Am I late to the party on this one? I was having a lot of trouble clearing out a cave, and hired this guy. He is dominant. I can barely get 2-3 hits on the target before he completely destroys them with his spells.

It almost makes it too easy.

He's a beast from the East.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1360255-marcurio/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1360977-good-followers/

Yeah, a little late to the party. He's probably the best follower in the game.

Isn't he bound to the level at which you first meet him, just like any other follower?

I've not experienced this and I use followers extensively. They level up quite well.

I gave Marcurio the staves on my first character. He was like a one man 4th of July.

Followers are always getting in my way in dungeons so I dont usually use. Might have to try him though.

On my first play through I ran straight from Riverwood to Riften to join the Thieves Guild. I bumped into Mercurio at a very low level and the SOB would destroye every thing that looked at me the wrong way. He was so powerful that I had to let him go on account of my combat skills sagging. Great follower for someone who has progressed pass the first few levels.

Yeah this too. More then once when I've had a follower I've yelled at the TV saying "Hey, that was MY badguy!"

"You stole my kill bro"

This was only on the oldest versions. Pretty sure that's been fixed since 1.3.

Oh cool, I totally missed that little tid bit.

2 times hes saved my current light armoured bow and dagger gal's butt. Once in a cave where a certain bunch of Redguards with curved swords hang out, once when Moira sent 3 thugs after me (and I was quite low level). Both times the fight was very brief and I hardly did anything. I still prefer dual-wielding, atronach summoning, dead reanimating Eola though.

I should probably try using him sometime...

I picked him up on my warrior early on. He's still with me at 40 and still kicking butt. Best follower I've found.