Need some help from poe pro

I was playing full summoner and i liked it for most parts, however i die in 2-3 hits, so that is a bit frustrating.
Now i am building another char as fighter/summoner hybrid, but i don't know if it is any good. Can someone give some explanations or suggestion and comment on whether i should stick with full summoner or this hybrid?
I like both of them, but they are still kinda low level, so i have no idea how good they will be at much higher levels.

Talent tree for hybrid.
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgEAxtg9_FhjxFj2SF8_7w4UIFBH5FED7jOHHb48LXfjrj5nm2CRZ1jkrQHnGelgxOoY9zJyqcT2aqxakah90_uCx_noQYe3PsauBkkTbJAzpqyIQEVHMtG4k-vuKPr6gCqY2QunCE25EJdEBMy899eboY9GhWCqxGvb7IosnBEtfIPN-n0Y8h6_l8k9HNwNjWwLIvRtGVFgT32AVgY5JIs9D_MG-6oaPvIvfuLp1Xk5ggfZfBRx-OunMHzZffVI557Nf-Mx-5d5KCqLT_5UDc0rUBzOhjsU9jqd2L3-CjWSzzJZbV-Ybqq18jSOa9n_09rd

Also, are summoners good at highest difficulty, do minions die fast?
Last edited by regonix on Jul 2, 2015, 4:01:58 PM
Well, you're in the right place, shedding the fetters of false modesty I can claim a fair bit of experience with summoner hybrids. Two major concepts when making such a build are these:

1. Minions tanking and you doing damage from medium to long range
The much more common variant because of caster nodes being close at hand, indeed a minion/caster hybrid is by far the easiest variant but using midrange 'melee' skills, wands or even bows is feasible. The snag with this kind of summoner is it isn't really much tankier than a normal one, with leeching as the only significant advantage.

2. You doing the tanking and minions assisting with dps from the rear
A rarely made variant because of relative difficulty of achieving notable tankiness and still invest enough into minions to make them worthwhile, but it's still a possible build.

What you do have to keep in mind with both variants is they will really start working much later than straight builds because of diluted investment. What you can expect from first variant is great performance throughout levelling stage before it start to flag in late merciless and bogs down in low maps when your minions still aren't tanky enough and you yourself lack the dps investment to eliminate monsters before they start doing real damage. The important thing is sticking with it if you like the concept and it will come into its own eventually.
This build should probably use spectres as main tanks, certain monsters are extremely durable and can take pretty much anything short of a Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. You usually can't spare the time to raise zombies because you spend it doing damage and keeping yourself alive (usually lacking the mana to quickly replenish your army too). Using spectres as tanks also doesn't require a +2 minion helm so you can use something that benefits you more in that slot.
Good skills to use are those that benefit from your foes not moving around too much as your minions lock them in front of you, something like firestorm, storm call, ground slam, reave, rain of arrows...

The second variant should probably use its chest gem slots to house powerful spectres like evangelists, incinerators or flame sentinels. It might look tempting to put dominating blow there but it's hard enough to sustain the mana cost (or life with blood magic) even in a 4-link. The hard thing is staying alive, and your passive tree is fairly thin even on life, not to mention other defensive layers save for a bit of block. The easiest route here is most likely armor/endurance charges with fortify thrown in once Awakening hits, that should keep you kicking long enough for your pets to mop up. You don't really need both skill duration clusters, it's easy enough maintaining dominated monsters even with just one. It might look tempting to use facebreakers for this as they work good enough with little damage investment, however you're already fairly starved for gem slots.
Other things you could fix with your tree is grave intentions to the right, you don't really need that, and you could also got to lord of the dead from above through life nodes.
Wish the armchair developers would go back to developing armchairs.

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Last edited by raics on Jul 2, 2015, 4:48:59 PM
Thanks, you were really helpful. I will keep your suggestions in mind. For now i think i will try to level as much this hybrid and full summoner characters and see who i like more: tanky one and weaker minions or weaker one with stronger minions.

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