Yes, definitely. You are still going to need a good amount of %bonus damage to pets and it will never be as good as converted damage, everything else being equal. But the potential to be more than decent of a build is definitely there, especially if you are also going for amulet + off-hand Total Damage modifiers for Briarthorns.
Yeah, the lack of blueprints definitely hurts Bysmiel’s Trinket farming even at high SR.
Highly likely since builds have been nerfed over less. As much as I love Pet builds, this thing here is an absolute monster. So, would actually be surprising if it didn’t get hit with a balance patch.
However, at the same time, there are quite a few different variables and the greens used play a non negligible part in it. I remember builds with double rare MIs and such getting more leeway in regards to nerfs, but not sure if that still applies.
I can however, safely say that even incase of nerfs, the build is still going to be rather strong simply due to how much damage it is packing.
Faction does not matter really for this build, however necromancers are usually better for summoners due to some specific auguments that can be usefull under some circumates.
That’s not true, people overrate some % damage and single gear choices in Crucible too much (in case of “cheesy” setups at least). Pets were “nerfed”, retal was “killed” (massive % nerfs and more) and it added like 10-20 seconds average or nothing. After 1 year of constant nerfs. Does not matter if your damage is 10% higher or lower, mutators, spawns, random fps drops or random crits matter more. Grinding good crucible run is so freaking rng based that current “1 shard meta” SR clean is not even close.
The reason this build is so strong is double khonsar rings (that’s the only hard part to get) and converting insane flat damage. There are other suffixes for weapon and amulet to get more skill points to briars and I guarante that even going something like 24/26 is not going to change very much in practice after you got two rings. Also double rare pet affixes for pet items were dropping like candy long time ago before this smart loot change, at least from my experience.
Ofcourse if someone wants to go full legit sub4 with this build then grind is real, but eating celestials alive or killing bosses in SR in few seconds like most players play do not need 100% damage more or less.
And the Ring of Khonsar, which was buffed in 1.1.9.1 with increased fire damage for pets on the skill proc and now looks like will be nerfed with less flat and less fire damage% for pets for 1.1.9.2.
I’m just salty that Korvaak’s burning blade is kinda better on almost every mastery combo EXCEPT the one it’s intended for. It triggers me so hard I’m losing my mind over it. Why not give Korvaak’s burning blade some unique effect for defiler? How hard is that?
Like minions have lvl1 blast shield to flame touched
1% of minion attack damage drained as life to player to flame touched
I still stand by my previous suggestions that demolitionist should have some single passive nodes that affects minions. Like burning black metal armor on the briar. Mortar attached to the blight fiend. Some pet support passives. Demolitionist are like sorcerers and engineers combined. It just makes sense, at least to me, that demolitionist should have some passives where he/she can improve pets with the fires of industry.
Rant over … sorry. It just… Korvaak’s blade is better on a cabalist and conjurer than the defiler, the class combo the item is ACTUALLY targeting. It’s just so dumb.
You would have to give Demolitionist (or even Defiler) a lot to make it competitive with the main 3 combos for pet, more than what can/should realistically go onto a single weapon. The problem I went more into detail above is not pet damage but just surviving both for the pets and players - it is far, far, far easier to make a summoner and their pets survive with Occultist or Shaman.
That said, I think some people here would just settle with making Demolitionist fairly viable for pets in the same way as Arcanist or Inquisitor. Neither of these outshine Occultist, Shaman or Necromancer either but can still be strong, valid picks as secondaries for pet builds in the appropriate situations with a solid primary pet mastery.
While some innovative ideas like these or some kind of Vindictive Flame/Retaliation playstyle for pets could be neat to see, tying them to Defiler isn’t really feasible/possible with the way the game is currently designed and works.
As far as pet support skills in Demolitionist - there is Flame Touched/Temper. Debuffs also exist in Flashbang (though this conflicts with Rotting Fumes), Demon Fire (also conflicts with Decay/Ill Omen) and Agonizing Flames/Thermite Mine for RR.
I’m not sure you are aware the burning blade is already changed in 1192 public test to give more to demolitionist and less to others
the best conjurer will still handily beat the best defiler, but that is not caused by the burning blade, but by much better synergy between the masteries and also equipment in other slots.
I see. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Some good points there.
I have a mental illness that causes high focused preoccupation and obsession on even the most minor details. Korvaak’s blade has been on my mind for weeks now. Not even joking lol. Last night I was thinking about korvaak’s burning blade while brushing my teeth thinking “WHY IS IT NOT STRONGEST WHERE IT SHOULD BE!?”
Anyway… I’ll end my ranting there. I’ll just try to never look at it again.
