Pet Itemization (Includes thoughts on nearly every pet item in the game)

Grim Dawn Ideas and Feedback
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Now that the v1.0.6.0 update has been largely explored and the next expansion coming around the corner, I wanted to both express my gratitude for all the attention given to pet builds and suggest ways you can take them further (assuming the expansion doesn’t take our current knowledge and turns it upside down). I am going to base my thread on the multiple “thoughts on every legendary in the game” threads (see here and here) before the main release that received a thorough run-through by the devs and had several of the recommended changes implemented. Pet builds are specifically difficult to balance and work around because not only are creating stats/resistances/offensive abilities/defenses for two different entities [the Summoner and the pets], but the equipment must be designed for number of pets as well as pet strength.

Before I begin my thoughts on pet items individually, I’d like to bring attention to the primary issues pet builds face:

• There are generally 3 types of pet builds that function well:

  1. All-offense pets and all-offense devotion set-up that requires expert-level APM (sneaky parrot’s builds fit this descriptor)
  2. One major pet support and defensive devotion set-up that focuses on having the major pet take credit for the kill while the player largely focuses on survivability (Snazzblaster’s Lightning Hybrid and AyyyLmao’s Poison Fiend Cabalist serving as examples)
  3. Defensive gear set-up with all-offense devotions - as the label says, use the equipment to protect the player defensively while using the skills / devotions to give your pets the necessary offense (I will post an example of this shortly).

Whether these types of builds succeed or not depends on how well the gear supports the concept. Witching Hour is great for the first set-up because it’s buff provides a huge boost to offense. On the other hand, the Primordial - Order devotion set-up is great for setting up good defenses, but your gear needs the appropriate offenses in order for your pets to be able to take down the content without any major surprises. Gear that provides the necessary skill bonuses is far more important than general pet items. There are rare items that grant pet builds great defensive bonuses (Bysmiel’s Domination’s 30% Physical Resistance being a good example) - having more of these items, coupled with appropriate skill bonuses - can greatly expand the number of viable pet builds out there.

A big factor as to whether these builds succeed or not is how many +Skills to a class you can gather. Sneaky Parrot is fully credited for beginning the process of stacking as much +Class Skills as the build can get it’s hands on, and with good items / skills that grant good pet damage along with player survivability, this is only going to be a bigger factor. It takes a extremely good targeted set of skills or an extremely good proc to get a player to choose a weapon / amulet / head gear if it doesn’t add +All Skills in X. A good example of this is the Venom Launcher gun + Putrid Necklace making up for no skill bonuses by converting 90% of Elemental damage into acid. If they don’t have these things, you can call these items obsolete right off the bat.

• Hybrid summoner play has seen a noticeable boon with the new update, with both Snazzblaster’s Lightning Conjurer and AyyyLmao’s Poison Cabalist able to take on Crucible 150 in the latter’s case and reaching the top at 170 for the former’s. However, there aren’t many weapons that really encourage hybrid play, and those that do have too little supporting them to make a truly unique build. Considering how many Chaos pet items there are, I would have assumed that would have been the easiest in making a hybrid work, but between trying a Chaos Witchblade and a Chaos Pyromancer, they’re simply too weak and take too much damage to make a build concept that works.

In general, it is a very tough task for the player to be able to supply enough damage to be considered a hybrid - there is very little equipment that provides pet bonuses and skills to damage abilities that make the summoner little more than a buff deposit. Auto-attacks are out of the question because of the total lack of attack speed. That largely leaves it to casting skills that match the pets’ damage type. Due to Dying God’s huge damage bonuses, Vitality and Chaos are the most likely candidates for Hybrid pet builds.

• Conversion builds are largely lacking - the most common conversion build is the Thundercats build, and it only has 25% permanent conversion. Yes, the Glyph rings proc fairly often and bring additional 25% conversion for each proc, but stacking 2 procs only lasts for a few seconds at most. The Thundercats Conjurer is extremely powerful, but it doesn’t grant itself any build diversity as if you take even 1 of the necessary equipment slots away to support another class, the build’s performance will plummet significantly. Arcanist grants 45% Physical to Elemental conversion, but that’s merely a 15% conversion to Cold, Fire and Lightning, and there’s no way you can sustain a build from that low of Physical conversion. My own Poison Cabalist demonstrated how you can support and take on new build ideas if you have additional ways to convert damage (in this case, 90% from Elemental to Acid).

I recognize Zantai mentioned that the number of pet conversions is going to be nowhere near the amount of player conversions, but at the very least he should consider cleaning up the conversions we already have. Give us ways to convert more than 50% permanent conversions so we aren’t tethered to proc RNG, and as a specific request, grant us Physical to Fire conversion as Fire pets sorely need the buff.

• Pet Resistances have been given a big boost thanks to AoM’s augments, but some additional work can be done to give further support. Pierce Resistance is the most sorely needed resistance, with only the Diviner’s Raiment, the Mythical Shadowfiend Cord, and the Overseer providing that particular resistance, and Shamans generally have no reason to choose any of those pieces unless they’re either a Conjurer using the Occultist skills or making use of the Diviner’s Set. Bleeding Resistance for pets has no equipment support at all - if you’re not a Shaman build, your only choices are either MI suffixes or devotions. This is a particularly pressing issue for classes like Demolitionist that provide no pet resistance support whatsoever. This is definitely something I want to see improvements, whether through skill modifiers (X% Resistance to party-wide buff) or better pet stats with appropriate skill bonuses.

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Shamans and Occultists are well-supported, so I will focus this post on the remaining classes:

Class Benefits:

[ul][li]Necromancer – Skelemancer’s power is well-documented and unquestioned. Blight Fiends can also be invested to create a viable build option. That leaves Reap Spirit as the outlier. The Diviner’s Set grants an extra 15 seconds of life to Reap Spirit, and yet Diviner’s Set is the build type that would want to spam the player skill as often as possible. If you’re not using the set, the Reap Spirit life is way too short to consider investing in. In addition, the cost of casting heavy-invested Reap Spirit is huge, and the weapon that provides Energy Cost Reduction to the skill is a 2-Hander that can’t feasibly complete the set and have pets that last more than 10 seconds. It would be much better to give the Wraith at least a 20 second lifespan instead of 10 seconds so that summoners can reasonably have 2/3 Spirits on the field (depending on how many points given to the Reap Spirit skill) without spending all of their energy just to have a pet that’s useful for 1-2 enemies only. Thanks to Necromancer’s huge nukes [Bone Harvest or invested Reap Spirit], it could be possible making a good hybrid Necro build work.[/li]

[li]Arcanist – Arcanists seem to have everything going for them to make a good pet class – IEE’s flat damage bonuses + elemental damage from conversion, +Crit Damage, Nullification, reduced energy usage, multiple forms of damage absorption, and one of the best nukes in the game to create temporary summons (Devastation). Since Arcanist comes with no pet OA bonuses (flat or otherwise), the class has to resort to fishing around other classes’ gear to find enough pet OA to make good of all of its damage bonuses. The expansion brought a good number of IEE + pet skills (faction shoulders + Arcane Girdle belt). If there were more item-granted pets, a Poison Pets Warlock with the BoD conversion and overcapped IEE + Overload could be interesting, but non-Mastery pets are in an awful position now.[/li]
If we can get more than 45% Conversion from Physical to Elemental from items, then Arcanist can become a very intriguing class for pet owners. As it is now, the options aren’t fleshed out enough to seriously consider it.

[li]Demolitionist – Crate fleshed out the Demolitionist as a pet class in AoM, no doubt due to the Dracarris build. The Demolitionist’s main skill – Flame Touched – is well supported through the Ulzuin’s set and the Mark of Divinity. Unfortunately, while Crate helped Demo pet builds level with multiple faction and epic items, it sadly lacks legendary support, as there is nothing new to AoM that gives pets fire damage.[/li]
A point I forgot to mention earlier - there are plenty of items that buff Flame Touched, but far fewer items that buff Temper and they are far less synergistic than the items for Flame Touched. There are only 2 items (Obsidian Grasp and Empowered Enchanter’s Insignia) that grant bonuses to both skills and they are level 58 items with terrible resistances. It would be great- especially for Elementalist Summoners- for these items to get an upgrade with pet bonuses as an Elementalist pet summoner focusing on Fire + Physical pet damage could work very well considering how good the Shaman + Demolitionist synergy is with the Weapon + Shield.

An underlooked weakness of Demolitionists is that they provide no healing and no pet resists, and unlike the Arcanist, does not provide enough offense to justify the lack of defenses. Equipment with modifiers that provide resistances to Flame Touched would help legitimize Demolitionists as a support class. Demos provide great percentage bonuses in Fire, Lightning, and Physical, not to mention BWC for flat RR and Thermite Mines for Fire + Lightning RR. The large insistence on AoE pools and Primal Instinct’s non-existent health, though, turns Demo pet builds from the premier build in Dracarris Incarnate to a class where an expansion came and went without much to hear from this class.

[li]Inquisitor – While the flat damage combination of Inquisitor + Occultist doesn’t work nearly as well as how well Dracarris worked in Vanilla, Inquisitor’s Word of Renewal has deceptively demonstrated its excellence as a pet supporting ability. For Skeletons, Vigor supplies a huge amount of flat health that applies before % Health bonuses. For Briarthorns, it’s the great synergy of Mogdrogen’s Pact + Steel Resolve with great Aether + Chaos Resistance to boot. Inquisitors have much better supporting gear than Demolitionists, especially with Raggadan’s Helmet providing both Inquisitor and Necro skills and Touch of Purity providing a great heal and DoT immunity. There’s no mistake that Inquisitors will continue to provide surprising pet builds in the expansion to come.[/li]

[li]Soldier – While the meme of having pet items with Soldier skills lives on (Guardian of Death’s Gates!), it’s nice that the Blood Knight’s set gives Soldiers a sense of having pets, even if it’s player-scaled and not pet-scaled. If Call of the Grave didn’t have such a horrendous uptime (24 seconds cooldown for 10 second duration…), it would be interesting to combine GoDG’s 10% Offensive Ability boost with overcapped Call of the Grave. It would be wise to consider dropping the cooldown for this skill as you overcap it so that it becomes a good idea to take this skill far past the typical one-pointer. I would love for my Chaos Witchblade pet build to work, especially as there’s a lot of good itemization that combines Soldier skills and Chaos damage (Horns of Ekket’Zul, Reaper Pants). It’s one of those builds that is very close to being something but ends up being just too weak to work.[/li]

[*]Nightblade – As Nightblade has no party-wide auras of any kind, using Nightblades to support pet builds is solely limited to Winter King Trickster. The +3 to all skills bonuses brought about by Cold Pet gear gives players much more lee-way to pad their primary skills, and Shaman is tanky enough to make good use of Veil of Shadow’s RR. The Frostdread Cuirass provides points in ABB, meaning the Nightblade has multiple >100% WD skills essential for proccing Viper’s Resist Reduction. Snazzblaster demonstrated that Savagery works for pet builds, but the focus on Physical + Cold damage prevents the player from focusing on a specific damage type.[/ul]

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This post was originally meant for analyzing pet sets - I have updated it for version 1.0.6.0 in the following thread:

Detailed Breakdown of Pet Sets

Conduits

To keep the post from being a blurb, I’m placing the Conduit analysis here. The Health and Energy are fantastic, and having Elemental Resistance as the default is also wonderful, not to mention the potential Aether/Chaos resistance that pet builds often rely on MIs to obtain. The innate pet Crit bonuses introduced in 1.0.6.0 brings item diversity right open, as the extra Crit Damage from Sovereign Ruby is not as absolutely necessary as it was in the past.

Conduit of Eldritch Whispers – The buff to Blood of Dreeg is wonderful as it’s the main buff for any Occultist-based pet build. However, it has a fatal flaw that prevents it from being taken seriously: all of the skill modifiers that aren’t garbage are directly overshadowed by another amulet that does the same job, just much better.

• Bonus duration and skill energy reduction to Blood of Dreeg – So we’re going to forget what I wrote here in the past, the -% Energy Cost while Blood of Dreeg is active is really good, just not for pets.
• Lightning Damage to Summon Familiar – Between Snazzblaster’s hybrid Conjurer and my efforts to make my own, it’s clear that the Will of Bysmiel and its 2 Ravens are far superior to using this conduit.
• Vitality Damage to Summon Hellhound – The damage only applies to one pet, maybe the effects would be better suited for that set that grants 2 Hellhounds… never mind, that set also uses the amulet slot and that amulet gives the best bonuses to Summon Hellhound.
• Elemental Resistance RR to Curse of Frailty and Poison & Acid Resistance RR to Bloody Pox – Finally, something decent, especially when an overcapped Vulnerability already grants -40% RR to either one. The Poison & Acid one might have been a BiS item, but the amulet also belongs to the Blightshard pets.
• Shield Block Chance to Possession – The Pyromancer is the only pet build class combo that may use Possession as an Exclusive Skill, so there’s no chance of seeing this in use in pet builds.

Conduit of Wild Whispers – The choice to give Mogdrogen’s Pact the skill bonus of choice is a winner for pet builds that focus on Physical damage, but this amulet not only has to compete with the Sovereign Ruby, but now has to compete with losing a permanent pet from no Heart of the Mountain. The bonuses also, sadly, do not add up:

• Lightning Damage to Summon Briarthorn – Now that see what the damage type on this amulet is, it’s a shame that it’s Physical to Lightning damage. Thunderpets Conjurer is taking the 2 Raven amulet, for sure (especially as it comes with free Primal Spirit casts), Skeleton Ritualists would be far better served with Sovereign Ruby (that grants +3 to Summon Briarthorn), and any other class combo wants the extra pet from the Yeti.

Maybe if the conversion wasn’t to Lightning, but maybe Fire, you can get a lot more diversity from having Fire Briarthorns, especially with Elementalist as a good pet class. It’d be nice to see the Briarthorns synergize with something that’s not done better by another pet, as Ground Slam with that extra damage can pull off some impressive stuff. As it is, it’s really not worth using.

• Physical RR on Devouring Swarm – It’s now a worthy endeavor to try and get 22/12 Mogdrogen’s Pact, so having the skill bonuses, resistances, and Physical RR can really help Physical / Bleeding Conjurers (Any other type would probably go for the Yeti).

• Every other bonus is trash for pet builds.

Conduit of Undying Whispers – Spectral Binding is the weakest of the skill bonuses; it’s tremendous for non-pet Necros, but summoners don’t appreciate the bonuses as much.

• Flat CDR for Raise Skeletons – the Lost Souls set has plenty of Raise Skeletons bonuses; likely to see more use in a “Resummon is the new heal” type Ritualist or any non-Cabalist Skelemancer.
• Acid Damage and Conversion to Summon Blight Fiend – Seen use in the Poison Pet Hybrid build (courtesy of AyyyLmao) - it’s hard to say whether the additional acid damage really helps forge a build identity out of those exploding pets, especially as Virulent Death does not have any Physical damage. It’s hard to compare it with the Elemental to Acid conversion amulet, but I’d say the Blight Fiend modifer can use a little extra juice.
• Terrify Target to Reap Spirit – Seen in use in Safrael’s Diviner’s Build: the Aether damage and Terrify is much more suited for the Aether caster than it is for someone genuinely trying to go for pets.

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Build Defining Items

Mythical Witching Hour – The destruction of worlds came and went, but considering how much the new Crucible blessings would have led to Skeletons destroying everything, I can see why there was a nerf. Sneaky Parrot has his definitive Witching Hour build, so I’ll let him take on how much things have changed with the new Witching Hour rifle.

Mythical Will of Bysmiel – As they specialize in the well-supported Lightning Damage, Ravens can turn into nukes with all the crit damage bestowed upon it in the previous updates. Having 2 Ravens makes it into overkill. See Snazzblaster’s build for the opportunities this amulet can provide.

Mythical Circlet of the Great Serpent – List under the Build-defining items for making a true Blight Fiend build viable. The 1.0.6.0 changes were huge for making Unstable Anomaly Blight Fiends transform from an energy-sucking exercise to a viable build concept, but even then it’d be hardly likely such a build could be made without the flat reduction time for using these Blight Fiends.

Fleshwarped Archive – When combined with the Lost Souls Set, Summon Hellhound is reduced to 2s cooldown, leading to some massive explosion fun. I have yet to touch my Skelemancer since the update hit, but preliminary calculations say I can hit for 200K explosions, which is really nice considering you’re adding 26/16 Skeletons into the equation.

Mythical Viperfang Grips – The build definer for Poison Pets, as it is currently the only item that grants flat Poison to pet builds.

Bound Wraith – With the Primal Spirit’s additional innate Crit damage, it’s nuts how much it puts my other pets to shame. It’s definitely worth building around a Permanent Primal Spirit, exactly how it will differ from other pet builds will be the challenge.

Mythical Bonescavenger’s Deathgrips – One of the main reasons why hybrid pet builds can even function in the first place - the Spirits’ aggression is unparalleled, and the huge amount of Summoner OA and worthwhile skill bonuses really help make this item exceptional.

Putrid Necklace – When combined with the Ugdenbog Venom Launcher, pets get 90% Elemental to Acid conversion, which gives Cabalists a full-fleshed Poison pet identity. Between Storm Spirit and any of the Elemental devotions, it gets interesting how Poison Pets can stand out from other types of pet builds.

Stormbringer of Malmouth – It’s hard to say which item really defines Lightning pets, whether it’s the Voidmancer’s Cord’s huge Lightning burst or the Spark of Ulto’s + Glyph of Kelphat Zoth’s Physical conversion. I give the edge to the Stormbringer because of the Vitality to Lightning Conversion and the huge bonuses to Lightning damage and pet Crit damage.

Mythical Guardian of Death’s Gate – This item has seen good use as a Ritualist, as between Devouring Swarm’s RR and now Primal Bond’s flat Bleeding, Skeletons can focus on being DPS machines as they can leave the Bleeding DoTs and be replaced just as quickly as they come up. Still a shame you can’t do anything with a Death Knight, though.

Mythical Bane of the Winter King – While I’m more personally attached to the Harvester of Death Ritualist, this item is put to better use as the Trickster item it was meant to be. I have yet to play with the Trickster since v1.0.6.0 came out, but I was fairly secure with it before the big Shaman buffs, so I’m interested to see how it turns out now.

Mythical Dracarris – The quintessential Fire Pets item. Pyromancers have gotten out of place since AoM’s preference for AoE pools kills off most full Swarmling builds, so this item is seen more with Defilers and their ability to give Skeletons Fire damage.

Mythical Voidwhisper Band – Chaos is an extremely good pet damage type, as Witching Hour and Dying God give pets huge Chaos Damage bonuses. Outside the obvious Witching Hour build, there are several other build possibilities that can open up thanks to the availability of good pet Chaos gear. The Aether Resistance, Raise Skeletons and Hellfire bonuses are a additional nice touch.

Mythical Wildshorn Legguards – Update 1.0.6.0 took Retaliation pets from curiosity into a real terror, so thanks are in order for giving this item 600% Retaliation damage.

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Great Supporting Items

+1 to All Skills Items - Mythical Clairvoyant’s Hat, Ravager’s Dreadgaze, Peerless Eye of Beronath, and any items that grant +1 to whichever skills your build is using. These items are great general supporting items as pet builds use a good number of both active and passive skills, so having a +1 to all skills item can free up to 10+ skill points to further invest in an ability that wouldn’t see much use otherwise.

Mythical Heart of the Mountain – This item just keeps getting better and better with each update. +All Shaman Skills, pet OA and armor boost, and a tough Yeti that provides welcome freeze control.

Mythical Sovereign Ruby of Domination – Used to be the definitive pet item in the whole game. Now with pet Crit being tied to Skill Point Allocation, it’s not the dominant item it was in the past. Still, the 300% damage bonus and great Crit damage are huge for Skelemancers and any other pet build that needs to push out DPS from pets that are known to be temporary.

Mythical Shadowfiend Cord – Despite the lack of resistances, the skill bonuses and rare pet Resistance bonus (it is very hard to find Pierce resistance for pets) makes it one of the best pet items in the game.

Mythical Overlord’s Iron Grip – I personally cannot thank you enough for giving us this item. Pierce and Bleeding Resistance? Stun Reduction? 4% DA buff? Pet Crit Damage and OA? This item is too wonderful, please make more of these.

Fateweaver’s Raiment – This can nearly be called the definitive pet item for Druids - great bonuses to Elemental Balance (and with it, pet Crit damage) and a wonderful array of pet resistance boosts. It’s a shame it doesn’t support other skills more useful for pet builds - they need good pet resistances more than ever and this is great to help with getting Resistances to a good spot.

Mythical Spiritbinder Glyph – The 7% Pet OA and Pet Crit damage proc were one thing, giving bonus points to Primal Spirit and Mogdrogen’s Pact make this a wonderful item for pet builds to build around.

Mythical Glyph of Kelphat’Zoth – The Crit damage and total speed help this ring become much more than its conversion proc brings. The small DA bonus is always welcome, and it’s nice to see players benefit greatly from the Lightning bonuses as well.

Mythical Voidmancer’s Cord – This belt does the X% of doing Y% damage right, any other item that has this sort of design should follow this belt. Shaman based summoners really appreciate the Vitality bonuses, but Crate again showers pets with unneeded Vitality resistance.

Mythical Touch of Purity - Multiple heals are essential to helping pets live through rough battles, and the full DoT immunity granted by the heal is huge considering many pets (Primal Instinct, Raise Skeletons) don’t have high health pools to begin with. The bonuses to Blood of Dreeg and Inquisitor skills makes it even more appealing.

Fleshwarped Bulwark – The +25 Physical Damage and Life Reduction Resistance to Mogdrogen’s Pact is a huge boon for Physical Pets, and with Shields having some ridiculously good prefix / affix combos (my personal favorite is Stonehide of Imposing Presence), it greatly helps players equip the pet items they need and have the Shield cover the resistances they’re looking for.

Mythical Spark of Ultos – Essentially placed here for the conversion and the bonus duration to Wind Devil (which really helps with keeping the debuff focused on the enemy. I don’t know what it is with Lightning that damage floors of a whopping 1 damage are a common theme, but it is what it is.

Bysmiel Sect’s Legguards – If you’re not playing with an Occultist, the Poison and Acid Resistance is a necessary resistance for pet builds to have, and the pet OA bonus is just as vital.

Mythical Fiendflesh Graves + Fiendflesh Mantle – The flat damage absorption works really well with pet builds that take the NE Primordial devotions and focus on good defenses. The boots have a good regard as it’s one of the only boots with good pet bonuses. The shoulders have a lot more competition for its slot, but it gives the player much-needed Aether + Chaos resistance, as well as give pets a whopping 45% to these resistances.

Mythical Fiendmaster Raiment - Provides the largest +% to all damage bonuses you can get for pets, while also providing an extra 140% Chaos damage as well as some good pet resistances. Greatly helps in fleshing out Chaos build options.

Mythical Ravager’s Bite – A great item for pet Ritualists, thank you for making a RR debuff that matches the skillset pet Ritualists would use (Vitality and Bleeding would make a great combo considering Devouring Swarm + all the Necro pet vitality bonuses + Raise Skeletons with Rend devotion proc).

Mythical Valepiercer – Unless you want to try some wacky dual-wield pet Necromancer, I don’t see how Necro pet builds would want to use this item when both the Lost Souls set and Plaguebearer’s Master Spellblade (which does the reduced RR much better) give far better results. The reduced resistances to Summon Hellhound are perfect for pet builds that don’t have 100% Weapon Damage, such as the Occultist, Shaman, Inquisitor, or Arcanist. The pet Aether resistance really helps it stand out from other pet items as well. I would appreciate the Necro skill bonuses to be reworked for another class that really needs pet itemization.

Mythical Black Scourge – As a supporting pet item, this scepter is great - +skills in Manipulation, %Pet OA, and the very rare boost in pet Chaos resistance. As a hybrid build-defining item that actually uses its skill, however, it’s another story. I’ve tried very hard to make a hybrid pet build that uses this item - it’s just extremely difficult to get a build going that has the offense necessary to bring up the scourges and have the survivability to take on Nemeses without relying on potion use.

Mythical Fiendmaster Raiment – The 140% pet bonus to all damage is one of the best damage bonuses you can find. Outside of the unnecessary 60% Vitality Resistance and questionable choice to give Siphon Souls a skill bonus, this chestpiece is a wonderful addition.

Mythical Necrolord’s Shroud – Much more valuable now that the skeleton’s base damage is spread out among Will of the Crypt. Bonuses to pet Crit damage and Summoner Health make it a very compelling choice.

Mythical Fiendflesh Mantle – The other damage absorption item, and it grants great pet Aether and Chaos resistances to boot. It has a lot of competition with other shoulder items, but I can definitely see this becoming a nice piece to a pet build, especially with how important resistances are getting.

Mantle of Mogdrogen – The skill bonuses and pet bonuses are nice, but really, we have more than enough pet Vitality resistance, heck even the Voidmancer’s Cord - the other big Lightning pet item – stocks pets to the gills with Vitality Resistance.

Mythical Necrolord’s Gaze – Spirit Ward is an excellent proc for Necro-based pet builds, since unlike Occultist or Shaman, they have no way of augmenting their Physical Resist. The Mythical version is good as well, especially as it rewards Ritualist pet builds focusing on the Primal Spirit, but it would be wonderful that the Spirit Ward proc you gave to the regular Legendary would exist somewhere in an end-game item.

The main selling points of this item are the +1 to two classes’ skills (though something like Clairvoyant’s Hat can also accomplish this) and the extended duration on Mark of Torment to better chain those Marks when coupled with Time Dilation.

Mythical Rotmender’s Ring – The fact that it’s in the ring slot makes it very nice for Poison Cabalists, especially with the heals that the rings bring to the summoner.

Mythical Undying Oath – Between the Vitality damage to Blood of Dreeg and ample Health Regeneration, this medal should definitely be in consideration for any Occultist-based pet builds.

Salazar’s Sovereign Blade – Between the relatively quick downtime, the RR skill, and the huge damage it brings, it’s an amazing item if you’re able to take advantage of the dagger prefix/suffix combos that can add +3 to a skill you’re trying to overcap.

Mythical Plaguebearer of Dreeg – It’s seen in the Knights of Nurgle pet build that could clear Gladiator, so it’s clearly a good item. However, trying to make a decent hybrid build out of this will lead to disappointment. Poison Casters and Melee players have access to many more Poison skills that add to the Poison DoT counter, meaning a Poison summoner is obsoleted by any other Poison character. This item is much more enticing due to its Chaos RR, but needs to be dual-wielded with a Chaos main hand such as the Black Hand of Sanar’Siin in order for the item to be worth anything, which means relinquishing your Medal slot to do so.

Malmouth Stormcaster – Thank you for giving Demolitionists better pet items as stepping stones toward their end-game build, especially with how wildly successful the Dracarris build is. The Pet Elemental Resistance is a welcome sight considering that Demos provide essentially no resists to pet builds.

Mythical Combat Medic’s Mark – Mogdrogen’s Pact is now a great skill to buff, and the different skill bonuses encourages a bit of build diversity. I’d personally take something like this over something like the Corruptor’s Set which also grants a heal and pet bonuses, but doesn’t do anything for pet survivability. The larger number of pets a build is capable of, the better the auto-heal is to help the player manage them.

6

Underwhelming pet items:

Wendigo Gaze – MI medals are great for pet builds that don’t have a required equipment slot here anyway (Beastcaller’s Set) as it’s the best slot to fill with perfect MI prefix / suffix combos that either grant great resistances (Incorruptible) or amazing skill bonuses (you can get up to +4 to Raise Skeletons if you get the right combo). However, outside the small Crit damage and total speed, there’s not much about this item that separates it from other MI items like Kymon’s badge. The modifier to Summon Briarthorn is weak because if you’re trying to support Briarthorns, you’re using the Beastcaller’s set to get a second pet. Fishing for +Raise Skeletons affixes is definitely worth it for Necromancer builds, but considering the costs of ravaging all of Ugdenbog to try and get a good Wendigo Gaze, I’d much rather take the effort and either craft a Watcher Crest or look for a much easier to obtain Kymon’s badge.

Ascendant Cowl – Considering how good this is for Skeletons, I’m surprised that the Lost Souls set gives as much love to Raise Skeletons as it does, especially as you can fish for a prefix that gives up to +3 to Raise skeletons in addition to the other bonuses.

Zantarin’s Mantle – 10% Total Speed, without any damage or OA, makes it a very disappointing choice for MI shoulders. It is surprising that this MI gives bonuses to Blight Fiend instead of Raise Skeletons, considering his whole stick is bringing lots of skeleton adds to the fight.

Bloodsworn Codex – As much as I want to see how far I can push Briarthorns with this item, I don’t see any reason why I’d take this item over the Fleshwarped Bulwark. It’d be interesting to find a way to make this item stand out, but I don’t see where I can give this a unique use.

Lunal Valgoth’s Girdle – Lunal Valgoth’s Girdle now grants Chaos Resistance and pet Crit. The 6% Pet Crit is pretty good and Chaos resistance is a tough resistance to get, but considering there are multiple belts that are much easier to obtain than a Boss MI, it needs to stand out more. Outside of the craftable Malmouth Arcane Girdle that grants +Conjure Primal Spirit, there’s the Ugdenbog Girdle that grants Armor + Armor absorption, Puppetmaster Links that are craftable and grant pet OA, and Stoneplate Waistguard, that is also craftable and grants valuable Stun Reduction. I wouldn’t go through the effort fighting this boss just for this belt.

Reaper of the Lost’s Legguards – I’m surprised that these pants gave pet bonuses instead of Kubacapra’s pants. Anyway, as much as the devs want Soldier pet builds to be a thing, why did you replace the bonus to Squad Tactics with Field Command? Squad Tactics is a far better choice for bonuses as the pets would far better use the additional damage and attack speed, especially as both Shaman and Occultist have additional ways of supplying flat OA.

Mythical Black Hand of Sanar’Siin – Having pets that only live for 15 seconds is far too short to give the pets any consideration, especially when the pets need time to reach the enemy in the first place. The damage variation is far too wide for these critters- the high Chaos damage is 100 damage, but the low goes all the way down to 6? Considering how pathetic their health is, their Chaos damage should be 100 at a minimum, and go up to around 150 so they could be slightly worse than their Primal Instinct brethren.

Mythical Blightstone Invoker – A great item for Poison Pet Builds, though the skill bonus to Blood Burst is confusing. Pet bonuses are wonderful, and it’d be interesting to see how this item meshes with the Vestments of the Great Guardian and Wildshorn Legguards to mix Poison Retaliation with the large amount of Poison and Acid bonuses.

Mythical Blightshard Amulet – Quoting from AyyyLmao who made a Poison Pet build work:

Mythical Black Grimoire of Og’Napesh – The skill bonuses are alright, even if it only benefits Necromancers who should have no problems getting a good amount of pets. I haven’t had much experimentation with this item, as off-hands really need the +All skills or extremely good skill bonuses to be considered using, especially with the high amount of Spirit required makes it a no-go for most builds.

Mythical Grim Harvest Boots – The 4% DA and the Master of Death bonus is wonderful, but the Armor is so bad that you legitimately feel like you’re going to die by getting hit in the feet. Literal Achilles’ Heel is present in this item.

Mythical Dreadguard – The first real pet shield in the game, this would have been great to give Soldier bonuses to, but instead continues to be custom-made for Cabalists. Cabalists aren’t likely to use the shield as they have far better item support, which is a shame, as the item is amazing for anyone wanting to use pets and have a bit more survivability.

Mythical Spiritcannon – 10% Crit Damage and 255% Vitality damage is really good and it’s on an Epic weapon. Add in the 45% conversion to Vitality and the AoE Vitality on-attack proc and this could turn into a viable weapon.

Mythical Crown of the Winter King – Considering that Veil of Shadow is an aura, it would have been much more beneficial to give it a reduced DA debuff rather than a Movement Speed debuff that’s just going away when the summoner runs away from the pack. Pet bonuses are okay and the granted skill is nice for characters that need more active skills to activate devotions.

Mythical Padala’s Will – The skill bonuses (Soul Harvest + All Necro skills) are nice, not to mention the pet OA. It just doesn’t have anything that makes it stand out among the Legendary brethren.

Will of Bysmiel - The regular Will of Bysmiel is satisfactory at best, it would be great to see the Voidfiends be summoned on attack as opposed to having a hard cooldown so they are similar to the Primal Instinct critters (the summon limit of 3 is fine).

Claw of Hagaraz – Another great pet build item ruined by dumping everything into Cabalists and making 90% of them obsolete. Ritualists already have the Ravager’s Bite, so I don’t see what other class could benefit from the Vitality damage buff to Call of the Grave. Maybe if there was Elemental to Vitality conversion the same way there is Elemental to Acid for Putrid Amulet, maybe Spellbinders would have a nice boon.

Eye of Dominion – Even if you can get pets to have 100% resistances, it’s difficult giving them the offense necessary to make good use of their nigh-invulnerability. Mind control is middling at best - the only real use for it is getting Witch Doctors and other healing enemies to heal your pets for large chunks of health.

Mythical Reaper of the Accursed – Another legendary item with pet Spellbinders in mind, the Elemental to Aether conversion is also done by the Diviner’s Codex, and it’s a bit shocking that this item’s proc now has a longer cooldown than Mark of Divinity’s 100% damage absorption.

Mythical Rotdrinker Crest – Between this medal and the Rotmender rings, Poison Cabalists should feel very fulfilled. The –Total Speed debuff is wonderful to keep enemies attacking slower and away from the Summoner.

Poison Cabalists have more than enough Poison and Acid Resistance, so it’s rough to build around these items and obtain good resists, especially as the Elemental to Acid conversion requires good investment in Cunning which takes away from obtaining an appropriate DA level.

The Overseer – While the medal slot for Briarthorns is much better used by the Beastcaller’s Talisman, the extra Crit damage to Hellhounds can help with the Lost Souls set and the exploding Hellhounds. Especially as Pierce resistance is very hard to find for non-Shaman pet builds, it can be an interesting item indeed.

Mark of the Nymph – This item would be really good if only it gave any sort of resistances. Since the medal gives the pets additional current elemental resistance, it would be fair to have a Mythical Mark of the Nymph that gives the summoner some elemental resistance as well.

Wildpact Emerald and Empowered Marrow Band – Why are there no Mythical version of these rings?

Completely Obsolete Items:

Mythical Fiendgaze Tome – Considering the huge amount of pet fire damage the Mythical Wyrmclaw receives, I don’t see how this item isn’t overshadowed by the Wyrmclaw at all, especially when the modifier to Reap Spirit does little for the actual wraith itself and the proc is not only on crit, which pet builds rarely have sufficient OA to reach the threshold to do critical hits in the first place, but is far too paltry to justify sacrificing anything to reach that OA in the first place. I have made a feedback thread discussing this item.

Mythical Touch of the Everliving Grove – No offensive bonuses to speak of, a pet resistance that is fairly easy to obtain (Vitality) and weak resistances make it far less of an option than the Overlord Iron Grips, even with the heal proc.

Mythical Spiritseeker Cord – While pet speed bonuses are becoming more welcome, the skill bonuses are meant for Spellbinder pet builds that have a very hard time getting good pet OA. That and Spellbinders are most associated with the Diviner’s Set, which already trivializes getting Reap Spirit to 26/16.

Mythical Rotmender’s Hat – Completely overshadowed by Mythical Cowl of Mogdrogen, which is already a mediocre epic pet set. Necromancers already have more than enough Vitality resistance and there isn’t anything redeeming about it.

Mythical Acolyte’s Cord – Why do you bother making this belt Cabalist-focused when you go ahead and give that class the ultimate BiS belt that surpasses even Mythicals? Take the bonuses from Call of the Grave and give it to a class that really needs the support.

Bargoll’s Core – Definitely a nice gesture for those who want to make good use of the Blight Fiend – the skill modifier makes using Dying God much less painful (which is especially nice since DoT builds thrive on huge crits), and it’s nice that the weapon itself contains some CDR. With the Plaguebearer of Dreeg providing nice pet OA and huge Poison RR, however, it’s hard to see this as anything but a placeholder until you get that mace.

Mythical Wretched Crow of Bysmiel – I can’t say I know how much the Physical conversion to Chaos and the Poison / Chaos combination will help the player, but I can see that having only +1 to Occultist (the class that needs pet Poison help the least) and the huge cunning requirements to use the weapon means that you’re much better off with either the Plaguebearer of Dreeg or the Elemental to Acid conversion if you’re going to invest the Cunning points anyway.

Mythical Whispers of the Dead – Pet bonuses and skills to Necromancer and Arcanist get me excited, only to see Health and Defensive bonuses and no offense to speak of. Why???

Bloodsworn Signet – The fact that many pet builds would much rather use Gollus’ rings rather than these rings says a lot about how underwhelming this ring is. Aren’t there any other bonuses you can give to this ring to make it even somewhat competitive? A resistance or even some Spirit / Physique?

Mythical Rifthound Leather Boots – With the Grim Harvest boots and the Mythical Fiendflesh Greaves, this item is completely obsolete. Pet bonuses are ho-hum and Ember Claw simply isn’t worth putting points into at the moment as there’s no real support for it. Thanks to the increased stat points, the 4% Cunning and 4% Spirit bonuses don’t make a big splash compared to pre-expac.

Mythical Mark of Broken Oaths – What good is Flames of Ignaffar going to do for a pet build, though? It’s a massive energy drain for pet builds that already need some creative ways to ensure they don’t run out of energy. Death Sentence would be a much better skill bonus for this item, considering the name is based on Oaths. If you’re giving Occultist skills any love (Summon Hellhound), don’t give Poison and Acid resistance, as that’s the easiest thing for players to cap. The Legion of the Void faction item is much, much better than this.

Trollgut Eviscerator – Two-Handers in general are awful for pet builds - there’s no reason why you’d take this over the Mogdrogen’s Peace set, which itself is completely unviable.

7

Nice analysis. I personally would also vote for a Death Knight focused pet set. Adding some pet bonuses to soldier indeed sounds nice since the class name is “DeathKnight” :stuck_out_tongue:

As for Mythical Dreadguard it’s not worth for pet builds to pick it imo. I use Mythical Will of the Living on my build. The CDR is much more beneficial to pet builds than the pet bonuses of Dreadguard, since Will of the Living already has high energy, impressive resistances and +Necro skills it’s a pretty solid choice for pets

8

Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing this!

I’ve only skimmed it once so far but it seems very well considered. In fact, I’m going to take some time later to really digest everything here because it’s such a worthwhile subject for pet players.

Right off the bat I am on board with some more support for bleeding summoners, Diviner’s set being a big fart (seriously, I’d rather have pet scaled Raise the Dead and Iskandra’s Necro back over anything Diviner’s is doing currently), everything said about The Overseer, Lost Souls needing a change (sure go ahead, gib Raise Skeleton for Hellhound if you want some build variety but I think we really need to address the lack of CDR on a Raise Skeleton focused set that squats on every gear slot you’d otherwise utilize for CDR besides the offhand, especially since Undead Legion needs a rebalance imho, especially considering you have to give up BiS amulet to equip the full set bonus, etc), Valepiercer period, Deathknight pet support; EVERYTHING, and +vit resist to pets being so over applied.

I could go on but I want to give this a better read first. :smiley:

P.S. I may have spoke out of turn when I nominated your ret summoner “first tank” pet build but I still consider it the better of the two.

9

Umm, Diviner is kinda the only option I have for my build so not sure how to respond :stuck_out_tongue: (Unless they give me a cool looking Pet DK set)
I do agree it should focus more on pet offense the speed bonuses are nice the resist bonuses aren’t needed imo

10

How you respond is up to you. How Crate should respond (eventually at least) is a Pet DK set. :smiley:

Not saying scrap Diviner’s. It’s just less than meh for what was promised (imo).

11

This is not as easy as it might look because Soldier is actually one of the worst masteries in terms of pet support, if not actually the worst. Yes, Squad Tactics + Field Command might be similar to Manipulation, but that is basically it. The Soldier doesn’t add anything to pets in the form of RR, flat damage auras, heals or resistances.

Due to this situation, making a pet/hybrid pet DK set would be very hard because:

  1. It can’t support vitality damage, as that damage type would be better supported by the Shaman mastery and the Occultist.
  2. It can’t support cold + vitality damage, as those damage types would be better supported by the Shaman mastery, the Occultist and even the Nightblade. In fact, it can’t support elemental damage at all.
  3. It can’t support physical damage, as sources of flat reduction (type A) are much easier to find than type B. Ergo, CoF >>> Break Morale.
  4. It can’t support real pets because, as I previously pointed out, the Soldier mastery is trash when it comes to offering buffs to anything that is not the PC.

The only thing it can do in order to justify Soldier + Necro hybridisation is to support pseudo pets (think Raise the Dead) and shields. This means it would be a “reverse” pet build in the sense that you would tank the damage, while the pets provide single-target and AoE dps. I have no idea how this hypothetical set might look like, but again it should:
a) Provide an offensive aura;
b) Operate through buffs on block (think “Of Kings” Battle Cry, but “on block”);
c) Give bonuses to Field Command;
d) Give bonuses to Blindside.

Not much to work with if you think about it…

12

Well the class combination is called Death Knight and we can’t make a good pet build with (emphasis on the “good” part cause a pet DK can still be made)

13

On the surface Soldier does indeed not have much support for Pets but it means that the mastery is ripe for skill modifiers to remedy that.

For example, i think a pretty big thing would be if Deadly Momentum received a radius to it or increased Pet’s damage in the same way Soul Harvest does. Things like that would make for interesting combinations.

14

Does it really need to? Its not like every mastery is good for every build. I can’t see retaliation builds working well with nightblade for example. Does that need to be changed?

15

Even if, the inherent problem of making a pet DK work will still be there. Let me put this in perspective:

  • When you take BoD/AotG you benefit from it, the pets deal more damage (flat acid +%bonuses), but they also survive acid pools;
  • When you take Storm Spirit, you benefit from it (elemental resistances), the pets deal more damage (flat elemental +%bonuses), but they also survive all crazy elemental bullshit mobs throw at them.

Even if Deadly Momentum would give damage to REAL pets, they would still be made of paper. The only pets not subject to this problem - which is actually an inherent problem of the DK mastery - are ghosts. This is because they have 100% deflect and dodge so you don’t have to care about their resistances. The skeletons from Raise the Dead are also symbolic DK “pets” because: a) they are disposable entities; and b) they have no WD component on their default attack, which you couldn’t even buff as there is no flat dmg bonus aura in the Soldier mastery.

If ppl really want a DK pet build, the bonuses on the set and the skill modifiers would have to be insane… so I’m quite curious how this will turn out.

16

You’re joking about this part right?

17

It it really wrong? Admittedly I have no experiences with retaliation builds but due a large part of the nigthblade defenses focusing hit avoidance with dodge and Fumble it seem counterproductive as you want to get hit a lot. With blademasters lacking tankienes compared to say a warder or commando it does not look that good to me. Sure blade barrier could be good but that would have a very limited up time.

18

e) or give temporary pet spawn
f) or give an interesting skill modifier (eg. A modifier to Deadly Momentum similar to the Soul Harvest mechanic) EDIT: I see at least one other person already mentioned this.

Also as an aside. You forgot to mention that War Cry is already a superior version of Decay in regards to pet damage reduction (which at least Skeletons sorely require due to their fragility)

19

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I savor the idea of pet DK being a workable temporary pet generator.

Since big Z has already adamantly stated Raise the Dead is never going back to pet scaled (he claims pathing but I think it’s more DaShiv deviltry to blame) the devs should at least consider buffing it a smidge maybe as player scaled. The current DK meta of aether combined with the possibility of a dk pet set enhancing vitality would actually hit the two damage types of Raise the Dead.

It’s not terribly hard to imagine a workable pet DK geared to support this concept when you consider Bone Harvest nuking (does it get the Cadence/Momentum chunk?) and appropriate build support (assassins mark, blight fiend defense reduction, etc, etc).

It may not be as ready to order as some of the other masteries but I think there is real potential there with some dev support to cook up a VERY interesting and fresh pet hybrid.

20

I agree with you on the main points, though Nightblade is the real #1 worst mastery when it comes to pet support. There is a small benefit to using the Soldier class that you didn’t mention, and that is it takes only a few skill points to fill up the Soldier’s passives (and if you’re using the Necromancer, Blindside wouldn’t even be necessary if you’re using the Blight Fiend), meaning that you can shore up hard to find resistances (Armor Absorption + Stun Resistance) and reach the minimum DA for survivability much easier than the other classes. This allows you to maximize skill point utilization in the Necromancer skills, so any hypothetical pet set would emphasize having +All skills in Necromancer.

Summoner survivability is just as important a focus as pet survivability, so heavy armor with great auras that give both offensive and defensive bonuses (such as the Dread Armor of Azragor) or simply items that give Soldier bonuses and rare + extremely good resistances (like Avenger of Cairn’s Soldier skills and huge Aether resistance) would go a long way, as the player would have more freedom to focus on more offensively inclined pet items they wouldn’t have access to for other classes, at least without the perpetual threat of getting one-shot crits. Note the the Mythical Combat Medic’s Mark is a very good example of what I’m discussing, for that item provides multiple smaller heals that add up more quickly than the on-command heals.

EDIT: Moved devotion discussion to its own post.

Soldiers can make much better use of shields and two-handers than other classes, meaning that if there are more items that provide passive two-handed bonuses like the Mythical Titan Pauldrons (there are a paltry 15 or so items that provide these bonuses), they may benefit from that as well. It’s a shame the best item for RR in the game (Plaguebearer’s Master Spellblade) is a one-handed item - meaning Necromancers don’t have to sacrifice an off-hand item to get the maximum RR benefit.

If the devs better balance the pet resistances so every second item doesn’t have Vitality resistance, the way I see this working is if:
a) both the Summoner and pets have flat absorption that swallow AoE similar to the Inquisitor Seal. Mythical Fiendflesh Greaves are extremely good in that regard as it buffs two really good Necromancer skills, so Death Knights could possibly benefit from the flat damage absorption really well if resistances are done right.
b) Death Knights have access to a pet that gives good defensive bonuses and high defensive capabilities like the Black Grimoire of Og’Napesh or the Dirge of Arkovia relic, that do a really good job of holding down the enemy while the Soldier can focus on replenishing the offensive skeletons.
c) As you mentioned, either an extremely good pet two-hander or a good pet shield that takes advantage of the Soldier’s circuit-breaker and provides good “on-hit” or “on-block” procs.
d) As I mentioned earlier, equipment that provides good Soldier skills and hefty DA / resistance bonuses so Death Knights can simultaneously equip the best offensive pet items that the other pet builds could try and wear but would get demolished defensively (offensive pet players would benefit from this too as they can have super-glass cannon pet set-ups like the old Dracarris build that survive through player skill and pathing).

Do note that I’m bringing the subject of Soldier pet builds up because Grim Dawn does have multiple items that give bonuses to Soldier skills and pet skills like Hellfire / Emboldening Presence, so they have at least considered pairing these classes together. This thread is meant to relay the design difficulties and challenges of pairing these classes the way they initially planned it, not to instantly dismiss their choices.