Check out my guide for new players. That will likely answer many of your questions and helps define a lot of the terms that most long time players take for granted. Personally, my first characters were Witch Hunter and Witchblade, which, from scratch, were both able to complete Ultimate with self-found gear (nowhere close to the end game gear mentioned in the guides). As Safarel mentioned, a Vitality Conjurer is a great starting character. ForgottenKane’s guide is all you should need to know about the build. That said, DaShiv’s Dracarris Incarnate build is very good.