Summoner builds inGrim Dawnoffer a unique and highly enjoyable playstyle for those who prefer commanding powerful pets to do their bidding. Instead of engaging enemies directly, you focus on empowering your minions, managing buffs and debuffs, and staying alive while your army overwhelms foes. A well-craftedGrim Dawn summoner buildcan be both beginner-friendly and endgame viable, especially when built around synergy, resistances, and devotion choices. Whether you enjoy solo farming, dungeon crawling, or tackling bosses, summoner builds provide flexibility and strong performance across all difficulty levels.
Core Mastery Choices for Summoner Builds
There are two main masteries in Grim Dawn that focus on pet-based gameplay: Occultist and Shaman. These can be paired with a third class to form a powerful hybrid, with the most popular combination being theConjurer(Occultist + Shaman).
Occultist
- Summon Familiar: Ranged support pet that offers healing and lightning damage
- Summon Hellhound: Melee tank pet with fire damage and explosive attacks
- Blood of Dreeg: Buff that enhances regeneration and offensive ability for you and your pets
- Curse of Frailty: Debuff that lowers enemy resistances, making it easier for pets to deal damage
Shaman
- Briarthorn: Durable melee pet with physical damage and auras
- Mogdrogen’s Pact: Buff that increases health regeneration and resistances
- Heart of the Wild: Adds survivability by boosting health
Combining these two classes creates a strong foundation for any summoner build, with plenty of ways to scale pet damage and survivability through auras, passives, and buffs.
Recommended Attributes and Gear Focus
Unlike other builds that require heavy investment in cunning or physique for weapon scaling, summoners can focus almost entirely on spirit and physique. Spirit helps with energy regeneration and equips caster gear, while physique provides durability.
Stat Distribution
- Physique: Around 6070% of points to improve survivability
- Spirit: Around 3040% to wear caster gear and support mana regeneration
- Cunning: Rarely needed unless required for specific gear
Gear Priorities
- +% Pet Damage: Increases overall damage output of all summoned creatures
- +1 to All Skills (Occultist/Shaman): Improves core abilities without skill point investment
- Pet Speed and Crit Damage: Boosts how fast and effectively your minions attack
- Resistances and Health Regen: Essential for your own survivability
Many pieces of gear are tailored to pet builds, including faction items, legendary sets like Bysmiel’s Trinkets, and items found from totems and bosses.
Skill Progression Guide
When leveling a summoner, it’s essential to prioritize skills that scale your pets early on and add support abilities as you unlock more powerful gear. Here’s a simplified skill route based on the Conjurer archetype.
Leveling Path (Conjurer)
- Start with Occultist: Level up Summon Familiar and Summon Hellhound
- Take Blood of Dreeg: For buffs and healing
- Switch to Shaman at level 10: Focus on Briarthorn and Mogdrogen’s Pact
- Max Heart of the Wild and Oak Skin: Boosts durability for both you and your pets
- Use Curse of Frailty and Vulnerability: Debuffs that lower enemy resistance to damage types
By level 50+, you’ll want all three core pets maxed, along with key support skills that empower your minions and weaken your enemies. At this stage, your pets can start clearing content almost on their own.
Devotion Path for Summoner Builds
TheDevotion systemplays a huge role in enhancing your pets’ offensive and defensive capabilities. Many constellations offer flat pet damage bonuses or can be bound to pets for unique effects.
Recommended Devotion Constellations
- Shepherd’s Crook: Essential early pick for pet damage boost on summon
- Ishtak, the Spring Maiden: Offers durability and healing options for your minions
- Typhos, the Jailor of Souls: Grants affinity and crit damage
- Raven: For spirit and pet bonuses
- Mogdrogen the Wolf: Late-game powerful constellation with attack speed and damage boosts
You’ll want to build around a mix of Order, Eldritch, and Ascendant affinities. Plan carefully so you don’t get locked out of key paths. Start with utility and pet buffs, then progress toward stronger constellations that scale with your build.
Survivability and Support Strategies
Summoner builds can struggle if the player is too vulnerable. Since pets do the fighting, your focus is staying alive and supporting them. This means maintaining resistances, repositioning often, and using buffs at the right time.
Key Defensive Tools
- Blood of Dreeg: Instant heal and OA buff
- Mogdrogen’s Pact: Passive health and regen increase
- Resist gear: Always aim for capped elemental and aether resistances
- Health regen and % damage absorption: Through Devotion or gear passives
If enemies manage to get close, use movement skills granted by relics or items (like Blitz or Teleport) to avoid danger. Your pets will re-engage after repositioning.
Endgame and Boss Viability
A properly built summoner in Grim Dawn can tackle most endgame content, including Nemesis bosses, Crucible waves, and Shattered Realm. The key to success lies in scaling pet survivability alongside damage output, and keeping yourself protected in long fights.
Boss Fight Tips
- Use Curse of Frailty constantly to weaken resistances
- Keep Blood of Dreeg active for its heal and OA bonus
- Focus on avoiding ground-based AoE while your pets deal damage
- Consider using consumables like Elixirs of Spirit and Health Tinctures
Some gear sets or pet-based relics offer additional pets or stat boosts when fighting tougher enemies, which can help extend your power curve into Ultimate and high-level farming.
Alternative Summoner Variants
While the Conjurer remains the most popular, other viable summoner builds exist based on different class combinations and gear synergies.
Alternative Options
- Cabalist (Occultist + Necromancer): Summons skeletons and uses both poison and vitality scaling
- Ritualist (Shaman + Necromancer): Focuses on hybrid pet and vitality damage
- Beastcaller Build: Focused on Legendary set Beastcaller’s Regalia for massive Briarthorn power
These variants offer different gameplay styles and elemental focuses, but all maintain the core identity of a pet-focused summoner build.
AGrim Dawn summoner buildprovides a fun, strategic, and powerful way to experience the game. With the right mastery combination, devotion path, and gear focus, summoners can solo nearly all content while staying relatively safe. Their ability to clear mobs quickly, survive harsh boss mechanics through indirect combat, and adapt to multiple damage types makes them one of the most versatile build archetypes in the game. Whether you’re new or looking to try something fresh, the summoner route is a deeply rewarding path to explore.