Physical Pet Conjurer - The Headless Chicken

Foreword:

This is a lazy, boring, pet based build with an extremely passive gameplay style. It is Hardcore viable and can tackle crucible just fine without blessings/banners/potions. But as I wanted to enjoy the scenery, I did not focus on offence and it shows. So if you are looking for speed, you are in the wrong place. But if you are lazy like me and want to try something you can play half asleep or drunk, then this might be for you.


The Headless Chicken in all her glory:

GrimTools Link: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYJReg2 (Note: the Crucible Farm build given below is faster, so you’d probably want to go for that one)

I don’t have any videos, but here are some screenshots. (The build is same for all content)

Mogdrogen: https://i.imgur.com/8ETLggA.jpg
Watch out for his stuns and keep your distance. You should be fine. Also don’t stand in AOE and try not to get stuck in a tight spot.

Ravager (all 3 versions): https://i.imgur.com/yUH5haT.jpg
Kite around the tree while avoiding the red orbs that circle him. Re-summon pets when they die. Drink a Tonic of Mending if needed. Pretty easy and straightforward fights.

Lokarr: https://i.imgur.com/ChKL0px.jpg
This shouldn’t be a surprise since we took down Moggy and Ravager, but the fight was incredibly easy and tbh Ulgrim put up more of a challenge. Shame on you Loky, a cook survived longer than you did with a broken arm… (The fight is pretty straightforward, let your pets do the job while you just move away from his attacks)

The Mad Queen: https://i.imgur.com/SuE4dmQ.jpg
She dies in seconds and is no harder than a random zombie from Devil’s Crossing. Nothing more to say here, just let your pets end her suffering and be on your merry way.

Crucible with Blessings on pets: https://i.imgur.com/Oti1y42.jpg
(Ran from wave 1 to 150 without blessings and 151 - 170 with all 4. Was less headless chicken and focused a bit.)


Crucible with blessings on character but no blessings on pets:
https://i.imgur.com/vqXG71a.jpg
(Started on 151, summoned pets after getting blessings just to see how it would fare. Was a complete headless chicken and let fights drag on longer than they should have. Pets died, but the Conjurer was never in any real danger.)


Same playthrough as above, but to show how to hug 2x Reapers and Fabius:
https://i.imgur.com/L5niXj1.jpg
(Moosilauke and Theodin did not come to hug and were very rude.)

The Crucible fights were done without relying on any potions or consumables. Also, Crucible of the Legion in my personal experience works best as it has a easy layout while being big enough to kite stuff. Focus on high threat, high speed targets first while leaving the slow ones lumbering around on the other side of the stage. Be careful of Crowd-Control effects like Stuns, Roots, etc.

GrimTools Link for Crucible Farm: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/pZrqrE6V

Crucible farm build with Blessings: https://i.imgur.com/oqKfRpH.jpg
Wanted something that could farm crucible 151-170 twice with the same round of blessings. And mission success. You don’t really lose much for all that extra dmg either. Also works for Mogdrogen/Ravager/Lokarr.

Crucible farm build with alternate setup for more Physical Resistance: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/d2jqqQrN

GrimTools Link for those who hate Greens: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/1NXpprXN

Crucible Screenshot for the no greens Version: https://i.imgur.com/8dkU4j7.jpg
As you can see, it does pretty well. But obviously less powerful.



Introduction:

Ok, with that out of the way, time for a brief explanation on the build.

It all started with Squib’s Ret.Warder. Yes, that one. See, my main was originally a Devastation Spellbinder. While it did fine in the campaign, it got absolutely decimated in the crucible. So I went on a search to find something to conquer Lokarr’s little arena. Tried a variety of builds, but the story was always the same, death by Discount-Ravager. Then stumbled upon the above mentioned Warder. It was fine on Aspirant, but then got to Challenger and found myself finishing my dinner in the time it took to finish a few waves. It was excruciatingly slow.

Then came many other failed experiments mostly including Soldier and something else. But at the end of it all, came salvation. A Super Fluffy Tactician who could facetank anything and everything the Crucible had to offer. I finally saw wave 170 and conquered it. But there was still a problem. Two, infact.
o) First was that it was still too slow for my liking and I had to point and click on stuff like a peasant.
o) Second problem was that it was someone else’s creation. I simply copied it. I wanted something of my own.

At that point, I knew that the only way to get what I wanted was to go for a pet based char. And since I was focusing on being lazy, Conjurer was better than Cabalist. Enter “The Headless Chicken”. Ofcourse, never been one for math, it was still poorly optimized and did not feel very safe to play. But after countless trial and error (and then some help from this community), it was finally ready. By no means perfected, but capable of fulfilling its intended purpose.

Originally it wasn’t exactly made with the masses in mind, but as an experiment for myself. But don’t really see the harm in “releasing” it. So here it is.


Item choices:

The greens were GDStashed. But you can go for pretty much whatever affix you want or have. These were just a personal tastes and works best for me. But even if you find them with terrible affixes, you should be able to get by. The rest of the gear, being purple shouldn’t be too hard to obtain.

We are not focusing on Ravens, so Will of Bysmiel will be less affective. That said, it was what I used at first and still held its own. But the Mini Kubacabra, AKA Chillmane is too cute to pass up.

Pants/Gloves/Boots, go for whatever you fancy. But I find these to work best.

Rings are imo, BiS for this build. Since we are not going for Chaos dmg or anything, you can save your Voidwhisper bands for something else.

Relic choice: Mog provides us with a +1 to all skills which is much welcome, in addition to everything else it provides. I was never a fan of Primal instinct as the pets were too slow for my liking. That said, PI definitely works provided you change a bit of stuff around.

Skill/Devotion Setup:

We aren’t focusing on Ravens since this is about being hard to kill and Ravens can’t tank.

Hellhound is decent. But since making him a source of dmg requires investment of skill points better spent elsewhere, we are using him instead as just something to put between you and the horde of monsters.

Briarthorns and Primal Spirit (aka Murder Kitty) are really good since they can both deal dmg as well as tank an incredible amount of punishment. Max them out.

Now, you probably have noticed that we got a Huge HP bonus for all our pets. It says 275% on GTools, but due to variations in items, mine is over 300%. You probably don’t need that much, especially with blessings interms of the Crucible. But, I don’t manaually control them and let them get hit by AOE, Shotguns, Ground effects etc. So it helps make sure that they don’t die and lose their blessings.

If at the end of the day you feel like you want to try moving points more towards offence, then you can do so by all means.

As for Devotions, again we are building with defence in mind. You could try to go for Manticore, but personally I don’t consider it worth losing something else for. But if you do then the RR from it should give you a better kill speed.

Playstyle:

If the Post’s title didn’t clue you in, allow me to repeat; “The Headless Chicken Style” :cool:

Ok, it is actually a very lazy and bad way to play. Don’t be like me. But if you are or want to, then I won’t hold it against you :stuck_out_tongue:

Then again, there isn’t much to do other than running around casting Curse on anything and everything.

So toggle on your skills, summon your pets, Activate Blood of Dreeg and run around while enjoying the scenery. Don’t worry about enemies. They will just die on their own.

But if you want to focus a bit and take a more calculated approach, that is also possible:

Murder Kitty, you can spam whenever it comes off of CD. But try to save Harbinger for bosses. Or you can just spam them both, I do.

Curse of Frailty is best used after your pets draw aggro. Otherwise, just make sure that you don’t get surrounded.

Blood of Dreeg: Since it has a 30 sec duration on a 15 sec CD, wait a bit instead of spamming it every 15 seconds just incase you need the burst heal.

Call of the Beast (From Helm): Try to save it for when you need that extra dmg.

Now for the most important thing; Positioning. Always be mindful of where you are and keep an eye out for your pets and enemies.
You can manually control your pets to move them out of stuff like Ana’s Devastation, Aleks’s Meteors etc or to focus on high threat targets first before moving on to the rest. Also to create a barrier between you and whatever is after you, at chokepoints.
Or you could set them all to aggressive and just run around in circles while they do their job.

When doing the Crucible (and in general) regarding your own positioning, just make sure you won’t get stuck and you are good to go. Also kite a bit since we can’t facetank for longer than a few seconds and we don’t have any reason to. Don’t stand in AOE/Ground effects and try to stay as far away as possible from enemies who can stun/freeze/sleep/root you.


Conclusion:

If you read all that and made it this far or even if you skipped it straight to here, congratulations. You are now ready to be lazy (or you already are) and make the spirit of the headless chicken, proud.

Also, while I am aware that there are many builds which does the same content much faster, there haven’t been any that were this lazy (or to me, this safe). I was looking for such a build for a long time, but never found one. So maybe if you too were on a similar quest, then it might help you.

And while it was created with the Crucible in mind, it does even better in the Campaign since you fight at your own pace.

Now, some of you might notice that it could be made better or a bit different or simply optimized further. If you are wondering why I haven’t, my excuse is that I want to give you space to change it to suit your needs and make it your own.


An alternative version of the same build that is pretty much the same thing, but different: The Flying Dodo - Rainbow Pet Conjurer

Another version with the same concept: Moggy the Puppy - Pet Conjurer


That’s almost as lazy as my pet Conjurer. :smiley: I just use Blood of Dreeg and Primal Spirit for button pushers. Different devotion set up though and I’ve had over 100 deaths with it.

I based it off JayNyne’s old Lazy Pokemon Summoner build a long time ago.

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24703

NIce build, you could buy back the spirit points after equipping the off-hand in order to spend them in physique.

Did you try Mogdrogen/Ravager with this setup?

:smiley:

You can do the same with this one too, but we will be using 1 button instead of 2. 2 is too many :stuck_out_tongue:

Just bind Curse to RMB and you won’t even have to touch the keyboard for most part of the Campaign.

Mogdrogen? That pathetic creature has been in decline for centuries…

In all seriousness though, Mog can and will kill you if you don’t pay attention. The fight takes longer than 10 minutes (more like 15 or so) and since we lack stun resist, you have to be extra careful not go get hit by him in close range. The hardest part however, is his size. Yes, his size. See, most of the time he will focus on your pets and leave you be. And nothing in his arsenal even makes a dent on your pets, so they are safe. But occasionally, he will focus you. He is not fast, but with everything happening on screen and his small stature compared to that of his beasts, he can get close to you without you realizing it until it is too late. And if he stuns you while in melee range, you are most likely going to end up dead.

So, how to fight him? Clear out the area of everything else first before initiating the fight. Then, let your pets wear him down while you stay as far away as possible. Keep moving and don’t stand in AOE. At range, his projectiles are easy to dodge. But if you find it hard (we are being lazy here afterall :p), just take cover behind your pets or the surroundings. Absolutely don’t go anywhere near him as that is a death sentence. Be careful of when you use Curse as you don’t want too much aggro. It is also deceptively easy to get stuck and/or stun locked given the lack of room in the area where you fight him, so be careful of that. Other than that, it is just a matter of attrition. If you can put distance between you and him, the entire thing becomes so easy that you might even feel sorry for the so called God.

Now, picture time : https://i.imgur.com/8ETLggA.jpg

Note: I did not use any consumables for the fight, but you can if you want to speed things up or be safer (Or to recover your health/mana if you use potions).

Ok, went to a backup save and fought Ravager.

Was pretty easy :cool:. Took about 10 mins for Ravager of Flesh, about 15 mins for Ravager of Mind and almost 25 minutes for Ravager of Souls

Ok, picture time, https://i.imgur.com/yUH5haT.jpg

Despite the time it took, Ravager of Souls was the easiest. How easy? It felt like I was fighting a random hero monster and not a superboss. The longer time was due to his fumbles and running away to his shrine randomly.

Ravager of Flesh was neither easy nor hard. He did make me use 1 Tonic of Mending and was the first thing in the entire game that made me do so. But he was pretty dumb and died the fastest.

Ravager of Mind was a threat and hit the hardest. Made me use 2 Tonics during the fight :frowning:

They were all still easier than Mogdrogen as Ravager didn’t have any form of CC (the only thing that kills us) or adds to get us stuck. If you are looking for a guide or something, it is pretty simple. Kite him around something, like his shrine or that tree while avoiding the red orbs that circle him. Your pets will die alot, but you will still be safe enough to do this in HC if you want.

Also, it might just be me, but I kind of feel sorry for the guy. He is supposed to be a god and yet got his ass kicked by Moggy and now by a Headless Chicken in a state of perpetual delirium. He needs buffs :stuck_out_tongue:

Also, a petition to Crate to add Ravager as pet. Pwease? (I personally find the Red colour cutest on him)

Realy?? This japan build dude . https://youtu.be/F1-fCBat0XI :eek::eek::eek:
And mod https://youtu.be/MAb2qZAqmlc

What? no it isn’t.

Look at the devotion setup, the items, the skills.

Art thou blind? or is every single pet conjurer the same to you?

Most tankiness bang for skillpoint buck for pet conjurers of all kind, once BoB and Emboldening are softcapped, comes from Aspect of the Guardian.

If you do decide to do that, it should also free up some component and augment options for the items since poison resistance would no longer be a concern.

EDIT:

Link with points invested in AotG: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/O2GQlOkZ

The pets basically lose out on +40% hp, +30% dmg & +30 flat OA, but gain +15% atk.spd, +30% Crit.dmg, +5% OA and +9% Phy.res.

The player loses about 140 hp.regen, a bit of life and a bit of Ele.res, but gains more pierce and posion resists, +9% Phy.res and about 50 DA along with a little bit of extra armor.

https://www.grimtools.com/calc/1NXpk69N isn’t it better? also why do you need raven in your phys setup?
also i missed that you have no ability for cleansing water activation.

The Raven, even with only 3 points invested in its line, still does pretty well (for what it is worth). But you can choose to omit it entirely if you want to.

I don’t use Cleansing water as I find it too unreliable given you need to be close to the enemy for it to benefit you and we don’t really need to use it to clear any buffs on enemies. It was just picked for the resists and dev.points it provides upon completion.

With your setup, you need to be good at piloting to make the most out of Healing Totem. Doesn’t work when you are running around with no sense of direction like I do. Also, one extra skill to maintain and that is not good when you are aiming to be lazy :stuck_out_tongue:

That said, if you have tried it out ingame then I am curious to hear the results :smiley:

Respecced to similar set-up, though i decided to drop points from Ground Slam and Mogdrogen Pact and take Wendigo Totem (does wonders in Crucible when pets tank Nemesis) and softcap Hellhound to 16/16.

I am also using Mythical Veilpiercer (for -RR on Hellhound) + Mythical Grimoir of Og’Napesh (for another pet) as i don’t have the proper greens.

Above is purely subjective and i still wonder if you used some potions when fighting Mog/Ravager?

Another thing: 55th devotion point - 5% health from yellow nod or 6th point in Tree of Life (4% health + exta 50 hp/sec regeneration for pets)?

No potions used except Tonic of Mending (3 in total -> 2 for mind & 1 for flesh) for Ravager. Mog did not need any Tonics.

As for the Devotion point, ty for mentioning that actually. The yellow nod was a remnant from the past that I forgot to update in GrimTools :o, but yeah I put it in Tree to complete it. GT link has been updated so it should show properly now.

EDIT: Added no greens version link to the OP.

Hi, i’m kind of new to making builds in grim dawn so i’m helping myself with the ones like yours. I’m having trouble with devotion tree and understanding how do you managed to invest in Staff of Rattosh since it requires 3 red points but i only see 1 at the crossroads.

Completed Rattosh provides 2 red nodes itself. You can put 1 point in red node, complete Jackal (4 red total), then complete Rattosh - so you have 6 ttl and remove all points from Jackal.

Many devotions can sustain themselves after completion as they provide the points required by them.

I didn’t know that. It actually explains a lot. Thank you.

What about attribute points? I heared that physique is almost always way to go. Do i dump all points in physique or should i invest some in other stats?

Spirit and Cunning to meet requirements of items, rest to physique.

You will find potions to reset attributes so can keep 10 spare points just in case you find off-hand you can’t equip, rest can be put in physique and redistributed after you reach lvl 100 and find the gear you need.

This is beautiful. Love the post, going to try this now!

Just a heads up to anyone who reads this, the potion to reset attributes is part of AoM. So if you don’t have the expansion, plan ahead. (If you are following this build then you have AoM already, but still putting it out there as an fyi.)

Yes! Embrace the spirit of the Headless Chicken :cool:

I just wanna say thanks to both of you. This is very helpfull. About that potion - is it one time thing or can you do it multiple times?
And no, i don’t have the expantion yet but planning on buing it (maybe some black friday deals).