Epic Summons

[akiraproject24]

So I get up to the Summons section of Magister tree...And one ability states "Able to summon and EPIC Lich to fight for you" I think to myself SWEET thinking back on the Lich from the challenges in House C....SO I summon this thing and a CR 12 Lich appears and gets one shotted in the Underdark...Im no expert but an Epic lich should be like 3 or 5 times CR 12...what a joke! Paid the plat and specced it out...So far Im finding the best things to take are max spell DC, Spell cool down, then Max int stat...the rest of the stuff stinks. I also tried out that one that increases caster level and Max caster level of specific school. I noticed nothing from it on any of my necro spells. Paid MORE plat and respecced that out too. Im a bit confused on the twist of fate things too. Im thinking I will cap magister then work on Draconic and then "import" an ability over? Maybe some more int..?

[xveganrox]

So I get up to the Summons section of Magister tree...And one ability states "Able to summon and EPIC Lich to fight for you" I think to myself SWEET thinking back on the Lich from the challenges in House C....SO I summon this thing and a CR 12 Lich appears and gets one shotted in the Underdark...Im no expert but an Epic lich should be like 3 or 5 times CR 12...what a joke! Paid the plat and specced it out...So far Im finding the best things to take are max spell DC, Spell cool down, then Max int stat...the rest of the stuff stinks. I also tried out that one that increases caster level and Max caster level of specific school. I noticed nothing from it on any of my necro spells. Paid MORE plat and respecced that out too. Im a bit confused on the twist of fate things too. Im thinking I will cap magister then work on Draconic and then "import" an ability over? Maybe some more int..?

Apparently they meant a "casual epic" lich :P

[Azre]

I just took the lich too... so, so disappointing.

He can't even cast finger of death, not to mention he's the only lich in game without spell mantle.

Not even augment makes him land a single spell...

It's sad, the potential is there.

[oradafu]

I went a different route and decided to pick up the Succubus. I figured it would be nice to have another CC summon, similar to the Chaos Beholder for the Xoriat Shard.

Like the OP, I was very disappointed that the Epic Succubus was a CR 12 and didn't do much except grab a bit of aggro and block some damage. From what I saw of the summon, there wasn't anything epic at all about it. I highly doubt even with the various Augment Summoning boosts that the summon would be worth using at all as things currently stand.

So far, I'm a bit underwhelmed by this Epic Destiny in action. I'll ride it out and max the Destiny before swapping to Draconic destiny. The weak summon just cinched the deal for me.

[Teraz]

There's already a glitch with summons being summoned at 1/2 their normal level....bug report it.

[oradafu]

Well, today I summoned the Epic Summon in several non-epic quests and it is now CR 20, which seems about right. I still have the Succubus summon. With it being CR 20, it is surviving longer in the non-epic quests. However, in Epic quests, it appears the Epic summons are CR 12.

However, I'm still bit disappointed. The Succubus seems to have the following attacks: a fire attack, a lightning attack, a slashing melee attack and occasionally level drain. The fire and lightning damage seem to give decent enough damage numbers. Her main attack, the slashing attack, doesn't seem to break DR (or maybe fort) so usually there is a bunch of zeros on those attacks. The level drain is nice, but if epic mobs still regenerate levels, it's pretty useless since it's extremely random and rare to go off so it's not something that a player can depend on.

The most disappointing thing about the Epic Succubus is that there is no CC at all from her. The main reason that I wanted the Succubus was for some CC. If the Chaos Beholder can cast party hats, I would expect that the Succubus to do it too. But no CC at all. And yes, I've been running in quests that one would expect little or no resistance to CC, such as Korthos quests, just in case the at level mobs had saves.

[jsm123]

I am bumping this. It is a sad thing when things don't work like you would think they should. So anyone know if the CR12 deal has been fixed?

[akiraproject24]

Ive yet to respend any pts in that summons thing so no clue here. I did read a post stating that summons now scale and that equipping roderics and summoning isnt as strong as it once was because once you unequipped the wand the summons would revert to as if the wand wasnt used? Could be wrong on that I didnt read thoroughly as it included hireling info so made a quick decision not put much faith in any summons or hireling besides a spot heal or quick cannon fodder.

[HAL]

I took the Epic Lich and have been Ok with it but I have Augment Summoning still from levelling up. In Epic Hard it summons as CR20 and will spam Web and Chain Missile. Unlike other summons, if you are a PM it will also be healed by your aura so that's a bonus :)

[Xezrak]

Took epic living meteor storm (Evocation)

Has mana that runs out very quickly and low sp but overall a decent (not great) summon if you can keep it alive, will probably spec out of it, but a nice (probably the best) summon to have in Abbot.

[Scraap]

A while back they added CR scaling to the things for epics. Then that happened. Then they reverted it. Then the reversion reverted. Truly is a real lich.

[Draxis]

I took the living meteor swarm, and it's not so bad, aside from filling my screen with constant explosions. It does run out of mana after only a few volleys, but you can resummon it with a full blue bar as many times as you want, at no cost, every 30 secs.

Incidentally, mine was CR20, and I took both the augment summoning feat and the augment summoning ED ability.

[MaxenThor]

I have a question concerning this Destiny. I'm a level 26 Artificer. I've tried to select T2-Spell School Specialist so that I may progress to Call Kindred Being etc. I can not select this this T2 Item because it is Red and will not let me select it no matter what I do. Do I need to be a castor ie Sorcerer,Wizard or Cleric. Any and all help will be appreciated. Thanks.

[Lanhelin]

You need a Spell Focus Feat to be allowed to take the related Spell School Specialist.

[MaxenThor]

You need a Spell Focus Feat to be allowed to take the related Spell School Specialist.

Thanks for you're response. Now my question is this. Is it worth while at Lvl 26 Arty to re do a feat just to be able to get the " Call Kindred Being" ability? Any and all thoughts/comments will be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Lanhelin]

I can only tell something about the Succubus (Enchantment Spell Focus) at Level 24: On EN she wasn't that bad, was alive quite a long time. Without SP she couldn't do much, but recasting her costs no SP, just time. I didn't play any EH or EE quests, so no experiences on these difficulties.

If you want to enhance your dog and/or Hires and Summons, I think the Primal Avatar would be a better choice, because the Grand Summoner in Magister only affects Summons but the PA enhancements affect Summons, Hirelings, Pets and charmed Mobs. Though you can twist the Magister Summon in (but I guess even if you do so the Dryad would be the better choice).

You can also try the Sigil line in Magister which offers good support in fights where you/your pet or the party doesn't move much.

[MaxenThor]

I can only tell something about the Succubus (Enchantment Spell Focus) at Level 24: On EN she wasn't that bad, was alive quite a long time. Without SP she couldn't do much, but recasting her costs no SP, just time. I didn't play any EH or EE quests, so no experiences on these difficulties.

If you want to enhance your dog and/or Hires and Summons, I think the Primal Avatar would be a better choice, because the Grand Summoner in Magister only affects Summons but the PA enhancements affect Summons, Hirelings, Pets and charmed Mobs. Though you can twist the Magister Summon in (but I guess even if you do so the Dryad would be the better choice).

You can also try the Sigil line in Magister which offers good support in fights where you/your pet or the party doesn't move much.

Thanks for your response. Much appreciated.

[-Avalon-]

I have been wondering how effective it would be to use the Magister ED with the primal avatar summoning enhancement, along with augment summoning feat on a 20 Palemaster with fully specced out Skeleton pet and a summon of some sort...

Also, anyone know if multiple Augment Summon feats stack? Just curious...

[Lanhelin]

Also, anyone know if multiple Augment Summon feats stack? Just curious...

Augment Summoning can only be taken once. But if you have Druid Past Lives, the passive ones will stack up to three times (+2 to all abilities each) and stack with AugS (+10 to all abilities for pets, Hires, Summons and charmed mobs). Grand Summoner will additionally push abilities of Summons only by +4 for a total of +14.

The best benefit from Augment Summoning is, that it makes divine and melee Hires able to use various Ability based devices like runes, doors or valves in lower content. But there also seems to be a bug: Hires with AugS cannot be upgraded with one of the +4-to-an-ability spell like Bear's Endurance, while Pets can. The spell effect won't have any impact if one already has an item equipped that gives +4 or more to the same ability. The feat should not be treated like equipment, but it is in case of Hires.

+10 to all abilities in case of charmed mobs in theory also means +5 to their saving throws while charmed. I could not test yet if this makes mobs on heroic kinda behave like they had the Epic Ward too or if it doesn't do much, as I'm still in my first Druid life.

[-Avalon-]

Just collected all of the info... but, like I said, wondering how effective all of this together would be... (I read the response, but after seeing the full amount of add-ons for summons/hires...)

In addition to a hireling, and a summon (probably best to summon Elder Fire Elemental or Dryad for the evasion from ED:PA)


Palemaster:
28 Lvl Fighter
+6 Profane Str/Dex/Con
+6 Profane AC
+15 Profane PRR
+45% Doublestrike
15% bypass Fortification
100% Fortification (undead)


Druid Past Life:
+6 All Stats


Augment Summoning:
+4 All stats
+30 HP
+50% Fortification


Magister:
+4 All Stats
+50% Fortification
+40% Movement Speed
More HP (undisclosed on wiki)


Primal Avatar:
+100 HP
+30 PRR
'Natural' Creatures gain Evasion
1% to Knockdown Enemies
1% to deal 20d20 Sonic
1% to deal 20d20 Lightning


So, you could have all of that on a summon (elder fire elemental probably), PM Skeleton, and a hire, be in Lich Form self-healing, and launching spells or just keeping them buffed... in this situation, maybe use a barbarian hireling? Or a more 'battle cleric' type set on attack not defend...

[Lanhelin]

Except for Magister which applies to Summons only, yes, you can have all of that. What Hire depends more on your chosen race, skills and AP you spent. The most versatility you probably get with a Half Elf with Cleric Dilettante, as you count as Level 10 Cleric when using Heal scrolls (after spending 17 AP in the racial tree). But it depends on your planned build, in case there won't be 17 AP left, then raise UMD.

I try to reach a similar thing. After two Wiz lives I'm now in my first Druid life. So two Druid, one Wiz (and one Bard for Enchanting DC) lives left for me. I do not use any xp stones, so it will be late summer or autumn 2014 when I reach my goal? Idk yet but I'll report :)

[LiquidZombie]

But there also seems to be a bug: Hires with AugS cannot be upgraded with one of the +4-to-an-ability spell like Bear's Endurance, while Pets can. The spell effect won't have any impact if one already has an item equipped that gives +4 or more to the same ability.

Ah, I wondered what was up with that. I can cast Bull's Strength on my summoned skeleton without problems, but casting it on the hireling does nothing.

[-Avalon-]

With no experience playing a summoner-type build, and extremely little pure caster experience (limited to a character I made over 4 years ago and only played to about 10th level and stopped)...

On Lamannia, I made a 28 Morninglord 2 Clr/18 Wiz (Magister w/summoning stuff, PM skellie focus, lich form, and using twists from ED:PA), just a test on theory... focused on summoning, enchanting, then necro... Lich form, using the 24 (?) Favored soul hire, skellie, and elder fire ele, buff them, then throw otto's balls and etc to CC, intermittently throwing FoD/Wail/Circle if too many resisted, else letting pets take care of the enemies...

Was quite capable of handling Tracker's Trap (EH) as a first lifer with mediocre gear... took a bit longer than I expected, but really no danger over all...

[Irenae]

Yeah, that's half the levels the Lich should be as it should be cr24 and cast finger of death, as well as level drain which has a chance depending on enemy saves to level drain your enemies.

[newmart]

Hi,
For mage with all auguments/feats/druid lifes

Skelly is VERY TANKY (more than most players) lost count of he carring my stone, unscattered, and even finished quests for me (90% of prove your worth) and can tank final boss in Servents of Overlord (he is kinda my parameter of viable tanking pet)

For dmg go for Meteor Swarm. Hes damage its not incridible, but is free. He can do about 500-800 damage per meteor shower, and trips at comet falls, even in EE (if u have all feats and past life as me). 500 dmg is the same damage ruin can give, at free cost, every 2 or 3 seconds, só its not a bad damage.

Lich is the only epic summon that can cc with web. It lands consistently with all auguments, but he uses fireball in sequence destroing the web... If u are a pale master he can have some uses and is very tough (as all undead) but you propably will need ultra high dc for finger of dead, what means only getting int from ED.

Succubus is very beautiful, can be second in damage, but still subpar. As for palemaster and enchanter probably will need all dc he can get.

For druid:

Heroic Lvs use wolves/lions as they can trip constantly. Then start to use Earth elemental when u get.

Dryad has damage comparable to Succubus, even a bit highter. But she casts regenerate in you and your wolf and party. She also casts death ward and animal growth (with is a VERY usefull if u are in animal form, because duration is short, and u need to cast in u and your wolf. She is reaaaaly usefull here, more is u are animal form). WIith all feats and evasion from natural shielding they barely get damage, and dryad is enough to keep your pet alive. If he is tanking bosses u ll need to heal more frenquently of course. I think dryad really worth in case u are running primal and animal form.

Wolf pet is a beasts in heroics. He has sometimes more kills than me. My current duid life (the 5th) im bear tank. I use guards and intimidate, so pet always sneak atack, in Stormcleave Outpost Elite final count was pet 44 kills, me 23, hireling 28, summon 8 (Im tank bear). In Epics (with natural shielding) i ll change him to tank, so i can have 2 tanks in one character.

Any other questions i can ask.