Is it really true that you can’t edit your posts in this forum? …weird
As another note to my dps: I cleared crucible up to 100 with my char being lvl 58 and I never went out of time so it can’t be that bad really, right?
…plus I can facetank “Alkamos, Lord Executioner” through the whole fight without breaking a sweat 
(on normal+vetaran)
though, ofc, if anyone of the smart people around here has any ideas for some equip upgrades (faction shops, crafting,…) I’m all ears…
you generally shouldn’t need fancy stuff, let alone for pets
max pets, gets RR, get pet passives/buffs(party auras affect pets), pet devos
run of the mill pet gear will do, heck it might even be the “only” class/build archetype you can somewhat/relatively comfortably run around long time in low level gear (contra player dmg builds that relies more on upgrades for own stats)
like i said, from my own experience, i’ve never seen shade of elnadrin fall in the same league of dps checks like other bosses
and it’s sooo rare to get lifesteal res, let alone even stack it intentionally, because normal leecher enemy stuff you just “passively” out dps
so running around with -25 leech res on Ult is basically “standard” 
side note, wind devil main node doesn’t stack dmg wise, so it’s about the only skill node you “shouldn’t” max (atleast not until everything else useful is taken, and then maybe even still)
*as Magpie pointed out, your main flaw here "base dps"wise is simply you opted to not max a single of your actual pets, let alone multiple of them
Once you do, they become murder machines,
(true) pets are some of the most OP stuff to level with in the game, not even kidding
**this goes for other builds too btw, general "base"approach is to max a main dmg skill or two. Your char becomes a totally different beast, specially early on, once your core attack skill is actually maxed(assuming it’s not accidentally a bad/“wrong” main skill like non stackable dmg debuff class). Doesn’t matter if it’s Forcewave, Savagery, Grenado, if it’s your centre piece you want it max
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so the wind devils main skill is not doing any dmg you say?
are wind devils benefiting from added physical and/or acid dmg?
%dmg boosters only, not flat
wind devils are pseudo pets/“player scaled pets”, so they only benefit from your player %stats, (not speed or leech)
Since you have relatively low acid/lightning booster (your amulet is converting maelstrom to part acid) devil’s aren’t getting boosted “much” but some, what is boosting your devils is maxed maelstrom (tho you will eventually want some player % boosters to keep that scaling)
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new user lacking certain posting privileges for a lil while (unsure how long)
because of that whole bot spam attack i think?
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so I should drop the main wind devils skill to 1 and invest in the other pets instead, but keep maelstrom?
I already thought about that, had not tested it yet though
is the main raven skill any good? it should increase the ravens lightning strike dmg but I have no idea how much…
@Ceno maybe it’s because I’m new but I don’t have that option, seriously I don’t, I looked there several times I don’t have it
I also had to wait 20 minutes before I could post this message, site telling me I had reached the max number of posts for new members first day, kudos to the site for telling me that without dropping my already type message, so I could just post it later without re-writing it from scratch
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personally/imo, i wouldn’t go with maelstrom at all, if you want a pet build
hybrid pets can be fine, but they are slightly more complicated than just going either pure (true) pets or pure player dmg, because of the split in stat use.
If you’re going to use devils i’d use them for RR(resist reduction), but that would require elemental pet focus to benefit (which can totally be done), in which case you 12pt Raging Tempest instead.
As long as you’re a real pet build “primarily” you’re better off maxing your pets first. (also wont get you aggro from devil in that case )
Raven is fine, as long as you eventually get pet resist up and you have regular pet stuff going it’s a totally solid addition.
Since raven can be a ranged pet you can be fine with it having lower main node investment, might just require resummoning more frequent tho (can put on defensive mode so it will range as much as its bird brain allows), then consider maxing it later if you wish.
i would try something like this to start with Conjurer, Level 63 (GD 1.2.1.3) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator, see how you like/feel the difference
2 things to note is the change in trigger for Shepherd devo, allows you to stay at distance and only attack once in a while/when necessary and Call is off cooldown
And, you don’t have Cleansing Waters(Ulo) devo assigned to a skill so it can’t be activated but more importantly doesn’t gain XP
(you don’t need to use a skill for it to gain XP it just need to be attached to a skill)
oh yea, and i personally prefer to have Tree of Life/Healing rain on a passive toggle buff instead of a manually activated (simply because sometimes i forget to renew BoD - which you shouldn’t/it should always be up 
)
*ground slam and ember claw at 12pt changes it to taunt bonus hence why they were maxed like that, i find that adds some comfort during levelling myself
Editing is disabled for brand new members to combat bot spam. It is a restriction that is lifted after spending a little time in the community.
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Getting your pet to 26/16 is far more effective than stacking some buffs. A 1000% bonus to a base damage of 0 will still result in 0.
Have you tried maxing your pets? If you have not, you are not aware of their true power. And you might need their true power to tackle Ultimate.
Nothing wrong with trying a ZDPS build. I love them myself. But you also can’t call for nerfs if your ZDPS build is struggling a bit.
Doing some minimal changes, I’d maybe try this for now.
I’d go into Hellhound later, when more points are available.
Didn’t touch the devotion, which is a whole separate chapter.
On the bright side, the missing items should be possible to farm in 20-30 minutes.
note: I had to wait 21h to post this…
yes I know about the waters, I just had no other skill and did not feel like spending a point to get one,
I just upgraded my medal augment for movement to an actual attack and have assigned waters to it just before I read your post ^^
also I tested, it gained xp without BoD being active 
I am also fine with tanking as I have more regen and res than my pets and apparently can facetank anything while pets, even though rarely, die
as for the wind devils, I kinda expected that but I keep them for now as trash clean/AoE mostly because I really, really like lightning
yes, like i said you don’t need to use a skill to have it gain XP, it just need to be assigned to one
the part about BoD is because it’s “technically” a temp buff/manually activated buff, which means as explained we might forget to have it on a moment, in which case Healing Rain wont trigger when we get hit/we don’t get that free heal mile: - if it’s then on an automatic/perma toggle buff, ex Moggy, then that potential eventuality doesn’t occur
thanks for not reading and just assuming -.-
the dmg does not come from the pet(s) alone, there is a lot of base damage added that is then multiplied with buffs, and honestly, it did work well so far and if you had read and understood the problem you would not say such things, the mob in question had, in my particular situation, so much healing (healing more than 50% of 523k every 2-3s) that even a much higher char with dps focus would have struggled to overcome that much healing
on another note I did test maxing pets first and I moved points from the base wind devils to briathorn for now,
I know you can’t imagine it and you do not understand how it had worked for me very well so far,
but let me tell you that: from my original build to scrapping wind devils completely and maxxing both main pets (hellhound and briarthorn) resulted in increased dps, but NOT A GAMEBREAKING AMOUNT, and definitely NOT ENOUGH to beat the healing of that mob in the situation that I encountered it
I DO like good hints, tips and advice, I do like to learn about a game and deepen my understanding,
but what I do not like is when people have either no clue themselves or did not bother to read/understand a situation and the throw in their superficial knowledge and superstitions as “advice”, I really don’t like that.
here is me killing him without attacking, just using passive procs/not the actual centred skills of the build
“you are being advised certain things for a reason” - you have the right to disagree or reject the suggestions, but experienced players with thousands of hours of play time tells you because it works…
*naturally if i’d used VM or Aegis/the build’s actual skills he’d have died in seconds
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you did not read it either, did you?!
OF COURSE this is no problem for a not-pet class, probably with good defensive mechanics and maybe even high vita res…
Just for you again:
Elnadrins attack had:
- multiple projectiles
- ridiculous heal multiplier
My pets had:
- near no vita res but high hp
=> this resulted in him landing the full 3 hits on low/no res targets,
while, my char being a pet class, was pretty limited without using them
no, i did read, and you were still told the key flaw you made; you 1poitned your skills…
i even elaborated on the how and why this is/was the issue
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again you did neither read nor understand,
as I said, the dps of my char is, maxxing the pets first, not THAT much higher, not enough to beat effective 200k heal/s