I feel like that would make it too strong. If they could lower the %WD penalty by 25% it’d be perfect imo.
Did you try using arcane spark?
You should have 0 energy problems with it
@ceno: Didn’t bother fixing things too much, but try this intead - https://www.grimtools.com/calc/gZw4MXqN
EDIT: If energy is still PiTA, girdle of stolen dreams should fix everything
You completely missed the point. Ceno referred to it as a “functional” build that he used to test the roguelike, nowhere did he imply it was optimal. It looks like a build that can comfortably complete content on Ultimate, meaning that it meets the purpose for which he played it (testing the roguelike). Nothing’s more obnoxious than unsolicited feedback.
Since we have totally normal shield, can we also have bare hands like weapon?
I just hate when i play full caster and by casting spell there’s weird animation that makes weapons / offhands dissapear for second.
Or maybe make invisible illusions, more freedom in weapon illusions?
Thanks for the advice which I didn’t ask for.
For the same reason you use it on every Cadence Warder, untransmuted PS Druid/Ritualist/Conjurer, etc. - OA, DA, Slow Resist, Phys Resist, and a means to proc Devo’s between casts of a CD skill.
(Edit: Also because it’s a DPS upgrade over regular autos with or without Lightning Conversion or high Weapon Damage, and the build isn’t exactly point starved)
I’m surprised I have to spell such a thing out to an esteemed elite builder such as yourself.
PREFACE: As always ceno, I’m not trying to disparage you because I do value your insight. I’m merely voicing my disagreement here.
I wonder if this is a reply aimed at me.
If so, I’d just like to say that I wasn’t trying to give advice so much so as to refute your claim that a -Xs CDR mod to BH on that MI is irrelevant due to a lack of energy sustain.
Because it really isn’t.
If anything, it’ll be a buff to energy sustain as you’ll be able to leech more frequently.
I’ll attempt to summarize the suggestions for 1H BA raised by those who participated in this thread.
Overwhelmingly, the response seems aimed at improving the damage output of S&B BA specs. This can be done by:
-
Increasing the flat damage on laceration (@Stupid_Dragon), while simultaneously lowering the %WD value on gutsmasher to prevent overbuffing 2H BA. Admittedly, care must be taken to likewise ensure that 2H pierce BA does not become OP.
-
Adding a 1H transmutor to BA which gives BA an AS bonus, and which adds shield damage to the MH damage. (Note: This damage is meant to be added atop the MH damage, and not alongside it so as to bypass the problem posited by enemy armor)
IMO, it seems that more were in favor of suggestion #2.
It isn’t as aimed at you as it was to another, but in general, discussion of builds posted in this thread isn’t especially relevant to the thread itself. See also: Rhylthar’s Bleeding Cadence discussion which got shafted elsewhere.
Frankly, the whole discussion of MIs isn’t relevant to this thread either.
My comment was meant to start and end in response to Maska’s comment under the purview of the bolded bullet point. If you agree with Maska’s suggestion and disagree with mine, you needn’t critique my build to get your point of view across. Responding to Maska’s suggestion under the purview of the italicized bullet point is all that’s really necessary. Otherwise, we get into extended (potentially heated) arguments over “your build is garbage because X” that doesn’t really do anything for anyone.
All that being said, this comment isn’t super-true because even without CDR mods BH still has 100% uptime on Arcane Spark leech. So you have fringe cases where it’s true vs mobs, but not so much applicable with bosses as the effect does not stack with itself.
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@Ceno:
I didn’t bring up Bleeding Cadence, don’t blame me. 
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How dare you throw me under the bus
I’d like to say that I am extremely grateful that Crate and team is going through the effort to listen to itemization discussions. It really helps put a spotlight on items that just outright don’t make sense and helps to bring real diversity.
I haven’t played this game since 1.1.2? but from a pet player’s point of view, the fundamental problem of pet builds is still present: pet builds that don’t rely on sets are boned. I’ve searched through the forums of any pet builds being posted, and I have not seen a single pet build that wasn’t beastcaller’s set, ghol’s set, or birbs set. My major theory as to why this is the case is that unless you can somehow keep Skeleton’s alive, there simply aren’t enough bodies to both block swarming enemies and provide the AoE necessary to prevent the swarm from massacring the player.
Sigatrev made the point soundly: pet builds need a ton of skill points and there simply aren’t enough equipment pieces that grant the necessary skill points while giving pets and the player the defenses they need to survive. Some points of order: Shaman’s Oak Skin scales wonderfully after 10/10 and provides pets much needed Pierce Resistance, and yet there’s not a single item in the game that provides Oak Skin and pet bonuses. There is only one pet off-hand that provides +1 to Shaman skills and it gives no resistances to the player and no damage bonus for pets. Belts that provide pet bonuses? lolno bonuses to Shaman, and so on and so forth. I could go on about this point, but I want to focus on items I am trying for pets:
Bleeding Pets without Beastcaller Set: I haven’t tried out the new devotion set-up yet, but you would think that between -82% Physical RR, -130% Vitality RR, and -162% Bleeding RR, Conjure Primal Spirit would rip through everything, but I’m dying well before enemies do. I’d love to get around 2,000 Armor to better take Physical hits, but outside of pet sets, there’s not much heavy armor I can take without sacrificing DA or necessary pet skills. We have Elite Wendigo Spellweaver which could give points in Conjure Primal Spirit, but there’s no offensive pet stats at all - why is this thing giving 5% Defensive Ability but not 5% offensive ability? Items like Overlord’s Grip and Wildshorn Leggings don’t really have much place, but they’re the only items that give healthy DA and Stun Resistance, so I really have no options. It doesn’t help that pet builds are very gimped by Slow effects since we have a hard enough time accounting for defenses, pet stats, +skills and pet defenses without even beginning to think of things like CC resistance.
As an aside, I’d love to have an item that gives an extra Wendigo Totem so that Wendigo Totem + Blood Pact would be useful on pet builds (I haven’t seen many Blood Pact builds be used, period), but it’d have to conflict with Dark One’s Set so that you don’t reach uber levels of borked.
Mythical Fiendgaze Tome: It’s a shame that there aren’t any real Chaos pet builds outside of Witching Hour, because there are a lot of very neat items that end up being trashed by lack of support. First is getting Reap Spirit up to 23/16: we have Clairvoyant’s Set, which oh so conveniently converts 50% of Chaos Damage to Aether, nuking the reason for this tome in the first place. The Reap Spirit gloves conflict with Bonescavenger Gloves, which is ironic as Reap Spirit is one of the only pet abilities that can actually kill enemies to summon the Spirits. Reap Spirit boots give no offensive bonuses, and you removed the Chaos damage bonus from Shadowfiend’s Cord, wtf? As for who to pair the very unsupported Chaos Necromancer, you have the Cabalist which has Possession and Hellhound for Chaos damage, and can use the Black Scourge mace to summon more things on death. The problem? Absolutely no RR. On the other hand, you have Defiler who does have Chaos RR and Mythical Dracarris to give Chaos synergy to you and your pets. The problem? There’s nothing in the Demo class that gives Chaos damage bonuses, so your offenses are pathetic. I’d love to see a Chaos Reap Spirit build work, but it would likely need an amulet with +points to Reap Spirit and Chaos RR to Ill Omen, the Dracarris blade to have as much Chaos damage as the Fire damage, a medal that gives modifer that gives Chaos bonus to Call of the Grave, and much, much more.
It really sucks that pet builds are so reliant on sets to even function. The only thing that could possibly make it so that non-set pet builds are viable is if Grim Dawn takes the Titan Quest route and makes it so that you have 2 Briarthorns / Hellhounds / Birbs at 20/16 and increase their size/threat/internal resistances at overcap so that it’s worth taking the skills to 26/16. Hellhound is the absolute worst end-game skill and outside the sets, the itemization and modifiers do not provide unique build ideas nearly as much as the non-pet skills. I have my thoughts on other pet items, but without any coherent possible build ideas, it’s impossible to think of ways to fix the itemization.
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This should work ok-ish for most stuff: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/q2MaE172
I suggest rebuilding Chillwisper as below to make it better with Cold DE Reaper.
- VIT is converted to Cold, so much is wasted. On the other hand, Asid is good because Nightblade can be stacked and RR has Rumar.
- Cillwisper absolutely lacks physical resistance. My Cillwisper Reaper is only 8%. Die in one shot faster than heal (including components).
- Consider adding% dmg to Mater of death. Required to reach 2.5k.
- Aether to Cold is not wasted, but is less effective. Aether in Reaper only has Spectral Binding. DE has Transmuter. On the other hand, Piearce to cold has more and is better.
- Becoming Cold / Asid allows you to use this weapon successfully. However, instead of VIT to Asid, make it Pierce to Asid (or Cold). By converting Pierce, you can improve Reric and constellations without waste.
- Also, please consider improving the damage to more DE in consideration of losing +1 sammon Blade spirit from Grasp of the Dead.
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Radaggan’s Folly: the Necro’s part seems really hilarious so I suggest remaking it to support acid Drain Essence with aether->acid conversion.
Tbh, radaggan cabalist isn’t bad at all (6:30?). What it needs is crit and phys res
I think Asid DE will work by giving Necro Conduit’s Asid de mod 25% TDM in addition to the ideas I wrote above.
Worse is Inq Conduit’s Aether FoI. There is no equipment to strengthen Aether and Elemental DoT at the same time, so it is difficult and hard to reinforce well. It is stronger to go straight to Elemental or Chaos.
Similarly, OA / DA is also lacking. And Asid reric for Cabalist. All good Asid relics are for Oath.
If DG + eldritch sun is used, OA should be okay.
I agree that the radaggan can use some DA. Currently, the only way I know of to fix DA problems is to use MI pants + “stalwart” prefix; especially because you are forced into a spirit dump to ensure enough DPS.
I don’t think it’s good to be semi-forced to go to DG for non-Chaos / Vit builds.
Almost all damage types in My cabalist are Asid, and extending the constellation towards Asid feels more natural. (Apart from whether it is strong or weak)
I agree that Asid pants are not good. Also, I don’t hate Pox itself, but I’m really sick of being forced to use it in builds without Pox bonuses to make up for the DA shortage.
All sounds excessive work, picking required amount of items to cover what all pet builds truly lack of might be suffice. What about adding/upgrading one or more pet sets/non-set. Or individual item seems like a set as Dawnshard would provide diversity to pet builds.
It’d be nice if you tested it out and shared the results. It’s no coincidence that the best performing pet skills that aren’t set-related are the Blight Fiend and Reap Spirit, as in both of those skills, the pets have great AoE abilities, hit very hard, and have long enough lives that you can continuously summon them. Hellhound an Briarthorn need similar buffs. I would not be surprised if testing demonstrated that Blight Burst is far better of a cleaner than Ground Slam as the animation is far faster and the range is far greater. I don’t see a meter range for Ground Slam but I’m assuming it’s not much greater than the Briarthorn’s size.
Mythical Yugol’s Ichor: Take out the bonuses to Foul Eruption and put them in something pet builds will use: Vulnerability, Wasting, even Ill Omen if you can give Mythical Contagion all skills in Necromancer or another skill that gives -Acid RR to Ill Omen so that Acid Necromancer can become a thing.
It would be nice if one other item had a pet Elemental to Acid conversion so that it could have synergy with Mythical Blightshard Amulet. Even better if it conflicts with Ghol’s Set so that you can make a Poison pet build that’s not instantly gimped by not using Ghol’s Set (likely a Chest slot as there’s many pet items there that are just meh and can use some improvement).
I agree with the general consensus that Mythical Plaguebearer of Dreeg can use some buffs. With Ill Omen now reducing all damage, DEE is useless for pet Cabalists, so maybe instead of giving it giving Crit to DEE, maybe give Crit bonus to Blood of Dreeg or Poison bonuses to Call of the Grave? Right now, I would rather use Mythical Blightstone Invoker for pet builds because of that juicy conversion. Speaking of which, I would replace the Summon Familiar bonuses there with perhaps Conjure Primal Spirit or Summon Briarthorn as they appreciate the Physical to Acid conversion much better.
Mythical Rotdrinker Crest: You gave all the juicy Vitality to Acid conversion to Ghol’s medal, so I can’t even suggest a conversion that would make me want this item over Ghol’s. It’s a shame, because some Poison modifier to Summon Raven combined with some Elemental to Acid conversion would really make it stand out. I’d want the global Vitality to Acid conversion for pets to be somewhere that isn’t the medal slot or the shoulder slot; I would suggest moving it to Ghol’s Raiment instead.