Hello,
Since the expansion brought with it three new items that dictate what damage and type of skeleton you get, I’ve set out to play all of them. First was the chaos cabalist which is probably the best among them (check out nofika4u’s build thread if interested). For this character I instead opted to make a ritualist, for a few different reasons:
- Variety
- Easy way to convert all pets damage/auras to cold
- Synergy with some item choices for shaman pets
I do want to note that his build definitely can be played as a Cabalist as well. It might even be stronger because of curse/blood of dreeg
The key to this build lies in the new monster infrequent offhand;
As seen, it will always summon archers for you and convert all skeleton damage to cold + all general pet phys damage to cold. We also use a new chest piece to turn any extra vitalty damage on other pets into cold. If you are leveling a brand new character, the easiest way to obtain this is to kill (note: kill, don’t help) the first of 3 undead in the Scarfell Depths found in the Utak Kunar rift. As far as I can tell, she has a 100% chance to drop one.
Gear options:
Instead of the Ravager weapon you can craft a Bysmiel’s Grasp. It will make your primal spirit hit harder but you’ll only be able to have one. Instead of the shoulders, you can farm Kra’vall shoulderpads. They come with some great passive stats, most notably +4 to undead legion. You want at least +8 to undead legion to cap out your # of skeletons.
If you instead want to go even harder on your primal spirit, you can replace the Wendigo Gaze with a Halion’s Crest (easily farmable in Old Arkovia). This will make your Spirit be available pretty much 100% of the time.
if you instead want to go more passive pets route or the cabalist version, you could replace the helmet with Mythical Crown of the Winter King for a lot of cold damage and great stats
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Build +/-
Plus:
- Big zoo feeling with something like 17 minions total
- Surprisingly chill with monsters becoming frozen a lot
- Good survivability with totem providing healing
Minus:
- Not as tanky as Chaos cabalist version
- Pets definitely not as tanky vs bosses as Chaos cabalist version
I am not entirely sure about the devotions so any critique there is very welcome. Regardless the build performs in the endgame and leveling was not bad. It can kill the dread and I’ve done a 32-33 Shattered Realm without any issues. I have yet to try any celestial bosses, I think some of them definitely are possible but might require a bit of resummoning of skeletons.
