Summoner Druid Questions

My friend and I are going to make a duo run from normal to hell using a Summoner Necro and I'll be a Summoner Druid. Our plan is to get the full gear for them ahead of time and then run through the game and then just equip the gear once we hit those levels. I am curious though, what is the best end game gearing for a summoner druid? I know the obvious Enigma, Spirit,

Arachnid Mesh, maybe a 10fcr ring and soj or dual soj, Trang's gloves, Travs. But should I get a

Caster Amulet or just run Mara's? I'm not sure how important the FCR is outside of running Enigma or what breakpoint I should aim for, obviously my apocalypse druid hit 99 but is that as needed for my summoner? I'm not too sure what helmet(s) are good for this build. Beast seems to be the best weapon choice. The merc I'm thinking of getting a Might Merc with maybe Pride for the

Concentration but would Reaper's toll ultimately be better?

As for our Duo run I think this will be pretty fun. We plan to run in ways to synergize somewhat, mostly by trying to stack Aura's. I'll run Might or

Defiance merc and he the opposite, he'll have Infinity and I'll run Pride, and self wield Beast towards end game. I think this'll be a fun slow playthrough which neither of us have done in a long time. Any suggestions on some good gear (besides end game gear) that would be good to use on our run through?

I know Summoner Druid isn't all that great but I already have 12 fully built characters and could probably build a couple more right now so it's not like making a for fun character will hurt. Also this will be non-ladder.

As you will be a duo with a Necromancer,

The Reaper's Toll (or any other item with Curse proc) makes no much sense as the Necro will be using a curse on everybody (probably

Amplify Damage)

Since every point counts on summoning tree, not only hard points but also item points, maximizing summoning tree should be first aim. If you enjoy playing and farming, not killing only elites, FCR is not that important. For me, at least.

Blindfire187 wrote: 5 months ago

[..]
I think this'll be a fun slow playthrough which neither of us have done in a long time.
[..]
I know Summoner Druid isn't all that great
[..]

Not that great compared to some top-end meta builds like Mosaic and whatnot, sure. But ever since they buffed summon druids (hard...) they're a lot better than you might be expecting. At least the playthrough on them really isn't all that slow actually. Well, other than maggot lair of course but you know you'll hate that as soon as you utter the word "summon" in your build, regardless of class.
I for one have grown to quite like my summon druid and he certainly doesn't feel "weak" by any means, albeit of course still slower than proper AoE builds.


I won't go into all of the math we did and whatnot again (you can find that somewhere on the forums here though from back in the day) but regarding summon druids in general, grunty conjured up a fairly solid guide:
forums/2-4-summon-druid-guide-t903558.html


With that out of the way, there are some

Key points to take away and some to adjust specifically in your case as you're paired with a necro:

- +Skills are your best friend. Summon druids scale quite well with +skills not only because of the inherent buff to the skill you're increasing but also because of the hidden class bonus of synergies in the summon tree actually working beyond the 20 hard points so any extra point to all/summons not only buffs your summon directly but also indirectly by further increasing the other summons that act as a synergy (while also buffing those both ways as well). This is really where your primary focus should be when gearing a summon druid.

- Keep in mind that summons remember their level from point-of-cast so switch to a +skill weapon loadout for summoning but then during actual play, keep an aura stick handy to buff said summons even further (Beast being the typical choice here though you could go with Faith as well for even more aura goodness at the cost of a shield/other stats).

- Mercs may only be "one guy" but their dmg (at least for A2/5) is nothing to ignore as a summoner. Usually, for a druid you'd opt for reaper's to get that decrep while at the same time still keeping your merc at solid dmg output himself. In your case, you won't need that as your necro buddy would bring amp instead. As a result, you COULD use Pride, true, but keep in mind that even though the aura would be brilliant for the mass of summons, the actual dmg of Pride itself is rather abysmal, meaning your merc's performance drops like a rock in return. You'd likely (educated guess without doing the 2-class math) be best off with one of you using Beast/Faith for fana, your buddy's

Iron Golem being made from Pride (as IG dmg sucks no matter what - perfect aura source there), grabbing an A2 merc with might and one with AR, one of whom would get Infinity (lower def + ele dmg buff) and the other could actually focus entirely on raw dmg. Or even on even more defense by using Doom (which still keeps solid dmg). Or Insight for mana though neither of you should need that.

- Summon builds in general tend to be extremely safe builds, even more so in the case of a druid as you don't have the risk of "summon wall breaking down due to lack of corpses". As a result, defensive stats are still nice of course but can largely be considered as the least important part of your gear. This is even more true when running with 2 full summon armies.

- FCR is really just important for the initial town-summoning (hardly any difference) and for teleporting. For the latter, your BPs are gonna suck compared to your necro buddy anyways so you will be the one holding up both of you/falling behind. Specifically because of that, it may be worth focusing on the 99 rather than just 68. The plus here being that if you have your buddy/necro be the one carrying Beast/Faith so you don't have to, you have a much easier time getting to said 99 and staying on his tail.

Schnorki wrote: 5 months ago

Blindfire187 wrote: 5 months ago

[..]
I think this'll be a fun slow playthrough which neither of us have done in a long time.
[..]
I know Summoner Druid isn't all that great
[..]

Not that great compared to some top-end meta builds like Mosaic and whatnot, sure. But ever since they buffed summon druids (hard...) they're a lot better than you might be expecting. At least the playthrough on them really isn't all that slow actually. Well, other than maggot lair of course but you know you'll hate that as soon as you utter the word "summon" in your build, regardless of class.
I for one have grown to quite like my summon druid and he certainly doesn't feel "weak" by any means, albeit of course still slower than proper AoE builds.


I won't go into all of the math we did and whatnot again (you can find that somewhere on the forums here though from back in the day) but regarding summon druids in general, grunty conjured up a fairly solid guide:
forums/2-4-summon-druid-guide-t903558.html


With that out of the way, there are some

Key points to take away and some to adjust specifically in your case as you're paired with a necro:

- +Skills are your best friend. Summon druids scale quite well with +skills not only because of the inherent buff to the skill you're increasing but also because of the hidden class bonus of synergies in the summon tree actually working beyond the 20 hard points so any extra point to all/summons not only buffs your summon directly but also indirectly by further increasing the other summons that act as a synergy (while also buffing those both ways as well). This is really where your primary focus should be when gearing a summon druid.

- Keep in mind that summons remember their level from point-of-cast so switch to a +skill weapon loadout for summoning but then during actual play, keep an aura stick handy to buff said summons even further (Beast being the typical choice here though you could go with Faith as well for even more aura goodness at the cost of a shield/other stats).

- Mercs may only be "one guy" but their dmg (at least for A2/5) is nothing to ignore as a summoner. Usually, for a druid you'd opt for reaper's to get that decrep while at the same time still keeping your merc at solid dmg output himself. In your case, you won't need that as your necro buddy would bring amp instead. As a result, you COULD use Pride, true, but keep in mind that even though the aura would be brilliant for the mass of summons, the actual dmg of Pride itself is rather abysmal, meaning your merc's performance drops like a rock in return. You'd likely (educated guess without doing the 2-class math) be best off with one of you using Beast/Faith for fana, your buddy's

Iron Golem being made from Pride (as IG dmg sucks no matter what - perfect aura source there), grabbing an A2 merc with might and one with AR, one of whom would get Infinity (lower def + ele dmg buff) and the other could actually focus entirely on raw dmg. Or even on even more defense by using Doom (which still keeps solid dmg). Or Insight for mana though neither of you should need that.

- Summon builds in general tend to be extremely safe builds, even more so in the case of a druid as you don't have the risk of "summon wall breaking down due to lack of corpses". As a result, defensive stats are still nice of course but can largely be considered as the least important part of your gear. This is even more true when running with 2 full summon armies.

- FCR is really just important for the initial town-summoning (hardly any difference) and for teleporting. For the latter, your BPs are gonna suck compared to your necro buddy anyways so you will be the one holding up both of you/falling behind. Specifically because of that, it may be worth focusing on the 99 rather than just 68. The plus here being that if you have your buddy/necro be the one carrying Beast/Faith so you don't have to, you have a much easier time getting to said 99 and staying on his tail.

This is great thanks. I will not worry about FCR when doing the playthrough and will consider running Reaper's toll or something else instead. That said, after the run through with my friend we will be playing this chars seperately also, so the end game will be just a general summoner setup. As for Pride on the merc vs. reapers toll, Does the merc damage matter much when your focus is on summons? I was thinking the less damage from Pride would be counterbalanced by the increase in damage the summons will get from

Concentration, or is

Decrepify just that much better?

As for End game, where exactly do you farm? I guess it's farming area's and how you farm would really determine how much FCR he would need. Also, do you use MF on him or just kill for runes/bases? I should probably have read your link before posting this reply lol, I will read it first chance I get.

Blindfire187 wrote: 5 months ago

This is great thanks. I will not worry about FCR when doing the playthrough and will consider running Reaper's toll or something else instead. That said, after the run through with my friend we will be playing this chars seperately also, so the end game will be just a general summoner setup. As for Pride on the merc vs. reapers toll, Does the merc damage matter much when your focus is on summons? I was thinking the less damage from Pride would be counterbalanced by the increase in damage the summons will get from

Concentration, or is

Decrepify just that much better?

As for End game, where exactly do you farm? I guess it's farming area's and how you farm would really determine how much FCR he would need. Also, do you use MF on him or just kill for runes/bases? I should probably have read your link before posting this reply lol, I will read it first chance I get.

Your merc is essentially your best individual summon so to speak. So def don't underestimate him.

That having been said, reaper's isn't just about making your merc do more damage with the weapon itself (though it is far superior to Pride's inherent base dmg, due to lack of on-weapon ED on that). Pride's conc is great and all but the cumulative benefit of conc is generally nowhere near the benefit of a decrep proc (that tends to be quite reliable with reaper's) in terms of the combined damage boost to your entire zoo. Plus decrep - unlike conc - can actually break most phys immunes for ya. Given, summons gain from a sunder as well but your merc doesn't and even with a sunder effect, you still want that dmg boost from decrep over sitting at 95% DR with conc.

With regards to farming: Wherever you want.
Personally, I quite enjoy CS for a summon druid as things are somewhat spread out but there isn't toooo much running off everywhere (as compared to say pits) but that's also largely because I simply generally enjoy running CS more than most other places.
You can literally do anything though as a summon druid these days. Not just in terms of normal farming areas but also when it comes to taking down dclone and - yes - even ubers (though those do still take a while as a summoner).

I would go for:

Necro: Might Merc, Infinity in

Eth

Thresher, Hustle, Cure, Insight IG

Max Skeletons/

Skeleton Mastery/

Corpse Explosion/

Golem Mastery, 1 pt to IG/resist/

Revive.

Druid:

Fire Arrow Rogue, Harmony in

Matriarchal Bow, Hustle or Treachery, Flickering Flame.

Max all Summons, 1pt to

Carrion Vine, Heart of the Wolverine (max last), 1 pt to

Werebear,

Lycanthropy,

Shock Wave

One of you should wear a Beast

Double Axe, preferably the druid because he is a frontliner and gets +3 to

Werebear/lyca. Both of you should use Hoto+Spirit (or

Boneflame) on swap for precast. Necro may add a CTA to the mix.

So you have: LR/AD/Decrep curses, CE for aoe,

Stun, crushing blow, strongest healing in the game (30% life multiplied by +-40! for every consumed corpse), 3 damage auras, 2 speed auras,

Meditation aura, reduced curse duration,

Inner Sight, fire immunity for all summons, 3 damage sources,

Conviction aura,

Battle Orders. That's a bunch of useful goodies, you can play ANY content with this setup!

As for summons in general: Speed > Damage. You don't want your army to be slowed down by decrep or freeze! I never run CS or WST without

Cleansing. This is most important for the druid, because his minions are very slow.

Cleansing and

Vigor make your pack a lot more effective than you may think.

When playing solo, Necro can keep his build as it is (maybe swap Cure for Andy or whatever), Druid could swap to A2 Reapers Merc, Mist/Harmony+Delirium Rogue or LW+Plague Barb Merc. All of these work well and offer different

Key aspects (damage, aoe+cc, survivability).