Details for Summoned Monsters?

[GronkStomp]

Is there someplace I can find the details on the summoned monsters?

I'm trying to tell which one I should be summoning to accompany me.
But I can't tell if some of them are better at some things than others.

thx

[smeggy1384]

Is there someplace I can find the details on the summoned monsters?

I'm trying to tell which one I should be summoning to accompany me.
But I can't tell if some of them are better at some things than others.

thx

Generally they are too weak to be of any real use. Casters summon a monster, but unless they are above the quests level the monster will be lower level than the creatures in the dungeon. Some can be useful, like taking an air mephit rather than a hellhound in the fire type monster heavy dungeons. For the most part you have better uses for a spell slot and the SP. If you find a wand or scroll, or X charges per day item might as well summon something anyway.

[GronkStomp]

Generally they are too weak to be of any real use. Casters summon a monster, but unless they are above the quests level the monster will be lower level than the creatures in the dungeon...

Well, i'm only 4th level. Right now they help me solo the easy quests in stormreach.

[Mercureal]

DDOWiki has brief descriptions for each Summon Monster spell, but there are no other published details that I know of, you just have to develop some familiarity with the monsters over time. I have some experience with them up to Summon Monster 6. There isn't a lot to differentiate them at the lowest levels, and it sounds like you know enough - they generally won't do much for you beyond distraction.

For future consideration, when soloing the level 5 and 6 spells can be useful in at-level quests. The level 5 Bearded Devil is the best option for that spell - he can teleport, is immune to fire, can use the rage ability on himself and does decent melee damage; the Umbral Worg is undead and has the usual undead immunities so may have an occasional specialty use.

At level 6, the option I use most if the Eladrin Bralani; he throws a lightning bolt that does good damage and he can self-heal. The Troll dies pretty quickly and doesn't seem to do much damage, not worth taking in my opinion. The Water Elemental uses some cold spells, but usually isn't as effective as the Bralani.

[FranOhmsford]

My choices for each lvl

Lvl 1

1. Dog - Dog and Rat very similar - I take Rat on my 1/2 Orc Wizard, Dog on the rest
2. Rat
3. Spider

Lvl 2.

1. Bat - All pretty weak but bat just wins out
2. Widow
3. Scorpion

Lvl 3.

1. Winter Wolf - Cone of Cold superior to Fireball + less immunities to cold in game
2. Hell Hound
3. Air Mephit - Utterly useless

Lvl 4.

1. Ice Mephit - Superb
2. Fiendish Spider - dies too fast for my liking
3. Archon - Doesn't seem to actually do anything

Lvl 5.

1. Bearded Devil - Tend not to bother with Summon 5 as Ice Mephit more than good enough
2. Earth Ele
3. Umbral Worg

Lvl 6.

1. Water Ele - Pretty good actually
2. Bralani - Annoying {gets in the way of screen}
3. Troll - Archer why?

Lvl 7.

All great - use based on what's in quest

Efreet not much use in fire based quests

Lvl 8.

1. Bezzie
2. Orthon
3. Greater Air ele - Like Bralani only much much worse

Lvl 9. My cleric takes Heal Mass and Implosion - Haven't tried Summons yet.

[GronkStomp]

Thx guys

[cdr]

The Air Mephit is the best level III pet, in my opinion - not a lot of damage, but ten times more survivable than the other two. What I'm looking for in a pet is something that'll destract and otherwise confuse mobs while I beat on other mobs - none of the pets do good damage anyway.

Actually, pretty much all of FranOhmsford's opinions are off base. He's maybe coming at it from a different perspective, but sound more like inexperience.

[Shindurza]

...Summon spell I use. The greater air elemental has the ability to knock down A LOT of the mobs you come up against. Level 15 and running around the Vale, or in Gianthold, and spending a lot of time killing mobs that are on the ground already not hitting me :)

[cdr]

End game the Greater Air Ele is really useful in most content. Sometimes you'll be running things where mobs can't be knocked down, or where damage is more important, or where the knockdown is annoying instead of useful - so then you'll want to use something else like an Orthon or Herozu.

[FranOhmsford]

Nice of you to disparage my opinion.

I despise the air eles simply because I can no longer see anything on my screen when someone summons them.

The Air Mephit does zero dmg, dies fast and {don't know if this has actually been sorted by the devs - haven't noticed it in a while} summons other air mephits which it then proceeds to fight.

Winter Wolf isn't superdooper but is a darn sight better than the Hell Hound in my opinion.

[FranOhmsford]

Oh and INEXPERIENCE - I've been playing for more than a year, have 40+ characters on every server, have capped 2 - A Pally {HotD} on Sarlona and A Cleric 17/Fighter 3 on Cannith.

I've used all the Summons up to and including Lvl 7 - Apart from Bezzie the Lvl 8s don't interest me.

When Cove comes back I will be collecting Water eles NOT Air eles.

When I joined this game we were stuck with ONE summon/lvl - Dog, Scorpion, Hell Hound, Fiendish Spider, etc. so having been here 5+ years does not count as experience in this instance.

[Sarisa]

My opinions:

Level 1 - Any of them are effective. You use them mostly as distractions, so that you don't get all the kobolds on you.

Level 2 - The Black Widow can cast Web, which once in a while does act as crowd control. It's not great against Kobolds because of their high reflex saves, but it does do well against other low level trash.

The Bat is as annoying for the mobs to hit as it is for you to hit them. Great for distraction purposes.

Level 3 - The Mephit can apply some minor CC to the mobs, but mostly it doesn't do much. I prefer the Winter Wolf, as it's a bit more durable than the Hell Hound. Both are useful depending on the quest.

Level 4 - No real opinions on these, except for the Archon. It does Light damage, which is only rarely resisted. In addition, the Archon is an alternate light source in the quest Running with the Devils. It just dies fast in there.

Level 5 - The Bearded Devil does rather good damage for a summon, and teleports. It has very flaky random aggro, so don't count on it to be an effective distraction.

The Earth Elemental is slow, but can earthgrab mobs, so it's reasonable CC. Greensteel summoned Dense Earth Elementals are better, but this is not a terrible substitute.

The Umbral Worg is more special purpose. It is best used when you're in an undead or beholder heavy quest as a distraction. It is immune to a lot of undead/beholder's nasty abilities, and due to its incorporeal nature, is fairly resilient.

Level 6 - No real opinion. All three are effective, and rather sturdy. The Water Ele and the Brelani have DR, and the Troll regens. The Water Ele is probably best for general use.

Level 7 - All three are good. The Efreeti is a bit "squishier" than the other two.

Level 8 - The Bezikera can trip, which can be useful. It's on the squishy side, however.

The Orthon is another teleporter, which can prove useful in some quests. Its DR makes it much more resilient than other summons.

The Air Elemental is currently one of the better sources of CC in the game. Just don't pull it out when your party's caster is depending on Wall of Fire, Ice Storm, cloud spells, or Otto's Sphere of Dancing for damage or CC since the Air Elemental blows them away. It can also occasionally "friendly fire" Gust of Wind onto the party. This will knock down Halflings, and slow all other player races (and is not blocked by Freedom of Movement).

Level 9 - The Hezrou is another teleporter, with DR. I've had a buffed up Hezrou tank elite Lailat (Mariliths have random aggro), and live through it.

The Fire Elemental is, according to sirgog, the most DPS possible with a spell summoned monster. It's just that a lot of end game play is immune to fire.

The Ghaele, when the graphics bug with it is fixed, is also effective in certain situations. It deals light damage, and can Dispel buffs off opposing mobs. In a few quests, that can come in very useful. It also self heals, and has DR so it's fairly resilient.

[GronkStomp]

LOL ! Well the LvII scorpion is horrible as a distraction. As soon it gets hit it hides in the ground then all the mobs come after me.

The bat seems to last longer than the spider so I will probably stick with it most of the time.

[Qaliya]

Generally they are too weak to be of any real use. Casters summon a monster, but unless they are above the quests level the monster will be lower level than the creatures in the dungeon. Some can be useful, like taking an air mephit rather than a hellhound in the fire type monster heavy dungeons. For the most part you have better uses for a spell slot and the SP. If you find a wand or scroll, or X charges per day item might as well summon something anyway.

I STRONGLY disagree, at least for soloing. My summons not only provide "free" damage at a very low cost, they also pull aggro on almost every mob I encounter, allowing me to wail away and saving thousands of HP on heals.

Roderic's Wand is fantastic at low levels.

[Drekisen]

Generally they are too weak to be of any real use. Casters summon a monster, but unless they are above the quests level the monster will be lower level than the creatures in the dungeon. Some can be useful, like taking an air mephit rather than a hellhound in the fire type monster heavy dungeons. For the most part you have better uses for a spell slot and the SP. If you find a wand or scroll, or X charges per day item might as well summon something anyway.

This is completely and totally untrue.

1. It depends on the quest and which summon you use, for instance that spider I was able to summon from Roderics wand was useful to me for quite a long time doing at level quest, it really snags a lot of enemies with it's web. If you have a GS Earthgrab item, the Earth Elemental grabs a ton of mobs as well, and the level 8 Air Ele is terror all over the place.

2. If you have Augment Summon and/or Aura heals for either undead for a PM or RS for everything else they stay alive even longer, at which time they become even more useful.

3. If you actually know their weak points and give them some good buffs they last even longer.

The notion that summons are useless comes from people who just treat them as aggro magnets and invest nothing else into them other than that. Treat them like an actual party member and they become very very useful.

[smeggy1384]

Seems they have more uses, a lot involve augment summons, or higher end gear(adventure pack items too) than what someone just starting would not have, babysitting the thing... My arti used the 3 charge a day staff from tangleroot, was a level 3 summon spell. They died quickly, but i was running elites. if you have a hireling around they usually do heal the summoned minion.

[aennae]

People who claim that summoned monsters do nothing are probably heavy twinks running with ship bufs. If yo actually play the game a summoned monster is very usefull.

Lot of people mentionned the bearded devil and others, i want to add that the earth elem often land earth grab when i solo quest of my level, he seems also to have various immunities.

The earth elem will very often land earthgrab on annoying spellcasters, even if it's a level 9 spell he lands his grab on CR 12 mobs very often. Don't forget to heal them or to throw a radiant servant when close to them.

I have not tried level 11 pet much since i usually load blade barrier, but the one casting lightening seems cool. The troll is not really convincing since he does not regenerate at all, but he has a bow which may be nice.

Don't forget to throw them a protection from element or some resistance buff.

Pet have different behavior, the devil is super aggresive (which can be a pain) and the earth elem is more defensive.

[Afyndax]

LOL ! Well the LvII scorpion is horrible as a distraction. As soon it gets hit it hides in the ground then all the mobs come after me.

The bat seems to last longer than the spider so I will probably stick with it most of the time.

Was just going to type this. At your level, the bat is the best. it doesn´t do much damage, but it spins mobs around a lot and has crazy high AC. It is great to use if you just want a distration. The scorpion is terrible.

Another really good option is just the charm spell and for undead, the lvl 2 spell. If it is a pack of kobolds, charm the dumb warriors first.

if you are human, or just have a feat to spare.. look at augmented summoning. It works on summons AND charmed mobs. I love the feat. If there are 3 kobolds exactly the same.. if I charm one, he automatically gets buffed and can easily kill the other 2. There are a ton of quests with packs of humaniods where charm person is an amazing spell and can easily help you solo.

[aennae]

Try to stick with summon that won't pull while you are trying to split opponents. The beard devil is really sometimes bad for that, he can even tp in the next room and do a mess. As always it depends, if you go for mass killing easy stuff the devil is good.

[Dainen]

In Caverns of Korromar, the Bearded Devil is a great summon. If you summon it while looking down into the last room before dropping the barrier, that green mischief maker will port down into the room and (on normal anyway) kill all the skeletons. It takes a few minutes, but that's one less hassle to deal with when soloing.

[GotSomeQuestions]

I despise the air eles simply because I can no longer see anything on my screen when someone summons them.
I haven't had that problem, but I tend to play zoomed out with a large resolution. The air elementals are absurdly good, especially if you use the Cove gems (minimum level: 4!). They literally trivialize quests, to the point where I don't use them if I want any kind of challenge.

[Schmoe]

I've used all the Summons up to and including Lvl 7 - Apart from Bezzie the Lvl 8s don't interest me.

You're missing out on the best summons, by far. The Greater Air Elemental is fantastic in most end-game content, even in epics.

For mid-levels the Bearded Devil is my go-to summon. He does great damage, teleports, and has DR. The Bralani seems more durable against spell-casters, though.

At lower levels there's not a big difference between any of them, although I avoid all the spiders, the scorpion, and the air mephit.