Raven as primary pet?

[Squire Tybalt]

Right now I'm trying out a Strom Raven build, and I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this before. All I see is people trashing the poor little bird, but he doesn't seem too bad to me.

[Geir]

Well is mainly as he can't tank or block off enemy, and being a caster you most likley what every bit of cover you can get from your pet. Necromancer might be using the bird more as he got plenty but will be seen later on.

[Squire Tybalt]

Originally posted by NitroChiral:

Well is mainly as he can't tank or block off enemy, and being a caster you most likley what every bit of cover you can get from your pet. Necromancer might be using the bird more as he got plenty but will be seen later on.

fair enough, I just thought I'd give it a go because I love the raven for aesthetic reasons purely. The idea of a raven that can conjure the power of storms is really appealing lol. But anyways, I was thinking of going with ranged weapons, using Wretched Crow of Bysmiel when I get to it. I may take the dog to and just go all out with pets, not sure yet.

[Unicarn]

You're going to love the expansion. One of the upcoming items lets you have two ravens.

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13803&stc=1&d=1488812094

[Squire Tybalt]

Originally posted by Unicarn:

You're going to love the expansion. One of the upcoming items lets you have two ravens.

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13803&stc=1&d=1488812094

DUDE that's fantastic! There are two things I am waiting for in my life: Mount and Blade 2, and the Grim Dawn Expansion. An Occultist / Necromancer with twin ravens is gonna be my class.

[Unicarn]

Originally posted by Squire Tybalt:

Originally posted by Unicarn:

You're going to love the expansion. One of the upcoming items lets you have two ravens.

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13803&stc=1&d=1488812094

DUDE that's fantastic! There are two things I am waiting for in my life: Mount and Blade 2, and the Grim Dawn Expansion. An Occultist / Necromancer with twin ravens is gonna be my class.

Hopefully they don't change the item and remove the second raven.

[Geir]

Would still not mix the class too much, If you go ranged the raven might work but adding in more pets as you go can sort of spoil the end for you as you are to spread out on skills.

This could also make the devotion become harder if you jump around on the elemental attacks you have, getting more then 2 is not really worth it as then you got 1 extra incase your are in need of other element.

But think items in the next expansion will try to bring in less used skills like the raven.

[bowlingB]

I'm now playing with my friend and his raven is stronger than my 2-h witchblade on 40lvl. Raven is really strong, stronger than hellhound

[Michael]

I made a melee stormcaller shaman named "Odin" and dipped into occultist JUST for the storm raven. Hearing I can soon have two of them made my theme absolutely perfect!

[Gwyd1on]

Originally posted by Squire Tybalt:

Right now I'm trying out a Strom Raven build, and I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this before. All I see is people trashing the poor little bird, but he doesn't seem too bad to me.

I am playing as Warlock right now, and have fully built my Raven and Mend Flesh, alongside my hellhound. I find it very usefull. That combined with BOD and DEE build and Alexas Flash Freeze and I am doing some serious damage. Raven/Hellhound combo totally worth it in my book.

[frdnwsm]

I have two characters that use pets, Conjurer and Warlock. I'm not specializing in pets per se, or using gear that buffs them up, but they are extremely useful simply because when I put them on aggressive, they harass the enemy and take some fire instead of me.

And indeed, the Raven is more durable than the Hellhound or Briarthorn, simply because it attacks at range, instead of closing in for melee like the other two. And yes, I did max my Raven out for attacks ... I passed on the heal option, because it is a random thing.

My pets rarely kill a boss, but they can keep them busy if I have to kite, and they are capable of doing a serious number on trash mobs.

[powbam]

Originally posted by Squire Tybalt:

Right now I'm trying out a Strom Raven build, and I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this before. All I see is people trashing the poor little bird, but he doesn't seem too bad to me.

Well, judging by this thread Summon Familiar has come a long way. You are correct that he has long been reviled for various reasons but I've never been much of one for pet builds in arpg's beyond the Necro-types. I think the biggest remaining complaint is from people complaining about AI/pathing; that it will shoot at obstructed enemies etc.. which doesn't really hold much water when you consider how much attention these people are paying to the game to not know of the Pet Attack skill and various keybinds available to direct their pets to more suitable positioning at their leisure.

Originally posted by frdnwsm:

I passed on the heal option, because it is a random thing.

Use Blood of Dreeg for burst healing/buffing of all your pets.

[Robert Zerker]

Originally posted by Squire Tybalt:

Right now I'm trying out a Strom Raven build, and I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this before. All I see is people trashing the poor little bird, but he doesn't seem too bad to me.

Hey there !

I tried to build something like that a while ago. To be honnest, I was kind of dissapointed.
I think I have more or less stopped playing that char, once she reached lvl 75 and could equip most of the stuff I had for her.

At first, my plan was to have the Raven as my single pet...

I played a bit since I saw your thread, and well, it's "okish", despite the sh!tty OA and DA.
Of course, there's a bit of kitting and repositionning the Raven, but it's manageable.
(Also, struggling to max the resists.)
Keep in mind this is/was a "test" and that seeing how it worked out, I didn't bother to face serious bosses or even rech Nemessis status.

Here's the link, lvl 79 conjurer : http://www.grimtools.com/calc/nZoQxl2A

So, I don't remember exactly what I had in mind, but I'll try to explain from what I remember :

I know for sure I had put 10pts in cunning because I thought I could go Savagery/DW with a Dire Wolf Crest, and swing some Stormheart or Crystallum. I gave up this idea. Close combat was giving poor results, OA and DA were too low for that. Also, tried a shield, but the 'increase' in survivibility was minor.

Regarding Devotion, my plan was to have Reckless Tempest, so I absolutely had to get my Raven to Crit. Here's why I took the Wolf Mogdrogen / Shepperd's Call. This is working properly.

Then I tried to go for Resist Reduction (and yep I know I have a bit of over-lapping, non-stackable of those) so I took the Arcane Bomb. The amulet is giving a bit of Aether to lightning conversion, so I tried those gloves and this Aether-Tendril component. And, it's fun. Probably totally counter productive, but still fun.


I might try to improve this build concept a bit, if I find time to.
(Also I'm curious about what you had in mind / are playing with atm, gear/skill/devotion-wise)

[Rylocke]

I think it can definitely be done. There's a belt which has a chance to increase your pets' lightning damage by up to 1500%ish, which is massive. However, if you want to focus almost completely on the raven, I would suggest pairing Occultist with Demolitionist (Flame Touched affects pets and gives lightning damage and OA, Thermite Mines debuff lightning resist, Flashbang debuffs DA, etc.), Arcanist (weaker choice IMO, but IEE for crit damage, lightning damage), or Inquisitor when it's out (similar buffs and debuffs as Demolitionist which also affect pets/enemies respectively). Even though those classes aren't summoner-focused, the presence of much better buffing and debuffing related to lightning/OA/DA more than makes up for a little loss of pet stats which can mostly be found on gear anyway.

[hellkn]

Try a Storm Raven build when combined with a high physique/durable second class such as soldier/shaman, and don't be afraid of being the tank for your bird.

[Unicarn]

Huh, so people are having success with it being an attacker? I was worried it'd be bad at that due to the AI so I just used it as a heal and aura.

i'll have to try a build with it as an offensive minion some time.