First, let me preface this topic by saying that I wanted to create a challenging but viable build for ultimate difficulty. This build was created in response to multiple posters discussing how weak hybrid pet builds are–I wanted to find out for myself if this was true. The biggest challenge of this build is that the item build is not automatic; there are very few items in the game which directly support a hybrid pet elementalist build, so this build was an attempt to strengthen my itemization and theorycrafting abilities. All of my items are self-found, with the exception of the Primal Instinct relic recipe. The build ended up working much better than I had originally anticipated (it can clear all content on ultimate difficulty except for Mogdrogen), so I decided to post it here.
You may be wondering why I chose an elementalist pet hybrid instead of using a Trickster Winter King pet hybrid build or a Conjurer Beastcaller pet hybrid. I cannot deny that those two builds would probably be easier to build and itemize, but I wanted to test my ability to create a unique pet hybrid which doesn’t have a pre-determined legendary item set to guide its itemization. I played Diablo 3 extensively, and that game revolves around set items to guide endgame itemization (which bored me). I wanted to see if it was possible to have a viable endgame build which isn’t guided by a legendary set.
Grimcalc: http://grimcalc.com/build/Ga9U3S
itemization screenshot: http://imgur.com/BdQpQMB
How I levelled this build:
About 80% of my points went into physique–the rest went into cunning. I focused on getting the Falcon Swoop celestial ability as soon as possible, and I levelled the shaman class first. Feral hunger gave me good AoE in veteran, and some points into Heart of the Wild gave my Briarthorn and I more hp to work with. I levelled up Primal Bond, and after maxing that, I prioritized Vindictive Flame. Afterwards, I levelled Temper for more DPS. The rest is up to you.
What are some of the many things this build focuses on? It’s quite the hodgepodge of stuff, but these are the main themes:
pet hybridization: In this build, my pets account for the minority of my dps (about 20% or so). The briarthorn mainly plays a supporting role (his aura is maxed) and does decent dps via retaliation damage, and my Primal Instint relic swarmlings allow me to do decent damage against bosses without AoE control abilities. I attempted to use the Revenant and Bysmiel’s Bonds constellations at first, but I had to abandon these in favor of more survivability via the Behemoth, Ghoul, and Lizard constellations. As such, my pet damage is relatively low for a hybrid build
health and health regen: these are the main reasons why my build can’t focus more extensively on pet damage. All of my points were prioritized in the Modgrogen’s Pact tree, Vindictive Flame, and Tenacity of the Boar. Without temporary buffs, my build has flat hp regen of 730 (over 2000 when all of my buffs activate simultaneously). My hp usually hovers around 14k. This allows me to continuously facetank almost anything in the game except for the Aetherial and Ch’thonic nemeses (I can only tank about 70% of the time against these guys).
Various survivability buffs: Blast Shield, Might of the Bear, Primal Bond, Emboldening Roar, and various temporary item buffs allow me to facetank nearly anything while my swarmlings tear at enemies. Lifesteal from Feral Hunger and Ghoul make me immune to trash mobs. Against bosses with extremely high dps like the Iron Maiden, I use the legendary medal Mark of Divinity for 3 seconds of immunity, the Hammerfall Girdle belt for more armor and armor absorption, and the Avatar of Mercy amulet for an extra heal and stun resistance.
Bleed damage and resistance debuffs: Because I favored the Wolf of Mogdrogen constellation and Falcon Swoop is obscenely powerful, I decided to invest in the Huntress constellation as well to increase my bleed damage. Devouring Swarm and Grasping vines are used to proc these celestial abilities constantly. I also use Blessed Steel and Essence of Ch’thon on my weapon to further reduce bosses resistances.
Retaliation Damage a minor portion of my dps comes from retaliation damage. A lot of shaman items have retaliation buffs, and I found myself accumulating a decent amount of retaliation damage without consciously attempting to do so. I maxed Temper to give my swarmlings more flat damage and to give me armor, but it also provides a boost to my retaliation damage. I wear Empowered Bramblewood Amulet (when I’m not forced to wear Avatar of Mercy) and Divinesteel Shoulderguard mainly for their resistance benefits, but they also serve to boost my retaliation damage noticeably. Blast Shield provides me with a nice flat boost to retaliation damage as well.
What items do I prioritize in this build?
in order, I look for items which grant me the following:
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Health and Health regen: This is why I still wear Empowered Fanatics overcoat and Elite Legion Headguard despite finding many other good pieces of legendary armor.
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+ shaman skills: Bramblewood Amulet and Stormreaver give me great benefits to my pets, my survivability, and my dps. Since the vast majority of my skill points are invested in the Shaman tree, I’m always looking for gear which gives me + all skills to shaman.
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Resistances: The hallmark of every successful ultimate build is good resistances. Elite Harvest footpads give me Aether and Chaos resistances (which are difficult to come across for shamans), and Empowered Bramblewood amulet raises my max poison resist because poison damage is very dangerous in ultimate difficulty. Wildblood Girdle, Mark of Divinity, Divinesteel Shoulderguards, and Empty Throne also give me great resistances.
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Attack Speed: Once I had the ability to consistently facetank bosses, I realized that increasing my attack speed was the best way to reliably increase my dps. Accordingly, the Hydra constellation, Elite Rhowari Handguards, and a Resistant Cronley’s Seal of the Serpent give me great buffs to my dps.
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Pet stats Last but not least, some pet items and devotions helped to boost my dps while diversifying my damage. Maxing Temper gave my swarmlings a nice dps buff, and Glyph of Kelphat’Zoth gives my swarmlings flat lightning damage and Total Speed, which is necessary to allow them to move between enemies more quickly. Devotions such as Wolf of Mogdrogen, Huntress, Empty Throne, and Shepherd’s Crook give my pets and my character nice overall stats such as health, OA, damage, and speed.
What are this build’s weaknesses? There aren’t too many, but I’ll note the ones I’ve discovered and how I’ve attempted to overcome them.
-Aether resistance: It’s extremely hard to find items which grant Aether resistance that also synergize with my build. Accordingly, almost all of my augments are geared toward aether resistance, and an Incorruptible Cronley’s Signet would be a fantastic find to help my build out. In the meantime, I use Mark of Divinity to reduce the damage I take from Aetherials
-Armor: while my armor is generally high, enemies like Iron Maiden force me to use unique equipment that I don’t otherwise use (such as Hammerfell Girdle) to boost my armor. A Scaled Hide, Chausses of Barbaros, and maxed Temper and Oak Skin help mitigate my armor problems somewhat, but I’m still looking for synergistic gear which grants me +% armor.
-Ch’thonic and undead enemies: Because my build focuses quite a bit on bleed damage and lifesteal, undead enemies and obsidian Ch’thonic enemies slow me down quite a bit. Accordingly, I use two methods of resistance reduction in my weapon and two Sanctified Bones in my armor to boost my damage against these enemies, but my clear speed is still noticeably slower against these factions.
-Clear Speed compared to other builds posted in this section, this build has a somewhat slow clear speed. Getting attack speed gear reduced this problem somewhat, but it still takes about 2 minutes to kill tough nemeses.
In summary, this build tests the player’s ability to itemize efficiently in ultimate difficulty, and the results have been extremely rewarding and successful for me.
