Ritualist/Summoner help please

[Sukeena]

Being new to this game it's all a bit confusing to me. I have started a few characters to get the feel of the game, but I would like a good build to follow. I'm interested in either a Ritualist or a Summoner.

I have found the complete builds in Irma2's post "Mainstream TitanCalc class compendium" but I need to know how to build them. Which mastery do I start with, what order do I need to add to the masteries, which stats should I boost and what stats should I look for in the gear I wear?

I like the idea of a caster (using a staff) supported by pets, preferably being able to heal myself or my pets as necessary.

Any help welcomed. I'm open to suggestions for either build and/or opinions on which build would suit me best. Thanks for reading.

[Irma2]

It's difficult to give advice on a petmaster build as some find the pets quite effective through Normal, others prefer to take them only in Epic. As I belong to the latter group, I'll base my advice on that.

Firstly, a word about the two classes. Ritualist is, along with Soothsayer, the most powerful petmaster class in the game. Summoner is also an effective petmaster but has the extra insurance that you can do good damage yourself, so the pets aren't quite as central as they are to Ritualist/Soothie.

My advice for Ritualist would be:

1) Take Dream first. Put your first few points into the Dream mastery, Psionic Touch (1 point) and Distortion Wave (6-7 points total should be enough). To get up to that level, put one point into DW each level and the other two into Dream. When you reach level 24 in Dream, you should be at or close to Delphi. Use the Mystic to buy all but one of your points in Distortion Wave back, and put all those points into Psionic Immolation. This will be your killing skill for the rest of Normal. So max it as soon as you can.
2) Put your attribute points 1:1 into Int and Dex. When you reach 174 Dex, you can stop putting points into it and focus purely on Int.
3) Look for armour items that add +% Intelligence, +% Movement Speed, +% Health, +% Energy and whatever resistances you feel you need.
4) Once you have reached level 24 in Dream and have Psionic Immolation at a good level, start with the Nature mastery. Get a point into Heart of Oak right away and then climb up the mastery tree so that you can unlock the top skill in the Plague tree. By the end of Normal, the ideal would be to have both Dream and Nature masteries maxed, Psionic Immolation maxed, maybe 5-6 points in Trance of Convalescence and as many points in the Plague tree as you can. It's important to max the base skill of Plague first as this is what gives you the maximum duration. If you can afford the points, try to put one point in each of the Nightmare's skills and one point in each of the Wolf skills before leaving Normal. That way, you'll be able to summon them from the get-go in Epic. Most of early Epic will be spent on building up the pets.
5) Play style is to cast Plague on mobs. They'll be slowed and weakened as they rush you, allowing you to finish them off with a well-aimed DW/Psionic Immolation. For bosses, use the same technique coupled with shots from your staff.

For Summoner, my advice would be:

1) Take Earth first. Get a point each into Heat Shield, Volcanic Orb/Fragmentation, Earth Enchantment and Stone Form as you rush up the Earth tree. You want to get Eruption as soon as possible. The moment you get Eruption, put one point per level into it until it's maxed. It is your main killing skill in Normal. You will also want to add a point periodically into Earth Enchantment.
2) Attributes are the same as for Ritualist. 1:1 Int and Dex until you reach 174 Dex, then everything into Int. Also put some points into Health if you are feeling too fragile.
3) Armour is the same as for Ritualist, except that you can add +% Fire Damage to the list of bonuses that you want.
4) Once you have reached Eruption, you can start on Nature. This is exactly the same as for Ritualist. You want to max the mastery and the Plague tree in Normal, with just one point in Heart of Oak. You can start the Wolves and Core Dweller at the end of Normal, so that you have one point in their skills and can cast them immediately at the start of Epic. Again, early Epic will be spent on building up the pets. For both Ritualist and Summoner, it's also worth putting one point into each of the Nymph skills and casting her too.
5) Play style is much the same as Ritualist. Cast Plague on mobs, use Volcanic Orb to stun them, and cast Eruptions under them (ranged enemies) or halfway between you and them for melee enemies, so that they have to run through the Eruption radius to reach you. Eruption is a superb killer in Normal, you shouldn't need much else. You may, however, need slowing on your staff shots. Ritualist gets Distortion Wave to slow enemies, Summoner doesn't. So you have to find a different way to control mobs. If you socket relics with +33% Slower Attack as completion bonus, then your staff shots can be very effective at slowing down monster attacks and helping you to avoid damage.

This is just my way of taking these classes through Normal, there are many other ways. But I can assure you that, played properly, these ways work. My Ritualist was one of my very fastest toons through Normal and my Summoner had the highest DPS at end Normal of all my toons. Both have very good killing power and are relatively safe builds that can avoid most damage.

[Sukeena]

Thank you so much Irma2! I have read quite a few of your posts and I'm very impressed with your knowledge and the way you cover topics so expertly.

I will probably try both builds eventually, but to start with I will go with the Ritualist and see how I get on.

[Tyr]

Nice starting picks. The Ritualist and Summoner classes both have a very powerful nuke that can get them through most of normal easily. Irma2's post pretty much summed up the important parts nicely, so just a few extra hints:

-download the fanpatch if you plan on using the nymph.
-the summoner does have a panic button in Stone Form, but using the skill renders you immobile (ie. can backfire spectacularly, use with care).
-you can also use pet damage staves/jewelry to boost your damage (Beastcaller's/Spiritcaller's/Summoner's/Invoker's/Ritualist's and "of Convocation").
-summoners can use Refresh to double-cast nukes like Eruption or use Stone Form asap (Ritualists may not find this skill as useful until much later on).
-stores can sell "Hallowed" headgear and "Divine" amulets in act 3, these can be useful if you need the extra +skills

[Sukeena]

Thanks Tyr. I have a couple of Beastcaller bits and pieces stashed away ready for her and I've seen the nymph ability so I presume I already have the fanpatch... I only recently bought TQ (Gold Edition) and it said it had all patches included, so I hope that's the case.

[Tyr]

Those should be useful once you get your pets. Np.

About the fanpatch, Ironlore went out of business before the developers could get rid of every bug/glitch in the game and the fanpatch is an attempt to fix that. You'll need to download it manually from here (link to fanpatch page here in the forums). The fanpatch is, for all intents and purposes, a bugfix patch - only glaringly obvious glitches are tampered with and nothing else (for example, one or two Spirit and Warfare skills do absolutely nothing without the fanpatch). The fanpatch also gets rid of the slow-cast bug. As far as the fanpatch is concerned, if a skill works then it's left alone - regardless of how little damage it actually does or whatever.

The fanpatch may be useful to you since the nymph is unaffected by +pet damage items without it. Would be a shame, since you'll be getting her late.

[Sukeena]

I downloaded and installed the patch and hopefully it will work.

Links #2 and #3 were both "file not found" and I don't have a RapidShare account so I was starting to worry as I went down the list, but #5 worked fine. #6 looks ok too.

Thanks a lot for your help Tyr

[Irma2]

If I can add another general tip, learn to Shift-cast as soon as possible. The way the game works is that if you click your mouse button on a mob to attack them, the toon will move forward until it is in range of whatever skill you clicked and then cast it. This should be the maximum range for the skill but it isn't, it falls some way short of maximum for most skills. If you hold down Shift when clicking, the toon will stand still and cast the spell/skill. This allows you to get a lot more range on the skill. For Summoner particularly, this is important. Volcanic Orb and Eruption don't have any range limit, they can reach anything that you can see on the screen no matter how far away it is. But only if you Shift-cast. So you can nuke mobs from a long way away using this technique. It gives you more time to kill them before they close the distance to you. And, for casters especially, time and distance are your friends.

Ritualist has a couple more tricks up its sleeve but it's difficult to find enough points in Normal for all of them. An alternative to the Plague & Distortion Wave routine is the Sands of Sleep & Distort Reality/Temporal Rift trick. This involves putting mobs to sleep from a distance, running into their midst while they slumber, and nuking them with DR/TR. Like Psionic Immolation, DR/TR drops most mobs with one click in Normal so it's very effective at clearing out areas quickly and rushing through Normal in order to get your powerful pets in Epic.

I have made videos of both the DW/PI and the Sleep & DR/TR techniques. Have a look and see which of the two appeals more to you.

Sleep & DR/TR. As this is a melee Ritualist, I'm also using Phantom Strike which a caster can't use. But the idea is the same: Shift-cast Sands of Sleep from a distance to disable the mob, run into their midst and drop DR/TR to nuke them, clean up what's left with your staff. This is a melee toon so I focused on Str rather than Int, meaning that my DR/TR does less damage. DR/TR was also at quite a low level, so tougher mobs were able to survive it. For an Int toon, one cast of DR with maxed TR will drop any mob in Normal.

Psionic Immolation. This is only Act II Normal but it's also only level 4 or 5 Psionic Immolation. When you get it up to level 12, it drops the vast majority of mobs even in Act IV, especially if you have boosted Int. If you cast Plague on mobs before using DW/PI, you'll drop them even quicker. Note that this toon had a little bit of -% recharge on gear, which allowed her to spam DW/PI quite quickly. The standard recharge on the skill is a bit longer but still easily short enough that you can use it as a primary killing skill.

When you get to Summoner, there's also a technique which combines VO and Eruption. The VO stuns monsters, keeping them in Eruption's radius to kill them. It's very handy for Earth casters who want to get through Normal without pet tanks. Eruption is devastating but people often complain that monsters just run out of its radius without taking much damage. This is a way to keep them in the radius for longer.

[Medea Fleecestealer]

Tyr's also made a good guide for a Wanderer (Nautre only) character which is the Classes section of the forum under Nature. It'll give you a good idea of how pets can work for you and where they begin to need more support from you. I'm not a good pet player, but it's really helped me to understand how to get the best out of them. There's also info on what equipment to look for and how to turn your Wanderer into a Summoner. As he says there are petmancer staves out there, mostly they are yellow ones, but you can find greens as well.

Whichever builds you try, there's good advice you've been given here. After all, Irma2 is an Olympian God and he didn't get that title for nothing.

[Irma2]

Thank you, Medea.