This has been discussed in numerous threads, and I’ve read quite a few of them on Reddit, Steam, and here on the official forums. However, there doesn’t seem to be a consensus or a definitive answer from a reputable source that I could find, so don’t hate on me too much for asking something that appears to have been answered. I suppose it was answered so much that it’s now a bit convoluted, and the truth is buried somewhere under assumptions and something someone read somewhere sometime or some such stuff.
If I bind a devotion skill (let’s say Twin Fangs from Bat) to a summoned pet (Necro’s skeletons), is the damage dealt based on pet damage or player damage?
I’ve noticed that beneficial effects other than the damage itself seem to affect the player (the ADCTH from Twin Fangs, for example), so that would make it seem like the proc is acting as if the player were casting it. However, the majority of threads I’ve read lean the other way and believe the devotion procs are based on pet damage.
So which is it? Does damage from devotions bound to pets benefit from player or pet bonuses?
With the introduction of the Necromancer, Twin Fangs and Wendigo’s Mark seem like they’ll be an amazing source of survivability if the damage scales off of pet bonuses (with all the pet vitality/all damage buffs) yet the ADCTH affects the player.
Devotions bound to pet-scaled pets will scale by pet damage, with a single cooldown timer per devotion shared among all pets. Any effects, such as %WD and ADCTH, are also scaled by pet. This includes the healing from Twin Fangs and Wendigo’s Mark, which will benefit the pet proccing the devotion.
Easy way to test: remove all your regen items/procs and bind Bat or Wendigo to Raise Skeletons, then activate Hungering Void. Order skeletons to attack dummy. Your health loss will be unaffected despite numerous devotion procs.
Testing stuff in-game is always the most reliable source of information.
Thanks for the answer! I have been trying to test it for quite a while now by turning off all of my buffs and unsummoning all pets except those with devotions attached and watching health, but it’s been difficult to see what’s affected. It didn’t occur to me to simply use the dummy in a more controlled environment.
Since I can’t watch skeleton health, I put Wendigo’s Mark on my Blight Fiend and watched for healing ticks on this health bar as well as my own while fighting, and I honestly couldn’t tell either way. I did receive small chunks of healing which seemed consistent with the proc, but it could have easily been from something else entirely.
Either way, you’re whom I would consider the authority on all things pet, so I feel confident that I know how to plan my build accordingly.
Since we are on the topic of what does and doesn’t affect pets, I also would like to finally see a list of buffs that works on them…
I mean, I always assumed that any buff whose icon appears under the pet’s icon would affect all the pets - even the skills of other pets, such as the Briarthorn’s Emboldening Roar or the Raven’s Storm Spirit. On the other hand, we have buffs like Bindings of Bysmiel and Primal Bond which buff pets, but do not appear as icons under them.
And then we have skills like Iskandra’s Elemental Exchange which needs a Transmuter to affect pets…
Would be nice if someone put together a list of buffs that affect pets.
Primal Bond is not a buff for the pets but a buff for your character. The buff on your character increases the stats of your character in turn buffing your pets. All skills that affect allies affect pets.
I know that about Primal Bond. I am playing a level 85 Conjurer after all with that skill maxed…
My question is about any and all other buffs. I could only guess about whether they affect the pets or not based on whether the icon appears under their portraits.
You’re making it a lot more complicated than it needs to be – it’s actually much more straightforward than that. As I described in Understanding Pet Damage:
So the two types are:
AURAS: These affect the whole group within an area, including yourself, other players, and anyone’s pets. You can tell what auras are by the word “allies” in the skill descriptions and a radius in the skills effect list. Emboldening Presence, Storm Spirit, and IEE all fall into this category (IEE does not require the transmuter to affect your pets - the transmuter is an additional effect that only effects pets). All affected allies within the radius (both players and pets) will show a buff icon.
PET MODIFIERS: These are a bonus to you, specifically your pet modifiers that are listed on page 2 of your character sheet, and will display as “Bonus to All Pets”. This is exactly the same as equipping an item or taking a devotion with pet bonuses on it, although many pet modifiers aren’t actually displayed on your pet character sheet (such as flat damage and +% to individual damage types). These work regardless of where your pets are. Primal Bond and Manipulation both fall into this category. There are no icons on pets because the buff is to the player’s pet modifiers (character page).
Both of these types can be found on mastery abilities, items, devotions, etc. Therefore, an exhaustive list is impractical - simply learn the rules above.
Ouch, that link you sent… I have worked on less complex spreadsheets at work.
You could have answered by saying that YES, all aura toggle skills that has the word “allies” in it affects pets. That’s clear enough for me. Thanks.
