The new mechanic from Season 3 in Diablo 4 is the Seneschall, a mechanical companion for all classes. The pet was considered far too weak and useless right at release. Now, after players have been able to level it up, this view is changing. Some even show how the Seneschall single-handedly takes down Uber Duriel.
What was the problem with the pet?
- The Seneschall is a companion that you can enhance and customize with different runestones. This way, it gains abilities and becomes stronger.
- Although the pet accompanies you, you rarely see the Seneschall. It disappears under masses of enemies or is sometimes still busy in other rooms while you fight.
- In comparison to the Vampiric powers from Season 2, the Seneschall seemed quite weak at release: other than tanking a bit of damage, it did not do much. This apparently is changing now.
Here you can find all the features from Season 3, the trailer shows you some gameplay:
This is how strong the Seneschall really is: In a video by the Diablo expert wudijo, he shows how the Seneschall single-handedly takes down the Uber boss Duriel. Duriel is the main source for Uber Uniques since Season 2 and is often fought by many players.
The expert received the video from a user and analyzes it. You can see how a sorceress simply dances around Duriel, avoiding his abilities, while the Seneschall covers the boss with its abilities. Within 3 minutes, he is dead.
Crucial for the strength of the Seneschall is probably a specific combination of stones:
- Fireflies as lead stone
- Multiple shot for more fireflies
- Piercing, to penetrate enemies
- Seeking, so they truly hit the boss
Apparently, some abilities of the sorceress herself also contribute, increasing damage against burning targets. wudijo believes it would be easy to make the Seneschall even stronger. In the video, the expert explains that the Seneschall is said to have even defeated Uber Lilith alone.
You can see the video of the fight here:
The Seneschall will only become really strong later
With the Seneschall, it depends on which combinations of stones you use. There are some strong combos for the pet that significantly increase either its damage or its ability to support you.
However, it is important that you first need to find and level the right stones. This has become easier since patch 1.3.0a, but still requires time. In particular, the popular lead stone “Hurricane” is apparently quite rare.
Some of the best stones, the unique tuning stones, you can only get from the Uber boss Echo of Malphas – and even then only with a low chance. Accordingly, the pet was considered a disappointment at the start of the season; now, as everyone has leveled up, it is really strong.
wudijo explains in the video that the Seneschall would probably be even stronger with another class than is seen in the video. The sorceress has hardly any stats or abilities that would benefit the companion in any way.
It is suspected that the companion benefits from values like attack speed or the Berserker status. According to the expert, barbarians would have more of that. The Seneschall of a barbarian would therefore be inherently stronger than that of a sorceress and could probably deal even more damage. But whether barbarians would even let a pet fight for them is questionable. They currently have one of the strongest builds in the game, even if it annoys everyone.
