Item summons' limited duration?

[Jojobobo]

Are the creatures summoned through items now limited in duration through a patch, or am I just encountering a weird bug? I'm trying to solo as a rogue and want to use them for flanking, but the animat seems to disappear very quickly (having not suffered any damage) which is making it problematic to kill that first rooftop guard at Raedric's Hold and so break into the castle.

 

EDIT: Just checked in game, I was a bit rusty on how to do it hence the question. Apparently they do now have a limited duration, which is crazy especially when it's only 20 seconds for the animat - that's barely enough time to use both its knock down and healing (and I thought the point of it's healing was to heal itself primarily though you can use it on the player, 20 seconds isn't even enough time for it to accrue any damage). Though summons are useful in regular play, they were a massive help playing solo due to them introducing flanking. Now it seems they're borderline useless, especially if they're all just 20 seconds now (even 30 seconds would make it slightly useable, 20 seconds is way too short). Maybe they're longer when you're not on PotD? Still seems like madness, and not something that really needed balance though a patch.

Edited February 21, 2016 by Jojobobo