mount running around, the follower will stop and fight anything. Dude, we are running here, not stopping and fighting. I lost more followers that way because they do not understand I do not stop and fight every useless mob that aggros me unless I absolutely have to. So they shouldn't either.

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