The Summoner Compendium

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMABAcHYwj0DY0QlxEPFVAabBzcHwIi9CqYLR8xiDbFO-FEBEZxSOdMs025VK5VxlcrWpFnvWqsa9tsC20Zc1N4znkDfRh90oLHhWCLeo9GkyeVIJuhna6mrKcIpyuofarEsHe0DL-XwFTJPcy8z2XQ0NMb0_vZC9sC4vfsiu5v8h731_qA
hey this is my tree.what should i use for shield ? es/hp/ or some unique also i using minions unique amulet. and what weapon i should use? because i fully relay on summons dont use any offensive except for curses/auras.
Come on dudes does nobody plays summoners ? :D)

I'm currently a lvl50 full Summoner/Arc witch starting on Cruel Act 3. I like the playstyle solo, it's really starting to feel strong now, and I know it'll be useful when it comes to endgame and maps. Problem is, I usually play with a couple friends, and I know having a screen full of 20+ minions covered in aura effects moving around like they have ADHD is really annoying to them, especially since they're both melee. I read they're hopefully going to stop minion targeting but the visual mess will still be there.

It's a problem for me as well, I can't tell what's going on most of the time, but Arc auto targets so it's fine. But the other problem in a party when all your points go into buffing minions is because of the random AI, by the time I actually get a good number of them to actually attack a target, it's pretty much dead, so it feels a bit suboptimal.

I think I'm just gonna leave this character for soloing and make a new build that's more friendly to party play, maybe cold/crit (element I wanted to use but shattered corpses spoiled the fun), a Templar or Shadow one even.

"

Vantana wrote:

I'm currently a lvl50 full Summoner/Arc witch starting on Cruel Act 3. I like the playstyle solo, it's really starting to feel strong now, and I know it'll be useful when it comes to endgame and maps. Problem is, I usually play with a couple friends, and I know having a screen full of 20+ minions covered in aura effects moving around like they have ADHD is really annoying to them, especially since they're both melee. I read they're hopefully going to stop minion targeting but the visual mess will still be there.

It's a problem for me as well, I can't tell what's going on most of the time, but Arc auto targets so it's fine. But the other problem in a party when all your points go into buffing minions is because of the random AI, by the time I actually get a good number of them to actually attack a target, it's pretty much dead, so it feels a bit suboptimal.

I think I'm just gonna leave this character for soloing and make a new build that's more friendly to party play, maybe cold/crit (element I wanted to use but shattered corpses spoiled the fun), a Templar or Shadow one even.

This is why I retired my minion master. It was the most fun I have had in this game but its too damn annoying for friends and I.

Any recommendations on when to switch to CI? I'm lvl 51 at Act 3 Cruel and chaos damage is becoming quite nasty. I'm thinking before I get to Merciless Act 3 I should be ready to respec into CI, as I don't believe I can live through it with hybrid life/ES build.

can any1 tell me what stats have to be on items for a summoner?
and as summoner you use a staff or wand+shield?

Page five really? Bumping this because it's a great thread. It should be stickied as well as the good CI thread, cold thread, lighting thread, fire thread etc. So many duplicate posts, ridiculous.

Hi guys,

New to Witch summoner, I tend to follow this build :

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMAjr6Swd-wES2D9x8CNsXYJKcIj0bQ0JuhSOdXKwdjc1Nr29kLKpj6gPfXrJgUsDowOVK8N05tWAcA_RdQTC2CHtsLna4abKasiECQM7iT6-4o-pUgKrqCx9P7qH1akWqsRnG0DJMnv5fJPfIe

I check this build from a post of the forum. However PyrosEien's build from this topic gives me doubts so what do you think about this one ?

Thx for help.

Cheers.

Hi guys, I dont want to make a new thread ofc, so I'd like to post my build for you to criticize :)

I went for minion build but didnt pay much attention to build guides, I wanted to make this a learning experience and counted on the fact Ill probably mess my first char up

Heres what I have now, so what do you think? Cant it be made into end game char or is it beyond repair? btw Im lvl 48 by now

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMAAuMHYwelCPQQlxpsHwIqmCycMYg2xTvhP3NBlkQESOdJG0myTblVxlcrZ71p02vbbRlzU3YReM55A36vghCFYIdli3qPRpuhnC2drqcIpyuqxK-3wFTMvM9l0NDTG9kL2t3bAt-w4vfmge5v8hf31_qA

Im still doing pretty ok, dont die much, but also dont kill things so fast... I however couldnt kill Oak on cruel by myself, but all other bandits were no problem.

So please give me some advices:)

thx

I had alot of problems with my summoner till i ended up linking a Chance to Fear gem with Raise Zombie + Minion Speed +Minin Life.

It doesn't seem to be talked about alot.

But since i've done this things have got lot easier for me.


Basically, everyone gets swarmed and is scared too death...lol.

Seems to work perfect for me :D

I'm a lvl 56 Summon Shadow... Played the whole game solo so far asides from some act bosses ... I'm about to tackle Vaal on Merciless.

My Current Build :



My two cents about build focus and character progression:

On Normal and Cruel, I mostly played this guy as a Meleemancer, using Viper Strike to innoculate poison while setting up Fire Traps and overall using the minions as damage buffers. I'm the general taking key targets alongsides my enemy... It's surprisingly viable and Fun. I always played my D2 Necro that way till Nightmare or so, but in this game ,you get really cool abilities so it's even better.

You won't have too much problem with Minions in ACT 1 asides from those Fire Trap Dogs and the Jumping Goatmen , while there are sections of ACT 2 (Suicide Bombers) where they die alot. Minion Instability is mandatory for any of these situations.... Still, summons do need to be constantly respawned after every fight , which gets tedious.

ACT 3 Normal is where it gets the worse. Enemies deal alot of high elemental damage and your army will constantly get one-shotted. Those Bugs that Explode (Although if you freeze them with freezing pulse before they get close you can avoid), those Alchemists throwing yellow stuff in the sewers, most areas will have at least one mob that totally decimates your army... In my case, it's also the point where I stared to run into massive mana issues (Then again Replacing your whole army every fight will do that) while having neglected my HP for so long meant I was a sitting duck more often than not ... Growing Pain aplenty.... Almost felt like quitting this character and I complained alot about the Summons being underpowered on the forums then.

I suppose a witch would have less mana issues , as the starting point has mana nodes and mana regen nodes... But I had to get some mana nodes and mana regen at that point... Plus I stated stacking gear with mana regen... Which i'm still wearing up to this day. Part of the issue is the fact I overleved Clarity... Which Reserves 200 of my mana... Which is alot when your mana pool is like 300.

As for Summon survivability, there's only one real solution... Level the gems up... Strangely, the survivability ratio is almost solely dependant on the gem's level. I believe it's at about lvl 8 or 9 that there's a huge HP gain on minions... My Zombies had like 300 HP and I gained a level and they had 800 HP... Ever since , it's been getting bigger and bigger.... With My Zombies have 3.5K Life as of now and being quite good at tanking.

So basically, the key to success with summoner is getting your Summoning Gems as soon as possible, leveling them up as fast as you can, and supplementing them with Minion Life and Minion Damage to round up the package. The faster you can get these three linked and leveling, the smoother your playtrough should go. In my case, I started hunting for spare Minion Life and Minion Dmg nodes at ACT 3 Normal... Didn't cost me that much (a couple alch) and I was on my way to greatness hereafter...

Case in point, I solved my mana issues, added more HP, leveled my gems, and by the time I reached Cruel AC1 , I could solo bosses and mobs just fine. Had no notable problems with ACT 2, while ACT 3 had some tough parts ,but overall I did quite good. I Soloed Merveil and Vaal on Cruel just fine.

When I started Merciless, It was time for me to ditch the meleemancing and go for a support caster role... As I lacked both the DMG input and survivability to take hits anymore. Luckily, I had prepared for that by keeping spell gems in my secondary weapon slots all along, so I switched to a high dmg wand, dropped the melee and went for curses/firestorm//ice wall/Lesser Projective Artic Breath and Freezing Pulse.

Since my summons are getting durable, I only have a few to resurrect every now and then (I try to resummon a couple zombies to replace the decaying ones every fight). I'm running the discipline aura to give my minions Energy Shield, which in turns means less resummoning... Eventually, i'll add some form of life on hit to them if I can, maybe even use Necromantic Aegis if I find a good survivability shield for my minions. I have Added attack speed on them to increase their dps. Build is surprisingly viable, kills pretty fast and is somewhat secure. I say somewhat because I have terrible Resists and my HP is definitively below average so far, meaning I did get two shotted by a couple of enemies so far... I also didn't get the nodes that increase the aura radius, meaning if I want my minions to get their energy shield, I gotta stay a little too close to them for my tastes.

For my Merciless Playtrough, I had no trouble at all in Act 1 except against merveil, where I grouped with two people to keep her off my back. I could probably solo her in a couple levels, once I get proper resists though. Act 2 so far has been somewhat manageable, especially thanks to my acquisition of Spell Totem... This really made this character more enjoyable, as i'm no longer constantly constantly occupied summoning skeletons... I can focus on curses and nuking support for the minions.

I used some respect to hit the spell and elemental dmg on the shadow's starting area, while i'm slowly attempting to get the last summoning nodes, afterwards i'll probably put all my remaining points into vitality, energy shield, chaos resists, etc...

In the end, I'd say I kinda discourage starting as a Shadow... That's 5 Semi wasted points at the start, but mostly, since you don't get the 40% Regen node + The Mana Nodes + Lord of the Dead from the start , you run into more issues and it's probably less smooth sailing that as a Witch. In early game, I often felt about 5 levels behind the mobs I was facing, probably due to spending 5 points from the start to get into the witch's area...

It's also harder to get the quest rewards you need, as you'll get all those Dex spells offered to you all the time... But I wanted the D2 Necro, and I didn't think the Witch looked the part... In any case, Shadow Necro is viable, as i'm lvl 56 and my build will definitively be done at LVL 65 or so.... Leaving some room for more hp, resists, more spell dmg, maybe dual curses, maybe more mana to run more mana...

If you summoners could look at build and suggest a place to spend my remaining levels ? Would be greatly appreciated. Only have 1.1K HP, 400 ES, 600 or so Mana (50 Mana Regen Per Second though)... Resists are all barely positive, defense is almost non-existent, so is evasion... Basically, I can get two shotted by many foes, while my spell dps is pretty low (in the 200ish, more of a diversion than a real threat). The army does the work basically.

My Possiblities are :

1 - More HP, More Energy Shield, More Resists.
2 - Go Dual Curses.
3 - More Mana for Auras.
4 - Eldrich Battery ?
5 - Choosing an Element for added nuking potential.

Also, how do you link gear on forum. My gear is pretty average, but I would love to show some parts. In any case, this build is quite cheap, with almost no rare gems and not really needing 5+ sockets.