Tsh. Any fighter type. Just smith them some nice armor and they will tank very well in combat.

I'm running with Mjoll the Lioness currently, with upgraded armor and weapons (I actually upgraded her Grimsever sword and gave her a nice glass shield). She's pretty strong!

Dear OP: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1338696-how-to-fix-your-followers-for-console-players/page__fromsearch__1

How to fix ur Followers if your playing on a console plus Follower info~

Level 51 and still finding Eola to be decent/good. Give her a couple of lightning Staffs and she singlehandedly tears Skyrim a new [censored].
She seams to have a reasonable sneak level as well, hardly ever giving the game away now.

A word of advise on the enable/disable console trick. You should empty a follower's inventory and release them of their service before you use the trick. If you do not then you might lose some equipment and/or it may say that you already have a follower. Also make a save file before you do anything on the console in case you have bugged your game.

I use Lydia. I would not feel comfortable with a magic user as I would only get into the way of their magic. Lydia likes an Ebony War Axe and a set of Dragonplate armor and shield. She also likes to wear a Necklace of Revival and a Ring of Peerless Stamina. Equipped like this does she go through several Draugr Deathlords before I need to step in. She uses shield bash and occasionally does a power attack. Her strengths are one-handed combat, blocking, heavy armor and archery, with some points in two-handed combat.

Here are top 4 followers based on their Sneak skill, which i consider to be the most important skill for the follower, so he doesnt alert enemies before its time. Plus they are armored and can handle weapons. Ignoring availability/looks/personality

name/max level/hp/mp/st/skills@max level
Cicero 50/558/132/295 LTA:097, OH:100, Sneak:100, Arch:097, Alt:061
Aela 50/459/050/376 LTA:100, OH:075, Sneak:097, Arch:100, Block:48
Eola 30/291/147/147 LTA:036, OH:057, Sneak:078, Dest:079, Alt:062
Marcurio 40/425/410/050 Sneak:073, Dest:100, Rest:100, Conj:044, Alt:073

The best companion......



No companion.

If you want a follower who can't die go alea if you want the best get eola.

I downloaded all the maxed follower specs from somewhere and just selected a class that leveled to 50 that I thought would match my character playstyle and could find early in the game. As a thief/assassin, I figured I'd need a tank and Lydia was the first/easiest one to get that had what I thought were the best specs. I'm also a male so figured having a follower that I could marry would make that easier too. Turns out that I couldn't marry Lydia (don't know if that is a bug or I didn't impress her enough) so I hooked up with Iona in Riften so she's my stay at home sugar momma and Lydia pwns dragons for me.

Seems to work out. I've got her pimped out in enchanted ebony armor and rings and necklaces to buff her blocking percentage. At level 55 she's still using Chillrend as it has been pretty much the best one handed weapon that I have seen so far... Nightingale Blade and Blade of Woe exceptions, but I'm dual wielding those so she can't have them. Hey bow must be really f'ing good though because she never swaps out with the pretty darn powerful bows that I've been giving her.

If I could do it all over again, I'd find a woman with more personality. Lydia is rather quiet and "stiff."

Too much trouble to swap equipment across followers and try others. I solo most dungeons anyway so low value add.

My next playthrough on a lower difficulty will definitely include some different followers though. Easier to experiment on lower difficulties in my experience.

Marcurio is great for sneaking. I've played sneaky archers for my last two characters and he's been with me for easily over 100 hours and he does what he should. He doesn't break sneak until I'm detected (well, rarely anyway), I can take him through a room with enemies in it and he's rarely detected unless they run into him and he generally just behaves himself. I haven't trusted him enough to take him on something like the TG quest with the bee thing, but for free play I take him everywhere and it works.