Damage bonus on zombies.

There is a note in patchnotes that damage bonus now only applies for zombies at lvls 54+ is it aboout passive nodes or just some built in skill bonus?

Build in skill bonus.

Level 17 Zombies only result in doing 30% more damage instead of over 100%.

Wait a minute.
Was summoners really that OP to give one of their tools a major 70% less damage and 30% less hp?

"

silentman wrote:

Wait a minute.
Was summoners really that OP to give one of their tools a major 70% less damage and 30% less hp?

Yes they were that OP.

They still are, but for slightly different reasons.

In fact, Id go so far as to say that the bad AI was a much better method of limiting Summoner power, since it actually did something about the exponential power of hordes, albeit in a very annoying way.

Now the hordes cost exponentially less mana to maintain, and thus can be more effectivley beefed with auras: Im only using 250 mana (about 25%) for three auras: fire, lightning and ES: all three are attached to a reduce mana support. But wait, theres more.. the lower mana requirements to maintain the horde means that a Summoner can actually use offensive spells to beef up the horde damage some more. I use fireball, fire trap (a must have skill, imo), and firestorm (which I use only if I have no fire traps).


Zombs now hang around the Summoner (neatly getting all those aura bonii) and can be directed to attack specific targets.

By the time youve got skeles on a totem, the result is a very low mana use, high damage output meatshield.

It gets worse with Minion Instability, cos now the skeles and zombs are walking bombs.

In addition the Summoners previous weakness, changing zones, has been totally eradicated.


I think Summoners have gotten more powerful, and much harder to kill.

B.

I'll second this.

My level 35 Wand/Summoner is death incarnate.

Not only for the reasons above, but add in the on screen counts of your minions, allowing you to know quickly if your horde is needing a few extra.

Minions dying faster actually helps the build because of minion instability.

Even with all the "nerfs" that were thrown at the summoner, the improved AI and minion persistence more than made up for it.

And yes, for a summoner, a Skeleton Summoning Totem is a must have.

I did read it somewhere that in regards to MI if your minions was 1 shoted he will not explode.
Now with the reduced zombie HP that means that now both your DPS from MI is lower "lower hp" and because this lower HP they may die in 1 shot and not trigger HP.
This and the reduced damage make things like a real nerf and a heavy one that is.

Now what about specters?
many people says that they still useless.

Since 9.12 I noticed MORE of my minions exploding, not less.

Specters are great! Raise something that casts Frenzy like a Ape Chieftain, or something with ranged attack/curses.

Since the minute you get out of range they port to you, you don't lose them like before.

Again, I see only improvements here regardless of the changes.