Most of my followers are now level 100. I've currently got a mix of green, blue (rare), and purple (epic) followers. My question is: do they still benefit from Base XP or Bonus XP?

I've tried answering my question, firstly by using the in-game hints and common sense. Here's a typical scenario for my followers:

garrison mission situation

There's no real indication that Ilona would or would not gain the XP, but then again: what would she need it for? Your own character obviously won't get any XP from quests anymore, turning quest XP in gold if I'm not mistaken. However, there is even a "(+32)" in green mentioned, which is not mentioned for -say- Hulda Shadowblade (a rare/blue follower).

I've tried the ingame help as well, but it's plain awful ("garrison xp" yields zero results). I've skimmed and searched through Wowhead's Garrison Guide but I can't quite seem to find my answer.

So, to summmarize:

  • how does XP work for level 100 followers?
  • how can you find out (is there any in-game clue to this)?
  • does the rareness (green/blue/purple) of folllowers matter?
  • does the level of the quest matter?
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    The +32 is just bonus EXP from having a better than 100 percent chance to complete the mission, or from follower abilities. – Lawton Dec 14 '14 at 20:04

Once a follower reaches level 100, any experience they gain from there goes into increasing their quality (green → blue → purple).

In-game, you can still see the XP bar on non-epic (green/blue) level 100 followers. See for example Songla and Hulda in your screenshot, which would have a bar like this:

XP bar for blue follower

Epic (purple) followers do not have such a bar anymore: they do not benefit from base or bonus XP at all. For example, your epic character "Ilona" will look like this:

no XP bar for epic follower

The green "+32 XP" in your screenshot is extra XP a character would get for being overqualified for a quest, but again: since your follower is already epic this XP will go to waste.

Higher quality followers have additional traits and abilities (which let them counter more stuff).

  • Makes sense. To verify then, there is absolutely no point in sending epic level 100 followers on XP missions? (Except for perhaps the achievements about number of quests completed.) – Jeroen Dec 15 '14 at 6:48
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    @Jeroen None at all. Only reason is if you need their traits or abilities and can't find them on a unit that still needs XP – Psychemaster Dec 15 '14 at 7:17
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    @Psychemaster Or if you want the salvage crates – Lyrion Dec 15 '14 at 9:07
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    @Lyrion Unless I've missed a huge trick, sending out a level 100 epic unit doesn't give any more chance of a salvage crate than a level 100 uncommon or rare unit would. Unless you meant that sending an XP capped unit is better than not doing the mission (which is of course true) – Psychemaster Dec 15 '14 at 9:17
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    @Psychemaster Yeah it was just, if you don't have any uncommon or rare 100 units left. If you don't have a salvage yard it is better to keep them. But if you do hava a salvage yard, then it is better to just send them on missions. – Lyrion Dec 15 '14 at 9:25

I send my 100 level characters on XP missions just to clear out my available mission queue; rather than letting them all expire which seems to take longer. I first do any armor upgrade missions, then resources (with Ben Gibb), then gold, then all the XP missions that are short duration (so I have followers available when the other missions are ready). Chance of success is irrelevant so I just send anyone. Not sure this is smart but keeps me busy.

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