Maybe an odd question but Is Grim Tools down for everyone at the moment? I tried to see how many points where placed in Lightning Strike, but I can not get to Grim Tools?
When I click the link I get the warning that the IP address from Grimtools.com can not be found and also this line “DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN”?
Okay thank you medea. 
It’s up and down atm. A few minutes ago it was up.
Yeah I noticed. Till it is up again I wil just place 3 or 4 points in Lightning Strike and check again later.
Dammit knows about it, but can’t get it fixed until he gets home in a couple of hours.
Okay, thank you medea, guess I will be playing with a different character this evening then.
in the op.
on the devotion route part there is missing something:
you missing the crane. Bevor buyback the jackal
…
Jackal
Staff of Rattosh
---- Crane
Buyback Jackal
Ulo the Keeper of the Waters
Ishtak, the Spring Maiden
playstyle / leveling is smooth but get a lot slower in elite. Now with the primal spirit its getting better a little
Thanks, I’ll update that.
Some recommendations that would probably help speed things up a little:
I thought your Familiar guide would have had something for players that have nothing but are eager to farm the gear necessary to get whatever they need to farm their way to getting Ultimate gear.
What do you think of this as a g1 gear set-up (faction / easily obtainable MI’s only?)
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YVWJ1XL2 (with Widow)
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/RVvombkZ (with Storm of Ultos)
Out of the items here, the only things that are annoying to get are the Ugdenbog Leather and Runebound Topaz recipes; other than that it’s as close to a true g1 build while getting Familiar to 26/16 as possible.
MI head can be farmed from Ekket’Zul on Elite, taken because it’s the easiest way to get +1 to Occultist necessary to get 26/16 Familiar, not to mention the 3% DA.
Recipe for regular Voidmancer belt can be farmed at Vinelton, I think.
Bysmiel pants, Salazar Blade and Kravall Shoulders can be farmed on Elite
Faction chest, gloves, and boots are taken for covering resistances while having not terrible armor for green gear.
Rings are obvious choices, while amulet + medal bolster pet stats.
Devotions are centered around Mogdrogen, since IMO that’s the optimal choice for g1 beginner builds since you don’t have access to most legendary gear to get good pet OA / Speed. For RR, I’d go with Ultos over Widow because you don’t have enough Skill Points to get something that can proc the bombs. Besides, giving Ultos to Familiar will provide some additional valuable RR while helping in clearing out AoE packs.
EDIT: If you want the Primal Kitteh to do something other than stand there and look pretty, I’d replace Staff of Rattosh and Rat with Wretch and Bat. With the Primal Spirit’s fast attack speed, it’s sure to proc Twin Fangs often, and the Vitality damage from the proc is fully converted into Lightning. It depends on how much you want to focus on all your pets and how much you want to leave to the Raven.
— THANK YOU!
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2jqDgqN - much better now.
I feel a little sorry cause in the op there was a section for " here are a few useful items that you don’t need to farm:" :rolleyes:
I have a question regarding skills.
Why cap oak skin? Why not take 4 points from it and put them in say, Raging Tempest?
You’re welcome, and no worries. Aside from Salazar’s Blade, none of the stuff I just suggested to you was even included in that section until I looked for faction/MI items to improve your setup. Also, I should probably make that section stand out a lot more than it does, it’s easy to miss.
In my experience, Blizzard will outperform both Arcane Bomb, Hand of Ultos, and Reckless Tempest in every single case on a pet build, and it takes very little devotion investment.
I didn’t know about Horn of Ekket’Zul, but I’d choose to use non-mythical Beastcaller’s Cowl + Occultist amulet with +1 familiar.
I think Ishtak is better for beginners because it’s so amazingly powerful defensively that it gives you tons of room for player error. You also get a decent amount of OA from g1 gear and augments, you can get 15% OA from augments, up to 12% from the medal, 5% from Raven, plus things like Bysmiel pants and Beastcaller Cowl, and Beastcaller’s Cowl provides a pretty good speed boost.
Can you (or anyone else) confirm this? I didn’t include it in my “easy to farm” gear section because I wasn’t sure it was actually available there.
Hey, great guide! I haven’t played in quite some time (well before the first expansion came out), does the choice between Deaths Vigil and Kymons Chosen matter much for this build and/or it’s variations? I was leaning towards Vigil as the NPC mentions they have better items for pet based characters, but wasn’t certain as it’s been a while.
No, the only important faction choice is to befriend Barrowholm in Act 5.
Beastcaller’s Cowl + Occultist amulet was my first idea as well. Sadly, there’s not a single faction amulet that gives +1 to Occultist or Familiar. 
My focus was to strictly limit myself to what you can get from MI’s (no affixes required) and faction equipment, but it’s easy enough to get a +1 to Occultist amulet from just general gameplay.
I tend to build my devotions thematically rather than strictly what’s best because Blizzard can always get nerfed. 
I can always get a Grimtools with Ishtak and Blizzard if you’d like so you can get all your resistances capped. My particular example went for Mogdrogen because my set-up was the only way to get Familiar to 26/16 with my extremely limited equipment selection, which left no room for Beastcaller’s or Legion dagger with the crazy speed boost. Once you have those options available to you it’s very easy to get that speed increase and a better devotion output is available.
I meant literally a yellow “Occultist’s amulet of (any suffix)” that you can purchase from any vendor, with the +1 Summon Familiar version of the Occultist prefix. +1 All skills in Occultist is obviously better, but +1 Summon Familiar is all you really need.
Either way, I’m down for including a couple of g1 examples that hits 26/16 Summon Familiar, if we can confirm that the blueprint for non-mythical Voidmancer’s Coil is actually purchasable from that vendor.
This is what I get for not reading and researching thoroughly. According to this fellow who datamined Vinelton here, you can’t buy the Voidmancer belt recipe at any merchant. If that’s the case, there’s no way you can get a 26/16 Raven with just g1 gearing.
Best I can do that provides enough Raven points to get 4 projectiles while getting Primal Spirit up to 22/12 is this set-up here: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/DV9qj9vV
I double-checked, Essence of Beronath and Beastcaller’s Cowl can be bought at Vinelton, and Ancestor blueprint and all the ingredients to make it can be bought from faction merchants as well.
Devotion set-up gives you Mogdrogen while having enough DA to not have to worry about getting one-shot by enemies that charge at you. I tried a devotion set-up that had Ishtak and Blizzard, but it compromised too much resistances and defenses for my taste. One can gather the proper resistance targets to get from the MI’s and use that as a stepping stone, but I want to make a build as affix-independent as possible, and this is the only set-up that gives me the defenses I want while still getting a T3 pet devotion.
You still can using additional vendor bought Occultist +1 Summon Familiar items, it’s just not a good idea (+6 from weapon and rings, and +1 from 4 out of 6 of amulet, medal, chest armor, off-hand, helm, and relic).
I knew Beastcaller’s Cowl could be as I’ve bought it there before, but I didn’t even think of Beronath, and I had no idea you could buy Ancestor from that Malmouth merchant, definitely adding those specific items as suggestions.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/dVbJqwQV – getting stronger and stronger
build is great for a beginner pet build.
Its my first pet build and only item from the stash is the amulett and the material for the relic.