Conjuration followers vs. summoned daedra—which scales better late game?

[TamrielTactician]

I'm on my second playthrough (level 35, PC with USSEP) and I've been running with a conjurer build. Right now I'm using mostly summoned atronachs and dremora lords in dungeons, but I'm wondering if I should pivot to actually recruiting followers instead—like, does a leveled-up follower companion eventually outDPS a summoned daedra, or do the summons just keep scaling indefinitely? Also curious if there's a perk path I'm sleeping on that makes one obviously better than the other. Trying to figure out if I should commit to the conjuration route or if I'm gimping myself by not having a "real" follower for late-game content.

 

[WhiterunModder]

Summoned stuff doesn't scale past a certain point, honestly. The perks help a ton (the one that boosts conjured creature health, the one that extends duration), but a leveled follower with decent gear will outDPS a dremora lord by like level 50+. Summons are more about action economy - you get a free body in the fight while you cast spells or whatever - than raw damage.

That said, if you're running pure conjurer, you're not gimping yourself. The Necromage perk is absurdly good for undead summons (you get the buff from being a vampire), and if you're on PC there are mods that rebalance summons to scale better or add more variety. But vanilla? Yeah, a follower eventually wins on stats.

Real talk though: what's your actual playstyle? If you're summoning stuff and then hanging back casting destruction spells, summons are fine because you're doing the heavy lifting. If you're trying to let the summons solo dungeons while you hide, that falls off hard. Dremora lords stay relevant longer than atronachs at least, since they have spell resistance and better AI.