Summoner Ideas after Snapshot/ Pure Summoner

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GingerBeast wrote:

The biggest problem I have is not that I am squishy, because being squishy is fine 99% of the time if you can play smart and keep your minions between you and the enemy. The problem is attacks that bypass your minions.

I think something along those lines would reward players that truely want a pure summoner build, but more importantly, it would fix some of the biggest downfalls we face.

I disagree.

im running a level 77 witch summoner right now and im doing really hard level 73 maps with ease (like physical/elemental reflect, curse immune, curse on you, half regen or just flat damage increases).

Im running 8 zombies, 2 spectres, 1 guardian and summon unlinked animated weapons.
And im using a 4 linked flameblast for some deeps.
Im @ 3800 life and 1000 ES, 2000 armor, maxed out resists (77%)

After the snapshotting fix, I will have trouble getting that setup together, because i will have less gem slots.

But still i dont see your problem with survivability.

If enemies target you insted of your minions --> use smoke mine.
It likes "enemies ignore you for 3 seconds".

Always use enfeeble on every enemy.

Use cast when damage taken immortal call setup.

Use Convocation and Flesh offering for a fast call to help, always run with 1 granite flask and 1 chaos resist flask.

Always run with a shield.

The last time i died it was in a low level area when i was switching to my snapshot gear ^.^

After snapshotting is fixed i plan to use:

4 linked offensive ability, Flameblast (Fire pen, faster casting, added chaos) or Flame totem or Spell totem (with firestorm/fireball or summon skeleton, not sure yet).

Or you could just run decoy totem if you are afraid.

4 linked aura (reduced mana + 3 auras, currently im running clarity, anger, hatred without snapshotting)

4 socketed support, convocation, rejunevation totem, flesh offering, enfeeble

6 linked zombies in armor

6 linked spectres and animate guardian and animate weapon in my 2h weapon (probably a staff, so i will try to get some staves blocking nodes on the passive tree).
So it will actually be spectre with 3 support gems.
(you could run animate weapon unlinked at any time if you dont have the gear or want to max link your spectres)

If i find a really good unset ring, i might be able to get another support gem in the 4 socketed support, like increased duration or something, or just smoke mine.

With this setup i would give up some survivability, but i think its worth it.

Staves can roll +1-2 to gem level and are basically like shields (staves block nodes taken ofc)

From my experience, even a unlinked animate weapon is soooo strong, its ridiculous if you run at least 2 auras, so i wouldnt miss out on that.

Animated guardian isnt that good actually, but i just like him ♥

And spectres only really need 3 links imo, more would be better, but 3 is enough.
But you could actually unsocket animate weapon and just run it unlinked like I do atm, then you would have Spectres with 4 supports.

When it comes to gear, i think many uniques are not really necessary, the strongest unique in my opinion (after snapshotting is fixed) is this one:



Because its actually decent enough to run with.
And i guess you could also run with this



This gives you a very decent setup without snapshotting that can be quite defensive and tanky, still you have so many minions, DPS will never be a problem.

I recommend to go hybrid tho, Life and ES, Armor and ES.
Imo its the best way to get a high Hitpoint pool and i have like 2000 armor unbuffed, which really helps a lot.

Always run with a chaos resist flask and you are good to go.

This is my "alpha" passive skilltree: (with 3 points in totem damage for running flame/spell totem, not sure on that yet)

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMAVysHY3NTa9t9GOyKwFTfsIIQeQMI9It6pyvi9zvhbRnB86Kjf8Z-WRGWcLvZEy9vHNyTJ7-XyT3yHtxXHpSsP7QM6ro8jlfJRnHhiB2qKPqCx_no0_sTbAZJaqzr7nqqmuBFnbiTpwiPRtDQz2VVxpuh99fMvBCXRARNuarEhWCdrhps890ZhSSqNunjavrSFy9k51XWgKTsOBo4p4SQVTrYTdiePIx2gW8EsxRNogBmnsAaWfOsqsbnIhu5Q6elSi4y0aeUXl3R_Q==

After finishing that, you max out on life/ES (many life and ES nodes close).

You fool kalhirol!!

Give up one socket in your zombie's and put them animate weapons in there, they are so ridiculously strong it ain't even funny. You will be running double 5-link op'ness then.

Peace,

-Boem-

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Boem wrote:

You fool kalhirol!!

Give up one socket in your zombie's and put them animate weapons in there, they are so ridiculously strong it ain't even funny. You will be running double 5-link op'ness then.

Peace,

-Boem-

Yeah true, animate weapon is ridiculously strong :D

Im running a different setup right now and only 5 linked, so wont be able too, but i will definitely consider it on my next build :)

is animate weapon really that good?

is it worth dropping my CwdT setup?

Also what's its mana cost like? Atm I nly have 57 available mana with my auras up.

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is animate weapon really that good?

is it worth dropping my CwdT setup?

Also what's its mana cost like? Atm I nly have 57 available mana with my auras up.

Your fucked.

A 5-link animate weapon cost's roughly 200+- mana to summon.

they are amazing in an elemental set-up. Unlike skeletons they dont have a 50% less efficiency from aura's and with increased duration passives they can persist for 80+ seconds (duellist passives + ID gem)

This would obviously not be optimal in a summoner set-up, but they do kick ass and should be worth the investment in a 6-link (2x 5-links zombie/animate weapons)

The set-up is

Animate weapon/ multistrike/WeD/melee splash and normally ID in a 5-link.

Assuming a 6-link you add zombie's, and perhaps faster attacks instead of ID?

But you have to run elemental aura's like wrath/anger maybe hatred (did not test hatred).

Bassicaly you nullify the reduction of multistrike with WeD on elemental damage and then you splash it out.

(there is a build guide about it from the charity race, position 4 utilized this build if i am not mistaken, i tested it out and it is VERY solid if properly utilized)

Peace,

-Boem-

Edit : typo.

Edit 2 :

The link to the animate weapon guide koldhearted, this should help you out if your interested in these little guys just laying on the ground. (one thing that annoyed me with this build was that they don't persist between instances do, but other then that, they can pack some serious punch.)

What you said above is once again ignoring the whole point GingerBeast and I are on about Kal. Your plan is running 4+ auras, cwdt setup, smoke mine, all this crap that should not be typical of a summoner. That is a hybrid summoner. I don't mind discussing hybrid summoners somewhere else but this whole thread as everybody is ignoring is that a pure summoner cannot exist with these enemies bypassing minions. Convocation is too cooldown restricted and running vis mortis, probably the best bump for summoners ever cannot be used without being extremely detrimental to that oh shit survivability moment needed.

People can make very specific melee and range builds and even spellcasters, but a pure summoner of a similar strain is pretty much non existant. We should be able to rely on our minions for surviving and not have to stack all these aura's and escape methods. Who has ever heard of a necromancer thinking "oh let me just build myself up to be an indestructible and elusive master. What summons? Pfft! Who needs them to be the focus of my power."?

I am getting really tired of people claiming they are already pure summoning when they are not and still think a pure summoner can survive fine. End of rant.

Hmm pleia, just a little observation about your last post.

There is not a single build in this game that will go against shrine piety without purity of lightning active for instance.

The way elemental damage scales in this game is just ludicrous.

Just pointing out, that basically every build you listed falls under the "hybrid" category you mention.

No offense intended.

Peace,

-Boem-

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Boem wrote:

Hmm pleia, just a little observation about your last post.

There is not a single build in this game that will go against shrine piety without purity of lightning active for instance.

The way elemental damage scales in this game is just ludicrous.

Just pointing out, that basically every build you listed falls under the "hybrid" category you mention.

No offense intended.

Peace,

-Boem-

I didn't think purity of lightning was actually that prevalent. As far as I had seen people just got smarter about fighting her or made sure their build flattened her immediately. Can't really make that call since you don't see purity of lightning listed in every single build on the forum. What I intended to say was that you want a molten strike fire meleer? You can make one and take anger and appropriate defensive aura's. Some don't even bother with the defensive auras they just take anger and build around it. Elemental archer, power syphon witch, physical duelist, anything. If you want to you can make it and there are appropriate gears and that all match up pretty well. Summoners? Pick 2 maybe 3 summoning specific items tops and thats it. The rest better be for survivability or you are screwed. Like beast said, a summoners intention is to be at the end of their swarm. The only reason we should logically die is if our entire army is underpowered and decimated. We can play smart and hide when needed but when you get those leap slammers or arcers etc that cut right through to you. Its disheartening to have to dive into other casting builds to survive rather than have your army be the main focus.

I will restate what I said in the original post but a little more updated. I don't intend to completely dismiss auras and curses from a pure summoner if there are no alternatives made. It is mostly a problem with gem room for a summoner. Right now the typical summon setup is zombies, spect and skeletons. Maybe skeletons is replaced by raging spirits but thats about it. Without snapshotting I don't forsee many people running animate guardian since that would become very squishy without any links or making another summon even more vulnerable. Animate weapon I can agree maybe is for different builds but that still leaves guardian and raging spirits out in the cold as we try our best to get the first three to have decent dps and life.

Yeah... Those "summoners" builds are almost no summoners at all XD.

As we are trying to show, you can make a wonderfull summoner with ONE SUMMONER SKILL, maybe TWO! And a lot of defensive uniques and setup. Like... really?

So the basic of the game is that? I think i saw some mages that leach life on spells, dual strikers with no defensive besides cwdt (which is lame but nvm) haha.


The thing is: a summoner can not use all this things.
Mine right now have:
3L Skels at 1st hand (skels, damage and life).
4L helmet: Duration, Vaal Skels, Damage and Multistrike.
6L Armor: Summon Raging Spirit, Spell Totem, Increase Duration, Added Chaos, Damage and Multistrike.
3L Shield: Spectre, Reduced Mana and Wrath. (i really need 4 auras).
4L gloves: Purity of Elements, Clarity, Reduced Mana and Discipline.
4L boots: Zombies, Life, Damage and Minion and Totem Elemental Res.

So as you all can see, i have no room left for another defensive thing. Like if i had much hahaha.

Skels and Zombies to tank. Raging Spirit for damage. Specs for free, extra damage helps with Tentacles Miscreations or Extra defense with evangelists. But they almost got out cuz Vaal Skels is pretty good to be out.

So... Yeah... A lot of defensive problens with our Uniques with low ES :( (just Vis Mortis have some...)