Hello I have some questions about Phantom Summoners, maybe some well lvled and trained peeps can help.
1.) what is the best equipment for PS in grades?
I thought
C => Karmian with Homunculus
B => Blue Wolfe Leather with Health or Acumen weapon
A => no clue but DLE with Health
or maybe Duals for pve?
2.) what are the best tattoo set ups for pve and pvp?
3.) is it borring to play cause I think all you can do is waiting until your pet finished the mob or is it more like a WS pet where you can have a active part?
Playing a summoner is a very diverse thing, especially the PS which I know best from clan hunts.
You tank, you DD, you heal...casting speed combined with light armour is always a safe road that balances the things you need most = P Def and Cast Speed.
Up till 44 use robes and a [censored], you'll still have decent nukes till then. Not that nukes dont' work after that, they actually land fairly well into the low 60's. However at 44 you get haste.
By B grade i recommend doom for a PS. Now that we have several warlocks and ES in my clan i'm less inclined to think that doom works for any summoner. However if you wear robes as your main armor after 52 i'll have to find your server and pay someone to pk you untill you delevel. It's not that robes aren't useful on a PS but you'll find that light is much more suited for your class in general.
That being said there is no good A light set for you. Honestly the only one that compares to doom is NM and that's just because of the VR effect. In fact the only A sets i have are tallum heavy for my BD (when i get a helm) and tallum robes (also when i get a helm). The robes don't do with me, they are for olympiad and for when i need cast speed, ie when i'm using nightshade.
I used duals for a decent chunk of my levels but i wouldn't recommend it. As maline said if it takes away you're shield it's not good for PVE. I don't recommend a dagger unless you're fighting greens. While dagger is great for damage your miss rate makes it not really any better than a sword. As a PS you won't need accumen, though i do have a [censored] w/ accumen for use with that robe set. Again though it's only used for large scale summon friend events and when i play healer.
Health is a great SA, my normal weapon is a health DLE and i love it. If you forgo a shield i'd recommend a health 2-h sword just because of the usefulness of the SA. If you PVP this SA is very nice and i'd much prefer it over an accumen weapon.
A ps, moreso than the other summoners fights with his pet. Your pets are very melee centric and i can count on one hand the number of times i've had to use servitor recharge. If you are soloing your main pet will be shadow, his passive VR means you won't be healing much. The best strategy is to lead off the fight with windshackle and tank as long as possible. Your def is always better than the pets so his VR will work much better if you're absorbing part of damage. Also, corpse life drain is your friend. You would not believe how much a part of my XP this skill is.
If you have a buffer with VR you're in luck and can use soulless. He hits a lot harder than shadow and for fewer shots. Generally he's used only in groups because he's frailer than shadow and lacks the VR passive. In addition he has a slow mp drain that essentially halves your mp regen. Basically this means you can't TP tank nearly as well as you do with shadow. There are places to solo with him but he's almost entirely a group pet.
As for tats there's some debate amongst my clan summoners. I prefer +4 con -4 str and +5 wit -2 int -3 men. The alternate is +4 con +4 dex -8 str +4 wit -4 men. We agree that my int tat needs to go when i can afford it and i will have 5 wit and -5 men. You won't notice the men difference. The arguement is basically the comparison of 4 dex vs 1 wit. I prefer the wit but wearing doom means i essentially have the same dex as the warlocks and their 4 dex. I really advise the same tats for both PVE and PVP. Warlocks tend to like the 4 dex because they pvp with archers a lot due to cat buff and need the speed. For me the cast speed is much more crucial.
However if you wear robes as your main armor after 52 i'll have to find your server and pay someone to pk you untill you delevel.
Going to have to hide the avadon, huh?
:p
Seriously, I think it's playstyle-dependant again. I'll (hopefully) be AoEing most of the time, and that means - once again - I want to be healing/regenerating as fast as possible. Have to say that I found even when I was meleeing on Mielle (ES), I was not getting hit enough to justify light armour, but will see how it goes on my PS.
PS has the highest str of a summoners, if you can't afford tats yet you're probably doing decent damage (even at -4 it's far from negligible). You'll actually see a small but significant increase in XP if you use shots on your main (not worth it above B grade weapons). Actually robes for healing is more for body to mind. You can definately heal in light but if you need mp the reuse time on B2M is harsh. Also get someone to cast regeneration on nightshade. It's nto that great of a buff but if you're XPing right at the limit of what you can handle he'll need it.
On a related note, if you hunt pretty consistantly with the same people teach them your different pets, most the buffers in my clan will look at my pet and buff it and me without asking now because they are familiar enough with my pets to know what we're going to be doing.