⭐ Top 20 Softcore builds in Grim Dawn (An Opinion)

[ArchangelNew]

Warder showed everyone the power of his stuck :WARDER:

[Nery]

@Duskdeep86

Top 20 no any Pet builds，seriously?

I have played few pet builds, so I am open for suggestions, which pet builds can make the top tier?

In terms of builds performance, you have on list chars capable of both extremely fast clearing of Crucible and farmable SR territory and sturdy enough not to die in them. For pet builds is tough to do combine both.

Conjurers tend to have pretty tanky pets on top of survivability from their pet masters. And especially with traditional defensive oriented devotion map combining Tree and Ishtak. But then again you lose considerable speed. If you compare it to top builds it’s even ridiculous.

Cabalist can power pretty fast glass cannon pet concept with Skeletons running the show. I’ve tried few chaos builds. Witching Hour+Ghoul set isn’t that bad and 2x Fiends help with both providing supplementary damage to Skeletons and then taking the heat out of them by tanking. Still neither this, nor vitality or chaos Lost Souls is gonna match top builds in speed and unlike Conjurers you have really glassier setup.

Also it worth mentioning some of the better pet builds can benefit a lot from MI items with handpicked affixes to cap pet nodes or to achieve big %damage. That lowers the accessibility score. For example Alkamos’s fire Beastcaller Conjurer would score pretty low there and it was nerfed, since build was originally posted. Also worth mentioning some of the pet builds should receive low points in QoL/ease to play. Using rotation covering the entire bar for instance. Or using player based skills to proc devotions like transmuted DEE.

Overall if I am playing pet build legit, I would make Conjurer and make it defensively oriented. Unlike player builds, pet masters can sacrifice damage, without screwing themselves with less leech. And pet builds can be very resilient in SR and against super bosses. But considering this rankings requirements is hard for them to reach top spots.

[Sunset]

Legends, amazing work

[Duskdeep86]

@Nery

In terms of builds performance, you have on list chars capable of both extremely fast clearing of Crucible and farmable SR territory and sturdy enough not to die in them. For pet builds is tough to do combine both.

So you assigned the top 20 based onextremely fast clearing of Crucible and farmable SR ？and u think pet build is hard to do both?

[Nery]

@Duskdeep86

@Nery

In terms of builds performance, you have on list chars capable of both extremely fast clearing of Crucible and farmable SR territory and sturdy enough not to die in them. For pet builds is tough to do combine both.

So you assigned the top 20 based onextremely fast clearing of Crucible and farmable SR ？and u think pet build is hard to do both?

Not exactly.

There’s explanation of points system in “process” section.

Also worth saying neither of us, builders is that experienced with pets. But I’ve played like 7 pet builds this patch and @nofika4u tried few. Based on my playing experience, it wouldn’t being honest opinion if I stuck some of these builds in top 20, since their performance is weaker overall.

[Duskdeep86]

@Nery

There’s explanation of points system in “process” section.

Sorry for I cant understand points system in “process” section.means, but I want ask when Sigatrev pet build doing these things, where are these top 20 build?
Even now from 1.1.9.0 - 1.1.9.6 I can found many fast run SR 、Cru and celestial Pet build. so (top20 without pet build) is appropriate.

v1.0.6.1 5min run Crucible by Conjurer

v1.1.5.0 first man for 115 SR by Ritualist

[banana_peel]

If you have a particular up to date build in mind that, in your opinion, performs better in 1.1.9.6 than the builds listed in top 20, share the calc and recent runs of it.

[x1x1x1x2]

@banana_peel

None of us can be considered as pet expert in terms of building. We only tried couple of established best pet builds, and they performed worse than the best non-pet builds. But that aside, pet gameplay is almost a different game, and it’s hard to compare pet builds to the others. If you are exclusively a pet player, this list will not help you

@banana_peel

The most important:

You might look at the list and get instantly confused: “Where is this [best build of all time] in it? What is this travesty?!”

You can be sure that the final list would be somewhat confusing to every one of us individually, have you shown it to us before we tested the builds. A lot of our clear favourites paled in comparison to the builds that are in the final top. Just few examples of the fallen favourites: every cold Infiltrator, almost every aether Spellbinder, almost every fire caster, “the king of sustain” and the go to of the beginners Dark One.

There is always a small chance we missed some strong builds. So if you are adamant we missed smth, do share it in the comments. Just note, we went through A LOT of builds, over and again.

@Duskdeep86 These parts are what you’re looking for.

[tqFan]

Complaint of a pet player so what’s left is…

All these glass cannon builds would fail miserably on Hardcore, where you couldn’t fish for LUCKY CR and SR runs. Play like REAL men and make builds for REAL players. I have a fetish of losing my characters with their gear on death and watching RIPs on Twitch which means everyone should have it too! FACT

Thanks for ridiculous amount of work. Although I know the builds from your guides and videos, I wouldn’t be able to compare them with each other. Now we can link this thread instead of scratching our heads when asked for the best build. I am a bit disappointed that no secret, unknown, broken build has made it to the list

[x1x1x1x2]

I wish I could like this twice cause you remember to write fact at the end fact

[Nery]

@x1x1x1x2

I wish I could like this twice cause you remember to write fact at the end fact

You should always end your sentences with “fact”. It gives them more weight, FACT!

[Zantai]

[x1x1x1x2]

This is a buff list confirmed!

[anon94264551]

“Where is physical retaliation?”
“Sorry, but it doesn’t deserve mentioning.”

[banana_peel]

There are several very unconventional builds that we tested that were very close to top20. One example - chaos DB + RE Cabalist.

Maybe i’ll take a time to share them later.

[x1x1x1x2]

@anon94264551

“Where is physical retaliation?”
“Sorry, but it doesn’t deserve mentioning.”

Fun fact, the reason why I asked you for the retal warlord back few months ago was to try and see if it could enter this list. Unfortunately acid (and lightning once the public test went out) retals were just better.

Tho knowing that you pushed it to SR 120, I don’t think any build in the list went there. Spellscourge and vines archon probably can but no one bothered to test that far. It’s just not part of the criteria.

[Skelemental]

Nice list, do think it needs some pets though.

[Foehammer]

Nerfs already rolling out lol.

[Willnoword]

@Skelemental

Nice list… but, I guess pet builds are garbage according to this list?

According to “Elite Build Runners” - yes, pet builds do not meet their standards. Still think personal experience matters most. Trying to make ladder-like contestant game out of single-player offline one always puzzled me, but hey, that is how fun made in one of many ways .

[nofika4u]

Pet builds are not on the list because they are simply not impressive in farmable content such as SR 75-76 and buffed crucible. They do have their niche in steady SR grinding and should do well in higher shards, but that was not the focus of this list. We wanted to gather builds capable of fast and reliable clears in farming range.
From my experience pet builds can be tuned either as CR steamrollers (though there are better builds for that purpose) or slow and steady SR.

Pet builds tested for this list: Fire/cold/lightning/chaos Beastcaller Conjurer. Chaos Lost Souls Cabalist. Ghol Ritualist and Cabalist with skeletons.