Summoners are cool, they can solo effectively AND wear and weapon they see fit. Depends on your playstyle. Kind of like Healers don't get any specific weapon masteries and can throw on Duals and whack away, or they can get a staff and Undead Nuke or Crowd control.
Summoners at lvl 40 til about 44 or so can use their existing Nukes alongside their summon and kill very fast. Or you can grab a Bow or Duals or whatever and whack at the mobs alongside your summon. It's all up to you and what you want to do.
Well I was thinking about getting a bow (even thou they are slow) b/c they do good damage and I can shoot from range BUT will I at level 40 pull arggo off of my servitor?
Well I was thinking about getting a bow (even thou they are slow) b/c they do good damage and I can shoot from range BUT will I at level 40 pull arggo off of my servitor?
Possibly. I don't play a Summoner, but the Servitor should hit hard enough to not be a huge issue. You also will learn how to time your arrows so you can prevent drawing in aggro. As an archer myself, I have to slow down a bit when in parties with a tank or general pickup groups otherwise I do pull aggro, and most of the time it's unintended.
Another thing to consider with a bow, is that it sucks MP. I don't know how much a summoner relies on MP, but it's worth considering. E.G. Eminence bow (Top C) sucks up 10 MP per shot. It adds up quick. Cheapshot helps, but it's not the golden child it used to be.
Ok so I can probably go Bow (which sucks up mp) or Duals (no shield to block hit) or sword and shield Which seems to be the best option I've heard! What 1 handed sword is the best I can get at CG and can I get an SA on it?
As a PS you really dont' want yoru pet to have agro ever. It's pdef is horrible, far worse than yours even if you wear robes. Add to that TP and there's no reason your pet shoudl take agro on purpose.
WHat is the best gear & weapon to wear for a level 40 PS?
I would recommend one of these three setups for a C-grade PS:
Full Nuker:
Demon Set
Homu w/Acumen
Full Fighter:
Plated Leather Set (possibly Drake)
SLS w/ Focus or Raid*Spirit
Some of both:
Drake Set
Homu and fighter weapon, switching based on your foe
I do not recommend a bow except as a backup weapon or if you group exclusively with archers and want to fit in. The damage is lower than melee and your cubics don't fire as much, and in the 40's a mage weapon+nukes will do more damage from further away...lose/lose situation.
Also, I'll contradict Physics4ever in one instance--if you use the Shadow, and if you're using beast SS, and if you're fighting 1-2 foes at once (reasonable) it can tank for you without ever needing healing (needs healing with 3, bad idea 4+), so it might as well be tanking for convenience' sake. Your other 3 servitors shouldn't be tanking except in specialized situations.
Before beast SS, I'd agree with his evaluation of servitor tanking ability unconditionally, but SS effectively doubles the Shadow's healing rate :)
I would always suggest the zerker over duals - if you want to trigger, use a 1H sword or dagger. PS cubics are defensive anyway, it makes little sense to chain them into a DD build IMHO.
The plated leather set is also sufficient to do most of your tanking and will add a significant chunk of damage.
As for nuking, the homu sword is nice for a nuker, but frankly, I don't see its big use for a nuker: Your pacing is grossly dependant on the servitor's killspeed anyway, so boosting your cast speed past what acumen potions and the almost obligatory WIT tat will do is pretty pointless.
I generally don't use cubics at all for hunting unless it's a x3+ monster. If I'm killing them in seconds and taking little damage, do I really need randomized boosts to killspeed and randomized stuns?
In parties, though...the higher fire rate is sweet. In a full party against a 6x monster, the Phantom Cubic (not defensive, btw) is easily responsible for more damage than my measly weapon, in fact...although that's not the everyday experience, there are times when fire rate really shines.
I'd actually go for a dagger, if not for the weaker C-grade options and the apparent problems with accuracy.
I would agree with the Berzerker Blade for an SS miser, but honestly I've never cared on my characters. I'd wonder why a miser would be spending SS on his own weapon at all, with the servitor out. Your mileage my vary, of course.
Plated Leather is a good option, in fact for the full-fighter one I'd prefer it in most situations. Going to edit that in :)
I'm going to maintain that the Homunkulus's Sword is the superior nuking option. It's usefulness is dependent on your playstyle, with mine I kill maybe 5% faster. Before calling it "pointless", though, bear in mind that there really isn't a superior option to Acumen and the Homu has good MAtk (especially when enchants are factored in). It really is the best, even if it's due to a lack of strong competition.
My bad, Bekkar is right, i went without beast shots for so long i don't usually figure them into anything unless i'm doing hardcore calculations (yes i do those). Anyway i seem to recall you said you had a friend going SE. with his passive VR and SS and SE VR teh shadow is unstopable. It can tank very difficult mobs.
Cubics are somethign i use all the time in solo. in a group i don't usually pull them out unless i'm doing full parties. most parties enjoy my phantom cubics enough to pay me to use the mass one so i do that often. In a full group in TOI or some such those things are fantastic and mroe than pay for themselves.
Hey cool guys thanks a lot for the help I'm getting close to starting my quests for class change so I just needed to know which was bastically the best route to go the PS or the SH and the only way I could find that ou was getting actual opinions from both sides :) *and real summoners*