Is Jenassa a good follower?
As a passionate Skyrim player with over 400 hours of playtime, I am often asked: is Jenassa worth recruiting? After journeying across Skyrim with Jenassa by my side, analyzing her skills and stats, and comparing her capabilities to other popular followers, my verdict is a resounding yes!
Why Jenassa Stands Out
Jenassa is an incredibly versatile fighter that specializes in one-handed weapons, archery, and light armor. This grants her strong melee and ranged damage output. She also has a ruthless personality, making combat and quest dialogue more interesting. Most importantly, Jenassa has no level cap, continuing to improve alongside your character.
Expert One-Handed Fighter
Analyzing Jenassa‘s offense, she wields a steel sword and ancient Nord bow as her default weapons. After leveling her One-Handed skill to 100, her base damage output surpasses followers like Lydia:
| Follower | One-Handed Damage |
| Jenassa | 156 |
| Lydia | 138 |
This allows her to shred through foes like draugr, bandits, and more. She also automatically equips stronger weapons found in dungeons or received as gifts.
Deadly Archery Support
As a Ranger class follower, Jenassa‘s Archery level scales exponentially faster than average, quickly reaching damage cap. She can provide suppression fire on distant enemies while you engage in melee:
| Follower | Max Archery Damage |
| Jenassa | 206 |
| Lydia | 122 |
Her versatility here makes Jenassa more useful than one-trick warriors in certain encounters.
Uncapped Leveling & Health
The biggest advantage Jenassa has over followers like Lydia or J‘Zargo is no level cap. This means as you reach level 81, Jenassa matches you by boosting her:
- Health from 316 to 1096
- Stamina from 134 to 370
- Magicka from 65 to 358
She also gains perks to further improve one-handed, marksman, and light armor skills. This scaling keeps her viable instead of outclassed at higher difficulties.
Downsides and Quirks
Jenassa isn‘t perfect, however. Upfront, she demands 500 gold to recruit, an expensive fee early on. Morally, she advocates for questionable choices in quests that some players may dislike. Most notably: you can sacrifice Jenassa during Boethiah‘s Calling thanks to her follower status.
So while extremely effective in combat, her ruthless personality and exploitability may dissuade some players. Thankfully once hired, these become non-issues.
Jenassa‘s Ideal Role
Based on analysis of her skills, Jenassa serves best as a frontline fighter or damage-focused archer. She exceeds most followers offensively and her level scaling guarantees long-term viability. While mage or tank builds may want someone more specialized, Jenassa is near essential for assassins, nightblades, rangers, and other damage roles.
Verdict: Best Damage-Focused Follower
Very few Skyrim followers offer Jenassa‘s versatility and longevity. Her lack of a level cap combined with exceptional offensive skills make her an easy top-tier pick in my book. She may cost a bit extra but will reward you with a deadly companion from early to endgame. If you want to melt enemies, I highly recommend adding Jenassa to your party.
