The Worst Follower (I Hate Serana)

[Crusader (Banned13x)]

Going to post this as both a vent and a warning for anyone who hasn't yet used Serana as a follower. Since no one really reads this forum anymore it's a great way to get this off my chest and scream into the void anyways.

I cannot stand Serana. How she ended up as #1 on all the lists of "Best Skyrim Followers" that I've looked up, I have no clue. Started the Dawnguard DLC again just recently and got to a point where she offered to become a companion, and DAMN was it a mistake taking her up on that. I love women, but she's just another femme fatale stereotype that is so incredibly played out. When she's not being sassy/snarky, she's complaining about the weather or something I'm doing. When I'm talking to someone, she's wandering around in between or around us in a very distracting way.

And that's not to mention her combat ability, or perhaps I should say inability. The lightning spells she spams are ear-splittingly loud for me as I always use a headset, and it quickly gets annoying. Plus for some reason even though she has ranged attacks, she loves to close with the enemy and stand right in front of my bow and line of sight. Even more irritating is her habit of resurrecting dead enemies by default, even when we're not in combat. So instead of getting to loot them, or grab the key on their corpse, I have to wait around listening to some moaning zombie until they turn into a pile of ash, which I have to remember to find once it appears. That, or attack and kill them AGAIN.

Not only do the thralls she creates give away my position (as I prefer to play stealth thanks to my Wildcat Combat mod which makes fighting more than 2 enemies at a time a big risk in most cases), but she herself can't seem to leave enemies who haven't noticed us alone, even if they're in the distance on some ledge I can't yet access, alerting the entire dungeon. And what does she do once an army comes stomping towards me? Fall to her knees begging them for mercy because her skimpy little default outfit doesn't protect her hardly at all.

I made it through 2 dungeons with her before having to call it quits. Never want to see that woman again, even during this DLC. Argis on the other hand never gave me any of those issues, has much more interesting and diverse comments, hangs back with the bow I gave him most times so he stays out my way, and fights like a cornered lion when the enemies try to gang up on us. He's by far my favorite follower in the game, and I recommend him to anyone who hasn't yet used him.

Alright rant over. TL;DR = Serana blows, Argis rules.

If anyone does read this: Who's your least fav/most fav follower in Skyrim, and why?

[psychotron666]

Yeah serana is annoying, constantly resurrecting dead deer and useless monsters, or draining health on a dead enemy for no reason, or hitting you with ice spikes.

[rompier02]

Първоначално публикувано от patalfou:

How do you do to keep Barbas with you,please?

After you cleared the vampires den & directed to the cave NW of Solitude you can just do whatever you want. Even after getting the axe don't return it to Clavicus until you feel your DB has got enough level.

[Arthur two sheds Jackson]

am just tired to hear her voice since the voice actress have no range and she is like everywhere, I dont like follower in general everytime I bring them in skyrim turn into the two stooges lol

[matt]

Like other people said, Serana's voice actor is pretty good, and she's one of the few followers to have a back story, regardless of whether it's good or not. Her damage output isn't great, but she's got some showy spells. It's initially pretty cool seeing her raise the dead and use her vampire powers. Less so a couple hours later, but I never had any problems.

I think Frea is a generally a better follower, though. She's not particularly chatty, but she comments on a couple Dragonborn quests, and you can talk to her about her past. The voice actor isn't amazing, but I liked her work. She has no max level and can dual wield, which makes her very powerful. The only major downside is that you have to progress through several Dragonborn quests before she unlocks.

If I don't feel like doing any DLC quests, I usually go with an archer recruited from the mainland, such as Aela the Huntress. Archers seem to get in my way a little less often.

[marex]

Първоначално публикувано от John:

Yes, Serana is a literal D-tier follower, one of the weakest ones cause of her terrible AI. They tried to make her work by making her special but it all just made her a worse follower.

I have no idea why people prefer her, she acts like a whiny teenager, nothing is ever good. The only people who like her are just massive simps or something.

at least you sounds the same

[jonnin]

Първоначално публикувано от John:

Yes, Serana is a literal D-tier follower, one of the weakest ones cause of her terrible AI. They tried to make her work by making her special but it all just made her a worse follower.

I have no idea why people prefer her, she acts like a whiny teenager, nothing is ever good. The only people who like her are just massive simps or something.

I think there is a style component. I can take or leave her, but she never hits me with her abilities, not sure why but apparently my style and hers (and any other summons/allies) work fine together. I am more likely to aoe bomb her than she is to hit me. Which is one reason to like her, she is very tolerant of being hit by you, others will leave after a bit of that. There is nothing wrong with her AI when I have her other than the moronic rez any corpse anywhere anytime because you can thing, and that is harmless unless you are a necromancer and she is ruining your thralls.

That said, she isn't all that. I will stick to my dremorra & bonemen.

[ChrillBill]

I am not sure which is my favourite yet. I am ok with Serana, but she is not my favourite. Lydia was cool at first, but seems to lose her temper easily. I accidentially hit her in a tomb fighting off a bunch of skellies, and she turned on me and tried to kill me. Which ended with her losing her head, and me inheriting 300 gold @.@

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3022878563

[Crusader (Banned13x)]

Първоначално публикувано от John:

I have no idea why people prefer her, she acts like a whiny teenager, nothing is ever good. The only people who like her are just massive simps or something.

Първоначално публикувано от wicked lester:

I'm guessing it has something to do with hot vampire chick and prepubescent boy fantasies. Just sayin.

Lol, probably. I don't want to knock everyone who enjoys her company, but it wouldn't be hard to believe these days.

Първоначално публикувано от Fear2288:

Part of it is context.

I absolutely agree about the whole thing where she raises zombies constantly. That got annoying. Thankfully I have a mod where I can ask her not to do that.

I might have to try that mod. Kind of wanted to keep her around for the dialogue and commentary during Dawnguard DLC, but her vanilla mechanics were just too much.

Първоначално публикувано от PatchAdams:

If you like Serana, fine. Have her as a follower. The best follower types depend on your taste and playstyle, but I tend to go with either:

–none, for stealth builds or only conjurations for mage builds;

–archers like Aela and Jenassa, especially Jenassa, who hangs back from combat to practise archery unless she has to attack close-quarters, when she dual-wields very effectively; or

–pure in-your-face warrior types who can put out/tank a lot of damage, like Ralis, Mjoll, Frea, most of the housecarls and Companions, and the human Dawnguard followers. Give any of them good tempered bows/crossbows and even without high archery skills they'll be very effective at range, too.

Serana doesn't do archery IIRC, and that's a big problem because of how archery scales in the game, and because of dragons. Most mage followers will use archery, even weaker ones like Onmund and Brelyna. So Serana's not even in the best tier of mage followers for me. Eola, Valdimar, and Marcurio are more versatile, and J'Zargo at least has amusing dialogue.

Nice, I appreciate the suggestions. I'll have to give all those followers I haven't tried yet a shot.

Thanks all for the replies and insight. Got some good pointers to keep in mind for my next hires.

[Paranoir]

OH MY GOD I KNOW. I’m replaying and had never had her as a follower, and you hit the nail on the head TO A T. She is the WORST. I wanted to have some fun with followers this time around and she was at the top of the list every time. She could be so great sans mods and instead she’s incredibly disappointing. All she does is complain about everything, get in my way/ruin my stealth to the point I’m literally yelling at my monitor. She not only resurrects the groaning zombies (which stop immediately if you use command prompt “resurrect” (found that out because I was like “what the hell, did I accidentally kill a good character?”, put the prompt in, and it turned to ash. Couldn’t get any loot off of it either), but she resurrects the SAME THING YOU ARE FIGHTING. So I’m fighting draugrs and she brings hers out and I’m fighting 10 at once not paying attention to her stupid blue smoke, kill her zombie, and then she attacks me! I have to use stopcombat on her all the time because she’s so in the way! And isn’t she a vampire?! Why can she not get across weird terrain? Sorry for the rant. I hate her lmao. This made me feel so validated

[Rez Elwin]

Ger the Dialogue Add-On, you'll probably love her. I used to not like Serana, but after getting the Dialogue add-on I go out of my to recruit her as soon as possible, before doing any real story content, because she reacts to it all.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/32161

[gregnewman2022]

I'm an equal opportunity hater . I hate all of them , none of them can sneak worth a damn .
On my own i could annihilate a small town before I'm found .

[Zero McDol]

PROTEUS - ez pz custom companion.

[Heimdall313]

Just take her into a Dwemer ruin. She'll spam Absorb Health (Automatons are immune to it), sometimes Ice Spike (which they're also immune to) and she'll have the daylight beaten out of her over and over. She can't Reanimate automatons. She has Lightning Bolt, which they're weak to, sure, but she'll spam absorb health until she's beaten into submission at least 5 times.

Or, use the Disintegrate or Deep Freeze perks, they screw up Reanimation as well. Use a Two Handed weapon, spam standing power attacks and decapitate everything. No head, no problem.

This is not an encouragement or endorsement of the physical abuse of women.