Thoughts on Summoner builds?

[Sin]

I still havent played a playthrough solo (As in with no other players) and I was thinking it would be fun and cool to do a duo of summoners. One being part necromancer.

As a counter part for the other summoner, what could be some side skills / elements would be best o have?

Now naturally, I would say both will have own defensive skills to protect themselves and other as well. However, maybe thinking of a more stronger support summoner role?

[Pyromus]

Archers are pretty easy to combo with summoners since they can work really well even without using many huntsman skills. You could sprinkle points around for a lot of buffs and not worry about getting maxed out damage on the bow attacks.

However, duo summoners are going to get boring really fast, I'd suggest something else.

[Sin]

I was never a fan of archers of any form tbh, just never was my style in any RPGs. =/

[Killme304]

Archers are the best, because special arrows let them do anything. High magic armor > just shoot them. High phys armor > break out the <whatever they are weak to> arrows. They also don't require anything other than Finesse to get damage, as they don't need many abilities to do their job.

But that is getting off topic.

For duo summoners, you will end up doing a lot of the same stuff fight in and out, so while it is cool early, you kinda cap out.

You should try to invest in some magic abilities to create surfaces to summon on, so that you don't have to blow SP on infusing EVERY fight. You don't have to max them out. Since they changed LW, you will now still cap at 10 (so 5 levels in if you rush it), so you really do need a secondary. Necro is cool, and most of its skills scale with int, leading you down the other magic trees much easier. If you are doing it for bloated corpse or spider though, they are simply inferior to your incarnate, and you can't have two non-totem summons at the same time.

Summoning doesn't scale with any stat other than summoning, so you can really do whatever you want else with it. ALWAYS use all infusions on your incarnate, they each increase damage dealt by 25%, even if they don't state it.

I do suggest you move away from full summoning on tactician or honor though, as even with buffs stuff can just one round your summon shortly after Reaper's Eye, and you are SOL if you went all in on it.

[Supreme Armchair General]

When play a summoner, I usually spec into hydrophist and later on a few points into geomancery.

A water incarnate has restoration for a heal and poison incarnate/totems can attack allied undead to heal them (I've had poison totems attack me, playing an undead, when I was low on health and healing me so I know that they do that sometimes but since it picks a target without your input I can't garuntee that it will attack friendly undead when you want it to) and plus there is that artillery plant that lobs poison AoE which Is a fun combo to deal damage to an enemy and heal a nearby undead ally.

[Pyromus]

If you're not dead set on making the one a necro summoner, I would suggest maybe going enchanter/summoner on both of them. Or have one go hydro, and one go aero with both getting some basic skills in the other.

The main reason for this is the amazing cc you can get out of totems. If you can get a water surface and a steam surface over each other and electicute them both, anything that goes in it gets stunned instantly and an air totem can reset that every single turn. Not to mention an electric incarnate can do so as well. And personally, I think the cursed electric infusion is the most fun of all the high tier infusions.

[Sin]

Originally posted by davemytnick33:

If you're not dead set on making the one a necro summoner, I would suggest maybe going enchanter/summoner on both of them. Or have one go hydro, and one go aero with both getting some basic skills in the other.

The main reason for this is the amazing cc you can get out of totems. If you can get a water surface and a steam surface over each other and electicute them both, anything that goes in it gets stunned instantly and an air totem can reset that every single turn. Not to mention an electric incarnate can do so as well. And personally, I think the cursed electric infusion is the most fun of all the high tier infusions.

I'll keep this in mind! This may be also a good chance to check out the new Aero overhaul that OdinBlade :) I also have yet to check out and actually use the other overhauls and the original preset classes he has made

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by davemytnick33:

The main reason for this is the amazing cc you can get out of totems. If you can get a water surface and a steam surface over each other and electicute them both, anything that goes in it gets stunned instantly and an air totem can reset that every single turn.

That strategy sounds awfully familiar...

[Pyromus]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Originally posted by davemytnick33:

The main reason for this is the amazing cc you can get out of totems. If you can get a water surface and a steam surface over each other and electicute them both, anything that goes in it gets stunned instantly and an air totem can reset that every single turn.

That strategy sounds awfully familiar...

Golly gee, I can't imagine why

[Justin_760]

Summoners are OP in my opinion. Defence isnt a big deal, give them both a shield and a wand, actually all mages are better off with a shield instead of 2 wands/staff IMO. Considering the paltry amount of damage they do, and staffs being close range, you know the last place youd ever want a mage. And 90% of their damage output being from spells makes shields far more effective.

Summon the little scraggly creature, spam totems, and yes synergy with Necromancy is highly recommended. When your summon dies and your waiting on cooldown, having Necro summons will substitute them adequately. You could breeze through the game with 2 or even 4 summoners. Summons become the tanks, geo/hydro buff spells on them and youll never have an issue.

[Sin]

Originally posted by Justin_760:

Summoners are OP in my opinion. Defence isnt a big deal, give them both a shield and a wand, actually all mages are better off with a shield instead of 2 wands/staff IMO. Considering the paltry amount of damage they do, and staffs being close range, you know the last place youd ever want a mage. And 90% of their damage output being from spells makes shields far more effective.

Summon the little scraggly creature, spam totems, and yes synergy with Necromancy is highly recommended. When your summon dies and your waiting on cooldown, having Necro summons will substitute them adequately. You could breeze through the game with 2 or even 4 summoners. Summons become the tanks, geo/hydro buff spells on them and youll never have an issue.

I think the first persons concern as he said, that doing only summoners would get boring and thats a solid concern.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Justin_760:

Summoners are OP in my opinion. Defence isnt a big deal, give them both a shield and a wand, actually all mages are better off with a shield instead of 2 wands/staff IMO. Considering the paltry amount of damage they do, and staffs being close range, you know the last place youd ever want a mage. And 90% of their damage output being from spells makes shields far more effective.

Summon the little scraggly creature, spam totems, and yes synergy with Necromancy is highly recommended. When your summon dies and your waiting on cooldown, having Necro summons will substitute them adequately. You could breeze through the game with 2 or even 4 summoners. Summons become the tanks, geo/hydro buff spells on them and youll never have an issue.

Eh. Calling summoning OP is a bit of an overstatement. Other than a few select fights, you’ll not really use their versatility much since you’ll summon the same type of infusion most of the time and create a routine. However, a dedicated build is generally more effective than the incarnate once you gain access to a large enough spellbook. Since the DE, summoning lasts a bit longer than before, but I still would drop it near the last quarter of act two and jump into a dedicated build. Definitely by level 16. The lack of enough abilities makes them just raw damage and you rather quickly hit a point where you’re better off with more CC and similar effects that you need more than an incarnate offers if you want to increase effectiveness.

[Dealmi]

Also check out some cool summoner mods. For example these ones (you can find more in the workshop):

1. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1529255383
(summon one of the 2 dragons - fire based or ice based)

2. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1508263824
(Void-Touched Conjurer - summon and control up to 3 different void creature. All these summons considered as soursery)

3. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1521969940
(summon celestial beings, based on constellations. These summons are grouped into different classes with they upsides and downsides. This mod is more tactical, and controlling more then 1 summon greatly lowers your damage output)

4. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1513979398
(Become a master of illusions, summon phantasms to do your bidding, do tricks of mind onto your foes and improve your friends)

[Duchess of Kvetch]

Can you use wands to create different surfaces, w/o having to learn specific spell schools?

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Duchess of Kvetch:

Can you use wands to create different surfaces, w/o having to learn specific spell schools?

Yes, by attacking the ground you can. No oil wands, but you can make the rest. However, 2 AP just to make surfaces is... a lot. There are other alternatives.

[Duchess of Kvetch]

Easier to set up before battle though, and memorization slots are a more valuable resource, imo. But yes, using synchronizing party members to create surfaces is probably best.