Summoner

Never ones to travel without an entourage, Summoners have mastered the ability to control Demons as well as the very elements of nature. These forces can then be unleashed to distract and destroy their enemies, as well as provide protections for the caster and his allies.

GENERAL

Armor

Builds

Some of the most commonly used builds may be identical to,or founded on,the following setups:

• Elemental/Zombie Form Builds
  

http://forum.t3fun.com/hellgate/cabalist-discussions/summoner-guide-5486/

• Poison Build
  

http://www.hellgateaus.net/forum/class-discussion/the-poison-summoner-spirits-and-creepy-insects/

Weapon Choices

Tips and Tricks

-Elemental Fortitude and Elemental Revenge only affect elementals,and Summoning Circle/Empowerment only affect demons (Carnagor/Warper/Witchdoctor/Reaper).+minion stats from gear affect them all.

-A single point in Zombie Form allows Summoners to dual wield focus items.There's no need to actually use the skill itself,a single point invested in it will suffice.

-The Summoners' poison tree skills are not classified as Evocation skills,therefore the increased power cost of mutentacles does not apply to them.Conversely,any bonus to Evocation skills (increased use rate/damage/etc) from focus items will not apply to them as well.

-Zombie minions would appear to be affected by +minion hp but not +minion armor.Assuming they have no base armor such as Forces,will have to test this more extensively though.

-Cast weapons don't work with elementals' numbers,but they do work for Spectral elemental's phase strength.Switching to a weapon set with +6 to X Elemental,then switching to another set with fewer will destroy all additional Elementals summoned through said set. The Spectral's strengths do remain however,as the added skillpoint bonus acts as a buff similar to Elemental Fortitude/Revenge.

Side note,"cast weapon" bonuses also apply to elementals summoned while the skillpoint bonus applies to Elemental Fortitude/Revenge and Master of the Elements,and demons summoned while a bonus applies to Summon Carnagor/Witchdoctor/Warper/Reaper and Summoning Circle/Empowerment.

A reduced timer also applies to Blink and Elemental Nova if used with a cast set,one can switch to another set and the timer will remain reduced as if there were hardpoints in said skill.Summoning Empowerment's reducing effect on the demons' resummon timer applies on death if the demon was summoned with a cast set.

-The Witchdoctor's Dominate skill appears to be malfunctioning through possible friendly fire.I have observed on multiple occasions that it would target party members or minions,turning them light blue with a moment's movement halt and no other effect. This would require further testing,but understandably said skill would visibly malfunction for Summoners with a number of Elementals.

-Venom Armor remains active if one uses it and then activates Zombie Form.The short duration doesn't make it too handy for frequent use in battle,but it could grant a short-term armor boost if needed.

-Swarm seems to bug in terms of radius,mobs outside the visible radius will still receive damage similar to Engineers' strikes.Not sure of the exact number yet,but including the skill's radius bonus of 30% it's already visible at 78% added radius.Counting a single Glyph's inherent bonus as 15%.

RedHerd's observations:

1. You CAN weapon switch and retain the increased timer. (E.G. switch to weps that bring you to +10 reaper, then switch back to your main weapons bringing you to +4 reaper and the reaper you cast will live for 56 seconds (the 10 length)

2. There is NO dps difference between a +10 reaper and a +4 reaper. I saw other threads that suggested there were hidden crit bonuses or other dmg bonuses as you added skill points to it. I saw no evidence of that in my testing, the damage in both scenarios were all in the same dmg band. The only difference I could see was the timer difference.

Zombie Form

1. The little zombies are minions and their dmg is increased with +Minion Dmg gear.

2. With the possible exception of elemental dmg, the dmg of the little zombies is not affected by anything else. Power of the focus/+ of the focus, crit dmg, increased str...none of it increases the little zombies dmg. I did see a consistent increase in dmg from elemental dmg but its so attenuated as to more or less not be there. E.G. for a 30% elemental dmg increase, the avg little zombie hit went from 140 to 145. Not real useful.

Zombie Sacrifice

1. Increased Str, elemental dmg, power of focus/+ of focus and using dual focuses all affect zombie sacrifice dmg.

2. Crit Dmg has NO effect on Zombie Sacrifice damage. The crits appear to be happening (you can see the mob light up effect) but there is no discernable dmg increase even with CDB of 500%.

Closing Notes

In closing, the Summoner is one of the most versatile classes in the game. The above is just a rough guide that should answer a lot of the most common questions. I strongly encourage anyone interested in the Summoner class to experiment with it. Use this as a base, but try something new. As of the time of this writing a free skill reset is the current reward for gaining level 55. That means you can try out different things and find out what works for you. Don't be afraid to try something new and ignore people that say there is "only one way" to build a summoner.

Starting Stats

• Accuracy: 15
• Strength: 15
• Stamina: 15
• Willpower: 30

• Health: 75
  • Regen rate: 20/min
• Power: 100
  • Recharge rate: 210/min

• Movement speed: 100

• Critical Chance: 1% / 1%
• Critical Damage: 30% / 80%

• Shields: 0
  • Recovery Rate: 120/min

• Armor: 0
• Damage Absorbed: 0%

Defences

• Stun: 50
• Ignite: 50
• Shock: 50
• Phase: 50
• Poison: 50

Equipment

• Firedart Pistol
  • Damage: 0-1/3m Fire splash
  • Rate of fire: 37/min
  • Range: 15m
  • Elemental Attack strength: Ignite 10