I have been playing Primalist a lot during this patch and have been using Summon Spriggan in different roles. Based on that, I’d like to provide some feedback on the damage spec of what I believe otherwise is a fantastic, flexible companion.
I recently revisited a build I played when I had just started playing LE about half a year ago:
Level 87 - Spriggan Druid
The build is really good for bosses since Druids have stellar defenses. However, there are a few pain points I’d like to address:
- It is quite easy to cap some resistances like Fire/Cold/Lightning and Poison through Eterra’s Blessing. Spriggan itself requires a 7 point investment to be permenantly capped on phys. Frenzy totem can provide 60% phys and elemental resistance (weird number anyway since you won’t be able to cap it without further investment). Further sources of minion phys res can only be found on the Beastmaster tree which doesn’t have proper support for spell Spriggan, so it’s not an option, whereas Shaman could provide 50% lightning res for a 10 point investment after an initial 10 point investment into the Shaman tree. This is not feasible in any scenario and there are no sources of Necrotic or Void resistance to be found
- The other big issue is leech. Melee minions get a lot of support from the Beastmaster tree (Lamprey Teeth usually is enough, but Aspect of the Lynx exists for pure BMs). The only option for spell Spriggan to get leech is Reach of the Grave which cuts the potential damage by a big margin. That means spell Spriggan will need a lot of micromanagement with heals through Entangling Roots, Eterra’s Blessing and self-healing through regen
- The Spriggan tree is pretty boring. What I mean by that is there is one possible spec for machinegun Spriggan and no variance. You are basically locked into Vale Assault and scaling up the damage through Vile and Festering Orb. There is no pierce, no aoe, no nothing. You literally dump your points into those nodes and fill up the initial node Floral Ascendance until it hits level 20.
- There is a long dry streak in power until you invest 45 points into the Druid tree and unlock Eternal Nature, which means around the time you hit the Lagon timeline you will be struggling (hard) for damage. Anecdotally, I already had a sceptre with 250% increased damage, good idols and reliable sources of bleed and poison and I had to portal out of arena missions and some areas with higher density, because the Spriggan couldn’t clear in time, even with repositioning constantly.
- Talking about repositioning, that usually is not an issue with other minion skills. Hit the A button, sometimes 2-3 times and they will move where you want them to. Not Summon Spriggan. It appears that with high cast speed, they “lock” into place sometimes and won’t budge despite frantic clicking. This can lead to very dangerous situations in Arena that could be avoided with a more responsive behaviour. When relying on a single companion, I need to be able to position it in a way that provides an advantage, especially in Empowered Monoliths and Arena.
Other than that I feel like the skill is fine. I hope my post doesn’t come off as a rant altho partially it might be “ranty”, I genuinely enjoy the skill and the character. The frustrating parts are fixable however and I hope my feedback helps with that.
Maybe we can have some insights from people who tried the Entangling Roots and/or Vines versions since I haven’t tried those yet. 