Most of my followers are now level 100. I've currently got a mix of green, blue (rare), and purple (epic) followers. My question is: do they still benefit from Base XP or Bonus XP?
I've tried answering my question, firstly by using the in-game hints and common sense. Here's a typical scenario for my followers:
There's no real indication that Ilona would or would not gain the XP, but then again: what would she need it for? Your own character obviously won't get any XP from quests anymore, turning quest XP in gold if I'm not mistaken. However, there is even a "(+32)" in green mentioned, which is not mentioned for -say- Hulda Shadowblade (a rare/blue follower).
I've tried the ingame help as well, but it's plain awful ("garrison xp" yields zero results). I've skimmed and searched through Wowhead's Garrison Guide but I can't quite seem to find my answer.
So, to summmarize:
- how does XP work for level 100 followers?
- how can you find out (is there any in-game clue to this)?
- does the rareness (green/blue/purple) of folllowers matter?
- does the level of the quest matter?
Best Answer
Once a follower reaches level 100, any experience they gain from there goes into increasing their quality (green → blue → purple).
In-game, you can still see the XP bar on non-epic (green/blue) level 100 followers. See for example Songla and Hulda in your screenshot, which would have a bar like this:
Epic (purple) followers do not have such a bar anymore: they do not benefit from base or bonus XP at all. For example, your epic character "Ilona" will look like this:
The green "+32 XP" in your screenshot is extra XP a character would get for being overqualified for a quest, but again: since your follower is already epic this XP will go to waste.
Higher quality followers have additional traits and abilities (which let them counter more stuff).