The Ultimate Pvm Summoner V3.0 - Topic

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Feb 16 2008 11:30pm

So my Updated Post was Closed because someone SWORE. PLEASE DONT. HERE IS THE UPDATE

Introduction

This build is very versatile, lots of fun, very effective, and uniquely useful. I will go over all the key points to build and play this character. This is the most effective pvm build for all around play in the game. It is the only character who can do EVERYTHING with only 1 set of gear. Many people say smiters, but smiters can’t run their own baal games and solo ubers with only 1 gear set. Hammerdins can’t either. They require gear changes to run different types of games. If you are like me and want to focus on a good character for climbing the ladder and be effective in every playing situation with only 1 character, my summoner build is for you. I encourage challenges as I have the answers to your questions so post away.

This is a 4th repost due largely to gear updates and new found strategy. Please enjoy.

Leveling

This section is important because no matter which method you use to level your summoner, your help is of tremendous value.

Path 1 Uber-trist: Clearly the most efficient way to level. Get glitch (or classic) rushed to hell act 5. (Important note: Follow the rusher in chaos for all 3 difficulties or until you are level 12). You have become the star of the show in rushing because you are now the only useful leecher with your capacity to use bonewall for the duration of the uber leveling service.

Path 2 Chaos: So you don't know enough of the right people to run uber-trist and you're forced to chaos. No worries, you are still a very well liked build for chaos games. No other low level character can use corpse explosion(c/e) or cast amp damage/lower resist. Whoever is chaosing you will appreciate the help in killing waves of monsters with your curses and c/e.

Path 3 Regular: So you really have no friends and nothing to trade for a glitch rush or classic rush. Well you have just become the best friend of the newbies. Tristing, tombing, cowing, normal and nightmare baaling all benefit greatly from the summoners’ curses and corpse explosion. I will not address gear to use for this method of leveling, but overall, you can use pretty much any old crap because you stay at a distance of harm and don't require any gear with skills because for leveling, corpse explosion and casting is already maxed as far as damage goes at just level 1.

Gear

I have updated my guide to incorporate the “Rich Man’s Plan” & the “Poor Man’s Plan”. It is important to note however that both plans require two rather expensive rune-words. Enigma and (Faith/Beast) are absolutely required to build this Necro in an effective manner. I would not even consider beginning to build this summoner without these two rune-words because he will not be able to teleport and your skeletons will not have the enhanced damage and attack speed to be useful in a timely manner. Also, you will not under any circumstances be able to run baal games or Uber-trist.

Rich Man's Gear

The Gear Listed First is the Rich Man’s Gear. I have listed my gear here. While I am not the “Rich Man” this is my only character on East right now so my Summoner is not only rich, but also the best equipped out there.

Helm: 2 Necro(summons) 20 FCR with modifiers circlet (I use a 2 necro/20 fcr/15 str/39 life coronet with a cool 7% FHR Jewel in it.

Armor: Enigma is only choice. If no enigma, do not build. (I have enough strength to use Ap Enigma, you may have to use one with less strength based on the other gear you have)

Amulet:The Focus here is Breakpoints and Skills. If you can Afford a 2necro/20fcr/Str/Life Amulet, by all means, get one. (I use a 2 necro/10 FCR/30 Str/10 Life/20%Fire Res Amulet)

Weapon: Hoto is your weapon here because of skills, resistances and fcr.

Shield: Spirit. Although I feel a necro with a shrunken head is classy, Spirit trumps darkforce in every department except skills. In order to hit breakpoint of 125% with gear I have outlined, you Must have 35% Spirit.

Belt: Arachnids is really the only possible option here if you want to meet breakpoints. An alternative option if you want to use 1 fcr ring in place of a bk is using a crafted fhr/fcr/res/str belt BUT you will lose two important skills if you go this route.

Gloves: Bloodfists (either Up’d or not; mine are double up’d).

Boots: Sandstorm Treks (mine are 15/15 to help with strength needs).

Rings: 2x BK

Swap: CTA- Use a Crystal sword here. I get confused if I accidentally hit (W). If u have a crystal sword cta, there is no doubt if you have cta or hoto on. Spirit

Inventory:
Torch and Anni (as close as perfect as you can get).
6 Summon lifers (Or just plain if you cant afford lifers)
3 Summon FHR gcs
9 20 lifer/5 res scs. (or just 5 res if you cant afford lifers).
1 FHR Sc

Mercenary: Act 1 Fire Rogue (attacks at a distance, isn't in harm from Iron Maiden in Chaos, won't die in ubers)
Faith (very important) (Mine is Perfect 15 Fanaticism, 2 All Skills Hydra Bow)
Andys face or Giant skull (I use Giant Skull so she knocks enemies back and doesn’t get hit. Also, its good because it can get more Ias than Andys and you don’t need to ral it or put any other kind of 30 fire resist jewel in it.)
Bramble for Thorns. She doesnt get hit so she doesnt need the defense from Fort and with Faith her resistances will already be maxed out.
Note: Merc gear can really be anything but faith is a must for Fanaticism.

Mercenary Alternative: Act 2 Might Merc (attacks close, gives you 1 more Aura, is in harm from Iron Maiden, close range attack so he is not safe from monsters, in my opinion, not a good alternative, but an alternative none the less)
Insight/Infinity
Bramble
Ral'd Andys

Poor Man’s Gear

Helm- Any 2 Necro/20 FCR Circ (people give them away on jsp if they have bad stats)-1 to 5 fg

Armor- Any old Low strength req. Enigma <50 Fg

Belt- Craft a 10% FCR belt or get 1 from someone on jsp- Free-5 FG

Rings- 2 10% FCR Rings with resists Free-10 FG (for both)

Gloves- Trangs or Mages-1-5 FG

Amulet- +1-2 Necro/15%+FCR- Free to 5 FG ( I got 1 for free the other day just to make sure this was plausible. PM a known Crafter; He has 1 for you I promise)

Boots- Junk Treks – Free-3 Fg

Shield- Spirit Monarch >5fg

Weapon- Wizzy>5 FG

Merc Faith- >50 FG

Grand Total- >138 FG

What do you sacrifice by using Poor Mans gear- Skills. That is all. With Wizzy you will still max out resistances and FCR and get 56% Breakpoint for FHR but you lose skills. This isn’t the worst thing in the world and at least you can build up from here. 138 for a full character is a very reasonable amount and I bet it could be less than 100 if people are willing to give you some of this stuff for free. I have used this gear and deemed it a feasible build for game play. Ubers are a little tough with the loss of skills and damage for your skeletons, but it is still possible.

Gear Closing Remarks
While a summoner can kill most everything bare assed, it is also very fun to have a godly summoner. If you use the gear I laid out you will hit unbelieveable breakpoints and skill levels. I can't stress enough the Faith merc to get better level fanaticism but ultimately it is a style preference. Just keep building and experimenting as you go and you will never get tired of your summoner.

Stats/Skills

Stats
Strength- 0
Dexterity- 0 Max Block isnt very important to a summoner but that is a style of play preference.
Vitality- Everything
Energy- 0

With BP or MP enigma, you can wear anything. If you have enough strength without adding any stat points to it, wear AP enigma for that little extra defense (with perfect Anni, Torch and my circlet and amulet, I can wear AP enigma with pure vitality).

Skills
Poison and Bone Skills
Bone Armor-1
Bone Wall-1
Teeth-1
Corpse Explosion-1

Curses
Put 1 into every skill.
My last build I said do not put any into Dim Vision, Confuse or Attract. These are actually quite cool for ubers (especially Attract for Mephisto and Dim Vision for helping weak characters out in baal runs from souls).

Summon Skills
Skeleton Mastery-20
Raise Skeleton-20
Raise Skeletal Mage-1
Revive-1
Clay Golem-1
Iron Golem-1 (Do not max. That just adds damage and we don’t want him to be powerful because then he will die by iron maiden)
Golem Mastery-20 (Life Synergy for Iron Golem)
Blood Golem-20 (Life Synergy for Iron Golem)
Fire Golem-0
Summon Resist- All remaining Skill points (note: you could do anything you want with these, I chose to put them here, you could synergize bone armor though I don't suggest it since you don't really get hit anyways, or you could increase your C/E Level. Its totally up to you)

Breakpoints

FCR:
15 - 0%
14 - 9%
13 - 18%
12 - 30%
11 - 48%
10 - 75%
9 - 125% (With the gear I have laid out, you will hit this)

FHR:
13 - 0%
12 - 5%
11 - 10%
10 - 16%
9 - 26%
8 - 39%
7 - 56%
6 - 86%
5 - 152% (With the gear I have laid out, you will hit this)
4 - 377%

Strategy

AN IMPORTANT NOTE ON SUMMONING!!! Kill Nihlahtak but DO NOT GET HIS WAY POINT!!!!! If you don't get his waypoint, the portal to his temple says open and you can use the corpses inside to summon your skeletons. I use 6 skeletons.

First thing you want to do is craft your Iron golem out of an insight polarm class weapon. Lower damage is better so he doesn’t die at the hands of iron maiden. With insight, you get Meditation and is the chief reason you can teleport without using 1 energy potion.

A golem alternative if you are using an act 2 merc is to craft your iron golem out of a beast double axe. That will give your skeletons the fanat they need as well as might if you want them to have a little extra boost. I only suggest doing this if you are prepared to get a new beast once every month or so as things do happen to your golem (tppk, tons of monsters with cb, you not paying attention, etc...)

As long as you have maxed out Resistance and 125 FCR, you can tele baal games. Once you are level 80, This is what I suggest you do.

Your mercenary should be an act 1 fire arrow archer. Mine is named Fiona (because of Eurotrip). With faith bow, she gives your skeletons fanaticism and she uses inner sight to drop the defense of your enemies. I eluded to other alternatives already.

Game strategy

Baal runs- Summon 6 skeletons in Nihlahtak’s temple, make sure you have your insight iron golem and faith merc. Teleport to baal. Cast amp damage over monsters and as they die one by one, use Corpse explosion to take out the rest of the wave. When you get to baal, cast Decreptify as it is the same damage as Amp damage, yet it slows him to a standstill.

Chaos Runs- These are harder to do than baal runs. I suggest you raise 10 skeletons and 10 revives (made out of pit-lords in chaos sanctuary) Still cast amplify damage and use corpse explosion. Make sure your golem stays alive though because the knights can be especially brutal to him.

Keyfinding- 4 Skeletons will do here. Amp damage Summoner and Countess then teleport right on top of them and pick up your keys. Since we don’t get the waypoint at nihlahtak, it takes a little bit longer to teleport to the halls where he dwells but you can still kill him easy. Take 5 skeletons down and cast amp damage. As his creatures die, be sure to use corpse explosion before he does so you, and your army doesn’t die.

Uber trist- This is 1 of 2 characters that can solo uber trist in under 4 minutes. Summon an army of 15+ Skeletons, 10+ Mages, and 20+ revives. Teleport on durial, lillith, and izzy, cast decreptify and watch 30 second deaths. Once trist is open, Kill Mephesto first because he is the hardest. You want to cast iron maiden on for him because he will leech life off the skeletons he kills, so you want him to lose more life than he gets. Teleport right on to him then run away quick. If your merc doesnt walk away quick, keep feeding her potions till she gets the clue. Next I kill diablo. He is MUCH easier than meph (it’s almost a joke), Teleport on to him. Cast Decreptify or Life Tap and watch him die in seconds. Last I go for baal. DECREPTY IS IMPORTANT HERE, if he starts walking all over the place, your army doesn’t stick together and his army picks them off quickly. A complete Trist run has taken me anywhere from 3-8 minutes. Once I employed this method of cleaning it out, I have yet to take more than 5 minutes from walking into trist to leaving with my torch. Make sure you only do this alone though because more people in the game will make the game lag and crash since you have in the neighborhood of 50 summoned army members.

Magic Finding- I switched out gear for this to get 469 magic find and only dropped 1 breakpoint in FCR. Put ur CTA on swap with a 100% MF Monarch, shako (p-topaz’d), Chancies, and Travs. Then Switch out 1 charm for a gheeds. I get skeletons in Nihilahtak’s temple. Then kill Pindle, Shank, Eldrich, Mephy, Andy and the Pit. It takes about 3 minutes for a run once you get the rhythm down.

Conclusion

PVM, this character is the most diverse and effective. It takes a little bit longer to kill bosses like baal and diablo, but I would say it doesn’t take much longer than a hammerdin. When you run your games, make sure you don’t have more than 6 skeletons because people wont stay in your runs very long if you are lagging them like crazy with a ton of summoned army members. If there is another summoner in your game, tell him NOT summon or cast his curses. He's in the wrong game if he wants to be the summoner.

If you hit max resist and 125 FCR and 152% FHR, you are unstoppable in any pvm situation in the game. This build is a lot of fun and it makes peoples (even seasoned players) jaws drop when they see a summoner tele'ing to baal and clearing the throne. The other good thing is if you don’t want to rush the ladder with your summoner, its no big deal because you can max what you need very early on. By 88 you are maxed without dropping a lot of skills into Summon resist.

Not to the players insisting on Beast with Pride/Might merc:
1) Baal games usually have a hammer din with 30+ conc which has a better boost than pride for your skellies
2) Faith has a much higher Fanaticism level meaning greater damage from fanat and faster ias.
3) With Beast, good luck maxing resistances and FCR
4) If you use beast and you use FCR rings and gloves and a spirit, you lose 8 Skill levels which is NOT a good thing for a Summoner. I hit level 50 Skills and if I only hit 42, my summons would not be as good as they are at level 50 even with the extra aura boosts.

I have made this build several times and switched back and forth and ultimately, the Hoto Summoner is a better all around build.

I look forward to any comments. I will happily show you my summoner if you so desire.

The following are pictures of my circ, amulet, and necro in general.

This post was edited by mephistophilis on Feb 16 2008 11:36pm