2Moons Guides *HOT* Vicious Summoner Guides (6)

The Summoner FAQ

We keep on seeing the same questions being asked, so I figured I’d work on this FAQ to help out the newer people.
If you can think of anything that should be added, let me know.
Q: Should I go Twin or Staff?
A: Obviously, if you want to be more of a caster then you should go Staff and a more melee minded person should go Twin.
Staff is more about hard single hits while most Twin skills hit multiple times and have constant knockbacks (meaning they’re not hitting you). However, while Twin IS the melee spec for Summoners you need to remember that you’re still not a Knight or Bagi. While Twin is a great low level spec, as you get higher you’ll notice the other melee guys start getting much more defence and begin hurting you much much more.
While you’re more melee oriented than a Staff Summoner, you have to remember that you ARE still a Summoner. You have ranged skills and should take advantage of them when you can. Don’t limit yourself to being a squishy Dual Wield Knight.
As for how they level and perform in PvP…. leveling wise, they both have their advantages and disadvantages. Staff, with their slow from Vicious Thorns and knockback from their pet, can keep melee mobs from ever getting to them. This lets them kill MUCH higher level mobs, which means you can make large ammounts of Dill by selling any of the higher level items you get that you can’t use.
That’s not to say Twin can’t do the same thing, but since they’re already in melee range there’s always the chance that the mob can slip a hit in or that you can pull adds if you’re not careful.
The bad part of leveling with Staff is that your mana bar will disapear VERY fast. You’re going to be guzzling down mana pots faster than you can imagine. Twin, on the other hand, isn’t as harsh on your mana bar. Thanks to their skills hitting multiple times, you get much more “bang for your mana” with Twin, which means less potion trips (unless you’re taking a beating, then you may just be trading a disapearing mana bar with a disapearing HP bar).
As for PvP….. both can do great at low levels, but Twin is better overall. As you get higher, Staff starts to get better simply because Twin has more and more trouble surviving in melee.
If you want to powergame, then go Twin until about 80-90, then respec to Staff. If it doesn’t matter to you, then spec whichever you like. Staff may be better at endgame, but they’re both viable specs.
Q: What element type are Staff and Staff/Twin skills?
A: Poison. The only one I’m a little unsure of is Spirit Daggers, but for now I’m just going to asume it’s poison as well.
Q: What do Vicious Mastery and Blade Mastery do?
Blade Mastery increases your Physical Attack stat by 3% per point. So maxed it it’ll give a 30% boost to your physical damage.
Vicious Mastery increases your Magic Attack stat by 3# and your Poison resist by a little with every point. Maxed out, it’ll give your Magic damage a 30% boost and increase your Poison Resist by 15%.
Q: How should I spend my stats?
Personally, I advise anyone to spend enough STR/SPR to use your weapon of choice then put the rest in Heal. The majority of your damage comes from your skills anyway, and I don’t feel an extra 3 or so damage per point is an even exchange for higher Defence, HP, and Shield. A dead Summoner deals no damage.
However, if you want a little more oomph in your attacks, then I’ve heard good things about 3STR/2Heal (Twin) and 3SPR/2Heal (Staff). Just make sure you meet the stat requirments for your weapon of choice.
While I encourage Twin Summoners to take advantages of some of the Twin/Staff spells they can use, I wouldn’t advise any Twin users to spec any more SPR than needed for your weapon. Melee is still where the majority of your damage comes from.
Ignore dex.
Q: Should I max out Evolt Shot/Spirit Daggers/Blood Bats?
A: The Evolt Shot/Spirit Daggers thing is more or less based on playstyle.
Personally, I feel that everyone should max out Evolt Shot. It’s VERY low on mana cost, casts almost instantly, and recharges almost as fast. As a Staff user, it’s great for filling out your attack pattern when your other skills are still cooling down. As a Twin user, it’s a great pulling skill and nice for softing up something that might tear you appart in full melee or getting a few hits on some kiter in PvP.
Spirit Daggers, on the other hand, I’ve never been real fond of. It does more damage than Evolt Shot, but the casting time is, in my opinion, horrendous for the low ammount of damage it actually does. Evolt is at least a very short cast, Spirit Daggers feels like it’s taking an eternity when used in PvP.
That’s not to say Daggers is horrible. I’d definatly play with it first as soon as you get it, though, and decide if you can see yourself using this at any point later on. If you think you’d rather use this insead of Evolt, go ahead.
As for Blood Bats, this is another that I feel everyone should max out. Not only does it do a nice ammount of damage, but it’s got a ghetto AoE and has a chance of healing us when we use it. This is one of the few buffs we as a class get and it should be milked for all it’s worth, in my opinion.Now, when I say max these I don’t mean you have to max it out ASAP. If you have other skills that are more important to you, then pump them up insead. While these skills are worth putting points into, you shouldn’t bump these up if it means you won’t be able to build up bigger, more important attacks.
Q: *summon type* for *weapon type* is best, right?
A: Libido for Staff, Beast for Sword. No reason to do it any other way. Libido debuffs magic resist, Beast debuffs defence.
But, hey! Beast has range!
So does Libido.
Grewpain slows things down! This makes it easier for Staff to kite!
Vicious Thorn has a slow on it already, you don’t need another useless slow stacked on top of it. You’re going to be killing most whites before they get to you either way, so there’s no point.
Also, as far as PvP goes, Grewpain having a slow is just more reason for Twins to go Beast.
Beast is better for tanking (more block chance from mastery!). A caster needs a tank!
Just resummon your pet if it dies. Both can take hits fine.
This is getting me mad just typing this, so that’s enough justification for now. Staff goes Libido, Sword goes Beast. Stop fighting it.
The only thing that may change this are the new summons comming out soon. We’ll have to wait and see what they bring.
Q: Do magic and elemental gems affect your physical attack?
A: I haven’t tried magic (and I REALLY doubt magic damage works, since it adds directly do your Magic ATK stat) but I DO know that ELEMENTAL DAMAGE GEMS INCREASE YOUR PHYSICAL ATTACK DAMAGE!
Yes! It does! Stop claiming otherwise! I don’t care what some braindead closed beta player said, it works. Try it for yourself before you start arguing. And if you do try it and it somehow “doesn’t work” you did something wrong, so don’t bother trying to argue either way.
However, there are a few things that makes physical damage gems better. For one, Twin Mastery is a passive skill that increases your Physical ATK stat by 30%. Physical damage gems will be affected by this bonus whlie elemental damage won’t.
I’ve heard that elemental damage also doesn’t affect critical hit damage (something about physical criticals only doing your Physical Attack * 2). I don’t know how true this is since I didn’t test critical damage when I tried out elemental gems, but it’s something to consider.
Q: How do my weapons glow!
A: You need to fill the weapon’s sockets with elemental gems or Rhombuses and such.
I’d make a list of colors, but no one can agree on what gems make what colored glow and I don’t have any gems left to try it out myself. I’ll add one later if I can.
Q: What about armor?
A: Armor can “glow” by using the argate system. It’s more of a shine than a glow, though.
Q: Hey, that guy’s Trantula looks way better than mine! How do I get one like it?
A: The way your pet looks is dependant on your skill level with that pet. The “normal” look is for skill levels 1-2, then it changes at 3, and again at 5.
( this article comes from 2moonsworld.com)