For my Templar follower, does it improve his stats/damage to equip his weapon with an emerald, for increased critical strike damage? Or should I equip all his slots with rubies? Likewise for the Scoundrel and Enchantress, is there any reason to try gems other than the ones that boost their main stat?
Diablo – Do followers benefit from gems that do not boost their primary stat
diablo-3
Related Solutions
Each follower has a specific list of equipment he or she is capable of equipping. You can see this list by going to the items page on the official site and clicking the follower's icon at the top; here are quick links:
Regarding the special follower items, those are equipped in their own special slot and do not replace any other item. That slot is not immediately available, it is unlocked later in the game.
Archery vs Crit
I take no credit for the following, as I did not do the work. All credit goes to nxmehta#1150.
Calculation Summary
This is the equation to calculate your total DPS (two handed weapon ONLY):
DPS = (Weapon DPS) * (Attack Speed Bonus) * (Dexterity/100 + 1) * [(1 - Crit Chance/100) + (Crit Chance/100) * (Crit Damage/100 + 1)]
Weapon DPS = This is the number on your weapon. If the weapon already has increased attack speed, it's already calculated into this DPS. For example, my crossbow has 900 DPS.
Attack Speed Bonus = This is the sum of all your attack speed bonuses (again, weapon attack speed is already in your weapon DPS). For example, my ring and amulet both give 15% attack speed, so this number would be 1.30.
Dexterity = Self explanatory- mine is 1300.
Crit Chance = Self explanatory- mine 10%, so that would be 10 here. IF YOU HAVE THE SHARSHOOTER PASSIVE ACTIVATED THIS WILL BE SET TO 100. TURN IT OFF IF YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR REAL DPS.
Crit Damage = Self explanatory- mine is 100%, so that would be 100 here.
So for example, my DPS = (900) * (1.10) * (1300/100 + 1) * [(1 - 10/100) + (10/100) * (100/100 + 1)] = 15264.
Relating attack speed to dexterity
So how can you compare attack speed and dexterity? The simplest way is to calculate, for a given increase in dex, what is the equivalent increase in attack speed bonus that would yield the same DPS increase. Here's how you do that:
Equivalent attack speed bonus = (New Dex + 100) / (Old Dex + 100)
For example, lets say I increase my dex from 1300 to 1400 using some gloves. The equivalent attack speed bonus would be:
(1400 + 100) / (1300 + 100) = 1.071
Or roughly 7%. This means that with 1300 dex, a 100 dex glove is equivalent to a 7% increased attack speed glove, all other things about the glove being equal.
Now, let's say I had 1500 dex instead of 1300, and I add that 100 dex glove again. The equivalent attack speed bonus would be:
(1600 + 100) / (1500 + 100) = 1.062
Or roughly 6%. So here, adding a 7% increased attack speed glove would be better than adding a 100 dex glove.
This is why it's important to know what your dex is and making this calculation before deciding which gear to get. The higher your dex is, the more diminishing returns you get from adding a fixed amount of dex. The lower your dex is, the more valuable it is to add that same amount of dex.
Here's a quick table that might help you decide if you should go for attack speed or dexterity in items, depending on your base dex and the dex of the item you are adding. (ID = Item Dexterity)
Table 1: Attack speed vs Dexterity
Equivalent Attack Speed as a function of Base and Item Dex
ID 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
----------------------------------------------------
BaseDex
200 6.7% 13.3% 20.0% 26.7% 33.3% 40.0% 46.7% 53.3%
300 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% 25.0% 30.0% 35.0% 40.0%
400 4.0% 8.0% 12.0% 16.0% 20.0% 24.0% 28.0% 32.0%
500 3.3% 6.7% 10.0% 13.3% 16.7% 20.0% 23.3% 26.7%
600 2.9% 5.7% 8.6% 11.4% 14.3% 17.1% 20.0% 22.9%
700 2.5% 5.0% 7.5% 10.0% 12.5% 15.0% 17.5% 20.0%
800 2.2% 4.4% 6.7% 8.9% 11.1% 13.3% 15.6% 17.8%
900 2.0% 4.0% 6.0% 8.0% 10.0% 12.0% 14.0% 16.0%
1000 1.8% 3.6% 5.5% 7.3% 9.1% 10.9% 12.7% 14.5%
1100 1.7% 3.3% 5.0% 6.7% 8.3% 10.0% 11.7% 13.3%
1200 1.5% 3.1% 4.6% 6.2% 7.7% 9.2% 10.8% 12.3%
1300 1.4% 2.9% 4.3% 5.7% 7.1% 8.6% 10.0% 11.4%
1400 1.3% 2.7% 4.0% 5.3% 6.7% 8.0% 9.3% 10.7%
1500 1.2% 2.5% 3.8% 5.0% 6.2% 7.5% 8.7% 10.0%
1600 1.2% 2.4% 3.5% 4.7% 5.9% 7.1% 8.2% 9.4%
1700 1.1% 2.2% 3.3% 4.4% 5.6% 6.7% 7.8% 8.9%
1800 1.1% 2.1% 3.2% 4.2% 5.3% 6.3% 7.4% 8.4%
1900 1.0% 2.0% 3.0% 4.0% 5.0% 6.0% 7.0% 8.0%
2000 1.0% 1.9% 2.9% 3.8% 4.8% 5.7% 6.7% 7.6%
Say you have a base dex of 1300 and comparing something like a 100 dex glove with 10% attack speed vs a 130 dex glove with 8% attack speed? Which is better? Well, we know that 10% is better than 8%. But will 30 points of dex make up for the 2% difference in attack speed? Look at this table to find out.
Table 2: Base dex vs attack speed
Base Dex Dex Equal to 1% Attack Speed
-------- ----------------------------
200 3
300 4
400 5
500 6
600 7
700 8
800 9
900 10
1000 11
1100 12
1200 13
1300 14
1400 15
1500 16
1600 17
1700 18
1800 19
1900 20
2000 21
Here we can see that at 1300 base dex, 14 points of dex is equivalent to 1% attack speed. So the 2% difference in attack speed is equal to 2 * 14 = 28 points of dex. So that 2% difference is only worth 28 dex, which isn't as good as the +30 dex gloves. Those are the better ones, even though they are slower.
Notice that this changes if you have a higher dex, say 1500. Here, 16 points of dex are equivalent to 1% attack speed. So 2% attack speed is equal to 32 points of dex. Here, you would want the faster, lower dex gloves.
The below table illustrates how to go from crit chance and damage to an equivalent attack speed bonus. So for instance, an item with 50% crit damage and a 10% crit chance is equivalent to a 5% attack speed bonus.
Table 3: Critical chance vs critical damage
Equivalent Attack Speed as a function of Crit Chance and Damage
Crit Crit Damage
Chance 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
----------------------------------------------------------------
0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
1% 0.1% 0.2% 0.3% 0.4% 0.5% 0.6% 0.7% 0.8% 0.9% 1.0%
2% 0.2% 0.4% 0.6% 0.8% 1.0% 1.2% 1.4% 1.6% 1.8% 2.0%
3% 0.3% 0.6% 0.9% 1.2% 1.5% 1.8% 2.1% 2.4% 2.7% 3.0%
4% 0.4% 0.8% 1.2% 1.6% 2.0% 2.4% 2.8% 3.2% 3.6% 4.0%
5% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 5.0%
6% 0.6% 1.2% 1.8% 2.4% 3.0% 3.6% 4.2% 4.8% 5.4% 6.0%
7% 0.7% 1.4% 2.1% 2.8% 3.5% 4.2% 4.9% 5.6% 6.3% 7.0%
8% 0.8% 1.6% 2.4% 3.2% 4.0% 4.8% 5.6% 6.4% 7.2% 8.0%
9% 0.9% 1.8% 2.7% 3.6% 4.5% 5.4% 6.3% 7.2% 8.1% 9.0%
10% 1.0% 2.0% 3.0% 4.0% 5.0% 6.0% 7.0% 8.0% 9.0% 10.0%
11% 1.1% 2.2% 3.3% 4.4% 5.5% 6.6% 7.7% 8.8% 9.9% 11.0%
12% 1.2% 2.4% 3.6% 4.8% 6.0% 7.2% 8.4% 9.6% 10.8% 12.0%
13% 1.3% 2.6% 3.9% 5.2% 6.5% 7.8% 9.1% 10.4% 11.7% 13.0%
14% 1.4% 2.8% 4.2% 5.6% 7.0% 8.4% 9.8% 11.2% 12.6% 14.0%
15% 1.5% 3.0% 4.5% 6.0% 7.5% 9.0% 10.5% 12.0% 13.5% 15.0%
16% 1.6% 3.2% 4.8% 6.4% 8.0% 9.6% 11.2% 12.8% 14.4% 16.0%
17% 1.7% 3.4% 5.1% 6.8% 8.5% 10.2% 11.9% 13.6% 15.3% 17.0%
18% 1.8% 3.6% 5.4% 7.2% 9.0% 10.8% 12.6% 14.4% 16.2% 18.0%
19% 1.9% 3.8% 5.7% 7.6% 9.5% 11.4% 13.3% 15.2% 17.1% 19.0%
20% 2.0% 4.0% 6.0% 8.0% 10.0% 12.0% 14.0% 16.0% 18.0% 20.0%
21% 2.1% 4.2% 6.3% 8.4% 10.5% 12.6% 14.7% 16.8% 18.9% 21.0%
22% 2.2% 4.4% 6.6% 8.8% 11.0% 13.2% 15.4% 17.6% 19.8% 22.0%
23% 2.3% 4.6% 6.9% 9.2% 11.5% 13.8% 16.1% 18.4% 20.7% 23.0%
24% 2.4% 4.8% 7.2% 9.6% 12.0% 14.4% 16.8% 19.2% 21.6% 24.0%
25% 2.5% 5.0% 7.5% 10.0% 12.5% 15.0% 17.5% 20.0% 22.5% 25.0%
Best Answer
Yes.
Items equipped on your followers do benefit from socketed gems. The wiki entry on followers doesn't go into detail, but followers do benefit from equipment and gems just like your character does. You can test this by letting your follower attack enemies with and without emeralds, and counting the damage of criticals (which I have done, sadly).
Your play style, and that of your follower, depends on the gear you and your follower use, and vice versa. E.g., rubies will always increase strength (which is useless for say, a wizard), and emeralds will always give critical damage (which is great for everyone, unless you want to focus on something else). In my experience, critical strike chance gives you the highest damage increase, pound for pound, even more than critical damage. If your follower dies a lot though, maybe go for vitality, life on hit, etc (or opt for a legendary follower accessory with "Your follower cannot die.")
It should be noted however that for followers, the critical hit damage bonus is capped at +100% (beyond that natural bonus), so if you have a follower accessory with high CHD, a ruby in the weapon socket will result in higher damage.