As a hardcore summoner which weapon should I be using?

As a hardcore summoner should I be using a Primordial staff with +1/+2 to cold/fire gems or a Chober Chaber Great Mallet or a Queen's Decree?

Depends I guess on what kind of summoner you are and what kind of build you have I guess.

I have been playing a summoner since alpha on the same toon. I have taken many months in between plays but have been playing a summoner back when it was hated to have a summoner in party due to lag issues.

B/c of Ghazzy, pohx (spelling), and others and b/c of twitch and you tube summoners have been more popular now.

Ghazzy I believe uses a SRS build using I believe a serpatine staff with +1 gems +2 fire gems with faster casting and uses empower, srs, multistrike, melee physical dmg, spell echo, melee splash.

Do you use spectres? ranged? lmp? or the bubble undying ones?

Personally I use a resist weapon 1hander and a resist shield. There are the boots that can give you +1 spectres +1 zombie that are low lvl and cheap.

Right now I would say that the SRS with 2hander staff serpentine is probably the best way to go. I'm sure SRS will be nerfed soon. If you can spare the resists and all that. My gear isn't the best but I'm lvl 91 with idk 8500 ES running as CI build.

I mainly use +2 helm for zombies, use totem to pop out skeletons, use desecrate, flesh offering, use SRS, as well as spectres (although I've taken them out lately) to make room for vaal haste, vaal discipline, vaal skeletons.

If I was rich and had a shevrons (sp.) or an extra 150 exalts laying around I would spec out of CI and probally have 10k or more health/ES.

The only other weapon that I have seen I believe pohx use is the 1hander that gives zombies 2k hps which stacks I put it on with a lvl 16 minion life gem and they had like 16k hps or so I wanta say or at least 14k. But you loose 1/2 your zombies.

Right now with 19 minion life gem I'm around 10500 hps on my zombies in my +2helm so they are already tanky only thing that can kill them is bosses or exiles so if they start dying you know to watch out.

My resists right now are 200/150/150 so I could probally drop my 1hander/shield and go with a 6 link staff for more damage. But end game maps is more about survivability.

Not sure what level you are or anymore information.

Basically my build I took all the ES nodes and summoner minion nodes in passives. If I could respect I would probally get more reduced mana nodes, improved auras on yourself nodes, as well as maybe some fire nodes if i'm using SRS and could not pick up spectres.

When I first started playing grap spectre boots, put 6 link spectres on chest with LMP, faster casting, increased dmg, increased burning dmg whatever you want you can get them from the laboratory by dropping desecrate. For some reason now I don't see anyone using them now.

With SRS so strong now I'm relying less on spectres. Even with 8 zombies with 12 skeletons, like 30 more from vaal skeletons, 2 spectres, and like 8-10 SRS (summon raging spirits) with vaal haste and flesh offering you have a little army.

I have not seen this much but you could make tank zombies and use block get the passive that gives your shield to your minions and could probally tank any boss in the game with them and maybe throw on a resist minion gem as well. Also there is a helm that gives armour/block etc to minions. Then maybe use SRS or another skill to do the dmg. Best of look sry for my book ha.

With summoner you also can be a very good magic finder as well so that's another option too. More open gem slots for quantity/rarity than any other class.

Best of luck to you.

Thank you for the reply. I've only been playing for about 2 weeks so I don't know all the acronyms and builds yet. I'm a level 73 witch and can currently summon 9 zombies, 12 skeletons, 3 spectres, and 5 srs. For srs I use it more as a support spell and the skeletons and zombies are my main offense using minion instability and blood offering. I'm currently in the process of branching out into auras to support my minions and 3 levels away from blood magic. I'm also searching for Shavronne's Wrappings myself because after blood magic I'm going to be dying mostly from chaos damage. I'm currently using the haste and the discipline aura. Are there any 6 socket staves/weapons that give +2 to minion gem levels? How can you see your zombie's hps?

I would say that it's probably going to be hard to mix SRS with more traditional summons and still have an effective build. You'll end up gimping yourself in one of the fields, I'd rather just focus on one aspect.

Myself, I have two beyond characters (well, one died) - 88 SRS witch and a 82 summoner marauder.

The witch uses nothing but raging spirits, auras, curses and buffs to them (vaal haste) whereas the summoner uses 2-4 curses, some support auras, 4 zombies and 3 spectres.

Good weapons for a summoner would be:


Depends a bit on how you want to play. I don't think the skeletons are really necessary either

Thanks for the reply. Regarding Mon'tregul's Grasp, is the 50% reduced number of zombies allowed rounded up or down? So for example if I can summon 9 zombies, when using the grasp would I be able to summon 4 or 5 zombies? The grasp does look like a very cool unique to have.

Montegrul's grasp is only good if you are using spectres too, since the montegruls, miraculously enough is a dps decrease total for the zombies. Good for hc, yes.

Personally, I think unless you go LL, its either montegruls for Zombie + spectre, a staff for srs, or shield + defensive 1h for general. Midnight bargain if you manage to get insane gear to support it, but that will be the best option for zombies + spectres

it rounds down. you can get 5 zombies if you get all the passives + craft +1 zombie on a chest (along with bones of ullr).

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leary93 wrote:

Montegrul's grasp is only good if you are using spectres too, since the montegruls, miraculously enough is a dps decrease total for the zombies. Good for hc, yes.

Personally, I think unless you go LL, its either montegruls for Zombie + spectre, a staff for srs, or shield + defensive 1h for general. Midnight bargain if you manage to get insane gear to support it, but that will be the best option for zombies + spectres

Thanks for the reply. Is Midnight Bargain difficult to use due to the decrease in life? Also where do you see minion damage, health, resistance, etc. or do we have to calculate ourselves? If so, are there any easy to use calculators out there that help with this?

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allana wrote:

it rounds down. you can get 5 zombies if you get all the passives + craft +1 zombie on a chest (along with bones of ullr).

I see, thanks for the clarification. What's the best way to get Shavronne's Wrappings?

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NecromancerX wrote:

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leary93 wrote:

Montegrul's grasp is only good if you are using spectres too, since the montegruls, miraculously enough is a dps decrease total for the zombies. Good for hc, yes.

Personally, I think unless you go LL, its either montegruls for Zombie + spectre, a staff for srs, or shield + defensive 1h for general. Midnight bargain if you manage to get insane gear to support it, but that will be the best option for zombies + spectres

Thanks for the reply. Is Midnight Bargain difficult to use due to the decrease in life? Also where do you see minion damage, health, resistance, etc. or do we have to calculate ourselves? If so, are there any easy to use calculators out there that help with this?

midnight bargain is mainly tricky to use. LL or hybrid + chaos res is the only way you can effectively use it.

damage calculation is done yourself, life for zombies is displayed. Spectres are not easily calculateable anyways, due to not knowing the exact numbers

best way to get shavs is to be extremely lucky or to flip a lot. killing uber should help too. Just dont bet for it unless you know how to