[1.0.0.9] Dracarris Incarnate - Pet/Fire Hybrid Pyromancer, 6s Mad Queen, Solo Gladiator Extra Spawn

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
61

Hey, do you have any experience with the Warlock version of this build? It was pretty sick before they nerfed pet damage conversion, now I assume Pyro is the way to go?

62

You need to complete the entire Scholar’s Light devotion (all 3 nodes) before you can add Bysmiel’s Bonds.

Once you’ve completed Bysmiel’s Bonds, you can safely remove the entire Scholar’s Light devotion (all 3 nodes).

This build doesn’t use damage conversion at all: it simply stacks more fire damage on top of pets’ existing damage, and shreds fire resist accordingly. There aren’t any “Warlock version of this build” using this concept - or using Dracarris - because Demo is pretty central to the build’s fire damage.

If you’re referring to Avatar of Dreeg’s Voidmancer Summoner, which is a Warlock, then that build actually doesn’t use a whole lot of damage conversion (only 25%), since none of its pets have much physical damage to convert. The build is great for campaign but far too squishy for Crucible, and has much less DPS than this build.

If you’re referring to 987Y897’s Lightning Conjurer, then yes this build got nerfed significantly in 1.0.0.7 along with lightning conversion. It used to be able to solo Gladiator using raw single-target DPS, but since its DPS was roughly cut in half by the nerf, I’m skeptical that it can do Gladiator now given its weakened single-target DPS and lack of AOE damage.

Finally, for lightning conversion pet builds in general, you’ll almost certainly need to include Shaman since primal spirit and briarthorn have the most physical damage to convert. This makes Pyromancer a poor choice for that strategy.

63

Thank you DaShiv ! :slight_smile:

Just wanted to say I am having a lot of fun leveling this build right now. I never wanted to play a pet build in grim dawn (neither a full retaliation character) because I was afraid of being bored to death. I have to say that with this build, this is definitely not the case, I always feel active and focus on what I’m doing. Maybe it’s because I’m still learning to play with pets and toying with aggro management while debuffing etc. but so far so good !! :smiley:

64

Leveling guide updated. Changes are:

  • Moved Searing Light and High Potency to much earlier in the progression. This will delay getting the top Occultist skills by a couple of levels, but the change will make early leveling friendlier for newer players.
  • Minor added text.

Thanks - glad to hear that you’re exploring the game in new ways!

65

I love build guides like this , I love having my hand held all the way through , you sir are a gent :slight_smile:

I want to play this so bad , I love pet builds , my first build when starting Grim Dawn was the lazy pokemon build , not really found another I wanted to play . Saw this and was like “yes please”
Then I checked my stash , I have all bits “not the MI’s” even the shoulders dropped yesterday , first time I’ve seen those , then came the slap , no Dracarris damn you RNG , oh well .

Maybe one day :stuck_out_tongue:

66

Thx @DaShiv.
I should pay more Attention reading Guides :o

67

Excellent build and write up.

Interesting I’ve never thought of retaliation on pets.

Is there any other source of “flat” pet retaliation damage other than the Hellspawn on Draccaris?

Since Flame Touched will affect allies and add flat fire damage, will Temper also increase the pet’s armor and retaliation damage?

Is there any way to add ADctH on pets i.e. to heal the pet?

68

There’s a constellation under Empty Throne, I forget the name.

I’d assume so.

Fiendblood Spellblade, the Empowered one at least. Not sure about the lower one.

69

Empowered Briarthorn Band
Wildshorn Legguards
Blightstone Invoker
Primal Instinct

Briarthorn has up to 744 flat piercing retaliation, and Wolverine (node 2) also adds 50 pierce retal.

Yes, as long as they’re in range. That said, Temper’s added flat physical damage is the main draw for a pet build.

Yes, but it’s not nearly as effective for pets as percentage-based healing, such as from Blood of Dreeg or Wendigo’s totem. Refer to this thread for further discussion: http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=496223#post496223

That said, here are a few ways to add ADCtH to pets:

Revenant (node 5)
Elite Rhowari Shoulderguard
Fiendblood Spellblade
Empowered Fiendblood Spellblade

70

Thanks for this build and especially this guide DaShiv it’s really, really awesome!!! I’m loving playing this build. I never really considered a pet build before seeing this so thanks for opening up a new way to play GD for me!!!

I noticed in your guide that the link in your equip to “Demolitionist’s Gollus’ Ring of the Wild” doesn’t lead to the item, just a blank page on GrimTools. When I searched for the ring in GT without your link the results weren’t coming back correctly so maybe this is why your link didn’t work? However, I mentioned this to the dev of GT and he fixed it so you can link that ring properly in your guide now…if you’d like to.

Thanks again! Keep up the GREAT work! I can’t wait to see what’s next?!?! :smiley:

71

Thanks! I’ve updated the link for that particular ring and it’s now opening up the correct search results in the Item Database. Please let me know if there’s anything else that needs to be fixed/updated.

And yes, I’m working on yet another build to post… there’s a bunch more still in the pipeline!

Spoiler alert: they’re all pet builds. :cool:

72

Chiming in here to say I’m another player who has never tried a pet build, mostly because they seemed boring.

Leveling up with this one is a bit boring at first, but once you get flashbang and blackwater it seems to open up considerably.

Having a lot of fun so far, definitely a different way to play.

73

After leveling with this Build very easy in Veteran and easy in Elite it is really hard in Ultimate.
I can either bring my Pets Stats up or my Fire-Stats.
For Example: i Played with 430% Pet-damage and 130% Life but had only 800 Fire Damage and 750% Bonus on Fire.
Using the Wyrmclaw instead of the Black Grimoire of Og’Napesh brings the Firedamage up, but takes one Pet away.
i don´t have the Necromancer Gloves.
Alternatively i test now with 1000% Fire and 1800 Firedamage with 300% Petdamage and 80% Life.
Additionaly i use again the Flintcore Bolts on tzhe Focus to do some Damage.
Now its a little bit easier, but still really tough to survive.

74

Aggro management tends to be the key to survival when playing a pet or pet / hybrid build, as leech-based and regen-based sustain for health tend to end up being sacrificed, at least to some extent, when using pets.

On that notes, something happening in visual range is the key to triggering a mob’s aggro. So, for example, even if you’re patient about letting your pets make first contact with mobs, if you lob in a flashbang over your pets’ heads shortly after they begin a battle, then enemies that haven’t yet seen your pets will see the flashbang affecting their “friends”, and they’ll probably go straight after your summoner. In numbers.

Especially with large AOE effects like flashbang, you benefit from managing the center of gravity for their area of effect so that you avoid drawing in large numbers of mobs, potentially even from off-screen.

Hopefully this helps.

Edit & PS: Other possible contributing factors to survival difficulties could be low resists or a low defensive ability (DA) score. You can check these the next time you play and see if your character is robust enough to take some hits from time to time.

75

Thx for your Answer.
I definately am not really familiar how Aggro works in GD, but this helps.
My Pets don´t get Aggro from all Mobs when i send them in.
Often i got to work with the Pets to get them.
Resistances and Life are far to low but i have no Idea what to Change.
I can go on Def, on Pet-damage or on Fire-damage.
But there is no Way for Equip that fits to all 3 Components.

Maybe it helps to show you the Equip:

My English is really bad so i am not really sure if i understand how Damage on the Pet works.
Pets participate on my Basedamage (Flatdamage), right?
That means i do not only need a high Fire Percentage even a high Fire Value?

Cause it´s my second Char there is no Equip to swap between my Chars.

I guess my Problem is “Ultimate”, till then its easy going.
So was my Warder to, but with Ulti the Problems began.

I have to switch from Damage to Resistances.
Its quite frustrating that i can only play my Chars probably when my Tankmate pulls the Mobs.

I hope i can find out where the Mistake in my Thoughts is cause the Chars have Potential.

76

At present, your character really isn’t ready for Ultimate difficulty. Life totals, defensive ability, and some key resistances are low. Based on the average armor score, the armor total is probably low on some gear, as well, which would make your character even more prone to getting hit for spike damage.

At this point, you have three options. You can move on to other characters, hoping to fill in the blanks on gearing this character that way so ultimate becomes easier to handle. You can take your character back to elite and spend time farming for better gear. Or, you can remake your character into a more defensively solid character, giving up some damage in exchange for doing that.

Others with more experience can give you better advice about what kind of defensive numbers are workable for ultimate difficulty.

PS: In case you’re interested and might find it helpful, there is some discussion about how a Pyromancer pet build can work in a thread of my own, further down.

The build I’m following is different and more defensive in how it’s put together. The build itself may or may not interest you. But, some of the discussion about gearing up and aggro management might be helpful and interesting. The title of the thread begins with “Pets on Fire”.

77

HP is Gesundheit in German? Weird world.

How well a hybrid does offensively/defensively really depends on what type of hybrid you’re trying to make. The importance of DA also depends on the kind of hybrid and your gear, shield-users can easily stack more (and rarer) resists for example.

It’s actually not that hard to make a hybrid that has lots of lifeleech. In fact, most of my builds which use Occultist as its base mastery stay as pretty much pure Occultist up until beating Log in elite, because for the cheap cheap price of temporarily investing in the Wendigo constellation+CoF/max Sigil of Consumption line/maxed Blood of Dreeg line/Possession, I get dozens of extra points for pets skills/whatever else and I can pretty much facetank my way through most of elite.

Aggro works in some kind of attacks-over-time versus damage done formula, favoring attacks-over-time. I don’t know the specifics, but skills with multiple attacks/ticks like Curse of Frailty will generate a lot of aggro (even though it doesn’t do any damage) because what’s actually happening here is that the debuff is being applied repeatedly over time (hence lots of “attacks”, hence CoF’s reputation for having crazy devotion proc rate).
This is also why giving your pets DoT skills can significantly increase their ability to draw aggro. AoE DoT skills are ideal. Sending your pets in first and letting enemies marinate in their DoTs for a while also helps.

As a general rule, I would recommend getting your HP to at least 7k in ultimate. That’s only for act 1 and Krieg can shotgun you down (very easily) if you try to fight him using ranged attacks with that number. Ideally you should have ~10k or so HP for ultimate.
As for resists, the elemental resists should be at max. Until you get better gear, you have a bit more freedom with the rest as long as they’re not negative and as long as you have resist potions.

You will have a bit more freedom with this build when you get Primal Instinct, which significantly increases your damage output. When that happens, you can start using more defensive armors.
So I guess that means that your main goal at this point is to get Primal Instinct ASAP.

78

Just to add to what’s been said by Tyr, Nssheepster, and thepowerofmediocrity, I’ll also echo what I had previously wrote in my Iskandra’s Necromancer build guide about equipment priority:

For this build there’s less of an emphasis on CDR since there’s no Star Pact to supplement, but the other item priorities are still relevant. Note that:

  • Large health bonuses are a higher priority than most pet bonuses and player +% damage bonuses, since the core of your DPS comes from flat damage to pets, pet OA/crits, and RR debuffs.
  • Both pet damage and player damage (+% fire damage) are much lower on the priority list than you’re assuming.
  • For this build, the +skills priority listed as #2 is reaching 22/12 Flame Touched at end game.

Generally, you’ll receive better returns from large improvement to survivability than in small incremental improvements to offense. Pet damage % and player fire damage % are NOT the main DPS drivers in this build! Also, having a larger HP pool is crucial for proper functioning of Blast Shield.

79

Wow, what a Response.
Thank you Guys!
Yesterday i tested around wirh the Equip in the Stash and at least my Resis are now ok.
Lifs is still low but i tested about 1 hour how Aggro works and i think i understood.
So i started farming the Mountain Deeps to get Recipes.
Even if Ikriz shows i don´t die automatically.
It´s a little bit kiting but works.
Besides i take the one or both Caves in Burial Hill.
The Bosses are easy and maybe there is Loot i can use.
Unfortunately is most of the Loot that i find for my mate, Tankgear.
If ist not Tankstuff, its for Arkanists, his second Char.
I start thinking, this Game hates me.:smiley:

Thanks a lot for your help, i check the Thread of EnjoytheJourney for more Tips.

80

I am curious, why is Fiend not a part of the devotion setup? Seems to fit perfect with the theme of the build.