They die too fast against FG’s superbosses. But you can assign Elemental Storm to one of them (or the dirge pet) instead of Wind Devils. I would actually recommend that in the Crucible and SR. I just keep it bound to Wind Devils so that I have constant RR against the likes of the Crate Secret Boss.
But if they die too fast, whats the main source of damage in this build? The birds?
Yes, Birds carry the build. The rest are just there to act as fodder and distraction.
Oh i see… Interesting.
Its been a long while since ive last used birds. Their attacks always seemed so slow compared to the rest of the pets, i couldnt understand how can they act as a carry role in a pet build in general.
Ive started level 1 character on ultimate, im level 29 and im on the second quest in act 1 (lol).
I gotta say im kinda struggling but i suppose its alright, this suppose to be hard. I hope ill manage to push myself above 50 so i could wear some of the better pet items that i stock in my chest.
It has to do with their projectiles “Shotgunning” (that is if you make all 5 hit on a single enemy it does 5x dmg per Familiar) + nearly max-capped Storm Spirit & Lightning Strike.
And when you factor in all the bonus dmg and additional flat dmg from devotions + items and conversion of all physical dmg into Elemental, you quickly rack up the numbers.
I do agree that speed can be a bit slow early on, but endgame it gets to respectable amounts. You could still go for more if you change certain things, but I prefer being immortal (or nearly immortal) to faster killing 
But how does it work against those two ridiculous super bosses? My pets get smashed within 10-15 seconds everytime. If you have 2 Familiars left that dont draw aggro, i assume you just kite forever and the Ravens cast their bolts? I jsut can say that this Crate Superboss always ignores my pets and kills me instant.
Edit: Why youre not using a Voidmancers Cord as well?
Still: Why no Voidmancers cord? That damage buff should be immense or am i missing something here?
But i will definitely try that out since i still miss the two birds anyway. Just ba di have to give up so many cool beasts for a new set instead of equipping one amulet only.
Shadowfiend proved to be all around a better choice. The 10% Chance of 1000% Lightning dmg didn’t really do much in practice.
My pet build is this : https://www.grimtools.com/calc/dVbdrRQN
It was my third character and, at firts, a conjurer. However, after the Ashes of Malmouth came out I edited it to turn it into a cabalist. Some crucible and gathering loot later, he is level 100. While I used the difficulty skipping stone to access to ultimate, I didn’t make any progress in the main campaign on ultimate and didn’t go farther than homestead in the base difficulty, hence the lack of augments.
It isn’t optimized and I would like to know if I should shift some skill points around or use a different weapon aura.
I see. How does the scaling work btw? Since i equipped that belt and tried to look at the damage displayed by just using familiar to attack the dummy, i couldnt tell any difference at all over many minutes. Cant remember the exact numbers, but if a normal strike (noncrit) deals 5k or so, that proc has to be 50k right? (with your example of +1000%). I always thought and still think this might be Buggy. Or i just dont get it and the +1500% or so on my roll is not as big of a deal as i think it would be… 
Well, since most builds already go for more than +1000% bonus dmg to pets, more like 5k would become 10K or less.
Makes sense there since mine is 1000 at least too. Thanks mate
How? I would love to see video material. Actual fottage of how you do all that stuff like listed. I tried this exact build now and failed horrificly over the entire evening. Pets die in 2-3 seconds against Callagadra. No chance that the pets can be guided out of his sand attacks… I can run forever but after 5 minutes he lost about 1/20 of his health. I used all RR and skills well… i cant even imagine how you could do SR 75+. There, even my very strong pet build using Primal Spirit and 6 permanent very beefy tanky pets with high OA and damage could not beat the 4th area with those ridiculous nemesis and boss spawns altogether…
Would really like to learn if i do something wrong, but since pet builds are my mains since i play this game, i dont really think so.
First things first, it is patch 1.1.1.1. Familiars got nerfed in the latest patch.
SR 75+ is much easier than Callagadra on a pet build.
If you are doing that low of a damage then something is wrong. Unfortunately at GoG land (I have the GoG version, not steam) we still haven’t got the latest update, so I can’t test it.
As for videos, my potato computer lags too much while recording. So best I can do is provide info on how I do stuff.
Hmm, which build of yours would you suggest the most for SR? I got pretty much any pet item stashed so i would like to try out another of yours. Sad to hear the birds are nerfed (again kinda).
And: How is your tactic at Callagadra? kiting and resummoning all at once ASAP, while casting RR and pet buffs? seems like the obvious way to me but this sand (whatever it does) melts even my 300k health pet away within 3 seconds.
For SR, all of my builds with version number 1.1.1.1 work. In other words, everything in the latest Compendium including Occultist solo mastery pet build. The trick is to try to bait the bosses one by one by moving inch-by-inch forward until you get one of them to aggro on you and then moving back immediately, fight, repeat. Trying to take on all of them at the same time can get you killed depending on the boss combinations and the map you get.
For Callagadra, it would depend on the build you are following. As a general rule, clear out the area first because due to the Sand attack thing, you will need alot of room to kite.
If using Birbs, then I’d suggest leaving their stance in Normal or even defensive in order to avoid unnecessary AoE. Run when you see the Sand attack, keep Wind Devils summoned at max, use your teleport skill (my fav is Rune of Displacement) when Cally jumps on you. Resummon your pets as they die. Then it is just a battle of attrition.
If using my BeastCaller’s Zoo build (Fluffy’s vengeance) then, it is a pretty straightforward but painfully slow fight where you just keep kiting an resummoning for more than 30 mins even in the best case scenario.
Solo Occultist works the same as the Birb build above, only you don’t have Wind Devils, so it will be a bit slower and since it doesn’t have a secondary mastery you have to be a bit extra careful.
My Reap Spirit Cabalist also works like the Birb Conjurer, only you trade the Shaman mastery for Necromancer and get like 4 Ghosts as pets. Might take some getting used to as the build is rather fragile.
Your tactic for SR seems not to work for me. As soon as i enter the last area, at least 2 guys move towards me and thats already too much. I have to move to not get killed fast, what makes me move into the area the other guys are waiting at. But i will give it another try i guess. Hearing that this works gives me hope.
As for the rest, thanks for the info. Pretty much confirms that Callagadra is just a pain to beat with pets.
I prefer to use Conjurer over Cabalist and also like some tanky beasts more with a OP Primal Spirit up all the time. 
The SR thing can be tricky. And even when you know what to do, due to the randomness of both the arena and boss spawns, you can still get f’ed over.
Also, it would be fair to say “Callagadra is just a pain”
Good to hear that i was mostly unlucky. Also, if the worst case happens, there is no chance to beat this for me. when i die, re-entering means stepping in between all those big dudes. No chance for the tactic whatsoever.
Agreed. Funny that he has only 150 health regen per sec, and there are some DoT builds coming up. This piece of…sand seems to be a hit and run case