I myself never new that my companion would actually use staffs, i usually just load up everything i don't want to use yet on them like dragon bones.

Believe me I have over 300 hours with 4 characters, I can quite catagoriaclly say, "Followers do NOT use up power on enchanted weapons or armour! Be it a sword or a Staff."

Sounds like it's time for a controlled experiment with lots of screenshots!

By all means feel free, I do not have to spend time proving something I know to be 100% correct. I would nver make such a statement unless I was completely assured of its truth.

The only thing I can think of accounting for it is a bug, I highly doubt this.

As previously stated, none of my followers have EVER used up the charge of any magical item, weapon, stave or otherwise!

Someone will have to test it then. Prior to patch 1.4 my followers would use up charges.

OK I just loaded up my character, on Nyan: Followers use charges, on my Nord, they use charges, on my first ever character, LazLow the Wood Elf (also my hghest levelled alt) Followers do NOT use up charges!!! This has to be some sort of bug that hasn't rectified.

I can only place my tail between my legs and hang my head in shame... I'd like to apologise for inferring you were lieing, both Paajtor and mmm_buddah23.

To think the amount of Soul Gem charges I saved on that first character though

NyanKhajiit, I wasn't offended by your comments haha...I'm to old for that, and besides, I knew I was right anyway.

That is nice to know, but I felt an apology was in order, as I was so insistent that I was right, when I was so embarrassingly wrong.

I still can't get over how my first save is still bugged,!?!?!n Not that I'm bothered, I can't even be bothered to get the last 4 levels to 50 and the 3 remaining Daedric artefacts I need for the Steam achievements.

Lidia always used staves that I gave her. The only real issue is having to constantly take them from her and refill them with soul gems. She wasted a lot of shots on nothing and the staves emptied out pretty quickly. Once I realized that I stopped letting her use them.

On the bright side, refilling the magical weapons helps boost your enchanting skill.

I use a weapon with a soul trap enchantment, so a scarcity of filled soul stones was never an issue.

I still can't believe I played through 3 characters before I realised this was the case

Yeah, I remember give big, dumb Benor a staff to carry and all the sudden a shock spell starts flying past my head in battle. I turned around an saw him hold the staff and thought "What the heck are you doing you big Oaf!".

I usualy only play a thief type character so I have never used a follower exept when a quest called for it and they seemed to get noticed by the enemy alot. Is there any followers that are good at staying hidden? I want to use one but not at the exspense of reloading all the time lol. my character is deadly from the shadows but as soon as he is noticed and melee insues he might as well go cower in the corner lol

Try Aela the Huntress.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Aela_the_Huntress

I was constantly recharging the staffs my followers used,but they were wicked with them.

Yup. Its one reason I like having a mage follower - the better thier skill, the longewr the staff's charge lasts.

You just gotta be careful with the area effects. I gave Illia some fireball staffs (and now a firewall staff) because I have 90% fire resist enchants, but she still managed to piss of my pet dog, then killed him when he attacked her. I'm certainly not about to give her the Chain Lightning staff and (insert could area effect name) staffs I found, since i don't commonly wear any resists for those (yet- once I reach 100 enchanting, sure).

I gave arenea lenith and she certainly had a favorite order to use them, staff of paralysis seems to be the first option and then the eye of melka, I just tried to keep the paralysis staff recharged at all times and it didnt seem like they use different ones in different situations but rather just use the 'strongest' untill it was depleted.

I am playing a new character who remains at level 1 on master difficulty.

Summon Staves are the primary thing that makes that playstyle possible because higher level spells are not viable without perks or cost reduction equipment. Good thing they can be easily crafted at the Atronach Forge in Winterhold.

Proper use of Staves and Thralls allows you to bring up to ten bodies into the battle:
1. Lydia + Atronach Staff = 2
2. Thrall 1 + Atronach Staff = 2
3. Thrall 2 + Atronach Staff = 2
4. Esbern + Frost Atronach (he knows the spell) = 2
5. Dog = 1
6. Horse = 1
Total = 10

Eola, who you can meet in the Hall of the Dead in Markarth, has sneak as one of her skills. Apparently she's a very good follower to have around. However to get her to follow you, her quest line must be completed. It is not something a good character will want to do. If you have a character more inclined towards the darker side of things, or you just don't care either way, she may just be what you're looking for.