Thank you!
Radaggan is indeed very weird atm; maybe the best route to go with it & SoC would be a full acid Sentinel (OK for more acid RR and awesome CDR with Path of the Three)? 
Something in this direction: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/qNYdjmgZ (core concept)
I wonder if the Sigil actually turns green with Radaggan – I never tried it before…
Yes it does turn green.
Nice build, time to update…
I made a feedback thread about it and by no means was this what I expected to come out a couple of months ago 
The set needing Deathguard dagger is pretty bad.
But hey at least whining about valguur low resists payed off
Yes… I suppose you could dual-wield it with an Ascendant Source, since you already have the belt for it 
Off-hand options for that build seem to suck quite a bit anyways…
Thanks for that btw. 
I am a total noob, levelling my first char (lvl 73 atm), but I always liked alts. As such, I have quite a few of them, trying skills and class combos. What I noticed yesterday when I was looking at my roster was this: 90% of my alts that managed to pass level 25 are either Nightblade focused OR Occultist focused.
And when it comes to the Occultist ones, I seem to always migrate to either Bloody Pox (I know it’s bad) or Sigil of Consumption.
I seem to like Sigil more than I expected, so I want to play a build focused on this skill. And I also noticed a nice budget link.
So here is my question: would Conjurer be the best Starting class combo for a no gear SoC build, or are there other, more beginner friendly classes that I should focus on? Something like Deceiver, Cabalist or the Sentinel idea you linked? Something which would work decent with no gear/target farming.
Thanks for the build, btw, I liked reading your posts.
I think a Conjurer would actually be a very good (and fun!) starting class with SoC. There are a lot of Monster Infrequents that support this skill, which is much better for beginner builds than if those were Legendary. The main reason for this is that you can target-farm them fairly easily and for multiple stages during levelling – since they kind of level with you – but Legendaries always drop at random, and sometimes you can’t even be sure you will ever find one specific piece.
Furthermore, some of the very few legendaries that are target-farmable (in this case the Dark One set) or whose blueprints can be bought at faction vendors (Reaver’s Hunger amulet) work very well with this build, too, until you find the actual Valguur set.
For general beginner’s advice I would recommend skim-reading through malawiglenn’s collection of beginner builds; especially his guide on a Vitality Cabalist caster, which explains e.g. how to best farm the Dark One set.
In regards to you gear I would then suggest following these GTs instead of the Cabalist ones in malawi’s guide:
Note: as I said about affixes on green items in regards to the end-game setup, it isn’t as important to get the exact combination seen in the GT but instead to a. fix your resists and b. reach a minimum of 2.8k offensive/defensive ability 
Note 2: very early levelling would probably be easiest to do with just Devouring Swarm (take this first!) & then Sigil, a bit like this: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/L2JOQpaV.
Also remember to get your MIs/re-farm basic versions from time to time (e.g. Bonewall ~level 23/35/…, Rylok Mark & Ascendant Source at level 40/55/…).
I hope this helps!
If you have any further questions, just ask
You, Sir (Miss?), are a hero and a gentleman (gentlewoman? )! Please enjoy an internet cookie
Your reply goes beyond my wildest dreams :). Thank you very much for the detailed reply. I was NOT expecting anything more than a short answer to my question, probably just saying this or that class and not much else. The fact that you spent time to actually put together 2 (!!!) builds with gear, skill distribution AND devotions (some of which seem oriented towards levelling and campain) let me basically speechless. Don’t worry, the “speechless state” did not last long, as you can see from the wall before you .
My highest character is a cold/frostburn S&B Blademaster that I enjoy playing very much, as well as a Sentinel and an Infiltrator that kind of stagnated around lvl 55.
With the update in difficulty I wanted to start fresh, so that I could experience the new challenge the game would pose. True to my initial post, the new character was of course an(other) Occultist, with the intent of focusing on SoC, since I did not try to play a build focused on it before. Therefore, I took 2-3 points in Bloody pox and rushed to get SoC.
I do like the increase in difficulty. I noticed my hp dropping a lot more, and the Reanimator was a bit of a challenge, especially since most of my points were in the mastery bar, trying to get SoC quickly, and the bosses have more hp and do a lot more (that guy summoned a ton of extra zombies!). However, once I started putting points in SoC I was surprised how nice it works, both as direct dmg and dot, and the heal helps a lot. This is when I decided to search more builds focusing on SoC and I was disappointed to see that there were few and far between.
Initially I was prepared to go with this Deceiver build even if it was an older version, since I did not have a lot of options, and I was reasoning that the Inquisitor mastery would help my no-gear character with the extra heal and the defence granted by the inquisitor seal. And I saw that I can buy the recipe for the head from Vinelton made it even more appealing.
As far as levelling goes, I was thinking to just wing it and pick what seems to help more from the initial build (I absolutely love to level the same way the build is played in endgame, if possible).
I see that the conjurer has a lot more hp steal than the deceiver, so I guess it balances out in the end. This and I have not played Conjurer before (I always saw it as a summoner class, and I don’t particularly like playing pet classes) evens the scale in the Deceiver vs Conjurer debate.
The fact that you posted this build 2 days ago makes it so much better, since it has everything up to date. The fact that you also showed me how to level up is even better, tipping the scales completely in the Conjurer side of things. Thank you for that again, by the way.
I do have a question: in the two links you gave with beginner gear, what is the point softcapping Solael’s Witchfire on a caster? I think I read somewhere that it’s useless for a caster. Does it affect any of the skills?
Thanks again for the wonderful reply. I have something to keep me busy for the moment :).
Cheers.
Thank you for the cookie!
I have to admit, though, that I relied quite heavily on the work of malawiglenn to put those builds together, who is, hands down, this forums most amazing beginner build archmage. So be sure to give him your thanks, as well!
But yeah, I guess figuring out how to adapt his research to this Sigil Conjurer took some time, too
You’re right, both flat chaos dmg & attack speed are 100% useless on this build. However, it also gives a tiny bit of %vitaltiy damage; and we really don’t have many other places to put these points into. Maxing out the shaman mastery bar for the life/OA/DA or the Mogdrogen’s Pact base skill for more energy regen is probably just as good, though (and if you ever notice that energy potions aren’t enough to keep you fluild, the latter is defnitely the best place to put them).
On the topic of survivability: The greatest defensive tool of these SoC builds is actually its life leech (and this is usually enough to make you pretty much unkillable already, if done right). Thus, in this regard, the vitality damage synergies with shaman are much better than inquisitor, since damage = survivability here
Just make sure to get Devouring Swarm as early as possible (be sure to apply it generously). The -%vit resist equals a lot of SoC damage – and, with this, survivability through life leech, too. Getting Curse of Frailty/Vulnerability soon after is pretty great for the same reasons; just as Rattosh constellation in your devotion tree.
Edit: Since you mentioned Conjurer being seen as mainly a pet class: I played this very char as both a Grasping Vines Caster & and as a melee lightning slinger (build 1 & build 2) before it became a SoC leechtank; I can definitely recommend you to check them out if you were ever to want some variation in playstyle!
I am, in fact, a guy btw.; though I am very grateful to you that you didn’t assume anything – despite the fact that men still seem to be in a great majority around these parts of the internet 
@Smmogz & anyone who read my above posts regarding levelling etc.: All relevant information can now be found under the “Levelling Guide” section, which is hopefully a little more precise than my first, somewhat chaotic responses to your questions
Note: I slightly changed the two GTs I posted before, too; mostly in regards to the Devotions. Whilst I first thought that starter builds might require you to take a more defensive route, additional testing made me feel like a more aggressive approach actually nets us more survivability due to our massive life leech.
Hey @Cinder,
If you want I can give you a bit of feedback with regard to the levelling guide, since I am doing this right now. I play self found, without any gear from my other characters.
B) Skill Progression.
- Start with the Shaman Mastery & max out Devouring Swarm.
As far as damage goes, there is no issue. When Devouring sward goes above 10/16 it’s damage is really strong. It made me think Overkill quite quickly. But there is a bit of a downside, which I will mention at the end. Levelling the skill to max takes up to level 7.
- At level 10, take the Occultist mastery & push the mastery bar to 10. Grab 12/12 SoC first, then Curse of Frailty (4/10) & Vulnerability (10/10).
Levelling Devouring swarm and nothing else in the beginning, lets you poos points starting from level 7, and at level 10 you can have 1/12 in Sigil. Then you continue maxing SoC. Continuing with the advice you provided, the next steps are to put more points into skills, maxing Vulnerability and getting CoF to 4/10.
The biggest issues that I saw were as follows:
I know that most people go with the 1 skill - 2 mastery bar point distribution method. I don’t respect that 100% of the time, but I think the total lack of points in the mastery bar is a bit drastic.
Maybe switch the skill distribution a bit? Or just get CoF and Vulnerability as 1 pointers at the start, since you already have vit rr from Devouring Swarm?
I hope it helps a bit.
Cheers.
Hey @Smmogz, Thank you for trying out the build! Your feedback is much appreciated
You might be right with the lack of points in mastery bars; taking 2 dmg skills that early might indeed be a little too greedy. Definitely put more points into the mastery bar if you feel you need them!
There are, however, a few other things you can do to help with this issue:
Unless you’ve done it already you could put e.g. Polished Emerald components in your armor slots to get more stat points so that you can equip your gear (maybe your lvl50+ alt has found some useful stuff already in that regard?).
Since you can actually reset your Attributes via special potions later on, you can also put more points into e.g. spirit early on. Being able to equip better gear is more important than anything in the beginning! The life/DA from Physique is nice, but gets outvalued pretty quickly in the early game.
Small tip: When I level up a new char, I usually leave ~10 attr. points unspent if I don’t really need them at that moment to make sure that I can always add a few wherever I need to equip newfound awesomness.
Regarding your mana issues:
If you have any other feedback, I’d love to hear it! At this point, that’s the best way to improve my guide, after all
Edit: changed my guide according to your feedback. Thank you again for reminding me of the 1/2 skill/mastery bar rule; how shameful of me to forget 
Heh, no problem. Since I like alts, I do lack the required end game experience, but I do get a ton of levelling experience. I also play on Veteran, so it’s a bit more challenging, making the afore mentioned issues even more stark, since bosses have more hp/ fights last longer.
I also want to point out that, with the feedback I provided, my intent was just to let you know how this would work on a fresh char/account/game. Of course I have components and even some vitality gear from my “main” (if we consider this cabalist my alt), but other people reading your guide might not be so lucky. I even have low lvl FG gear which is very good for it’s level, which cannot be equipped yet (have some good vitality gear which requires level 10 but 250+ physique, lol).
I will continue with self found for the moment, because I wanted to see how it fares. If I have any more feedback which might help you improve the levelling part of the guide, I will let you know.
Whilst I didn’t really have the time to fully test my levelling guide yet (only the posted lvl 100 specs), your arguments made me try it at least its first few stages.
You are right that a maxed out Devouring Swarm is way to taxing on our energy; 10/16 is definitely enough. But when keeping to that limit, even with 12/12 Sigil on top of it, I feel like I need energy pots only fairly rarely (e.g. after killing especially large mob packs) if I prioritise energy regen on every available gear slot (jewellry, caster armor & offhand).
Overall, the Devouring Swarm+Sigil combo feels as strong as I hoped; aoe is great, dmg very good & survivability pretty awesome as well (could facetank most of the bosses once Sigil was high enough).
But I also strongly suspect that you were right with your critique of my levelling plan after Sigil was maxed; you should definitely leave everything else just as one-pointers for a while (as you suggested above) & focus on pushing the mastery bar. Then, you might be able to slowly start taking other stuff once you’ve reached act 2 (which is where ectoplasm starts to drop from ghosts & stuff)
My char sheet + GT for reference: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/YZeoxYE2
Thanks again for your feedback! I’m afraid it’s very unlikely that I’ll be able to play this char all the way to 100 to test everything myself, so what you’re giving me here is very very helpful
Has the latest patch changed something for this build, or is it still viable as it is?
nope, i run a very similar build and it’s still quite powerful. i wouldn’t change anything here really
I dont rly see the point of the sholders,wouldnt bloodfury spaulders be better?and there has to be better leg options
Build is 2 years old without any updates mate. The player might not even be playing the game anymore.
I played a Valguur Conjurer recently Conjurer, Level 100 (GD 1.1.9.1) - Grim Dawn Build Calculator
Nothing to write home about. It’s a slow build even though it gets up to 4000% dmg. You only notice and huge dps increase once every sigil/totem hits a target, but that takes time. Ritualist is better in every way ( more dmg/ tankier).
I think Conjurer part needs to get some love like cdr to sigils or better uptime to totems. The class ain’t impressive when it comes to vitality builds anymore ( I personally never felt like vit Conjurers where anything special in the first place).
I might write some feedback once I can upload stuff cause my internet connection is bad currently.
Thanks for the reply,sorry for the necro:D
Well the point was in making a sigil build,so ritualist wasnt an option
Sigil builds around Vampiric Bonewall are cool. For example with Trozan set:
or Raddagan:
thats a lot of sigils o.O
yeah,looking in to that cabalist build,it seems like conjurer is a joke by comparison…
