I'm a new Phantom Summoner and need a little help from any summoners that can spare a few minutes and some advice.
How does aggro/hate work with pets? I was in Cruma 1st floor and noticed that monsters would run after me after I sent pet in to attack. A guide I read said I should alternate with me and the summon tanking to make healing a little easier. My summon loses aggro if I look at the monster the wrong way!
Should I be spamming soul shots or should my pet?
Where should I be leveling in the mid-high 40s meleeing w/ summon? One guide I read mentioned Cruma tower.....but as it stands I make almost 2x the amount of XP nuking field mobs w/ herb drops than I do trying to single pull monsters in Cruma tower. (I really enjoy fighting w/ my summon more than I do nuking.....but not if it means I have to burn through BSPS & CSS, at making about 1/2 the XP than if I was nuking)
How does aggro/hate work with pets?
For ordinary grind your pet gets agro and not you. That said, some mobs like to agro you instead (a certain Kamaloka comes to mind)! I don't know what goes on in Cruma (see below why).
Should I be spamming soul shots or should my pet?
Your pet always, you sometimes. If you can afford them, obviously.
Where should I be leveling in the mid-high 40s meleeing w/ summon?
If you want to go the hard melee way, try Alligator Island. I did Cruma with a dagger, worked fine too.
If you want the faster/easier way, use nukes until you are 52 (which you seem to have found out yourself). That's what I did, plenty of mobs e.g. around Ivory Tower.
You will have plenty of time to use your summon in the future, why bother in C-grade? :)
I'm a new Phantom Summoner and need a little help from any summoners that can spare a few minutes and some advice.
How does aggro/hate work with pets? I was in Cruma 1st floor and noticed that monsters would run after me after I sent pet in to attack. A guide I read said I should alternate with me and the summon tanking to make healing a little easier. My summon loses aggro if I look at the monster the wrong way!
Should I be spamming soul shots or should my pet?
Where should I be leveling in the mid-high 40s meleeing w/ summon? One guide I read mentioned Cruma tower.....but as it stands I make almost 2x the amount of XP nuking field mobs w/ herb drops than I do trying to single pull monsters in Cruma tower. (I really enjoy fighting w/ my summon more than I do nuking.....but not if it means I have to burn through BSPS & CSS, at making about 1/2 the XP than if I was nuking)
Most Cruma mobs are aggro so if they are near you and not otherwise engaged they'll go after you. They will also go after you if you start doing more damage to them than your pet. Yes, you should use beast shots. If you want to save on shots don't use shots for yourself (C shots especially are expensive since u burn through them so quickly), and only use blessed shots in emergencies for healing your pet.
I lvl'd my ps in the catacombs pretty much exclusively. With self buffs & shadow you can easily take a small room...ifyou have a buffer, either in party or out or even a friend in party you can take a big room.
If you want the faster/easier way, use nukes until you are 52 (which you seem to have found out yourself). That's what I did, plenty of mobs e.g. around Ivory Tower.
agree. you skills are still effective now, hence use it. you will level faster.
when you reach level 54 or above, you will notice your nuking skills are less useful. therefore, use your pet. use nightshade ftw.
A guide I read said I should alternate with me and the summon tanking to make healing a little easier. My summon loses aggro if I look at the monster the wrong way!
L2 has been around for a long time and most of the guides I read lately are reposts of exceptionally old strats based on information that is even longer in the tooth. Most of the time it is best to just ask someone in your clan or on your server that is playing or has palyed the class. If that doesn't work you can usually find good answers here as there are lots of nice and experienced folks who troll the forums the time it can take to get an answer can be a little sketchy so try to find a mentor in game if you can.
Where should I be leveling in the mid-high 40s meleeing w/ summon? One guide I read mentioned Cruma tower.....but as it stands I make almost 2x the amount of XP nuking field mobs w/ herb drops than I do trying to single pull monsters in Cruma tower. (I really enjoy fighting w/ my summon more than I do nuking.....but not if it means I have to burn through BSPS & CSS, at making about 1/2 the XP than if I was nuking)
I leveled purely as a summoner from 40 onwards simply because I wanted to. It's a much tougher road to head down than using nukes. If you want to whip out your pet and start learning the tricks of the trade then by all means do so. I'm just saying that in as much as I enjoyed making the immediate switch to playing as a summoner at 40, it is definitely not the easiest way to do things. Level 48 or 52 is probably when pets(and more importantly, pet buffs) really start to come into their own. At 56 you have all the tools you need to tear things up.
I too played as a summoner from 40+. I didn't like nuking, that's why I didn't roll a SH. That being said, until you get Haste 2 for your pet, it is a tough road. Low 40's do alligator island, Ivory Tower crator using combo of summon while you nuke another mob. At 44 get an accumen weapon and go to Pavel Ruins. Pick up the Recepie quest and go to town with Soulless. Hunt in the pits on white/green mobs. I did it back when Soulless still drained MP and had no issues with mana due to the pots. It should be cake for you now. That place will be the best spot for leveling that you will see up to your low 50's, in my opinion. To this day, I compare all of my hunting spots to how good Pavel was to me back in C-grade...
Gear wise I suggest Karmein set with Accu weapon.
Beast shots spammed.
No soul shots for you.
Blessed Spiritshots for your heals.
If money is a problem, get a Mysterious Sword/Accu. They only use 2 spiritshots per nuke/heal which migh help you over the long hall.
The crazy aggro I speak of in Cruma Tower kinda goes like this...
*Send Shadow to attack monster
*Shadow gets a few hits off
*Monster runs toward me
No heals..no buffs, no nothing.
With that said....I did notice that some field monsters had an easier time sticking to the summon, so maybe thats just something thats particular with Cruma.
(Sorry for all the questions....I have had a hard time finding summoners in game muchless a Phantom Summoner that will give me the time of day)
When soloing catacombs, are the monsters light green / white / yellow ?
Also....are the beast shots the same shots that come from the Pet Managers?
NC Soft made changes to Crumra Tower in the last update. I think you would be better off not going there personally.
If you go to cats/necros grind white/green mobs if you are soloing.
Buy your pet shots from any town's pet manager. Buy the bags of compressed beast soul shots. they don't weigh you down like regular shots. Simply souble click a bag of shots and 500 beast shots appear in your inventory. Drag them to your hot bar and left click to spam them. Open several bags so you have enough to keep you going, but not too many as to give you weight penalty. ***note: if you let the beast shots run out completly, they will clear off of your hot bar and you will have to re-drag them there out of you inventory after you open another bag. I usually let myself run down to 500 or so and open another 2-3 bags just to make sure I don't run out.
When soloing catacombs, are the monsters light green / white / yellow ?
It depends on the catacomb. There are many different catacombs that have many differnet levels of mobs in them. Try going to a catacomb that is right for your level and then the mobs in the front(always the lowest level, usually the easiest)
Also....are the beast shots the same shots that come from the Pet Managers?
Yes. Be careful to check the tax rate of the town you are in. You're going to buy ridiculous amounts of pet shots so get in the habit of checking tax rates and final prices to see which is the best deal. I have a level 1 alt that uses free ports to get ot the good towns and ship my summoner about 100,000 shots at a time
The crazy aggro I speak of in Cruma Tower kinda goes like this...
*Send Shadow to attack monster
*Shadow gets a few hits off
*Monster runs toward me
at higher level, you will able to use hate skill ( night shade). also, use transfer pain, you pet will absorb the damage done to you. listen to all senior here, use nuke untill you are lv 52 or higher...it will be easier....i know PS is cool, u can't wait to use it :P