Been playing around with a Human build as the new Juggernaut aspect completely changed my build. Can easily speed run 85 NM on eternal. My wolves hit for 50-100k and crit for 150 to 200k, Ravens are rediculously good, poison creeper sucks damagewise, but is best used to proc landslide. I have landslide on my tool bar but rarely use it, pets and basic storm strike take care of everything.
World boss can be soloed with pets only (no input from me) in 4 min and with me helping in 3 min (same as my stormclaw build). They can easily take down NM 85 bosses in a minute or so without dying. Nearly optimized equipment and most glyphs to 21, I think I can push 95 without seasonal powers. The pet damage is still screwy, but i noticed my basic attack damage and core skills does match the tool tip either, so not sure if the tool tip is messed up for Druids only or all classes (only play druid).
But the key message is pet builds appear to be viable for the hardest content if you take the time to optimize the boards and devote your equipment stats to helping them…no guides to help makes them seem bad though.
Hello nondescript.
Nice you took the time to min/max a companions build.
Im interested in how you achieved the numbers.
The 50-100k hits are from passive?
Would like the hear the gear you use,including affixes, used skills, tree, boards, glyphs and aspects, if you got time.
Im doing seasonal. Tried companions a bit, had some good rolls on affixes, but got nowhere near to 50-100k.
Cool build! Always looking for new an interesting Druid builds. Would be interested in a list of aspects, glyphs, and paragon boards you used. Might give it a whirl next season!
Yes the wolves damage are passive. But their rabies does like 3k.
Basic stats to prioritize: +companion skills/envenom (Shako, storm pants, good rolls on amulet), +companion damage, will power (all over) then physical damage, life, crit damage, all stats. For the Druid portion, crit chance (from skills, equipment, boards, etc), lucky chance, attack speed, damage reduction, damage reduction close, %total armor (to hit 13,500 cap), +landslide, resistance to hit caps, movement speed.
Aspects: Juggernaut, symbiotic, anything landslide related (not the trample one), anything companion related, rapid on the amulet (use totem setup).
Glyphs: Keeper, Human, Earth and Sky, Territorial, Wilds and Spirit(?).
6 Boards- can’t remember every detail, but I only hit 1 or 2 legendary nodes. You are going to have to experiment, but I do have over 1000 WP. Pretty much anything that can get you [#]x you need to do.
Skills-bulwark, 3 pets, thunderstrike, landslide to get terramotes from poisoncreeper
Other interesting things: wolves say lightning damage, but +%lightning does not increase damage, only physical. %damage to close does not appear to help. The new thorns boon is surprisingly good.
Still would like to see a bit more power added from Devs, but not as bad as everyone says. High gear barrier to making companion focused builds good for sure.
This is also valuable feedback.
Part of companions not working might be because they made it so difficult to comprehend what makes a companion build tick.
In the tips I read that necromancer minions scale part on player power (30%). I don’t think companions do, but such a system makes it a lot easier.
Ive settled for a human lightning storm / pet build myself and Im pretty happy with it. Would be muh better if I had a lvl 80 + crone staff - still using the one I found at lvl 60. But Im getting upwards to level 32 T4 NMD now, I still rip now and again but overall its solid at lvl 88.
im using - greatstaff of the crone, vasilys hat no better option atm, juggernaut chest, mighty storm bracers, storm companion pants, crap boots, necklace of the stampede, +4 ring of the umbral, ring of the alpha
I rarely run out of mana and when I do I shift into wolf form and play whack a mole with Claw and my mana refills in a couple hits and I return to Lightning Storm.
skills Im using - Claw /Lightning storm, earthen bulwark, werewolves, ravens, and poison creeper
I’m using the build guide from nikowrex on mobalytics. There is also an Uber build as well, but the basics don’t really change.
https NOSPACE HERE :// NO SPACE HERE mobalytics.gg/diablo-4/profile/fc4ba6b5-0827-4d56-9ae8-e5db7134c3bb/builds/b0d25c7c-06e0-4247-9ddc-d7bc4bda50e7?tab=skills-and-gear
So far I’m not that bad. I did modify it a little. Kind of glass cannon depending on your playstyle and also I used more skills towards companion damage. I can do low 80 NM solo with not much effort, and can solo Duriel pretty decent. My only criticism is this build is not a QUICK mega damage. Its kinda slow and steady wins the race. 
but otherwise it’s not bad. I can create a build on diablo4life if anyone wants to see what I am using currently.
the thorns boon is good? without any +thorns gear? is it worth using the thorns legendary?
the chest piece is not worth it you lose too much defense for the amount of added damage your pets can take. If your dead you can’t DPS. The option is thorns boon or elite damage reduction, and I don’t anymore DR so I prefer the extra DPS.