Last patch updated: 1.1.2.2
With Forgotten Gods came a lot of balance adjustments for pets that brought many of the top pet builds back down from the stratosphere. The expansion also brought a lot of new goodies for pets which has greatly expanded the variety of competitive builds. Beastcaller’s Conjurer have emerged largely unscathed, and received a few minor enhancements along the way.
Update 1.1.2.0 brought a few additional enhancements that are applicable to this builds, including Ground Slam gaining pass-through and aether resistance on Oak Skin.
Gladiator 151-170 - 6:30
SR 75 Grava + Kuba + Theodin [from 1.1.0.0]
I’ve taken this build as far as SR 85 with buffs but SR difficulty in general extremely inconsistent so that is not very repeatable. SR 75-76 should be doable consistently.
Devotions
Meteor Shower + Whirlpool + Elemental Storm + Giant’s Blood + Shepherd’s Call + Howl of Mogdrogen
I absolutely love this devotion setup, and I now use it on almost every elemental pet build.
Meteor Shower is the best elemental offensive Celestial Power you can use. For Elemental pet builds, Howl of Mogdrogen is the best T3 pet devotion offensively to go for. In my testing I found that Blizzard and Whirlpool are pretty much equal at this point, so I prefer to use Whirlpool because the other nodes involved are better defensively. The recent buffs to Behemoth/Giant’s Blood make it very much worth taking, and that leaves almost no remaining wiggle room in this devotion setup. Beastcaller’s Talisman + Ground Slam + Ember Claws does a great job keeping agro on your pets for the most part.
If you are not comfortable with the defenses of these builds, you can choose a devotion setup using Ishtak and Tree of Life. The recent buffs to Tree of Life make it incredibly potent for keeping both player and pets alive. That devotion path is significantly slower, but is a great option for less experienced or more cautious/patient pilots.
Equipment Options
3p Trinkets vs Heart of the Mountain + Glyph of Kelphat’Zoth
Trinkets are a bit better defensively, due to the health and physical resistance on the completion bonus, the aether/chaos resistances on the rings, and the active heal through the granted skill Bysmiel’s Command.
Heart of the Mountain + Glyph of Kelphat’Zoth is a bit better offensively. The extra pet is decently strong, and the Glyphs max Primal Spirit and provide a lot of bonus lightning damage.
Mogdrogen’s Ardor vs Primal Instinct
In the Crucible, Mogdrogen’s Ardor often slightly outperforms due to the extra skills and pet resistances. Swarmlings aren’t as useful in the Crucible because clear speeds are largely impacted by how fast your pets reach their targets. Swarmlings are very slow, so they tend not be very useful on otherwise fast builds. They are also temporary pets, preventing them from gaining the extra bonus from Crucible buffs.
To make best use of Swarmlings in the Crucible, you need to pilot a little differently. Aside from taking down occasional high value targets (boss/nemesis), you generally need to avoid using Pet Attack so that the Swarmlings AI can just go for whatever is closest to them. If you are manually moving pets around, the Swarmlings will spend most of their time moving instead of attacking.
In SR, particularly on boss shards, the movement speed of swarmlings is much less of an issue as targets tend to live much longer. The lack of guaranteed buffs also makes swarmlings more powerful relative to your permanent pets, and the extra bodies can do a lot to improve survivability. Primal Instinct tends to perform slightly better in SR, in my experience.
Runebrand Legwraps vs Chausses Barbaros vs Wildshorn Legguards
With Aether resistance now available on Oak Skin, the Wildshorn Legguards are now the best pants option in my opinion. Chausses of Barbaros is a fine alternative but leaves you a bit more starved for skill points. If you’re using both 3p Trinkets and Primal Instinct, the Runebrand Legwraps can be a better options because you’ll need the elemental resistance, and in SR the CC resistance is also very useful.
Bysmiel’s Mindweaver vs Bysmiel’s Grasp vs Spark of Ultos
Bysmiel’s Mindweaver performs best all around, followed by Spark of Ultos, followed by Bysmiel’s Grasp. Not much else to say about this.
Augments
On Beastcaller’s builds, I usually use some combination of Mogdrogen’s Blessing and Mender’s Powder, depending on the setup and whether I am playing Crucible or SR. Using Mogdrogen’s Ardor in Crucible, I’ll use all Mogdrogen’s Blessing. Using Primal Instinct in SR, I’ll use two Mender’s Powders if I’m using Trinkets, and three if I’m using the Glyphs.
Alternatives
Here are some examples using the alternatives above:
Glyphs + Primal Instinct
Crucible 6:30-7:30, SR-76 with high reliability
Glyphs + Mogdrogen’s Ardor
Crucible 6:30-7:30, SR-76 with medium reliability
3p Trinkets + Mogdrogen’s Ardor
Crucible 7:00-7:45 SR-76 with good reliability
3p Trinkets + Primal Instinct
Crucible 7:00-7:45, SR-76 with high reliability
Glyphs + Primal Instinct + Ishtak
Crucible 7:00-8:00, SR-76 with high reliability
Glyphs + Primal Instinct + Ishtak + Tree
Crucible 7:45-9:00, SR-76 with high reliability
Bonus
Elemental Trinkets Conjurer
Crucible 6:30-7:15
This setup is a little weaker on defense compared to Beastcaller’s. The defenses are fine for Crucible but the difference is noticable in SR. Trinket’s Conjurers can farm SR-76 reliably with Ishtak/Tree of Life devotion setups, but end up being a bit slower as a result.
Leveling
Follow this guide until lvl 94, then switch over to Beastcaller’s gear. It’s a little out of date but it’s the best I can offer for now.