Soldier with some Pet Bonuses? What do you think?


:snowflake::swan::dagger::cold_face::dagger::swan::snowflake:

@Maya THIS IS THE BEST BUILD I VE EVER MADE :joy::joy::joy:

Edit2: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/p25myXo2

Dont open and gdstash it or you will play straight for a whole month :exploding_head:

:rofl:

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image Pet Hybrid?

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grafik
Yep!

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It works, kiting with blade barrier, pneumatic and BoD while birbs attack kills harder enemies. Difficult to pilot though. Got many deaths at the beginning (Iron Maiden huh). Petblade :blush:




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Sure and i support that. But I don’t see it working well for a character that mixes pet damage with player damage. Characters in any situation generally work best if they focus on one side or the other, never both because of the sheer amount of stats you need to stack and balance often being too underwhelming and leaving you average or worse on both ends.

Diviner and Unstable Anomaly Blight Fiend are probably the only situation where one could feasibly consider it as you no longer need to care about pet defenses.

Look at Bane of the Winter King for an example. It has been used for player damage builds like Cold Savagery or Primal Strike Trickster, Cold Blade Arc and Cold Callidor’s Tempest. It has also been used in Cold pets since it and Cold pets in general received sizable buffs to their itemisation some updates ago. But pet players have been trying for years to mix both playstyles in a way that one does not overshadow the other with reasonably good results and haven’t succeeded.

Thats why i say Devs should add/buff player damage% on pet items. Hybrids would not be OP but at least not a sad case… :roll_eyes:

I wouldn’t mind seeing something like that but it needs to be controlled, like pushing the bulk of those damage buffs towards into the 3 or 4-piece part of the pet sets for instance.

That said though, i still don’t see a % damage buff fixing hybrids. They have to attend to other problems like having to divide skill points between pets and player damage skills and again:

  • Building player offense (sufficient investment in player damage skills, OA, attack speed/cast speed/cooldown reduction, possibly skill modifiers for chosen player skills)
  • Building player defense (at least capped resistances, DA, some CC resistances preferably, a way to restore health in steady amounts, defensive layers your mastery offers like enemy damage reduction or damage absorption). More so important for hybrids because if you’re putting out damage that competes with your pets you’re likely to take aggro compared to full pet users.
  • Building pet offense (% damage, % crit damage, attack/cast/total speed, points in mastery pets).
  • Building pet defense (some amount of pet resistances depending on the ones you are using. Skellies being the frailest of them all necessitate more than the Briarthorn or Blight Fiend for example. Some way of keeping them healed consistently).

This is way more to manage or think about than your average build that isn’t a hybrid. Reap Spirits, Bound Spirits and transmuted Blight Fiend takes out 1 of these just by existing.

Honestly, I’m more of a mind of Zantai’s solution at one point working of just making every pet in Grim Dawn player scaled so there is less of a discrepancy between player stats and pet stats but as that can’t be done now, it’s best to think about for Grim Dawn 2.

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The split between player and pets is fine, it makes the buidling process interesting. I know what builds need for to reach their intended goals.

I am only suggesting a damage% buff to pet items. The all dmg% bonuses(this all dmg approach is genius the more i think of it) like its done on several newer added pet items should be expanded to all. Nothing complicated nor demanding that overheats the devs brains. The stats to player arent even that bad on pet devotions. Clever skill point synergy works both ways.

The only problem is most pet items lack dmg%. Take this NB above. If pants, belt, boots and relic had some it would bump its dmg from 1900% to ~2200%.

That would make its performance a tad better. Its not rocket-science. In that case many builds could think about adding a pet in deviating some skill points and changing some gear slots to pet items without totally crippling the build. Tadaa, more builds and variety.

The game already has dedicated hybrid-pet-items, Bane Winter, Dracarris, double rares with one pet one player affix would get interesting as well.

I really dont know whats so hard to understand and people assuming like i dont know how the game works is just baffling. Am playing top end builds too. Thats not a personal critique to you. You are just making sense and trying to sooth my mind, a really good reply in that case, had much worse.

Maybe the best thing is to work myself into modding and crate those minor patches i would consider as good myself. Lets wait to the final patch i guess…

Edit: typing

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how about giving some soldier skills just defensive boosts to pets instead of offensive oriented bonus? because it feels like soldiers are made mainly to be tanky. why not made them a class that could boost pet tankiness as potential foundatiin for player damage oriented pet hybrids?

witchblades: hey birds & dogs. you just need to stand there like harmless critters while providing buffs & heals to me. let me take care of everything. don’t worry i’ll give you lots of +hp & thick skins magic in case of aoes.
birds & dogs: :sleepy:

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It depends on how it’s done as many of the other pet masteries already provide defense to their pets as well this via providing free resistances (including Physical), a way to heal or rarely damage absorption like Inquisitor’s Seal.

Technically, Menhir’s Bastion fulfils the above pretty well. I completely forgot about it when I was making the Death Knight sketch and only now remembered that it’s granted skill applies to nearby allies as well.

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Tfw you go and try to use it on a Conjurer only to realize neither Swarm nor Vines have weapon damage…

or doom bolt… or DEE… or Pox… or Sigil…

Primal Strike Guardian of Death’s Gates Vitality Pet Conjurer it is :sunglasses:

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Now that is a title to describe a build :laughing:

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I W A N T T H I S N O W

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Meme as it is, I consider pet Soldier without being a tanky shieldwielder a waste. You can use transmuted Overguard without losing anything or I just still don’t understand some of the game mechanics after all those years, it’s like it was created for pet combos (except they totally suck in the endgame, while still being fun for a casual HC ultimate playthrough).

But as I already said in the other thread, there are zero rare pet shields, only a couple of epic ones (and both for necros) and technically a single legendary - but it might as well not exist, or be an offhand. UPD Oh yes, Nightshard exists since the latest patch, which means there are two legendary shields. Though it doesn’t give any resistances and pet stats, and the pet itself doesn’t seem very strong. I’d like to hear your opinion about it - for my Soldiers it creates considerable gaps in defense, so I’m not sure if it’s even worth farming.

So, my idea for a Soldier designed pet shield is “+pet stats during Overguard” as one of the bonuses. Or “pet stats to Menhir’s Bulwark/Field Command”, but it’s not as fun.

Also, RIP my unstable anomaly Death Knight. It was just viable, but worked pretty well - the Circlet changes ruined the perfect harmony between his gear/stats and number of pets. At least the reap spirit Death Knight is still good, as far as non-viable meme builds go.

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Happy to hear more players are experimenting with such approaches. Unstable Anomaly seems great for hybrids.

Yep, this is all we got. Nightbringer is a Player-Scaling-Pet. Hybrids could utilize those also well if dmg-type% matches with the player/pet. Its all about the synergy to make those builds shine a bit.

grafik

grafik

Rares can get useful with pet affixes though, so i would not count them off.

grafik

I think the only thing we need is decent player dmg on pet items. Without dmg you have to survive longer and that breakes the hybrid builds. Defense isnt that much of an issue, lack of dmg puts more pressure on the def i guess. :thinking:

@Maya Look at this one :grinning:
Dark Blaze with Hellhound, Occulant as shield, 2pc Ghol, Voidwhisper rings, didnt tested it yet.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/Q2zQqPdN

Edit: SR65 was miserable Father Kymon demolished me in Bossroom
Cruci was pretty neat
3Buffs1Banner (Storm Beacon)
150-160
140-150
130-150
2:30min buff time left

Reaper (lucky with Zantarin and Moosi) was painful at 160, would have killed me without a good timed AetherCluster.
IronMaiden, Valdaran and Moosi were doable since leach is quite nice, but dangerous, clever moving is needed.

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Ok, this calls for this:

image

Start making build threads!

Seriously, here I have been toting around that Pet Hybrids are something completely useless and you are making not just one, but handing them out like candy. Sure, they might not go into SR 120 or finish Crucible in 4 mins or whatever, but I assure you that there are tons of players who are looking for such builds.

Would be nice for me to have something to link others to whenever the topic comes up. Hell, make an entire compendium of Hybrid Pet builds. More visibility and interest towards those might also result in them getting more support in future patches :blush:

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Agreed, you’re making working hybrid builds, Nola. You could start a compendium, with how much research you’re doing.

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Actually, pet Witchblade is the most fun of my pet tanks, purely because of the suicidal insanity of transmuted Bloody Pox. Besides, the birds die extremely rarely if you tank for them - and Bloody Pox turns you into a sole target of every single mob on the screen.

Not viable for the actual endgame, of course - but I had a great time on HC Ultimate.

Personally, I’d like at least some more pet support on shields. I enjoy the whole concept of pet tanks because it embraces the terrible aggro system, instead of dealing with it.

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