Wow, thank you for the fast reply. Though the link says 1.2.1.0 I assume the itemization is meant for 1.2.0.5?
Also, do you still have a copy of the “build details” for the 1.2.0.5 version such as devotion order and augment/component list?
Thank you in advance!
I reuploaded the save to GT, so it shows up as 1.2.1 atm.
don’t have the build details, but the devotion order is -
Hi Maya, is it possible to take wendigo totem out of the build and spend the 2 points elsewhere for less buttons? Where would the 2 points be best spent if I did that?
Apologies for the late reply, but yes you can take the points out of Wendigo Totem if you wish.
As for where it is best spent on, my choice will be on Oak Skin for a slightly better tankiness for both the player and pets.
Hi Maya,
First off, I have to say I really appreciate your builds and you taking the time to add leveling sections for us new players 
It’s great to not be forced to look at a grim tools and figure it out ourselves!
That said, I wonder if you could clarify something here. In the Occultist paragraph of the Leveling section at the top, you mention “Since we are going for a Conjurer, it is recommended that you put enough points in Shaman early on, to get a 16/16 Briarthorn before going back to focus on the Occultist Side.”… But when I look at the Skills paragraph right underneath, there is no mention of Briarthorn anywhere. Also the endgame build only has 3 points in Briarthorn. Is there an optimal level where I should invest the 21 points needed in Shaman?
Cheers and keep up the good work!
I’m not Maya, but I’ll try to help nonetheless
For early levels, max-leveled base pets do great.
Which mean’s you’re not going to go wrong by doing the following:
16 points in Familiar
1 point in Mend Flesh
16 points in Hellhound
Optional: a couple of points into curse of frailty if you want to have an active skill
Very optional: a point or two into Mogdrogen’s pact if you want a bit of hp regen
16 points into Briarthorn
Then back to all the Occultist stuff
The endgame build only has a single point in Briarthorn because it’s main purpose at that point is it’s aura, which buffs your birds. And as a distraction for enemies. Your birds will be the main force of your build in endgame
Thanks for clearing that up!
Right now I’m playing two builds in parallel (can’t make up my mind what I want to commit to yet). This one at level 15 that has as you described 16 points in both Familiar and Hellhound, vs Ritualist with 16 in Raise Skeleton and 12 in Undead Legion… and I find the necro is FAR stronger (almost by an order of magnitude). Bosses, trash mobs, everything just melts and I barely have time to catch up to my pets.
Does this compare and is it just a slower start? I’ve read that mid-game the skeletons are probably a bit squishy, but that’s why you also have a blight fiend right? I mean if the damage output continues to be this disproportionate, I’m just wondering when this build comes into its own.
For reference, I am relatively new to GD and my highest char ever is only level 30 so I have no idea what mid- or endgame look like
Cheers
In the end, fully geared, they’re both very capable of clearing all content easily, including all super bosses.
Conjurer can do it with fewer button presses, if that’s your thing.
(it absolutely is a big factor for me, I love low action per minute builds)
Ritualist also has “few buttons to press” build variants.
But Conjurer can do it with 1-2 active skills, while still remaining at near top performance.
When each one has their most noticeable power spikes, I cannot tell you, as I’ve only played Conjurer.
Based on your feedback, skellies probably wreck things much better in the early game.
Thanks for that… knowing myself and what an altaholic I am, I’ll probably end up playing both 
If you’re a true altoholic like many of us you’re going to be playing a lot more than 2 characters. 
Sorry for being late to reply, but first of all, welcome to the game and the forums.
Regarding Leveling, it is mostly as Yarik mentioned. Ideally you should do it like this -
The idea is mostly to get an extra tank out in the field early on (and Briarthorn can also deal quite a ton of damage).
The reason why the leveling section is written the way it is, is because I took the lazy option of leveling characters without choosing a second mastery, just to provide people with more options in terms of potential pet class combinations. For example, you can use the same occultist leveling path to make a pet Pyromancer.
–
On the Ritualist vs Conjurer question, Skeletons absolutely shred everything in the game that is not a Superboss (optional endgame bosses that are the hardest challenges for any build, outside of going deep into Shattered Realms).
Skeletons however are more fragile than other pets as a way of balancing their insane damage. But, that won’t really come into play until much later. So, it is essentially going to be in favour of Skeletons for the leveling phase of the game, while at endgame Conjurer not only catches up, but can even outdps Skeletons in a prolonged battle simply due to the conjurer pets dying much less and hence outputting similar overall DPS.
Also, yes Skeleton pet builds tend to be less lazy to play while with a Conjurer, you can even just walk around and collect loot without pressing anything other than left and right clicks.
Hey thanks for the response!
So after playing a bit more, I’ve gotten both builds to level 28, and after seeing the necro get destroyed by Rekt ByProtoss, Champion of the Pit, I switched to the other char (conjurer) and did what was suggested: I dipped the necessary points into shaman and boy oh boy, did I see a difference.
The necro took like 5-6 attempts to kill Rekt (I spent most of my time teleporting/evading away while waiting for my skeleton cooldown) while the conjurer killed him in one try and I only had to resummon the hellhound once (for some reason it’s always the first to go down).
Anyway I had a question about pet bonuses and regular stats and was wondering if anyone could clear things up. I keep reading everywhere that player stats don’t affect pets, so if I get +10% Vitality Damage for instance and my pets are doing Vitality Damage through some sort of conversion effect, then they would NOT benefit from the +10%. Tooltips on pets in this case seem to support this as they are not updated when an item with this effect is equipped / removed.
That said, I have boots that give +17% to All Retaliation and some shoulders that give +48% as well for a total of 65%, and when I equip both I can see the Briarthorn’s physical retaliation damage jump from 744 to 1228 (which is a 65% increase). Is retaliation special somehow or am I missing something? And to clarify, the retaliation dmg bonuses are not under a “Bonus to All Pets” header.
Cheers
P.S.: I’ve watched some videos by a guy called RektByProtoss on youtube, I can’t imagine it’s a coincidence there’s a mob named after him… is this a way for Crate to pay homage to its content creators? If so that’s pretty cool.
This was from the community run pvp tournaments from a few years ago. Crate enjoyed them so much they put the 3 winning builds into the game. Acidic Aldric was the other one who won 2 of them so 2 different versions of that one.
Detail: Rekt is a very tough boss in campain when leveling (I usually skip him) so dont worry about not killing him
Rekt is a special boss as Medea said, and Skeletons having an issue there is understandable 
Regarding Hellhound, it is kind of a secondary tank (compared to Briarthorn) that can easily hold aggro, but not take as much punishment before dying. The good news is that it explodes on death, dealing even more damage to enemies.
This is correct.
That… should not be happening. I would suggest reporting it as a bug here - Bug Reporting - Crate Entertainment Forum
Just submitted the bug. Thanks for the replies!
I just hit 40 now, gonna see if I can start target-farming some gear I leveled a Vitality Ritualist (one of RektByProtoss’ builds) and once I hit the Mountain Deeps, I was able to grab a couple of Bonespikes off the troll mages and boy did the build take off once I had those two babies equipped. I’m hoping there’s some level 30-40 ish gear that can do the same for this build