Pet necro is still going strong. Can’t commend on the rest.
As pet masteries go though Necro is the least versatile. Occultist and Shaman can pair successfully with anything in a way that Necro can’t. They lack the support needed for their own pets.
Well, if you take them in vacuum, I agree. I was talking about Ritualists and Cabalists. Then again, I also don’t really like Pet Shamans much unless paired with Necro/Occultist.
Yes, yes, and furthermore YES!
LOL. What else can you pair pet shamans with? :rolleyes:
Literally anything. Using Beastcaller’s on Shaman you can pair with any other mastery and do fine.
I stand corrected then 
But is there any practical reason for you to do that?
I mean… I did make a solo shaman pet build…
Nope, atleast in my opinion.
Occultist however, makes a fine choice to make unorthodox pet builds
Sounds Ok to me, +1 
Mmmh, it would make overcapping Maiven a more interesting decision for sure, right now, it’s pretty much “overcap as much as possible for double benefit”.
Overcap Maiven if you got spare points, or leave it at softcap if you want to pick utility skills like OFF, yeah, I’m liking that idea.
Definitely +1 from me
Careful what you ask for, what you are asking makes it arguably better than Menhir’s Bulwark which is an exclusie 50 point skill.
Currently you can still remove the damage penalty by getting it maxed out. You risk in the further future it will take actual nerfs in the % damage reduction if what you ask comes true.
We already have tanks in the game that take 0 damage from most content. Even if you can reach the max % damage absorb it is still weak overall relative to armor and flat damage absorb. The damage penalty is unfair and should at least be reduced in value.
I don`t see any reasons to remove the penalty or buff maiven. Why? Its one of the best defense in the game .
Arcanist doens’t have that much DPS to deserve this penalty
You really want to compare soldier and arcanist based builds?
To the person who compared it to Menhir’s Bulwark, you do realize Menhir’s Bulwark also has…
- flat damage. 12/12 is 35 flat physical.
- +%heal. 15% at 12/12
- 60 flat health regen.
- 33% reduced life reduction (something that is SUPER hard to get resistances for, that we run negative resistances for in ultimate).
Maivens, meanwhile, has 20% Damage absorbtion vs Menhir’s Bulwark’s 15%, and cost you 8% of your total damage, for the same 12 points.
Assuming you manage to max overcap 22/12 both skills, Menhir’s Bulwark is 20% damage absorption, 77 physical damage, 20% increased healing, and 45% resistance to life reduction effects. Maivens is 25% damage absorbtion at the cost of 14.3 energy per second.
Menhir’s Bulwark also exist on the same class that has Overguard, for a flat damage absorbtion which gets it’s effects massively boosted by the %absorb that goes before it on the order of operations of damage.
Life Leech Resistance is not Health Reduction Resistance.
Got that one mixed up, my bad Ceno. I suppose I was remembering when Lifeleech damage was an actual damage type we’d get hit with by some enemies.
Are people actually taking Menhir’s Bulwark though? If anything I rather Menhir’s Bulwark be the one that has a total dmg modified penalty but instead make you SUPER tanky. Like % damage absorb and some scaling flat dmg absorb.
Slow tank build skill, basically.
Most people don’t, but that is more a symptom of the fact that for physical builds it is in direct competition with Oleron’s Rage. And that 12% OA, large flat IT, and the rest of it’s damage is hard to compete with. Menhir’s Bulwark could probably use some identity sharpening. I wouldn’t mind seeing block recovery/chance on it, as it is a distinct choice in taking it over taking the much more damage loaded Oleron’s Rage. It already considers a shield mandatory to use it, so it isn’t like giving it shield exclusive buffs is a problem, and Overguard did just get a fair nerf.