I have been playing my Cabalist for a while now. Enjoying this game plenty much.
There are some questions I have regarding pets though.
Proper pets in this game seems to scale like proper pets should. Their damage and defence is based on skill point level and not directly of player weapon damage. Given this, where can I find a formula that shows how spirit / cunning / physique and then character level effect the values; as it surely must, otherwise if you max skeletons at level character level 10 they will be the strongest they could ever be?
Because proper pets don’t benefit from player weapon damage, does the following hold true then: I have a sword and offhand book that grants in total +2 to Raise Skeleton, +40% pet damage, +10% pet speed, +10% pet resistances on my main weapon swap slot. On my secondary weapon swap slot I have a rifle with increased weapon damage of +250 if equipped. If I only use proper pets and support them by cussing my foes (which also does % bad stuff to the baddies) will I only swap weapons if the total benefit provided to pets is higher (like +all skills on rifle etcetera) irrespective of the increase in weapon damage?
Adding points to be able to add points to skills is a bit of downer, feels like the levels you get are wasted due to not increasing direct skills. I know it increases attributes and therefore is a must; but what is a good rule of thumb to go by? For instance is the total carnage dished out higher with 10/16 Skeletons + 2 Poison Frankenstein Blob Monster compared to 16/16 Skeletons only?
Related to point 4 above are pets that are available only after having spent 20 points in the bottom bar to get 1 point in the pet, typically a lot stronger than pets earlier available? Therefore should I once I am able to spend more points in the high level pets re-skill and remove skill points from the earlier pets? But will this nuke the earlier pets’ ability to maintain carnage? Sort of related to point 1 as well.
Is there a way to start the game with a level 30 character for instance in act 1 chapter 1 right at the start, if this character was levelled by testing out stuff in the Crucible? But starting the game at the start even in veteran mode feels like waste of time as enemy levels are way to low. Using a Diablo 2 example, can one start directly in Nightmare mode?
(disclaimer: i have not played a pet build, and if anyone corrects me they are probably more knowledgeable)
physique scales DA, cunning OA and spirit energy. cunning and spirit also buff certain damage types. pets are not at their best at 16/16, they scale off pet stats (found on items and devotions) and some gear increases the summon limit, or adds damage to the pets.
weapon damage (usually written as %WD on the forum) doesn’t affect pets, it allows player attacks and spells to add the weapon damage and allows for attack damage converted to health (ADcTH) to work. as a pet build you would use the weapon that benifited pets the most.
i assume you mean spending points into the mastery bar? if so then the bar provides extra stats such as health, energy and physique/cunning/spirit.
i’m not sure how the damage of 10/16 in skeletons and 2 in blight fiend compares to soft capped skeletons, but i have heard that blight fiend is good at tanking, so having the two pets is probably better.
it depends largely on the skill, but you want to invest into the mastery bar for the aforementioned stats and to reach useful skills, like the exclusive skills and items like Mark of Torment (for necromancer).
once you reach Forgotten Gods content in ultimate you can buy a merit, which unlocks all three difficulties for a new character that uses the merit.
there is no way of starting with a pre leveled character (other than cheats, which can be useful for testing for more research ‘GDstash’ on the forum), but there are leveling items and an xp potion in the game for characters after your first character.
if have not discovered it already then you might find grimtools very useful, it has an item database and a build calculator. https://www.grimtools.com/
I’ll leave the pet experts to answer questions 1-4, but for 5 well, if you get a character into the Forgotten Gods expansion on either Elite or Ultimate you can buy merit tokens (Champion for Elite, Saviour’s for Ultimate) which you can then put into the transfer stash for other low level characters to use. These tokens allow you to skip to either Elite or Ultimate and start the game on those difficulties. They also give you the skill/attribute points you would get from those quests which give them as part of their rewards on the lower difficulties.
You won’t max Skeletons at lvl10. There’s no gear to max Skeletons at lvl10.
All pets will unsummon if you remove or swap gear with skill bonuses to those pets.
You mean putting points in the mastery bar? For pet cabalists this is a non-issue, as they almost always max both mastery bars anyway (for Manipulation and Master of Death).
There’s no such rule. Each pet has their own ups and downs. In general, Briathorns and Blight Fiends are good for tanking, Ravens and Skeletons are good for damage, and Hellhound is good for nothing.
On your second character, you can use Merits bought by your first character and start directly on Ultimate. Not recommended. You won’t get far with no gear and -50% resistances. I would finish Veteran, skip Elite with a Merit and do Ultimate with already somewhat equipped character.