What order to pump my Summoner's skills?

[WrathTalon]

Hiya folks,

My Summoner (PvM, HardCore, plays in small parties) is currently at level 30. So far he's put points in the following:

5 Raven (I love them for their blinding)
5 Spirit Wolves
7 Dire Wolves
7 HoW
1 Grizzly
1 each in WereBear, Maul, and ShockWave (for crowd control).

Still in Normal, so running a Prayer Merc. Will upgrade to Might when I hit NM...

My question: what should I pump next, and in what order? Would it be more effective for me to continue pumping Dire Wolves next? Or should I start pumping Grizzly instead? Or concentrate on HoW? Or raise them all up evenly?

Since each point in a summon after the first provides a 5% Resist All benefit to that creature only (capped at 85% at level 18), I've assumed that it would probably be better to concentrate on first maxing a single type of summons to get critters with high resists, rather than splitting points evenly between Dire Wolves and Grizzly and having only mediocre resists for both. But maybe this isn't the way to go?

Any thoughts appreciated.

[Osmium]

in order,i think grizzly,dire bear,how,one of the creepers,and one of the spells(high level spells like tornado or fissure maybe.......)........

[Ed from Russia]

Definitely start with maxing Grizzly and then Dire Wolf. After that you have lots of options. But since this is about 30 lvls away, by then you may have an idea whether you want to continue pure summoner (and probably work on your spirit) or add elemental.

[WrathTalon]

Thanks guys. Since you both recommend pumping Grizzly first, followed by Dire Wolves, that's what I'll do.

I'm curious: do you max Grizzly first because you actually use him most of the time? Or is it for the passive damage bonus he gives the wolves?

[Bladewind]

Its the passive damage bonus to the wolves that counts. Also its huge damage for the bear which lets it hurt those annoyingly super uniques.

Also this common sense applies, a harder hitter low hp bear will kill a monster faster than a high hp bear with low damage.

Lastly pure summon is nice to play, if you can break PIs. That almost make reaper's toll a requirement. I think a lifetap wand can be handy for the minions and merc as well, if the monster in question deals alot of damage.

[Osmium]

reaper's tool can be the mercs weapon...oh and i recomend also a spell.....because you will have 4 maxen summons and i don't think ravens deserve to be maxed..........