I have often seen fetish passive spawns block my Gargantuan Dog. Keep in mind that Fetish Army can block your dog as well. To that point, Fetish Army damage affixes may be more effective than Zombie Dog damage affixes in certain situations.
Honestly you should build around your best available gear. Both damage types are effective, and your gear this early on dictates which you should run. They play about the same so focus on your strengths you will be fine.
- Melee attacks from Zombie Dogs in either type are about the same. The trade-off between Burning Dogs vs. Leeching Beasts / Life Link is a damage aura from your dogs or more survivability from them.
- Fire dogs and wrathful protector are still very strong in the early game, so fire damage will improve your build's DPS.
- If you happen to get more physical damage mods you could switch to leeching beasts / life link to boost both physical dog & fetish damage.
- The Uhkapian Serpent mojo will help your survivability immensely (preferably with pet damage affixes such as zombie dogs / gargantuan / army).
- Focus on pet affixes, critical hit chance, and critical hit damage and your damage will be fine.
- If you happen upon any Rhe'ho Flayer, addling toads will charm enemies often while still spawning fetishes at a solid rate. This will complement any pet build you run and there are plenty of videos in forum threads here.
First of all, our weapon damage is a range of damage not a solid number. So you don't realize the difference directly when just watching just because of how varied it can be, however I can assure you that elemental damage affects your let's in the exact same way it affects every other skill we have. It is a direct additive damage bonus to our damage. Your example of going from 8-10 to 10-12 is about right. I don't see an issue here.
I totally didn't take the damage range factor into account. At first glance it appeared like fire damage mods didn't make a huge impact vs. Zombie Dog damage, but they're both very similar. I'm a little unsure about Cindercoat vs. Augs chest for the 3pc bonus as to which is higher damage offensively. They're both really close, so I don't believe it really matters.
I haven't looked at the math regarding adding elemental damage either, but I know that increasing Zombie Dog damage on gear and Damage to Elites is where those boosts are most noticeable. I'm betting that those are directly multiplied off the initial calculation for your base weapon damage that goes into pet melee dps. When I have added fire damage in the past for my burning gargantuan dog, I see a small difference in his burning aura and that is all. If you want a gargantuan dog to greatly increase dps, look at mods like zombie dog damage affixes.
On the subject of gargantuan burning dog aura damage, there is likely a +fire dmg threshold where it's better to focus on dog dps. In higher torment levels your dog's aura stays the same and the health of packs increases greatly, thus you are using its aura to less effect. You benefit more from his actual attacks rather than his aura when packs stop melting by standing near him.
I tested mimics with a Tall Man's Finger fire dog-only pet build in solo T5. I didn't expect to replace my Mask of Jeram, but it was interesting to play around with it.
My gear (if not updated): TF, Uk Serpent, Tasker (50%), 2 pc Blackthorne's, Cindercoat, SoJ, TMF, and a Grin Reaper (hp socket)
My Stats: 8800 Int, 52 crit, 375 crit dmg, 1.88 atks per second, almost 500k hp ... 30% dog dmg, 74% fire dmg, 40% elite dmg
My most used skills: Burning Dogs / Spirit Walk (mana), Soul Harvest (languish), Horrify (armor) / Vampire Bats, Nado
Passives: Fierce Loyalty, Midnight Feast, Zombie Handler - Frequently I switched between Grave Injustice and Pierce the Veil to see damage differences. I typically prefer GI for control although I honestly don't NEED it with this many options. Pierce the Veil upped the damage of everything - me, mimics, and pet.
Replacing the MoJ cut my dog damage almost in half which brought it down to 35-50 per crit (add about 10 mill to that with Pierce the Veil). I normally use a Flayer for Addling Toads, but for the purposes of this test I used a Thunderfury to spread it's debuff from myself and the mimics with constant Nado / SoulHarvest (languish for reduced move speed / atk speed). This was also more effective than using a Burning Axe of Sankis as far as damage output from what I could tell.
The mask summons 2 mimics at once for a duration of around 5 seconds. I couldn't tell what the internal cooldown on mimic spawning was and maybe Grave Injustice influenced that. It seemed like they were up for every other pack although I wasn't clearing quickly. You must be the one attacking to spawn them (although you can spam skills in town and they will appear) as I found out that running around while the dog did all the work wasn't working. They used every skill they had access to and seemed to prefer offensive abilities to defensive. Rarely they used spirit walk, and didn't use any abilities while they were running around with it. Sometimes they seem to choose abilities at random, but when they spawn while you are attacking, they tend to stick with ones you are currently using such as Toads or Bats or Bears. If you know which abilities WON'T be used (such as pet summons and long cooldowns) then you could limit them to a smaller set to direct them.
It's too unreliable for constant Nado spam like I was hoping for, although it was nice when several were up. If you're looking to use them for control then your mileage may vary. Having lower dmg skills on your bar is not advised - since you want them to add as much dps as possible. For the purposes of this build, Vampire Bats and Burning Zombie Chargers were significantly more effective than Firebombs or Flaming Darts. Seeing them running around while channeling Vampire Bats was an interesting mix with my dog's fire aura, and the damage ramped up when we all focused down a single group. I think narrowing down their possible skills is the best way to get them to focus on higher damage.
They weren't up all the time, but they were around often enough to make using them fun and interesting. I still solo'd a few T5 rifts just as easily although a little slower than usual, but nothing bad. I'm not sure how effective they would be in higher level grouping situation in T5 & T6. I would like to see more people give them a try and post their results.
I'm a fan of using this with Piranhas. I use a Mask of Jeram and I am able to swap between Nado and Horrify and maintain very solid uptime on group control. That said, some monster types are immune to fear, and helms usually make a build very strong. Don't ignore a solid helm for more crowd control if you don't need it.
0
0
0
- Melee attacks from Zombie Dogs in either type are about the same. The trade-off between Burning Dogs vs. Leeching Beasts / Life Link is a damage aura from your dogs or more survivability from them.
- Fire dogs and wrathful protector are still very strong in the early game, so fire damage will improve your build's DPS.
- If you happen to get more physical damage mods you could switch to leeching beasts / life link to boost both physical dog & fetish damage.
- The Uhkapian Serpent mojo will help your survivability immensely (preferably with pet damage affixes such as zombie dogs / gargantuan / army).
- Focus on pet affixes, critical hit chance, and critical hit damage and your damage will be fine.
- If you happen upon any Rhe'ho Flayer, addling toads will charm enemies often while still spawning fetishes at a solid rate. This will complement any pet build you run and there are plenty of videos in forum threads here.
0
0
0
On the subject of gargantuan burning dog aura damage, there is likely a +fire dmg threshold where it's better to focus on dog dps. In higher torment levels your dog's aura stays the same and the health of packs increases greatly, thus you are using its aura to less effect. You benefit more from his actual attacks rather than his aura when packs stop melting by standing near him.
0
0
2
Link for gear: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/sepercrod-1543/hero/2231726
My gear (if not updated): TF, Uk Serpent, Tasker (50%), 2 pc Blackthorne's, Cindercoat, SoJ, TMF, and a Grin Reaper (hp socket)
My Stats: 8800 Int, 52 crit, 375 crit dmg, 1.88 atks per second, almost 500k hp ... 30% dog dmg, 74% fire dmg, 40% elite dmg
My most used skills: Burning Dogs / Spirit Walk (mana), Soul Harvest (languish), Horrify (armor) / Vampire Bats, Nado
Passives: Fierce Loyalty, Midnight Feast, Zombie Handler - Frequently I switched between Grave Injustice and Pierce the Veil to see damage differences. I typically prefer GI for control although I honestly don't NEED it with this many options. Pierce the Veil upped the damage of everything - me, mimics, and pet.
Replacing the MoJ cut my dog damage almost in half which brought it down to 35-50 per crit (add about 10 mill to that with Pierce the Veil). I normally use a Flayer for Addling Toads, but for the purposes of this test I used a Thunderfury to spread it's debuff from myself and the mimics with constant Nado / SoulHarvest (languish for reduced move speed / atk speed). This was also more effective than using a Burning Axe of Sankis as far as damage output from what I could tell.
The mask summons 2 mimics at once for a duration of around 5 seconds. I couldn't tell what the internal cooldown on mimic spawning was and maybe Grave Injustice influenced that. It seemed like they were up for every other pack although I wasn't clearing quickly. You must be the one attacking to spawn them (although you can spam skills in town and they will appear) as I found out that running around while the dog did all the work wasn't working. They used every skill they had access to and seemed to prefer offensive abilities to defensive. Rarely they used spirit walk, and didn't use any abilities while they were running around with it. Sometimes they seem to choose abilities at random, but when they spawn while you are attacking, they tend to stick with ones you are currently using such as Toads or Bats or Bears. If you know which abilities WON'T be used (such as pet summons and long cooldowns) then you could limit them to a smaller set to direct them.
It's too unreliable for constant Nado spam like I was hoping for, although it was nice when several were up. If you're looking to use them for control then your mileage may vary. Having lower dmg skills on your bar is not advised - since you want them to add as much dps as possible. For the purposes of this build, Vampire Bats and Burning Zombie Chargers were significantly more effective than Firebombs or Flaming Darts. Seeing them running around while channeling Vampire Bats was an interesting mix with my dog's fire aura, and the damage ramped up when we all focused down a single group. I think narrowing down their possible skills is the best way to get them to focus on higher damage.
They weren't up all the time, but they were around often enough to make using them fun and interesting. I still solo'd a few T5 rifts just as easily although a little slower than usual, but nothing bad. I'm not sure how effective they would be in higher level grouping situation in T5 & T6. I would like to see more people give them a try and post their results.
0
SoJ - 20 fire, 30 Elite Damage
Cinderocat - 20 fire, 15% dogs (no vit roll)
Shoulders - 15 dogs / Bracers - 20 fire
Max values with RoRG - 20 fire / 15 elite / 30 dog (no Vit sacrifice)
3pc Augs - 15 elite (and elite resist)
Chest - 15 dog dmg / Shoulders - 15 dog dmg / Bracers - 20 fire
More defense with Augs and RoRG, more damage with Cindercoat and SoJ - assuming your primary ring is a Tall Man's Finger.
0
0
0
0