Sure, no problem.
In observance with the new patch shifting part of the Raise Skeleton’s base damage to Will of the Crypt; is it worth trying to hit maximum rank in both skills?
Theurgist’s Spectral Cowls & Overlord’s Iron Grips being the first two that come to mind, alongside Badges of Mastery.
Could you elaborate on idea of lazy version of this build? i mean our pets would be very fragile without health/resists bonuses and without time dilation we couldn’t resummon them fast enough. I just don’t understand how it would work.
I’m not one to typically attempt pet builds in an ARPG, but this build is the exception to that. I’m more of a melee guy myself :P. But this fits the bill of me wanting to do a Necromancer pet build.
Currently level 35 and popping exp pots to breeze through veteran and it’s a blast thus far. I am glad you updated with the leveling guide so I can follow it more concretely! I also appreciate how it’s a hybrid in that the pets are the meat and potatoes of the build, but your character can still participate in fights and not be a worthless sack of shit and the pets are still powerhouses.
If the damage variation wasn’t so large (from 1-76), the relic Eye of the Storm would be perfectly suited for this type of build. I personally find it a shame that an aura that specifically benefits lightning damage is outclassed by the generic Primal Instinct bugs (the relic specifically adds 1-30% additional DPS (minus the loss of attack speed) to your skeletons and likely adds additional DPS depending on how much your pets apply the electrode damage).
It’d be nice if dedicated pet builds had good aura relics that provide higher DPS if your build uses a lot of pets - like your Cabalist - while builds like your Pyromancer that only have a few permanent pets make better use of the Primal Instinct relic.
I must applaud your exquisite taste in memes and an explosive pet build. Hope the new beast dungeon actually gives us good itemization for pet builds.
So the build does lightning instead of vitality which is pretty cool i will do some testing with this as well.
hi there,
thx for an outstanding build.
but i have some questions concerning the devotions and the equip you are using.
first for the devotions, i seem to only scratch the damage you are doing, can this be because of the devotions, mainly d. god and td not being on max level?
concerning the equip:
why are you using clearvoyants helmet instead of the one dropping from ravager?
why not the myth necromancers shroud as chest?
Lost souls set with 4 pieces not an alternative?
if i have a BOM with + 5 to raise skellies can i exchange that for your greed medal ?
arent there better offhands than stormbringer since only the raven familar actually deals lightning damage ?
thx in advance for your answers.
Cool build, any tips for running this in HC? Maybe more pet defensive devotions?
Your question about devotions: If you have a literal identical build as the one posted your damage variation is likely being caused by un-maxed devotions, patch nerfs, playing skill (not an insult btw. DaShiv is crazy good and we’re probably seeing the best video caps he archived not the worst).
but the ravager helm as i can see misses only 2% CDR and the +2 to reap spirit.
therefor it can roll with +70 all damage and has another very strong debuff as granted skill?
so still not an option?=
I’m not sure where you’re getting the “1-30% additional DPS” from, but in any case the wide damage range on Eye of the Storm isn’t a problem. When you stack it on top of roughly 400-ish base damage (450-ish pre-nerf), the damage range becomes hardly noticable. In the damage calculator I simply use average values for all rolls regardless.
However, the additional 38.5 flat damage becomes heavily outweighed by the existing 400 base damage (including other flat bonuses), and likewise the +150% lightning damage is a drop in the bucket when the build already has over +3000% pet lightning damage. The electrocute damage helps and the Eye of the Storm did generate the largest hits during my relic testing, but that doesn’t directly translate to highest DPS, as you touched upon.
The problem is that bonuses to many of the damage components, such as flat damage and +% damage, are adding to a very large pool of existing bonuses, and therefore their effects become quickly diluted. Meanwhile, other bonuses like pet speed and pet count are much more effectively straight multipliers to damage. Therefore, they remain highly effective bonuses for any slot, not just for relics. You’d need a ton more flat damage or +% damage than Eye of the Storm provides to match the huge increase in speed from Bysmiel’s Domination or the extra pets from Primal Instinct.
That said, Eye of the Storm is level 60 and a heck of a lot easier to craft than level 70 or 90 relics, and there are other builds that do make use of it even at endgame.
The player inflicts vitality damage, the pets inflict lightning damage.
If you can post a Grimtools of your character, I’m sure we can help you identify where the damage differences are coming from.
You seem to be missing the part where Stormbringer converts ALL pet vitality damage to lightning, and necromancer pets do… a lot of vitality damage.
Generally, builds that can solo Gladiator quickly and effectively don’t need any changes for HC.
Mythical Clairvoyant has the following over the Ravager:[ul]
[li]+2% higher CDR.[/li]
[li]Better health, energy, and energy regen.[/li]
[li]Up to +7% additional armor bonus from Angrim crafting.[/li]
[li]+2 to Reap Spirit.[/li]
[li]Proc: 6m radius centered on caster does not fit well for pet build, and is more intended for melee or shield-caster build.[/li]
[li]Proc: As you can see from the videos, our primary quickbar is completely full and every button is heavily used in combat. What do you suggest we remove to make room for another clickie, and how is this debuff better than whatever is being replaced to make room for it? Keep in mind this proc has max uptime of 50% (unaffected by CDR).[/li][*]And finally - until you’ve killed Ravager on Ultimate, you can’t really appreciate how annoying it is to obtain one legitimately.[/ul]
[/li]
Truth.
/10chars
I was taking the maximum damage from the relic and adding it to your spreadsheet, a decision which - in hindsight - seems unrealistic. Instead of saying up to 30% DPS, I should have said up to 30% maximum pet crits, as 76 additional flat damage added to roughly 200 lightning damage - which has by far the highest damage multipliers and highest RR that you have listed in your sheet - is hardly insignificant. As you have already mentioned, the lack of other bonuses and large damage variation deems the relic inferior, so the point is rendered moot.
It reinforces my point that it would be nice if there were relics that gave auras that do compete with Primal Instinct so that there was more relic diversity than just “put Primal Instinct in any build that uses pets and forget about anything else.” Then again, there are other builds that have the same problem, but with a clearly superior amulet slot (Peerless Eye) or head gear (Clairvoyant Hat), so the problem isn’t limited to pet build relics by any means.
Should WotC be maxed now?
im trying to find the enslaved wraith off hand does anyone knows where it spawns?
Quoting myself for visbility as well as promoting a new question;
Based on my understanding when it comes to crafting your Stormbringer of Malmoth offhand – because of our investment in Master of Death as well as (potential) investment in Will of the Crypt – aiming for a larger %age of Vitality to Lightning will actually be a non-trivial DPS gain. Correct?
Quick head’s up: rather large update posted today on the front page.
It works because unlike Crucible, during the campaign you’re rarely under time/space pressure thus back off to resummon as needed. Also, the devotion plan outputs extreme pet DPS, which reduces the need to resummon when enemies are dying quickly. See “The Best Defense is a Good Offense” in the Analysis section.
A few thoughts based on your Grimtools:[ul]
[li]How much RR is on your spellblade? There’s a pretty wide variance in rolls.[/li]
[li]Are you fighting with all procs active? Peak damage is only achieved when with all procs active.[/li]
[li]The relevant devotions are: Hungering Void, Shepherd’s Crook, and Arcane Bomb. At max level these provide over +400% pet damage, +100% crit bonus, and -35% lightning RR, so at less than max level these bonuses will be significantly smaller.[/ul][/li]Also don’t forget that skeletons were nerfed in 1.0.3.0; the build’s melee skeleton lost about 50 flat damage and the archers about 80 flat damage, in addition to item nerfs (Stormbringer/Patron/Glyph/etc). The calculator in the Analysis section has all the 1.0.3.0 nerfs taken into account.
The problem is that the “maximum” for the calc doesn’t mean what’s the absolute apogee when every single RNG involved in combat rolls its maximum - that wouldn’t have much utility value at all. The idea is what’s the max expected damage under the most favorable combat conditions, i.e. all procs firing, no enemy armor/resistances/etc. You’ll notice that all damage ranges in the calc have already been converted to averages, because analyzing outlier damage rolls isn’t a very helpful exercise.
It simply means that Primal Instinct won out this time, that’s all. All 3 of the relics I listed in the Case Study (Primal Instinct, Bysmiel’s Domination, and Dirge of Arkovia) are competitive with each other for this build, although that can vary for other builds. I’m pretty sure that as I continue to update the build to stay current with the different patches, some of those updated versions will use either Bysmiel or Dirge instead, or else I wouldn’t have taken the pains to compare all 3 relics.
Hint: once Crucible is updated with AoM content, Primal Instinct is going to be at a huge disadvantage due to the massive amount of new AOE damage.
I’ve already discussed elsewhere the lack of relic diversity for pet builds in general, but this build can actually make better use of different relics much better than most other pet builds.
Sure, I’ll take max WotC for free. 
In the real world though, all changes involve tradeoffs, so I’d need to see some actual Grimtools to evaluate whether proposed changes to skill points and items for more WotC were effective and worthwhile (unless it’s a simple one-for-one item swap).
Work on Version 2.0 of the build will begin after I’ve finished with all planned guide content. Until then, version 1.0 of the build is absolutely viable in the current patch, though of course it can be tweaked/improved.
Has anyone tried Pets with Pox?
Not meaning to speak out of turn (DaShiv will correct me if I’m wrong) but he explicitly states the choice of Rend is for the massive OA debuff it applies to enemies. On top of the other OA debuff avenues this build has it translates into a substantial DA boost for you and your summons (Skeletons have poor intrinsic DA/armor so it’s more efficient to lower enemy OA than buff skeleton defenses directly).
Hi
Thanks for your guide
I am new to pets playing and I’ve seen ppl using shield and devotion Bysimal commandfor HC playing.
How would you consider swaping huntress with bysimal comannd ?