The Carnival - A Guide to Pets

Provide GT link :stuck_out_tongue:

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https://www.grimtools.com/calc/aZqwPeA2

  • I have 2 skill points unspent.
  • I have 39/55 Devos unlocked with 1 point unspent.
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Hey Maya and guys, I would like to know which build from The Carnival .pdf book is the strongest (most durable and fastest clearer) build? I already tried ‘Rawr God’ (Cabalist Ghol’s set) and it seems somewhat weak in both dps output and survivability. Even in the book itself, that particular build isn’t in the group with those that can defeat every boss.

Now I would like to try another pet build aiming at Conjurer - Beastcaller (based on the ‘Scarlet’ from the book). Is it going to be better than my current Cabalist? Thanks

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Maya’s said several times her strongest build is Fluffy Squishy.

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Fwuffy Squishy is perhaps the best all around pet build, although full Beastcaller set wouldn’t be bad either, focusing on Bria.

Maya may kill me but I think Ghol Ritualist should be pretty strong as well :stuck_out_tongue:

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Change skill and devotion points according to the link I gave before. Then keep following my guide until 94 and respec to the final build.

As Medea said, go with Fluffy Squishy :blush:

kills Nery

menacing

But seriously though, Beastcaller and Ghol are strong as hell. However, for those one will have to look to builds by others.

@Crittrain’s [1.1.7.0] KaosKats (Updated 6.17 Cruci) - Taking pets to the Darkside for example is borderline OP.

We have various Ghol builds by @Duskdeep86 and @Plasmodermic has this monster: [1.1.6.2] The return of Crucible pets - Acid/Bleed Ghol Ritualist - 5:30 Crucible SR85


Ghol falls short of being considered great by me because of how much it struggles with Crate. As for Briarthorns and Beastcaller’s, Birbs fare better against Callagadra.

If one is not as obsessed with superbosses as I am, the build choices open up vastly :yum:

I rank my builds based upon whether I can kill superbosses while eating icecream on one hand or not…

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Your retaling Fwuffy can kill them with no hands :stuck_out_tongue:

Btw why your strongest pet build is called ‘Squishy’’?

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My Retal build can’t kill Crate clipboard_vector

Fluffy Squishy was originally a Double Briarthorn build with Chillmane Yeti Pet from Amulet.

The name was in reference to how fluffy Chillmane was and how much I wanted to hug and squish it like a stuffed toy…

Then FG came and with it, Callagadra and things… changed. My old builds weren’t strong enough to take it down. So, I ended up looking to Birbs and the build changed into this:

crow_PNG3114

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Thank you Maya. I just found out this morning that I can reclaim points from the mastery bar. I had no idea that was added to the game. I’ll have to burn a bunch of currency to reclaim the points and devos without using GDS to edit my character.

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Random build concept coming through (untested): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/L2Jkv7RV
Cold Briarbutts and Pussy ^

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New patch and with it new stuff to play with :blush:

Just putting all that caught my attention here for referencing later on while I spend my nights eating ice cream and theorycrafting in Grimtools…

  • Mantle of Mogdrogen: increased % Fire dealt as Lightning for pets to 100% and added 100% Vitality dealt as Lightning for pets

  • Infernal Breath: added % Damage Reduction

  • Will of the Crypt: removed % Physical dealt as Vitality (one of the most interesting changes personally. time for elemental skeletons :sunglasses:)

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What’s that? Let’s make Ghol Ritualists even more busted? Seem legit.

The Mantle of Mogdrogen needed a complete overhaul to the stat bonuses instead of those conversions. We already have 100% Vitality to Lightning in the faction Off-hand, and there’s a 1H weapon that converts Fire to Lightning. The problem is that it interferes with Beastcaller’s, Lost Souls, and Ghol sets, and Bysmiel Set already converts Vitality to Elemental. What the pets is Overload doing as a bonus? Why are there two Shaman bonuses when any Lightning Shaman build is taking Beastcaller’s Set? Where’s the supposed Vitality conversion coming from, and if we really wanted to convert Vitality to Lightning, why not just use the Stormbringer off-hand, which is also one of the only items to give bonuses to Lightning Strike? That move just seems so confusing to me - I was really hoping for something like Chaos to Lightning conversion, which would make Lightning Hellhound + Bysmiel dual birds to be something really cool.

Alas, at least we have nice Skeleton buffs to try out. Skeleton Ritualists would likely much rather stick with Guardian of Death’s Gate with Primal Bond than use 1H weapon + Nightshard + Bonescavenger + Master of Death, so I see this being more of a boon for Skeleton Cabalists.

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Shame the shield doesn’t have energy regen :yum:

But yeah… all that -%RR :heart_eyes:

Meme builds :stuck_out_tongue: Other than that, yeah, not much the shoulders got going for them atm.

One of the things I had always wanted was Non Vitality Lost Souls. This opens up the way for that. Also now I can go Chaos Lost Souls Skeletons with Voidwhisper + Fiendgaze :blush:

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@Maya Old gamer but new to GD and these forums, loving it so far 50hours in, still not level capped and nearing end of act 3 (no stone left unturned, or crate unbusted, fog of war covered area type of old school rpger). Always lean towards pet builds in anything i play if i can so ofcourse finding your Carnival guide was amazing and fun read (loved the lil funny comments you stuck in here and there).

I did a fair amount of research before starting since i hate going in blind and all the wonderful guides for pros and beginners alike are great! However i have a question, when i click on grim tools links, i can’t seem to find the devotions used for any of them, am i missing something or does it only show attributes, gear, components and augments. Thanks in advance and hope your having a great week so far!

Once i push through(unlock) all content difficulties i plan to take my first build loosely based on your skull and bones build and roll it probably into the will o wisp build since that looks like very interesting to me. Your general devotion layout in your carnival was quite helpful in getting started, and helped me correct some mistakes i had made initially. But i’d like to get more in depth info about actual devotion layout.

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VenomOfGod, you find the devotions just as you would in-game. Press the book icon in the lower left corner and then select the Devotions tab. I hope that this is what you were asking.

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First of all, welcome to GD and the forums :blush:
Glad to hear that the guide was of help. As @Steve said, you need to Press the book icon in the lower left corner and then select the Devotions tab. There, you can see which devotions are selected. If it is still confusing and you need step by step direction on how to proceed with devotions, let me know of the particular build in question and I can write down the devotion path for you :slight_smile:

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Here’s a report I’ve done based off testing so far:

Fire Raven + Hound Deceiver: The Hellfire buff to grant DA is really nice; it allowed me to focus my devotions a bit better as I didn’t have to scrounge for DA everywhere. I was able to make it to Shard 76, but Boss Room Reaper of the Lost annihilates me and I have no idea on how I can fix it. It might have to do with the resistant modifier I had (+15% Elemental Resistance), but I think 75 is just too high a barrier for it. Such a shame, as I thought I had a great way to fit Fire Raven in the compendium (as you can’t use Bysmiel’s set with the Magi MI pet rings).

Fire Skeletons: Done it as a Skeletons Apostate, and I love that Crate finally removed the conversion from Will of the Crypt. I went from not even being able to do 65 to doing SR65-66 in a breeze and no deaths either. I’m sure you can find a way to make Fire Skeletons do 75 and then some; I just thought that being able to summon 8 Skeletons at once was too cool not to try. Maybe I should try it as a Defiler after all - who needs Skeleton survivability when you can just summon nearly your whole army at once and throw wave after wave of men at SR until it begs for mercy?

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thanks a bunch! i’m going blind in my old age apparently. :sweat_smile:
turns out due to my screen zoom setting i was not seeing the bottom ui part of the build.

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As is often the case with this set, the rough thing about Lost Souls is that it blocks all the good options you could have. Going from Vitality to Chaos, if you were to go Cabalist, you’d go from a double RR class to a 0 RR class, and you don’t have double trees + cat to give huge flat damage to make up for that, compared to going Chaos Conjurer. No weapon to provide Chaos RR, no Conduit for either Occultist or Necro to give good RR either. You’re stuck with less than ideal equipment and the set doesn’t do too much other than beef up the Skeletons and give a second Hellhound.

If you were to go Skeletons alone, however, you have a few decent options - either Inquisitor or Demo. Demo has more RR in Thermite Mines, while Inquisitor has the heal and Vigor for more Skeleton Health. It’ll likely go Apostate, in which case I’d like to know how Chaos Skeletons compares to my above Fire Skeletons.

If it weren’t for Reaper of the Lost being the most difficult Nemesis, I’d have a hankering to try Aether + Chaos Skeletons just take advantage of all those skill points in the Voidwhisper Rings + flat damage from Bysmiels Domination. I’ll leave this link here in case I ever want to revisit whether to switch it to full Aether pets or Chaos pets: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/eZPjK3B2

You don’t need RR from masteries on a Chaos Pet build :stuck_out_tongue:, never did.

As for not having P.Spirit or Briarthorns, don’t need them either. Any extra dmg you’d require can be provided by Reap spirits.

And Lost Souls doesn’t block any of the items needed to make Chaos work, atleast not the way I would want to build it.

Ofcourse in the end it won’t be Beastcaller’s or Ghol, but Beastcaller’s is generally a well built set and Ghol is borderline broken at this point, especially with all the buffs to the items and stuff that complement it.