Pretty generic thalore summoner unsure what to do

[moonpie]

So this is by far my most successful character to date and I am now scared that I might do something dumb and end up dead. That's why I have a few questions about the future run of my summoner :

1. Should I grind a few more dungeons before continuing the main story, or reverse ?
2. I still have one category point, in what should I invest it ?
3. Which class/generic talents should I invest in, or which ones should be avoided ?
4. Is my gear alright, should I prioritize other stats or watch out for specific uniques ?
5. Did I make the right choices for escort rewards (regarding my character build) ?

I am aware that my character is in adventure mode, I would like to achieve a zero death run by any means though :3

[Majestix]

Personally, I found Summon Control to be really good (I was playing on Insane Roguelike though). Put your character in a corner somewhere, where he will not encounter any enemies, and go round any corner with your hound. This way, there can be almost no unpleasant surprises.

Re dungeons: I would always do all tier 1 and all tier 2 dungeons. The rest is to taste and depends on difficulty level.

With your category point, you could either unlock Summoning Augmentation and start investing in Rage and Resilience, or get yourself another Shielding Rune or Wild Infusion. Up to you, really.

[moonpie]

How hard does summon control scale into the later levels ? Is it even worth to continue spending stat points on cunning or should I focus on willpower instead to buff my creatures ?

[OrionJAnderson]

Willpower and Cunning both add to Mindpower, and thus increase the stats on your summons. Willpower adds twice as much, but Cunning helps. It will also improve Evasion and Piercing Sight. Critical chance is mostly useless for you, but I believe Nature's Touch can heal. Also, in the endgame, it's possible to have very high numbers of summons in play with Master Summoner and optionally Nature's Balance.

Max Willpower first, but you should probably max Cunning second.

[moonpie]

What do you mean by maxing a certain stat ? Is the amount of invested stat points limited ?

[Micbran]

Yes, by 60, or something like that. Once you put that many into it (not stat boosts from items, stat boosts from level ups) then you can't put any more.

[cksiu]

Just my 2 cents, I've found Summoning Augmentation to be a pretty underwhelming category. It scales terribly and only has 1 good talent (detonate), the 4th talent is somewhat situational.

Another thing about summoners in mid-end game you might not know, the summons scale slightly better than most talents. Most talents scale to the power of 0.5 (square root), and summoners' scale to 0.75 so I think spending a category point on Summoning (Distance) is really good.

[OrionJAnderson]

I've always liked detonate, but it's true that you may be able to find a better use for the cat point.