Attention all citizens of Cairn!
For all pet lovers, it’s a day of rejoicing!
For the enemies of Cairn, THE DAY OF REKTONING IS AT HAND!
To complement my Grimarillion guide, I have been field testing builds that can serve as a jumping point for players who like to see concepts that work before jumping in. As is my style, the theme of this compendium is pets! Pet armies, small companions, debuff pets, and mercenary pets; the more the merrier. I have tested nearly every class and every damage type in an effort to see how certain skills synergize with the generous gift of classes Grimarillion provides us. All in all, I have around 20 builds (thank GDStash for the ability to quickly test certain ideas) that I have outfitted and tested. For those who like to whack enemies themselves and not have minions doing your dirty work, I also have multiple player-scaled pet builds that combine pets with major damage skills; Elemental Seekers, Raise the Dead, and Unknown Soldier can be a lot of fun when you combine them with a player focused build, not to mention the juicy player-scaled pets from the mod classes!
Summoner builds (the ones that are scaled to pet damage) are built differently from standard main skill builds in that in addition to focusing on survivability and resists, you have an additional column for pet stats: pet Health, pet damage, pet Crit, pet Speed, and pet Resists. Neglecting pet stats in favor of player resists leads to Campaign slog where pets have trouble bursting through boss heals. Neglecting pet resists in favor of damage kills off your pets before major damage can be done, leading to the player running like a headless chicken. It is a very delicate balance, but with new pet equipment, much more +All Skills options, and the ability to equip weapon components to jewelry (Imbued Silver and Purified Salt are some of the best components for pet builds - pound for pound - in the game), pet builds are more than capable of handling the extra difficulty Grimmest throws at you.
As I do want to give each and every build its proper explanation, I will order my builds by featuring classes. Grimarillion features multiple classes that give bonuses above and beyond what vanilla Grim Dawn gives us, and their skills are perfectly aligned to provide new pet opportunities, or even take a traditional pet build and take it to heights they have not seen before! The OP will serve as a table to contents - if there’s a build in particular you want to see without going through pages of posts, follow the links in the intro.
For testing my builds in the MC, I use the Grimmest setting “Misanthropic” (the level 3 setting) - I found that to be the best indicator as to how they would face in SR65-66, anything further than that - especially up to 11! - just makes the whole run a slog while bringing my laptop to its knees. Unless the build has a particular theme to it or is a hybrid pet/player style build, you can be assured that the build is more than capable of running through SR75-76, though you may still face trouble defeating the Diablo bosses in SR, depending on the build.
Links to Pet Builds:
Summoner Builds:
Witch Doctor + Hunting - Zunimassa’s Tiki Tribe - Updated for 2020!
Damage Type: Cold, Acid
Pets - Tiki Warriors, Zombie Dogs
D3 Necromancer + GD Necromancer - Skeleton Overlord
Video Guide & Video Gameplay
Damage Type: Vitality
Pets - Command Skeletons, Skeleton Archers, Raise Skeletons, Bone Golem with Blood Transmuter [32 Skeletons in Total!]
Nature + Rogue - Rabid Wolves - New for 2020!
Damage Type: Acid
Pets - Call of the Wild, Force of Nature, Thorn Sprites, Sigil of Bast Relic, Bysmiel’s Command
Nature + Storm - The Thunder Nymph
Video Guide and Gameplay
Damage Type: Lightning
Pets - Summon Nymph, Winter Sprite, Avatar of Bast
Earth + Storm - Helio’s Core
Video Guide & Video Gameplay - Note: Nerfed in v80
Damage Type: Fire
Pets: Summon Core Dweller, Winter Sprite, Shavo’s Relic, Helio’s Sun Nymph, Helio’s Fire Webweavers
Spirit + Dream - Nightmares from Another World
Video Guide & Video Gameplay
Damage Type: Vitality
Pets: Summon Liche King, Summon Nightmare, Skeletal Soldiers, Summon Outrider
Hybrid Builds:
Occultist + Earth - The Furies
Video Gameplay
Damage Type: Fire
Pets - Summon Core Dweller, Summon Hellhound, Black Scourge (Reskill), Salazar’s Blade (Reskill)
GD Necromancer + Spirit - Dark Divination - Updated for 2020!
Video Guide and Gameplay
Damage Type: Vitality
Pets - Reap Spirit
Player-scaled Pet Builds:
Champion + Riftstalker - The Army of None - Updated for 2020!
Video Guide & Video Gameplay
Damage Type: Aether
Pets - Army of None
Dream + Riftstalker - Master of Rifts - New for 2020!
Video Guide and Gameplay
Damage Type: Chaos
Pets - Astral Rift, Raise the Dead
Outrider + Demon Hunter - Turrets of Shrapnel
Video Guide & Video Gameplay
Damage Type: Pierce
Pets - Arcane Assault I + II, Sentries, Unknown Soldier
Soldier + Dream - Blood Knight’s Resurrected Army! - Updated for 2020!
Video Gameplay
Damage Type: Vitality
Pets - Blood Knight Pendant, Soul of Narzan, Raise the Dead
Witch Doctor + Nature - Soul Gatherer of Peace
Video Guide and Gameplay
Damage Type: Cold
Pets - Slaved Soul, Manitou, Ethereal Veil
Demon Hunter + Barbarian - Rain of Beasts
Video Gameplay with Grimtools Link
Damage Type: Cold
Pets - Flying Strike
Wizard + Elementalist - Arcane Hydra Tamer
Video Guide & Video Gameplay
Damage Type: Fire
Pets - Hydra (Wizard Skill), Hydra (Item Skill), Mirror Image, Elemental Seekers, Tongue of Flame
Rogue + Necrotic - Eyes of the Beast
Video Guide & Video Gameplay
Damage Type: Acid
Pets - Quillthrower of Dreeg (Reskill), Amulet of Dreeg (Reskill), Summon Epalios (with Transmuter), Rogue Divulcum Relic
Crusader + Oathkeeper - Fervent Holy Warriors
Video Guide and Gameplay (including Grimtools Link)
Damage Type: Lightning
Pets - Phalanx, Heaven’s Fury, Summon Guardian of Empiryon
Crusader + Arcanist - Smiting from the Heavens
Damage Type: Physical
Pets - Heaven’s Fury, Deathstalker
Nightblade + Demon Hunter - Fiery Blades
Video Gameplay (with Grimtools Link)
Damage Type: Fire
Pets - Blade Spirit, Chakram
Monk + Crusader - Sacred 2 Seraphim
Video Gameplay
Damage Type: Fire, Lightning
Pets - Mystic Ally, Archangel (X2), Phalanx, Heaven’s Fury
Barbarian + Defense - Colossal Defender
Video Guide
Damage Type: Physical
Pets - Ancient Commander, Spectral Phalanx
Oathkeeper + Champion - Empiryon’s Finest Guardians - New for 2020!
Damage Type: Fire
Pets - Summon Guardian of Empiryon
Spirit + Demolitionist - Tim Follin’s Rage of Agrivix - New for 2020!
Video Guide & Video Gameplay
Damage Type: Aether
Pets - Agrivix Set Wisps