What is the point of summonng spec?

[Nonnier]

hello

I'm going to start a SM, i am thinking of making summoning spec (mostly because i have a rr staff from raum), and i'm just asking, what is the point in summoning?

 

[bloody]

you can ress, and you got focus shield so grouped with a healer you can kill really high mobs, other than that i'd say summoning is the most gimped spec you can choose, either go high dark rest suppress or other way round, both are viable

 

[Makwaerk]

I hear rumous that they along with a healer can't take out wow's even borderguards... but rvr vice? hmm

well you spirit might kick dead players a bit harder, making their armour loose duration faster!

 

[ImLestat]

As I see it there are two points in speccing summoning.
1. PvE. I've heard that summoning specced sm's can solo red/purple quite ok.
2. Resurrection. Sure, it's great to have, but it's pretty high up in the spec to get.

I usually say that if you spec dark/supp you are investing your points in yourself, but if you spec in summoning you are investing them in your spirit.

 

[old.Noita]

I agree with Primus, before I rolled Noita, I read about SMs speccs on one of the American boards. There one lev 50 had written a pro/con guide about the various speccs which seemed to make sense to me at the time. And since playing Noita for as long as I have they still do.

Essentially he said... that if you specc high summoning you will be able to solo red/low purp mobs with relative ease. But solo is the key word. With a high Summ specc get ready to solo A LOT. You will have little to offer a group by way of mezzes, debuffs, nukes and pbae.

You will also have VERY little to offer an RvR situation as most people will go for the caster and forget about the pet, so you will need to have some defence/offence. With high summoning you will have neither.

Just my opinion, but I am now waiting for a SM with 50 Summoning to totally prove me wrong

Toodle Pip

 

[~Mobius~]

I tried 50summ with the respec "bug" and it wasnt that good.

Definatly woudnt keep it unless i wanted mobius a farm bot.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

A summoning spec SM still gets a decent nuke. The baseline darkness nuke is overlooked by a lot of people yet in groups this is often very useful. You get these every few levels or so til lvl 43, so don't completely discount these. Lifetap does more damage but remember that in groups, casters actually have to hold off most of the time til the tanks are holding the agro. Lower power nuke means you can nuke a little bit sooner.

You still get your baseline debuffs, though no area debuffs and you still get your root, which is baseline. Area debuffs are often unused in groups in highly populated mob areas anyway.

You do have something major to offer a group though that is probably overlooked: a high summoning spec pet will proc like its on steroids. Remember that pets proc more if their dex is buffed and that most of the summoning line is simply str and dex buffs for the pet.

At level 32 when you get your Spirit Champion your pet stuns, cold nukes, lifetaps and self-bladeturns.
Mmm stun.

What you are offering a group is basically another tank with its own personal healer and some fairly decent nukes. You also still have the baseline debuffs for str and dex. The baseline debuffs are still very effective - I use them a lot, sometimes in preference to the spec line debuffs.

Downsides:

High lag areas like Darkness Falls, your pet can appear to go crazy and not respond when you command it to do something thus bringing disaster onto a group.

You won't be able to life transfer either from enemies to yourself or from yourself to friends to help them.

Weak mez abilities.

RvR. All of it. Sorry. Hmm... except keep defence and assaults. Pet would be SERIOUSLY nasty here, they are already troublesome for defenders/attackers.

Mentalist RA Sever The Tether would really screw you up.

I'd love to see a group of 8 summoning spec SMs in PvE.
Now that would be something for George Romero to make a film about