[1.1.9.7] The Immortal [Pets] Army! Hybrid Pets + Vitality Caster Cabalist [SR 75 complete, Video]

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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The number of people who want to play hybrid pet + caster builds are probably fairly low, but if you’re like me, you want to have the fun of playing pets without having to run like a headless chicken every time you get approached by a big meanie. Yes, this is a second Reap Spirit caster hybrid, but the only chance you’ll be able to beat high-level content as a hybrid pet build is through Reap Spirit. You summon 3 of them, they are invincible, and they do amazing damage.

Alongside Reap Spirit, there are two other pets who are immune to direct hits: the Bound Spirit from the Bonescavenger Gloves and the Gate to Many Worlds Pet. As with other Reap Spirit builds, as you don’t have to worry about pet defenses, you can stack as many pet offensive stats as possible. What’s different about this build is that we stack up as much Vitality damage as we can and fight alongside our pets.

1.1.9.8 updated GRIMTOOLS
Yes, you’re seeing that right. That is 12/12 Doom Bolt on a pet build. Something that hasn’t been done viably since the Avatar of Dreeg’s Base Game Warlock, from what my memory shows.

Equipment Explanation

The two build-defining items for this build are the Claw of Hagarraz and the Beastcaller’s Cowl; Claw of Hagarraz gives the player an additional 300% Vitality damage boost to Call of the Grave, in addition to the 1.1.8.0 buff to the skill that grants the player 260% Vitality damage by overcapping it. Additionally, the Death-Watcher Pendant extends the length of Call of the Grave so that a simple Time Dilation makes the Call of the Grave buff uptime 100% of the time. The Beastcaller’s Cowl was nerfed in 1.1.9.0, but a 200% total boost for you and your pets is still the best item for this type of build. Even though Fiendmaster provides the most damage for our pets, we replace it with Coven Lifebinder Vestments to keep Call of the Grave at 20/10, while using another faction item in Solael Vile Gauntlets to nearly hardcap Reap Spirit.

The equipment in the Grimtools provides 100% Physical and Elemental Damage to Vitality, making Gate to Many Worlds 100% Vitality damage, matching well with Bound Spirits and Reap Spirit. The Bonescavenger gloves buff was the best change, as it’s difficult enough stealing kills from Reap Spirit with this build, much less a build that doesn’t use hybrid damage. The skill points bonus from Gate to Many Worlds is perfect - getting Call of the Grave to 20/10 as well as getting Blood of Dreeg to near hardcap as well.

Gameplay: Now that Ishtak brings 18 flat RR, we aim for a 4 T3 devotion route containing Dying God, Aeon’s Hourglass, Ishtak, and Tree of Life. Ishtak provides some much-needed damage absorption as well as a taunt from our immortal pets. The new devotion route brings Healing Rain from Tree of Life, making Energy regeneration trivial. Also different from the previous version is that we drop Mogdrogen’s Ardor for Bysmiel’s Domination, as the speed boost for the pets is much needed to help with AoE clear.

The build’s decent CDR and Time Dilation allows you to have good uptime on Mark of Torment as well, providing a much needed defense boost alongside Blood of Dreeg & Healing Rain for constant healing.

Enough talk, how about you see the build in action:

9 Likes
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unless you’re doing cruci, where i’m told the confuse can be annoying for clear times, what about ill omen instead for dmg reduct? it reduces more for less investment ? :thinking:

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I take Ravenous Earth over Ill Omen because it’s a much better devotion proccer so I can attach Wendigo’s Mark on targets and get the sustain. Ill Omen ticks once per second (like other skills like Curse of Frailty), Wendigo’s Mark has a 15% activation, and if your target is coming from across the screen, then you have to wait until it’s off cooldown before you can place Ill Omen on it.

I do use Ill Omen in many of my other Necromancer builds, but in this case, Ravenous Earth is better since the damage reduction applies as long as the enemy’s over the pile of bile, and allows you to facetank easier so that you can stack multiple Gate of Many Worlds for damage.

1 Like
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How is this build 2 years old!?

I’ve done a large revamp of this build, making sure to grab the Ishtak devotion to take advantage of the flat RR that’s coming with the 1.1.9.8 playtest changes. Having immortal pets taunt the enemies feels good, too. Main changes include replacing Mogdrogen’s Ardor with Bysmiel’s Domination to take advantage of the large speed boost, and swapping gear around to ensure I have 20/10 Call of the Grave and nearly maxed out Reap Spirit.

Here’s a Crucible video - which marks the first time I was able to beat Crucible with a hybrid pet build. SR75-76 is still the preferred way to go for loot, as it’s much more lenient than Crucible.

3 Likes
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Interesting build! The only pity is that hagaraz claw’s 300% demage and 10% crit can’t be applied to pets:(