Why the Summoner class is terrible

Outside of the pirate staff being incredibly wonky, summoner was my favorite 1.3 legit play through completed as it offered the most challenge (dodge or die, pretty much). Still little quirks I'd like to see some attention on though (the gap in gear progression made things rough around plantera, but still doable).
As you say dodge or die.
 
Ironically that pretty much IS pure summoner, or at least the only way to validly play it at least.

If you're going all summoner accessories the only way to do it is to have friends of other class types to hang out with. PURE pure summoner is a multiplayer class only.

Interesting. I have soloed Pillars and Moon Lord with my pure summoner for about 20 times, and only died twice. I did use some cheesy tactics for ML itself though.

And after 1.3.0.6 buff, I can legit take ML down standing still with Stardust Dragon before it kills me. It's close, but it works 4 out of 5 times.
 
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Interesting. I have soloed Pillars and Moon Lord with my pure summoner for about 20 times, and only died twice. I did use some cheesy tactics for ML itself though.

And after 1.3.0.6 buff, I can legit take ML down standing still with Stardust Dragon before it kills me. It's close, but it works 4 out of 5 times.
Vids or it didn't happen.

... also that sounds awesome and I just wanna see it anyway. lol
 
Vids or it didn't happen.

... also that sounds awesome and I just wanna see it anyway. lol

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This is my arena for Pillars. It could be hard at first, but turns into faceroll once get all banners.

Equipments:
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Minion: 5 for stardust cells, 3 for stardust dragon.

General tips:
1. if you have Lunar Potral or Rainbow Staff, put it above your head.
2. If you have stardust armor set, put Guardian on either end of the screen.
3. Turn auto pause on.
4. When low on health, swap wings for Shiny Stone to regenerate.
5. With ranged weapon like SDMG or megashark, you can shoot the pillars from inside the hideout, even when they are far far away. Adjust shooting angle slowly, when you actually hit the pillar, there will be a sudden rise of dps.

Tip for Vortex Pillar:
1. Stand on the top platform. Strangely it will make Alien Hornets spawn less on your head.
I know few about Vortex Pillar enemies, because they seldomly have any chance to hit me before they die.

Tip for Stardust Pillar:
1. Pay attention to Flow invaders when they die. If they get too close, their minions might hit you from above and it really hurts. You can put some blocks one top of the platforms and turn them off by actuators when not needed.
2. If Milkway Weavers get too close, use any ranged weapon to shoot them to death(since there isn't any hole underground, they can only spawn on the flat surface).

Tips for Nebula Pillar:
1. Floaters will most likely die as soon as they teleport on top of you, especially if you have Lunar Potral or Rainbow Staff.
2. Evolution Beasts can only approach you from one side (thanks to Stardust Guardian on the other side), so keep shooting Uzi/megashark/SDMG with infinite ammo parallel to the ground.
3. If you don't have Stardust Armor, a deep hole might be able to stop Evolution Beasts. They follow Unicorn AI and seem never to shoot those homing balls when off screen. Use actuators to create these holes so you can turn them off at will.

Tips for Solar Pillar:
1. Sometimes a few Corites can hit you. That is 10 to 30 damage with banner. You cam use Solar Eruption to finish them, or simply use Shiny Stone to out-regen the damage.

That's how I solo the Lunar event. If you really want a vid, I guess I can learn to make one. Maybe you can recommend some recording program to save me some time searching.
 
I've always thought that the summoner should do more than just "Summon :red: to fight for ya". In fight, you can't do anything but use other weapons and turret minions.
I believe there should be minions that do something else than attacking, for exemple protecting/healing/blocking/buffing, it would be nice if as a summoner you could actually use summoner items during a fight instead of waiting for your minions to do the stuff while you fight with other class weapons.
But the more I think about it the more I see the Summoner Class as the "afk farm class". The Stardust Dragon is excellent at that, you can farm for days anywhere.
 
I've always thought that the summoner should do more than just "Summon :red: to fight for ya". In fight, you can't do anything but use other weapons and turret minions.
I believe there should be minions that do something else than attacking, for exemple protecting/healing/blocking/buffing, it would be nice if as a summoner you could actually use summoner items during a fight instead of waiting for your minions to do the stuff while you fight with other class weapons.
But the more I think about it the more I see the Summoner Class as the "afk farm class". The Stardust Dragon is excellent at that, you can farm for days anywhere.
yea, you are right. i as summoner use and prefer seedler (while my friend uses terra blade) only moment where i go "pure summoner" is when Martian Madness is happening, then i just go in my house cuz i die like crazy when fighting Martian Saucer in his 2nd phase, and he is spawning one after another in 20 sec pauses. and while i go afk my twins (now martian UFO minions) obliterate that mini-boss. I lose hp only when being near upper corner and he`s firing rockets.
 
"Pure summoner" does not exist, nor will it ever, really.

Refusing to use sub weapons is intentionally gimping yourself for the sake of obsessive compulsion, and balance suggestions based around player created limitations don't work for obvious reasons. If you power up summons so that they compete with other classes just by themselves, then those that sub weapon with it start to dip to overpowered.
 
"Pure summoner" does not exist, nor will it ever, really.

Refusing to use sub weapons is intentionally gimping yourself for the sake of obsessive compulsion, and balance suggestions based around player created limitations don't work for obvious reasons. If you power up summons so that they compete with other classes just by themselves, then those that sub weapon with it start to dip to overpowered.
It's not about buffing the minions, it's about giving the summoner more stuff.
 
It's not about buffing the minions, it's about giving the summoner more stuff.

But then you have the opposite problem. It messes with the other classes. What's to stop the melee guy from summoning the health minion? Maybe the Ranger summons the one that protects him somehow. It works both ways, really, if you give the summoner stuff, everyone benefits and gets stronger as a result. Meanwhile, the summoner DOES have more stuff in that it's a jack of all the other trades. Vampire knives function as the health restore "minion" to work with their army. Nothing stops a summoner from wearing the frozen turtle shell to tank longer either, while throwing out magnet spheres to knock all those Solar Eclipse mobs away.
 
"Pure summoner" does not exist, nor will it ever, really.

Refusing to use sub weapons is intentionally gimping yourself for the sake of obsessive compulsion, and balance suggestions based around player created limitations don't work for obvious reasons. If you power up summons so that they compete with other classes just by themselves, then those that sub weapon with it start to dip to overpowered.

You could just as easily say that pure melee, ranged, and magic don't exist since all of them can easily use three minions (with potion/bewitching table) and all four of the stationary turret mobs, without losing out on any of their other stats. Many choose not to because it's a hassle.

The damage from three minions and three of the stationary turrets isn't inconsiderable, either, even with no summoner damage bonuses. Actually, Celestial Stone/Shell and Well Fed buffs, which nearly everyone uses, provide halfway-decent minion bonuses themselves altogether.
 
in my opinion, the worst summoner problem is the horrible armor(and the stupidly rare slime staff). summoners are little monster punchbags. the first hardmode summoner armor gives the same defense as platinum. that sucks. not to mention having to fight plantera with that awful armor, then fight the pumpkin moon with the equivalent defense of mythril armor.
 
You could just as easily say that pure melee, ranged, and magic don't exist since all of them can easily use three minions (with potion/bewitching table) and all four of the stationary turret mobs, without losing out any of their other stats. Many choose not to because it's a hassle.

The damage from three minions and three of the stationary turrets isn't inconsiderable, either, even with no summoner damage bonuses. Actually, Celestial Stone/Shell which nearly everyone uses provide halfway-decent minion bonuses themselves.

This is... debatable. Unboosted minions are actually pretty garbage, especially the ones that do touch damage. They pierce, which means invuln frames on the enemy, which means your REAL damage is getting eaten up. You may very well not want them, although it is true that all classes get at LEAST one minion if they want. This, however, does not invalidate Summoner as a playstyle or necessarily significantly buff others.

That's the difference. Minions with special effects are just accessories under a new name. Anyone can have their portable nurse, anyone could have the tanky minion. Pure summoners get hurt even MORE in this case because everyone else uses their own toys better than they can.
 

Here is a vid of endgame summoner soloing 1.3.0.6 Lunar Event. Sorry for the poor quality, and sorry for the cheesy tactics when fighting Moon Lord. I just don't quite feel like making all that lot of potions for a legit fight...
 
This is... debatable. Unboosted minions are actually pretty garbage, especially the ones that do touch damage. They pierce, which means invuln frames on the enemy, which means your REAL damage is getting eaten up. You may very well not want them, although it is true that all classes get at LEAST one minion if they want. This, however, does not invalidate Summoner as a playstyle or necessarily significantly buff others.

That's the difference. Minions with special effects are just accessories under a new name. Anyone can have their portable nurse, anyone could have the tanky minion. Pure summoners get hurt even MORE in this case because everyone else uses their own toys better than they can.
I feel as if summoner is so different from the others there's a whole spectrum you could have. You might just have your Stardust Dragon and be done with it; you might actually devote an accessory to buffing your minions; you might even use Summoner armor but have standard combat gear (no idea why you'd do that). Feels like a utility that only endgame was supposed to have when it was first introduced.
 
@General Milky
Three-segmented Stardust Dragon with no Summoner-specific items rips through "normal" Expert Hardmode enemies like tissue paper, and goes through all blocks to boot. That's pretty helpful.

Interestingly, I was able to defeat Expert Moon Lord significantly more quickly as a melee/summoner hybrid (Solar Flare armor, but also three Summoner-specific accessories) than I was as pure melee.
 
@General Milky
Three-segmented Stardust Dragon with no Summoner-specific items rips through "normal" Expert Hardmode enemies like tissue paper, and goes through all blocks to boot. That's pretty helpful.
Which aren't even its tier level. How well does it rip through the Moon Lord, or even pillar enemies? Not too amazingly (though not badly), especially if there are a lot of them. And they're all headed straight at you.
 
It isn't going to kill the moon lord for them, though. Besides, a real summoner with real summon armor is going to have the same luxury but 4 times as good. In much the same way that any class throwing daybreaks at "normal" hardmode monsters are also going to crush them.
 
I had a set of plans that I scrapped a while back. It was to give summoners a primary weapon that benefited from their stat boosts.

My idea was a thing made with demonite and whatnot. You fire critters as ammo and a corrupt version is launched out as a minion. These minions however die in one hit however they have a 80% chance not to be struck and gain a brief period of invincibility. I always prefer to make a tank out of myself anyway, with Scarecrows suggestion that might get me to change my play style.
 
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