Familiar charms useless?

[Random]

Their damage output is just too low, couldn't they at least cost just 1 slot? Anyone has found a good way to use them? Glowing womb + defender's crest seems to be the only good one, but you can do better things with the soul they consume.

[Groversoup]

I'd say the low damage of familiar charms is offset by their low risk. Because you don't have to get as close to enemies, you're much less likely to take damage.

[Ellixer]

Weaversong + Grubsong gives you minor soul as the spiders damage, useful for a passive build. Weaversong + Sprintmaster makes the spiders more erratic I think, hitting enemies more often.

Supposedly, a passive damage build is quite effective. Never tried it myself.

[Random]

"Weaversong + Grubsong gives you minor soul as the spiders damage, useful for a passive build. Weaversong + Sprintmaster makes the spiders more erratic I think, hitting enemies more often."

That would be fine for 1 charm slot (plus the effects of sprintmaster/grubersong), but there are just much better uses for those 2 slots it takes. The same can be said for the low risk very low damage bonus.

[Ellixer]

Idk. Passive soul gain + damage is way too good for a one slot, or even two slots.

The whole purpose of the build is to win a fight without having to ever attack. I've seen people beat the Lost Kin by having these charms on and literally hang onto the wall without doing anything else and wait until the boss die. I've also seen NKG be beaten with this build (five minutes) and it looks a hell of a lot easier than when I did it.

Won't work for every boss, gimmicky as hell, probably useless outside of bosses and it sounds like it would take away the fun of the game and try your patience, but I can't deny the effectiveness of a build that let you win by not doing anything.

[Random]

"Idk. Passive soul gain + damage is way too good for a one slot, or even two slots."

It depends on the amount of damage and soul gain, which is really, really low in that case.

[Ellixer]

Yes, but it is a gain for no work, thus much more easily sustainable. For most bosses, if you never try to attack, you would almost never get hit. You can effectively wait out the fight with this build, perhaps not every fight, but that's the nature of gimmick builds.

[Darc Vader]

I mean, It probably gives soul faster than Kingsoul, which is 5 notches and only does that one thing.

[Aeternalis the Abyssal Alchemist]

Glowing Womb only consumes 8 SOUL per summon, which you can get back after hitting an enemy once(you get 11 SOUL from hitting enemies with the Nail, 33 SOUL for hitting them with the Dream Nail, and you can increase these amounts with various charms).
If you use Glowing Womb along side of Weaversong and its synergy charms(Grubsong and Sprintmaster), the summoning becomes self-sufficient, since the weavers themselves are able to generate SOUL with Grubsong, which then allows for more hatchlings from Glowing Womb.

Grimmchild is probably the weakest familiar at this point, but it does have its merits. In its first form, it is just cute, but can't do anything besides point to the Scarlet Flames. In its second form, it gains the ability to attack, but its attacks are very weak(only about as much DMG as the Old Nail). In its penultimate form, it does about the same DMG as the Sharpened Nail, which I think is decent enough to use regularly. In its final form, it does about the same DMG as the Channeled Nail, which is pretty good, but it still struggles with enemies that have small hitboxes and/or sporatic movement patterns.

I did a minion-master build(Glowing Womb + Defenders Crest + Sporeshroom, Weaversong + Grubsong + Sprintmaster, & Grimmchild) for the Trial of the Conqueror, and other than not being able to see through all the stink clouds, it was fantastic. Ended up using this build to farm Geo in the Colosseum. I also beat the Collector, and Hornet 2 using the minion-master build.

[Aeternalis the Abyssal Alchemist]

Originally posted by Darc Vader:

I mean, It probably gives soul faster than Kingsoul, which is 5 notches and only does that one thing.

I don't know how much SOUL Weaversong + Grubsong gives you, but its not much(all I know is that its less than 8 SOUL). If you have Sprintmaster though, it stacks up that SOUL at a pretty decent pace.
Of course, Kingsoul is consistant and unconditional SOUL-gen, while Weaversong is not. That said, I'd much rather pay 4 notches for Weaver + Grub + Sprint than 5 notches for Kingsoul.

[Ellixer]

I have Grimmchild on pretty much all the time, mostly because I like it. It's not optimal and I usually take it off for difficult boss fights, but for exploration it deals with annoyances pretty well due to decent damage and good range.

I do wish they would buff it though, considering we had to beat NKG to max it out.