can somone with experieance playing either a phantom summoner or a elemental summoner, share some insight about there play history on these classes, which one levels faster adn more efficiantly, how to the skill sets of each compare to one another? i noticed the phantom herding summon has an aoe drain and some kind of corpse burst spell, are these as effective as the ellemenatal summoners aoe dammage spell for there herding summon? my mian now is an overlord and i can search forever at times and never get a party when my clanies arent on, so i was considering making an alt summoner for when theres no hope at me grouping till clan mates are on :) so anyone who can give some ino on these two classes regarding anything you think is relevant id appreicate it a lot, thanks in advance. :D
Honestly, the best person to try & pm or get a hold of on any Elemental Summoner questions would be MalineII. If you can try to look up her topics or pm her on here, she would know everything you need. :D
The herding summon for PS (soulless) is only useful in groups, you won't be able to solo with him that well because he casts a debuff on u that slowly eats mana. His AOE spells don't get effective till higher levels.
For solo the shadow is great for tanking due to perma-VR, although it eats 30% of ur XP you can easily grind 2x-4x HP mobs for hours on end as long as you're not too greedy with your mob pulls.
From what I hear the ES's unicorn merrow is very good for AOE. You can solo tanor canyon groups around mid to late 40's which is a very fast way to level.
Finding all the spellbooks for each summoner class might be a problem however, be sure to read Jute's spellbook location guide, start early before you're too high for the mobs to drop em.
pets use pet SS and SPS availiable at the pet manager
pet SS is currently cheapest in rune due to no castle and no tax rate
second on the list would prolly be giran unless your server has a really funky tax system
pet SS and SPS is used by double clicking (or right clicking) in inventory or dragging to a hot bar and left clicking
pet SS and SPS can be automated by right clicking on its hot bar icon (but only if you have a summon active)
unlike normal SS and SPS the automatic use of pet SS and SPS will be cancelled if you no longer have a summon and must be re-automated when you resummon
Solo AoE
Cost: 5/5, Gain: 4/5, Fun: 4/5, Risk: 5/5, Speed: 4/5
Use the unicorn merrow to herd a small number of half HP mobs and nuke them. This is definitely viable once you hit 48 (doing the skyshadow meadow passive groups), I haven't personally tried the Tanor Canyon at all.
You are unable to manor while doing this, but you will cut a fair profit on drops and possibly quests, as blessed spiritshots are very cost efficient.
If you can get prophet buffs (not warcrier buffs, not shillien elder buffs; prophet or bishop buffs!) for this, you'll notice a significant improvement in levelling speed, safety and the rate at which your mana drains before the end of the buff round - I'd advise divine/blue wolf robes and a mana up weapon (conversion if you're crazy, but you might be getting hit in tight situations - and then you'll want all the health you can have).
Available quests: Warehouse Keeper's Past Time, Stolen Infernium Ore Quest
Solo Melee
Cost: 1~5/5, Gain: 3~5/5, Fun: 3/5, Risk: 1/5, Speed: 2~4/5
Use either of your three battle servitors to kill things single-target in the field. This is the most versatile playstyle.
If you use the mirage, your exp will sit as still as a dwarf in Giran, but you will be able to two-shot mobs for a very low cost - that's excellent for farming quests, for example.
If you use the boxer, you will have no downtime to speak of (and you can even choose to pass up SS if you find them too expensive), and you'll get fair experience.
Using the merrow, you get optimum experience, but to minimise downtime you'll have to call a boxer every buff round to restore your MP - you'll also pretty much have to wear robes to outlast the buff round, and getting shots on the merrow in this set-up is only reasonable to get the best out of your investment.
Groups are a funny bag, both your role and all other properties vary greatly depending on the group. :p I'm too lazy to list the options off now, but if you're interested in grouping, know that you are a good way to take some strain off a busy healer, that you're a great asset to any group that uses a lot of MP (such as nuker groups), and that in single-target, you pack a steady but low punch with the merrow's damage.
Remember also that your level 35 skills will work for a long time, especially if you go for an INT-heavy set-up and stick to lower-level mobs.
Your best duos are ironically those without buffs - if no buffs are available, your damage will shine in comparison to others', because once critical hits enter the stage you start to look a little poor with the servitor's low, low, low crit.
Recommended Tattoos
Every summoner worth their mettle should have at least +4 WIT, maybe +5 if you're crazy for it - but +4 is fully sufficient, really. Depending on your style, almost all other tattoo variants are viable - +STR, +DEX, +CON, -STR, -CON, -INT, -MEN are are all good variants for summoners - it depends on your gear and your preferences. A few example builds with matching gears:
Physical DD
Wears Plated Leather and +4STR/+4DEX or +5 STR to maximise damage output. Hits surprisingly hard, but will be in dire trouble with frequent trips back to town.
Nuker Style
Viable into the high 60ies or so - using +5INT/+4 WIT tats and the demon set to maximise damage per nuke, this summoner assists a single-targeting Boxer to one-shot mobs at a stupid speed. Very nice solo style, could gain from a duo with an SE: Empower and recharges for oneself, so that mana can be conserved and the merrow used.
Healer Style
Maximising the MP pool to support the Unicorn Merrow or an assistant role in low level parties, this summoner wears plain +4 WIT, either out of INT or out of MEN (but probably out of MEN to allow for landing sleep). They wear divine or blue wolf and a mage weapon, but rarely use it to do damage but rather to just keep healing their summon. For someone tanking for a low level party with their summon, this might be a good build - but if you're using the group servitor (Unicorn Seraphim), it's really better to have some sort of DD build to assist the group beyond what the seraphim can do.