Summoner build question.

[LupisVolk]

So i though i'd give the game another try since the Summons and summoner playstyle finally got some love. I've just got several questions.

1. What should i put my attribute points into?
2. where should i go down in the point tree?

[Maceyman]

I'm also trying that route from what I have seen elsewhere is to put points 70% ferocity and 30% toughness as it will be a glass cannon still. Gate of fate probably want plague bearer as it has all the summon traits.

[LupisVolk]

Originally posted by Maceyman:

I'm also trying that route from what I have seen elsewhere is to put points 70% ferocity and 30% toughness as it will be a glass cannon still. Gate of fate probably want plague bearer as it has all the summon traits.

Okay, i'm just wondering how to set up my Gate of Fate for now.

[Ghostlight]

I'd put points in 100% Toughness for Summoner, because your minions do not inherit your crit nor attack speed, and you should not be doing anything that cares about either anyways. No data yet on whether they inherit your Ailment buffs so not sure about about Willpower.

Key nodes to go for (over and above the typical good nodes), assuming all your Summons are ranged (which they should be):

Archions's Teachings: gives an extra projectile (your summons get the same bonus).

Blessed Silver: gives 5 Annointed points over 10 seconds, or 1 point when you Dodge. Each Annointed point buffs Projectile damage by 10%. Using a projectile skill (which you will never do) removes 1 point.

Every node in the tree that buffs Projectile damage.

Every node in the outer Plaguebearer group that buff Summons.

[LupisVolk]

Originally posted by Ghostlight:

I'd put points in 100% Toughness for Summoner, because your minions do not inherit your crit nor attack speed, and you should not be doing anything that cares about either anyways. No data yet on whether they inherit your Ailment buffs so not sure about about Willpower.

Key nodes to go for (over and above the typical good nodes), assuming all your Summons are ranged (which they should be):

Archions's Teachings: gives an extra projectile (your summons get the same bonus).

Blessed Silver: gives 5 Annointed points over 10 seconds, or 1 point when you Dodge. Each Annointed point buffs Projectile damage by 10%. Using a projectile skill (which you will never do) removes 1 point.

Every node in the tree that buffs Projectile damage.

Every node in the outer Plaguebearer group that buff Summons.

Ooof, i've been going down the spell caster route in the GoF, i'm using a mix of melee and ranged summons.

[Ghostlight]

The problem is that melee summons do not inherit your melee damage buffs, while ranged summons do inherit your projectile damage buffs. [This could be a bug and may get fixed].

I ended up running 3 copies of Liber Mortis, all set to Rend damage. This gives them Rocket Launchers and due to Archion's Teachings they all fire 2 Rockets at a time, which is glorious. I then have 2 copies of Archers, also firing 2 projectiles each. I've set those to Toxic so now I can go all in on Material Damage.

[LupisVolk]

Okay so if i go ranged summons i'm better off going down the ranged nodes on the GoF eatly on? Also how do i go about duplicating skills?

[Ghostlight]

You need to be in end-game mode (i.e completed campaign at least once) then you need to spend a fair bit of time and resource on investing in the Enneract Laboratory project in your city. Once this is done, the NPC that sells Enneracts can now duplicate them once each. You then need to complete a further city project to upgrade the Lab to allow her to duplicate a second time.

[magitek]

Originally posted by Ghostlight:

I'd put points in 100% Toughness for Summoner, because your minions do not inherit your crit nor attack speed, and you should not be doing anything that cares about either anyways. No data yet on whether they inherit your Ailment buffs so not sure about about Willpower.

The skill tooltip might be busted (as it is busted in other ways right now), but it does show damage going up when I put points into Ferocity.

[Hexton]

Does the build have to be toxic, could you go say fire/elemental for burn ailment/pet damage if possible?

[magitek]

Originally posted by Hexton:

Does the build have to be toxic, could you go say fire/elemental for burn ailment/pet damage if possible?

Dunno if it would be quite as point-efficient, since the Gate set with the minion boosts also has a bunch of toxic damage boosts.

The calculus probably changes a bit if you want to have a bunch of Livor Mortises, since iirc they can't do toxic.

[Hexton]

Hmm ok seems like should change that, because why bother with then choosing different pet types like fire.

[Ghostlight]

Originally posted by Hexton:

Does the build have to be toxic, could you go say fire/elemental for burn ailment/pet damage if possible?

The build can be anything. The thing is that my build HAS to set Libor Mortis to Rend damage, as this is the only way to make them RANGED and thus get buffs from projectile damage. Hence I go for Material.

[Ghostlight]

Originally posted by magitek:

Originally posted by Ghostlight:

I'd put points in 100% Toughness for Summoner, because your minions do not inherit your crit nor attack speed, and you should not be doing anything that cares about either anyways. No data yet on whether they inherit your Ailment buffs so not sure about about Willpower.

The skill tooltip might be busted (as it is busted in other ways right now), but it does show damage going up when I put points into Ferocity.

That's because your Summons benefit from your Total Attributes Bonus Damage. So every attribute point you spend will buff them a little. However they will not inherit your Crit Chance, so that point might as well have gone into Toughness, since you do not care about your own crit chance.

I am however, messing with a Hybrid build that is half Summoner, and it DOES want points into Ferocity (about 50:50 with Toughness), as follows (still goes full Material damage and everything into Projectile damage):

- Liver Mortis x 3 (all set to Rend)
- Havoc Orb (Rage spender)
- Fireball (Willpower spender, set to Poison)
- Anomaly (crowd control, set to Poison)

If you want to make an Elemental version of this, swap the 3 x Livers for 3 x Archers, set to Frost, set Fireball and Anomaly to Lightning and set Havoc Orb to Fire. .

[magitek]

Seems like there's a lot of leeway for getting damage. I'm a long way from being able to test out any late-game theorycrafting, but it seems like you could get some huge summon damage by going full-range (hunting swarm, rend livors) and then stacking projectile, material, and summon damage. Leftover points can try for spell damage.

I don't know how the formula works, but the damage type options on the skills are all "convert from physical", so wouldn't extra physical damage also help? Maybe get some nice multiplicative stacking if that's how the formula works.

[Ghostlight]

Originally posted by magitek:

Seems like there's a lot of leeway for getting damage. I'm a long way from being able to test out any late-game theorycrafting, but it seems like you could get some huge summon damage by going full-range (hunting swarm, rend livors) and then stacking projectile, material, and summon damage. Leftover points can try for spell damage.

You just described my current pure Summoner build exactly (3 Libors, 2 Archers, Anomaly). Currently level 60ish and counting. Currently destroying everything in level 90 expeditions. Very very very strong. And it merits all attributes going into Toughness; and with 3 Libors each taking 20% of the damage dealt to you while you reduce the damage dealt to them (from the Plaguebearer nodes), it is extremely tanky as well. They really did good with the Summoner patch.

I don't know how the formula works, but the damage type options on the skills are all "convert from physical", so wouldn't extra physical damage also help?

You are exactly right. And remember that Physical damage is a subset of Material damage so it's all good.