For those who aren't aware, in Diablo 2 you would hire followers to descend upon the gates of D2R Items Hell along with you, but once they were killed , you were required to bring them back with cold cash. A new follower was introduced throughout each zone, which implies that certain followers were more powerful than others.
This evolved into Diablo 3, where instead of hiring mercenaries you acquired three different companions during the story quest. You could choose from the Scoundrel Sorceress and Templar which represented different aspects of DPS tank, ranged DPS, and magical users respectively.In my Diablo 4 adventure I only met helpful NPCs who hung around for a dungeon or two then rode of to the sunset. When I asked Jackson what their thoughts were on how the follower function will work it was explained that "for the launch version of Diablo 4, we will have specific locations within the story, specifically, where you will have certain known NPCs that will be following you and helping you to figure out the what Lilith is up to throughout the universe.
"We don't have anything we can declare about the Diablo-2 type follower that you hire - we're going to stick to the campaign at present." The emphasis is on the moment for now.
With a wry smile they continue "stay close, we could come up with something in the near-term to share, but there are no promises." This immediately brought an answer from the producer of dungeons, Ash Sweetring, who channelled her inner Mister. Burns with an 'interesting hand gesture that was playing in the background. This is what I would call sus.If any iteration of the follower system is to make it into Diablo 4, I would rather it was the Diablo-style hired gun instead of the ubiquitous friends. I loved the huge array of different abilities followers brought to the table during Diablo 2 and would love to see diablo II resurrected items this reimagined. It will open up more space for different styles, as well amazing demon-slaying ability chains.