Frea versus Lydia in: "Death to the stormcloaks!"

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Hi!

I was intrigued at how heated one thread had become about housecarls versus other followers. I decided to put these two to the test. The tests are at level 78, playing on master difficulty. Each test was started from the same save point to avoid any problems around me levelling up.

Here's what I did...

First of all, I was wearing my mage armour which gives me zero cost for restoration and destruction.
Next I equip 'close wounds' and 'healing'. I chose these because they only affect the caster.
I enter the Pale Stormcloak camp and time the battle from the first sword blow to the last Stormcloak killed.
At no time do I use weapons. I don't even move from my place in the centre of camp. I only use healing spells to keep myself alive.

I carried out four tests. The first two were with my follower as standard, with no armour and weapons improvements. The second two tests were carried out with the follower equipped with identically tempered daedric armour. The weapons vary because Lydia uses a sword and shield, since she is 100 in one-handed and block. Frea dual wields, having only skill 20 in block but having dual flurry perks. The weapons are equally tempered daedric swords. Lydia's shield was daedric and tempered in the same way.

Here are the results:

Lydia in standard trim takes 16 minutes and 22 seconds.
Frea in standard trim takes 3 minutes and 52 seconds.
Lydia in enhanced trim takes 51 seconds.
Frea in enhanced trim takes 32 seconds.

I had a problem with Frea in her improved gear because for some reason she would not dual wield the daedric swords, even though I can. She fought the entire battle using only one blade (I'd removed the basic weapons from the inventories to ensure they used the ones I'd given them). I will repeat the test but give her two stahlrim axes instead, since I know she dual wields these. That way she makes use of her hack and slash perks too.

Despite the fact that Frea was hampered in her second battle she polished off all the opponemts in a shorter space of time. The first pair of tests with the followers as standard is not really much of a guide to the capability of either NPC, but what it does do quite dramatically is demonstrate the value of equipping your followers with the best gear you can buy/make.

On the basis of these initial tests, I'd say that Frea comes out a clear winner. I'm guessing that this is borne out by their stats, which I verified using the console before each battle. While both have 100 in the relevant skills, Lydia waded in at 671 health compared to Frea's 1070. More importantly Lydia's stamina was 214 as opposed to the 357 of Frea. This means that Frea can deliver more savage blows before running out of steam. These stats were reflected very plainly in the first tests. Lydia was down on her knees very quickly and could only manage a few blows before going down again after that. Frea, on the other hand was not knocked to her knees once. I observed her using her healing spells to good effect.

I'm more than willing to answer any queries you have about the trials and to run other tests if they are possible, but I thought that the way I did this was fair to both contestants. I'd also say that Lydia's second effort was no mean feat. In my opinion, she is an excellent follower...just that Frea's better!

Edit: I've re-run the tests with both followers wearing tempered daedric armour, but this time I gave Frea a pair of tempered Stahlrim axes, as I said above. I forgot to say in the initial report that each weapon is also enchanted with 30 fire damage and has over 1000 hits per grand soul gem...ample for polishing off a few renegade Stormcloaks.

Lydia managed 50 seconds this time. She may have even got it to down to 46 seconds or so because the last rebel went all chicken on us and tried to run away, delaying his end by a second or two. Frea was done after only 26 seconds this time. She dual wielded the axes, as expected.

Taking the average scores it's Lydia 50.5 seconds, Frea 29 seconds, but bear in mind that Frea's average includes a run with only 1 sword and no shield. The consistency in the scores is reasonable. I can see no way for Lydia to slash her time in half to beat Frea's dual wielding time.

Apologies to Stormcloak fans but I played this time on the Empire's side, so I had to go with the opposition in front of me!
 
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Kohlar the Unkilled

Time for some ale
You deserve a strong ale or three for this. :beermug:

Unfortunately I found that Frea eventually became insufferable as a follower due to her comments while in combat. I don't recall specifically what she said to perturbed me; she's certainly effective though, no doubts about that!

One of my characters uses Jenassa as a follower, and I'd be curious to see how she'd fair in this test even though her stats wouldn't be as high as Frea's. My Jenassa duel wields legendary dragon blade swords while clad in Deathbrand's Armor- she is brutally effective! :beermug:
 

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