This build is the result of an Avenger Warder and a Beastcaller Conjurer having a baby together.
The build will be 2h melee Savagery + 2x briathorn, Primal Spirit and Swarmlings. As a bonus I also made a Cadence version. Enjoy facetanking in peace while the briarthorns steal your Sunders.
I made it in softcore, but I think it is a very good hardcore concept, the briarthorns are virtually indestructible up to SR32. This is probably my strongest hybrid pet build so far in post-1.2 balance (that also satisfies all my gameplay criteria). I was aiming for SR30 in 5-9 min, but it can also get through SR32 comfortably without dying.
For beginners I also made a budget variant that requires only the Malmouth and Coven factions at revered status in addition to more easy drops, including items that can have downgrades drop at low levels. The budget build should be good to up to around SR26.
GAMEPLAY
For this build I maintained the same criteria as for my other post-1.2 hybrid pet releases:
-Gameplay should be similar to a normal (Savagery) build with ‘player-scaling pets’ because pets die very rarely.
-Button count is low, I try to keep it around the same button count as top20 builds with 8 or more ‘easiness’ score.
-Leveling is very straightforward, build is ‘online’ very early, no conversions or rare items needed.
-Useful items will be in the loot pool at all experience levels, can be played SSF or beginner without stash.
-Green items are only single rare.
VIDEO
This is a gameplay demonstration of SR32, not a speedrun
ENDGAME BUILD - Savagery
BONUS BUILD - Cadence
BUDGET BUILD - Savagery
NOTES
The Savagery version relies more on the fighting spirit skill to proc Upheaval. The cadence and budget versions do not use Upheaval and rely more on soldier WPS.
I specced the budget build for Savagery, but it shouldn’t be any harder to level up as a Cadence build, using a lower level Voldrak’s Crusher.
I decided to not use War cry for these builds, aside from saving a button and skillpoints it is not very useful to taunt enemies when you want your briarthorns to do that and as a melee build I don’t want to scare them away either. So the functionality of War cry will be replaced somewhat by using Scales of Ulcama and the static charge component.
Leveling Guide for Hybrid Pet Shamans (Physical/Pierce)
Starting at level 1
Physical shamans are one of the easiest hybrid pet concepts to level because both player and pets can stick to the physical damage type the whole playthrough and physical is the most common dmg type early game anyway. In some cases it is also viable for the player to inflict pierce dmg while the pets focus on physical (At least pre-FOA, pierce conversion for pets doesn’t exist). Mixing Pierce and physical is mostly for using ranged weapons while leveling.
Because both the player and pets inflict supplemental bleed dmg, you can also use bleeding focused gear drops while leveling, however this is mostly for early game. Later in the game bleeding builds will start to deviate more from physical builds.
Very early in the game (~1-25) I recommend to invest most skillpoints into the briarthorn and some in Mogdrogen’s pact, at this stage it is very easy for the player to keep up with relevant damage using component skills. I could go for something like 8/16 briarthorn, 12/12 ground slam and 8/12 mogdrogens pact.
If you first develop the players main attack skills, you will likely get a good player build midgame, but make it hard to switch into the ‘hybrid pet mentality’ and gear requirements later.
Midgame Considerations
Hybrid pet builds are the most playable if the pets stay mostly alive, to keep the pets solid in the midgame we need to know what innate resistances the Shaman pets have
Briarthorn: 500% poison, 30% pierce, 30% vitality, 50% stun, 25% freeze, 25% petrify
Primal Spirit: all resistances are at 25% except poison, bleeding and vitality are 0%, 500% resistance to all CC
The primal spirit has resistances at zero which the briarthorn already has innate to some extent. This means I often accept not getting them all to 80% in the endgame for this pet, it is just not important. Consider this pet supplemental damage and not a priority, adding this pet comes after both getting a good amount of development in your main dmg skill and a well developed briarthorn.
The focus should be on the briarthorn because as soon as it dies, you also lose all emboldening presence buffs and the build falls apart quickly. We can get aether resistance and more pierce with oak skin skill, so our first priority is elemental and some chaos when we hit the first C’thonic areas. For elemental resistance you can look for common green items with ‘…of the wild’ suffix, while ‘Taskmaster…’ prefix provides chaos. Coven, Bysmiel and Solael factions also sell chest armors with Chaos resistance, but they start at pretty high level so you will likely already have obtained more chaos resistance from devotions.
Relics
Hybrid pet shamans have an easy relic path get Ancestor and then use it to make Primal instinct and you are done.
For Shamans I often prefer this path over the more hard to get Mogdrogen’s Ardor, because in the endgame I can anticipate getting Mythical Nosferattis to convert all swarmlings to 100% physical and that is a lot of damage to leave behind.
If you want an extra pet early game just for fun, Hysteria is very easy to get.
Devotion Guide for Hybrid Pet Shamans (Physical/Pierce)
Early game
So which constellations should you develop first? For melee I prefer to take Bull first and for ranged Falcon. These will unlikely end up in the final build but I like to have those procs early and their effectiveness doesn’t depend on my Offensive ability like Assassin’s Blade. Another good first choice is Shepherds Crook.
My hybrid pet builds almost always will require certain constellations to be build up early and then removed later, this is because there are alot of good tier 2 constellations for hybrid pet builds and you can get more of them if the pay for their own requirements. Consequently you shouldn’t worry about losing a few aether crystals.
You can supplement your elemental resistance with 2 points in the nighttalon constellation (even if just temporarily), or you can take this one completely as it is really useful. Another useful early constellation is Stag, this one has an exceptional amount of +% damage to pets for early game (if they are physical).
Midgame
One of the best advices I can probably give you is to not follow my builds too strictly, take them as a proof of how far this concept can go, but feel free to experiment a lot along the way. The benefit of having pets is you can have more ‘on attack procs’ and juggle them around. Whatever makes the build most fun is always the right way. So that being said, I will point out some Constellations here that I think are especially valuable for balancing out the build midgame:
Maul of the Bear: pretty much obligatory for physical builds, but can be skipped if the player inflicts pierce.
Staff of Rattosh: best tier 2 devotion for hybrid pet offensive stats.
Behemoth: best tier 2 devotion for hybrid pet defensive stats, but shaman can skip it because of mogdrogen’s pact and wendigo totems
Typhos the Jailor: good alternative for staff of rattosh when following different path, sometimes you can take both.
Ulo: lots of rare pet resists and CC resists.
Kraken: while not having pet bonuses, often too good on 2h builds to skip.
Hydra: while not having pet bonuses, often too good on ranged builds to skip.
Chariot of the death: fix for low OA and lack of CC resist, alternative for hydra for melee.
Harvestman scythe: fix for energy issues and flimsy class combinations.
Scales of Ulcama or Bysmiel’s Bonds: The devotion can provide ‘reduce target’s resistances’ if you don’t have War Cry or don’t want to use it, War Cry can be an issue if you neither want to taunt or scare away enemies.
Late game
Your final devotion plan for a physical build should always include Assassin’s Blade and one tier 3 physical constellation. Lets take a look at the Tier 3 options
Azrakaa: The default choice, because of the offensive nature and easy requirements
Oleron: Great, but can be hard to reach without sacrificing a lot of valuable stats from ‘blue’ constellations
Vire the Stone Matron: Very reachable, but it is retaliatory in nature so not perfectly optimal with tanking pets
Obelisk of Menhir: Sometimes only grabbing the DA can be useful.
Ishtak the Spring Maiden: In my experience this path can often result in the build becoming too ‘pet heavy’ and not very hybrid. I think it has more to do with the path towards it, than the bonuses and also the player dmg that is left behind.