I'm currently a lvl 32 elven wizard that will go for elemental summoner. I heard from alot of ppl that summoners switch to the defensive role and start to deal damage with duals, swords or daggers at lvl 40+ while they support their summons, who become the main killers. Some even use heavy armor without heavy armor mastery...
Is it true that i should try to get as much def as possible? Won't i run out of mana if i use a heavy armor?
What kind of gear do you suggest for an elemental Summoner? Which C, B,A grade Armor & which weapons should i get later on? What about tatoes should i get?
Also i was wondering where to lvl my character. I heard alot about AoEing mobs. Since i have a Prophet to play with me, where would i lvl? I will use the 10% pony, right? ^^ Maybe you guys could list some spots for me?
Don't use heavy armor, use light, you get masteries for it at lvl 40. I recommend nuking till 44. That's the level that you can buff your pet with haste and sicne there's basically no recast timer after 40 you can nuke endlessly with boxer.
Around 40 you can AOE at the behive and then i don't know any places till 60 or so when you can do the frozel labrynth, i recommend the lost buffalo. In mid to upper 60's you can do Ancient Battlegrounds and that should work till 70 or so. Around 73 or so you should be able to solo AOE under GC, there is an ES on Lionna who does that.
As for weapons, it doesn't matter. A reasonably fast fighter weapon is my suggestion and a shield if you are going to PVP. Tatoos are really your call but +5 wit +4 con -4 Str. On the +5 wit i recommend -2 men -3 int. Won't hurt your matk or mp regen taht baddly and the casting speed is sorely needed.
The equipment depends on your prefered playstyle.
If you want to aoe (and I recommend you to aoe) you should stick with robes.
Pick divine with c-grade, blue wolf with b - don't even bother thinking of a-grade yet.
Also I'd suggest a weapon with acumen sa and/or a weapon with btb sa.
At 40 go down to bee hive - you can use your fire aoe to assist your summon and pull aggro.
IIRC you are fine there till you hit 44. After that, move on to the tanor canyon west of giran. There are the next group mobs for you.
Once you hit 52 move on to the skyshadow meadow.
You can level there into the mid-60's. You just have to move north bit by bit.
With C5 the frozen lab is also a nice level spot ~60 as there are some group mobs too.
to be honest i'd prefer a melee play style on my summoner will that slow lvling down?
Most likely, yes.
But just play the way you like.
As a melee setup I'd say pick some random c-grade light armor. With b-grade I'd suggest going with blue wolf light.
As for a weapon, IMO a dagger with focus sa would be the best - but they are expensive if you are going to spamm ss.
btw. - the old-school melee-way is going to be less economically than aoe'ing.
1. Meet live prophets and bishops. Possibly WCs, but they're not nearly as good. Flatter them, invite them to a party at all times, and make sure you know enough of them never to have to want for a group. As an alternative or addition, good party mates include BDs and other ESs, possibly SHs. But the key is a prophet - if you have a box, I suppose that's even better.
2. Maximise your cast speed and MP pool. If your pony dies, you will too. Cast speed and MP pool help to prevent your pony from dying. High cast speed might also mean you manage to resummon before you're dead.
3. Be gentle. Your pony kites naturally, so don't keep hammering the key while hydro screw is resetting. It will stand still and take a bigger beating than it needs to if you do. Learn to gauge the time it takes to reset hydro screw, and learn not to panic and mash the button if you do press it too early once.
4. Give it room. Your pony runs fast - that is a much better and more MP efficient protection than your heals. Give it plenty of kiting space - use stay spots marked with the goto command and your own position to assure that your pony has room to run away while the spell resets.
5. Hold shift when you're targeting. Nothing worse than you running in and getting your camera moving only to make it harder to target.
6. Don't TP. You will get both yourself and the pony killed - it will be interrupted like stupid. Trust potions, battleheal and your cubic to keep you alive, because TP sure as hell won't.
Not to sound like a noob, but my summoner will pass it's 40 class change this week (tomorrow if i can help it). Can you (or someone) expand on #4. I've been looking forward to the aoe I should be able to enjoy with a summoner, but am not sure how I'll manage to kite effectively.
Keep a good distance between yourself + pony and the mobs, send pony towards the mobs and nuke, have it return to you and nuke again when the nuke is ready so there are no mobs on pony making it take damage or cancel the nuke. You can't spam the nuke like you can with regular nukes.
Thanks for that. Been doing this a bit, and all i can say at this point is 'My Kingdom for a reuse timer'. Would sure be handy to have the timer on summon's skills too.
i have very few to add because the summoners fellows said it all :P
the gear you need it depends your playstyle.
i am playing AoE so from 40 till now i use robes and weapon w/acumen, recently i drop a hell knife (ursus squads) so i have always mental shield at least :).
i tried bw light but wasnt good at xp-ing , bw light is better for pvps in my opinion.
i always aoe alone without any support class, so you can do the same, but if you have buffs is even better :)
if you have some money to waste 40-4? try this: buy a magic weapon, play without summon but with 35ish nukes and spam blessed ss.When you run out of mp summon boxer and recharge yourself.
I tried it a while; was very fast non stop xp but very expensive :(
hi its me again, my summoner is now lvl 42 and it seems to be a really fun class to play with. I usually lvl with my bf who plays a DA so i dont need to worry about tanking stuff by my own (yet).
I usually support my unicorn & him with nukes and when i'm out of mp i switch to melee attacks with my homunculus sword. (yea i'm using kamian robe+homunculus) But expecially if I attack like that i find myself missing really often. I guess that's normal isn't it? I figure that also my nukes will start to miss in a few but what am i supposed to do then? Just support / watch the Unicorn attacking? >.< I'd like to hear some suggestions about this because i think i don't really understand what role i'll have to play later on in the game. Also i would like to know if cubics still work even if i miss.
Also my bf always compares my Elemental Summoner to my BD and says i should forget about the summoner because the BD would be way better. Gah.. Summoners aren't crappy are they?
I hear summoners get lots better at 56. The best is yet to come. Beyond that, you'll have to wait for some people who actually play summoners to answer everything else.
Edit: In general, there are many classes that reach certain levels in the 50s, 60s, and 70s where things really pick up.
At the moment my ES is at level 60 en nearing A-grade. I can share what I have experienced so far. First of all, after level 44 - 46 you will stop nuking, because the nukes fail too much and/or do no damage enough. Your pony is your weapon.
Until the point I stopped nuking I had karmian robes. After stopping with nuking I changed to theca light, but did not like the looks of it since even an elf has a big behind in it. I decided to go for BW light at 52 to have more pdef. Also BW light stats are very good for summoners. Leveling at aligator island was awsome, use the merrow in melee with beast ss. I stopped using the boxer as soon as I had the merrow, since it steals less xp and still can do decent damage. In general, hunt 2x or better mobs. I moved to EV after aligator island got light blue. I usually solo and did not use a 2-box. For A-grade most find DC robes the best, allthough you do have the luxury to choose for looks in PvE, since you are the pony's buffer/healer. For make-up and the feel you do something light armor with duals or whatever you like work too. Accumen weapons are nice, so I always keep a C-grade one for that (no real need for expensive a-grade one, you can affoord to wait with that).
In general for tattoos: +4Wit/-4Int, +4Men/-4Int, and one other. I chose -5Str/+4Con (the cheap way) but you could do -4Str/+4Con too. +Str is not that effective, as elven mystic type your melee capacities are non-exsistant compaired to that from your pony.
Have fun playing your ES! For more discussion about them, have a look on the L2pets site too.
If you're having fun with your ES, I really think you should stick with it. I can understand that your bf wants the dances, but who doesn't :p I don't think you can say that BD is "better" - they're better party support, yes. But it's two different roles. When you hit 56 on the ES, you can summon a BD, if you want :p
I don't think it affects the cubic fire rate if you miss. I've actually never thought about that.
As for when your nukes start failing; you won't be a major DD, but no one says, that you can't smack the mobs along with your pony. But you might want to stand back, if you're fighting stunners.
Personally, I usually stand back, and let the pony do the killing, while I heal/crowd control/throw a solar spark here and there (I have yet to have solar spark resisted O_o).
thanks for the helpful replies everyone. ^^ i'm currently looking at the l2pets website. I've been trying to open it some time ago but it seemed to be down so i thought that it doesnt exist anymore. Glad to see that its back up now!
Edit: after reading l2pets i found out that they say that the Merrow is the PVP summon and the boxer is supposed to be used in PVE... I really don't see why i should use the Boxer at all in PVE, if its not to recharge me fast and unsummon it. :confused:
I don`t know.
I am L61 and level nearly all the time with the boxer.
It`s a matter of adena.
I tested the way most recommend in the forum, Merrow and Beastshots, and it costed me about 150k adena in one hour with an adena drop in the same time of 140k-160k.
As an allways pour player I prefer to level a bit slower but have more adena after a level up.
Boxer the Unicorn (white)-> pre-40 PvE summon that is able to recharge you. Use it for PvE until you can summon the Merrow. Takes 30% XP
Mirage the Unicorn (pale pink)-> pre-40 PvP summon. Takes 90% XP, has a good windstrike attack. This will remain your PvP pony.
Merrow the Unicorn (translucent blue) -> AoE PvE summon with good melee stats as well. Takes 15% of your XP. This will be your main PvE pony.
Seraphim the Unicorn (purple translucent) -> Summon to use when you are in a party with casters or heavy mana users. Your role will be a support role. Crappy melee stats and no nukes, but 2 great buffs for the party. Takes 5% XP.
In the Chaotic Throne the amount of XP the ponies will take will decrease when you get higher level :)
I did some manoring while leveling, works fine, but gave up about it since I am in the GMT+1 timezone and you will have to be there when you want to turn in because of the bots. For me that is at 3 oçlock in the night. So bots and disrupted nightrest is a no-go for me :)
hi its me again, my summoner is now lvl 42 and it seems to be a really fun class to play with. I usually lvl with my bf who plays a DA so i dont need to worry about tanking stuff by my own (yet).
I usually support my unicorn & him with nukes and when i'm out of mp i switch to melee attacks with my homunculus sword. (yea i'm using kamian robe+homunculus) But expecially if I attack like that i find myself missing really often. I guess that's normal isn't it? I figure that also my nukes will start to miss in a few but what am i supposed to do then? Just support / watch the Unicorn attacking? >.< I'd like to hear some suggestions about this because i think i don't really understand what role i'll have to play later on in the game. Also i would like to know if cubics still work even if i miss.
Also my bf always compares my Elemental Summoner to my BD and says i should forget about the summoner because the BD would be way better. Gah.. Summoners aren't crappy are they?
Your overhit nuke, will always work (solar spark) regardless of higher lvl mobs...(or at least if the mobs arent uber high lvl then you) so just use that one.
The merrow unicorn will have similar patk to an equal lvl archer (but lacks crit rate) always use this one for PvE , unless your using the party buffs from seraphim. Remember you can use beast soulshot to double its dmg.......
As you get higher you will receive key servitor buffs (mainly servitor haste at 44,52 etc) so while you may feel weak at 42, you will get stronger.
The Blue Cubit can help (it can trigger regardless if you hit/miss) provided the mobs within your lvl range , (eg: a lvl 40 blue cubit will cast , but probably not work on lvl 55 mobs) so the most useful will be probably your healing cubit instead if hunting with the tank.
Your problem atm may be that the mobs your BF fights are simply too high and your cubit or summon keeps missing.....it can only reliably hit mobs up to 5-6 lvls above it.
Soloing guide:
40-44 Ivory tower crater (golems and manashen gargyles) have merrow melee them, and use your solar spark to help....
44-52 Alligator island , have merrow melee and help with solar spark....hunt the easier (southern) mobs till 48 (new skills) then move to the tougher ones near the north coast(keep away from swamp tribe packs in the middle)
The dagger throwing mobs are the most dangerous , but they arent aggro (simply social, meaning they aggro IF you hit their friends nearby) so you can try to seperate their friends from them first by letting the friends aggro you, then moving away before hitting/killing the friend.This is good practice for higher lvl PvE also.
Also the dagger guys will run away to throw at you again, and can drag you into new aggro (a long term problem for melee summons vs ranged mobs) you can get around this by having nuke rdy to drop them, or have the summon back off then retreat to drag the mob closer to you (further from its friends)before attacking again. Or once strong enough , you can finish them while their friends are joining in, then kill the friends)
Its a steep learning curve for a summoner here, but the exp at alligators island is extremely high(x2 exp mobs with the hp of x1), and while risky at times, it will help you come out at 52 with several tricks of the trade and tactics that will help you deal with the rest of summoner life ^^
For me I had a bow in the lower 50s, it did good damage, but really nerfed my casting rate. (reason I had bow, was buddy lent it to me) Around level 56 one of my other friends lent me blue wolf light and a pair of duels, and it was much better. I was able to keep up on healing my uni a lot better and do some extra damage to help out the unicorn.
I just made 62 and I managed to scrape enough together, and some discounts from clannies to get a dc light set. I wanted to give it a try, I will hopefully get it unsealed this week. The reason I got a dc light set, was because I have a dc robe set, since my summoner is my subclass. For a weapon I am using my mains elysian axe. Next thing I am saving for is some kind of acumen blunt weapon that I can use on my summoner and main class (Dominator) I have been trying to get stuff I can share between classes.
As to hunting area, I'm odd, I've been hunting in Giants cave since 56, doing the giants cave quest to get recipes for my dwarf. But being a summoner is a lot of fun, I have gone and visited friends in hot springs and have been able to solo mobs there when I was lvl 60. The unicorn can do a lot of damage when buffed up :)
So enjoy and have fun :)
PS: I just remembered in the 40s I was playing around in the pavel ruins for a good bit, once again getting recipes for my dwarf, the quest for b grade weapon recipes start at like 48 though.