I’ve tried a few variants of the Druid Companion build in the past but obviously Season 5 has one of the strongest versions yet. While the AoE is quite weak, the single target and general tankiness is quite good. I wanted to talk a bit about my experience as I’m getting close to hitting level 100.
When I tried earlier versions of this build, it usually was for leveling using Pulverize. The problem with Pulverize is that while you have better overall AoE, you end up spending a lot of spirit quickly and you don’t get the full benefits of a normal Pulverize build and are quite slow. So the skills I end up going with are Maul with the enhanced version to Fortify my guy and Shred with some poison effect (besides the one on Poison Creeper). But I like Shred here since it allows you a ping pong-like movement that does some damage but more or less helps you get across the screen quickly.
Right now, I’m running this build with just the Storm Companion pants and Wildheart Hunger boots since I’m swapping between Wolf and Bear quite often. On the PTR, I had the advantage of several Uber/Mythic Uniques, including a Tyrael’s Might (before the mega buff), Harlequin Crest (Shako) and even a Ring of Starless Skies. I think the two items that helped the most were the Tyrael’s Might and Harlequin Crest. However, if you want to go with that setup, you’ll need to do some Aspect swapping, namely moving Spirit Bond onto a different slot.
In my case, I would apply Spirit Bond onto the Amulet slot. I know this can be controversial because you lose significant damage as you normally place the Shepherd’s Aspect there. So to compensate, I end up going with a one handed weapon and offhand and move the aspect onto my offhand and lose my poison on my ring. That way, I can use a Shako which would boost all my Companion abilities and damaging skills overall along with giving me a great deal of damage reduction. And Tyrael’s Might with the big time buff not only would give me more defense and movement, but you can gain some ranged combat.
At the moment, I just completed the season quest line and received my first Resplendent Spark. I still need to start farming ladder bosses but am focused on finishing hitting level 100, improving my gear and raising my Glyphs to 21. My first Uber Unique I plan to aim for is a Tyrael’s Might just because it’s singlehandedly is one of the best defensive items in the game. You do lose on the life roll but the rest of the stats and unique effect more than make up for it.
Now, I haven’t really started doing any Pit farming just yet. I probably can do lower level Pits but I find Masterworking to be worth it only when you have end game gear that you intend to keep. And that generally means you probably will want at least two Greater Affixes before Masterworking an item (unless it’s an Uber Unique or even well rolled Unique). So prior to Pit farming, I’ll probably spend some time in Helltides.
That said, I think it’s more important trying to acquire Uber Uniques as the season quest with the Resplendent Spark reward made a return. This pretty much incentivizes one to roll as many characters as possible so you can begin to target farm Uber Uniques you really want. While the Uber Ladder bosses received some health nerfs, they still can be frustrating to do without a proper boss killer build. I do think Companion Druid does quite well on bosses but I might pull back a bit due to the class not being a great farmer.
Actually, I’ve been eyeing the Landslide/Lightning Storm + Cataclysm build. From what I can see, that build might be far more well rounded than the Companion Druid build. The only downside is that I’d either have to start a new Druid (which I might actually do for the additional Resplendent Spark) or repurpose my Companion Druid. If anything I’ll be able to farm the main gear for that build and come back to it. I think if there was a novel way to boost a Companion Druid’s AoE damage (and don’t get me started on Rabies), I would stick with that build. But I have a feeling this build can’t handle speedfarming content that requires a large amount of AoE due to the wonkiness of the companion AI. And though I did try a Landslide/Lightning Storm build last season, the new one looks far more tankier and different compared to the other one.
That said, the two builds that have caught my attention most are the Lightning Spear and Fireball builds. So I imagine that in the next day or two, I’ll probably pause my Companion druid and swap to a sorcerer. Since the starting gear rewards for a sorcerer are heavily aimed at lightning versions, I might stick with the chain lightning to start and see how that goes. I haven’t really seen anything from the Barbarian nor Rogue side that have really captured my fancy though. And Necromancer just has Minion although I’ve heard good things about Blood Lance.
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