http://www.grimtools.com/calc/mN4K4XBZ
Some rough sketch of skills+devotions there. Just messing around, but trying to avoid permanently crippling a character needlessly.
I heard that Drain Essence was kind of undertuned, but I wanted to mess around with it anyway. I decided to go with a goofy drain tank, since an active damage-dealing fighting Deathknight would have been mostly Soldier with a couple boring on-hits from Necro, and I didn’t want that either. (The more obvious choice for DE at first look is Cabalist, but then you might as well do Sigil instead and forget about Necro altogether. Doom Bolt could’ve been nice in this case, or I could’ve only stopped at the Curse of Frailty line. Necro and Occultist step on each others’ toes - Exclusive masteries and DE/Sigil are redundant. You could do Sigil and DE at extremely high levels, I guess, but I decided not to - likely I’d just go Sigil+Doom Bolt, and never have enough points for DE, and that’s not what I was going for.)
Items - You can probably ignore the hypothetical items in the build. In reality, Rare items that power up the DE line will be better for most slots, and +%Vitality damage wherever. Other than that, juggle components to max all resistances. (There isn’t a ton of Epic/Legendary support for DE outside of Uroboruuk, and that’s not something I’m likely to ever own, and at that point I’d just want to kill a few legendary bosses and quit the game anyway.)
I had Shield in mind for the offhand, but you can use 2H weapons if for some reason it has better DE buffs than your best 1H setup combined. The Soldier skills require one of these options, though.
Skills - I decided to use Soldier mostly for Forcewave, Menhir’s Will, and Fighting Spirit, which are very powerful and easy to get, and likely Overguard. Necromancer takes the obvious DE line and exclusive passive skill. There are also more than enough points to max out the Siphon Soul line.
At higher levels, there are leftover skill points. I may pick up Blight Fiend, or maybe Counterattack. Or I could just max out some more existing lines instead of spreading it thin, I guess. (Compared to a Necro pet, Counterattack seems to make better use of the Soldier setup, but adequate damage synergy would have to come from gear or maybe even a change to my devotions. The pets don’t get any synergy and would mostly just tank things, which I should be able to do on my own regardless. Overall, I have doubts about how to make this all work post-60 or 70…)
Playstyle - Land a big Forcewave and then tag as many different enemies with a single tick of Drain Essence. Most of the damage is applied as a DoT, and the DPS number given does not correspond to actively channeling on that enemy. (I assumed wrong until I tried it on a new character. Marginal on-hit Aether damage is the reward for a constant channel, but it’s probably not worth it in many circumstances)
Early game, you should play the main campaign for money, starter gear, and energy potion money. Then you can grind 5-10 Devotion points out of the Crucible if that’s your thing. Maxing DE early will get you hooked on the green juice for a while. It’s so bad that you might want to use a gun in between potion cooldowns.
Devotion - Turtle, Crab, and Menhir’s Will all give safety nets. Rattosh makes up for skipping Curse of Frailty on Occultist. Viper early is good for energy problems. Bat and Wendigo are good farming masteries with extra vitality DPS procs. Affliction gives some generic Vitality stuff. (Almost got Gallows, but Viper+Turtle gave me the blue devotion points I needed already.)