Diablo 3 is completely revamping Followers in the new PTR 2.7.0, not only making them more useful, but potentially changing how high you can climb in Solo Greater Rifts and farm materials throughout the next Season. This is fascinating news because since Diablo 3 first launched in 2012, Followers have remained largely unchanged, and such a big fundamental shift is both welcome and sure to mix things up.
This is not to say that Followers have not had their uses until now, as you get a nice boost in damage and survivability during the leveling process while using the Templar, the Scoundrel, or the Enchantress, but it is no secret that their power drops off significantly in the endgame due to a lack of scaling and the ridiculous power spikes your character gains from class set bonuses. With the PTR revamp, your Followers are going to be far more useful.
The changes to Followers can be split into two major points, first relating to how they use and interact with gear, and the second to updates to their core abilities to better reflect the needs and scaling of higher endgame content.
For the first point, this translates to Followers now equipping a total of 14 items, including the Follower Relic Item, Helm, Shoulders, Chest, Gloves, Bracers, Belt, 2 Rings, Neck, Pants, Boots, main-hand weapon, and off-hand. A new feature, called Emanate, will allow you to receive the benefit of certain Legendary Powers and set bonuses if your Follower is wearing the corresponding gear. There are currently only a handful of items that have been added to the pool of Emanate options, but more are sure to be added as the PTR goes on.
This means that you can, for example, have a full set of gear for speed farming regular rifts or bounties, while also having a Follower provide the Sage’s 3-piece set, doubling the Death’s Breaths you find, while also wearing Nemesis Bracers, Gloves of Worship, and other pieces to make solo play far more efficient. For now, we can only speculate, but as more Emanate items are added, solo players will see a drastic change in how they can tackle solo content.
The second point relates to updates and reworks on Follower skills and passive abilities. Put simply, the current list in the PTR is adding more utility and better scaling based on the core attribute used by each Follower. For example, the Templar Heal and Loyalty ability will now scale based on his Strength, so you have a greater incentive to keep upgrading his gear as time goes on.
An official release date for the update has not yet been announced.