Currently the weapon procs only from melee attacks and pure damage spells like doombolt. Does not proc from pet kills or even dots like grasping vines or devouring swarms. Makes the proc kind of obsolete since a pet build would generally rely on pet kills.
I suggest a rework on the proc, even if it’s reducing the chance to something like 5% on pet kill would at least make it useful.
This comes up over and over again and I will offer the unpopular opinion that I like it the way it is. Could perhaps do with a buff to the pets and a small corresponding nerf to the pet stats since pure summoners are using it even when the proc is useless to them, indicating that the pet stats are overbudgeted and/or there’s nothing sufficiently powerful enough to compete.
This is a hybrid weapon. Removing its functionality would kill hybrid builds which already don’t have a great deal of support outside of legendary gear and a handful of constellations. Killing this niche entirely would be a bad idea – though if pure summoner players want to change it so badly it might be better to just create a new “on pet kill” item instead of changing current ones.
Actually hybrids are more supported than pure pets.
This said, hybrids simply don’t work because you end up having to gear up for double the stats with the same number of slots.
Getting to ultimate with 60% power and defence in both char and pet stats (compared to a pure pet or char build) does not make you 120% effective, it leaves you 60% effective.
ANYWAY
Changing the proc so that it actually works with any kill no matter the source of the last hit would not make this weapon any less valuable for a hybrid.
My point is that the existence of “proc on kill” pets gives the pet hybrid a reason to exist. The pet is the compensation for splitting your offense. If you made it available to pure summoners or both there would be no reason to make a hybrid build, ever, and all your summoner builds would look almost exactly the same.
False. Hybrids do work, and if an Occultist-only summoner with only 25 points in physique can reach 10k+ HP, 80-90% chance to hit without stacking OA and have roughly 50% or higher resists in everything (higher with buffs, of course) then there’s zero reason why a anything else can’t have the same or better survivability.
For the record, the Occultist-only summoner is a hybrid summoner. It really can’t be anything else.
There are two reasons why hybrids work. The first is because A LOT of mods/skills that affect pets also happen to affect characters. These buffs/debuffs basically work at 100% both for your character and your pets. The trick is learning to identify them.
Even now the list grows longer. From an Occultist-only standpoint you get Storm Spirit/Hellfire/Curse of Frailty/Vulnerability/Black Death/Blood of Dreeg/Aspect of the Guardian, and you can combine that with the three types of -resists/relevant constellations (there’s a growing trend where constellations relevant to a particular damage type now also offer pet bonuses)/devotion actives like Elemental Storm, Scorpion Sting, Eldritch Fire, etc.
The second is because you basically have more freedom when it comes to gearing nowadays, partly because B31 loot has better affixes/bonuses and partly because the devs went overboard (from a hybrid perspective) with the passive summoner stuff. The pet bonuses on passive summoner empowered/legendary items is INCREDIBLY powerful, and you only need a few pieces (+a full set of customized yellow/green/blue/purple pet accessories) to turn your pets into DPS monsters in ultimate. It had to happen, or else a passive summoner build wouldn’t work.
Which brings us to Black Scourge. As I said, passive summoner stuff is already incredibly powerful. I see no point in turning Black Scourge into a passive summoner weapon, especially since (as a legendary) you actually have to work your ass off farming for one. If you want better passive summoner support from weapons, especially for passive summoners still trying to gear up, ask for an affix/affix bonus change.
The “your power is halved” thing is obsolete, especially with the new meta and the way OA currently works.
One or two procs won’t suddenly make hybrid summoners viable. The entire system goes against them.
well, easy solution. 30% proc rate for pure damage skills. 5% for pets and dots. win win for all. better than the proc being completely useless for pet build.