Pet Conjurer vs Pseudo Pet Dervish - [Levelling] Performance Comparison

Recently I posted my Pseudo Pet Dervish build on Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdawn/comments/eedrvq/beginner_friendly_easy_to_gear_the_immortal_army/ and it got some really mixed feedback. Among all the commotion, there started a debate regarding pet builds vs pseudo pet builds. Surprisingly (or maybe not), Maya turned out to be the main hater and continuously trashed my thread calling me names right and left. I expressed my opinion that pet builds slow down during levelling around level 60 compared to decent specs like this dervish for example. At least, that was my experience. I was called a liar, a drug addict, talking from my @$$ and many other things. I encouraged Maya to try my build and then see if her opinion would change, but only got more trashing in response.

I said cool, maybe I’m really bad at playing pet builds. Gave Maya the benefit of the doubt (more than once actually). Asked her which build she would recommend as a good reference point, so I could level a new one and compare it to my dervishes at various stages. I was suggested this spec - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YZeKzdp2
So, I put my ego aside, said to myself that I might actually endup learning more about pet builds and maybe even finally make a fast and strong build in process. All my previous attempts were chores and I ended up abandoning them in the process.

As I was levelling and testing the two builds, Maya continued trashing me and my results. I was blamed for ‘skewing tests’ on purpose, even though those were simply my mistakes based on lack of serious experience in the area. And even with those mistakes it was already obvious that the performance difference is enormous. So I continued improving and retesting. I did over 50 tests, not all of them uploaded yet. With devotion, without devotions, with player active skills, without those. pets defensive stance, pets aggressive stance, close distance to pets, far away from pets, bosses that have mind control, bosses that don’t have it, bosses that have zero lighting res and bosses that have 80%+ fire res (my dervish is fire based). I finally got to 60 in Elite with both specs and recorded a bunch of tests.

Note, all the gear shown below is self found with these two chars only. No stash transferred items. The dervish only needed one Barthollem kill and one rogue dungeon run to get the helmet and mace. I also did a few runs to get the salazar’s balde for the conjurer and got a lucky offhand drop which added an extra pet!

Below are the test results at various stages of levelling. I don’t consider myself a good pilot of pet builds but the same goes for pseudo pets.

Level 19-20 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkp2UityHz4&t=2s
Nothing too convincing (I’m still a total newbie here at piloting both builds). Both builds are strong and the 15 sec Dervish’s lead could be attributed to my piloting and no aggressive pet stance.

Level 42-43 - Alkamos - 2.7 times faster - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGrzmKqP3Dk&feature=youtu.be

Level 42 - Mad Queen - 2 times faster - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqJamd6HdpY
I’m still a newbie here, still not piloting the pets correctly and not using the aggressive stance. But even with those fixed, the performance doesn’t change much as you will see in the next videos.

Grimtools Level 42:
Pet Conjurer - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/wV187eM2
Pet Dervish - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/4ZDv3mz2

Char files: level42.zip (502.7 KB)

Level 50 - Fleshworks and Final Boss -

Pet Conjurer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mev6sFvpJE&feature=youtu.be
Pet Dervish - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=husczID49QE&feature=youtu.be

Level 53 - Dummy test - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcqS7QIw9GM&feature=youtu.be

Grimtools:
Pet Conjurer - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/8NKdApj2
Pet Dervish - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/bVALrQw2

Char files:
Level 53.zip (684.4 KB)

And finally, Level 60 (my main claim that pet builds slow down significantly at this level compared to decent speed specs including this dervish) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsoDuV-SFDY&feature=youtu.be

And the first three bosses in Elite HC - https://youtu.be/MbuA_3rtGpI

Grimtools:
Pet Conjurer - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/r2BWyrDV
Pet Dervish - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/pZrWGB6N

Char files:
Level 60.zip (971.4 KB)

Speed is a relative concept. A build is a slow build compared to something 2-3x faster. Calling someone a liar based on a different baseline without at least trying to understand their position and point of view - is unfair. Calling someone names consistently is not a trait of a nice person.

Feel free to trash this thread too. I still think pseudo pet builds level much faster and are very suitable for beginners. In fact, I could level to 100 with just the gear I have now without feeling slow.

Another big thing is the AoE. You would need to make an entirely different pet build to have any hope of catching up with the dervish in full map clearing times.

Anyhow, I’m done here. Feel free to grab the char files and test them yourselves. I will continue learning to pilot pet builds, but for now, I stand by my words that every pet build I tried so far feels sluggish around level 60+, when compared to decent specs like this fire dervish (I also tried acid dervish and it was nearly as fast). Note, I’m not comparing these specs to true speed levelling beasts like WoP Infiltrator, AAR, RE and other monsters of clearing screens. That’s for another time perhaps…

1 Like

I thinks ur Conjurer GT skill & devotion is not very correct,
with https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZo7X3lZ also will feel very fast.

It’s not mine, that’s one of Maya’s recommended specs. Mine didn’t work well either.

So, you are saying this should be as fast or faster than the dervish? Have you tested it yourself? if so, do you have a video?
I can certainly give it try if it works!

I’m not sure it’s faster than Dervish. but sure than ur provide conjurer GT.
I know this Maya GT. and this focus on survival better for new player.

ur post is Conjurer Pet vs Dervish Pet , of course need offensive skill & devotion to contrast.

Correct. I’ve also recorded vids of both builds not using any devotions or support skills and the dervish was still faster. Will upload some…

ehhh, when both 100 level and full equipment to contrast 170 or SR 76 & deep SR is fair.

I agree with you, that fully geared level 100 pets are very strong and probably stronger than both of my dervishes (acid and fire).

But this argument was about levelling speed not the endgame builds. I said that, based on my experience, the dervish was much faster than pet builds, especially noticeable at level 60+.

BTW, I’m testing your suggested setup for level 60. It looks stronger than the one I tried earlier. Let me runs some more tests and then post a video.

I think you used all 248 points here. Can you make one for level 60? Can’t get primal spirit, not enough points.

OK, do some test pls.
because in all my time for GD is play Summoner. Im Interest on Pet post.

1 Like

Sure thing! But could you please change your GT for level 60? Skill points I mean - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZo7X3lZ

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/gZw4R98N

note: the Test dont forget devotion skill is level 1

if have 70 level will better, can use Primal instinct got 5 swarmlings provide tons of Dps

1 Like

Uploading vid. With this setup at level 60 (I set the devotion levels to match my dervish) your spec resets training dummies in 66sec. That’s much better than before, but the dervish is still 2x faster (33sec). I’m also going to test it at level 70 with Primal Instinct.

if u just test 70 level with dummy, pls max skill storm spirit. and totem skill point change to mogdrogen’s pact
but sure is dervish will more faster, because in this stage Conjurer Pet have long CD.

1 Like

Sure. Here’s the test at level 60 -

The dervish is at the end of this vid at 2:30

Oh, I forgot to add enchanted flint to the offhand. With the flint it’s about 3 seconds faster.

In all honesty, to keep it fair, you should use a level 60-70 spec with maxed out devotions in both cases. Just so there’s no… change.

1 Like

But that wouldn’t be a real life scenario for new players? I did my best to match the devotion levels of the two builds. Plus, I think it might even skew the results more as more damage is going to be offloaded from pets to devotions.

Hey there. Conjurer is by far the slowest pet build to level. There just isn’t enough bodies nor AoE to kill packs. Necros have all the good leveling pets.

I have tried levelling a ritualist via necro but it has fallen far behind in terms of dps. I’ve respec’ed it several times to follow a few recommendations here, but it doesn’t feel competitive in terms of killing speed. If someone has a setup they consider fast at midgame, - feel free to share the GT (preferably for level 60-70) and I will gladly run some tests. Feel free to post your own test results or use my char files to tweak and record it.

It wouldn’t accurately reflect what a real player would experience, but it would still determine which is faster.

Because players get their devotions in different orders.

That’s fine. But regardless of the order you won’t have a maxed out Torch or Seeker or Whirlpool at level 60. Maybe if you are using mandates and potions of clarity all the way and mostly grinding bounties? But then you will hit level 60 even faster. It will be more realistic at about 80-84. And we are going to get there hopefully :slight_smile:

There are many performance spikes during levelling. Some lucky drops could skew the results. So, I’m trying to avoid it by not using any game changing legendaries or super rare greens with crazy affixes. Everything is average, same with devotions. We are looking at this from a position of a newbie with no stashed gear.

Then you need to take into consideration the snowball effect.

If build 1 is slightly faster because they chose to take a more offensive devotion set up intially, devotions are going to level quicker. And will in turn further accelerate the leveling process

EDIT: Tbh, that’s actuallt how I level all my builds. I pick all the crazy offensive devotions right from the get go, then pile up on defensive stats

2 Likes