When I tried going with Sawmlings + Doggo in 1.1.4.0, the problem I had was mainly aggro + lack of dps.
Even with a maxed Hellhound, I had to use fleshwarped archive and turn it into a bomb to kill anything in a reasonable time.
Swarmlings do damage, but they died too fast. Though Primal Instinct was buffed in the hotfix, I don’t think it will be enough to carry the build. Also you need to keep them going at a steady pace. If they all die at once, then it takes time to get them all back up again which translates to less dps than what would seem on paper.
Speaking of aggro, there is also the problem that you only really have 1 body on the field to take the heat for you; Hound. That + all the aggro from CoF, mines etc = you are going to run a lot. Which translates into lost dps, which means you are in even more risk of dying due to enemies living for longer.
And if you run into multiple Healers in SR, you can simply call it a good day and exit to menu.
I was using one pure pet setup with Mindweaver and another hybrid with Dracarris btw. Mindweaver, unsurprisingly did better.
I haven’t tried focusing on Retaliation however. I am curious to see how it works, if you have tested the setup 