[1.1.6.2-1.1.8.1] The Winter Birds! Cold Pets (2x Familiars) Bysmiel Conjurer

winter-raven-deby-dixon

  • My bird is prepare to eat the nasty pests!

Introduction

First of all you’re not that drunk and I am Nery and not Maya :stuck_out_tongue:

So it’s my first ever pet build. Since I prefer Crucible and that’s not their strength it’s kinda expected to have interesting results. For unknown reason this build feel more satisfying in Crucible than SR, what can I do? :sweat_smile:

This build have few more skills to play with than standard pets, so requires little more words to describe it, not complete lazy mode. Before continue huge credits to @Maya for not only helping me with items selection devotion routes and advises how to play but also for providing the community with wonderful guides and builds!

1.1.8.1 update

GRIM TOOLS :arrow_right: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2G1e7GZ

I am uncertain about gear, but changed a bit the devotion binding with the advises from @Maya, definite improvement. Skill points could be shuffled a bit as well, for example against tougher content Wendigo Totem is valuable heal.

I tried this build in different environments, I will not pretend to be good pilot but my results are: Crucible buffed slightly over 6, did Ravager of Flesh and Moggy, Ravager is really fast, also SR 85, tried going deeper but I was killed multiple times, I think this is the limitof the build with this devotion tree. Some videos:

Crucible run of 6:02:

SR 85:

Moggy+Ravager

Original Build

  • main stats panel, with permanent buffs.

  • pets stats, with permanent buffs and pets auras being active.

GRIM TOOLS :arrow_right: CLICK ME

Main Gear:

The set I am using here is Bysmiel, which gives you second bird and elemental damage, so makes sense to focus on Familiar and boost the cold damage. So here comes the new item/changes to support going cold bird. Mythical Crown of Winter King converts all lightning to cold, Mindweaver boost the frostburn DoT damage of it and also is being used the new off-hand Gates to Many Worlds, which looks dope, although it doesn’t provide many +skills bonuses.

Support Gear:

My initial plan was to used 3pcs Ghol set, but that destroys your DA and pets resistances, 3pcs Beastcaller is possible but Helm blocks it, so no secondary set is used. Instead non set pet legendary gear, including Necrolord’s Shroud chest and Fiendflesh Mantle. Relic is Mogdrogen’s Ardor for +1 all skills and passive boost to pets.

Devotions:

Murmur for cold RR is quite obvious, also is recommended at least one source of flat RR, either Elemental Storm or Manticore. Leviathan and Blizzard provides AoE damage with their procs. Moggy the wolf is the go to T3 constellation, since it’s in your path and you can take it with Leviathan(both have similar affinity requirements). Not sure about the bindings, since I have lot’s of procs requiring active skills and sadly player scaled pets like Wind Devils and Wendigo Totem can’t proc them.

Skills:

The biggest possible amount of points invested in the three main pets - Familiar, Briathorn and Primal Spirit. Hellhound and Ember Claw are left at one point only. Most of the skills are left at so called ‘‘softcap’’ like 12/12, or at least until they stop scaling well. For example Heart of the Wild gives you 3% health up until level 10. So even health is not your biggest priority, having higher health pool for few points invested makes some sense.

For devotion procing took Grasping VInes and Pox. Entangling vines are also good way of crowd control against heroes and Pox is very effective in Crucible with it’s spread and also is fire&forget type of skill. Against single target will be less efficient.

Performance

In SR build is able to do 75 but with pets being strong there, this will not be your go to option if you want pets. Perhaps adding more defense is better for higher shards, Idk.

Crucible, my first tries were disaster but I thing it all boils down to select good buffs/banner configuration and to use properly pet command to maximize AoE damage and to delete nasty targets. I think in 159 for example is very important to focus fire on Sentinel first, before he uses Mind Control Jutsu on your pets. Also Alex’s meteors could be nasty.

Vanguard banner suck for this build big time! The best possible configuration is 3x buffs(without Ulzuin) , 3x level 1 Stormcaller Beacons and 1x level 2 Beacon in bottom left corner. Fight mostly in bottom left/middle. Beacons clear trash mobs, provides RR and generally are better both defensively and offensively. Average time of Vanguard for example is more than 1(one) minute slower! Also Beacons clear lesser monsters with nasty CC effects faster, so better defensively too. I don’t know how to pilot pets, so played the usual way - aggro monsters from all corners, sit in the middle and mash all keys, job well done! :rofl:

Average time is around 7:40, so it’s possible to complete 3x runs and sustain tributes, although I recommend doing 130-150. Oh and here’s little eye candy, my fastest run with great mutators, good time for a pet build - 6:59!

If you want to find pet builds, leveling tips and all the information you need check this thread!

5 Likes

Unexpected build! Nice work. Some suggestions as usual:

Don’t bind Leviathan to Wind Devils because it uses player global %dmg instead of pet.

You can use transmuted BEE for proccing. It’s got phys damage redux, and also doesn’t aggro every tick like Vines. 1p in Groud Slam is also good for aggro.

You sure Gate of Memey Worlds is BiS? I’d still put my money on Orb of Cthon or Hallanx Head so that you can max relevant stuff like Storm Spirit, Vulnerability, Raging Tempest, BoD, maybe cap Oak Skin or Wendigo Totems, etc.

What do you think about 2p Beastcaller instead of that chest and shouldies?

1 Like

I am Star Trek fan for God’s Sake, I want Gates to many Worlds :frowning_face:

Probably having +1 both skill is better though. I can put Leviathan only on Primal Spirit, but is not constant pet. Probably Leviathan on Hound and Spirit on Blizzard. But as I said I have many skills and not great ways to proc them.

Aggro advises are good, 1 point can be used on Grand Slam, don’t know how it interferes with the main attack though. DEE is good idea, damage reduction is not that important here because of off-hand proc.

You can switch Elemental Storm with Leviathan. Storm doesn’t deal that much dmg anyway.

It does interfere but it also procs stuff.

Really cool (get it? :sunglasses:) concept/build Nery

I dig it - and I do think ‘Gate to Many Worlds’ is worth it over a +1 skill offhand, even if this wasn’t totally a thematic choice, because it gives a whole fricking pet on top of it’s pet bonuses (which together outweigh +1 skill imo by a fair margin, even Solael’s Void Tome)

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Yes, as fan of cold damage, needs to try it on pets :smiley:

Not sure how good is off-hand but it fits and extra stats to all pets i nice as well.

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Wut? Pet build by Nery? Has Maya brainwashed everyone while I was gone? :joy:

2 Likes

Doing her best to, yes! :laughing:

3 Likes

To boldly go where … no Nery has gone before :rofl:

But I think this build suits my profile picture.

1 Like

What is next? Cold dmg forcewave? :open_mouth:

Cold FW will be awful and Lee already have cold Blade Arc that works fine. Cold AAR is already good, I have 2H CT spam Spellbreaker, so cold don’t have many unexplored options. Maybe Stun Jacks, but Idk.

It’s a shame that Vanguard continues to disappoint, especially since I wouldn’t have figured the Stormcaller beacons would have done much with Elemental Storm already providing more than enough flat RR. Still, that + Rune of Displacement might explain why you do a much better job with Crucible than me. Displacement looks like a really good rune.

I don’t think you could have done any better with the gear choices. I definitely agree with having Wind Devil proc Elemental Storm and Briarthorn proc Leviathan. Primal Spirit doesn’t have enough CDR that you would want to use it for devotion procs. Have you felt that maximizing the Briarthorn gave you anything over using it as a one-pointer and putting the points elsewhere?

1 Like

Thanks for your comment!

Yes I would know from here now about bindings, Primal Spirit can be bound on 100% up time build.

Vanguard is bad, I would expect to notice at least faster clearing of single targets with damage increase but the effect is really diminutive. Beacons provide RR on much more enemies simultaneously and AoE damage. With Vanguard on non bosses waves you waste monster amount of time. Basically you have to count on procs or Bird’s projectiles. Storm beacons cover lots of ground.

Briathorn have physical to cold conversion, not sure how good is for damage. Obviously Birds are running the show.

Displacement is great rune for any kiting caster, although it was nerfed.

Is this as good a cold pet build is going to get?

You can also try Beastcaller’s Pet Druid as Briarthorn and Primal Spirit are fully Cold damage in that build. It’s a matter of whether you like having 2 Familiars or 2 Briarthorns + Chillmane.

I think Nery’s build is the better performing build, but then again, Conjurers tend to outshine any other pet builds, at least when it comes to Elemental pets.

I prefer 2 brair + chillmane honestly. But I wouldn’t run a druid.

Trickster? :stuck_out_tongue:

I can’t go past Conjurer, it gives you so much tankiness and overall synergy.

Isn’t conjurer the best tankiest

Maya had a build that was cold with double brair and chillmane conjurer but I can’t find it. It’s out dated though.

Would like a current patch one. Colds my favorite element in any rpg and yeti is the best pet from an item imo.

I was late by a few days to the party :sob:

But no matter, build is here :cold_face: :damage_cold::bird:

+1 to binding whirlpool to a pet, but my choice would be to use Wind Devil to proc Rumor instead since Elemental Storm does more dmg and hence would be better on a Pet.

Can definitely pick up DEE with transmuter if you want something on LMB to proc devotions, to save on one extra hotkey press :stuck_out_tongue:

Definitely take Ground Slam. Even if not for the aggro management, the extra dmg is also nice. Don’t worry about DPS loss because of it, that won’t happen :yum:.

Point can also be taken from Maelstrom if needed.

Everything else is solid and that is a pretty good Crucible time on a pet build :+1:

As for off-hand choice, from what I have seen so far, Gate does work better than +1 to skills, atleast for elemental pet conjurers.

Also if you want an extra Pet, Dirge of Arkovia can be considered, but then you would be even less on Skill points and personally I think Mogdrogen’s Ardor is still better, especially if Switching Relics means losing Gate to many worlds.

1 Like

Thanks for your feedback!

Actually I switched a little bit the bindings, but I think Familiar with projectile based attacks can proc Rumor well, hmmm. :thinking:

I also have few ideas for a pet builds, but I checked them and they are done by Duskdeep or seems awful :sweat_smile: