Skills Progression Guide (no respec):
Choose Occultist Mastery
1 Point in DEE and 1 Point in Raven
Occultist Mastery up to 10 Points
1 Point in Summon Hellhound, 1 Point in Raven’s Heal
Fill up points in Curse of Frailty and Vulnerability until level 10 (equipping a Searing Ember for Fireblast in the meantime)
After choosing the Shaman dual-mastery, level up the mastery until level 10 and max out Summon Briarthorn
Put a point in Mogdrogen’s Pact when you have enough devotion points to get Turtle Shell (Approximate Level 18)
Go back to Occultist Mastery and fill up the Mastery bar until you get Blood of Dreeg while maxing out Curse of Frailty
Put 8 Points in Blood of Dreeg
Put 10 Points in Shaman mastery to reach Wendigo Totem
Put 9 Points in Wendigo Totem (Approximate Level 30)
Advance the Shaman mastery bar two points per level, use the remaining points each level for Heart of the Wild (5/10)
Approximately level 40 will be when you reach Emboldening Presence
When you get to Emboldening Presence, place points in that (about 4-5 points) while leveling up the Mastery Bar until you complete the Shaman Mastery Bar.
After you reach that, put points in the Occultist Mastery bar to reach 32 by level 50.
At level 50, you only have two points per level, so place 6 points in Aspect of the Guardian for your pets’ Poison and Acid Resistance
For levels 50-60, focus on maxing out Primal Spirit after placing the points in Aspect of the Guardian (you’ll know when you reach the areas with large amounts of poison).
For levels 60-70, focus on maxing Primal Bond, while placing points in Emboldening Presence, Oak Skin, and Storm Spirit to patch up whichever resistances you need.
For levels 70-80, place points to max out the three skills above, Vulnerability (up to 8/10), and Ground Slam
For levels 80-100, finish up your skill tree until it matches what’s listed in the Grimtools. You want to focus on patching all your resistances first before going for further pet offenses (like maxing Mogdrogen’s Pact)
Equipment Priority:
This section is taken straight from DaShiv’s “The Night King” pet build. Clicking on the arrow next to his name will take you to his build guide:
Best pet items to level with:
Since this build largely uses Physique, it won’t have many opportunities to use an off-hand, so hunt down the Warden when you’re comfortable defeating him to get a shield with nice resistances. Likewise, farm the Depraved Sanctuary until you get a nice Salazar’s Blade to have an extra pet.
Fight Fleshwarped Commanders in the Gruesome Harvest, Withering Fields, and Conflagration as they have roughly a 5% chance to drop a Fleshwarped Bulwark. You can feasibly complete the quests in that area and come out with a nice Shield, and giving your pets 25 extra Physical damage early on will come out nicely.
When you get to Homestead, side with Death’s Vigil every time. Complete their quests as soon as you are able to and obtain every bounty that involves hunting Kymon mages that you can (don’t bother with any of the other bounties unless they require you to go to the Warden’s lab and you don’t have a Warden’s shield you want to use). Not only is Kymon reputation a pain to farm, but their cannon fodder drop medals with great Chaos resistance, so a prefix with good resistances will take you very far.
When you’re comfortable beating Karroz (be careful of his convert/fear on your pets), farm him for Bloodsworn signets with good resists for prefix/suffix. Between the four of those, you should be fine with covering your resists while using faction gear / store-bought equipment with the remaining slots.
When you go into Ultimate, if you haven’t maxed out your Reputations yet, get the Black Legion bounties that require you to kill Swarm Queen Ravna so you can farm for her shield. In addition, if you feel like you have enough pet damage, you can fight Gollus while you’re there and try to farm for a nice Ring. The Outcast also calls for 2 bounties that require you to kill Heros in the Conflagration, which is a great reason for you to go out and kill Fleshwarped Commanders to get a better Fleshwarped Bulwark.
Early items that grant pet OA include Wraithcaller’s Mantle, Rhowari Cuirass, Dreadguard, and the Relic Mortality.
Rovers, Devil’s Crossing, and Homestead are great factions to increase your standing with as soon as possible because they contain multiple pieces of equipment that help out with resistances and other defensive priorities.
As you level up towards Ultimate, the best faction items that will hold you over until you obtain the Mythical pieces are: Coven Tamer’s Hood, Coven Lifebinder Mantle, Wendigo Spellweaver Spaulders, Elite Rhowari Shoulderguard, Coven Lifebinder Vestments, Wendigo Mace, Legion VoidCutter, Malmouth Stormcaster, Wendigo Oppressor Seal, Malmouth Stormbinder Pendant, and Legion Mark of the Void.
Legendary items that grant nice resistances are Mythical Meat Shield for the huge Health + Vitality Resistance, Mythical Greaves of Ill Omen for Reduced Stun Duration, Mythical Golemborn Greaves are great if you need more Pierce Resistance, Vanguard of the Legion gives you a lot of resistances, as do items like Mythical Legplates of Valor and Mythical Mark of Fierce Resolve. Mythical Fiendflesh Mantle is great as it not only gives pets Aether + Chaos resistance while you wait to fill up the Beastcaller’s Set, but it gives you 10,000 points of flat absorption. Mythical Fiendmaster Raiment gives your pets valuable Chaos Resistance and nice +Pet Damage. Stronghold Defender great for giving +All Skills - even if you’re not using a pistol, and something like Mythical Wreath of Souls is great for +All Conjurer skills if you don’t have the Beastcaller’s Cowl yet.