Summoner/Mage Build Recommendations

[KernelSanders93]

Hey everyone, I am currently running a Summoner/Mage build (Only like level 8 currently) and I am looking for a good build to go with. Should I be using wands? What should I focus my points in? What spells should I be using/looking for? Also I am playing co-op so if that means anything. My friend is a knight, Lohse is a fighter/healer, and Sebille is an assassin using daggers. Thanks.

[LaserGuy]

I like using Wand/Shield on my summoners. You don't need a massive amount of raw damage for summoning... any wand with a +Int and +Initiative bonus is fine. Shield gives you a huge amount of protection that will make it a lot easier to keep yourself alive. Shields can have nice bonuses on them anyway, and bouncing shield is a very effective physical damage skill in a pinch that only requires a minimal investment in warfare.

For skills, Conjure Incarnate is obviously your go-to ability. Be sure to get Power and Ranged infusion for extra damage and armor. Warp infusion is great as it lets your incarnate teleport around, but it might not be easy to find at your level. You might want infusion of your favorite elemental ability, but this is not of huge importance, IMHO.

Beyond that, I guess it depends on what else you need in your party. It sounds like you're in a heavy physical damage party, so probably some support abilities from Aero/Geo/Hydro would work fine.

[The Maroon Typhoon]

What kind of mage are you? IE Hydro, pyro, aero, geo, necro. For my summoner I went with a mix of all and provided extreme support (fortify from geo, heals from hydro, evasion and whirlwind from aero, haste and peace of mind from pyro). Used a Wand and shield for survivability. Mostly used my summon for the damage. Never used totems but I also haven't tried it since the rebalance.

[fragonard]

My favorite so far is the one I'm running now. It uses shield and 1H sword to combine Bouncing Shield and Battle Stomp for knockdowns. Bouncing shield is very high damage even with only 1 point in Warfare. Then Pyro, Necro, and Huntsman for Mass Deploy Traps and Mass Corpse Explosion for the player and either Master of Sparks or Necrofire infusion for your incarnate. Serious damage with only a few points required. If you have extra points from items, put them into Pyro for more damage if possible. The source crafted spells require level 9 but you're almost there. The non-Mass versions are good too.

[KernelSanders93]

I am mainly running pyro/summon but plan to go geo also. I really want to try to get the necrofire infusion for my minion for I see alot of people like it. I think I will try to get some geo for the fact that I can buff myself and teammates. Also should I stop at 10 summoning or go beyond that?

[Chaoslink]

Summoning will cap at ten. You’ll need gear to get it higher. I usually ran wand and shield on summoners. Probably my favorite was the Swiss Army knife build where I stacked memory and learned all the spells I could for every magic school to be able to combo magic effects. Damage was poor but CC was crazy. Requires a very magic heavy team though.

[fragonard]

So, extra item points into Summoning or Pyro? Probably not much difference in total damage. Depends a bit on what items you can find. Personally, if I had a choice, I'd put the extra into Pyro.

[Chaoslink]

I mean, I’ve had summoning reach about 17 in the past with rings and other gear. So you can definitely get it pretty high, but you also tend to have to keep really old gear as finding another +2 item can be difficult.

Personally I haven’t kept summoning after about level 12-13 since back at only 100 hours (I’m over 500 now) as summoning has always had scaling problems. It’s the most powerful skill early game and the weakest late. In all my recent games I end up dropping it immediately after act one for different builds, using it just to power through act one. But that’s me. It still works all game, just that after level 15-16 a dedicated damage build is far more effective. The only thing summoning offers is the versatility of changing damage types on the fly, but usually you fall into a routine always using the same element incarnate which basically negates that.

That, and I can only handle the lengthy infusion animations for so long.

[LaserGuy]

Originally posted by KernelSanders93:

I am mainly running pyro/summon but plan to go geo also. I really want to try to get the necrofire infusion for my minion for I see alot of people like it. I think I will try to get some geo for the fact that I can buff myself and teammates. Also should I stop at 10 summoning or go beyond that?

I'm not sure pyro is great for this simply because your teammates are all primarily physical damage. Being a lone pyromancer on a physical team means a lot of your damage is going to be fairly ineffective because you're working against the other type of armor from the rest of your team, especially when your first turn of battle is going to be getting your summon put together, who may well also be physical damage anyway. If I were playing this team, I'd push more of the healing/support onto the summoner, and make Lohse focus more on physical damage rather than a Fighter/Healer (Fighter/Polymorph or Fighter/Necro have nicer synergy).

[KernelSanders93]

Originally posted by LaserGuy:

Originally posted by KernelSanders93:

I am mainly running pyro/summon but plan to go geo also. I really want to try to get the necrofire infusion for my minion for I see alot of people like it. I think I will try to get some geo for the fact that I can buff myself and teammates. Also should I stop at 10 summoning or go beyond that?

I'm not sure pyro is great for this simply because your teammates are all primarily physical damage. Being a lone pyromancer on a physical team means a lot of your damage is going to be fairly ineffective because you're working against the other type of armor from the rest of your team, especially when your first turn of battle is going to be getting your summon put together, who may well also be physical damage anyway. If I were playing this team, I'd push more of the healing/support onto the summoner, and make Lohse focus more on physical damage rather than a Fighter/Healer (Fighter/Polymorph or Fighter/Necro have nicer synergy).

I have noticed that it can be a little frustrating when we have a person almost dead and its my turn and my team tells me to finish him. Well then im screwed because he will have no physical armor but alot of magic armor left.

[Chaoslink]

Yeah, building your team in coop has this issue as you’re not one person planning each character to make sure you have the synergy between magic and physical damage. I’ve always found stacked parties (all physical or all magic) to be too simple and/or too boring, and my participation in some coop saves fizzled for that reason. Since you can’t just tell everyone how to play, you have to adapt to what you have. In this case, dropping magic for physical might be your best bet, so going necro with summoning could be a viable choice. Probably still worthwhile to have a skill or two in Pyro/hydro/Geo for the support skills. Warfare and a melee weapon could also be useful for knockdown abilities.

[HidesHisFace]

Ok, so here's the deal - summoners are absurdly versatile, and now that totems have been buffed they also get some decent damage capabilities besides the incarnate.

Now, from what you said - your party is mostly physical damage based - with a knight, fighter/healer, and an assassin.
That means that if spec in magic damage, you won't contribute that much - you will be the only one stripping magic armour from enemies, while the rest of the party is mostly physical.
That being said, you still have an option - necromancy.
Necromancy deals physical damage, and hits like a truck. On top of that, it compliments summoning in some areas as well.

Now, what to spec with? With this kind of build you won't rely on your weapon much.

Pure summoners do not really care about stats, because all they really use scales of Summoning skill, BUT necromancy scales with intelligence - so if you plan on using that, pump it as much as you can.

So the summoner/necro hybrid.
You will need summoner pumped to 10 ASAP,
Necro - only 3 (or 5 if you want to use totems of the necromancer),
Hydro - 3 (gives couple of skills combined with necro + stuff replenishing magic armor).
The rest - you pump into warfare (increases physical damage for necro skills).

So, what skills do you want?
First of - you will want a physical damage incarnate - so you want to get Blood Rain and summon both incarnate and your totem on blood. Other that that - go with standard incarnate buffs, everything that pumps physical damage.
From necro - there is mentioned Blood Rain, and other classics like mosquito swarm, grasp of the starved, bloodstorm etc.
Necro has some potent summoning skills - bloated corpse will be pretty powerful walking bomb with points into summoner.
You also get to use Bone Widow - a powerful summon, but less versatile than incarnate and you NEED to pump magic armour (Widow has 0 by default, making her vulnerable to crowd control).
If you really fancy totems, you may want to pump necro to 5 and get Totems of the necromancer.

Despite being a mage, with this setup, you will be able to stay close to the fight - necro skills should keep you alive, while spells like armour of frost and bone cage will keep your armour up.
With couple of points in hydro, you MAY act as secondary healer and more importantly, later on you will be able to resurrect allies without scrolls thanks to Necro.

Gear? Whatever you fancy. If you focus mostly on summoning, really, nothing matters that much.
If you use necro extensively - focus on inteligence bonuses, plain and simple.
As for weapons - you won't be using them much, as I mentioned, so take weapons with best bonuses for skills you may find relevant.

Now, this is not some min/max build but it should still give you plenty of options and flexibility.