My mage follower spams nukes and kills everything. "Useful" in certain circumstance, annoying in others

Don't use followers then?

Having followers on my sneak archer wasn't so bad, when I had to have them for the Companion quests. Although they were being caught, the npcs didn't notice my character and went straight for the follower. I could roll away a few feet and take them out with my bow, while they were all busy engaging the follower.

theres no reason to have followers all you need is bit of planning and preparation and you can take down any challenge.

\Because, as followers, they are dungeon specific. Mercer is only your follower in the one place, Anska is only your follower in that one dungeon. They can afford to have dungeon specific rules for them, if it's the only dungeon they'll ever be in.

Followers are ok, except when u have to have them and you can't direct them to stay put. I got really tired of getting hit by traps, nudged wheen I getting loot or blocked by them when I go in a small room

Followers are only good for storing gear IMO, I hate everything else about them (stealing xp, ruining stealth, annoying repeated dialogue).

Cicero has 100 in sneak I believe + his standard clothes are sneak based as well. Never had any problems sneaking with him on my back, however he has no morals what so ever and has ruined a few missions for me by just killing whoever I'm supposed to help, [censored] psychopath, never give him a staff, or at the very least take it away from him if more people are with you - besides, he's excellent with one hand weapens and a decent archer so he doesn't really need them. Anyways, when it's just the two of us he's perfect for my sneak assassin, we're often strolling around in matching Jester outfits.

I just don't use them on my stealth characters. I just take the extra time sneaking and play it safe

I took Cicero out with me for a while, but he NEVER shuts up. It's entertaining...for a while. He's very sneaky and his CONSTANT pvssyr doesn't seem to be noticed by enemies. I didn't realize that he only had that ebony dagger in his inventory until I was using a bow against a dragon (I like to keep my distance) and Ol' Cicero charges in and starts whacking the great worm with his dagger (more guts than brains?). I gave him a decent bow and some arrows after that, which he did utilize in our next engagement.

still worse than your char at 100, he's just not as sneaky as the player.
If you wanna sneak you gotta walk alone, simple as that.
And if you do it right you won't need followers anyway, because all enemies are gonna get sneak-killed in one hit

Sometimes they follow you anyways, like the guy that wants to go to fix the problem with the tree. He svcks awesome!

But chosen mates, it's not like you know they will svck or not. Not until you played them through a few times. So me on "first" time trying followers, only to be dissapointed...or rather DEAD!

Well, I made my choice...I was a little bit unhappy with my char, I leave Alchemy, Smithing and Enchant alone this time...sort of. A little bit here and there won't kill any char, but no more 5 lvl-gaining from Alchemy alone.

I will be another sneaky Archer, with some elemental friends.....I just like to play it this way and this time I play it on highest level.

I will die sooo many times, but maybe the hardest difficulty actually can make me to play the game?

you NEVER need a follower with a sneaky character.

as my db char became the option of followers i was like "wtf were they thinking? who uses followers as a sneaker?"

not using followers and not needing followers has NOTHING to do with the problems associated with the follower system.

i will never understand apologists and their "then don't use em" mentality.

in short, you disqualify yourself from praising something that is truely done well in skyrim.

I actually do use followers if the game is best played with them around, like Fallout 2 and how it is best to have at least the one from the very first city you go to in the game. The one that needs your help getting rid of some money issue he is having. Morrowind's followers range from pure let them die and burn their bodies to being only slightly less tolerable than Resident Evil 4's lovely escort maiden that claims to be named Ashley and is only good at hiding and watching Leon Kennedy get his head cut off.

Only reason I have a huge hatred of most followers, especially in Bethesda games, is because the AI for them is often so dumb or clingy that I just decide I would rather murder the follower. Oblivion's Main Quest is the exact reason why I grew this hatred. That dunmer and his suicidal tendencies + Oblivion's many monsters = This is why Khajiit drink alone and sing that George Thorogood song about drinking alone.... Yeaaah with nobody else!

If I have to babysit for an advlt video game character, I will only let it live if it must live.

This^

With a high enough sneak and a high enough archery skill, you should be able to get through almost everything alone--at least in a dungeon. Dragonpriests are an exception though; you have to be able to fight them out in the open one way or another. There are some other examples but in the overall scheme of things, they're rare. My last sneaky archer took out 3 Draugr Deathlords in about 9 shots total without ever coming into physical contact with any of them. It's lame that it's like that, but that's the way it is.

Followers are good for carrying stuff and soaking up damage you would otherwise take.

As for improving the conjuration skill, it's never too late. I once took a level 39 pure mage and converted him into sneaky assassin type in about 7 or 8 levels.

Since the main purpose is extra carrying capacity I would like to put a request in for an official pack mule follower.

As I said before, I will make a char with archery and conjuration. For some reasons I'm not happy with my current char, no cheating or anything, just unhappy with him.

I will also take onboard to USE followers if I'm weak, but only for difficult locations.

And as someone said, sometimes you have to drag this drab of a person around to finish a quest. I so hate it.

just repeating wisdom of the day
Walk alone
you can do all the dungons alone if you want to followers just make its easier that is if they don't blunder into traps( very unlikely)
only will take you a bit longer and need to think more about tactics to use ,

I never use followers unless they are scripted and i have 6 diferent class characters they all do fine alone , just need to adopt your tactics a bit

I notice the Followers svck at sneak. So I just ask the follower to 'wait here' while I'll take care of business. I notice the hireling Jenessa is alright a sneaking.

I wish my follower was an Ice Wraith