How to increase summoner strength

[Peter Pan]

Hey all,

I am now doing maps up to tier 6, and I am finally starting to feel like I've hit the ceiling.

The problem is I have already taken all the +minion damage nodes, and I don't see how else I can increase in power except through my gems. And I am already level 17/18 in them. I don't know how else to become more powerful as a summoner to progress further.

For other builds, they can stack things like +attack speed, +cast speed, +elemental damage. But summoners don't have a lot of options in terms of gear. The only stat I could find that even remotely helps summoners is the helm prefix that adds +2 level to minion gems, but that's about it. And to farm gear for one prefix from the helm, I don't know if that is enough to help be progress.

My question is, how do I increase in power as a summoner?

[Tycen]

level your gems and gcp it. use the right gears.

[DoEFotGS]

Originally posted by Peter Pan:

My question is, how do I increase in power as a summoner?

What type of summoner you are?

Animate weapon, Raging spirits, zombie + spectres, golems or any of them + self cast? Because way to be OP may be very different for each of this variant.

[Drake]

Depending on the summons you also need auras to up the damage (and maybe pick aura nodes too). You might also want attack support gems, like added fire or multistrike etc. They work on minion gems.

[-]

Minion damage jewels, Offerings, +2 minion helm, +2 fire +1 gems for main weapon if you're srs + 3/4lvl empower

20 quality gems help a lot for damage. Pledge of hands with high damage roll if srs. The minion shield, scorge, a few options

Don't think elemental damage nodes scale with minion damage.. Might be wrong

[Ragblasfozm]

You can use support gems like Culling Strike, Poison, +Projectiles and stuff like that outside of the Minion ones to boost their stats.

[jbridso]

If you're a necromancer you get ALOT of help from the ascendancy points. The +dmg/atk speed from auras stack and benefit from +aura effect, so running 5+ auras makes a huge difference (dropping a rejuv totem even counts as an aura).

[Peter Pan]

Thanks for the suggestions but I cannot spare support gems that boost attack, because my minions are now starting to die in T6/7 maps and I need to boost them with minion life gem.

I already run armour and resists auras, and they still fall.

My typical 4L setup is like this:

[Random Minion Gem] - Minion Damage - Minion Life - Minion Speed

I may be able to take Minion Speed out for a damage support gem.

But my question is more from the perspective of gear. If other builds can get more power from gear and gems, while summoners can only get it from gems, wouldn't that mean summoners are a bit gimped?

Originally posted by DoEFotGS:

What type of summoner you are?

I run Zombies, Spectres, Stone Golem, and Animate Guardian.

I use a decoy totem.

I currently can only manage 2 auras, Elemental Resists, and maybe Armour.

I throw around the curse that makes enemies take more physical damage.

[VoshkaVonBadMeow]

Are you running your aura's as is, or linked to something? If not linked, try getting an enlighten gem and linking to your aura's, once you get enlighten to level 2 or higher it will reduce the mana reserved by aura's, thus allowing you squeeze in a third.

[dOBER]

Originally posted by Peter Pan:

Thanks for the suggestions but I cannot spare support gems that boost attack, because my minions are now starting to die in T6/7 maps and I need to boost them with minion life gem.

I already run armour and resists auras, and they still fall.

My typical 4L setup is like this:

[Random Minion Gem] - Minion Damage - Minion Life - Minion Speed

I may be able to take Minion Speed out for a damage support gem.

But my question is more from the perspective of gear. If other builds can get more power from gear and gems, while summoners can only get it from gems, wouldn't that mean summoners are a bit gimped?

Originally posted by DoEFotGS:

What type of summoner you are?

I run Zombies, Spectres, Stone Golem, and Animate Guardian.

I use a decoy totem.

I currently can only manage 2 auras, Elemental Resists, and maybe Armour.

I throw around the curse that makes enemies take more physical damage.

dmg is sometimes better then life (minion life gem). do have Victario's Charity already ? Victario's Charity with 4l spectre (flame sentinels) + spelleco + minion dmg + gmp does wonders on t6 maps

[Peter Pan]

Originally posted by VoshkaVonBadMeow:

Are you running your aura's as is, or linked to something? If not linked, try getting an enlighten gem and linking to your aura's, once you get enlighten to level 2 or higher it will reduce the mana reserved by aura's, thus allowing you squeeze in a third.

Not linked, but yeah I've heard of the gem. I'll definitely use it once I could get it from a drop.

Originally posted by Dober:

dmg is sometimes better then life (minion life gem). do have Victario's Charity already ? Victario's Charity with 4l spectre (flame sentinels) + spelleco + minion dmg + gmp does wonders on t6 maps

Are you saying I am at a stage where I need uniques to proceed?

Also you may be on to something. I could set my spectres to maximum damage while my zombies and golem are meat shields.

[mss73055]

My summoner also got
- Ancestral Bond double totem perk, to summon Raging Souls
- Infernal Blow still works, even at zero DPS due to Ancestral Bond
- Clay Shaper for an extra Stone Golem (Wyrmsign 4L DPS gems including Fortify)
- Fortify in the Zombie link

[dOBER]

Originally posted by Peter Pan:

Originally posted by Dober:

dmg is sometimes better then life (minion life gem). do have Victario's Charity already ? Victario's Charity with 4l spectre (flame sentinels) + spelleco + minion dmg + gmp does wonders on t6 maps

Are you saying I am at a stage where I need uniques to proceed?

Also you may be on to something. I could set my spectres to maximum damage while my zombies and golem are meat shields.

need i dont know but this shield provides a lot of dmg and it cost only 1c if u play on standard.

one time i build a summoner who summons everything and it was fun to play. ( died on lv 89 on breach server lag) srs + 3 spectre + 9 zombies + 3 golems + animate guardian and i got zero problems till t12 on hc with extrem low gear

here is short video
https://youtu.be/LRMI27e8e_k
not very fast or good but for only a few chaos investment pretty ok. this was a t9 map and u can see my minions are always full life without a minion life gem

[Ragblasfozm]

IMO, Minion <insert something here> gem are mostly baits to go wrong since most players will go with them all and ignore the rest.

Don't get me wrong, they do provide decent boosts to minions, but most of the time you're better with something else. The only exception to me is the resistance one (and minion speed at some spectres but that's a specialized case) to make them a bit more resistant but outside of that they're a lot better with damage and/or support ones and some gears to provide decent boosts.

Try new approaches, until you try you will think that you're doing it perfectly right when it's possible to do better.

[Bankoleva]

As a fellow summoner, a few tips I can offer.

The game is all about damage..... I actually found that my minions last longer because they essentially kill most things before they lose too much health. I've put no points, thought or gems into minion survival. Honestly, I can always get more from the dead I've just killed.... so primary focus damage.

My 4L
Zombie + Fortify + Minion Damage + (Melee Physical damage or Melee Splash)

SRS + Spell Echo + Added Fire + Minion Damage + Melee Physical

Golems + minion damage + Melee Damage + Added fire damage

Must use aura for any summoner
HATRED!!!!

This is a bit of a not so subtle secret that many miss unless you really pay attention. Haterd is an added % of physical damage being done as additional cold damage. That means all that physical you've just stacked is giving a massive 1/3 cold damage booster. At this point my minions were 1-2 shoting small mobs in lvl 70 areas. Only bosses pose a threat.

BTW Added Fire damage gem works the same way. % of physical damage added as fire.

You could also use vitality to keep you're minions healthy and Grace to give them some evasion which is the better defense of the 3 for them.

Curses
Vulnerability + Increased AOE + Increased duration

Yould added blasphemy, but I didn't have the reservation space for it.

Fleshing Offering + Increased duration
Flesh offering is INSANE. This is literally my go to combo when ever I see a boss, strong box. Desecrate, Flesh offering. Sending 8 zombies and 10 skeletons into a crack induced attack overdrive,..... your dps flies for 10 seconds.


I don't use Animate guardian because I found myself caring too much about his survival. Skeletons I reserve for bosses.... normally my chaos golem and 8 zombies handles everything. I have tried animate weapon, but again only is serious areas since they need more maintanace.


On a side note: My current experiment is an aurabot necro which is working way better than I thought. I only use 5 zombies because I prioritized blood magic and aura's first. Only took 2 zombie boosts to have some solo damage and SRS. At level 62, I'm honestly thinking I don't need any other minion nodes. ofcourse my aura's are buffing the hell out of the 5 zombies... my point.... Aura's might be what you need to look at.

[A New Player]

For animate guardian I recommend:
Belly of the beast(Chest plate)
Leer Cast(helmet)
Dying Breath(Staff)

This makes your guardian
A. Have more more hp
B. Increases nearby minion damage by 15% + increase curse strength.

I have a summoner that uses Mon'treguls breath(Sceptre, reduces max zombie count by 50%, but increases hp, resists, damage, and best of all, makes enemies explode dealing fire damage.) - Has 5 zombies.
Auras: Discipline, Hatred(Generosity support)
Curses: Vulnerability, Ele weakness

And other things that I don't feel like typing cause I'm lazy

EDIT: I actually wrote a post on this on the PoE forums, but I haven't checked it lately.