If not beast have to be the better choice to do as much DPS as possible?!|||You lose the extra skeletons when you switch, IF, for example AoKL gives you enough for 2 skeletons more than beast, you lose those 2 when you switch. The stats, however, remain the same. In my opinion Hoto + Cta is a better combo tho.|||In my opinion AoKL + Beast is the best combination for a Summoner. You may loose a skelie or 2 when you switch but the extra dmg is well worth it. I don't see what a Hoto/CTA gives a Summoner. Sure BO works on yourself but you should never be taking much/any damage anyway and BO barely helps Skellies (they are sooo tough anyway and it has a much smaller effect).|||Please, do remember that the main damage for a fishymancer comes from the CE
|||Beast is highly overrated for a summoner in my opinion. You don't improve the minions' attack speed by much, the little bit of ED goes onto a big pile of other ED, and the AR doesn't matter if your merc has Infinity like he should. (He does, right?)The ability to telestomp, CE, and curse faster with a Hoto is far more important.|||For me, the only place I found beast to be even remotely useful was on �ber Trist, speeding up your Urduar's attack speed.
That said, AoKL is an amazing wand, for starters but it loses to Hoto like Scissors to Rock|||Quote:
Beast is highly overrated for a summoner in my opinion. You don't improve the minions' attack speed by much, the little bit of ED goes onto a big pile of other ED, and the AR doesn't matter if your merc has Infinity like he should. (He does, right?)
The ability to telestomp, CE, and curse faster with a Hoto is far more important.
You very rarely need to telestomp and I can live with that 1FPS loss for the handful of occasions you need to do that. I always have plenty of time to curse, I don't know why anyone would need to curse quickly, Amp covers the room in one go anyway. CE also kills all in 1 or 2 casts and I always have plenty of time to cast it anyway. Extra skills in CE only adds area and in most cases having +20 in CE is fine compared to +23 (I actually only get +15 (lvl 35 total) in CE with Beast, so I guess I would get +18 (lvl38 total) with Hoto).
The only thing I could imagine Hoto would be useful for is teleporting to places, however I use AoKL with a +3 Summon Darkforce Spawn, with Arach and Trangs giving me 80 FCR and a nice tele speed. Switch to Beast/Homunculus for fighting and things die nice and quick.
Beast helps all the time mostly thanks to increased speed but is especially good when your merc gets himself killed.
I guess we could make a Beast Iron Golem and keep Hoto though... but I think a Pride Iron Golem with Beast on Necro and a Might merc sounds better ^^. Of course I would not do that, too risky for me but I like my Insight Iron Golem.
In truth we are arguing over so little difference, both set-ups will crush everything in sight and it really just comes down to what you prefer.|||The fact of the matter is that for all but the toughest boss mobs +3 in CE and FCR (assuming you get a BP out of it) for teleport is actually more offensive power than the aura on beast so there's really no reason at all to use beast outside of ubers or key guardians even for damage. On top of that it's got much better defensive potential although someone that doesn't even value max block enough to use a hommunculous over a darkforce might not find defense very useful.|||I do use Homunculus with Beast. I use Darkforce/AoKL to Summon and Teleport, when fighting begins Beast/Homunculus are up. I guess you could hit the 125 FCR bp with Hoto but thats not needed with a Summoner. I also have max res with both setups, so a Hoto would not give me that either. I guess the life replenidh is nice on Hoto but you take so little dmg anyway... and mana is not an issue with an Insight IG.
And you seem to be saying that Beast is better against the toughest mobs and Hoto is best against the rest? If that is the case then does that not mean Beast is best. Afterall weaker mobs will be dealt with easily with either setup so its against the toughest that really matters.
Finally if your merc dies and my merc dies then a Beast setup is the best by far, I will be able to get that first corpse much faster (I would have been faster even with mercs, but mariginally so) and get my CE chain going.|||No, being good in one aspect doesn't mean good everywhere.
Best is strong when it adds IAS to attacks with CB. There aren't a lot of situations in the game other than ubers where this is something that's all that useful to maximize.
HotO is strong because it adds radius to CE, speeding area clears, and adds FCR to teleport, speeding any run of any type if it hits a BP (which it will with proper planning).
For the vast vast majority of the game, as you point out, the HP of the mobs is trivial relative to the damage of even unbuffed skeletons and CE so the best thing to maximize for runs of all kinds is speed i.e. +skills for CE because the radius can never be too big and FCR for teleport, because every frame saved on each teleport adds up a lot more than you think over the course of an hour or two spent running something like keys or pits or what have you.
With proper gear and attention paid to him the merc should rarely, if ever, be in any real danger. Just about the only thing that kills mine with any consistency are ubers. Be aware of the things he's weak too, like hydras from council members, and compensate for his weakness with proper play and you won't be gimping your speed for everything else just to keep things manageable should the merc happen to die.
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