Which Nazjatar bodyguard is the best pick to accompany you?

In Nazjatar we have a bodyguard system that is very similar to the old bodyguard system from Warlords of Draenor. Shortly after encountering your faction’s allies and setting up a home base in their town, you get introduced to three bodyguard options. You definitely want to choose one each day you’re there — your progress through the zone, and subsequently the War Campaign and flying, are dependent upon reaching certain experience milestones with these bodyguards. To level them up, simply complete the three daily quests that award Follower Combat Experience. There are also other ways to earn experience for these bodyguards, such as purchasing items via the Murloc trading game or farming rare drops.

The new bodyguards have some nifty abilities, which they acquire at different ranks of experience. You may not see much of a difference between them in the first couple ranks, but as you get higher you’ll start to see a divide. To pick up your bodyguard for the day, simply visit the conch inside the cave in Newhome for Horde, or the purple campfire near the Boralus portal in Mezzamere for Alliance. Once you choose a bodyguard, the daily experience quests will pop up on the map. These quests are unique to your specific bodyguard.

For Horde, the bodyguards can be classed according to separate roles.

• Neri Sharpfin: Rogue, DPS class
• Poen Gillbrack: Shaman, Healer class
• Vin Brineheart: Warrior, Tank class

Of the three, I have found Neri the most useful since she is pure DPS. This is doubly helpful since I quest as Discipline so my damage is lower and things take longer to kill. Poen has healing capabilities via Tidal Rain at rank 3, which come in handy for squishy DPS who don’t have any self-heals. If you’re really squishy, Vin will taunt enemy mobs to tank them. However, I found this tiresome since he was also kind of squishy and trying to heal him became annoying.

However, on Alliance, it’s not as clear, mostly because the Alliance bodyguards don’t exactly mirror their Horde counterparts.

• Farseer Ori: Shaman, DPS class
• Hunter Akana: Hunter, DPS class
• Bladesmith Inowari: Warrior, Healer/Tank class?

Ori, the Alliance Shaman, doesn’t have any healing abilities like Poen does (unless the tooltips are wrong), whereas Inowari is more of a tank/healer combo instead of just a tank like Vin. Akana tends to be the most useful, like Neri, since he will do straight DPS and help things die faster.

When you first start the zone, Neri and Akana will be the most helpful in general. You can choose to level one bodyguard at a time, or swap between them. The experience requirements for Friends In Need or Down But Not Out is combined across all your bodyguards.

Once you get into the higher ranks with more abilities, the bodyguards can be more useful in different activities. If you’re grinding mobs, the Shaman (Poen/Ori) will be the most helpful due to the rooting and AOE. If you’re questing around the zone and gathering items or farming mats, the max level ability for Neri and Akana will decrease the radius at which enemies can detect you and increase your mount speed. And if you’re farming rares, you might consider the Warrior (Vin/Inowari) for their powerful attacks and stuns.

And don’t forget that the bodyguards will get you things other than just reputation. Leveling your bodyguards will get you two achievements and that fancy new crab mount. Getting all three bodyguards to rank 10 will grant you Nautical Battlefield Training (Alliance, Horde). The Nazjatar meta, Undersea Usurper, which rewards the Snapback Scuttler mount, requires getting to rank 30 with all three bodyguards (Aqua Team Murder Force — Alliance, Horde). At 300 XP per day from quests, you’ll also want to do a little rare farming to boost your bodyguard leveling in order to get that mount faster.