To give context. Started playing a bit over a month or so ago. 800 hours played. I only play HC, and the farthest I’ve gotten is all content done in normal. Main campaign and AoM in elite. Main campaign finished in ultimate.
I’m going to play a hybrid pet / player character and see how far it takes me. Community decides what pet I’ll use, and I’m going to theorycraft and make a build myself - around the pet chosen. It will be played HC-SSF. I will do all content (main campaign + expansions) on every difficulty. No exp pots or reputation writs.
Simply choose a pet you’d like for me to focus on. And provide the following:
What level do you think I’ll die at?
How far content-wise when I die?
What killed me? (Choose 3 bosses. Or altenatively scenarios, like aetherground, totem etc. or a mix)
I feel like I’ve learned the game proper now. But I’ve yet to complete all story content, or try SR. (I do not have crucible).
Hellhound
Raven
Blight Fiend
Skeletons
Briarthorn
0voters
The player that came closest to predicting the above, I’ll gift a game on steam (45$ max).
To sum up: Choose a pet, put down your prediction. You may edit your predictions at any time (if pet chosen affects your opinion). I’ll check the comments when I die, and announce the winner.
Briarthorn because it is simply a very reliable tank with high damage.
I do believe you will make to level 100 before dying.
Shattered Realm.
Grava’Thul (because he can instantly kill any character), Archmage Aleksander (you don’t want to tank those meteors) and traps in SR (they are everywhere).
I was gonna say “that’s the spirit” but I see no Spirit as option? I like it for end game option, cause you can go with dedicated set and balance the contribution of pets vs the player.
I’ve always wanted to try Dracarris build but haven’t even bothered of placing together the items, ugh.
Briathorn + pseudo pets like Devils and Totems Conjurer is interesting idea, fit the theme of hybrid builds and I guess can be leveled from early on, just like Skeletons Defiler.
Playing HC, you goal should be of making it to level 100. What will kill you, ground damage?
I’ve been on 100% sick leave for a long time, and for at least 2-3 months more before I can work again. Severe depression after… something. Since 16th of may. Playing GD all day leaving my PC on while sleeping.
I’m itching to get started, going for Briarthorn since that’s the lead as of now.
I will make a build around hybrid briarthorn + player.
When I die, I will simply check here who had the closest guess. And announce said winner by editing the main post. The price is a steam game of your choice gifted to you (45$ limit). Good luck!
If you’re staying away from temp pets, I’d say Briarthorn for something with solid defensive buffs that’s relatively tanky, or maybe Blight Fiend if you want something a little different.
Good luck on the challenge . I’ve always said to players that the best way to work out what will and won’t work is to just try it and see for yourself. Early AoM, I tried a hybrid pet + player Cabalist around Acid/Poison damage and the Blight Fiends and while it made it to Ultimate, it went downhill from there (granted, I was also a worse builder/player back then).
I was theorycrafting and realized there is something I really, really want to do with the hellhound (haven’t seen anyone done this yet). So I’m going for the hellhound instead. Seeing it catched up on the poll also.
well you make it a challenge by insisting on a single pet only, so I’m assuming you mean this is as some sort of meme run. if you want a more solid hybrid pet build you want to use a few pets, I posted this one recently and can go up to Sr75-80 on ultimate, this was also really played in hardcore SSF, not a theorycraft:
It isn’t the number of pets more like a… how to phrase it. I feel like a proper pet/player hybrid build has the player in an active combat state (taking damage and dealing damage) in unison with a pet like a 50/50 split of. Almost like treating the pet as a player you’re playing with type of mindset.
I’d like to check your link but I can’t. I’ve never seen or read a single character build guide, and i avoid playing anything I see, or can imagine, others have played a lot. If following a guide or seeing what others has done leaving me with a feeling of having copied a built. Then it’s ruined for me.
In other words, if I look at what you or others might have done to succeed at this (though I appreciate you trying to help!), it would be ruined for me personally and I’d find no joy in playing it.
I actually dumpstered a build I made, thinking I was REALLY creative with that one. Thinking “no way anyone did this”. Then while listening to rektbyprotoss vods while playing, he had actually made that exact build. So I immediately exited and deleted the character.
The reason for this is because when I’ve made my ultimate super niche hipster unique build, and post it here. I can’t take credit for it, if it is too similar to an existing build guide. People would claim I copied it. So I’m going to put the honest disclaimer: “If this is similar to someone else’s build, it is purely coincidental”.
I have to say though, that your “kennelmaster” title scares me a bit. Because the build I’m going for is a 2 x hellhound build. Though 2 x hellhound builds are probably already done, I’m hoping that the super niche way of playing mine, especially as a pet player hybrid build, will stand out.
Ok, i see your point, but you can rest assured my build is not a 2 hellhounds build.
I have posted various hybrid pet builds and scraped the forum for existing ones to make sure I wasn’t posting copies.
I don’t think I have seen any hybrid builds using only one mastery pet at all (probably because many will end up very weak)
I have a similar definition for a hybrid pet build, I would say pet and player need to do roughly 40-60% of the damage, but the pet can be a single pet or just any amount of pets. When pet or player are reduced to doing only 20% dmg or so, the build will likely fail since it is certainly more efficient to drop either player or pet combat entirely. Maintaining a good balance throughout the entire leveling process can be challenging and sometimes a hybrid build can be leveled easier for a while as a non-pet or pure pet build.
Thanks for sharing! Agree on all points. I must say I find it kinda funny the part about “… to drop either player or pet combat completely”. My imagination took hold and I was picturing the Hellhound going “Sorry. It’s not me, it’s you. You are simply not contributing to our team” thus sacking the taken, with the hellhound carrying on as the main character without the player.
I voted for the bird for cool points but the briarthorn is probably the least likely to die
I’d say you’ll die somewhere around ultimate Malmouth a little below lv94 (though lv90 faction gear gives you a solid chance to win) to a combination of malmouth hulks and some heroes
Hm… going to go with Hound, mostly because my very first attempt at a build in GD was blindly running with a Hound + Rifle Pyromancer and not even getting past Krieg…
Also because you can reduce its CD by quite a lot and with their MI offhand, go for a Bomb based build. The pet also has Damage reduction now, so should be a bit better defensively in that sense compared to Briarthorn.
Also, with base damage types being elemental + chaos, should offer for a bit more interesting combination of options.
Now,
Lvl 96 (because 69 is too overused )
SR/Crucible if doing those. Skeleton Key dungeons if sticking to main campaign (and ignoring SR).
. I’ve always said to players that the best way to work out what will and won’t work is to just try it and see for yourself. Early AoM, I tried a hybrid pet + player Cabalist around Acid/Poison damage and the Blight Fiends and while it made it to Ultimate, it went downhill from there (granted, I was also a worse builder/player back then).
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