Originally posted by ADEC Inc:

Your attributes won't apply to anything your pets are doing, but they will apply to your own skills like Fusillade. Same with Fire and Spark. Some strength would be good if only to allow you to equip gear ASAP, especially those with bonuses to minion damage. Bulwark and Aegis are the only passives that would interest a pure minion build, but if you continue using the cannon you might consider Heavy Lifting.

If you switch to a shield, you could pick up Shield Bash to stun anything that gets near you and run away. It has a slightly lower success chance than Seismic Slam, but the stun duration is longer. There's also Fire Bash that applies a nice DoT with only brief contact to the enemy. You could even opt to debuff enemies with Ember Reach or Tremor so they receive more physical damage, including your minions' attacks.

Anything the pet summons is not really going to do meaningful damage, but hopefully will serve as a distraction so enemies target you less. The pet will spam Heal All whenever it comes off cooldown, whether you need it or not. You may prefer it to do something more offensive.

Okay thank you for the advice! I think I will just dump the rest of my points into Vitality then.

Originally posted by aragonbattlebone:

... ... ... ...

I'm at a crossroads now.. Which stat do I dump points in.. As the plan was to put in Str, Dex, and Focus at 100 and dump the rest into Vit...

But reading the wiki I found that Str only increases my weapon damage.. But does it also increase skill/minion critical damage? As that is what i was aiming for. But I'm unsure now. And since Stat points are permanent I don't want to mess up here..

Also I mainly use Spider-Mines for my damage, and summon Gunbot and Sledgebot for a bosses or uniques. I only really use Fusilade because I have an extra points and it's good for those tricky out of reach monsters or when my own mines can't reach a monster due to path blocking. And Immobilization Copter and Healing Bot are pretty much always on as they don't expire...

So in short if I'm going for a Pet & Minion build should I just put all the rest of my points into Vitality to just survive. or does Strengths Critical damage boost actually affect my main source of damage (i.e. the Spider-Mines, Gun Bot, and Sledgebot.)

Oh also I heard recently that Spark and Fire doesn't actually affect Spider-MInes.. is that true? If so is there another passive skill I could replace that for.

And one last thing I always have mana thanks to the Healing Bot, so I mostly use my skills and never use my main weapon. (which is a cannon btw, But might switch to a sword and shield for extra defense/block chance.)

Anyways any help would be much appreciated! ^_^

(Oh one more question I have Summon Skeleton Archers, Summon Zombies, Summon Skeleton Warrior and Summon Blood Zombie on my Pet... But is Blood Zombie any good, especially at later levels? Or should I switch that out for a Nether Imp for its Silence attack or another summon? Also is the Heal All spell worth it to put on my Pet if I already have the Healing Bot?)

Since the Spider Mines are the main source of damage and need for empowerment as a true Minion-Build; it's important to know some of the limits on TL2-Minions.

Spider-Mines do increase their damage based on Player Level (enemies also increase their defenses to match) however the only way to really raise the damage on all Minions is to socket Minion-Damage affixes onto Player equipment.

That means farming for Skulls of Joskin or Skulls of Umbarmun.
These items raise Minion / Pet Damage by +25% and +35% per socket respectively.

Strength raises the damage of Dps / Weapon-Damage Skills for the Player.
Focus raises the damage of everything else for the Player.
Neither Stat interacts with Minions.

Dexterity is mostly to help Strength's Criticals. Dodge isn't needed as much as Block.

Vitality is lesser than Eyes of Grell / Manticore or Skulls of Limony and Riechliu.
Vitality is still useful for the Block Chance or extra Health.

TL2 Player Stats don't interact with Minions / Pets at all.
Need many Skulls of Joskin or Umbarmun to empower Minions.

The Player will therefore choose Stats that indirectly help with Minion Builds.
Focus for it's Player-damage plus Mana upkeep and Vitality for extra survival.

Focus will work well with Fusilade as that skill can quickly destroy large-target bosses from underneath when fired at melee range at max rank investment. And reaches enemies at any height and range elsewhere in most maps as you've noted.

For choosing Passives more related to this build; invest into survival-related skills.

The Player is allowed to have two weapon load-outs that can quickly swap.
Can have a Cannon then swap for a Shield during combat. This would allow for Fusilade when needed for damage and range, then the Block Chance that protects from more enemy attacks than Dodge for survival.

= = = =

The Tome-Scrolls (Skeletons, etc) when equipped on the Pet operate different on cool-down rules than when equipped on the Player.
Pet operated Minions won't be spammed as much as Player operated Minions however because having more targets on the field distracts enemies - it's worth having the Pet spawning Minions that benefits Player survival.

Pet-Scrolls to consider:

Zombies don't last long, Archers can't move,
Blood Zombie doesn't deal much damage,
Healing Tomes don't activate consistently enough.

Skeleton Warrior; is good as enemy distraction.

Nether Imp; is good for the Silence hence crowd-control.
is especially good at locking-down dangerous enemy mages.

Silence; (this can be equipped along with Nether Imp) will add to the Silence strategy.

Web; equals Immobilization against enemies (good against melee enemies).

Frost (rank 6) has surprisingly strong Damage-over-Time for the Pet.

= = = =

Extra-note:
While the same Tome-scroll cannot be equipped more than once (on Player or Pet individually), a different Rank of the same Tome can be equipped.

Example (for Pet):

Skeleton Rank 3
Skeleton Rank 4
Skeleton Rank 5
Skeleton Rank 6

= = = =

Some Tome-scrolls only have one Rank, some have 3 or 5, most have 6.

Nether Imp only has 5 however that can fill a Pet with many Distractions and Silences against enemies since the Imp fulfills both tactics to help the Player.