Hybrid AR-ES for life summoner? Rethinking this...
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I don't know why I always get stuck trying to find a 5L for a summoner or caster of AR-ES because I can never go CI anyway as most high ES examples are a lot of EX and then pure ES has no protection. I somehow can't relate to having no defense no matter how low it might be.
Plus if you don't stack ES recovery, once in maps, ES will be burned, shocked off by all those environment mods so you'll be running around with only the life left anyway unless you stand around while everyone else races ahead unless you take ES as life regen but then you lose chaos protection. So hybrid really is a tough path. So I think, what's wrong with a summoner or caster just going AR or AR-EV? Then I realize, it's the freaking colors, mainly need blue and trying to roll even 2 Blue on an AR-EV piece is not fun at all. Wasted a bunch of chromes on this and nothing to show. Put my summons on my boots until I can afford a 5L with 5 blue or 4B 1R or 1G with an ES mod I don't really care about. So what do most casters/summoners do? Pure CI ES? AR and use another item for links? Or is Saintly Chainmail the best path for life base? I like this piece right now, I guess maybe I'll see if there is a 5L similar in AR-ES. A low ES roll is fine. A minion armor would be very nice can we invent it? Sleepy time /rambling off. Last edited by raziekeljr on Apr 24, 2014, 12:43:19 AM
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The current cookie cutter is to go EB and either cloak of defiance (for the 40% mom, saving points) or taking MoM + IR nodes and using EV/ES hybrid (EV since you path thru the EV nodes).
You end up tankier and able to run more auras + AA and it is extremely effective with random self found gear. Only low life spec could be better imo and as always low life spec is as expensive as hell. | |
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Ok I think I get it now the ES is for EB so any extra is in Mana to help out Mom and to run AA. I guess I didn't read a build on this and I'm probably 15 points away from it right now. But my witch is not even 60 yet so a little time left.
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As a summoner in a softcore league, you can afford to be a bit more lax than usual with defences. Life/ES hybrid is tough to manage in areas where you are constantly taking damage, as you say. Going CI and wearing (mostly) pure ES gear doesn't mean 'no mitigation' though - you can still use blocking, Grace, Molten Shell, Granite flasks and so on.
EB+IR+MoM+AA is strong in general, but stretching all the way down to the Duelist area is annoying on a summoner build. You might be able to put those 15 points or whatever to better use elsewhere. Even if you do go down there, MoM doesn't work that well with aura-stacking (which is something you presumably want to do as a summoner). Perhaps you'd be happier with the old standby of CI + IR + aura passives + Grace + Determination (+ AA if you need it). That way, you get good armour for yourself and your minions, while still being able to wear pure ES gear. |
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I know you asked about casters/summoners, and what I'm about to suggest only really works for summoners. But seriously just go low-life. It's much cheaper than you think it is.
Solaris Lorica and Ephemeral Edge are severely underrated. You can, almost for free, get +70% global ES on gear(Edge + rare amulet), then just spend an exalt on a 400+ ES shield, a few chaos on a decent helmet, run Discipline, obviously, and you can easily hit 5k ES, not a lot, but for a 1.5 ex investment, that's pretty great. Then you can run all three purities for 84% all resists, and you should still have room for 2-3 more auras. Ephemeral Edge's downside of being a terrible weapon doesn't even hurt your character in any way, since your minions do all the damage. The witch is also near enough mana regen nodes that you can pretty easily hit over 200 mana regen without even needing EB, letting you use a high level AA, and you're good to go. You can get 5k ES cheaply while still wearing Aurseize and Wondertrap, and if you want to be tankier grab some good ES gloves and boots then run around with 6k ES. It's something to consider at least, it's a setup that I'm enjoying quite a lot right now. |
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These are very good suggestions and yes, I figured out that going for Mom as a summoner is just too many points to use considering I need the next group of mana res reduction outside scion for auras.
Funny you mention Ephemeral Edge, I was using it on my last summoner last league but she was still hybrid and had issues but it was a great buff. I have a 350 ES shield as my only ok ES piece right now so maybe 400ES on an AR piece would allow me to go CI if I took out my life nodes and replace them with ES. Time to start calculating I guess. My current goofy gear at level 58 if anyone has other ideas. I will hold off on armor until I figure it out. Yes, I'm still casting spells to help out those zombs for now. Will prob get rid of fireball soon. Not sure on Solaris as no res and low AR with one great perk.
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Shield in future I think:
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Last edited by raziekeljr on Apr 24, 2014, 9:58:01 PM
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" Well, if you ever get the chance to try, I strongly recommend it. I was going to try posting what my ES would be if I used decent ES gear in all slots, instead of IIR gear. Turns out my build is so finely tuned that the +8 STR and +10 DEX from Wondertrap are vital in allowing me to use half my gems and gear. Still, with the following gear that I just pulled randomly from my stash(except the shield, which is actually quite good, and is always a part of my gear) I have managed 265.3 mana regen so I can run a really powerful AA, my resits without auras are about 12% all, but that's enough to, using purity of fire, lightning and ice, reach 84% all resists. And my ES is 5862, so I can take some pretty heavy hits. The only real issue is that ES has no natural mitigation for DoT effects, which you not only can't mitigate with regen, but they also prevent your ES cooldown. But my build gets past that with Zealot's Oath(Another underrated thing this build takes advantage of), and while running Vitality, I get 212.8 ES/second at all times without needing to wait for the cooldown. That gets buffed to a massive 383.7 ES/second when I drop a Rejuvenation Totem. The regen numbers, and actual ES is notably lower when using MF gear like Aurseize, and a good IIR helmet. But truth be told, considering the above, you have more than enough defenses that you can sacrifice a little for some IIR. Gear - As you can see, nothing super special, or unbelievably expensive. There's the odd nice item in there, but it's mostly pretty attainable. The gems socketed don't accurately reflect what I use when playing, since, as I said, this was mostly just stuff I pulled randomly from my stash for the sake of theorycraft.
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tl;dr Solaris Lorica is cool, and I was exceptionally happy when GGG released it. |
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" Whats your gem setup and process as far as snapshotting shit that is what it looks like you do. I am trying to lean towards not snapshot since it is a most probable fix incoming. I love pie.
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The build mentioned above does take advantage of snapshotting, and although it is possible to make a summoner work well without snapshotting, it's not pleasant no matter what you do. My understanding is that snapshotting will be fixed at the start of the next 4 month league, and I can only hope that summoners get balanced again with that in mind, since right now they certainly are balanced with snapshotting in mind.
All that being said I have been working on a non-snapshot version, and I think the build will be about as cheap(Buy a 5L Solaris instead of a Tabula). But the biggest problem with summoners without snapshotting is that summoner uniques just aren't viable(by viable I mean you can take them into a 78 map without it being suicide.), and Sidhebreath is the only one I can think of using safely, Chober, Mon'tregul's, and Midnight are all going to get you killed largely due to their drawbacks, and the armour pieces tend to just suck. As a result I think the drawbacks of no snapshotting are you need 2 unset rings, you can stick your curse and desecrate in those, in the extra socket of your 5L 6S Solaris Lorica you can stick in AA, 3 auras in gloves, 2 blood magic auras in boots and 2 auras in your weapon and shield will use up the remainder of your sockets. Then the 4L helmet covers zombies and you can use 5L spectres. Zombies are likely to cap out at 6-7k life, instead of the 8k life I manage with snapshotting, so it'll still be viable, but all around I strongly suggest snapshotting, because GGG has basically balanced summoners around the idea that you are snapshotting. Edit: It may be better to use two 40% auras without reduced mana on blood magic, if that's possible then that will free up an extra socket, and allow you to use a rejuvenation totem or flesh/bone offering again. Last edited by Shotgun_Surgeon on Jun 4, 2014, 10:30:11 AM
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It's been pretty easy for me as a CI witch from the start.
The way I see it ES is always going to be a better option for witch because it scales a lot better than health. I pretty much rushed Iron Reflexes and auras/minion passives down the right side, and then will finish up on the left side of the witch passive tree. I've taken no health nodes and focused on a ES build from the start. It really hasn't been that rough staying alive or finding the ES to replace the life stat, and when you get IR you are pretty tanky with grace. Im 64 at the moment with a 650 ES chest with 1 high res roll which set me back 10 chaos. Rest of my gear is either utility or filling a gap. After all said and done that puts me at 4.3k CI ES with 5k armour and max res. As for a low life build, at the moment its probably a better option when you can afford it. I really hate all the recent indirect nerfs and pokes to CI. Also summoner needs lots more love. Last edited by RootCookie on Jun 4, 2014, 3:39:29 PM
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