1.1.4.0 Conjurer summoner (physical) - advice would be appreciated

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

Hello everybody

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/lNk8aL42

this is the summoner i am struggling with now.

THe idea is to make physical pets, hence Tree of Life, Ihstak, Azrakaa + Assassin’s blade, and maxing Primal Spirit + Briarthorn.

Still can’t craft second Eldritch Mirror in the helm hence resists are unbalanced.

Pushed it to shard 66, died 4 times from 60 to 66 (only healing potions, no shrines).

The build is somehow safe to complete 150-170, though it takes almost 12 minutes in Crucible of Sands with 3 buffs + Vanguard banner.

Ravager is difficult, did not touch Callagadra and Crate of Entertainment with this build.

What is needed to improve its perfomance (other than switching to Sigatrev elemental Conjurer or Maya double birds setup :slight_smile: )?

my idea was to dump points in Bonds of Bysmiel for extra Health + maxed Manipulation as possible for total speed.

Hellhound is weak, it’s used mainly for RR with Mythical Veilpiercer (clearing times did not change when Hellhound was maxed and when it’s 1 point + skill bonuses).

Dumping points in Raven to have 3 projectiles as each can trigger Shifting Sands and they proc is almost 100% up.

Relic: i really, really like all the bonuses Mogdrogen’s Ardor provides, swarmlings from Primal Instinct are slow :frowning: maybe it’s worth trying Dirge of Arkovia? Losing skills and pet bonuses for extra pet.

Off-hand: i have Cataclysm Eye in stock but still uncertain if +1 to all Skills and Chaos/Stun res are better than extra summon + some pet bonuses.

What are your opinions, pls?

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Before switching over to Birbs completely, I did try to make physical pets work . Infact that was what Fluffy Squishy was supposed to be at first. With FG release, I wanted to make a pet build work with the Azrakaa devotion proc and thought it would be great at first. Or atleast, it looked pretty neat on paper.

This was my build: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4NOkGodN
The results are in the Fluffy Squishy thread: The Fluffy Squishy - Pet Conjurer

I eventually ended up giving up on it and moving on to Double Birb Elemental due to how little damage the physical setup actually did, by comparison. It was too slow to kill stuff. If I had to guess, I would say that enemy Armor was the culprit. But I am not sure. Maybe there wasn’t enough AoE, maybe the problem was that I couldn’t convert all my pet dmg into physical and since lost like nearly half of it due to them being of a different dmg type, maybe something else.

But when I saw its 40 min cally kill time, I just gave up on it. That said, it was a few patches before and things have changed since then. I don’t know how it will perform atm. But if I were to bet, I would bet that it still won’t be able to touch Elemental builds, or even come close.

Maybe pet need Armor Shred, or their own version of Beronath Sword. Maybe I just suck at trying to make physical pets work. But if someone can come up with a version that shows performance similar to elemental counterpart, consider me extremely interested and impressed.

3

Yes, Maya, thanks, i took inspiration from your build and Sigatrev ideas.

The armor of mobs is one thing, there are not enough damaging procs as well.

Since i dropped recipe for Mythical Glyph of Kelphat’Zoth, guess i will try to push to Shard 75 with current build and if I fail do so comfortably, i will just switch to Sigatrev elemental build and see how it goes: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/lV74PjBZ

1 Like
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Physical pets can do okay, but they have access to less RR and less AoE than elemental pets, and as a result elemental pets tend to do a bit better.

In any case, a Mogdrogen devotion setup is going to be a lot better offensively than an Ishtak/Tree of Life one. Shifting Sands is pretty underwhelming on pets builds from what I’ve seen as well. Particularly if you give up Ishtak, using Cataclysm’s Eye is worth the loss of the extra pet. At 17/12 Ground Slam gains taunt and you’re only one point away from that.

Pet survivability tends to be dominated by resistances. Your pet resistances seem pretty good, without buffs in SR, RR can still drop them (Elemental is the most likely culprit). Extra points in Bonds of Bysmiel aren’t likely to save them in situations where the pets are dying.

Ultimately, what route is best for you depends on your play style, what content you’re trying to take on, and how much you’re willing to trade durability for speed/power.

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Sigatrev, thanks for input, what devotion route would you suggest if i wish to try the physical theme of the pets?

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4NODe4v2 this is more offensive, but i apprehend the summoner himself will not last for long :slight_smile:

6

I’ve always found that physical pets on their own were… kinda underwhelming. But I realized eventually that bleed damage comes very naturally alongside physical, so adding some focus on Bleed Damage on top really helps.

I’ve managed to do SR 75 on HC on bleed/phys pet conjurer, but that was back in 1.1.2 and I haven’t updated my build in a while. It’s also really not a super fast build, but it certainly works.

Your devotion path looks good but I don’t see any point in manticore when you have Bysmiel’s Bonds already, and you’re also using veilpiercer. Those resistance reductions don’t stack. That said you get better consistency though, but I’d probably just move the manticore points over to Huntress for Rend procs. The -OA, flat bleed damage, and -bleed res (which also helps falcon swoop and the bleed damage on briars/primal) will probably outweigh manticore.

7

Thanks, i will consider to add bleeding damage and see if i like it.