Overview
This Spirit Walker build turns the Huntress into a hands-off Beast Master, leaning on the 0.5 taming mechanic to assemble a pack of companions that does almost all of the work. A tamed unique monkey is the carry: its slam hits hard enough that most bosses die on contact, while a wall of supporting beasts handles clear. The character is built around loyalty stacking — every loyalty support diverts another slice of incoming damage onto the companions, so once you stack enough of them roughly 90% of the damage that should land on you lands on your pets instead. Keep the pack alive and you are effectively unkillable.
The result is one of the strongest and most relaxing league starters available this patch. It comes online the moment you tame your first unique beast in the campaign, needs no chase uniques to function, and scales smoothly into red maps and pinnacle content. The trade-off is engagement: you mostly run around grabbing loot while the zoo fights for you, which is either the dream or a little boring depending on your taste.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Exceptional league starter — works from day one with just a monkey, a boar, and a companion bear
- Extremely tanky once loyalty is stacked; damage is diverted to companions before it reaches you
- Low-effort, low-stress playstyle — stand in rituals/Breaches and let the pack clear
- Cheap to get going; Mageblood and other luxuries are optional quality-of-life, not requirements
- Scales hard into the endgame as gem levels and weapon bases improve
Cons
- Passive, hands-off feel — “you don’t really feel like you did something”
- Top-end single-target drops when you swap to a Silven’s Effigy (more companions, lower per-hit damage)
- Rare-tame farming (rolling beasts for Haste, etc.) is fiddly and can take 5–30 minutes per beast
- Likely to be nerfed in a future patch (loyalty stacking and the monkey are clearly overtuned)
Key Skills
- Tamed Monkey (unique tame) — primary DPS; its slam is the build’s one-hit carry damage
- Companion pack — boar (Haste aura), Wild Protector bear, and extra tames via Silven’s Effigy for clear and defense
- Loyalty (support) — the core mechanic; stacks to divert incoming damage onto companions
- Reputation / Parry — snapshots a parry debuff so enemies take ~150% more damage from the pack
- Spears (leveling) — smooth way to push Acts 1–2 before swapping to companions in Act 3
Gear & Anointments
Early on, a rare sceptre with high companion/minion gem levels plus life, evasion and resistances on the rest of your gear is all you need. The Warlord/Berserker anoint that grants Rage to nearby allies is a major damage spike and lets you drop Rage support from the pack. Forgotten Warden (chest) adds another primal companion and a pile of companion life, pairing perfectly with loyalty. Mageblood is a luxury endgame chase, not a requirement. For ultra-late-game min-maxing the creator points at a high-physical Ironwood great hammer, Legacy of the Grey for attribute solving, and jewel sockets (Adorned, Voices). Specific item rolls should be confirmed against the source video.
Endgame Notes
The build clears red maps with no map mods checked and pushes into pinnacle content thanks to the parry weapon-set snapshot, which can double the pack’s single-target damage. Cath’s Blessing scaling on the weapon is expected to get much stronger once a current bug is patched, at which point the giant Ironwood hammer setup becomes the top-end damage option.
Credits & Source
Build credited to CaptainLance9. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage and voice commentary: Spirit Walker Beast Master ~ Build Guide.