Good summons for solo Heroic Elite?

[lppmor]

When I solo with my Pale Master, there are times I miss having a tank or a distraction to keep the aggro off me.

Hirelings could do this well, but I prefer to keep my Cleric hireling safe just as mana battery and in the case I die.
Skeleton Knight is a good option, but I have to spend some points and also micro manage it. I don't enjoy it.

What about summons? Any special summon worth having around for, say, a boss fight or just distracting beholders?
I'm talking here about Heroic Hard/Elite mostly.

What about Create Undead (since I can heal them)? Earth Elementals have the most health? Any summons that can buff me (I heard Mummy Lord can cast Spell Resistance for example)?

[FuzzyDuck81]

The mummy lord is pretty good, it has a couple of buffs it casts as well as the immobilising fear aura.

[unbongwah]

In the long run, summoning isn't particularly viable, but for heroics, what I would do is pick up the Augment Summoning feat, invest into both Pale Master & Harper summoning buffs, and (since you're PM) use the mummy lord summon until it's no longer useful. Don't use summons for DPS; use them for decoys and free CC. Among the regular summons, I like earth elementals for Earthgrab and air elementals for knockdown. Remember you can buff summons too.

[Amundir]

When I'm able to cast it I usually start using the bearded devil when possible due to its teleport and being able to start tearing up stuff before I can get to it (or maybe i wait on the other side for the devil to kill them while they stare at me).

[AbyssalMage]

In the long run, summoning isn't particularly viable, but for heroics, what I would do is pick up the Augment Summoning feat, invest into both Pale Master & Harper summoning buffs, and (since you're PM) use the mummy lord summon until it's no longer useful. Don't use summons for DPS; use them for decoys and free CC. Among the regular summons, I like earth elementals for Earthgrab and air elementals for knockdown. Remember you can buff summons too.

On my PM, this was something I actually did. Took Augment Summoning at level 1 and I think I finally dropped it around level 15 (using free feet swap). Not sure how viable it is because of Champions but I am sure it can work (especially as a distraction).

Take the PM pet up to Tier 5, and use the Harper tree to buff him, your mercenary, and your summons. Granted, this is slower than not having these things out but everyone has their own play style. As far as Mercenaries, there is a pretty distinct list of what is best 1 through 20, so maybe someone can dig that up for you.

Summons:

Celestial Dog
none - Keep the dog
Winter Wolf/Hell Hound - Neither is really exciting and die quickly but better than Celestial Dog
Fiendish Monstrous Spider
Medium Earth Elemental
I think I used the Eladrin Bralani, but its been awhile. You also have Create Undead, which is far superior but I didn't have the spell (because I was new and thought Summon Monster VI would be better).
All 3. I probably used the Earth Elemental the least but this is off memory.
Greater Air Elemental and Orthon. Air Elemental kinda works against you (some CC spells) but its Knockback has no save :)
Hezrou

Please note I actually just kept skeleton around mostly after awhile as I hated wasting my precious SP's on a new Summon yet with the insane agro they draw, it can mean less SP's in the long run :)

[EllisDee37]

If that list is supposed to be numbered, the code tags for these forums are:



Item 1

Item 2

Item 3
etc...



Adding the "=1" makes it:


Celestial Dog
none - Keep the dog
Winter Wolf/Hell Hound - Neither is really exciting and die quickly but better than Celestial Dog
Fiendish Monstrous Spider
Medium Earth Elemental
I think I used the Eladrin Bralani, but its been awhile. You also have Create Undead, which is far superior but I didn't have the spell (because I was new and thought Summon Monster VI would be better).
All 3. I probably used the Earth Elemental the least but this is off memory.
Greater Air Elemental and Orthon. Air Elemental kinda works against you (some CC spells) but its Knockback has no save :)
Hezrou

[Enoach]

While you cannot purchase level 8 & 9 summon scrolls (loot droops I recommend keeping and not selling), I recommend using purchasable Summon Monster scrolls as this saves Spell Points and you can use the scroll of a version 2 levels higher then what you can cast from memory.

Now I also benefit from Druid past lives but one of my favorite things to do in quests like Kobold assault is to use pet, summon and standard hireling (Warforge Fighter/Barbarian) and set them to attack mode and just watch the carnage. I use a wand of repair on the Hireling when needed.

The skeleton can be pretty sturdy even in the high difficulties if you buff them. Wands and scrolls to buff pets and summons can go a long way and using those will also conserve spell points. Example: the buffs like Bears endurance and Bulls Strength will give +4 Con and +4 Strength to pets and summons. Low Level Hires also.

Personally, I find between levels 1 and 13 that the Melee Hirelings are better then the Cleric/FvS ones at least for a PM Wizard.

[FuzzyDuck81]

Another useful thing is the shard trinket you can get for 3 medium eberron dragonshard fragments (turn in to Yannick Drumdoom in the market) - it casts summon monster 7 with no minimum level, meaning you can get some very powerful (relatively speaking) summons to help out at the lower levels. Pretty expensive though, since alternatives you can get are trinkets that have 20 uses of greater restoration & 20 uses of major SP potion.

[Amundir]

Another useful thing is the shard trinket you can get for 3 medium eberron dragonshard fragments (turn in to Yannick Drumdoom in the market) - it casts summon monster 7 with no minimum level, meaning you can get some very powerful (relatively speaking) summons to help out at the lower levels. Pretty expensive though, since alternatives you can get are trinkets that have 20 uses of greater restoration & 20 uses of major SP potion.

You know this is an interesting point. I wonder if anyone has tried to use those on reaper yet.

[Hafeal]

Soloing with hirelings is VERY doable despite the constant refrain of how "broken" hirelings are. Hireling failings can be attributed to "user" error as much as bad AI many times.

As an example, see this recent thread:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/483192-Level-1-30-solo-elite-BB-without-ever-attacking-anything!?highlight=solo