"[toc]\n\n# Summoner\n\n\u003e *The Summoner has developed a powerful arcane command to conjure sustenance, tools, barricades, weaponry, even fantastic creatures of incredible strength – all of this at her whim.*\n\nThe Summoner is a magical dps class that combines the prowess of the caster with an array of skills and abilities drawn from their [Arcamentals](#) (summoned pets).\n\n## Class Resources\n\n### Mana\n\nYour Mana pool is a slowly regenerating resource used to power all of your combat and utility spells, and techniques. Like other classes that use Mana, the Summoner regenerates *more* mana per second while out of combat, **even more** while resting, and ***even more*** the longer you are resting. \n\nIt is easy to feel strapped for mana on the Summoner. To work around the inherently high mana demands of your primary damage abilities, Summoners have an line of [Mana Bomb](#) abilities that cost a small amount of mana on the front end, but recover a significant portion of your mana when it detonates (even if it is resisted).\n\n### Arcamentals\n\nThe Summoner's Arcamentals are 'pets' summoned by certain\nabilities. Each Arcamental has an independent health and mana pool, starts with one unlocked ability, and unlocks new abilities as the summoner levels up. There are four Arcamentals:\n\n* Titan (Earth/Tank)\n* Zephyr (Air/Melee DPS)\n* Fury (Fire/Magic DPS)\n* Undine (Water/Utility)\n\nUntil you reach level 20 and unlock Undine, you may only have one Arcamental active at a time. When you unlock [Undine](#), you may have *both* Undine **AND** another Arcamental active at once. Arcamentals will be de-summoned if the ability is removed from your hotbar.\n\n#### Titan\n\nTitan is your bread and butter soloing 'buddy'. It fulfills the role of a tank and has strong threat generating abilities as well as a few utility options for rooting/disrupting enemies. Generally speaking, Titan is quite resilient due to its high passive AC, the ability to benefit from your AC, and the shield that it is (uniquely) able to use in its offhand slot. Titan does not do significant damage on its own, but in concert with your Damage Shield (Shield of Rotating Spikes) line of spells, it can be a nice \"porcupine\" for enemies to injure themselves on. At higher levels, the combination of Titan and Undine make for a nearly unstoppable solo experience against most enemies of even level, or up to several levels higher than the player character.\n\nTitan's major weakness to date is the lack of triggerable mitigation-abilities that would prompt a block/parry/shield when a major damaging ability (think Waylay or Bone Spike) is incoming. These DD attacks can chunk down Titan's HP quite quickly, even though it is a sturdy target. Titan also has a relatively limited mana pool, so in protracted fights, you may need to feed them mana with [Mana Bond](#) or it may be unable to taunt effectively. \n\n*Passive Abilities*\n* Protector's Purpose - Titan gets 20% of **your AC** \n* Mineral Embrittlement - Titan's auto-attacks give a stacking 2% [up to 10%] armor reduction.\n\n*Hotbar Abilities:*\n* Grapple (lvl 2) - Taunt and threat generation\n* Mighty Slam (lvl 8) - Direct physical damage attack\n* Enraged Slam (lvl 8) - Stun for 2 seconds\n* Shifting Stones (lvl 14) - Roots target\n* Lasso of Vines (lvl 18) - Pulls the target to Titan's location\n\n##### Loadout Recommendation\n**Soloing**\n* Grapple and Mighty Slam on auto-cast.\n* Shifting Stones and Enraged Slam on manual cast.\n\n**Grouping**\n* Mighty Slam on auto-cast.\n* Shifting Stones, Enraged Slam, and Lasso of Vines on manual cast.\n\n#### Zephyr\n\nZephyr is the melee DPS pet currently available to the Summoner, starting at level 8. When first unlocked, Zephyr is a great option for group play, or when you do not need to worry about face-tanking enemy monsters yourself (since you are often quite fragile at that level). Building on its ability to have an off-hand weapon, attack speed buffs such as the Shaman's [Skymane's Pact](#) ability can improve its damage output quite a bit and add to your DPS while managing your mana. \n\nA current weakness of Zephyr is the limited damage output against most enemy types. While it is nice to have a source of physical damage, the current weapon loadouts available to Arcamentals are fairly limited and the ability set that Zephyr uses is not well suited to the kind of damage output you would hope for at higher levels. There are ongoing discussions about the contours of summoner pet equipment, and as such, I would anticipate significant changes to the potential damage and utility of Zephyr moving forward.\n\n*Passive Abilities*\n* Whistling Winds - Zephyr can dual wield weapons. \n* Wind-Woven - Zephyr has a high chance to dodge.\n\n*Hotbar Abilities:*\n* Biting Wind (lvl 8) - Deals physical damage\n* Wind Dagger (lvl 8) - 2x physical damage strike\n* Galestep (lvl 10) - Teleport behind your target\n* Windblade (lvl 12) - High physical damage attack\n* Updraft (lvl 14) - Increases target movement speed\n\n##### Loadout Recommendation\n* Biting Wind, Wind Dagger, and Windblade on auto-cast.\n* Galestep on manual cast as needed [to avoid conal attacks].\n* Updraft [when it is properly implemented] on manual cast for out of combat mobility.\n\n#### Fury\n\nFury is the magical DPS pet unlocked by the Summoner at level 14. At this point, Fury is the best option for group play on the summoner due to its array of direct damage and damage over time abilities - though if you are comfortable face-tanking enemies while soloing it can be a viable solo buddy. Unlike Titan and Zephyr, Fury has a much more robust mana pool, and can remain actively contributing to DPS over protracted fights or in chain pulling - even with all abilities 'active'. \n\nA current drawback of Fury is the specific damage type that it deals, and specific resistances/empowerment that enemies receive from receiving fire damage. This issue is limited in scope (at this time), but as more enemies are included that have specific resistances, I would anticipate that being selective about your use of Fury will be more of a decision-point for the Summoner. Finally, Fury's passive abilities suggest that it should take more tank-focused role, however its health pool and lack of threat generating abilities do not seem to mesh well at this time. Editorially, I am curious to see if, or how, Fury's passive abilities will change as EA continues. \n\n*Passive Abilities*\n* Burning Aura - Damage shield ability that deals fire damage \n* Fire's Rage - Fury does more damage when under 50% hp.\n\n*Hotbar Abilities:*\n* Flaming Whip (lvl 8) - Heavy fire damage\n* Flame Lash (lvl 14) - Fire damage attack\n* Mana Blaze (lvl 16) - Fire damage attack\n* Molten Spear (lvl 18) - Fire damage attack with short fire DoT; reduces target AC\n\n##### Loadout Recommendation\n* All abilities on auto-cast\n* Turn off auto-cast when fighting against high magic resist enemies of those that are empowered by fire damage. \n\n#### Undine\n\nPraise be unto Undine, the most glorious of healer buddies. The Summoner unlocks Undine at level 20, and at that point your soloing experience becomes trivial against non-elite enemies. Undine starts with a channeled healing ability [Crystalline Mending](#) that is relatively mana efficient, and can prolong the life of either Titan or Fury significantly, making their effective HP 3-4x the baseline. The added bonus of Undine is that you can currently keep it active while also having any of your other pets active - adding significant utility to your overall kit, and supplementing healing in group situations (though Crystalline Mending is only intended to heal Titan as written). At level 24, Undine unlocks the [Crystalline Spear](#) ability that can chill enemies, allowing you to kite as needed (or more likely, escape when things are dire). \n\nThe current downside of Undine is related to its easily expended mana pool. While adding damage via Water Lash and Crystalline Spear are nice additions to having it active, they significantly tax its mana, that could be better used on channeling its heal. \n\n*Passive Abilities*\n* Ever-Flowing - Undine has passive hp regen \n* Purified Waters - Undine is resistant to Poison and Disease.\n\n*Hotbar Abilities:*\n* Crystalline Mending (lvl 20) - Channeled heal ability\n* Water Lash (lvl 22) - Direct nature damage attack\n* Crystalline Spear (lvl 24) - Direct cold damage attack, may chill target\n\n##### Loadout Recommendation\n* Crystalline Mending on auto-cast\n* Other abilities on manual cast, but I only really use Spear for chill effect. \n\n#### Gearing Your Arcamentals\n\nAs you level up, you will learn spells to summon different pieces of equipment for your Arcamental pets. One major difference between the Summoner and Necromancer is that the Arcamentals will not lose their equipped gear when they are defeated/killed. \n\nAt the time of writing, the only way to obtain gear for your Arcamentals is through the purchased spells that allow you to summon pieces of equipment for each of their 7(8) slots. \n\nOnce you have surpassed the most basic level of summoned gear, these items will begin to confer attribute bonuses depending on the slot, but these will require spending a raw gemstone of a specific variety to summon. The piece of gear is permanent though, so this is a fairly limited investment in improving your buddies.\n\n**All Arcamentals** can equip items in the following slots: \n- Head -\u003e [Array](#) adds WIS and INT; costs Raw Topaz\n- Shoulder -\u003e [Guard](#) adds CHA; costs Raw Jade\n- Chest -\u003e [Support](#) adds STAM; costs Raw Spinel\n- Waist -\u003e [Core](#) adds CON; costs Raw Zircon\n- Wrist -\u003e [Bindings](#) adds AGI and DEX; costs Raw Citrine\n- Hands -\u003e [Gauntlets](#) adds STR; costs Raw Quartz\n- Main Hand -\u003e [Mana Sword](#) adds base Attack Damage\n\nThe **Titan** and **Zephyr** Arcamentals can use the following items in their off-hand slot to improve their survivability and damage respectively.\n- Off Hand -\u003e [Mana Shield](#) may be equipped by Titan \n- Off Hand -\u003e [Paired Mana Sword](#) may be equipped by Zephyr\n\n## Attribute Priority \n### For you...\n\n**Top Priority**\n* **Intelligence** - As an intelligence-caster, it is probably not shocking that you should try and stack intelligence as much as you can. You benefit from this in terms of scaling on your abilities, increased chance to critically hit with spells, and a larger mana pool. All awesome benefits.\n* **Stamina** - As a caster... you are generally fairly squishy, and so having more stamina means that you will have more HP, and therefore will die less often. Love that for you.\n\n**Important**\n* **Dexterity** - This is an odd one and will likely change when the game continues to evolve. At present, Dexterity contributes to your chance to hit with spells as Hit Rating is a secondary stat drawing on this attribute. As a result, it is important to acquire dexterity when possible to reduce the chance of spell resists.\n* **Constitution** - Constitution has a three-fold benefit to the Summoner. In addition to increasing YOUR ac and resistance to crowd-control effects (giving you more durability and up-time for casting), your AC feeds directly into the AC of Titan due to its passive ability. For this reason, it is a valuable stat to obtain.\n\n**Nice to Have**\n* **Agility** - Agility increases some of your avoidance via dodge and parry. Since you are a squishy caster, this can keep you alive when you would otherwise have to eat a major hit.\n* **Wisdom** - Though you are not a wisdom caster, wisdom still contributes to your chance to critically hit with spells. This is nice, but does not do triple duty like intelligence. \n* **Strength** - At present, strength is nice to have, but not a critical part of your stat line. Your default technique \"Panic Creation\" scales off of it, but otherwise it is just nice to increase your encumbrance. \n\n\n**Eh.**\n* **Charisma** - Charisma is... fine for the usual reputation and price reduction reasons, but otherwise does not currently have known impact on your gameplay.\n\n### For your arcamentals...\n\n[Work in progress as I sort out/see how others have explained the relationship between PLAYER attributes and ARCAMENTAL attributes and stats]\n\n\n## Group Roles\n\n### DPS\n\nSummoners are very potent damage dealers. You have a wealth of ways to deal damage, largely via the [XYZ Swarm](#), and [Swarm Projectile](#) spells, and your Arcamental pets significantly contribute to your overall damage output in combat. \n\nThe majority of Summoners abilities are geared towards doing damage and debuffing mobs.\nYou will also be able to exploit the [Exposed](#) state which is applied by\nScouts by using [Conjure Chains](#) and [Mana Pins](#). \n\nLearn to be considerate of your [Tank](#) when you have one! Summoners are capable of doing significant damage, however your damage is split across multiple threat 'entities' (player character and summoned arcamental). \n\nIf you are too-aggressive and pull from your tank, can also [Distorted Danger](#) to lessen the [Threat](#) you've generated and get the [Tank](#)\non track if you accidentally earn priority. Distorted Danger is also valuable for soloing since you will often do enough damage to pull threat from your Arcamental pets.\n\nWhen filling the DPS role in a group, at the time of writing it is generally best to use [Zephyr](#) until you unlock [Fury](#), unless you are fighting enemies with significant fire damage resistances or are empowered by fire damage (see: [Cryptlings](#)). Zephyr's current damage is underwhelming, but the developers have hinted at significant ongoing changes to pets and their damage output moving forward.\n\n### Off-Tanking with Titan\n\nWhen necessary, the Summoner can use their Titan [Arcamental](#) to off-tank enemies. While it is uncommon that you will have Titan active while exploring group content, if you do not have other crowd control options available, this is a nice trade-off for a damage dealing pet. \n\nBeing able to [Off Tank](#) means you need to be able to peel mobs off others by\ngenerating the most [Threat](#). The Titan Arcamental primarily does this through its taunt ability [Grapple](#). Even early on, Titan is able to take serious punishment via its sizeable health pool and armor class, however it lacks many of the avoidance abilities that allow player tanks to mitigate high-damage abilities via dodge/parry/block/etc. As a result, off-tanking with Titan should not be a 'common' practice.\n\nUpon reaching level 20, Summoners may also have the [Undine](#) Arcamental active as well, significantly extending the effective hit points of Titan via a channeled healing ability to sustain it in combat.\n\n### Vending Machine\nIt's a bit tongue in cheek, but Summoners do have access to food and drink summon abilities starting at a low level. When your hunger or thirst meters deplete entirely, it incurs a costly debuff (-5 to each attribute). Needless to say, this is a major issue if you're knee-deep in content, so being able to summon food/drinks is a nice utility. \n\n## Synergies with Other Classes\n\n### Your Techniques\n* **Force** -\u003e Open Gap\n\nAt level 3, the Summoner learns the \"Force\" technique that - if it hits - will place an [Opening Gap](#) status on enemies. This will allow physical damage classes (Rangers, Monks, and Rogues) to exploit that status and incur significant debuffs on your foes. \n\n* **Manifest Decoy** -\u003e Disorientated\n\nAt level 7, the Summoner learns the \"Manifest Decoy\" technique that - if it hits - will place an [Disorientated](#) status on enemies. This will allow your groupmates to exploit that status and (most often) increase the duration or efficacy of their crowd-control effects. \n\n### Your Exploits\n* **Conjure Chains**: Exposed -\u003e Constrained\n\nAt level 5, the Summoner learns the \"Conjure Chains\" technique that will place [Constrained](#) status on a enemy with the [Exposed](#) debuff. This slows their actions by 25%. This is incredibly helpful as it allows your groupmates who have interrupt/silence abilities have more time to react and prevent enemy abilities/spells from completing. \n\n* **Imbue Restraint**: Exposed -\u003e Rattled\n\nAt level 23, the Summoner learns the \"Imbue Restraint\" technique that will place a [Rattled](#) status on a enemy with the [Exposed](#) debuff. This reduces their attack and spell power by 10%. This is helpful as it is a global damage mitigation for your group - especially important when your enemies have AoE abilities that may catch squishier targets. \n \n* **Mana Pins**: Exposed -\u003e Susceptible Mind\n\nAt level [XX](#), the Summoner learns the \"Mana Pins\" technique that will place a [Susceptible Mind](#) status on a enemy with the [Exposed](#) debuff. This reduces all of their Resistances by 20% - functionally increasing you, and your group's magical damage. \n\n* **Arcane Rod**: Off-Balance -\u003e Vulnerable\n\nAt level 16, the Summoner learns the \"Arcane Rod\" technique that will place a [Vulnerable](#) status on a enemy with the [Off-Balance](#) debuff. This will increase the magical damage that the target receives by 15%. If you have a primarily magic-damage-dealing group, this is a great option. \n\n## Which Race do I pick?\n\n\u003e **Please note!**\n\u003e\n\u003e Racial abilities are **not implemented** at the time of\n\u003e this writing. It will still be important to consider your racial bonuses\n\u003e since they will be implemented in the near future.\n\nSummoners can be played as either Archai, Dark Myr, Elf, Gnome, and Human. Choosing a race is always a matter of preference for aesthetic and flavor OR for their raw class effectiveness. Once all races have been released and/or racial abilities have been implemented, I'll review the options and offer some insight on how effective each race is as a Summoner.\n\n## Feedback?\n\nI hope you find this guide useful and would love any feedback in the comments.\nI plan on building some level guides as I get time in game but please ask any\nquestions you have and I'll address them. Thanks!\n"