Aetherium Items

I have a quick question. Which aetherium item is better? the staff or the crown? to me the shield seems like trash.

Oh and as a side note, serana isnt able as a follower to me anymore. how do i fix this, if at all?

The Crown is basically only reason to do the quest. The staff is just a Dwemer-themed Staff of the Familiar.

Crown

How is Serana not able to follow you anymore? I had this problem too, and if yours is glitched in the same way as mine, then I might be able to help.

Does she only have one dialogue option?

2 dialogues, one to taint the arrows, the other to turn me into a vampire. i dismissed her when i went back to the soul cairn to get the conjuration spells

What I did was take a follower (any follower seems to work) to the Soul Cairn (you have to go the long way from the back of the castle, going from the Volkihar Balcony won't work). You will lose them when you reach Serana's mother's garden. Once you are in the Soul Cairn, it will be Serana following you instead. You will have her with you and, once you are out of the castle, your old follower as well.

If you dismiss her, you will have to repeat this in order to get her back.

so thats the only way to get her to follow me again? i hate the cairn.

Depends if you want to wear a helmet or not. Though 2 Stones active is pretty bitchin'.

If I was doing a dwemer themed character spellsword with fire magic and dwarven crossbow, I'd take the staff because I'd rather have the helmet.

If playing a Mage, the crown.

If I'm playing an assassin/thief and have the DB gear, I'll keep the cowl and go with the staff even if I don't use it much because followers can't benefit from the crown since they can't utilize stones and can use staves.

It depends on your gear, losing a helmet (and the armor perks like Windwalker, custom fit, etc).

What are you playing and the amount of perks you will lose for not having a helmet slot filled?

Crown can be worn with Pentius Oculatus(light) or Falmer(heavy) Helmets if such is needed

You don't have to go in far. If you don't notice her with you, just walk up to the first Bonemen you can find, and you should notice that she's joined the fight.

My playstyle is ddefitely a thief mage. I likto pick them offone by one with a bow or dagger. ost of my perks are invested in sneak, pickpcket, speech and light armor. Oh a restoratiion, conjaion and enchanting

Unfortunately , Serana is bugged for my current character.
I`ve had to leave her in the Volkihar Ruins because she won`t give her blood to open the Soul Cairn.
Apparently she believes I already have the Blood Elder Scroll when I don`t.
Planning to start a new conjurer with hopes this and her other bugs are patched by then.

In my experience as a Conjurer , she is the only follower who will use necromantic raising spells.
Marked as essential , you`ll never have to worry about her being killed.
Her back story and dialogue is the deepest of all the Dawnguard characters
Beautiful and powerful
Hoping Bethesda will add a marriage option with the patch like they did for Lydia