Build Editing (68 Cabalist)

I don’t know how to link my build directly, but I’m running a level 68 Cabalist (largely minions, some vitality and chaos damage) and having issues.
I was doing just fine-- for the most part-- but certain areas have been giving me trouble (namely, the Ancient Grove in the Ugdenbog, no matter how many times i come back to it i can’t complete mogdrogden’s quest).
I gave up on the Ancient Grove, but now moving onto Elite difficulty, I can’t do much of ANYTHING. BASIC ENEMIES are wiping me out before I have the chance to use a potion, even with stacking as much armor as possible. I’m not sure what to do about this, I recently tried removing Ill Omen and putting the points into Blood of Dreeg, but that only has given minor improvements and many heroes/bosses still will kill me 2-3 times each.
How do I improve my survivability without just making an entire new character?

Welcome to the forums.

Without seeing your build, I’d guess either your DA (Defensive Ability) or Resistances (or both!) are too low.

The tool used to link builds is https://www.grimtools.com/calc/
On the left hand side there is an upload icon. Click on it and follow the instructions to load your character. Then click on the Share/Link button just below it to get the link to your build.

Post that here and we can take a look.

Edit: Also, check out @malawiglenn’s beginner cabalist guide and his guides in general, there’s sure to be many useful tips.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/b28jPRKZ Thanks, here’s the build.
It is far from optimized-- mostly stuff I had fun with, but as I start to struggle I’m finding it difficult to really figure out where I fucked up exactly, you know?

Edit-- for some reason it keeps showing the wrong weapon, but my weapon and offhand are in the “switch weapon” slot thing.

I think the thing that stands out the most is that your skill points are spread out way too much.

Before giving any further advice can I ask, do you want to build for pets or for a caster?
Because trying to do both is what I think the biggest problem is.

Decide what you want to play, caster or summoner.

Then follow either my guide if you wanna go caster, or if you wanna play summoner look up Maya’s beginner pet stuff here The Carnival - A Guide to Pets

If you wanna play summoner, you should not attack stuff yourself, you should stay out of the heat of battle and let the pets kill stuff for you

Parroting what others have said, Hybrid Pet builds don’t work and spreading your skill points instead of focusing on a few core skills is a bad idea. Also, not having an off-hand is a crime punishable by :bird:

Click on weapon swap :slight_smile:

:scream:

If I were to stick to summoner, how would I activate my devotion spells? I don’t think either are able to activate except off of direct damage, and they’re both incredibly helpful for my build.

Curse of Frailty for Shepherd’s Crook
Reap Spirit for Dying God

Remove Sigil, Witchfire, Doombolt, Siphon Souls, Reaping strike and Necrotic edge. They are all useless for pets.

Thanks for all the advice, from everyone!
While I haven’t done all of the recommended steps-- I’m not trying to minmax as much as have fun, and casting/summoning mix is FUN for me–
I have removed a lot of the redundant spells, consolidating my points, and it has caused me to do much better in higher level encounters! Huge improvement.
I really appreciate all the advice and guides you guys have given. :slight_smile: