Pure Summoner Build

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Raezzor wrote:

Just watched your video. Would love to see one of a full party of this style of summoner. What utter chaos.

lol that would be awesome!

I started another summoner in HC. Going Shadow this time and focusing on cold based attacks to freeze and slow.

Was thinking a frost nova totem might be pretty cool to plop down in packs of mobs but not sure, will probably go with Ice Spear + LMP instead.

Using the Shadow for this build seems to add a whole new aspect of challenges to get the passives I want while maintaining high survivabilty, it might mean more farming and essentially being higher level by the time I end Merciless than I was with my Witch, which is fine.

I might also pick up CI and go for straight ES/Mana/Mana Regen gear rather than the terrible mess of gear my current Witch uses, will have to see how my mana is sustained in the later difficulties.

Regardless, will still be focusing mainly on summons and keeping the "pure" summon play style.

I hope there is not a wipe before I get to level 60 with my HC character, assuming I do not die, I really want to test this build with Shadow and cold based attacks.

About your skill you're going to take for your beginnings with the Shadow summoner, it seems that Freezing pulse is better than Ice Spear according to a lot of ice witches. There's a thread where I saw a discussion about this, and that Ice spear was useful only in rare occasion, so it all depends on you. And imo, I find freezing pulse easier and more efficient than Ice Spear, but it's just my humble opinion of a casual gamer in PoE.

very interested in a summoner build ...

may i ask , is there an optimum way of getting a zombie / skeleton skill stone to drop ..should i just trade for one ?

wondering if i should just mindlessly bash my way through on a melee class till i get one..or are they more likely to drop for a certain class


also im a total noob just bought the key :) ... loving it so far ... happy happy joy joy :)

thanks in advance for any help

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EvilSean wrote:

very interested in a summoner build ...

may i ask , is there an optimum way of getting a zombie / skeleton skill stone to drop ..should i just trade for one ?

wondering if i should just mindlessly bash my way through on a melee class till i get one..or are they more likely to drop for a certain class


also im a total noob just bought the key :) ... loving it so far ... happy happy joy joy :)

thanks in advance for any help

The zombie gem you get very early as a quest reward option (Mercy Mission and Breaking Some Eggs) and I believe the summon skeleton gem (requires level 10) is a reward for The Caged Brute, where you kill Brutus in the Warden's Quarter.

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Nobuyoki wrote:

About your skill you're going to take for your beginnings with the Shadow summoner, it seems that Freezing pulse is better than Ice Spear according to a lot of ice witches. There's a thread where I saw a discussion about this, and that Ice spear was useful only in rare occasion, so it all depends on you. And imo, I find freezing pulse easier and more efficient than Ice Spear, but it's just my humble opinion of a casual gamer in PoE.

I plan to use Ice Spear on a totem, my main attack will be Freezing Pulse with multiple projectile gem if I can acquire one.

One skill I think would be awesome for your totem would be Frost Nova. It deals quite a lot of damages around the totem, and I found that it chills more than Ice Spear. Well, in fact, I don't like Ice Spear so much since you have to be very far away to proc the second part of the skill, and the AoE isn't very large,contrary to Frost Nova or Freezing Pulse. Well, try Ice Spear, and tell us if it worked well :D

I got a wild hair last night and started a Shadow Bow wielding Summoner...in HC!

It's a very tough build to play at first because I only had auto attack on my bow and fire traps. Needless to say I did a bunch of kiting until I picked up my Zombies and even then, they are so weak at low level with no passives to make them stronger nor any passives to make my bow usage and better.

Once I got poison arrow it became easier and finally after killing Brutus I got my skeleton summons. I'm afraid to take on Merveil until I get some better gem slots opened and better gear. I'm not even going to do ship GY until I get a couple of more levels, I really want the MI node before moving on to the end of the act.

If this build works out I will post it in the Shadow forum.

Thanks for this, drawing from D2 I wanted my first character to be a summoner. If it worked for me there, I hope it can work for me here.

Thanks to your post and video even an idiot like me can make sense of the passive tree.

As long as you have fun with it, that's the main purpose of it (and really any game).

I'm really looking forward to open beta and the end of character wipes so I can see just how far I can push my "pure" summoner, I quit playing my "pure" summoner at 63 to focus on a few other builds I have been curious about, particularly the bow wielding shadow summoner, which is level 23 now.

I also have to give more thought on gearing and what passives to take as I progress past 65+. Since I plan to play HC, I will probably focus on +health passives and evasion/es gear with max health and max mana and maybe some faster casting. I haven't honestly thought that far ahead.

Anyway, have fun and good luck, if you liked the skellimancer in D2 you should love this summoner focused build.