Infernalist - help me out here

I've been trying to play infernalist (non minion build) since December launch. It sucked back then, it keeps sucking now.

Demon form - it always sucked and it keeps sucking. It only worked for a brief time by exploiting a bunch of uniques to reduce your health. Uncapped is now unsustainable, capped is a nerf since your weapon slots give you more stats than demon form.

Hound - the 20% damage reduction basically killed it for a non minion build

Pyromantic pact - decent I guess. You don't have to worry about mana pots anymore, but you take 100% or your health and es as damage instead. Doesn't feel like it's worth 2 asc points.

Seething body - has potential but you need to math the crap out of it to get decent uptime. We are probably back to unique hunting to get some silly interactions...

The immolation ascendwbcies are not even worth talking about.

The seething body change was a big buff for my melee infernalist.

But I really don't understand the purpose of the hellhound anymore. I thought being upgraded to a companion would come with some buffs. With the change to minion pact as well its become that helm that ignites nearby enemies... but a pet.