Reasonable Spirit Summons?

[Anthreris]

What summons are good but not overpowered? We all know of our lord and savior the infamous Mimic, or Black Knife Tiche. But what is a viable summon to even the odds throughout the entire game without wrecking the balance?

Spirit summons seem to be regarded as the "difficulty" slider. At the same time they are an in game tool which could be regarded as part of a character's build, so what are you including or not including in your arsenal spirit summons? Simply put what are using that keeps the game challenging and is still capable of being reliable?

Thanks in advance, and also I'm sorry this post is worded kind of weird. I'm trying to ask some questions based on my disjointed thoughts.

[Morton Koopa Jr.]

So I don't have the mimic, and I don't have enough fp for black knife tiche.

I personally use

Great Shield dudes
-humanoid enemies

Pros
-take aggro
-lock movement
-high survivability

Cons
-fall prey to massive AOEs
-low damage

Great for slowing down an enemy and can help lock down lots of midbosses for you to use slow attacks.

Latenna the archer
-dragons, rykard, astel

Pros
-massive aggro range

Cons
-low survivability

Due to her massive aggro range, you can leave her at the portal to a boss zone, and she can provide just a bit of extra, consistent damage.

Other ones I've messed with:

Jellyfish
-helped in early game, but haven't really tried ever since. I was just desperate for the poison damage early on in the game cause I was so weak.

Raya Lucaria Soldiers
-multiple aggro sources, the main soldier has a ranged magic attack, decent

Artorias/Boreal outrider looking knight dude
-I feel like he should be good but he will get killed rather quickly in the face of some aoe attacks.

mausoleum knights
-seems strong but their aggro range and speed are awful

[mpcgannon]

I like to use the doggos and pretend they're my pets. They're great at drawing attention away from me so I can chug or attack from behind. Along the whole head canon line, I'm really bummed I can't keep my pups by my side 100%.

[John Titor]

Originally posted by Gman:

What summons are good but not overpowered?...

None. None summons are good. All summons bad and blasphemous. You should be ashamed of yourself for even asking.

Or, you know...you can just use whatever you want and have fun.

Edit: I used Finlay against Malenia. She didn't do to well, but it was a fun go (read her description to find out why).

[Anthreris]

Originally posted by mpcgannon:

I like to use the doggos and pretend they're my pets. They're great at drawing attention away from me so I can chug or attack from behind. Along the whole head canon line, I'm really bummed I can't keep my pups by my side 100%.

Wolves are pretty powerful for what they are, and they can go down pretty quick. So I suppose they are pretty reasonable. I typically use them early game in scenarios like the Redmane Duo fight.

Originally posted by John Titor:

Originally posted by Gman:

What summons are good but not overpowered?...

None. None summons are good. All summons bad and blasphemous. You should be ashamed of yourself for even asking.

Or, you know...you can just use whatever you want and have fun.

Edit: I used Finlay against Malenia. She didn't do to well, but it was a fun go (read her description to find out why).

That was a clever idea of using Finlay against Malenia. Yeah I'm trying to identify summons that won't make the game as easy for me as the aforementioned summons. Ultimately I want to use them but I don't want it to feel like autopilot.

[Anthreris]

Originally posted by Morton Koopa Jr.:

So I don't have the mimic, and I don't have enough fp for black knife tiche.

I personally use

Great Shield dudes
-humanoid enemies

Pros
-take aggro
-lock movement
-high survivability

Cons
-fall prey to massive AOEs
-low damage

Great for slowing down an enemy and can help lock down lots of midbosses for you to use slow attacks.

Latenna the archer
-dragons, rykard, astel

Pros
-massive aggro range

Cons
-low survivability

Due to her massive aggro range, you can leave her at the portal to a boss zone, and she can provide just a bit of extra, consistent damage.

Other ones I've messed with:

Jellyfish
-helped in early game, but haven't really tried ever since. I was just desperate for the poison damage early on in the game cause I was so weak.

Raya Lucaria Soldiers
-multiple aggro sources, the main soldier has a ranged magic attack, decent

Artorias/Boreal outrider looking knight dude
-I feel like he should be good but he will get killed rather quickly in the face of some aoe attacks.

mausoleum knights
-seems strong but their aggro range and speed are awful

Latenna can dish out damage, the lack of mobility is definitely a downside. However she is quite powerful in my experience. I haven't used many of the others, the Bloodhound Knight might be an interesting summon to use.

[John Titor]

Originally posted by Gman:

....Yeah I'm trying to identify summons that won't make the game as easy for me as the aforementioned summons...

Try them. Test them out. ♥♥♥♥, I never seen anyone mention rats, which seemed weird to me because they're a free summon (no fp, no hp). Then I tried them and saw how they work. No idea if they're useful for a boss, but kind of handy for some areas.

[Heimdall313]

Kaiden is good, he's mortal. He does what you expect him to do.

Skeleton Militia is early, they do trash damage, they interrupt attacks a lot, they reanimate upon death. Not OP but useful, fun.

Wolves are good on runners and mages.

Raya Lycaria soldiers are useful but not OP.

[vamirez]

The marionettes / avionettes are fun - the archers don't do much dmg but they just pepper the enemies with a ton of arrows. The avionettes (the flying bird guys) are chaotic with their tantrum when getting hit, and also throw fire which can be great situationally. My feeling is they are in the mid-range of strength / usefulness.

[♔V3RD1CT]

Think it comes down to the level.
For example three pot summon has zero viability ever even at +10m. Though it is hilarious seeing them take chunks of hp bar from dragon shins.
Everything 'is' in fact fairly average if it is not your clone. The rest get butchered quickly, or with aoe.

Some of the larger ones can take a punch, and so it really become about level, and fit. Each one also may have a versatility here, or there that makes them advantageous. For example the skeleton archers stand outside of battle shooting arrows from behind you.

I would say anything at +8-10 will give you that similar cheese ease factor, and anything at 7 or under is more balanced, dies instantly every time. That not including mimic.

[AstinDextor]

For the most part it's the Legendary Ash Summons that tend to be overpowered. Standard ones are pretty well balanced. I think the Demi-HUmans are highly underrated. They don't do a ton of damage but there are five of them, they are very aggressive and coordinated and very good at staggering enemies. Upgrade them and they are great at helping to clear out ruins and any of the Crystallian boss fights. Mausoleum Soldiers are similarly good, but I just really love unleashing the boys.

[Senki]

Depends on your build. All that matters is that the summon takes aggro and not it's damage as long as your build deals a lot. So basically every summon will turn the game into easy mode.

So if you want to use summons just use whatever you like, it doesn't really matter.

[Smoking Chihuahua]

Mr. Lahey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdlIKy2lJ_g&ab_channel=JackKehoe

[Holografix]

Kindred of Rot Ash is a cool spirit ash.

[John Titor]

Originally posted by Donny Jepp:

Mr. Lahey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdlIKy2lJ_g&ab_channel=JackKehoe

Make another ♥♥♥♥ post like that you'll receive two tickets to ride the ♥♥♥♥ bus, bud.

[Smoking Chihuahua]

Originally posted by John Titor:

Originally posted by Donny Jepp:

Mr. Lahey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdlIKy2lJ_g&ab_channel=JackKehoe

Make another ♥♥♥♥ post like that you'll receive two tickets to ride the ♥♥♥♥ bus, bud.

ok I admit he's not balanced