Hellhound too squishy?

[Luk7nk4]

I've started a Shaman/Occultist character yesterday and have put 16/16 into both Briarthorn and Hellhound. I've noticed that the hellhound keeps getting killed rather quickly, i even despecced Ember Claw because he was getting focused down super quick.

I'm currently at the main Rover camp in Arkovia, before entering Cronley's hideout. So far i haven't had any luck in finding gear, just something with +16% health to all pets.

Hellhound also has the the two fangs skill from the Bat devotion set up.

Can you guys give me some advice for improving the hellhound's survivability?

[Lywelyn]

i too find him squishy he need an armor buff

[Therosious]

Hi. Playing as a witchblade lvl 43 (Occultist/Soldier) im currently investing to try out the bat devotion in order to try to fix the lack of sustain for my hell hound but thus far what i have learnt...
1. the hell hound have a higher treat generation than you, (its supposed to tank)
2. You have to invest alot to make the hellhound survive anything (probbably not the best for dmg but hey i like minnions and summoning thats why i play occultist)

for example i have like 60% increase on the hellhounds hp and it survives somewhat but i have to resummon it after like 2-3 big waves of enemies due to the lack of passive hp reg on the hellhound. (if it had hp reg i would probbably only have to resummon it during bossfights)

hope this helped somewhat. This is however only my personal oppinion :p

[Kit_EA]

I think it is actually designed to make hellhound die more often since it has an ability to weaken enemies around after dying. But you can improve overall health of all of your pets with Bound of Bysmiel and Primal Bound as well as with some of constellations like Shepherd's Crook or Wolverine, etc. There are quite a lot of them.

[Jet Uppercut]

Blood of Dreeg helps.

[Luk7nk4]

Originally posted by Therosious:

Hi. Playing as a witchblade lvl 43 (Occultist/Soldier) im currently investing to try out the bat devotion in order to try to fix the lack of sustain for my hell hound but thus far what i have learnt...
1. the hell hound have a higher treat generation than you, (its supposed to tank)
2. You have to invest alot to make the hellhound survive anything (probbably not the best for dmg but hey i like minnions and summoning thats why i play occultist)

for example i have like 60% increase on the hellhounds hp and it survives somewhat but i have to resummon it after like 2-3 big waves of enemies due to the lack of passive hp reg on the hellhound. (if it had hp reg i would probbably only have to resummon it during bossfights)

hope this helped somewhat. This is however only my personal oppinion :p

Thanks! So it looks like i'll have to grin and bear for a little while more, before i get better gear and a higher level. :3

Originally posted by Kit_EA:

I think it is actually designed to make hellhound die more often since it has an ability to weaken enemies around after dying. But you can improve overall health of all of your pets with Bound of Bysmiel and Primal Bound as well as with some of constellations like Shepherd's Crook or Wolverine, etc. There are quite a lot of them.

Thanks for the tips, i still haven't invested 50 points into mastery and don't have the skills unlocked. I'll try to rush to it ASAP. :3

Originally posted by Jet Uppercut:

Blood of Dreeg helps.

I currently have 3 points invested into the skill, should i max it?

[Puzzlemint]

People missing the most important part, here.

1. Hellhound explodes when it dies, doing a ton of damage to nearby enemies.
2. Summons die whenever you resummon them.

You're not supposed to use Hellhound as a tank. You're supposed to use it as a bomb.

[Willbender]

Originally posted by A Puzzlemint of Legend:

People missing the most important part, here.

1. Hellhound explodes when it dies, doing a ton of damage to nearby enemies.
2. Summons die whenever you resummon them.

You're not supposed to use Hellhound as a tank. You're supposed to use it as a bomb.

This is the intent here, Hellhound isn't meant to survive long fights. You should be re-summoning him everytime you run into a large crowd or elite just to force him to blow up. This is why his cooldown is much shorter than Briarthorn, which is meant to tank enemies.

[Luk7nk4]

Originally posted by A Puzzlemint of Legend:

People missing the most important part, here.

1. Hellhound explodes when it dies, doing a ton of damage to nearby enemies.
2. Summons die whenever you resummon them.

You're not supposed to use Hellhound as a tank. You're supposed to use it as a bomb.

Originally posted by Willbender:

Originally posted by A Puzzlemint of Legend:

People missing the most important part, here.

1. Hellhound explodes when it dies, doing a ton of damage to nearby enemies.
2. Summons die whenever you resummon them.

You're not supposed to use Hellhound as a tank. You're supposed to use it as a bomb.

This is the intent here, Hellhound isn't meant to survive long fights. You should be re-summoning him everytime you run into a large crowd or elite just to force him to blow up. This is why his cooldown is much shorter than Briarthorn, which is meant to tank enemies.

Oh, so that's it. That's actually a good idea! Thanks, guys! :3

[Trappist]

Hellhound can survive just fine, but blowing him up is better - i tend to save that for a tighter spots. I would reccomend you max ember claw as it is what turns the hound into a killing machine. Also if you take the flame turret constellation it gives him even more fire damage. Shepherds crook and Bismael chains also help in general.

Also, now you are at rover camp - make sure you can get their first teir of armour by time you hit lvl 35, and buy the beast tincture pots for nuke. ...Later on you will have enough gold to use these all the time.

[Luk7nk4]

Originally posted by Trappist:

Hellhound can survive just fine, but blowing him up is better - i tend to save that for a tighter spots. I would reccomend you max ember claw as it is what turns the hound into a killing machine. Also if you take the flame turret constellation it gives him even more fire damage. Shepherds crook and Bismael chains also help in general.

Also, now you are at rover camp - make sure you can get their first teir of armour by time you hit lvl 35, and buy the beast tincture pots for nuke. ...Later on you will have enough gold to use these all the time.

Thank you for the tip! :3

[Therosious]

Originally posted by A Puzzlemint of Legend:

People missing the most important part, here.

1. Hellhound explodes when it dies, doing a ton of damage to nearby enemies.
2. Summons die whenever you resummon them.

You're not supposed to use Hellhound as a tank. You're supposed to use it as a bomb.

Well i agree with you there ..but i think the hellhound have a dual purpose when combined with Bonds of Bysmiel which gives your pets tons of extra health so i belive you can utalise this talent more if you have a pet you want to stick around and do "split damage" (some damage from the caster and some from the pet)

and if you intend to let it die to blow up for more damage it might be better to make it a little "weaker" and focus on chaos and fire damage for a more hard hitting explotion. (just me theori crafting here)

also: the explotion gives a debuff which reduce health of mobs caught in the explotion with 15%
does this debuff apply before or after the damage of the explotion?