I was going to grab some images and share some more info but the DDoS attack to server won’t let me in. Maybe later…
t28 in wt4, cant remember the dungeon name exactly.
right! i’d been rocking pretty much the exact same except the companion skill dmg roll, had CoW and Companion skills, lost 7.2% armor though which i can feel for sure, but i can also feel the 6k dmg boost, so its chugging armor pots until i can get that armor back some how.
Lol that floating wolf bug is funny, needs its own post in bug reports xD
8 companions? you can only have max of 3 wolves…
Oh, that’s a unicorn. I’ve got the +3 call and +3 comp split.
The wearbear affix is absolutely not recommended if running tank/poison build since you have a legendary node that will increase damage to poisoned enemies - want to keep that running on them with the 45% damage down the malice tree (it’s amazing).
However, I could see if you were using Claws and Toxic (with Wearbear) and the affix for bear/wolf to run on Nature’s Fury with the Earth/Storm 20% free - this affix could be deadly with pulverize.
2 creepers, 3 wolves, 4 ravens at max - the ravens are come & go, so that number fluctuates briefly when they’re on-screen in testing. So it’s roughly 5 + 4 (on occassion) - meaning the bonus for +dmg % for # of companions (affix). It’s viable.
It’s the devil. They stand up there in the air turning their heads, looking at you running from the 3 insta-stun frost elites while you run around like the opening to Benny Hill trying to get enough distance to get them to phase back in 
The wearbear affix is absolutely not recommended if running tank/poison build since you have a legendary node that will increase damage to poisoned enemies - want to keep that running on them with the 45% damage down the malice tree (it’s amazing).
im actually loving it atm, my rotation is bulwark with ghostwalker aspect so i run to the middle of the pack, try to hit rabies on one of the first mobs, should be spread by the time i get in the middle. Then poison creeper, evade out to the side, pulverize with shockwave aspect and tectonic spikes, i run natures fury to get bulwark refreshes from basic attacks, hurricane for bigger chains and dmg reduction, that gets refreshed by the pulverize and bulwark.
i’ve stacked my companion dmg and poison dmg through the roof, base in the wilds is 358,949 dmg, that i pop for 282% atm, switched the Stampede and the changlings debt aspects around for a bigger pop.
paragon board is Inner beast (best board for Wilds Glyph, 10 intellect nodes is nuts, lvl 19 atm and provides 245.9% companion dmg), Heightened Malice, and Earthen Devestation.
Glyphs are; Shapeshifter in starter board (boost to straight dmg and all resists), Wilds, Exploit, Bane
With Heightened Malice active its 520,477 dmg on poison creeper, pop that for 282% or 1,467,745 dmg on the calculator before other bonuses and monster resists and what not. So how the Changlings debt works is it instantly deals the poison dmg and then does the additional damage on top of it, faster you can pop it the bigger the number is because its based off of the poison charge. Heightened Malice also makes the pops bigger too, i’ve played around with and without it and i can feel the increase in dmg on pop even if its not active on the apply, if i wait to apply poison creeper until rabies goes off its just an even bigger base to explode
I run the lucky hit 20% chance to refresh companion skills, shapeshifter glyph to boost my pulverizes crit rate by 20%, i’ve got a base of 40.2% crit so when i pop a pack of monsters im getting a crit 9/10 times, hurricane can also dish out crits, rabies has a shorter cooldown and higher luck chance so its another chance for a refresh.
i’ve gotten really lucky on a few bosses, popping the poison charge refreshed my poison creeper, applied it again, popped it, next attack crits and refreshed it again, boss was dead after popping it again
Honestly, really loving this build
Poison Bear V2.0 - https://d4builds.gg/builds/2617f2e9-4ab1-4307-aa85-8505db0289e8/
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You can only have 9. Three to the wolves, for they are feral and pine. Two to the un-named that crawl and maim and four to the raven lords, whom are cunning and wise.
So its 9 x % per companion.
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Sorry, to clarify, what I meant is that running “Tracker” with bear/poison tank build and the affix to instant damage with poisoned targets on any bear ability is not recommended. The “Tracker” glyph specifically increases the damage and extends the poison duration (for reason) so you can get more output. I prefer to keep my pulverize running extra damage on them over the course of the duration of the poison than expending the 200+% all at once. I seem to get a better threshold on damage through the increase over multiple hits than all at once.
Edit: To note, I’m running a variation of your same build but down the Ancestral Guidance board with a 1h / totem speed hit build. The large bursts are non-existent, but pulling 200k-300k regular and spam hits.
Im out , they dont want companions to be viable pretty much what they said at the last campfire. Ill try the game 2 years from now maybe by season 8 they fix EVERY dead skill in the game and you can make builds with any skill and not say we dont want companions to be a main focus on the class but yet it takes up 1/5 of the skill tree and the same for aspects and uniques, POE2 cant come quick enough
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Ravens are bad but the Vine is good and the wolves are useable in some cases.
I wish they did was some D2 mods did with the ravens and made them a basic/filler skill. Could just replace Stormstrike tbh since its kind of boring anyway (ik ik its good for Vuln but i mean flavor-wise).
Replace them in the tree by either spirits or Grizzly.
My experience with companion/pet builds in ARPGs is that the pets do most all of the damage.
That is what I expected when purchasing the game.
I’m with you.
20 characters.
Don’t think it was ever intended that the Druid would be a summoner class though, that’s Necro territory. Druid summons are supposed to be more support oriented.
If they wanted them to be support oriented then they shouldn’t give us a bunch of aspects that buff them in non-support oriented ways.
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Like which? Even the most offensive aspects like the Wolf Rabies one is meant to support Blurred Beast builds.
Wolves still get stuck in the air when they are in werewolf form which severally kneecaps you in some instances if your fighting a boss with the stupid stun lock freeze on hit even if you have unbreakable up. The game at this state feels like the first weeks of a game in pre-alpha at the very most.
Im currently toying with a companion build just because. Im building like you would a stormclaw build but substituting the bear skills for the wolves and the creeper. Creeper has the stone ability on hit but may swap it for beastie rampage on my companions?
In no serious content do your necro minions keep you safe. Stop the BS. By WT3 the necro minions are being chunked and without the active skeletal priest healing they quickly die.
And unlike druid minions, necro minions don’t automatically return. You need to generate corpses. Have fun dying in a NMD and spawning without a single minion and having to handle an elite pack as a minion necro without minions.
Druid companions are terrible, but so are necro minions, you petty, envious children. You act like dogs looking at the other dog’s bowl. Spoiler alert, their bowl is just as empty.