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Since I have reached level 50, I've been looking for challenges and choosing mods that provide leveled opponents has worked well for me. In the process I discovered there is a difference in followers even though they have the same specialty.

Very early in the game, I stopped using Marcurio, a mage, as a follower because he was so aggressive he would defeat foes without me needing to lift a finger.

Since the Dawnguard main quest, I have had Serana as a follower. She, too, is a (vampire) mage.

Using the Populated Forts, Towers, Places mod with Serana at my side, I was taking on Fort Katsav, loaded with opponents. I had given Serana 150% magicka restoration robes and loads of magicka restoration potions. It was a grind, but fun and a challenge.

I switched to Marcurio and gave him nothing, so he was helping me just as he came out of Riften. Rushing out ahead of me, he took on all Fort Katsav had to offer and relentlessly downed one opponent after another. I just watched and cleaned up a couple of stragglers after him. Not much fun.

Not only was Marcurio far more effective than Serana, he needed no buffing at all to dominate battle - and a battle in which his opponents were also mages. It would be interesting to see a ranking of followers by their fighting skill.

Yeah I use Marcurio when I am feeling Lazy. Once I thought Marcurio died, I about freaked, but when I quit looking for him he pops up from god knows where, and shocked the heck out of me.
I don't just sneak and snipe either, it is a bit boring too. (I mean I do sneak and snipe, but prefer face to face battle when I can)

Marcurio does seem more powerful than the other followers I've used, mage or otherwise. They're all pretty good, in my experience, but Marcurio stands out - which is good if you're feeling lazy or need a lot of help, not good if you want to do more of the fighting yourself.

According to the wiki, he has more Magicka than Serana (disclaimer: I don't have Dawnguard). He also has a more powerful set of starting spells, though Serana should more-or-less catch up by level 50 (again, according to the wiki).

Out of curiosity, I used the wiki to compare him to the other mage followers in the vanilla game: Aranea, Brelyna, Eola, Erandur, J'zargo, and Onmund (Did I miss any? Also, disclaimer: I don't have experience with Eola or Onmund).

Marcurio has more Magicka than the others. Marcurio, Aranea, and Eola are "Aggressive", while the others are "Unaggressive." His spell set is as good as any and better than some.

That probably explains why Marcurio has a tendency to dominate battles.

Eola is actually a human missile.

CBR JGWRR wrote:Eola is actually a human missile.

Eola was Akasha's first potential follower candidate, and Akasha has since found herself involuntarily in Draugr ruins where she could have used a human missile. Too bad she decided that Eola was more tasty as a human amuse-bouche.

I think Marcurio is the best mage follower out there, aside from Serana. I prefer her personality over his although I think she is slightly more powerful. Not only can she not die, but she does ice storm and raises dead. He can only do that with staffs. He's still a bad ass though and the only mage follower used by my Bosmer.

Did you see this wiki page? When you look at the actual raw stats, it becomes obvious why Marcurio is the most powerful mage follower. Illia is second-best, of the original Skyrim followers.

The data isn't available for the followers added by Hearthfire or Dawnguard though. (And there is no information at all for those added by Dragonborn).