Use lagfree builds for team-oriented play

Hi,

I currently play a level 50 summoner templar with an army of over 20 summons: 8 zombies, 11 skeletons, and 2 spectres. I see now that it was a mistake.



It's all right for solo play, but I get kicked from parties because:

• Lag: When I summon Skeletons for the first time, people (including myself) lag. My game even locks up for 2-3 seconds. But only the first time per play session. Kripparrian recommends buying the statue skeleton model, jokingly calling the game P2W for that trick, but I've seen him lag with those skeletons too. I have 120 FPS normally and my hard drive is fast enough for a 7.2k RPM one.

• Confusion: My Zombies look too much like enemies. I get a lot of people -- even at my level -- trying to attack them and be confused when they don't die.

• Exclusion: I see too many public parties named: "Farming X zone, No ninjas, NO SUMMONERS!!!". That hurts. :(

[newline

I don't know what's up with the broken "newline" tag cutting off the rest of my message. I didn't put it there... I guess I'll double post. (Luckily I copy-pasted everything as a precaution, so I don't have to retype it.)

I would like to play in groups without having to constantly question my usefulness or worse; receive negative remarks about my build.

As respeccing isn't really an option, I plan to make a new character that does competitive damage without casting flashy lightning, laggy fire spells, getting thousands of arrows stuck in the wall, or using armies of summons.

However, I really like the lazy aspect of using summons. As a summoner, I don't need to target enemies or keep dodging projectiles, my army takes care of everything. They just don't work well in group play.

Are there any more lazy-friendly skills out there, like the summons I've been using?

Sincerely,
Daniel

People mainly dislike them because they clutter the screen and you can't see enemies. And in a party with 6 people, and many effects going off at once, it's impossible to tell what's going on when 20 extra minions are running around.

The statue effect doesn't help with the lag. Before you join a group go to a low zone and summon them, wait 3 seconds and then port out to where ever you want.

I have no problems with people no wanting to group with me.

Add me: EvangelineAKMcDowell

I also play a summoner, I'm curious to see how things pan out with 40 minions on screen ^.^

Sorry for abandoning this thread for a while... School work piled up and I didn't get a chance to play PoE until the weekend arrived.

I've added you RulerofAsgard, as I'd very much love to see 40 summons on my screen too. :)
Edit: I see from your signature that you are still alive and kicking on the Hardcore league. My congratulations to you, and I'm sorry that we can't play together... I unfortunately got defaulted with that character. I play summoner on normal now.
You'll probably find me playing my new character; a hardcore witch, ThriceHC, all weekend long. (That name will be so shameful to have had been stuck with on normal league once I die with her too...)

Thank you for letting me know statues don't help anymore, Mr_Bill. I shall spend my money on stash tabs instead. (I didn't look forward to buying visual effects anyway. I much prefer buying power or at least buying some convenience such as stash tabs or less lag.)

Origination you are spot on with your reasoning. Summons indeed do clutter up the screen. And even with the recent "can't highlight friendly summons" patch, melee are still unhappy about them. And that patch now prevents me from hovering over my spectres to check their modifiers... :(

Thank you for your replies,
Daniel "3ICE"

p.s.: Details about my summoner build can be found over at my own forum:
http://forum.3ice.hu/viewtopic.php?p=4502#p4502