Thank you very much for this fantastic guide, it is very well written and incredibly articulate. I hope to be able to ask several questions about it here, if this is the correct place (and if not, any hints where I should ask instead are greatly appreciated). I’m hoping my questions are good enough to be useful for others to read, once you answer them 
To contextualize my questions (and as a way of giving additional praise): This is the first full guide (of this kind) that I have read – I am new to GD, and I prefer to start new games and try out as much as possible before following anything too closely, but your guide just fettered me, it is just too good not to read thrice, which I did. I noticed while reading for the second time, that there is so much in GD that is counter-intuitive, not just in the fine print of the mechanics. I mean also this: I like ARPGs, and even though I am not particularly skilful, I guess I am a veteran; I usually play summoners, at least at first, or summoner hybrids, because they usually represent the playstyle I like (snipers, basically; I usually ranged in traditional RPGs), because that’s how I started out in D2, because they intuitively make sense (why not let someone else fight for me) and because in almost all other ARPGs I have played, a summoner is usually the one which requires the LEAST amount of knowledge and gear (you need an awesome weapon to rock as a warrior, and you better know the mechanics of leech and reflect and whatnot to make sure you can sustain hits and mana etc.). That just doesn’t seem to be quite the case with GD.
So I suppose (1) my first question is: Your build isn’t really for beginners, is it? I am on my first playthrough, and I just passed the Coven in Veteran mode, and had up until now basically just followed my instinct, playing a cabalist focussed on summons. And I am pretty much crushing everything without much trouble, just doing my thing. Yet from what I now gather, this is to be expected, and Ultimate will be very different; my intuition is enough for Veteran, but then I’ll be stuck. And to get unstuck, I’ll need to delve as deep as you have been delving. And see: maybe summoner is so different, that if I want to play what I want I’ll need to change significantly? You write:
>> Suggestion: If you want to play a character that maintains a static army of permanent pets with high health/resists to tank for you, play a conjurer instead. Skeleton builds are specialized for maximum pet DPS regardless of casualties, and these builds operate best as offensive machines for which ALL pets are treated as expendable resources. The primary job of skeletons is to inflict damage as fast as possible, and NOT to survive indefinitely or to protect you! If you’re investing into making your skeletons tanky, then you are GUARANTEED to underperform compared to an offensively-optimized skeleton build.
The related question is: (1b) So you are not only constantly checking your cooldowns and doing your buffs and debuffs (like I am doing now), but constantly re-summoning your minions (like I am NOT doing now)? My skeletons don’t die that often, and my “permanent” ones (my Blight Fiend doesn’t have the transformer, then I have a Crab from a relic, a fire spirit from an epic off-hand, and the raven and the hellhound) die only sporadically, mostly to those weird AoE ground effects. How do you push all the buttons? How do you bind so many keys? What are your keybinds? Do you have to toggle between both sets often? I wonder if I have the skill for that, and instead need…
(1c) a Conjurer? Like, Briarthorn and Hellhound? Those can be my army? Do you have a build in mind?
My [u]second question /u: I didn’t even understand what Devotions are until near the end of Act 1. I was then under the mistaken impression that they are a little icing on the cake, the meat of which must come from Masteries and to a slightly lesser degree items. But you pros seem to consider Devotions inherent to a build’s damage output; now, they almost seem to me to be similar to the Passive Tree in Path of Exile: build-defining (but useless without active skills). If so, then I need to respec out of my ad-hoc intuition and look at T3s. I was aiming for Tree of Life, since I had thought that my army from my Masteries would be enough; now I know better. You sing the praises of Dying God, but do not mention (explicitly) the necessary steps needed to sustain health regen. What are those? Is BoD supposed to be enough? If I am too weakly skilled a player to manage all my CDR optimally (as your choice of Time Dilution lets you do), can I instead go for a weaker, more beginner-friendly “version” of “your build” and take another explicit pet T3 (like Modrogen) or Tree of Life (thus less CDR and thus keeping the standard (non-anomaly) version of Blight Fiend etc.)?
Third Questions are simply and revolve around skill choices: (3a) If you have all those +skills items, why not put one point in Blight Burst or Foul Eruption? Then (3b) you write about Ravenous Earth:
>>An AOE damage ability with good uptime and lots of multiple hits. This makes it very useful as a 1-pointer to proc both devotions that require continuous refreshing (such as Shepherd’s Call) or devotions with low/no cooldowns (such as Twin Fangs).
I get it. I think I was doing that, with Bloody Pox. So what makes my choice of Bloody Pox for the same purpose suboptimal? I had specced into it very early, and like it because of auto-spread (fire and forget, nice QoL for lower-skilled people like me) and no cooldown.
I find Bone Harvest hard to use because of its range. Any tips?
Last Question: You have all these great suggestions for items, a lot of which can be crafted. I haven’t found the blueprints to most of this, but even the crappy ones for which I HAVE found the blueprints I can’t readily make (Finally manage to make Hysteria, I think it’s called, which I am currently using for pet bonus Crab). Where am I supposed to get all the stuff to make the crappy relics I need to craft the better relics? Am I supposed to run back to A2, for example, and try to farm Manticores in the hopes of finding their “eyes”?
Thanks tons! Hope I am not detracting too much from the pro-debate here.
