Pets on Fire: A build diary for newer players aiming to make their first pet build

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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Twin Falls runs and HC ultimate Steps of Torment

Below are some notes from a bunch of HC ultimate Twin Falls runs and from a (single) run of HC ultimate Steps of Torment.

Twin Falls runs

It usually takes 1-2 minutes from the Twin Falls riftgate to get into the Swarming Hive, and then 1-2 minutes to clear it out.

This is the time frame needed for a “kill everything that moves, sniff flowers” approach, with move speed feeling like the main constraint on how long it takes to do Twin Falls runs.

I couldn’t speak to whether this is the easiest, safest, or best first character for taking on HC ultimate, to build up a gear base for other characters. But, if the question to ask is “Can this be a first character that runs HC ultimate content at a reasonable speed, and at low risk, to find gear for other characters?”, then the answer seems to be a clear “yes.”

Steps of Torment

I’ve run SoT a handful of times, but not enough to be considered experienced or particularly knowledgeable. I recall Alkamos hitting like a runaway speeding truck, though, and I recall that some of the “kill rooms” that lock you in can be challenging for a character with so-so gear.

Still, I resolved to clear SoT, including all the “Kill Rooms”, or PoF would die trying. And, a couple of Kill Room fights were particularly challenging; I had only the familiar pet left several times in the Chamber of Souls, with multiple bosses still running around. I also had just the familiar pet left a couple of times when fighting Ilgorr the Eternal and his many adds.

But, I ended up being surprised by how easy the Alkamos fight was. He didn’t hit very hard at all, this time around. Blast shield probably triggered at most twice and I don’t believe Turtle Shell triggered at all. He didn’t last particularly long, either. My sense is that all the move and attack speed that has been built up for pets is paying late game dividends, even for fights with fast moving bosses like Alkamos.

Thinking about why he seemed less dangerous than before, I recalled that he mainly does cold and physical damage. And, Cold resist was maxed, with plenty of over-resist even without downing a cold resist consumable. Plus, I had PoF down a consumable to boost cold resistance and reduce frostburn duration, and another to prevent PoF from being frozen. So, even if he has cold resistance reduction, it was probably never a factor. Also I had 2 scaled hide components on gear, leading to armor absorbing 98% of all physical damage up to total armor (which was 1317 on average, with 979 as the lowest total for a single body part). Finally, with PoF having a DA total of 2187, perhaps Alkamos was unable to crit at all or had barely any chance to crit, which could only have helped.

It wasn’t a quick run, particularly with the goal of doing a full clear of HC ultimate SoT. But, in the end PoF was successful.

42

Earlier this evening, Pets on Fire headed into the Bastion of Chaos in hardcore ultimate in search of Shar’Zul’s head and an Obsidian orb that Anasteria wanted; these were her last two planned goals for PoF’s run through the game.

I’ll begin by observing that it proved to be quite a different experience from the earlier run in hardcore ultimate Steps of Torment.

Bastion of Chaos, Attempt #1

Things didn’t get off to a smooth, reassuring start. PoF’s minions have 10% chaos resist and 0% vitality resist, so I found out before even using the skeleton key that I couldn’t get them swarmed and expect them to survive against level 90+ mobs. That became clear when, shortly after entering the first floor of the BoC, and with limited space in which to fight, I came across about 6 bosses and lots of adds in what was perhaps two or three packs of mobs that were located close together. That was a challenging fight, with quite a bit of circular kiting, some “I almost got PoF trapped and unable to move” moments, and some re-summoning.

When I finally got PoF to the gate, I didn’t think about how my pets might go and ask mobs on the other side of the gate for loose change, or what that might mean. So, I used the skeleton key as my pets were pestering mobs on the other side of the gate. Then, multiple packs of mobs, with several Chthonic bosses, flowed out of the gate and went after PoF and her helpers. Retreating to fight the mobs was the only prudent choice and before I could get PoF safely into the gate, it closed up.

Thus ended my first attempt at fighting through to the end of the Bastion of Chaos on hardcore ultimate with Pets on Fire. I exited to the main screen to restart the game, for the next attempt.

Bastion of Chaos, Attempt #2

Wary of making the same mistake at the gate, I pulled mobs outside the gate away from the gate for Attempt #2, before taking them down. Thus, I got to make a clean entry after using the skeleton key, before the gate closed up with PoF on the inside.

The narrow pathways in which many fights took place proved very helpful for PoF because even very large multi-spawns could be kept away from PoF by using chokepoints. Spamming flashbang had many mobs wandering around, getting in each other’s way, which substantially reduced incoming damage to PoF and her pets. Also, the kill rooms were not difficult because they consisted of trash spawns and flashbang + PoF’s summons do very well against trash mobs.

Plus, PoF’s minions crit routinely because of all the OA buffs and debuffs to mob DA, with those crits hitting for 1.55 and 1.65 multipliers (not high end crit damage multipliers, but the crits certainly helped).

Simple patience helped with the crystals that popped up through the BoC; they’d pop up, I’d get PoF to retreat and wait or fight in another area for a while, then I’d bring PoF and her helpers through areas where crystals had popped up, after they had timed out and were no longer dangerous.

Still, even some yellow (and white!) mobs proved so tough that sometimes unloading with all debuffs on them and focus-fire was needed to bring them down one at a time, to keep kill times reasonable. Also, even though some bosses went down fairly easily, bosses with many adds were very challenging. Several bosses chewed up PoF’s summons in short order and then focused all their attention on PoF.

After a tough run through to the end, I figured that I’d better approach Shar’Zul with caution. So, I carefully explored to draw out and nullify all the nearby crystals, then sent in the pets on a few probing runs to see how well they would do against Shar’Zul. They held up surprisingly well most of the time, although sometimes one or all of them would suddenly go “poof” and then Shar’Zul would come charging after PoF at high speed.

Overall, Shar’Zul was a beast compared to Alkamos, at least for this build, with PoF’s current gear. He almost killed PoF, getting her to about 20% of her life total (or less) a couple of times. The fight was quite extended because I didn’t dare keep PoF in swinging range of Shar/Zul and he has pretty good range on some of his attacks / spells.

In the end, though, PoF did get Shar’Zul’s head on a plate, as well as the Obsidian orb for Anasteria.

As a reward for finishing up most of her arc (except the Valbury quest), Anasteria handed over a scroll for a relic that I didn’t previously have.

That was a pleasant way to finish up PoF’s journeys.

Final Grimtools for POF, for the BoC run:
Pets of Fire, final grimtools (click here)

As a note to the above, several resists are understated for PoF on grimtools; she actually had chaos resist of 80 with 10 over-resist, poison & acid were maxed, and piercing was close to max. Plus, aether resist was 70%.

43

This thread is now complete, with edits having been made to the first post to make navigation easier.

The imminent release of the expansion raises two questions, given below with proposed answers:

Q: Can this build work in the expansion?

A: This build should work just fine. This is a defensively very solid build that does good damage and that depends no specific piece of gear to function anywhere in the main game. It is suitable for solo self found play in hardcore for somebody just starting the game, which means it can even more easily handle less challenging play conditions.

Q: Can I do variations on this build using the new inquisitor class in place of the demolitionist and the necromancer in place of the occultist?

A: Based on what I’m seeing on Grimtools, that could work out very well. The inquisitor has some very useful tools for debuffing enemies and buffing allies, like the demolitionist mastery. The necromancer mastery can replace the occultist mastery and function well at supplying and buffing pets.

Having said that, the bases for synergies across masteries are not equal across all combinations of inquisitor or demolitionist paired up with either occultist or necromancer. Thought and care would need to be taken so that celestial skills, components, pet damage, pet buffs and enemy debuffs lined up well across the masteries being paired up.

44

Very effective build for beginner. Thank you.
Here my build following the guide http://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2GWMYG2 . I’m fighting Act 5 on Elite, however Log did kill me several times and the beast nemesis in Ugdenbog is really a nightmare.
The expansion increases devotion points to 55 so I use Nature Guardian from the Spring Maiden instead of Healing Rain from the Tree of Life.
Hope that the author will come back to this build with the new expansion.
Thank you again @EnjoyTheJourney.

45

Thanks for the guide. This has been my first char in the game and I have liked it, I have died a few times but it was more my fault that the build.

Do you have an updated grimtools with the build at level 100 (with the expansion)? It will be very helpful for a newbie like me to complete the build.

Thanks!

46

I’m playing this as my first character, and enjoying it more than any pet builds I played in any other game!

The main reason I picked this up is this: You made wonderful proper build for new players, with no gear requirement, nor anything out of reach. You also added very well written, and detailed step by step guide for leveling, which is better than 80% of these confusing guides around all forums.

What made leveling even better is: You tied constellation progress firmly with class abilities progress and with components and gear progress. I learned from this guide exactly when I’m going to get Aetherfire, when I’ll switch it from Familiar to Fireblast, and when I’ll remove fireblast and start using it on flashbang.

I also realized that there’s a good reason as to when I should use Purified salt, my experience with it was like: I hit certain conditions and that’s when you say switch to Purified salt and I was like “Buuuut I loooove my Fireblast!” But I switched it nevertheless, and then I suddenly find myself around all these aether fields and mobs and everything aether start popping up in the whole new area I just hit. And I could immediately appreciate your suggestion/guidelines … That’s a lesson well taught that helped me learn about the game overall, not just this build! So much thanks!

This level of details is exactly what a new player needs to navigate the overwhelming nature of the game and all its mechanics and countless skills/gear/buffs … etc. Truly some people can just run around experimenting and finding stuff for themselves. But they can end up messing with things and taking their time to learn how a build would work. However, This provide the easiest way to maximize fun and efficiency from minute one in game, to the very very end.

It’s rare for me to go out of my way praising a game guide, I usually skip comments if I have no questions. But this guide deserve every praise it could get. Thanks again!

47

Seems like the trick with Solael’s Witchblade/Turtle swapping doesnt work anymore. So, it’s either keep Jackal, or… ?
Maybe, the same is with Lion prereq.

Also, how about Devil-Touched ammo for damage? This build have so much +chaos%