First things first, incase any of you haven't read it the new patch notes: https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/grim-dawn-version-1-1-9-0/106945

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Now, I know I am a bit late to the party. Only like an hour before making this post did I actually see the patch notes and hadn't realized the new patch had dropped. So apologies for the late arrival.

Now, at the time of this post, I saw a decent number of people inquiring about pets and how they fare in the current patch. I cannot speak for the builds of others, but I can offer some insight into my own builds.

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But before we get to that, pretty much all pet sets were rather harshly nerfed. Now I do remember having a conversation with Zantai on the forums and agreeing and even asking for less reliance on Sets for pet builds. Perhaps I wasn't clear then or perhaps the devs had something else in mind, but I wasn't asking for the "less reliance" to come in the way of nerfs...

Or atleast, not with nerfs alone. If the sets are getting nerfed and the intention was only to lessen the dependency on sets, then logically the base skills need to be buffed, yes? (or so I would assume).

But the only Pets that did get buffed according to the patch notes were Skeletons and Blightfiends. However, every set was nerfed. Perhaps Zantai forgot to add info regarding buffs on other pets. Perhaps they were simply tweaks to base stats that he felt didn't warranty inclusion...

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But from what I see right now, pretty much all my builds took a considerable hit. And mostly Fluffy Squishy. Will-O-Wisp and Ishtar should fare better for now. And if my assumptions are correct, Ishtar, my pet ritualist should be least effected by this. I can go ranting about this, but the TL:DR is I am not happy with what I have seen so far.

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Now for Blightfiends, everyone who has played my builds know that I prefer to use them as Suicide bombs with Unstable Anomaly. That was gutted in the previous patch (1.1.8.1). And the current patch has not addressed that particular issue.

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The whole complaint about sets, atleast for me was regarding how important they were to the build's performance. Making them weaker doesn't change that and only ends up making the builds just as dependent, but weaker all the same.

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And noting all that, this might be me jumping the gun a bit here, but I feel more inclined to simply not update the game rather than attempt to gather broken pieces and try to piece them together in vain.

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Ofcourse, it is not all doom and gloom. Skeletons seem like they got buffed. However, since the design philosophy behind them remain the name (fragile horde based dps) and their weakness to AoE also remains the same, I am not particularly enthusiastic about them either.

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So where does it leave me and my builds and everyone who has been following them?I sincerely hope that the base pet stats for All Pets got buffed considerably to compensate for this. Because if not, I might be pretty much saying my goodbyes to GrimDawn and the community, atleast as a build maker.

And it is not because of something like "my builds got nerfed, I am no longer going to play"..It is because this feels as if we have reached a point where I have no further builds I want to actually make and I can't update my current ones to the quality I personally aspire to, before releasing to the community.

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I can still maintain the guide and early game setups haven't really changed. So the core concepts, leveling up etc remain the same. I will just have to remove the endgame variants from the guide and it will be up to date. I suppose I can finish the Solo Shaman part that I always wanted to work on, but kept putting off for later.

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So, the Carnival will live on. But the likes of Fluffy Squishy might not. I rather let them die with their dignity than turn them into pale and broken shells of their former selves. Yes, a bit of dramatization, but the feelings behind those words are genuine.

The devs have been trying to rein in various builds to their standards and build makers have always been challenging them. But there comes a point when you simply lose steam and can no longer continue, especially if with step, things just get progressively worse and any suggestions get ignored in favour of doing the one thing no one asked for any everyone suffers because of.

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Yes, this was also in part a rant and anything else you might wish to see it as. But the primary goal was to simply shed light on where I stand regarding all this and the current fate and possible future of my builds so that there are no misunderstandings.

Also, apologies if anyone feels that I am abandoning them and their hard work without even a warning. That is not my intention and I can still try to help with builds and such if needed. It is just I no longer feel confidence in my builds and can no longer find the vision to update them with.

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Update on the situation:

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Birbs will Birb, Ghosts haven't been even touched.

Skeletons & Blightfiends require you to put in more focus and attention to them, but Skeletons might perform better.

Briarthorns and Primal spirit based builds got hit the hardest.

Conjurers similarly have been hit the most out of the major 3.

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If you want performance similar to before, you need to actually put in as many skill points as you can into a particular pet and its nodes rather than rely on 1 point wonders and such.

Time for Ritualists and Cabalists (or Necro tbh) to make a comeback it seems, at the cost of Conjurer.

I am still not sold on Skeletons as their core issue regarding AoE still remains and Blightfiend nerf of 1.1.8.1 kind of put me off those.

So… I guess time for Ghosts and Wisps. And good old, stacking 1 to skills.

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I understand the objective with the patch, but one thing is that there aren’t really many replacements for slots which were occupied by Set items. So in that regard, you are stuck with more or less the same choices, but without having access to a good chunk of the set bonuses anymore.

One thing this might encourage however is the use of double rare greens to push the skill points to their max.

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Mostly more of the same, but a different puzzle and unnecessary headache.

Personally, I am putting everything other than these 2 builds on hold:

https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/will-o-wisp-pet-cabalist/49892

https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/ishtar-pet-ritualist/97542

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Fluffy Squishy, predictably did not fare well :(