Phantom Summoner

Good? Bad? Desirable... where..?

Pvp and pve wise?

Thank you :)

Amazing in all aspects.

Unfortunately we do not excell at either PVP or PVE however we are fairly good at both. I have to go to work now but once i'm there i'll make a more complete post about our abilities.

from everything ive been told all the summoners are loads of fun. Almost wish i had made a PS.

If you're rich, the phantom summoner is one of the best PvE classes (although levelling rate is lower than that of poth the warlock and the elemental summoner). In a group, with capable DDs, a phantom summoner can tank while doing a significant amount of damage. In raiding, you're a nuker with infinite MP.

The class is good at PvP, having a fair chance even at the top dog classes such as nukers and archers.

Necros and other classes capable of confusing or fearing the summon are pretty much your only definite reason to cop out of a fight.

Actually at high levels i level faster than warlocks. I've never been in an ally with an ES so i can't compare exactly but we level pretty well. It's also completely self sufficent money wise as long you are smart enough to hunt in the right places.

Nuking in a raid is bad, that's probably the least efficient thing you can do. Best bet is using soulless due to his crazy attk and the fact that his AOe stuff works great on minions.

In groups PS CAN work as a tank but that's horribly inefficent. A better plan is to be a healer or a DD. I can easily keep up in archer parties of low 70's archers and my healer pet can replace a bishop in regards to healing.

Nukers and archers are not the forte of the PS. We just don't have the HP to stand against these ones. Now if you have a shield then the archers are ok and once your dead your pet will often kill them.

We are far better at killing daggers than anything, especially with a shield. Against an even level dagger i rarely if ever lose, even if they land their specials.

Necros don't need to fear our pets, their pets tend to be stronger and their ability to nuke quite well makes them just as dangerous as any nuker.

Sooo... what we are saying here..

In raidpartys the PS isnt too wanted.

And in PvP the PS beats daggers, which gets spanked
by every other class in pvp.

And in sieges?

Oh btw, I maxed my dear little summon shadow, and was gonna try him out... lvl 30 with my dark wiz.
omg he truly s*cked.... Is he supposed to both suck and take away 30% xp?

Wizard summons and summoner summons have some rather key base stat / buff differences. I really wouldn't use lv30 as a measure.

I wanted to hear that =)

In raidpartys the PS isnt too wanted.

No no, we're wanted in raids, we can be a valuable healer and you can deal a ton of damage, but you're not a nuker . Ps is very much a melee oriented class.

And in PvP the PS beats daggers, which gets spanked
by every other class in pvp.

Well, more precisely i can beat a dagger in melee, if you have a shield as i do, archers aren't too bad . Mages, well i'll be honest i usually die.

It takes a long time too, maybe 5 minutes in 1V1 but they usually die because my pet keeps going. Actually sad as this sounds healers are hard for me. I beat on t hem, they root me and my pet, heal themselves. then i beat on them, then they root/sleep. Takes 15 minutes to kill a bishop.

And in sieges?

Sieges can be played several different ways, my personal favorite is the sissy hidding behind the rock method. That is, you summon you send out wave after wave of silhouette at little to no risk to self. Not as effective as other methods but it works.

Other things that are good. i'm siege leader for our clan, so i lead a group of melees; daggers, glads, and a bishop, out as a gank squad. this is quite effective because of my high tanking abilities and oddly enough our little squad can take out a mage group. TP is your friend in sieges and use it. In a siege you are durable and your pet is expendable. You're not a PVP king but my kills outweigh my deaths and most of those kills are solf targets like nukers.

Oh btw, I maxed my dear little summon shadow, and was gonna try him out... lvl 30 with my dark wiz.
omg he truly s*cked.... Is he supposed to both suck and take away 30% xp?

Yes, i decided to become a PS at 35 because i had gotten sick of nuking. I had played with shadow (back before he had VR) and foudn that as an acceptable substitute. He really excels once you can tank with light armor. Use light armor and TP once you can and you'll find he's actually quite good.

Also yes he takes away 30%. Each of your summons takes a different amount and has a purpose. Shadow is for solo and when soloing you are bsically a healer/tank duoing with a DD so 30% is a fair drain.

Other pets have lower or higher drains so that you can adjust to the situation. Myself i find myself usually using nightshade in parties or soul-less in archer parties. His patk really picks up around 44 and since that's when you get servitor haste that's when he really shines.

I didn't do it myself but i might recommend nuking your way to 44 just like a necro does using lvl 35 spells. They'll last just fine and it'll save money getting through the levels that stop 50% of potential summoners.

Any specific questions?

If you're looking for good news on PS, then I'll respond to the other things you said:

In raidpartys the PS isnt too wanted.

you said this in response to Physics4ever's comment that nuking in a raid is bad. It's not the "raid" part that's bad, it's the "nuking"--the standard PS setup makes for a seriously crappy nuker, and the summon that actually has a nuke (Silhouette) isn't really that good when you could be using the Soulless.

He also said that the PS has trouble with nukers, can generally get an archer with the right setup (although sometimes you'll die in the process, you'll still kill your target), and is pretty much guaranteed to kill a dagger.
...so basically middle-of-the-road.

There are not enough corpses in a raid for the soulless to be doing damage continuously outside of his first poison, and the silouette with empower and acumen/zerk does damage worth reckoning.

I believe we all know just how valueable physical damage is in a raid, especially the kind that doesn't crit.

ETA: To anyone who thought I was suggesting that the PS himself, not the sil, should nuke - just how silly do you think I am?

Eww Ps nuking in raids is horrible, for a rather extreme example last night on antharas i nuked all night doing 60 damage max, but over 99% of nukes gave 1 damage as teh result.

Silhouette isn't that worthwhile in a raid trust me my alliance does them pretty frequently and i have a good deal of experience.

With BD and WC buffs, which i always have in raids soulless is a melee powerhouse and his poison is not great but I definately see a difference.

I usually have him zerked for good measure and he gan out damage the 7X archers easily and they are not what i woudl call weak. His crit rate isn't fantastic but with various crit buffs he crits at a decent rate and when he does he does a ridiculous amount of damage.

Yes archers aren't as good as nukers in a raid but they are still fantastic. Also more and more i'm being asked to be a healer, nightshade is fantastic and i'm now being asked to perform as a healer as often as a DD.

As I said - I'm not suggesting the PS should nuke (that's ******ed, and insinuating that I was suggesting it is rude at best).

If you have plenty of raiding experience, then you should realize the relevance (or lack thereof) of melees in it.

No silhouette nuking is fairly useless and DD's anre not useless in a raid. Yes it depends on the raid but i think that i'm fairly familiar with raiding given that there's at least one every time i log on.

When you talk of melee you're talking of standad melees. Pets are by no means standard, as previously mentioned when i pull out silhouette i'm considered an archer and that's a fairly good approximation.

Edit: nightfox what server do you play?

Do explain, I'm quite curious to hear.

future PS strat
theca set so increased p.def
berzerker blade (still deciding on SA)
+4 wit -4 int (increased cast speed and resistance to root/sleep)
+5 men -5 int (increased mp and regen also increased m.def)

the basis of this strat is to improve defence against anything u can throw at me, nukers will do far less damage and root/sleep will have less effect, increased p.def to go toe to toe with melee class such as daggers. u might think a berzerker blade is a bad choice in weapon but its stats are 100% similar to that of dual kats. ive focuses heavily on physical combat, with both me and my summon having high p.att anything in a robe is in sever trouble, as for light, its still hard to take 2 DDs beating on u, heavy armor is were im not sure, at this point in time im not a summoner yet, but i do have most of this equipment rdy for it (3 lvls left) ill let u know how successful it is.

I'd recommend focus on that sword if it can get it. I like drake because i actually like fighting magic mobs but it's bout the same either way and i think theca's cheaper.

On the tats i'd recommend +5 on the wit rather than the men, more bang for your buck. Many will also recommend a + con but imo it's a waste of money. If we got heavy armor masteries i can guarantee i'd be in it in about 10 minutes. Melee is the Ps's strongpoing and yes you are good at soft targets.

I used duals for a while, they were nice but if you like efficienty, and as a PS you should, then a 2-h sword is much better especially with focus.