I’m currently leveling an hybrid S&B Warder mixing different ideas (block proc triggers, support auras). i use briarthorn as a support pet for its roar mostly, and currently near the end of Veteran.
my biarthorn dies a lot, and while it’s not a problem for now i wondered how enhance its survivability. i don’t want to focus too much on pet gear, so what are the skills which could work to achieve that goal (Soldier, Shaman or Celestial) ? More importantly should i focus on health ? resistances ? DA ?
i admit i’m a little at loss here :eek:
any advice appreciated, but no “your build won’t work”, just built it for fun and if it hits a wall later so be it.
I think your build can work if you will only use the pet as support. There are Items that increase resistances for your pet but you will probably gimp your own damage by using them. How many points did you invest in briar? Post your grimcalc
Put him on defensive stance always. He should cast his roar anyway. I’ve only played Hell hound and he casts his aura on defensive stance.
Also does Wendingo totem work on pets? If it does use that.
Put points in Warcry to debuff everything. You can use Oleron’s if you want but that is better against boss fights. Warcry will help with all mobs especially in areas like BOC
And finally, I think you will need to micro manage him a bit for some fights with enemies that have powrful AOE. Fabius for example kills pets really fast (tried Nemesis from relic on him). So try keeping him out of combat or positioning in combat but out of his AOE. Belgothian shears will kill your pets, it has 165 degrees arc. Try placing Briar behind fabius and see how that works.
Other fights like loghorrean get gim out of the way of his puke attacks etc.
Ok so I guess with the skills you are going for you want a kind of targo proc/retaliation build. You are investing in the roar, You could also go for Oak skin for more retaliation.
I would change primal bond with menhir’s Bulwark. I know you want to help your pet but he is there for support only. Menhir will give wou the absorb, flat damage, huge regen, %retaliation and flat phys damage making your weapon damage relevant in battle too not just retaliation. Also means targo will do more damage. If you fo for the retaliation you might want to consider shield maiden, messanger of war and the lower right devotion point in menhir that gives 100% retaliation.
Tip: Remember that Warcry also Taunts! this will force enmies to attaack you and not Briar. this whould help when you switch from primal bond do menhir’s. Take the point out of ground slam because it has taunt and attracts enemies to your briar and you don’t want that!!! 1. He will die and 2. The less enemies hit you the less you retaliate or spawn targo hammers from blocking.
How i would play this retaliation hybrid end game (devotions included): http://grimcalc.com/build/NtPT8XE Assassins mark on zollhan’s technique and Shield wall on Blitz for 100% proc on demand. Falcon on savagery
Field command> than Squad tactis if you will be wondering about that
And with this I would:
Dedicated to retaliation (see Squibb retaliation warder http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36239 ) use items like Azargor’s chest and Last stand shield. Thornhide legs you should use no matter what you do.
Retaliation proc hybrid. What you seem to want (and What i would also) More emphasis on Trago’s hammer. I’d use markovian’s set for this for the skill cooldown ability. Overguard all the time and you can reach 100% block recovery (with serrated shell in shield) with around 70% block chance. You will have also shield wall which is a pretty cool skill. Damage reflect fills in the gaps for retaliation sometimes limited use. Put it on blitz strike for 100% change to prock and feel like a boss with 3000 armor and perma overguard:cool:
yeah me too i don’t focus on retaliation for the moment, maybe i’ll do later. unfortunately i don’t think i switch PB to MB because of the mastery points investement, might be too late for that :undecided: i totally understand your point, though, i can forget about my pet damage.
anyway there’s a lot of interesting things you made me think about for the moment i will defintively remove the point in Ground Slam, invest in War Cry and manage my pet more attentively. That should really help, thanks again !
first my char died a lot (about 10 times) in Veteran, which is a little ashaming for a supposed tanky beast :o but when i took the time to think about it, it was mostly because i neglected resistances. i died thrice against Anasteria, twice yesterday against Thalonis, once against the Guardian of Soalel and Amalgamation…
with decent resistances (everything important is between 50-80% in Elite) the beginning of Elite was close to a breeze, even the three-champions ambushes. i was expecting a very hard step from what i read, but people seems to have exagerated
regarding the discussion, i totally reworked my devotion and instead of going Eldritch for pet damage i went Primordial for pet HP and res. my Briathorn sais thanks for skills i followed most of Superfluff great advices and gave up Ground Slam and Squad Tactics whild giving a convincing try to War Cry and pumping Field Command.
i still have some hope for this char then, we’ll see how things come out past Burrwitch !
Unsupported pets are great for early levelling, but they stop being useful around Normal/Vet Act IV. To finish the game you’ll want to commit fully to a pet build or spec out of it into your own core skills.
If you want to make your pet last longer you’ll need to commit to being a pet caster and sacrifice your own DPS in favor of pet-oriented itemization and support skills.
