Minions! (Or how to go crazy with summons and pets)

[protopersona]

So I'm thinking of building a summon and pet heavy team. Thinking Pallegina multiclass for obvious reasons, Tekehu multicast as healer and support, Maia as gunhawk for some damage, and Eder multiclass for "main tank", though might switch him to dual wielding later.

 

So I'm debating between multiclassing MC as chanter with either cipher or ranger as another ranged DD. I'm debating whether the extra pet or the CC is of more use\fun. Any advice?

 

I'm not interested in a herald MC because I like min\maxing too much. When I play one I feel too obligated to pick the optimal dialog for disposition reasons instead of what's interesting or funny.

Edited January 24, 2019 by protopersona

[Boeroer]

With the current summon bug (lots of summons don't scale properly) you might want to wait for the new 4.1 patch and see if that got fixed.

I'm playing a party with two Rangers atm (and two melee guys) and find myself in the situation that I have too many bodies in the front line. So maybe consider only playing ranged or reach chars when you plan to have three animal companions (and additional summons) on the field.


Besides that some general thoughts on summons: I find the best summons tend to be the Wizard's Pantoms because they get all your gear (including summoned weapons which will not run out). Unfortunately they can't use any active abilities (including weapon modals) - but two Blackbows on the field instead of one (for example) is pretty nice. Also (as I reported earlier) Concelhaut's Draining Touch doesn't get removed after a hit if a summon uses it. It's the melee weapon with the highest base damage, does corrode damage and targets Will instead of Deflection.

Monk's Summons are short-lived but also get your gear except weapons.

If you are wearing Effigy's Husk with the enchantment that does raw dmg in an AoE on unconsciousness and send both summons to die they will both trigger that effect - which can be pretty effective. There's also a Cloak of the Falling Star that does this. And I think some other item (Mantle of the Seven Bolts I believe). The Great Sword Effort can also be enchanted to do a Full Attack on K.O. Monk's summons won't get it but Essential/Substantial Phantoms do. As do the Living Illusions from Shroud of the Phantasm...

Other nice effects on summons is Wild Growth of the Ancient. It only affects summoned beasts and primordials. I didn't test Maura's Tentacles or Xoti's Vines, but I guess it works on them. What I tried was Chanter's primordials summons (Mushroom) and it worked on them. Making your summons robust and bigger is cool.

The animal companions are pretty equal I think. I like Takedown Combo best - if you pair it with a high base dmg attack (like Killing Bolt or Sunlance or so) it can do some serious damage while the enemy is also knocked down. So in my opinion: if you have an animal companion you should also have somebody who can deliver a fat blow. I didn't check what happens with DoT like Disintegration if it gets combined with Takedown Combo. I guess not much...

Edited January 24, 2019 by Boeroer

[protopersona]

Interesting. I hadn't given much thought to a wizard/chanter. Would answer the CC needs as well. The idea of magical suicide bombers also amuses me to no end. Also Boeroer the second wizard phantom does cast 3 spells of his own.

Edited January 24, 2019 by protopersona

[Elric Galad]

Other nice effects on summons is Wild Growth of the Ancient. It only affects summoned beasts and primordials. I didn't test Maura's Tentacles or Xoti's Vines, but I guess it works on them. What I tried was Chanter's primordials summons (Mushroom) and it worked on them. Making your summons robust and bigger is cool.

 

Dragons are beasts by the way.

So having a Single Class Chanter and an Ancient in a minion party should be quite nice. 

 

What's better than a dragon ?

2 dragons say the beckoner.

A bigger dragon say the Ancient.

Edited January 24, 2019 by Elric Galad

[Boeroer]

Hehe - right. Also Robust on a Dragon should make it more... robust.

 

Oh and patch 4.1 didn't fix the summons issue.

Edited January 24, 2019 by Boeroer

[michel.montenegro]

Hehe - right. Also Robust on a Dragon should make it more... robust.

 

Oh and patch 4.1 didn't fix the summons issue.

What bug has in the summons?

[michel.montenegro]

I wanted to do a build summoner, Minion Master myself.
What do you suggest?
Which classes have invocations, do you have a location where you can see their list?

[protopersona]

 

Hehe - right. Also Robust on a Dragon should make it more... robust.

 

Oh and patch 4.1 didn't fix the summons issue.

What bug has in the summons?

 

Currently summons don't scale with power levels. So they never get better than the base spell.

[protopersona]

I wanted to do a build summoner, Minion Master myself.

What do you suggest?

Which classes have invocations, do you have a location where you can see their list?

Invocation is the name for Chanter "spells." Most classes have some kind of summon, though chanter gets a lot of them.

[Marigoldran]

Yes, well when the base spell is "ancient weapons," that's still pretty good.

 

If you want a summon class, Heralds is by far the best.  The other good summon class, ironically, is Bersker.  Get the weapon "Grave Caller" and have a beckoner in your party to summon skeletons.  Then with your berserked abilities, massacre these weak summoned skeletons.

 

With the right enchantment, every time the weapon Grave Caller kills a skeleton, it summons an imp.  

 

Boreoror's idea, btw.  Enjoy your imps.  

 

Another good weird summoner class is Ranger/Rogue Heath Orlan.  The key is getting Essence Interrupter, which summons stuff every time you kill something you've critted.  

 

With Rogue and Ranger passives (sharpshooter and dirty fighting) and your Heath Orlan bonus, you'll be critting a lot once every 3 hits, and the Essence Interrupter shoots FAST with the Hunting Bow Modal.  

Edited January 25, 2019 by Marigoldran

[Boeroer]

It's not my idea. It's from this build: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/103683-class-build-lord-of-the-imps/

 

Using Essence Interrupter is another way to produce sturdier summons from weak skeletons by the way. You "mark" one skeleton and it produces a summon - while the skeleton splits into two other skeletons (Ancient Brittle Bones) which you can also mark and kill: 3 summons in the field.

 

Also works with Grave Calling + imps. Only that the sabre has to deliver the killing blow while with the Essence Interrupter you only have to mark the creature with a crit.

 

You can produce three summons from one single skeleton.

 

Best is to pick a Troubadour though (in the long run). Although the summons are tougher and less you will dish out a skeleton every 3 secs (instead of 6) with "Many Lives Pass By" which you can kill then. The army grows very quickly... Beckoner starts more steeply though.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Boeroer

[certainkindoffool]

I can't test right now. But, does anyone know the interaction when essence interrupter charges a vessel that is then killed by grave caller?

[hollerer]

For chanter summons, consider not taking the drake. It flaps its wings all the time, making constant noise and causing performance issues. It also has a huge model that blocks your view.

 

Also, if you multiclass a chanter, you won't get the best summons at all and even some good summons you get very late because of slow advancing in the ability tree. You'll be playing around with skeletons or wyrms for very long time. So I don't think a multiclass chanter makes a good summoner.

[Boeroer]

I can't test right now. But, does anyone know the interaction when essence interrupter charges a vessel that is then killed by grave caller?

Hehe - taking it to the limits.

If you have the Chillfog Enchantment it will trigger a Chillfog and summon a creature. I didn't test either but I believe (based in the bahavior those weapons showso far) that the imp enchantment will indeed produce one imp and one other creature then. In case of Ancient Brittle Bones you would then get 1 imp + 1 creature +2 skeletons.

[certainkindoffool]

That could make for an interesting Halloween party...complete with smoke machine.

 

I'm a bit curious about trying a pacifist run with a bloodmage/beckoner low might high crit build. Focus on skeletons, essence interuptor, and arkemyr's brilliant departure to avoid directly killing as much as possible. Perhaps roleplayed as trying to repopulate the deadfire. Though, deadfire is not as friendly to pacifism as POE was.

 

(if this is hard to read, I'm on phone and not sure why font is so small. Forum keeps flipping from mobile to desktop version as well. Strange)

Edited January 25, 2019 by certainkindoffool

[Elric Galad]

 

I can't test right now. But, does anyone know the interaction when essence interrupter charges a vessel that is then killed by grave caller?

Hehe - taking it to the limits.

If you have the Chillfog Enchantment it will trigger a Chillfog and summon a creature. I didn't test either but I believe (based in the bahavior those weapons showso far) that the imp enchantment will indeed produce one imp and one other creature then. In case of Ancient Brittle Bones you would then get 1 imp + 1 creature +2 skeletons.

Now you add a single class paladin (+2 zeal on downed ally) who spams light of pure zeal to keep your party at full health since he would have basically unlimited powers. Edited January 25, 2019 by Elric Galad

[Marigoldran]

Oh shi- I never even thought about that.  Downed allies includes SUMMONS.  

[Boeroer]

Yes. They also count for Bloodlust and Blood Thirst if the killer is your own Barb.

 

Or for Virtous Triumph or Inspiring Triumph if the killer is a Paladin.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Boeroer