Fantastic man, thanks for joining the discussion. I was just reading your Storm Familiar beginner friendly guide and I learned a lot!
I will look both into the Savagery + Spark of Ultos idea and also test the Wind Devil to see if it makes the conjurer playstyle feel a bit more interactive.
Its like saying that it is a design flaw that you can’t make a good build that is good with both melee and ranged attacks.
If you wanna be more active, you can just get some Grasping wines for crowd control too. In the end of the day, does it really matter where the damage comes from, you or from the pets?
Actually I think it is. Hybrid builds are commonplace in other RPGs and they are actually my personal favorite way to play such games.
Grim Dawn however has opted for a strict split between pet boosting stats and character boosting stats, practically making hybrid builds inefficient in higher difficulties. I do understand that this is a conscious design choice on behalf of Crate but at the same time it is a pretty glaring shortcoming of the game. Hybrid pet build players (much like myself) will probably get frustrated trying to play the way they like and seeing it doesn’t work.
A good example of a hybrid class that works is the aforementioned Witch Doctor class from Diablo 3. In Diablo you can still be a decent spellcaster even if you itemize for max pet damage. And by “decent” I mean that, even if most of the damage comes from the pets, the hero impact is and feels significant.
EDIT: I am replying here, as apparently I cannot post more as a new user 
Yes, that is one of the things I am going to try out!
First I will try to salvage my Conjurer and go the Wind Devil / Storm Totem / Savagery way like Sigatrev recommended.
And then, depending on the results, I will try the Oppressor build with the player-scaling pets.
I know that D3 is much more basic in its mechanics - I still believe though hybrid builds should be at the same tier as “pure” builds. Tt actually doesn’t matter if the damage comes 100% from pets or only 70% from pets and 30% from the character as long as the end result is not OP. The whole idea that makes hybrid builds fun to play is their “feel”. You are a powerful mage or warrior or whatever and you still command a strong army that kills things.
I mean you can decent hybrid builds in GD too, but as in all ARPGs, if you wanna get the most efficient build - you need to focus. Same with damage types.
Diablo 3 is a much more simple game in terms of game mechanics and itemization, heck even Diablo 2 is more complex than its successor.
So, for the fourth time or something, we have player scaling pets in grim dawn 
Not sure if this counts as a pet build, but I enjoy Storm Totem and Wind devil builds. Perfect feel of being a caster and a summoner.
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Don’t know if anyone could build on this old Conjurer.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/m23gdy72
It’s based on JayNyne’s Lazy Pokemon Summoner, but I can’t seem to find the thread for that now sadly. I based my own Lazy Conjurer on this, but his build got way to busy for me.
Devotions went like this:
Crossroads A
Shepherd’s Crook - Doom Bolt
Crossroads E
Raven
Rhowan’s Crown - Familiar
Crossroads O
Panther
Crossroads P
Widow - Briarthorn
Tempest - Hellhound
Crossroads C
Jackal
Bysmiel’s Bonds - Bloody Pox
Scholar’s Light
Empty Throne
Hammer
Crossroads Remove E, P & O & 2pts Rhowan’s Crown
Mogdrogen the Wolf - Curse of Frailty
Though I’ve had to add Grasping Vines since Briarthorn can no longer be put on Widow.
Gear suggestions were:
Weapon: Mythical Spark of Ultos (L94) - Seal of Might - Ravager’s Eye
Offhand: Stormbringer of Malmouth (L94) - Hell’s Bane Ammo - Ravager’s Eye
Rings x2: Mythical Glyph of Kelphat’Zoth (L84) - Runebound Topaz - Mogdrogen’s Blessing
Amulet: Mythical Will of Bysmiel (L82) - Aether Soul - Mogdrogen’s Blessing
Head: Mythical Beastcaller’s Cowl (L94) - Titan Plating - Outcast’s Warding Powder
Shoulders: Mantle of Mogdrogen (L94) - Sacred Plating - Outcast’s Warding Powder
Chest: Mythical Dread Armour of Azragor (L94) - Titan Plating - Outcast’s Warding Powder
Waist: Mythical Voidmancer’s Cord (L84) - Titan Plating - Outcast’s Warding Powder
Gloves: Mythical Overlord’s Iron Grip (L94) - Ugdenbog Leather - Venomguard Powder
Pants: Mythical Dread Knight’s Legplates (L84) - Ugdenbog Leather - Venomguard Powder
Boots: Mythical Fiendflesh Greaves (L94) - Mark of Mogdrogen - Venomguard Powder
Medal: Mythical Beastcaller’s Talisman (L94) - Aether Soul
Relic: Primal Instinct (L70)
Options: Mythical Beastcaller’s Shroud/Shoulderpads (L94)
Level 10s
Weapon - Devil’s Mark
Waist - Acolyte’s Cord
Ring - Marrow Band
Level 20s
Weapon - Salazar’s Sovereign Blade
Offhand - Bloodsworn Codex
Head - Crown of Command
Ring - Briarthorn Band
Amulet - Blightshard Amulet
Level 30s
Weapon - Legion Voidcutter
Offhand - Bloodsworn Codex
Head - Death’s Visage
Chest - Rhowari Cuirass
Feet - Rifthound Leather Boots
Ring - Bloodsworn Signet
Amulet - Spiritstone Charm
Relic - Savage
Level 40s
Weapon - Fiendblood Spellblade
Offhand - Black Grimoire of Og’Napesh
Ring - Legion Conjuration Seal
Amulet - Rhowari Lifecaller
Medal - Legion Mark of the Void
Level 50s
Weapon - Black Scourge
Offhand - Bloodsworn Codex/Empower Grimnoire
Chest - Wildspeaker Coat/Beastcaller’s Cowl/Shoulder/Shroud/Talisman
Hands - Necromancer’s Deathgrips
Waist - Voidmancer’s Cord/ Subjugator’s of Wild
Legs - Wildshorn Legguards
Feet - Empowered Rifthound Leather Boots
Ring - Glyph of Kelphat’Zoth/Subjugator’s Bloodsworn of Wild (cultists)
Amulet - Sovereign Ruby of Domination
Medal - Mogdrogen Sigil
Relic - Ancestor/Bysmiel’s Domination
Whether it could be made viable or not is up to the pet experts here, but it would give you something to do besides stand around.
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It could be due to all the changes to stuff from the patches since then, but that won’t really work in the current state of the game for any serious play. It might be fine for campaign, but even Ultimate would be a struggle with only 1 point each in the pets themselves.
As for the question in the OP, Blightfiend/Reap Spirit builds might qualify if you want pet builds that don’t quite feel like pet builds. Closest thing to a good hybrid in GD as of this post.
If you want more flashy stuff, try my Pet Pyromancer: Fire Birb - Pet Pyromancer
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Yeah, I suspected as much. My lazy Conjurer was based on his earlier version which was more poison based. Still, I’ve had fun with it, even though it’s clocked up over 200 deaths now. It’s been my pathfinder for testing both AoM and FG plus my only L100 character so far. 
The problem with being an active attacker in a pet build, most of your skills are for the pets, not you. And attacking will automatically make the monsters ignore the pets, and go after you instead.
Sry I couldn’t reply earlier, stupid forum rules for new members prevent you from posting more than a couple of times.
Wut? Does the Fire Birb do what I think it does? You mean I can run around throwing molotov cocktails and planting mines while still enjoying a full pet build? 
Where do I sign up? This is exactly what I was looking for… thanks so much Maya!
I checked out the Blightfiend build and it looks like your run-of-the-mill pet build except for the fact that all your toons are temporary and need frequent resummoning. Otherwise the hero is again a glorified frailty bot, i.e. not my cup of tea.
PS: I actually tried playing with Curse of Frailty yesterday. The experience sucked exactly as much as I thought it would…
ok so it DOES matter if you deal damage or not it seems?
It matters that the hero feels impactful, even if most of the dmg comes from the pets.
Ok well I guess that is a matter of taste. The Fire Birb build you cast BWC and Mines mostly for defuffing, so they are just fancier Curse of frailty.
Yep. Explosions always look cool. It’s not like you can see where the damage comes from when there are 20 mobs, 5 pets and 2 bosses on the screen.
Then go with Fire Birbs, you will 
it.
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You can play a Conjurer with player-scaling pets.
Yeah that was my other idea. The Storm Totem doesn’t sound half bad. Same with the Wind Devil.
You can also have shotgun (Ugdenbog sparkthrower) and shot with Primal strike
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To add to malawiglenn’s line: not sure if it is efficient nowadays, but In old times I had a lot of fun with Raka’Jax and 4 pieces of Ultos set (axe on the second weapon set to deal with Iron Maiden). Pets were not my focus, but why not to try? You can also have some elemental pets from Devotions.
https://www.grimtools.com/db/itemsets/96
https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/9401
Thank you for the idea! There is lot I would like to try out now
I think I will just decide based on which items I drop first and then build around them.
Based on all your extremely helpful ideas I was able to realize what I do not like and what I am actually looking for:
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The real problem seems to be that the visuals of abilities like Curse of Frailty and Bloody Pox are hardly noticeable in game and do not feel impactful. Combined with the fact that these skills either do not do direct damage or do damage over time, they give me the impression that my hero runs around in circles supporting the pets (which he is supposed to do, I know, but it is not the playstyle I have fun with).
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Playing with a spammable ability that does even a bit of damage and can clear trash mobs (e.g. Doom Bolt, Evil Eye of Dreeg, Backwater Cocktail etc.) is much more fulfilling for me, even if in the grand scheme of things these spells do only 1% of the damage that the pets do.
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Player-scaling pets that are not really pets (totems, wind devils and so on) can be really fun and certainly fit the way I like playing action RPGs. Heck, even the Demolitioner mines are cool (even if they are not scaling).
So thanks again for your help everyone 