Are summoners any good at the current game state?

What's the general opinion? Did the become stronger or weaker post 1.2.0?

"

GnGEmpire wrote:

What's the general opinion? Did the become stronger or weaker post 1.2.0?

traditional summoners are viable up to the ilevel 76 maps .

but after that you cant get enough over capped resists on them to survive the bosses.
but the exception to this are the summon raging spirits which are insane .

to the point that a whole bunch of summoners are abandoning specters and zombies in favor of making what is essentially a spell caster that happens to use summon damage nodes .


GGG has been struggling to figure out what to do with summoners. but make no mistake the *buffs* they made to zombies and skeletons dont even come close to what was needed to make them end game viable.

Yep, pre 1.2 I was running around with snapshotted Zombies with 10k life, on a low-life build running Purity of Fire/Ice/Lightning, which overcaps the Zombies' resistances. In spite of all of that, without Bone Offering, those Zombies wouldn't last much more than a second or two against anything Palace Dominus or Shrine Piety could dish out.

The new buffed flasks are a huge benefit to Summoners(Since Summoners can easily go low-life and hit 7-8K ES using a Solaris Lorica, while taking advantage of Panicked Flasks which are vastly more powerful than Seething). But even so, there's a very good chance that your Zombies are going to get 1 shot by end-game bosses, even at 8k+ Life, and the effort to resummon them, even without snapshotting is too great to be worthwhile, when other builds can fill that amount of time with more DPS.

Basically, the classic Spectre+Zombie Summoner build has one purpose and one purpose only, and that's super efficient and cheap Dominus Farming with IIR stacked up to 400% or more. Doing anything else with a Summoner is effectively detrimental, as almost any other build will fill almost any other role better than a Summoner can.

"

GnGEmpire wrote:

What's the general opinion? Did the become stronger or weaker post 1.2.0?

If you are looking for a solid end game build until the point of Atziri, my advice is to make Summon Raging Spirit as your main DPS.
Zombies and Spectres are useful for up to lvl76 Maps or probably lvl74 Maps if you are undergeared.

Why SRS?
-It is superior in any form than Zombies and Spectres.
-Same form of gearing but requires faster casting only instead the old timer Zombies and Spectres that requires so much tankiness to be useful in ultimate end game.
-Dirt cheap to gear up for end game contents than other Summon build

As of now, keep in mind that Zombie and Spectres are absolete unless you have so much tonnes of wealth to throw into gearings for top notch zombies and defensive items for your char.
So far, you can't count more than one finger of those that able to do end game content based on Zombie and Spectre builds.
Everyone is turning away from them and getting SRS.
Try avoid Zombie and Spectre if you really keen on doing ultimate end game content. If you are just casual player that hope to play some maps up to lvl70ish, Zombie and Spectre are still a good choice, but Atziri is a big dream for that.

Besides, if you don't mind try take a look at the thread link below.
I hope it gives a few insight for your question.



As for your question, Zombie and Spectres get stronger because of the slight buff.
However, such buffs are totally useless in lvl77, 78 and Atziri map, aka useless in true end game contents

Summoners have always been the best class. The whole cant do ilvl 75+ maps thing is summoners who snapshotted not knowing how to play without that ridiculous cheat code.

"

tramshed wrote:

Summoners have always been the best class. The whole cant do ilvl 75+ maps thing is summoners who snapshotted not knowing how to play without that ridiculous cheat code.

oh my summoner can easily do 78s , its atziri i cant do anymore and we have mentioned this on numerous threads .

stop hanging snapshotting over everyone like you were the only person on earth who was *pure* and *holier than thou*

that kind of sentiment was old months ago.

I made a thread in the Templar forum about my Summoner.

As some have said they perform very well.

I'm lvl 68 and killed dominus in beyond league already.

Sitting on about 6.7k es/hp combo.

Havent gotten to high end maps yet but low lvl ones are a breeze. I was pretty damn low lvl to do dominus in beyond league

I made a very long an elaborate summon change thread on the suggestion forum once.

I still think my idea for the summoner playstyle change was close to perfection, but the devs didnt respond to it so Im not sure if they didnt read it or disagreed with my suggested approach.

My idea was fairly simple. Allow specialized summons that are more unique. For example:

At the cost of X skeleton supply, create one Mummy which can cast curses and debuff auras and can cast ranged spells. Works kinda like a walking spell totem with innate skills + applied skills.

At the cost of X zombie supply, create a monstrous abomination (like kole'ish) that serves as a tank with taunts, reflect and high base HP as innate skills + whatever you add to it.

Create a Stygian Destroyer at X spectre cost that has high attack speed and mobility and strong attacks + whatever skills you apply to it.

This way you would have less of a boring zerg army (though youd still manage to have zombies and skeletons, just fewer) and more of a specialized summoner army.

I wont go into as much detail as before, just wanted to give the general idea.

"

tramshed wrote:

Summoners have always been the best class. The whole cant do ilvl 75+ maps thing is summoners who snapshotted not knowing how to play without that ridiculous cheat code.

Are you able to estimate the price for such Zombie/Spectre build for Atziri? Based on your post, you seems to be able to beat Atziri easily with Zom and Spec without SRS, well show me your build and gameplays then.
If you can't its fine, because you are just one of those players that know how to point a finger at other successful builds without a strong understanding of the cost needed for it.
Those that able to do Atziri with just Zombie and Spectres requires hundreds of exalt builds while SRS costs few exalts to do that.

Your comment is just a direct insult to the group of summoners of Zombies and Spectres.
You just blatantly generalizing every failed summoner are summoners who have snapshot hype, bashing snapshotters are failed players who are those that keep on posting demand on a further boost for summoner build and thinking every successful summoner build are without costing a fortune.

My advice is, compare it with SRS build price for the gearing for Atziri and cost of Zombie/Spectre Build for Atziri. Show how many build of Zomb and Spectres without SRS able to do Atziri without the mentioning of 100 exalts build.

Screw your comment, its a empty-brained comment.

Just to let you know, many summoners like me with just a profound build with Zombie and Spectres able to do any maps but Atziri.
Yet, it cost so much to do so.

I agree with few above posters that zombie + spectre summoners are still viable option for end game content (but Uber), however it require big investments into gear.
Once you manage to get 6L Shavronne's Wrappings (120ex+), Empower lv4 (60ex+), Raise Zombie lv21 (12ex+) you are pretty much set as rest of equipment is relatively cheap (1-5ex).
Going low-life opens gate for few significant boost, such three additional auras, Midnight Bargain or this flask which heal minions for ~3000 life per use.
I still have few thing on list to tick, like corrupted Alpha's Howl with +20% Minion Damage and 3x lv21 Purity gems but doing Normal Atziri or lv78/79 maps is not a big deal anymore.