Mogdrogen’s Ardor would be Best choice of relic. Only reason I am using Ancestor instead is because the build is Budget focused and Ancestor is easier to make.
Regarding Heart of the Mountain vs Sand King, ideally you want Sand King due to how good it is for Bleed Pet builds, but Heart can work.
First time making a pet build on GD and I’m having an absolute blast playing it. Thank you for all your time and effort put into making this great guide 
I have one question though in regards to your leveling version of the guide. Why do we max out possession? Is it only for the DA and chaos res? Seems like a hefty investment.
Ideally you want Primal Bond, but going for it means having to invest into the Shaman mastery bar just for the skill. Focusing on Occultist is better early on, so we only invest as few points into Shaman as we absolutely need to.
Possession is for the damage absorption first and foremost, the rest of the stuff is just extra bonus. 12 points for all it provides is pretty reasonable, even on a pet build.
Hi Maya! Just started running this today, but I am a bit lost here. By the time I got enough devotions for Blizzard, I don’t have enough skills to bind it to (have Crook on CoF and Crown on Swarm). Do I need to use a component skill or??
Crown and Blizzard go on Pets 
Anything you can bind to pets, should be bound to pets since they scale on pet stats when you do that and will do more damage that way.
Gotcha. Thanks for the reply!
Build tested and slightly updated for Playtest (nothing major, just reallocated 2 skill points from Blood of Dreeg to 1 point Mend Flesh and +1 to Emboldening presence to get it to 13/12)
Slight update mostly in terms of skill point allocation and jewelry augments.
Decided to pivot towards more HP to reduce the chance of getting 1 shot against superbosses and deep SR.
Build updated, now has 3 maxed out Wendigo Totems + Tree, Dryad & Behemoth because dying is overrated
Love the build! Super flexible and safe to play, leveling build is also super smooth! Really surprisingly tanky actually even with low gear I managed to kill some really hard bosses by just resummoning the pets.
Just saw this because other’s responses, checked the build.
I wonder why Hysteria and not Savage?
I only compared while leveling, but the lightning dog did better damage and survived easier than the crab.
Mu guess would be that in the endgame pets are much tankier and crab probably provides some CC, but would be great to hear from Maya first hand.
Sorry for the late reply, somehow missed this until now 
…
Crab is for the CC yes. Also it dies faster mostly because it is a great aggro magnet, which can be a good thing if you want enemies to focus on it and leave the player alone.
Also with 3 Totems, at endgame Crabs survivability increases by a noticeable amount.
Savage can still be used if it is your preference though, it wont really negatively impact the build at endgame 
.
Thanks for the clarification!
It always feels good to learn something new and understand things a bit better.
@Maya
Hi, I played GD a few years ago and want to get back into the game now that the expansion is coming out. I’m a “minion guy” when it comes to games, and I have a question. Is this build a good fit for me if I’m looking for a “lazy” playstyle and a minion-based build, and is it also ideal for starting from scratch?
Yes and Yes to both. There might be some small changes interms of augments (since we do get new ones to play with once the new DLC is released), but other than that everything is solid 
Also, welcome back
@Maya
Great, thanks for the reply. 
So now I know what I’m going to play. 
BTW, even though I played GD around 2020, I remember your username (I even played one of your builds i think)—it’s interesting how you can remember certain things for years.
And it’s nice to see that the game (any game, not just GD) has long-time players like you.
Is this viable for the new expansion?
It is .
Also, welcome to the forums 
.
hello, im following this build and i just got into elite last night, so now i will play all dls 100%.
I have pretty much found as many devotion points i could in veteran, i took some in forgotten gods dls, but not the other dlcs.
Anyway, build kills fine, problem is that i don’t really know what gear im going for?
I see people on youtube farm specific areas for specific gear, but what gear, the only gear i know i need is the gear shown in the build, which is lvl 90+
what gear are we using untill that level?
I have set my lootfilter to only show Pets and my masteries.
I have almost no resistances on my gear, which is not optimal.
How do you experts go around this? - What loot filter do you use, is there a place i can see what gear i should go after?
Grim Dawn Item Database This has full list of items and where to find them.
That said, I don’t farm for any particular item while leveling and just use whatever drops. I only prioritize gear after level 94.
