Summoner Build Guide - Titan Quest
Skill Trees: Earth and Nature
Primary Skills: Eruption, Volcanic Orb, Summon Core Dweller, Call of the Wild, Plague, Refresh, Sylvan Nymph
Important Stats: -Recharge, +Skills, % Increase Physical or Fire damage and Physical + Pierce Resistance
Attributes: Strength and Dexterity to use a shield and wear Stonebinder's Cuffs then focus into Intelligence
The Summoner build in Titan Quest is one of the worst pet builds in the game despite what the name implies. In my honest opinion you really have to struggle in order to make this build effective for most areas of the game, you'll also have to swap gear to make sure you have the appropriate resists for some boss fights.
An upside to what I previously said is this build will be able to easily farm The Secret Passage, one of the most difficult areas in the game due to the Eruption Skill. This ability can be cast on the opposite side of a wall where you have no Line of Sight unlike most abilities in the game. That allows you to 'cheese' this entire dungeon.
For gearing this character you will want to focus heavily on -Recharge gear and gear that gives you +Skills. You're going to need at least 30 - 50% Recharge and I would recommend +4 to Skills although a little bit more would be nice since this is a very heavy Skill Point build.
Aside from +Skills and -Recharge you'll want to grab any gear that gives you flat % increases to Physical or Fire damage. When it comes to defensive resists you will want to focus mostly on Physical and Piercing Resistances followed by Vitality. Elemental Resists are slightly less important and you can always swap to them for parts of the game that are challenging.
Tip: Set all of your pets to Aggressive to increase their damage output. You'll need to do this each time they die though which makes it a bit of a pain in the butt.
Summoners are another build that will have wacky Attribute Point spending as you level up. For the most part you are going to want to put your points into Strength and Dexterity so that you can use a Shield and Stonebinder's Cuffs. Strength is going to give you a flat damage increase since both Volcanic Orb and Eruption do some Physical Damage; which is nice because it means the points aren't entirely wasted on just wearing gear. Intelligence will boost the Fire damage of these spells as well which will give you a nice balance of two different damage types.
Now, for playing a Summoner. Typically you will open up most fights by casting Plague on the enemies as they run towards you, followed by an Eruption ontop of yourself which will deal heavy damage to all melee enemies that whack you. If your gear is lackluster or you don't have much Physical Resistance then you'll typically want to drop a Briar Ward on the ground or go into Stone Form as you let your pets take care of the enemies.
If you're fighting ranged enemies, Eruption where they are standing to deal heavy damage to them and chuck Volcanic Orbs at them from a distance. Try to make sure all enemies are under the effects of Plague as that will make them take much more damage.
Refresh is a useful ability that will allow you to drop multiple Eruptions at a time or use an ability like Briar Ward on every pack of enemies. It's worth noting that you can drop two Eruptions right on top of each other and enemies will take damage from both.
(Earth) Earth Enchantment: A nice buff that increases your Fire and Physical Damage. Get it as well as the two passives that come with it. Stone Skin is less important of a passive than Brimstone but still more useful than it looks. Allegedly the Armor buff it gives applies once per piece of armor you have with an armor value.
(Earth) Heat Shield: You'll be using this moreso for the Physical Resistance it gives while active than anything else. If you can remember to keep this short duration buff active on you at all times you'll benefit from 15% Physical Resistance at all times. You can use Refresh and cast it on your pets too.
(Earth) Summon Core Dweller: This is Earth's primary pet. 6 - 10 Skill Points is really all you need in the Skill but you can max it if you want. 1 Skill Point per passive except for Metamorphosis which you'll want to max out.
(Earth) Volcanic Orb: I typically make this ability my Left Click attack, although Eruption would work too. Volcanic Orb is a high damage ability which does both Physical and Fire damage as well as stuns any enemy hit by it. You'll want to max this ability as well as the two passives that come with it.
(Earth) Eruption: Can be your Left or Right Click ability; or bound to one of your other important buttons. Much like Volcanic Orb this is going to be one of the two main damage abilities you use with this build. This ability is great for throwing at Archers who are long distance or dropping ontop of yourself to destroy any enemies within melee range.
(Earth - Optional) Stone Form: Your first optional Earth ability. Many people like this ability for hard parts of the game. Run into a pack of mobs, drop Eruption ontop of yourself then go into Stone Form and let your pets do the work. It works as an "Oh Shit" button when you're low on health too because you can still use Potions in Stone Form.
(Earth - Optional) Ring of Flame + Passive: If you have a lot of Energy Regeneration on your gear and/or find yourself almost never running out of Mana I recommend you grab this ability and its passive. The passive will reduce the Offensive Ability of enemies as well as their armor causing them to take more damage from you and your pets and deal less damage to you.
(Earth - Optional) Fire Nova: Another one of the optional abilities with this build. It does good damage but more importantly it puts Impaired Aim on all those pesky Archers who are shooting at you. I didn't get this with my Summoner but I would recommend it if you have room on your Hotbar.
(Nature) Heart of Oak: This ability will give you a flat +85% Health increase when maxed and the passive Permanence of Stone will give you 31% Elemental Resistance too. Definitely one of the best buffs in the entire game for any build.
(Nature - Optional) Regrowth: One point wonder ability that you'll use between fights to heal your pets. Honestly, I find resummoning pets to be a faster and more effective way of 'healing' them. Up to you if you wanna put Skill Points into this.
(Nature) Refresh: Instantly reduces the cooldown of all abilities currently on cooldown. Extremely useful and essential for this build/other builds. One point into this ability is typically all you need.
(Nature) Call of the Wild: Arguably the best pet skill in the game. Get this ability very early on for help leveling up and make sure you max it out as well as all passives except for Maul. If you get gear with +Skills on it then you'll be able to summon a total of 3 wolves instead of 2.
(Nature) Plague: Right click ability. Typically you will open all fights by using Plague on the enemies. It will increase the Physical and Fire damage they take from you as well as the Physical damage they take from your pets. I'd recommend skipping the Fatigue Passive and max out Plague/Susceptibility.
(Nature) Sylvan Nymph: The lesser of the two pets in Nature; also a very heavy skill dump. I recommend you put one point into this ability as well as its passives until very late game. Once all of your important abilities are maxed out then you can start dumping Skill Points into Sylvan Nymph.
(Nature - Optional) Briar Ward: An alternative to Stone Form. It creates a thicket of briars around you that will distract the enemies and poison/damage them. With the passives you'll also get Energy Cost reduction and a bonus to Health Regeneration from standing in the briar.
Other Tips:
- If you're struggling in Titan Quest and need some help check out my Best Leveling Abilities Guide, my Titan Quest F.A.Q or my Titan Quest Tips & Tricks pages for a lot of helpful info about this game. Additionally if you're curious what I think the Best Builds Are in Titan Quest check out that guide too. Last but not least you should consider getting TQVaultAE which is a third party program that nearly everyone who plays TQ uses.
- Curious what other sorts of gear you should get for this build? I have put together a long list of Overpowered Gear Combos in Titan Quest that you may find useful. The guide contains information for all sorts of build combinations and specializations; both offensive and defensive gear choices are included as well as Monster Infrequents you can farm for Best In Slot items for your characters.
- Get Call of the Wild as early as you can, it's one of the best abilities you can get your hands on for leveling up.
- If you have crappy gear you can cheese most bosses by casting Eruption ontop of them and Plague on them then run around the arena while resummoning your pets. Your pets will keep the boss occupied and your Plague/Eruption combo will deal additional damage to them as you avoid the majority of their attacks.
- If you need Vitality Resistance I recommend you carry an Apples of Idun Artifact on you to swap out to for bosses. To easily make Artifacts in Titan Quest use the TQVault Third Party Program, it's an amazing program and essential if you plan to play multiple builds in this game.