I’m currently considering making a Defiler since Cabalist just seems broken and not really a fan of having more than 3 builds with Shaman in it already. Other than the obvious Temper and flashbang skills, what else would be good for a summoner type? I’m not really that familiar with Demo as most of my characters are tank oriented.
Attachment: CCJ Ternox MI.jpg
i also started a defiler and kinda ran into the same problem - flame touched (and maybe temper) is great for the pets and flashbang never hurts to have, but after that it gets kinda “meh”. i mean, you’d obviously pick up blashshield if you have points to spare, but that’s just there for personale survival and doesn’t help the pets.
after thinking about it for a bit, i came to the conclusion that i won’t continue that build. might try an apostate (necro+inq) at some point. seems like a nice pet build. word of renewal and aura of conviction are both very strong buffs for pets and inqusitor seal should help a lot with making them more durable. might also trhow in storm box, word of pain or the cold rune as additional debuffs to help the pets.
of course, that’s just me theorycrafting. no idea if it would actually turn out useful.
I’m actually having a blast with apostate. It’s the only hybrid type toon I didn’t pull from a guide that I enjoy playing.
Funny part is: So far in low levels it has pretty good gear support. 
I was thinking that either Defiler or Apostate could fill in my desire for something that acts like a Diablo 2 Hunter (druid using bow, pets, and sometimes elemental skills). The analogies are there in the Necromancer side:
Grizzly->Blight Fiend
Wolves->Skeletons (and you can have both. Although I wonder if that would be spreading your skill points too thinly.)
Fissure/Volcano->Ravenous Earth
The game in general doesn’t seem to have analogs for Oak Sage or Carrion Vine, but those aren’t crucial to the basic tactics. The Demolitionist side for Defiler, meanwhile, has Blast Shield to replace Cyclone Armor (if you get stung enough), and maybe Vindictive Flame to replace Hurricane. Inquisitor side for the Apostate…not so sure whether there even are analogs, but the Necromancer side handles the basics already.
The trick is that excepting a couple of cold transmuters for the Necromancer (and this won’t apply for the Defiler), the sides don’t share damage types. I don’t suppose there’s epic/legendary equipment or magic/rare flags out there that transmute, for example, fire to vitality?
Yeah I figured, plus it’s a ton of points for blastshield and doesn’t offer anything to pets as you said. I’m also starting to think of scrapping my defiler as the more I look into it, the harder it becomes for me personally. Will give Apostate a try and see what I can come up with.
The synergies feel really weird, flashbang is stupid good, but I also struggled to see how I could make it good.
As far as summoner types go, there’s nothing a Defiler can’t do that a Cabalist can’t do better. More Flat damage, more buffs, easier RR to use, etc. Aside from Flashbang, the only reason to go Defiler if you want to be pet-focused is if you really want to do a pet hybrid involving pets and Demolitionist skills like Grenado or Mortar Trap.
Apostate can get pretty interesting though. Much more flexible RR choices, lots of aura-like abilities (Word of Renewal, Inquisitor Seal, Aura of Conviction, etc.), and lots of different trap abilities that won’t draw aggro to you. Lots of potential possibilities there for a summoner-type Apostate.
If you’re dead set on Defiler (like I am, haha) and want to bring out its best potential that sets it apart from other classes, you’re better off doing some sort of Aether/Fire/Lightning combination. The Aether portion of Necromancer is really melee/tank-focused (Drain Essence/Siphon Soul has low range, Spectral Wrath requires you to be hit, etc.), and this combos well with Demolitionist abilities like Fire Strike, Thermite Mines, Vindictive Flame, and transmuted Blackwater Cocktail. Gear-wise you can convert Fire to Vitality with Lifeblaze Mantle and Darkflame Chestguard, and there’s a couple prefixes for Conduit of Destructive Whispers that convert all Fire damage to Vitality in Fire Strike and Blackwater Cocktail. It’s not too difficult to convert all your Fire to Aether either, Dreadfire and the Mythical Agrivix set is an obvious combo but also the Diviner set converts Elemental to Aether. Unfortunately there’s very little Aether to Fire conversion so you can’t go the other way, although dual-wielding Blazehearts could give you full Vitality to Fire conversion.
It sounds wonky, but it has decent support. I’m leveling one using Drain Essence/Siphon Soul/Vindictive Flame/Spectral Binding with some Flashbang/BWC support, and I have Aetherfire bound to Drain Essence, Arcane Bomb bound to Siphon Soul, and I’m working towards Phoenix Fire bound to BWC. I found a MI shield that buffs Drain Essence a lot, and with it I’m able to tank through a surprising amount and melt everything when they hit/get near me (facetanked Queen Ravna, for example).
Well, there’s one nuisance about Apostate–there don’t seem to be any equipment sets designed for it, epic or legendary. Guess we’ll have to look into singleton pieces.
That said, there also aren’t any legendary ranged weapons or off-hands that are clearly designed for an Apostate. I did find a few epic items (Mythical Corpseflayer, Mythical Frigid Quillbreath, Mythical Word of Inquisitor Abalon, Mythical Banshee’s Misery), but that’s it for anything that explicitly adds to both Inquisitor and Necromancer skills. So we’ll just have to have one each of Inquisitor and Necromancer.
As to skills…The main headache is figuring out how to get a single dominant damage type out of the two sides. Necromancer is mostly aether and vitality (it does have two cold transmuters, but one of them requires you to be using a two-handed melee weapon), while Inquisitor draws on fire, cold, and lightning. This renders things a bit sticky, especially since I the only Ravenous Earth transmuter equipment I found changes it to acid–no improvement. On the other hand, if you don’t mind the arming time, the Inquisitor’s Runes could stand in for Ravenous Earth. I would recommend that the exclusive skill be Master of Death–the Auras and Harbinger of Souls leave one side or the other without a boost, so we might as well make that Blight Fiend as much of a tank as possible instead.
May actually have an apostate summoner hybrid guide coming soon. I think it can work skill wise but the item support is… nonexistent.
In testing.
I just did a search in the item database for Blight Fiend (as in, what equipment specifically adds multiple points to it). Sure enough, they’re almost all intended for Cabalists or Ritualists (the exceptions had mythical versions that were themselves keyed to Cabalist or Ritualist). It’s to the point that I wonder if Crate sees a place for hybrids of any sort in the game, aside from generic magic knights. Such hybrid preclusion isn’t going to help build diversity, I think.
Granted that the D2 Hunter that inspired this for me was a niche build to begin with…
EDIT: Slowly finding a few Apostate-friendly items, like Cord of Deception (even if the only Necromancer skill it boosts is Spectral Binding) and Decree of Malmouth (a scepter, unfortunately).
http://www.grimtools.com/calc/lNkBwaDZ BUILD IS INCOMPLETE, FEEDBACK IS WELCOME.
TL;DR;
Necro for skeles only, rest Demo gunslinger with thermite.
This will most likely fail due to not enough resists, hp and/or dps.
Idea is to capitalize on auto attacks of skeletons with dualwield pistols and Flame Touched + Temper aura with -fire AND secondary damage sources.
Blast Shield for the panic moments.
Problems:
Questions:
Fire Strike and Brimstone is hefty investment. Is it worth DPSwise?
Are there any Phys to Fire/Chaos, Vita to Fire/Chaos conversions that would benefit skeletons?
For devotions, I need 1 more active skill for Rhowan’s Crown proc, Elemental Storm (flat elem reduce + dot) but I’m low on points… Any suggestions for a skill or component/item that gives a skill to use?
PS. I am GD noob and no idea what end game requires for a build.
I wanna make a Mortar trap, ravenous earth, and pets build
somehow…
A combined arms army - frontline pets to tank and hold aggro, while my mortars pound, and ravenous earth to shotgun heroes and bosses
Oh yeah, I found the perfect item for my Necro Demo mortar + pets build dreams 
Nice roll on Terrnox MI… totally different from my other one which has cold damage and is more Arcanist Callidor centred, which I might use on the Sorcerer Flash Freeze + Mortar build I’m running now
Sorry guys, I love this thread but all I can think when I hear about mortar traps and skeletons is
I would put Rhowan’s Crown on Thermite mines, the -resist proc stacks and the damage of both is crazy on my OFF/Mortar/Thermite mines sorcerer I’m currently leveling (started pre expansion), just melts heroes and bosses alike.
Actually not that hard to keep mobs on the mines by careful positioning, but I do tend to face tank them onto the mines. I suppose flash freeze helps, but useless on mobile bosses and some heroes
Other than that Black Water Cocktail + transmuter is pretty good for procs as well
If you were a purifier you could drop the elemental mines inside your aura of conviction and face tank them over an inq seal.
But that’s none of my business…
Like I said, I leveled this guy pre expansion :rolleyes:
Even then he’s damn strong in Malmouth areas 
I do have a Purifier that started as a Word of Pain, BWC and Aura build, but I might respec him, since he struggles on bosses
Ok, I see there are some items that can convert fire and Elemental damage to vitality.
vitality mortars anyone? 
That proc Raise the Dead skeles…
The Defiler Assault Engineer dream lives on
Hopefully I can drop some if I can reach Ultimate in this build I’m planning. Although I already have the Lifeblaze shoulders
