Summonmancer Aura Questions

[Griphus]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to find some information on auras (and a little less information on skills) for a summonmancer.

I've read all the strategy builds, and I used to play (up to 1.09) very seriously, but the game has changed A LOT since then.

Does Iron Golem's thorns aura work on my skeletons, or just the iron golem? If it affects my summons, does the iron golem's aura stack with the A2 thorns aura?

Back in the day, the Prayer merc was unarguably the one to use for summonmancers. Reading now, it sounds like that is not the case. Most people use Might now, or Defiance? Has anyone had a better experience with one over the other?

Is using Beast considered better than Arm of Leoric these days (that seems like a lot of skill loss...)? What about creating an Iron Golem out of it?

Skill-wise, how many points does one need in summon resist for skellies to survive in Hell? Looking at the diminishing returns, putting more than 5 into it doesn't seem like it pays off too much.

Right now I'm looking at the following as a rough outline (to be tweaked based on your feedback):

1 teeth
X corpse explosion (1-10 based on how Iron Golem's auras work)

1 amp
1 iron maiden
1 life tap

1 clay golem
1 golem mastery
1 blood golem
5 summon resist
20 skeleton mastery
20 skeleton summon
20 skeleton mage
X Iron golem

How would you guys tweak this? Do you have any other input? I think once I understand the mechanics of the auras I'll have a much clearer idea of how I want to move forward.

Thanks!
Griphus

[DeathSpawn]

Does Iron Golem's thorns aura work on my skeletons, or just the iron golem?
just on golem

Back in the day, the Prayer merc was unarguably the one to use for summonmancers. Reading now, it sounds like that is not the case. Most people use Might now, or Defiance? Has anyone had a better experience with one over the other?
defiance is useless imo

Is using Beast considered better than Arm of Leoric these days (that seems like a lot of skill loss...)? What about creating an Iron Golem out of it?



equip beast+homo as primary weapons and switch to leoric+spirit/+3 summon head as second weapons and only use them when summoning. make iron golem from insight or if you're rich make it from pride.

Skill-wise, how many points does one need in summon resist for skellies to survive in Hell? Looking at the diminishing returns, putting more than 5 into it doesn't seem like it pays off too much.
1 point is enough


Right now I'm looking at the following as a rough outline (to be tweaked based on your feedback):


my build has:
20 skeleton mastery
20 skeleton summon
20 skeleton mage
20 golem mastery
1 summon resist
1 clay golem
1 blood golem
1 iron golem
1 revive

1 amp
1 weaken
1 terror
1 decrep

1 teeth
X to corpse explosion

some people choose to max CE instead of golem mastery. i can do everything in game, ubers included

[CloudStrife]

Hm..well if you want to make a insight golem like Deathspawn did then max out the mastry. If you want to have a lot of killing power max CE. It all depends on what you want. Dont put more then 1 point in Golem. Sorry to say but it dont help that much. Arua works only on goelm. And heres something you mite not of knowen. If you want lots of damage use a act 2 mite merc with Pride wepon. But if you max CE then use a infinty because not only does it help skellys hit, it helps CE tons. With amped monsters it will tear through monsters. But it all depends on what you want to do.

[Griphus]

Great, thank you for your help - I think I have a better idea where to go now.

[HCKull]

Quote:
Does Iron Golem's thorns aura work on my skeletons, or just the iron golem?

just on golem


The thorns aura applies to all skels that are in range of the golem's aura. So it does work for you skels most of the time. However, thorns aura is not very effective most of the time as your skels generally dont take much melee damage.

[HCKull]

Many people make an iron golum from an insight polearm so they can have their merc carry a more effective polearm like as infinity. They generally max golem mastery so their golem does not die frequently.

[kykle]

for ubers i suggest clay golem instead of iron.. you wont need too much mana regen as a summoner, and the golem + decrep will slow ubers to a crawl