Pet Build #2: need advice

[Ghostlight]

My first Pet Build evolved into something very different arounf level 65 (a full DoT-based Conjurer). So I have never taken a "proper" Pet Build to the end of the game. I have therefore started another Conjurer who will be a 100% Pet-focused build. I have some questions on such a build:

a) Other than the Pets, I plan to be casting only the following spells: Entangling Vines, Curse of Frailty and Blood of Dreeg. That is, I want to slow enemies and heal myself and my Pets. Also I need something to proc devotions like Shepherd's Call (Vines are amazing for this). However seems like I will need another proc spell, for Bysmiel's Command. Any thoughts?

b) It is difficult to see what celestial powers would be good for the Pets themselves, because my own multiplier in the various damage types will be rubbish. At the moment I have gone for Scorpion Sting for Briarthorn, Eldritch Fire for Hellhound and Flame Torrent for Revenant. Any better ideas?

c) While I currently plan to take both Shaman and Occultist to mastery 50. It is difficult to do this and have sufficient points for other things. If you were only going to take one of those masteries to 50 for a Pet build, which one would it be and why?

d) OK the key question. How would you allocate skill points into the main Pets? I was thinking of the following:
Briarthorn: 16 / 1 / 12
Hellhound: 16 / 1 / 1 / 0
Primal Spirit: 6

e) Is the Black Grimoire absolutely BiS? I ask because I have a few other off-hands for level 75+ that add stupid amounts of Pet Damage and Speed, but I'd lose the Revenant.

Any other thoughts or advice appreciated. Thanks!

[Aelies von Saladir]

1. You can use either Dreeg's Evil Eye or Swarm (level 1 in both cases) or skills granted by components (like Fireblast) to proc devotions.
2. Yours sound pretty good, though Dreeg's Eye is also good.
3. It is not difficult at all. You'll need Shaman at 50 for Primal Bond and Occultisti at 50 for Manipulation anyway.
4. Doesn't sound bad.
5. You'll have to decide for yourself whether an extra pet or pet bonus would benefit you more. For me, the Black Grimoire wins and my level 85 Conjuror is still using it.

[Slowpork]

I have a pure lvl 82 conjurer in the middle of Ultimate.
Can't say it's very hard to play with this character.
I fully upgraded CoF, vulnerability, sigil of consumption (1point) for Modrogen's howl proc and put 16 points into blood of Dreeg. Vines from shaman are for shepherd's call.
For Binds of Bysmael I use Dreeg's evil eye. But you might use swarm instead.
I'm planning to bind scorpions sting to briathorn and solaels witchblade to hellhound for some decent debuffs.

The more pets you have the better, I think. They will kill mobs faster and block bosses a lot better, than if you had 3 of them f.e.
Also, get primal spirit. That thing is really great. More hp than on most pets, amazing DPS and an ability to teleport a la Shadow strike.

Ocultist is probably better as one mastery. Mostly because of CoF debuffs and the fact that the game drops some sick Rifles and crossbows for occultist. With pet builds you want to be as far from the enemies as you can.

Revenant has some small buffs and strong physical attack. Right now, his damage is slightly worse than manticores, but the good thing he is permanent. The only problem, is that revenant has very low HP among all pets.

[Ghostlight]

I've seen people run around with a Manticore pet; where are they getting that?

Also, I was thinking about trying to work the Raise Dead celestial into the build, has anyone tried that? I imagine it's sub-par because I assume you actually need to kill enemies with the bound skill for the celestial to actually proc, and it is unlikely I will be killing anything myself, as the pets will do all the killing.

[Slowpork]

Manticore is Primordial spirit skill from shaman.

[Ghostlight]

Aaaah. OK so what does Nemesis look like? (http://grimdawn.wikia.com/wiki/Nemesis_(relic))

[Elizabello]

Primal Spirit can outdps ~50k dps alone. Max it, u wont regret it.

[Septic]

a, I personally use swarm with Bysmiel's Command and it procs all the time as it passes through enemies, have not tried anything else with it

b, sounds good enough, got basically the same thing, though I have Flame Torrent on Hellhound. You could also reconsider Guardian's Gaze

c, get both masteries to 50, Primal Bond and Manipulation are well worth it

d, max out Primal Spirit and use it with Assassin's Blade, the pet is insanely good at killing elites and bosses and can ik most of the enemies even on ultimate. Once you summon it, activate some dps buff- some granted by items spell for maximum effect. Drop Emboldering Roar to 1 in order to max out the Primal Spirit

e, Grimoire is fine just for the Revenant, with it you have at least those three permanent pets which is, in my opinion, enough

[Ghostlight]

Regarding question (b), are we saying that the fact that I will have little to no damage multiplier for Poison / Chaos / Fire doesn't matter, it's still effective to use those celestials? I assume I am correct in my belief that these celestials will scale with MY damage multiplier, and NOT my Pet Damage %, right?

EDIT: Looks like I am wrong and all celestial powers assigned to Pets scale with Pet Damage %. Awesome. No wonder my first attempt at a Pet Build was sub-pat @ level 75.

[Septic]

You get these celestials primarily for debuffs. Scorpion's Sting, for example, lowers defensive ability. Acid Spray from Manticore lowers resistances and armor (is good on Primal Spirit). But yes, some nods will give you some + fire damage etc., other to pets, depends on the node. It actually says whether the bonus applies to you or pets (bonus to all pets). If you find some other celestials that are better, you can always try them out, but those multipliers are not that important.

[DeadlyDanDaMan]

If you cast any attack or debuff spells at all, you are going to draw all the aggro. Especially Curse of Frailty.

[Ghostlight]

Originally posted by Septic:

You get these celestials primarily for debuffs.

Hmmm. As I just found out, if I have +1000% Pet Damage, then the damage done by celestial powers like Scorpion Sting are indeed increased by 1000%. That is considerable damage. It also means I can put any damage-based celestial I like onto a Pet and it will get boosted by +1000% damage. ;P

If you cast any attack or debuff spells at all, you are going to draw all the aggro. Especially Curse of Frailty.

I heard this claim when I made my first (aborted) Pet Build, and it never happened back then, and it is not happening now either. As long as I use Pet Attack to send them in first, give them a second then begin to spam Vines and CoF, I am typically NOT drawing aggro. Yes if I were to open with CoF or Vines and THEN send in the Pets, sure, I get all the aggro, but that would be rather silly. Shrug.

[Slowpork]

Originally posted by Ghostlight:

I heard this claim when I made my first (aborted) Pet Build, and it never happened back then, and it is not happening now either. As long as I use Pet Attack to send them in first, give them a second then begin to spam Vines and CoF, I am typically NOT drawing aggro. Yes if I were to open with CoF or Vines and THEN send in the Pets, sure, I get all the aggro, but that would be rather silly. Shrug.

Most enemies after act 3 target the player. Even after I send my pets they still attack me in most of the cases. And this is when vines+CoF combo come into play. My pets just shred through everything fast enough to not lose HP.
Aetherials, briathorns and some of the Chthon enemies target me very often, ignoring the pets completely.
After playing for a while with my conjurer, I must say that aggro system is not broken, at least with pets. The game just has "smart" enemies that ignore player's minions.

[Ghostlight]

That is correct, some enemies have "no aggro table" as one of their abilties. The big, fast heavy armoured Grobles (or whatever they are called) are one example. But DeadlyDan seemed to be suggesting this was the norm.

[Ghostlight]

Can anyone answer my question on the Raise Dead celestial before I go for it? Assuming:

a) You need to kill the enemy with the bound skill for it to proc
b) The skellies scale with Pet Damage

Has anyone manage to successfully incorporate it into a Pet build? Ta.

[2LambBuna]

vines are great

you can use savagery as main attack too, intead of dreeg. works pretty good with a rifle or crossbow