I agree, at release Beckoner was pretty good. At lvl 1 you could at least quickly summon a horde of mini skeletons at the start of every battle that would at least keep enemies at bay, while you picked them off at range. The main complaint is that the summons all looked really funky since they were all pretty tiny.
Now with the +1 cost to summons it is almost a Troubadour without the ability to quickly build up phrases, and losing the extra linger when your not.