Building a summoner

[Graschwar]

Hi guys,

 

I would like to hear your thoughts on my Summoner Build:

 

Race: Death Godlike (since they look the coolest )

 

Class 1: Scald

 

Class 2: Ranger

 

As for the sub-class Ghost heart is not an option cause it cancels out the summons. I used to take a sharpshooter, but i think the downsides are to steep.

Right now I prefer the stalker. The extra bonus from the defenses are nice for pet and char, especially since mine is a glass canon and pets are not that sturdy.

 

Stats:

 

STR: 15

CON: 3 (dumped)

DEX: 19 (18 + 1)
PER: 19 (18 + 1)

INT: 19 (18 + 1)

RES: 3 (dumped)

 

Weapon:

Essence Interrupter (More summons!)

 

Armor:

I stole the one from Eder since the revive might in come handy.

 

Talents:

Summon: Wyrms (3 Meat shields + ranged)

Everything that makes you faster and crit more often.

 

Pet:

I choose the Lion since he is the mix (large model but fast)

 

 

Tactics:

 

Most other chars are front liners, while your pet will act as a personal guardian, if anything slips past your frontline. In certain fights it might be okay to go closer with the Char and use the pet for additional damage. "The Thunder Rolled like Waves on Black Seas" is than a good choice as second line damage dealer and stunner.

 

In very difficult battles you can kite with "Blessed Was Wengridh, Quickest of his Tribe" and the other speed perks and keep on summoning and firing back.

 

 

 

So far for now, i only tested it for the early phase of the games. Please tell me what you think!

[hansvedic]

Hi guys,

 

I would like to hear your thoughts on my Summoner Build:

 

Race: Death Godlike (since they look the coolest )

 

Class 1: Scald

 

Class 2: Ranger

 

As for the sub-class Ghost heart is not an option cause it cancels out the summons. I used to take a sharpshooter, but i think the downsides are to steep.

Right now I prefer the stalker. The extra bonus from the defenses are nice for pet and char, especially since mine is a glass canon and pets are not that sturdy.

 

Stats:

 

STR: 15

CON: 3 (dumped)

DEX: 19 (18 + 1)

PER: 19 (18 + 1)

INT: 19 (18 + 1)

RES: 3 (dumped)

 

Weapon:

Essence Interrupter (More summons!)

 

Armor:

I stole the one from Eder since the revive might in come handy.

 

Talents:

Summon: Wyrms (3 Meat shields + ranged)

Everything that makes you faster and crit more often.

 

Pet:

I choose the Lion since he is the mix (large model but fast)

 

 

Tactics:

 

Most other chars are front liners, while your pet will act as a personal guardian, if anything slips past your frontline. In certain fights it might be okay to go closer with the Char and use the pet for additional damage. "The Thunder Rolled like Waves on Black Seas" is than a good choice as second line damage dealer and stunner.

 

In very difficult battles you can kite with "Blessed Was Wengridh, Quickest of his Tribe" and the other speed perks and keep on summoning and firing back.

 

 

 

So far for now, i only tested it for the early phase of the games. Please tell me what you think!

 

Unless something has changed, a Skald can only gain phrases through *melee* critical hits, and since critical hits are rare on Path of the Damned (PotD), I would recommend a Troubadour for a summoner build.

 

Also, with that low CON and RES, enemies are going to target you like crazy. You're going to need a really good tank or front line, like an Unbroken/Trickster (or maybe Eder with the Defender modal and Overbearing Guard), to keep the melees off of you and even then ranged enemies will want to kill you first. I'd recommend having at least 8 CON.

 

Still, summoners do very well in this game.

[Enoch]

Unless something has changed, a Skald can only gain phrases through *melee* critical hits, and since critical hits are rare on Path of the Damned (PotD), I would recommend a Troubadour for a summoner build.

Yes.  Additionally, summoning invocations are categorized as "Non-Offensive," so they cost more Phrases for a Skald to use.  Definitely use a Troub, Beckoner, or even a no-subclass Chanter if you plan to do lots of summoning.  

[Graschwar]

Well the description in the Charselection just says weapon crits and i chose a ranger class for they have the most accuracy.

 

The extra phrase for the summons isnt too steep of a price since with high int they stay long enough. And in my experience the 2 phrase-"The Thunder Rolled like Waves on Black Seas" is really helpful if something comes too close.

[Boeroer]

Skald's phase on crit: only melee. The description is misleading. You can trust us on this one.

 

Pick Troubadour or Beckoner. Troubadour is more flexible and useful overall unless you "abuse" the many weak summons of the Beckoner in some ways (like killing them with Grave Calling or using Combusting Wounds or so).

Edited November 9, 2018 by Boeroer

[Enoch]

Yeah, even for a melee Chanter, a Troubadour in Brisk Recitation mode can spit out Offensive invocations at about the same rate as a Skald can.  Probably better, if no crits are flowing in.

 

 

It's probably sub-optimal, overall, but I still like Skalds for non-summoner melee Chanters.  You get fast Offensive invocations without giving up Phrase linger, so you can keep 2 phrases up most of the time with decent INT.  The bonus phrase on crit is a nice boost when it happens, but not crucial to the concept.  Troubs are far more flexible, but I don't like having to decide whether I want to be in passive or active mode all the time.  And Skald just suits the character I'm playing now, who is a lot of fun-- a dual-War-Hammer War Caller (Devoted/Skald). 

Edited November 9, 2018 by Enoch

[Killyox]

Troubadour with passive turned on doing many lives spawning skeletons every 3 sec :D

[Graschwar]

I do not completly understand the troubadour, and his modal. COuld you explain it to me in more detail?

[hansvedic]

I do not completly understand the troubadour, and his modal. COuld you explain it to me in more detail?

 

Basically, the Troubadour modal causes each phrase to take 3 seconds to chant instead of 6 seconds, but removes the linger time on the phrases.

 

Since the phrases take half as long to chant, you can build up phrases for invocations much more quickly and reliably than with any other chanter subclass. That being said, the tradeoff is no linger, so you'll generally want to stick to one phrase that you chant repeatedly.

 

I hope this helps.

 

EDIT: No linger means that, after the 3 seconds of phrase chanting is done, the effect of the chant should also be done and the next one begins.

Edited November 10, 2018 by hansvedic

[Killyox]

I do not completly understand the troubadour, and his modal. COuld you explain it to me in more detail?

Like hansvedic said. Also, since you do chants in 3s instead of 6s if you wish, the chant that constantly spawns skeletons spawns them every 3s instead of 6s

 

Basically, with 2 chanters/troubadours I don't need a tank at all. Both fo them spawn skeletons, 1 can summon dragon for Frightening Aura mostly and they unleash ranged dmg Too many skeletons to handle for mobs.

 

 

Or you can go crazy and do a party of 5 chanters. There's no enemy in the game, that will be able to deal with the raw amount of them.

[Killyox]

Also, this is a personal thing, but I never dump stats in POE (unlike BG) for RP reasons and because dumping them usually hurts a lot too.

 

3 resolve and 20 resolve (my chanter has over 20) is a gigantic difference in survivability.

[Ophiuchus]

IIRC, 20 INT offsets the linger malus on Troubadour.

[Frak]

I like to write, so I'll give you my lowdown on Troubador.

 

The Troubador is all about adapting songstyle to the flow of battle.

 

Default, by having longer linger, you get more overlap between two phrases.  This means you can plan for a passive double (de)buff of some kind (f. Extra damage by running Soft Winds and Dragon Thrashed), Extra defense (mental and body with resistance phrases) or double healing (With Ancient Memory and some other healing phrase). More passive stuff happens.

 

Then there is the modal. The modal is for when you want to build up phrases fast for invocations. So you forego the linger and the double stacking. This is about pumping out those summons, roars, songs as soon as possible. 

 

 

That's what the troubador is for. Hustle and flow.

[hansvedic]

IIRC, 20 INT offsets the linger malus on Troubadour.

 

IIRC, Brisk Recitation removes linger completely, but 20 INT is often quoted w/ Troubadour b/c w/ 20 INT you can get 2 phrases to completely overlap.

 

EDIT: If you're right, though, that would be news.

Edited November 11, 2018 by hansvedic

[Boeroer]

No, you are right.

[Killyox]

Brisk Recitation removes linger completely.

[Archaven]

Except that I find troubadour brisk recitation still slow. They can go with reduce -3s for completing current phrase on weapon crit?

[Killyox]

Except that I find troubadour brisk recitation still slow. They can go with reduce -3s for completing current phrase on weapon crit?

I am not sure exactly what you're asking here.

[Gregorovich]

Having three troubadours-summoners in the party feels like you're playing a real-time strategy, usually there is even no need to heal yourself

[thelee]

Except that I find troubadour brisk recitation still slow. They can go with reduce -3s for completing current phrase on weapon crit?

 

I'm not quite sure what you're asking, but if all you focus is on invocations, then yes, brisk recitation will still be slow because it's still like 20+ seconds before using a super high level invocation.

 

but that's not the right comparison. you're getting those invocations literally 100% faster. and those invocations are potentially extremely powerful anyway and worth waiting for.

 

and if you think brisk recitation is slow, you should really try that AL7 chant that summons a skeleton, with brisk recitation on. you won't think it's very slow after that.

Edited November 13, 2018 by thelee

[Archaven]

 

Except that I find troubadour brisk recitation still slow. They can go with reduce -3s for completing current phrase on weapon crit?

I'm not quite sure what you're asking, but if all you focus is on invocations, then yes, brisk recitation will still be slow because it's still like 20+ seconds before using a super high level invocation.

 

but that's not the right comparison. you're getting those invocations literally 100% faster. and those invocations are potentially extremely powerful anyway and worth waiting for.

 

and if you think brisk recitation is slow, you should really try that AL7 chant that summons a skeleton, with brisk recitation on. you won't think it's very slow after that.

Yes I'm playing offensive chanter. I'm focusing mainly on invocations. Correct me if I'm wrong, with brisk recitation each phrase is 3s long? So invocations are basically more expensive (+1 phrase).

 

Since the time for 1 phrase is finite, so to cast just thrice was she wronged, you need basically 12secs or 18secs for seven nights.

 

That's really long just to dish out 1 nuke. And the damage isn't impressive at all. Compared to other classes that can generate resource with damage eg. Ascendant, its really slow for me.

 

I have since now trying evoker. He's fast but he lose out in infinite nukes.

 

Ps. Skald is a nice subclass that suits my playstyle. But gain +1 phrase on crit isn't that good in potd? Especially mobs and bosses have ridiculous defense.

Edited November 14, 2018 by Archaven

[baldurs_gate_2]

 

 

Except that I find troubadour brisk recitation still slow. They can go with reduce -3s for completing current phrase on weapon crit?

I'm not quite sure what you're asking, but if all you focus is on invocations, then yes, brisk recitation will still be slow because it's still like 20+ seconds before using a super high level invocation.

 

but that's not the right comparison. you're getting those invocations literally 100% faster. and those invocations are potentially extremely powerful anyway and worth waiting for.

 

and if you think brisk recitation is slow, you should really try that AL7 chant that summons a skeleton, with brisk recitation on. you won't think it's very slow after that.

Yes I'm playing offensive chanter. I'm focusing mainly on invocations. Correct me if I'm wrong, with brisk recitation each phrase is 3s long? So invocations are basically more expensive (+1 phrase).

 

Since the time for 1 phrase is finite, so to cast just thrice was she wronged, you need basically 12secs or 18secs for seven nights.

 

That's really long just to dish out 1 nuke. And the damage isn't impressive at all. Compared to other classes that can generate resource with damage eg. Ascendant, its really slow for me.

 

I have since now trying evoker. He's fast but he lose out in infinite nukes.

 

Ps. Skald is a nice subclass that suits my playstyle. But gain +1 phrase on crit isn't that good in potd? Especially mobs and bosses have ridiculous defense.

 

Seven Nights is a Level V Invocation and you need 4 Phrases as Skald. But as Skald, you have to wait 6 seconds for each phrase, what means you have to wait 24 sec to cast it. So a Troubadour is faster.

 

The summons are the only reason to play a chanter, because instead of SN you just use a scroll of meteo shower or greater maelstrom, that deals much more damage and is much faster.

Edited November 14, 2018 by baldurs_gate_2

[thelee]

 

 

Except that I find troubadour brisk recitation still slow. They can go with reduce -3s for completing current phrase on weapon crit?

I'm not quite sure what you're asking, but if all you focus is on invocations, then yes, brisk recitation will still be slow because it's still like 20+ seconds before using a super high level invocation.

 

but that's not the right comparison. you're getting those invocations literally 100% faster. and those invocations are potentially extremely powerful anyway and worth waiting for.

 

and if you think brisk recitation is slow, you should really try that AL7 chant that summons a skeleton, with brisk recitation on. you won't think it's very slow after that.

Yes I'm playing offensive chanter. I'm focusing mainly on invocations. Correct me if I'm wrong, with brisk recitation each phrase is 3s long? So invocations are basically more expensive (+1 phrase).

 

Since the time for 1 phrase is finite, so to cast just thrice was she wronged, you need basically 12secs or 18secs for seven nights.

 

That's really long just to dish out 1 nuke. And the damage isn't impressive at all. Compared to other classes that can generate resource with damage eg. Ascendant, its really slow for me.

 

I have since now trying evoker. He's fast but he lose out in infinite nukes.

 

Ps. Skald is a nice subclass that suits my playstyle. But gain +1 phrase on crit isn't that good in potd? Especially mobs and bosses have ridiculous defense.

 

 

chanter is not a nuker, and if you think you can do decent nuking with a chanter, you're going to have a bad time.

 

instead, a chanter is primarily a support member (chants) that occasionally can accent their support with a one-shot invocation.

 

thrice was she wronged is an OK invocation for AL1 or AL3 (if you target a bunch of enemies to maximize the jumps). frankly, even though chanter is awesome at summoning even the summons at AL1 and AL3 are merely OK. It's not until you get to AL4 that you really start getting a bunch of powerful invocations imo, instead of merely OK stuff with a few exceptions (the paralyze invocation is always good).

[Archaven]

chanter is a summoner i know. the skald subclass gaining +1 phrase on crit was mainly designed as an offensive invoker. nuking with a chanter isn't bad just that it's just plain long. this would have been different if chanter resource are like wounds or focus.

[Kaylon]

Thrice was she wronged upgraded is the bread and butter of the skald - fast cast, decent damage in an AoE for a very low cost and at high level you can cast it 4-5 times in a row at the beginning of the fight which helps clearing trash very fast.