[1.3.0.6] HC - Queen Bysmiel Lightning Pet Cabalist

[Duskdeep86]

There really isn’t much new to play around with when it comes to summoner builds in the DLC. I’m not particularly interested in the Skeletons and their standalone gear either. For now, it looks like we’re still mostly stuck with the old sets, and I doubt we’ll be seeing many new sets for quite a while. At this point, we can only wait and see if some of the blue sets eventually get a few Awakened versions.

Compared to Conjurer, Occultist has a pretty significant disadvantage when it comes to Elemental Resistance Reduction. On top of that, the pet damage conversion on the Bysmiel set is kind of a mess. The conversion for the Wraiths and melee pets doesn’t work very well for Lightning, so you can’t really take full advantage of the nearly 1000% Lightning Damage and the % Crit Damage bonus on the belt. As a result, the overall damage is pretty mediocre. You basically have to rely on the Raven as your main source of damage, while the other pets mainly provide some extra damage and threat generation.

That said, the survivability is extremely solid. With Spring Maiden and Tree of Life, combined with around 900 HP/s from the gear, your health recovery is very fast. The Raven can also provide some additional healing. With this setup, it’s pretty hard to die.

The gameplay is also pretty straightforward. Aside from casting Curse of Frailty and Bone Spikes, you basically just throw out the occasional skill and let the pets do their thing. Overall, it’s a pretty chill build to play, although it’s definitely not as comfortable as Conjurer.

Also, I’d recommend leveling a separate Occultist specifically for rerolling Ascended affixes. You only need to complete the DLC on Normal difficulty to unlock the NPC that lets you reroll the affixes, which can save you a good amount of Soul Fragments.

If you want to maximize your damage, I’d prioritize Resistance Reduction Ascended affixes on your jewelry, weapon, off-hand, and belt. For the other slots, you can pretty much pick whatever you want.

CR 180 - 200 EX
SR 30 - 31
SR 39 - 40
SuperBoss: Dread
SuperBoss: Mogdrogen 2.0
SuperBoss: Uber Nerfatal
SuperBoss: Callagadra
SuperBoss: Ravager of Flesh

Gameplay Setup GT：Cabalist, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.6) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator

[nofika4u]

Have you tried using the awakened Og’Napesh off hand? With it you can reach 91% pet CS and Ravens will start doing 4 orb casts per lightning strike instead of 3. On an offensive Conjurer setup i found it the best option, and the skeleton pet is not bad in itself

[Duskdeep86]

@nofika4u

Ravens will start doing 4 orb casts per lightning strike instead of 3.

You mean storm orb or lightning strike skill？

The core idea of this build is to focus primarily on Raven damage. The pet damage provided by the current gear is actually fairly limited, since most of the damage has been converted into elemental damage, while the Occultist itself simply doesn’t have enough elemental resistance reduction to properly support this setup.

You can certainly switch to the Awakened Og’Napesh off-hand to push the damage higher, but in high-pressure situations, that also means having to press an additional button to summon the extra pet. And it doesn’t have a particularly significant advantage when it comes to the overall stats either. Overall, I think the Stormbringer of Malmouth off-hand provides a greater overall benefit to this particular build than Og’Napesh.

As you pointed out, the Awakened Og’Napesh is better suited to a Conjurer. For one thing, the pets have much higher health, giving them significantly better survivability. More importantly, it converts the damage of all your pets into Vitality damage. This is also why the mixed-piece, zoo-style Conjurer setups that are popular right now tend to combine things like Mogdrogen’s Helm, the Dirge of Arkovia relic, the Og’Napesh off-hand, the Salazar sword, and various other pieces.