[1.0.1] Joe's Pet Shop, the Thalore Summoner Winner!

[otterpaw]

http://te4.org/characters/21693/tome/7a ... be189cac7f

This is actually my first win, and to have this character get the win was sort of an accident. I was trying to unlock oozemancers and was in a bit of a slump getting things to level 30, so I went back to my trusty old summoner. I picked thalore because they have a 100% chance of the oozemancer event. Thalore turned out awesome for me because the racial resists make the anti-magic tree amazing.

I am sad to say that I died several times, but those were in my rush to unlock oozemancer. After 30 my only death was in the last fight (due to me mismanaging my regen).

For attributes, I buffed will and con equally up to ~30 (for the third summon on cunning). After that, I dropped 2 points in will and 1 in con at every level, adding 2 if will was at its max. Three summons were definitely enough for the earlygame, and the constitution proved to be very important midgame. Endgame I dropped points into dex after my 3 main stats were maxed to get some bonus defense and ranged defense.

I put my first cat point in summoning advanced for master summoner + grand arrival. My second went to summoing augmentation for resiliance (and rage + detonate are nice things to do while you sit and wait for your summons to kill things). My third cat point bought an infusion slot. My fourth cat point upgraded summoning melee.

My build revolved around the core Hydra + Minotaur + Dragon (and 1 point in turtle). I maxed the hydra early, it makes short work of anything you come up against and the other summons can easily bide time for the hydra cd to reset. Its tricky figuring out the positioning you need to get the hydra to actually fire (it will refuse to friendly fire), but the hydra demolishes once you get used to it. The minotaur came second. It has the best damage of the melee summons and has confusion. Confusion lets you get so many free turns against bosses its not even funny. The dragon just adds to that. The dragon's aoe is just ridiculous. gigantic confusion-damage blast followed by fire breath + fire DoT killed stacks of mobs up through high peak. The small dragons that came with Grand Arrival served as a great meatshield as I sat in the back waiting for a second iteration to come up.

After my core I went straight for the support trees. I maxed out master summoner and grand arrival followed by resilience (and 1 in phase summon), then wild summoning + frantic summon (a stupid combo for setup), and then nature's cycle (which can be bumped later if you wish). After that I picked up golem to provide more meat shield for my minotaur and war dog because its awesome grand arrival effect had me summoning it every time I dropped a minotaur. I dropped some points in flamespitter at 50 to add a bit more dps

Anti magic was super important for me. The combination of my racial resists and antimagic shield (which breaks dependent on spell save) meant that casters did virtually no damage. My massive summon bodies alongside phase summon meant that no melee creatures could reach me. If they could, good luck getting through 1k health and high armor and defense. I scaled nature's touch as I got more health. Mana clash was awesome for almost all lategame fights where mages turned up everywhere. It incapacitates them and gives you a nice damage ray (something to do while you sit and wait for your summons to kill things!).

Elemental harmony is also great. Only take it if you have good equilibrium, though. Master summoner, AM shield, and elemental harmony puts you at 70 base equilibrium. However, the 44% speed boost, +stats, and +resists make it very appetizing.

equipment:
I wanted stats and actives. Stats because my summons directly used my stats and actives because free abilities. My footgear had an amazing active that kept me wearing it from 32-50. Guidance gave me awesome saves, will, and cun. Everything else followed the same idea.

I'm sorry if I mess with my equipment. I'm a hoarder, so I transition all my uniques onto a pack-mule character (hence the use of the vault). Here's a quick copy-paste of what I had as of the final fight:
On feet Wanderer's Rest (4 def, 0 armour)
Light source Guidance
On head Crown of Command (3 def, 6 armour)
On hands sand rough leather gloves of strength (+3) (0 def, 6 armour)
Tool The Guardian's Totem
On fingers solipsist's steel ring of misery
On fingers solipsist's stralite ring
Around neck serendipitous voratun amulet of healing
In main hand Bloomsoul (8-8.8 power, 13 apr, nature damage)
Around waist drakeskin leather belt 'Lisywyn'
In off hand gifted living mindstar of life (17-18.7 power, 40 apr, nature damage)
Cloak Serpentine Cloak (10 def, 0 armour)
Main armor Breath of Eyal (10 def, 10 armour)

Prodegies:
Draconic Body and Spell Feedback are pretty typical for defensive Wilders.

How I fight (post-grand arrival):
1 enemy:
a- drop drake, wait until either the enemy or the hydra dies, drop a melee or another hydra
b- drop minotaur. Drop war dog to lower physical resists of the enemy (often to negatives). Laugh as he crits for literally 1000's of damage.
multiple enemies:
a- drop hydra. If hydra dies, drop drake.
b- spam drakes whenever possible and swarm with fire
boss:
frantic summon, wild summon, surround with war dog, minotaur, golem, drake (in that order). Buff stuff and use turtle aoe heals. Rage and detonate if you want to feel like you're doing work.

How to beat the dragon room in vor armory:
1 - get something that lets you move away FAST (my boots on this summoner).
2- gtfo and pray that less than 4 wyverns follow
3 - spam literally every summon you have as you run away (even if you don't have many points in them, the summons distract the dragons from damaging you).
4 - repeat until all dragons are gone
some dragons may be sitting in the corners of the room closest to the entrance. If this happens, you have to go in to get aggro because you can't summon across the doorway.