I've read that the pets get hidden buffs to scale them for Epic and Legendary and thus become very powerful in higher difficulties. I hope so...
So far act 1 was easy when i had 3 wolves with me, they were just destroying everything and i was just a spectator. In act 2 the same thing when i have 3 level 20 wolves, they're near immortal machines... but with just the two they can get hurt and die if i don't pay attention and heal them... which still isn't a big problem because i can re-summon them. I noticed that they take great damage from elemental and bleeding attacks, and i have no idea how bad it will get in the next 3 acts. At least when i kill the Yeti boss in act 3 the pets should be getting the 100% health bonus.
I know normal Typhon will be extremely difficult... he's the hardest boss for pet builds from what i'm reading on the internet. I will get 1 point in the skill Spell Breaker from Storm, so i can disable his damage reflection spikes, i also hope to have Squall maxed by then, so i can deal some damage with that skill and also debuff the mother*****r.
I will probably record that fight as it's going to be the most interesting one in the entire walkthrough.
After that, i'm really worried about the entire acts 4 and 5. The archers in act 4 will probably destroy the wolves. Act 5 with its bleeding damage and annoying enemies will be a pain too.
The summoner class was among the ones i considered for this... Core Dweller is amazing to have, isn't it? You probably have some spare points for offensive spells too, like Eruption? I'm a bit jealous for not having these skills, but i really wanted to have Squall and Spell Breaker, also, Storm has its own summon, which casts an aura that raises elemental damage by 100%. I'm disappointed by the Storm Nimbus skill, because my minions don't get the full bonus from the aura unlike Earth's equivalent of that skill (Earth Enchantment), which i think gives its full benefit to the pets.
Overall experience so far - it's fresh and very fun for me, but i'm still worried how i'm going to finish normal. I have only played pure physical damage melee classes or bow/spear characters in this game... and it has been like that for 10 years.
Now i'm trying to do new things and i want to try all sorts of stuff, including bow/throw hybrid Dragon Hunter (Runes+Hunting), or a melee Elementalist (Storm+Earth). I also want to try melee Champion (Warfare+Nature) and have the wolves as a support with their Strength of the Pack aura greatly increasing my damage, and Heart of Oak for a massive health pool. Another idea i have is for a melee character with Runes mastery, that converts physical damage to elemental. Not sure how many of these combinations can be harcore characters, as some of them will require extreme grinding for gear.
I'm currently farming Aktaios like crazy, but the idiot doesn't drop anything... only one formula so far, which is good for Storm, but not for pets. I can't leave him before i get the formula i need. It may take hours of tedious grinding.