Did you try as level 12? I’m curious if maybe they changed the level requirement for the prefix to show up----I’ve just now gotten my resource poor summoner to 65 and am ready to craft this—hesitant now! :undecided:
I was indeed trying as a level 12- level 13 actually, accidentally went up one level. Perhaps they did? I can try with my 79 the same way see what happens.
Ill post results when I get them.
Edit: Okay I just crafted around 500 more at level 79. I did get a Plaguebearer’s, but I only got one of them.
So a total of 1 crafted in 500 attempts. It wasn’t even a particularly good one, with only 29 RR on it. I think something is going on, I definitely think they changed the rates here.
I am not going to use this as its definitely cheating, and I don’t care to do that, but I will say this is completely not worth it for anything but a hardcore player if you have to craft hundreds of these spellblades- and that’s just to get the one PBM, OP says to continue until you get one with 30+ RR. I know its only takes void-touched ammo (1 per, so 4 roiling blood per PBM) and aether crystals (9/weapon), but it apparently takes a TON of mats to get you a PBM Spellblade in a legitimate manner unless you get very lucky. You’re talking 5k+ aether crystals and 2k+ roiling blood (you could also craft this with emeralds and wraps, 3 RB per 1 of each of those, would knock down the cost a bit). That’s not even considering the 18k iron per craft, which works out to roughly 9 million iron. I assume that’s chump change to some people, but through act 1 in Ultimate with hardly crafting anything and just buying the mandates from factions I’m not even at 1 mil iron. Unless iron goes on a huge upward spike at end-game- possible, never actually taken a character up there- that will also be a limiting factor.
As this is what I feared to be the case, I have looked into alternatives for weapon slot. I am currently using Empowered Deadbeater, but the Claw of Hagaraz- recipe can be bought from Barrowholm vendor at revered- looks pretty tasty.
I think I was just incredibly unlucky earlier.
I again tried on my low level mule legit, I got 2 PBM in my 40 tries, one with 32 RR and one with 34 RR.
I am hitting a wall at level 90 around Barrowholm. Getting my ass kicked six ways from Sunday by the start of AoM. Skellies are just getting dropped so fast by the massive amount of AoE poison on the ground basically everywhere. Here’s my character if that helps: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2EOa7vZ
Also, do you think Ancestor is better than Deathchill? I have both. Unfortunately, still don’t have recipes for the mythical relics I actually want. Trying to get either a Scourge recipe to drop so I can craft Dirge of Arkovia, or the Primal Instinct recipe to drop to craft that. I think I’d prefer Dirge, so I at least have one body up, since the Skeletal Servant’s health pool is enormous.
I ran into a hero that absolutely destroyed me, he stripped me of all auras every time he hit me so he killed my pet dmg and he’d do electric aoe shocks every 5 seconds which would annihilate all my pets as well. Was hell to get him down.
Welp I am stuck, can’t progress with this build any further, constantly dying trying to save Ulgrim in the Void from the big winged dude: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/r2BkmnkV
That’s my build if something is up and I’m not seeing it.
Skeletons are being instantly killed upon being summoned basically anywhere in the expansion because of so much aoe on the ground.
Hellhound doesn’t fare much better. Also screw the relic system in this game, I cannot get a mythic relic because recipes wont drop and I need like 15 recipes to get even one mythic because of all the relics needing other relics to be crafted. Only reason I’m even close is because I cheesed the malmouth guy in normal mode and kept resetting him till I got all the empowered/transcendent ones I needed.
Game feels like a SP MMO at this point, just grinding shit out.
Looks like I was lucky regarding the spellblade. I got my plans at level 64 and after 10+ crafts got it with right prefix and 33 RR roll 
Too bad I do not have plans for Nemesis relic yet so no primal instinct for me at this time.
Regards
Doesn’t look too bad for not having all best in slots to me. I did put some more points in Aspect of the Guardian while I was going through the main game DLC but that really only helps the pets survive poison and a bit of phys damage.
Green items that roll “taskmasters” (probably shoulders or pants) could help getting through the ridiculous AoE ground effects in the DLC as well if you come across any - they don’t seem very rare.
I struggled with this build with even better gear than yours when it came to aether/chaos AoEs hitting my skellies too. A few parts around Malmouth seriously frustrated me with the Aether-fire swirling effects everything likes to leave on the ground for like 20 seconds. Most of the time I had enough damage to get through it all anyways with frequent re-summoning but I can sympathise.
A Primal Instinct relic would help you a lot.
I don’t know if you can go back to Elite and purchase a Storm-bringer of Malmouth recipe in the Steelcap district (requires enough rep).
Sovereign Ruby of Domination amulet is pretty insane too, not sure if you can get a better substitute until then than what you currently have.
Components like Eldritch mirrors would be great too, but tough to make perhaps.
Not much help I know since it comes down to a grind, but every little piece on this build seems to add up to a lot.
I am working on grinding Malmouth rep, I skipped it in Elite as recommended in the guide. So I don’t have it to Revered yet.
I know the relic isnt great, but I can’t get the recipes to drop. I have the Dirge recipe and I could make it, but I don’t have the Scourge recipe so I cant make Dirge.
And I don’t have a Primal Instinct recipe either, so SOL there.
So you’re suggesting putting some pet hp on there and dropping some dmg?
As OP already pointed out, there’s no use investing in pets defenses for this build. Skeletons are always going to die no matter what you do. You have to focus on pets damage and your defenses. In the last build you showed you were missing % to all pets damage on several items. You need that stat on every item until you convert to lightning. Then everything on ultimate dies instantly and you can focus some more on your defenses. I remember i had like 1500% to all pets damage before having BIS items and converting to lightning.
Also in a situation where all your pets die, you should run back, wait until you have everything summoned and only then engage again. There’s no point staying in a fight with 3 skeletons and a fiend.
If you need help with the relic, i can craft it for you. Just bring all the required mats and relics.
My current gear: 62a6RkkV (can’t post full link)
I’m having an awful lot of trouble when facing Acid or Aether enemies in Crucible. Pets have 0 aether/acid res and skellies basically melt whenever an enemy glances over them. After many deaths (because pets kept dying) I managed to finish 100 challenger. I felt it was awfully frustrating so I guess I’m doing something wrong or maybe I was just not ready for that?
I was kinda thinking almost the opposite. This build was only really good for me after I started doing super damage. Like Danko said your pets imply are going to die in tough fights.
You could try going back and doing the DLC on Elite, have some fun and get some rep for that Stormbringer of Malmouth. It seems like some accessible % pet damage and makes the BiS rings and shoulders very valuable when you get them. Remember if poison is annoying you in Act 5 you can put some points in Aspect of the Guardian
I see, so until I get stormbringer, I need to just push pet damage as high as I can?
Thanks a lot for the offer, I might take you up on it. I mean, I could just use GDTH to spawn it in, I was trying to do it the legit way.
Read the “The Best Defense is a Good Offense” chapter on the first page. DaShiv went out of his way to make one of the most complete guide ever. You will not only understand how this build works, but you will also learn game mechanics, how flat damage works etc.
You basically have to out-damage the content. Everything has to die before your pets or else. On Ultimate you can run away and resummon your pets, in Crucible you can’t do that, so you have to make sure everything dies lightning fast.
What you want on every item until you get Stormbringer:
Bonus to All Pets: % to all damage, % total speed (includes attack speed), %OA, crit damage.
For you: resistances, vitality, defense ability.
Also Time Dilation devotion and cooldown reduction on off-hand, amulet and head are very important for spamming skeletons.
Oh and don’t forget to use Mark of Torment whenever you’re in trouble. It’s the only defense this build has.
As for the last part, i don’t consider cheating trading items or getting a little help. This is a legit part of every ARPG i’ve played. On the other hand, spawning items in your inventory kills the fun almost instantly, so my advice stay away from it.
Very Clever 
I find that if you kill a boss quickly enough they wont use most of their dangerous abilities, casepoint - gravathul and his instab orbs or alexander meteor spam. This however becomes a problem during 150-170 because Kubra spawn will cause everyone in the entire map to constantly heal, he stalls everything you throw at the mobs because they are getting healed to full in mere seconds despite the constant nerfs to his bloodpools. Himself also deal absurd damage and is one of the most dangerous boss in crucible besides reaper of the lost. It seems for 150-170 the builds now shifts towards absolute survival and edge out these mobs bit by bit like the CDR reduction spellbinders which has mirror up on demand and kite all mobs until there dead. I am skeptical if an all in offence will work that well anymore.
The Theodin fight was hell, died 3 times, he just oneshots all of my pets with his aether thing that goes out and then comes back in.
Build is looking better though, went back into Elite and finished the expansion, and not only did that give me enough rep to get Stormbringer, but the random legendary accessory that it dropped was mythical sovereign.
I agree about the spawning items in your inventory thing, that definitely killed the fun the last time I played this game.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/L2J8vPkZ
I dont have enough buttons on my bar for all of these abilities though lol. Right now I have Storm Spirit on my second bar since it seems to die the least.
Let me look into what all you need to craft Primal Instinct. I think I need to farm some manticore eyes. My steam ID is koravel34 if you wanna add me.
Edit: I actually had farmed up some eyes already on this character and another, so I have the ingredients. Also if you have the recipe for mythical clairvoyant’s hat, I have the ingredients for that as well.
Edit 2: Actually managed to kill Kupacabra, to my great surprise, and he dropped the recipe for the hat, so dont need that any longer.
Super nice drops!
About the hotkey bar thing, I put all of my summons including skeletons even on my second hotkey bar. I’ve been playing pets for a while and I’m so used to it now. Whenever something dies I just toggle spacebar (or w/e you use to get to the second hotkey bar) hit the summon(s) I need and toggle back.
I don’t find it too bad since you almost can’t use your abilities too often so the ability spam + re-summoning doesn’t take too much thought.
I think with best in slot gear and all the skills this build recommends you end up having to use 3-4 fairly common buttons on your second bar anyways.
I’m not so sure you can finish 170 with pets. At least not on Gladiator. Did anybody managed that? I’m building an internal trauma Witchblade at the moment (shield + defense devotions setup) and the damage i take in those waves is insane. I’m pretty sure the skeletons will die in milliseconds :rolleyes:
Luckily when you realize the skeletons are not made for farming gladiator, you can turn it into an Vitality Cabalist 
Zhuugus said in his thread this build is hard to pilot and he was right. You have so many things to do and so many buttons to press it’s crazy. Myself i was always forgetting to use the Blazing Death ability of the Hellhound which is pretty important tbh.
PS: I can’t find your profile on steam. I’ll pm you with mine.
Man, this guide is really… really well written, and more explanatory than ordinary build. You explained many things that i have been wondering and googling through internet, and here… all in one place is everything you need to know about summon, mechanics and specially for skeletons. Thank you so much.
Has anybody finished waves 150-170 in the crucible as a pet build (this one or any other?) If so give me the pro setup because I need it in my life.