Noob Ritualist 2h Summoner Build idea- Need help!

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Hey there all, I am newish to the game, recently found it, been playing, and loving it. Right now been bouncing between my Death Knight (primary 2h with Skeletons) and an Alt Warder (2h Lightning). So I thought to myself, I love both these characters, why not ditch solider, slap them together and rock a ritualistic. So I look online for a 2h summoner build and for the life of me I can’t find one that shoots for what I am trying to accomplish.

Now my assumption is that either A. It is because the build Idea may work in normal but as the game progresses and gets harder will have its butt handed to it, therefor no one builds this way, or B. I am the first o.O

Anyways, here is the build I am shooting for, and before I spend the upcoming weeks or months of my life running after this idea, will it work for the long haul and if not, why is that? Like I figure the pets will draw agro, and I will join in an AOE blow up everything. So far with the primary classes separate, they seem to be working, but Ive only gotten to about 40th level on either, and am re-rolling right now as a ritualistic.

I know there are workable Ritualistic builds out there, but they look nothing like the build I am linking here, so again, what I need is feedback as to why? What am I missing. Do skeletons not hold their own in end game? Is it the lightning only tickles monsters later on post lvl 50? Any who, I hope this build idea works, because I think merging these 2 play styles of my 2 classes would make for 1 solid extremely fun character. Any who, I am off to get to work building him, if he is a waste of effort though, be sure to save me some time :wink: Peace.

Worst case ill just have to pick one of my 2, death knight or warder and all back to one of them, as I;m sure they can go the distance. Soldier is just a solid secondary for good defense.

Oh and here’s the link…planned out devotion points and all.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/RZR5R9vV

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Pet Hybrid builds do not work.

Either you go all in on pets or nothing.

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So they the pets will get steamrolled for lacking 2 or 3 devotions? Figured they wouldn’t make that huge of a difference, especially since it only looks like it will help their damage and not their survivability all that much.

That sucks, so I should keep my Warder and Death Knight Separate then eh?

Just hit level 12 with the Ritualist, so only burnt an hour, not to much time wasted, that is sad to hear though. I was wondering why I don’t see any builds online similar to mine. I still don’t understand whats lacking but you say it won’t work, I won’t waste time trying hehe, ill just have to decide what seems cooler to me, Lighting AoE Thor wannabe, or Death Knight, commander of the Undead Armies… Ahhh man back to square one, their both 2 cool for school and I can’t decide which to focus on hehe.

Well, thanks again, though if you get a chance and are maybe willing to explain why that build wouldn’t work, like because the minions would produce enough damage, or I wouldn’t, or that defense is lacking or something :stuck_out_tongue:

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Reason is primarily due to pets having their own stats that need to be focused on. The items that are needed for it don’t really come with much support for the player. However, the devs have tried to include a few “hybrid” options, but then we move on to the other problems.

Devotion setups are also different for both pet builds and non pet builds. Also there are not enough skill points to fully focus on either side. You also need to keep your pets alive which means worrying about additional things like Pet resistances along with your own.

Essentially, neither you nor your pets will do enough damage to make it worth over going a non hybrid route + you will have the added responsibility to keep both yourself and your pets alive.

I can however provide 2 silver linings that might be of use.

First one being, using player scaled pets like Guardian of Empyrion, Blade Spirits, Wind Devils, Revenant devotion Skeletons etc. They scale based on your stats, so no need to worry about those pets.

Second one is to try out a Reap Spirit or Transmuted Blight Fiend (Unstable Anomaly) build instead. Reap Spirit pets are immortal while you can get the Cooldown of Transmuted blightfiends to a maximum of 3 Seconds on a Ritualist with proper items. The advantage this has is that you will not need to worry about keeping your pets alive. So the build gets much easier to manage.

However, do note that 2h would probably not be effective in the above case since to make the most out of Spirit/Fiend you need an Off-hand.

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Quick question, you said skeletons were on that note list of pets that scale with my stats or on their own or what have you. So is the only problem then that I am using the brairthorn in the build? If I just got rid of him, moved points around and used the Blight Fiend instead that could help solve the issue?

Or I am still splitting myself to thin damage wise, only getting half devotions that focus on pets and half on me, when I could be going 100% either way (from what I gather). I guess I just figured damage wise, the lack of damage on either end would be made up by the other party.

I guess that means then the only Viable character of the 3 I am playing is the Warder, since my death knight is a pets hybrid as well :P. I mean, I was specking him to have the skeletons and fiend, and only minimal in soldier. Guess I’ll focus my warder then until I get endgame and get a real feel for how the mechanics work and then if the game still holds me, attempting weird broken hybrid builds >_<. That sucks haha, was really hopping my 8 + 6 Skeletons and 1 Thorny Puppy would make for good meat shields while I blew everything up with lightning. I mean, it works for normal mode, thats why I had to ask about nightmare and hell mode (Not sure what they are called in this game, but the harder modes).

Back in Diablo 2, pets would just get crazy stronger when you go from Normal to Nightmare so I figured that may be the case. Anywho thanks again for taking your time and replying. Warder it is :,(

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The Skeletons from Revenant Devotion (Raise the Dead) Scale with Player bonus.
The Skeletons from Necromancer Skill (Raise Skeletons) Scale with Pet bonus.

Blightfiend also Scales with Pet bonus. So if you want to go for blightfiends, you will need to redo your entire build and use Ghol’s Set for the hybrid part. Even then, its effectiveness will be subpar.

Also, The lack of damage on both sides simply end up adding to less damage in total unfortunately.

One more thing before you give up on this, it is rather easy to respec your build in GD. It is also cheap provided you don’t overdo it (like try out 100 different builds on one char :stuck_out_tongue:).

So should you feel like going for it, feel free to try and see how far the builds you have in mind will take you. If they start to fail, you can simply move to pure pet or player focused one rather easily.

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Ya, but I am trying to plan ahead. Like I don’t want to choose a class set up that is doomed to fail. I’d rather choose one and build towards it as much as possible. Your idea would be more fitting for say my Death Knight. I can still rock a hybrid summoner build for as long as possible, but if I find it starts lacking, I can easily build him to be 1 hard to kill mofo (from what I gather) who does quite the damage life leeching output. So maybe I’ll rock my Death Knight…but I was loving that oh so uber AoE lightning from the Shaman side of things…and I know a Warder or Death Knight (least form all I have read) can go the distance…oh bloody hell, Ima do it, Ritualist hybrid all the way. Start getting my butt handed to me, I’ll drop the Pets and go some mad Life Leech Wendgo Totems and auras or something :P…I just can’t pick Necro or Shaman, I got to take em both. Thanks for the info anyhow. I’ll be sure to report back if I hit a 100 and slaughter with a hybrid build I was mentioning…cuz man that is a fun build haha, and isn’t the the reason we play?

Ok, yes fun, but also cheese, lots of stinky cheese…

1 Like
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As pointed out, a hybrid will be weaker than a pure build. But…hybrids are doable. I’ve played a few. You’ll struggle at high end-game, though.

The key to a successful hybrid [imho] is to build it with a strong focus on pet gear, so the pets are effective. It’s a compromise.

And that brings me to the next point: in GD, gear is really important in planning an end-game build. Often a build will be planned around items, as opposed to skills. But if you have certain skills in mind pre-gear, you will have to be flexible on which skills you’ll use, as you find gear in the game. Especially in the higher levels.

It’s also best to try to use one dominant damage type, as resistance reduction and stacking a damage type is fairly integral later on. For example, your build (with no items):

  • character using lightning/physical/bleed primal strike/ and cold from a devotion
  • briars doing physical
  • skeletons doing physical/vitality (+ some lit from devotion)
  • and you have but one source of resistance reduction (Revenant). This will be ok for a while, but it will be frustrating in the later levels. (well, 2 sources…but Hand of Ultos will only help the elemental damage ).

Eventually you’ll probably want to focus on a damage type, both for your character and the pets. And it’s is super-easy to respec in GD, so you will be able to change it up radically, at any time.

…I actually just hopped in to point out that Primal strike is not considered a default attack, so if you are spamming that all the time, then the wps (Reaping strike, Necrotic Edge, Feral hunger, etc) will not activate. So don’t waste points on those if you are focused on Primal spam.

Have fun.

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winter king sword and winterking crown my man. they are your best bet

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Hey there hammyhamster :slight_smile:

Thanks for all the tips, most important was your ending though. Now I am blown away, so you mean to tell me that Primal won’t proc all those …well proc powers? Abilities like Reaping and Necrotic, feral hunger etc, will they proc off of savagery? Or do they only proc off default, none ability slotted left clicks? Thats a huge bummer that it doesn’t proc off primal strike though. How do you tell what counts as a “default” attack if certin abilities attack replaces do and some don’t, or is that all just don’t. Though I was just reading Thunderous strike, which is what makes Primal strike able to be used over and over, it says it doesn’t count as a defult, so I am assuming then, Primal would proc those …well procs, but only if I don’t use Thunderous. Didn’t catch that though in all my theorycrafting, so double thanks for pointing out. That changes a great deal for me as I love the proc abilities.

Dangit, well, as much as I want to hold onto Thunderous strike AoE attacks, and lead an undead army in melee, it sounds like if I am going to pull that off, a Death Knight may be the easier path, and just ditch the whole lightning thing. Ditch pets when I get to the point they don’t pull their weight, or go all in on pets (which is not my style :stuck_out_tongue: I like pets to assist me, not do all the work).

And Drakhan, thanks for the Winter King Items tip. Look more fitting for a reaper (which was actually like my first character I think haha. Then I made the Death Knight thinking he would be tougher, then I tried the Shaman Warrior mix, fell in love with the Lightning AoE, learned about Devotions, Realized I could make a lack of better terms lightning and cold god, who runs with a pack of Undead, I was like, sign me up hehe. Sounds like it would just be stretched to thin in to many ways, so i’ll have to just pick Death Knight and go Necro Themed, or Pick Shaman+(Other) and Go way of the lightning :wink:

Thanks again y’all

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The skills that are default weapon attack replacers are Savagery, Fire Strike, Cadence and Righteous Fervor. I think there’s one component and one relic that also work. Nothing else will proc WPS (weapon pool skills). Any skill that says “when used as your default weapon attack” in it’s description will proc WPS.

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Learned a whole lot over the last few days, from this thread, other forums, the Build compendium to name a few, and am thinking a whole new route of a basically same idea, and was wondering if anyone of y’all might know an answer, point me in the right direction what not…

So the Ritualist Idea is at heart what I am looking for in the character, has access to that Lightning build, even if it drops off by late game, and I must go savagery, that is fine. but I think the heart was the my character as a Melee fighter with Minions. So Minions from the Devotions Revnant and Unknown Solider have caught my eye. In Fact this trickster build here ( [1.1.4.2] (2H Melee) The King in the North - 2H Melee Trickster, superboss killer [c+] [sr] ) I think hits the nail on the head for what I am trying to accomplish, with some 8 pets that are based off my character and not “pet stats”, keeps that necro fill by raising 6 skeletons, all be it temporarily, and is all about the lightning and cold :wink: and will most likely be the build I am going to follow, but before I sink my teeth in and run with it, there was a set of Gear I came across, the Blood Knight set ( https://www.grimtools.com/db/itemsets/140 ) granted I know this set is built for a Death Knight ( a class I seriously considered, but lacks access to Lightning build) What I love about this set is how many more uber pets it would add.

My question thus is, is there a class build + item set that has either the Revenant and or Unknown Soilder, the set itself adds more summons, and keeps that Shaman part for lightning?

I guess what I am trying to accomplish is that trickster inside the blood knight set with the Unknown Solider devotion :P. Is there anything like that I have overlooked or is the King of the North my best option for a Hard hitting, hard to kill, pet summoning, lightning cold death knight like guy?

Oh and 2 other side questions, can anyone wear Blood Knight Set, or do you have to be a Death Knight, like is gear class specific? And which is better, reverent or Unknown Soldier as far as pets are concerned? It looks like U.S. shadow pets will heal you, so I am likeing those guys more o.O

Million thanks in advance, finally zerioing in on what Ima chase down in this game. Y’all fantastic! :slight_smile:

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Technically, any class can wear any set - provided the build fullfills the stat requirements. If it makes sense, is another story. The Blood Knight was intended primarily as a Necromancer/Soldier set. You can see that from the skill boni as well as from the damage types it supports. For a lightning trickster it would be a bad choice. No support for lightning damage on the set would mean a huge dps loss.

OFC you can build towards a bleeding trickster. Still Blood Knight wouldn’t be the obvious choice, but you might get something viable. Bleeding tricksters are usually built differently though, like this one.

If you wnat a Death Knight, you might be interested in Maya’s “Ghouls & Ghosts” - but it is a pet build, not a hybrid…

Edit: Since you like the Blood Knight set, here are two builds that may be interesting (although they aren’t exactly what you’re looking for…)

Oppressor by Sotnik
and
Death Knight by Nery

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Hey there Athremon, thanks for the reply and suggestions. Sadly I do not have the Forgotten Gods expansion. Still need to grab that one. Thinking of it just because I think it will solve my main issue.

1st What I meant by death knight (is not solider + necromancer) but more of a melee warrior with vitality or ather or blood or bleeding, maybe poison/plague like, plus minions. I sometimes forget when using the term theres a class called Death Knight :stuck_out_tongue: .

2nd Mayas Ghouls & Ghosts build all though cool, I just can’t do pet builds where my pets do all the heavy lifting and I use support spells or whatever, not my cup of tea. I like to have my character doing all the face smashing but having pets so that I don’t feel all alone o.O and so that they take some attention off my character. Plus, its just a play style of mine across many games, be it 1 pet or several.

Oath keeper seems to solve my problem though, Guardians of Emperion, + Revenant or the Unknown Solder, would allow me those some prema pets and then I would put Revenant or Unkown solder attached to the pets, so my pets would make more pets! Muwahaha.

And As for the lightning, I guess the end game build wouldn’t necessarily have to include it, but I’d hope the build would include shaman, so that way I can level up as much as possible with thundering strikes/primal strikes. I figure no matter how I swing it, by end game I’d have to switch that over to a savagery, or some other default attack depending on what other class is coupled with shaman.

I’ve been sorting through the compendium of builds and and learning how to choose items, been trying to put a link together that I could submit here to see if it would be viable, but if anyone knows of a build + gear thats farmable by rep or whatever, that is Shamanistic in its use of lightning, savagery, aoe’s, pets that are based on the character, not on the normal pet stats. Actually that brings up a really good question…

Does the + pet bonus such as Mogdrogens Pact + Bonous to all Pets % of damage, does that effect pets like Revenants Skeletons?

But ya, thats what I am looking for, but haven’t quite nailed down a path to chase yet. Feel like im getting closer though. Thanks for all the help guys.