Warper Summoner Build

[Finnien]

This is my third Summoner build. The first was a Carnigor build, which while functional, was too slow-paced. The second was a Witch Doctor build, under the theory that pure elementals would be more damage, and the witch doctor could heal them. Frankly, the damn things pop too easy to bother healing. The most recent build is a Warper/elemental build, and it's the build by far that I'm happiest with.

At lev. 25, my basic setup is 7 fire elementals (5 points in Master of Flame), 3 Force Elementals, 1 Spectral, 1 Storm, 1 Toxic, with five points in the Warper, and a point in each of his special abilities. Currently I have enough power pool for all the elementals, but none of the special abilities. Once I can get Master of the Elements and more points in Will, I'll bump up more Toxic elementals, a couple more Force elementals, and also start to be able to use my damage skills from Elemental Nova and the warper.

My current build:
http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/summoner/?l=25&s=0600500000103000011401110000
My lev. 50 build will look something like this:
http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/summoner/?l=50&s=0600700000106000031708220510

Currently the biggest danger is a mob who drops a big AE in a tight space, toasting all the elementals. One point in the Reaper is pretty damn useful (I have it on a pistol currently) for making a getaway to resummon the army, and the Warper's focused damage definitely helps on bosses. Overall, this feels like the strongest Summoner build I've tried so far. However, I don't really have a handle on how power pool will play out once I get Master of Elements. An argument could be made for more points in Master of Flame, the Warper, and his side skills, with less force and toxic elementals, and maybe one less storm, to keep the power pool viable for skills.

I'm going to make a push to beat the game and try a harder level of difficulty over the next two days, will post later with an update on how it goes.

Edit: Links fixed!

[Draconis]

Both of those link to the lvl 11 build. =/ I am curious to see your lvl 50 as I am going the same route as you warper/elementals. What do your current stats look like?? And around what will they look like at 50?? Thanks, I didn't play summoner too much in beta but I'm liking the class more and more.

[Finnien]

I initially tossed about 15 points into Stamina to be able to wear some twink gear. Since then it's been pretty heavy willpower. Aside from a few stamina points here and there, I'll be going pure willpower until mid-30's when I start getting Master of Elements. I'll have to see how gear and skills help lower my power pool requirement, and then decide between will and stamina. I may eventually have to put a few points in strength, but so far it hasn't been necessary, and I'll avoid it entirely if I can.

All my gear focuses heavily on +attribute, +will, +power, or +sta. If I can get it as a bonus, I go for +minion health and damage, but that's secondary towards getting the full army out. Also, I use two 1-h guns most of the time (when not in pursuit of mini-game completion), and my offhand is a dart pistol with 2 points to Warper, 2 points to Master of Flame, and 1 point to Reaper. It'll be with me for a long while, I think. ;)

[Draconis]

vury nice. I'm only at lvl 13 atm, but i have 7 skill points unspent >< I guess that's a good thing as I will be able to have them to spend at lvl 15. I currently have 4 fire, 1 spectral, and 1 afterlife. Oddly enough I still zoom through quests and the like without much trouble. My luck is over 200 so I guess that helps. ^_^

[flava2burn]

how do you guys get to the 20s without a carn? my dps drops to hell when mobs get to my eles. If i put the bare minimum into carn (2 in the talent, 1 for meatshield) will i still be able to pull off a main warper build?

[Draconis]

Find a wep with carn on it...i have found tons. Some straight form the vendors. Other than that I have a unique plague blaster and a legendary focus so my dps while my ele are getting eaten doesn't drop too bad. just keep smashing your ele shorcut in fights where you lose them fast.

Edit: Kind of a "cheat" but you can equip an item with carn on it. Summon him then unequip it. He will stay until ded. Then just rinse and repeat.

[Finnien]

Yeah, I have a no-min-level dart pistol with Carnigor 1 on it, and later a rifle with Carnigor 2. Early I just kept the pistol in the offhand, then later (level 12-20ish) I used the summon-and-swap method. Once I got the warper I stopped using the Carnigor and just keep resummoning the eminently disposable force elementals.

[Geishe]

Finnnnn, do you mind if you explain to me what the warper skills do. The skill descriptions really aren't good indicators >.< Please and thank you

[ViciousXUSMC]

It was easy for me to get to warper with no carnagor or witch doctor.

Just run & gun and let the elementals do there thing while you have the mobs attention, that early in the game thigns die so easy its not a problem.

Soon as you get force elementals, they easily replace him. I have used 3 of them at a time for the whole game and even nightmare mode. Since I was so focused in my build I have no stray points and now I have extra points I can use. I find 9 elementals to be a great soft spot and dont know if I even want more when I had planned on a massive elemental army. I was also pure willpower up to where I could summon 8 guys, but after that I just saved stat points incase a piece of good gear came along I needed. This happens alot.

A armor piece you find that has +18% minion damage is way more important than having the extra willpower to summon 1 more elemental. Plus you have higher stamina so you die less. Im just now pumping pure stam/str/acc at lvl 31 because the stuff you find in nightmare mode has crazy requirements and I have enough willpower now to summon all my guys + use warper skills when I get master of elements 5/5.

I will post my build up later, for some reason the skill caclulator does not work on my pc I use at work so I have to get on my laptop.

[Indelible]

I'm playing an Elemental/Witch Doctor build at the moment and I find it works really well. Once the Witch Doctor is out, it generally heals the Elementals fast enough (with 5 points) to give me time to summon another elemental by the time it dies. I'm also heavy stam/willpower and I've spec'd Life Drain as well. I won't be using this build on Hard Core becuase I probably won't play a summoner on any of the other difficulty levels :-P

[iamcrapper]

i got a question.. does higher lvl of the carnagor/witch doctor/warper mean anything?

[Credge]

i got a question.. does higher lvl of the carnagor/witch doctor/warper mean anything?

Yes.

Higher Carnagor nets him more armor by a %ge.

Higher Witch Doctor makes him heal faster by a %ge.

I'm not sure on the Warper but I'm sure it makes him do more damage by a %ge.

Also, I've found that the Witch Doctor is amazing with a guardian.

[Finnien]

Each skill point in the Warper raises its damage by 15%. I've got mine up to lev. 7 and he takes out the nightmare Shulgoth in about three or four shots. Definitely worth the points.

[ab.er.rant]

Can I ask why you went only 1 point in spectral? If it's for the phase wouldn't have more spectral by reducing toxic be better? Or also to drop toxic to boost the warper even further.

[konfeta]

Why points in spectral elemental period? Doesn't the warper have plenty of that?

[Liberty]

currently planning a warper build with fire elementals in elite right now. so we shall see how well this build does. with the basics. so far. leveling in the early stages is bit slower. but not by much.

[Finnien]

The Spectral is mainly there for its AE. It does great against groups of zombies or any melee mob that rushes the force elemental line and gets held there. For only one skill point, it does good damage and has pretty high survivability. Cheaper in point pool than the Force elemental, higher damage, and a chance of AE phase just make it a good cheap elemental.

As an update, I'm lev. 34 and in act 2 of Nightmare, having very few problems. I find myself putting more points in stamina and gearing more towards minion dmg/health than I did before, and I really need to get some new armor, but very few things break through the elemental army. I had one bad level which had in the neighborhood of 100 of those hovering fetal warping mobs that kept killing me (three or four would warp at once, first one toasting my shields, second phasing me, final two killing me) but aside from that I've really been mowing things down.

This weekend I should make considerably more progress if WoW and Guitar Hero don't distract me. This build really seems viable to clear the game in its current state.