Thanks to the Potion Modifiers effects finally working properly again, some of the older sets can now see the light of day and be put to good use.
Before recording the video, I thought the Vial effect still wasn’t working. It turns out that it’s actually just a buff icon display issue — the effect itself is already functioning properly. As a result, the entire video was recorded using the Tincture setup, so the damage is somewhat lower than it could be. For the actual build, you can simply switch to the Vial + Amplicorum + Sanginis combination for another noticeable boost to DPS.
To compensate for the penalties from the Potion Modifiers, I invested heavily into the build’s sustain. Besides the usual Giant’s Blood, Blood of Dreeg, and Totems, I also pushed the Raven’s Mend Flesh to 11 points. This makes the build more than capable of handling the drawbacks imposed by the potions, while its damage output has also more or less caught up with the Beastcaller set.
The build has also been streamlined by removing the permanent Primal Spirit, saving one more keybind. I swapped to Mogdrogen’s Helm and the Black Grimoire off-hand, and added two more pets to work alongside the Hellhound and Briarthorn for additional aggro control. The build now only has three commonly used active skills, making it fairly easy to play. The potion is basically just something you tap every now and then, so it doesn’t add much to the overall micromanagement.
Overall, this is a strong build that can comfortably handle 5-Altar Ascendant key dungeons and Celestials, making it well suited for Cairn-world material farming.
No need to make comparisons. Any build you see that can comfortably handle 5-Altar difficulty is at least T1.
As for the Bleed pet build you mentioned, it definitely isn’t up to par anymore. It got hit pretty hard by the nerfs and has dropped to T2 tier at best for now.
Myrgle’s Beguiler (the blue version) and the acid conversion damage amulets for pets that both can be upgraded at the bird cave are the two items I’ve yet to find. Very annoying, I wish there was a good way to target farm blue items
Unless things have changed with FOA the best way to get blue items is via totem farming. Higher level SR gives mostly purple items. Maybe mid level SR will have more blues – unknown. When I was looking for Blightshard Amulet (blue) about a year ago I was hitting monster totems exclusively and seeing lots and lots of blue items (never Blightshard of course). Finally got it from the scorpion boss right before Howling Chasm in FG - won’t even attempt to spell his name.
The DPS loss is very small, since this isn’t 1.2.1.6 and it’s not a speedrunning build. The high sustain, combined with the damage buffs from potions, more than makes up for that tiny bit of lost DPS.
Have you tried using Stormbringer of Malmouth instead of Ognapesh grimoire? If so how does it feel in comparison? Im using it now whilst farming to get Ognapesh
In terms of damage output, it’s definitely higher. However, with the potion modifiers active, there’s a certain amount of survivability risk, so having one extra pet does help to some extent by drawing and controlling enemy aggro.
It’s the best pet build I have so far and I have played pets an awful lot. Done all celestials/specials etc. Done Ubernerf today and SR 40 twice. Here’s my GT as of today (killing Ubernerf): Conjurer, Level 100 (GD 1.3.0.8) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
I’ve been using Aurora since FoA but swapped to Ardor for Ubernerf. I might keep it on Ardor now anyways. I was using Mogdrogen and Typhos at first (years ago when this character was made), then changed to Ishtak and Korvaak for quite a while, but now back to Mogdrogen and Typhos.
This character is from pre-FoA but FoA made it nicer, such as Eyes of Mogdrogen’s Chosen and Awakened Og’Napash. Was using Bysmiel’s Mindweaver and Stormbringer of Malmouth prior. Also the ability to reroll affixes is incredibly powerful. I hoard so many MI such as Bargoll’s (I like to farm him + Kra’vall, both very close to eachother and rapid farms) and all 3 Hidden Path pants.
The character has quite a lot of free/floating points too. Also, one point in Primal Spirit is well worth it and I wouldn’t skip it—granted I dislike ‘lazy’ pet builds, I always want them to be active and to not skimp.
