I’m trying to make a permanent pseudo pet build and have some questions, primarily, what stacks per pet? I know added DoTs do like from the Scarab Shell, but does flat damage as well? Is it just Maelstrom that stacks? Does the electrocute on the first WD node? I’m trying to mix Chillwhisper and Morgoneth to get 100% cold Blade Spirits and Wind Devils, but if flat damage doesn’t stack, it seems Chillwhisper is only worth it for the 4-piece set bonus which limits my Wind Devil support and I shouldn’t care about BS pierce conversion at all. Morgoneth’s Grip and Visage both add flat damage to WD but if it doesn’t stack, it seems kinda useless (glove conversion is still nice). My vision is to use a Yeti Horn to get a fourth Wind Devil and four (or five) Blade Spirits and Shadow Strike around to reposition my pets.
BS and WD both got buffed this patch (1.1.2.1) so I can’t tell if the damage stacks now or if it’s just the patch changes. Also, Morgoneth has some unfavorable conversion for my flat types but as I’m mainly concerned with DOTs, I don’t really care…but maybe I should? I’m not trying to make a world-beater, just a fun thematic build, so it doesn’t really matter, but so far it’s turned out better than I hoped so I’d like to optimize it.
I know there’s a post explaining how pseudo pets work somewhere, but I couldn’t find it, and I swear I looked.
From what I know - Damage mods to Wind Devils don’t stack. First node doesn’t stack. 2nd - note sure. 3rd does stack.
For Blade Spirits, everything should stack.
All these Blade Spirits and Wind Devils following the character look really cool.
In the past I did Cold Blade Spirits + Cold Storm Totem fantasy Trickster
Found a good thread regarding stacking pseudo pets since I posted. It doesn’t mention flat damage, though: Stacking DoT on Pseudo-pets
Why does everything stack on Blade Spirits? After reading the post I linked, I assume it’s because it’s not a debuff aura?
I’m considering adding Storm Totem, I’ll have a lot of skill points left if the first WD node doesn’t stack and I will have almost complete lightning conversion.
I’m using your Chillwhisper Reaper devotion, btw. It stacks Leviathan well and almost constantly rains Blizzards.
Blade spirit is indeed not a debuff aura but rather a pet that employs 2 (3?) different attacks.
It’s to be noted that DoT damage from blade spirit will stack not only from different blade spirits, but from each of their attacks. So if you have 3 blade spirits, and each apply DoT from each of their different attacks, you’re looking at at least 6 concurrent DoTs
Wind devil has an aura and an attack.
But the attack is supplemental, meaning it’s not affected by things that boost wind devil.
So increasing the DoT on wind devil will only increase the aura’s damage… Which means that even if you have 4 wind devils out, you will get at most 5 concurrent DoTs, only one of which you can directly boost.
I’ve found that I don’t have a Morgoneth’s Visage to test full lighting to cold conversion for Maelstrom so my testing has been incomplete, but full Chillwhisper has been surprisingly good with only 30% WD conversion from Morgoneth’s Grip. The added frostburn to BS is great.
@DeputyChuck Regarding the 5 DoTs you mentioned, you mean only Maelstrom can be boosted?
If I swap Harp for Bull, will conversion apply via the pseudo pets? I know it works for real pets, but unsure about pseudo pets.
Anything that adds damage to wind devil will boost “Howling wind”, the base aura damage of wind devil.
Maelstrom is a supplemental attack, and is not affected by mods to wind devil. The only way to boost Maelstrom is to increase the skill level.
However, DoT from Maelstrom DOES stack with both the base aura, and other maelstrom from other wind devils. So if you have 4 wind devils out, you can have 5 concurrence DoTs going on: 4 (unboosted) from maelstrom, and 1 (boosted) from the aura.
Same rule apply to flat damage as with DoTs : the bonus will only apply to the aura.
If you want a pseudo pet build centered around DoT, there are a lot of cool options for mortar and Storm Totem, both of which have attacks that are not supplemental, and carry the full bonus of any mod (Mortar even more so since it has 2 distinct attacks if I remember correctly)
And of course, if you want to abuse the idea of stacking a gazillion different DoT through pseudo-pets, this thing has 9 to 14 pets that each have at least 2 different attacks each … It’s outdated and probably suboptimal, but it clears stuff just zooming around.
Love that Skater build. I’ll give it a whirl. Could be worth it with just the amulet, in my (extraordinarily limited) opinion.
Did you try Azrakaa’s Epoch relic? I don’t think it will stack, but if it does, it could give you four more pets and piece damage is easily converted in my case.
I actually never thought about that! I would have to test it out. That would sure open up a lot of possibilities, and given that I’m not using any of the set bonuses skills, the only thing I would lose is the Soul of Nazaran pet. (Which is admittedly a pretty big piece, but nothing that can’t be compensated for with 3 free gear slot)
Bear in mind that this was one of my first successful builds, and is probably outdated… and I’m too rusty to update it… so don’t hesitate to experiment with it. (The main weapon is probably not even a great choice)
I did not, but I’m fairly certain that Deathstalker would be superior. It has 5 different attacks (which can all stack together) plus the aura, and the Bleed RR on top. Plus, it’s always there, while the Sand devils have to be spawned. Also, I’m pretty sure they have an aura, so they wouldn’t stack (Which strikes me as a weird design decision if you ask me…)
… All that being said, I have been away from the game for a long time, but revisiting this build seems like a very interesting way to get back in before Fangs of Asterkarn comes out .
This makes Wind Devil Maelstrom stacking fun as you need to get into a good rythm on timing the resummon, and also very viable damage wise (did all season content and super bosses up to Moira in very solid times).
Why resummon? because thats how you really increase the dot stacking as previous summon maelstrom dot lasts the full time of % duration.
As a side point, the resummon is pretty terrible with the gun that summons 2 Wind Devils at a time, ruins the timing-sequence in my experience; Stormsurge Pistol - Items - Grim Dawn Item Database
UPDATE: It basically turned into a Shadow Strike Trickster with Morgoneth’s set. The Wind Devil and Blade Spirit changes in the last major patch really helped with devotion procing and it looks really cool. I kinda gave up on it when I realized what it really was and it was just better at SS than the DoT machine I had hoped. But it could be a really good SS build with some tuning, if anyone wants to try.
Of course. Cold pseudo pet trickster is a meme build while Shadow Strike can be a monster. I have some theorycraft too for Shadow Strike but w/o Morgo. For full Pierce to Cold conversion which Morgo doesn’t allow. Trickster, Level 100 (GD 1.2.0.5) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator Unless you use Spectral Longsword I guess but it seems I went for min. recharge.
(Mortar even more so since it has 2 distinct attacks if I remember correctly)