Summoner end game and Maps

Hey, im a lvl 75 summoner on HC. I just got back into mapping so take it with a grain of salt as i have no idea which challenges await me in the high lvl maps.

Most has been said so i just repeat points *lol*

* Use a +2 Minion helmet for your zombies to get a huge life boost, my zombies sit at ~13,7k hp @ gem level 17

* Use your animation flasks all the time ... all the time .. i sucks that you cant see minion health so i just "spam" my flasks

* Use enfeeble .. this may be HC only but i always enfeeble everything .. better be safe then (un)dead

* Use a dmg spell .. not for dmg but for guidance ... minions rush to enemies which you are attacking .. i use firestorm for example ... better tell them where to run than let them find their own targets


My current equip



My current tree


Hope this helps you find your way

Greets

heres the spec I use for farming maps solo.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMB37CCEEGWBUKusyycwbTk7HYRVysHY3NTa9vAVOaBEVC71jvh4venK4t6bRnB86Kjf8Yc3JMnv5fJPfIen3t4uqw_HpTcV2o_U7iFVYnTKgvBxSy_7BjDbY_62-dHBl9qwuy0xSsKwQDbGhB79Uu-Oo6-ES18g836uJMy0UVHtQRdxt3zYG2dgEbX7SDhc4uMBVunCI9G0NCboUjnZ70MfRB_xp7ZCyqY-oDr7nqqmuBFnbJwYpWESDyOAW9XyTQKiELyHU-_Q1Qd2Q==


its a CI spec, that focuses on ES and mana regen first, and alittle bit of lightning damage from arc - in my spec, lightning gear is the absolute worst part of my summoner, I found a quality 15 arc early in the game, and have used it since, and I suggest if you ever get arc - just throw it away.
its a absolute garbage spell, even at 20 quality, with points in lightning, and lightning buffs on 1 ring, necklace, and wand, its still pitiful on damage, if you get arc - just throw it out, everyone goes ice spear, and GMP and such, but I was too cheap to do it, and now I gotta find new gear and relevel a new gem and respec to a new element. arc is way to expensive, has little to no support gems to play with, and in the end is very weak compared to other skills - avoid it.
but other then arc - I am very happy with the build and kill speed of my minions.

but I also avoid spectres often. I do use them, but when it gets 1 shot, I dont rush to get it back into the fight - they are just so weak. I been trying to find something I like and will actually use, to replace spectres, cause they just seem to be a wasted slot for me right now, they die if something sneezes, and have no noticeable DPS benefit - under the best conditions, I find a necro and get a free spam bot to curse things for awhile - till it gets 1 shot.
zombies and skeletons are pretty damn good - spectres are almost a waste of time. in the amount of time it takes to find a mob to res as a spectre, I can usually just curse and nuke something to death, with my minions.
I am definatly not happy with spectres at all, and 100% looking to replace them, but I havent found anything I like just yet - no real ideas come to mind.
I definatly dont focus on having 50 summons up at a time, 10 skeletons, 5-6 zombies, and your good to nuke the rest.
the summoner unique gear I've tried so far has been mediocre. theres that wand that has a ton of physical damamge, and mediocre spell damage which was a waste of time, then the necklace, which is ok, but again.... melee stats. I havent got the summoner boots yet, so those might be the redeeming summoner item, I wait and find out.

I notice alot of summoners seem to focus too much on filling thier screen with tons of monsters, and little on things to keep them alive.
CI + life leech and ghost reaver, will do miracles to keep you alive, then get 3k or so ES, which isnt that hard, run purity, discipline and clarity, and let you summons keep things away from you and you should be good most of the time.
theres only 1 map type I avoid, and thats maps with moltan in the name - 1 burn on me, and I am dead in 2 seconds, even at max resist, and 3k+ ES, you'll be dead before you even see it. fire eats away ES so damn fast you cant even react to it most of the time - avoid maps with fire mods and your good.

honestly, when I die, its usually me spacing out and getting bored... being a summoner in this game is rather lonely. very powerful class, that needs a ton of work - that nobody wants around in thier group.

a noob here, trying to be helpful
i totally agree with Kunaak, i despise having have to babysit my spectre and watching them all the time, and running away more from the fear of my spectre dieing instead of me, and i was looking for alternative way to somewhat 'replace' my spectre.

what i did was, i tried the 'classic' summoner way.
i summon my skeleton manually
skeleton/minion life/minion dmg/added phys
(was thingking to add concetrated / fire pen for explosion)
youd be suprised just how strong your skeleton are without spell totem (i did)

i was hitting a brick wall on merciless act 3, the damn snakes will wipe out my entire army ilke nothing, i have to run away, rebuild army, came back just to get them wiped out again. (The cramped path in Sarn Slums was the most hindering things imo)
thats when i tired the manual skeleton, and boy it changed a lot for me, i didnt even bother to summon a complete number of zombies/spectre anymore (on the act3 merc) just needed my skeleton

i still use spell totem/skeleton for farming docks, and maps i consider easy
but for bosses and annoying snakes / fire golem i would suggest try summoning your skeleton manually, youd be suprised.

and i did tried several other way to replace my spectre
i even tried taking all 3 element way to boost my spell dps
lightning all the way, fire, ice and combination of spell totem with the spell (ice spear, fireball, firestorm, arc, spark)
in the end i like it the classic way, of letting my minion do all the job, so im sitting with the Leadership Aura atm (reduced mana/wrath/anger/clarity/vitality) and deciding if im going for EB or not. for now, im happy with my setup, i dont really need any spectre, manual skeleton is quite enough dps for me

@Kunaak @hamncheese

Not to be impolite, but either i'm very lucky or you guys are doing something wrong as my spectres almost never die and their dps is insane.

@Nithon none taken, if im doing what im consider "safe" map, my spectres never die too, but with those damn snakes with their piercing projectiles :/
i tried once to fully focus on my spectres suriviability
spectre/minion life/lifeleech/gmp
aura : purity, discipline, vitality
i even use rejuv totem lol
the thing is
the spectre will die at some point, and i just hate having have to run back to solaris to pick em up again, and i hate having have to to watch their every movement, so i did my setup like that, in the event all my spectre is gone, i dont care, i can keep going :)

That's normal for your spectres to sometimes die during leveling. Once you step into maps, your spectres/zombies will hardly ever die if supported properly. I basically stopped using skeletons completely since I changed my build to what I shown in my previous post.

Your aura choices are pretty much spot-on. If you ever decide you want to make yourself and your pets even more tankier, consider getting prism guardian shield, as that would allow slapping determination+vitality+purity on the mana pool, while using discipline+grace+clarity(lvl 3) on the shield.

Plenty of other summoner guides on this forum are wasting time with useless auras like wrath, anger, hatred (just to make their guides more flashy while gimping you - wow 7 auras, must be pro, yea right), none of which are actually increasing killing speed because of how zombies react to proximity (do a test yourself, summon 10 zombies, find a very sturdy pack and stand there and watch them try to kill something.. On average, one zombie will land a hit once per 2-5 seconds, then sit there like a dumbass turning around not knowing what to do). Now get one flaming sentinel behind them.. bam whole pack dead in 1-3 secs.

Summoners are (imo) one of the best specs for map mf-ing atm. Run 300+ rarity, as much quantity as possible, iiq+iir linked with your spectres, get kaom's, lioneye's and other shinnies the right way without gimping yourself at all.

Oh and once you start getting higher level maps.. there are some maps with higher chances spawning certain mob types, like titty machine guns, flame sents, arc mages, etc. Once you get those high-leveled (69-75) spectres, they never die, ever.

My daily routine:

- log on
- grab crappy spectres from solaris 2-3/lunaris 2-3/wherever
- pop 1-2 maps where my spectres spawn
- get 4 demigod spectres
- wipe the floor with any map in existence for the next 1-12 hours

Cons:

- can't log off at will
- server crashes/dc's are your only bane

"

like titty machine guns

Lol sorry but that made me giggle =3. They are indeed machine gun titties.

yeah people complaining about spectre dying hasn't seen the monstrous strength of high leveled mobs and their stats.

Thanks for this good thread, veru helpful

It seems like there is some sort of 'trend' when it comes to end-level map farming summoners, maybe a summary would be:

- Respec EB, you will need that ES for end-game maps
- Wear armor/es gear
- Use Vitality and replace minion flasks with quicksilver/granite/other
- Get high level reduced mana, use Determination + Vitality + Purity on the mana pool
- Get a prism guardian shield and attach low-lvl-non% auras to it: Discipline + Grace + Clarity
- Attach quality/rarity to spectres, get iiq/iir gear
- Use skelletons/zombies as meat shields only, take out minion dmg gem from them, keep minion life, respec minion instability
- Summon spectres from maps
- Extreme late game: Spec reduced mana reservation nodes and add Haste to the mana pool (it may need some Dexterity passives)

There is maybe a window to equip midnight bargain + 3 x 40% auras = 96% life reservation if equiping prism guardian shield + mana reserve nodes + CI (?)

or even 4 x 40% auras = 98% life reservation (if u do not like MB)