Second build is damn close to being optimal, although with + Skills gear you only need 1 point in refresh to make a difference, and I'd strongly suggest including exactly 1 point in Stone Form, 6 seconds of total invulnerability is very good.
Otherwise, you should know that Ultimate level for skills is 4 over their soft maximum, so if you get more than +4 to all skills via gear, you can actually go to a mystic (NPC that lets you redistribute skill points) and reduce your maxed skills (which actually stay maxed up to 4 over cap) and add those extra points anywhere you choose. In order, I'd suggest keeping your second build and as you get access to more than +4 to all skills gear, add extra points freed up to, in order:
- Get Survival Instinct to level 15 minimum after gear contribution, this skill adds massive staying power for your wolves. (it's basically automatically reapplied if the wolves are still at 33% life or lower when it lapses, making it a semi-permanent buff that reduces all damage income by 80% as well as increasing the wolves' damage by a huge amount)
- Max Inner Fire for the speed and regeneration for your Core Dweller.
- Start with one point each in Sylvan Nymph, Overgrowth, and Nature's Wrath. Keep Overgrowth at 1 (which should be much higher anyways due to gear contribution) and add points to Nymph and Wrath equally with any extra you can pull from other maxed skills after you get SI to 15+ and max Inner Fire.
After you do this you'll be pretty unstoppable. Just keep Plaguing everything, and make sure to only plague something that's actively being claimed by a pet to prevent pulling spare mobs to you rather than letting them get tanked.