Non-necro summoning builds

[OhNoMatt]

Non-necro summoning builds

Hello, this is a strange question, but I was wondering if there are any non-necro builds out there (or if anyone has ever tried any builds) that involve items to summon minions?

Basically I was talking to an enchantress about the plans I had for mine, and she said she used Crescent Moon to summon spirit wolves and enchant them. This sounded obscenely fun, and got me to looking at some items, among which are Harmony (level 20 revive, 25 charges, and 2-6 Valk spell), Eternity (level 8 revive, 88 charges), Crescent Moon (level 16 spirit wolf I think), Oath (16 heart of wolverine and 17 iron golem), and a few other items like Metalgrid that have minion charges.

Here's my question - can anyone imagine any non-necro classes using this to be viable? (I don't mean great, just able to survive and have fun in hell). I can see some possibilities here in terms of a Enchant sorc or Fanat Paladin with minions... one major problem I could think of is if it took a massive amount of gold to repair these items (i.e, I have Harmony, but 25 charges of Revive might run out quite fast, and if it takes 100k+ gold to repair that maybe it's not going to work out).

This just seems like a lot of fun to me if it was actually possible. Thanks for any input!

 

[alexzed]

I did sort of try that with my sorc - but the sheer cost of revive was astronomical! It was fun to have wolves (and if they hadn't bugged cranebeak - ravens) along with revives - but the 300k it cost every game was a bit steep. Fun to watch...not a viable killer...

 

[Merick1]

I think a summon druid with demon limb would make more sense.

 

[Freezing Rain]

Paladin build using these, you can aura stack. Might on the merc, Pride (concentration) on the merc's weapon, Defiance on your paladins exile shield, Fanatacism from a beast Zerker weapon, The actual paladin can use conviction. It sounds pretty cool.

 

[Fluffballer]

Neither spirit wolves nor revives will be around for very long, so you'd be repairing your stuff every couple minutes. To get it to work you'll need items that cast survivable minions like the new amazon armor or iron golem charges. I don't think there are any items to allow you to summon a grizzly, but that's the only druid summon that will last any amount of time.

 

[Darnoc]

cant the charges be recharged with the cube recipe? only a chipped gem and a ral, I think.

Get your self a harmony bow(you'll need orts and chipped gems to recharge- also gives minions vigor), plop it on a fanaticism pally(gives minions edmg too), throw your crescent moon on there with a wisp and carrion ring and hire yourself a might merc(also gives minions edmg)! you'll have a valkryie, merc, heart of oak, wolves, poison creeper, and 19 revived monsters(lvl 20 revive lasts for a few minutes at least- can even revive gloams! but you hafta leave 1 charge on the bow or they'll all disappear) You'll be a walking lag machine of course.. lots of fun tho- I use a harmony on my strafe zon for the lvl 10 vigor aura and +valkryie- I can run as fast as many sorcs can tele across open areas, and the revive charges help keep things new when you get bored.

 

[OhNoMatt]

I did sort of try that with my sorc - but the sheer cost of revive was astronomical! It was fun to have wolves (and if they hadn't bugged cranebeak - ravens) along with revives - but the 300k it cost every game was a bit steep. Fun to watch...not a viable killer...

ouch that stinks... what were you getting the revives from ? Harmony bow or Eternity weapon?

The chipped gem and ral thing, in my opinion, doesnt' really avoid the money problem... with only 25 charges on Harmony you'd be running out pretty fast, and you'd need an obscenely large stack of gems and rals to keep the bow repaired (ends up being the same fun detraction problem as keeping mass gold to repair it). Which is why I was hoping repairing the charges would be cheaper darn.

 

[Epsilon Eyez]

I think most classes have a good synergy with summons (not as in game terms, but the actual word itself). Necromancers obviously have the best summons inherently, with Druids having the more versatile but overall weaker summons (especially with the stifling limit of 5 Spirit or 3 Dire or 1 Grizzly + 1 Spirit + 1 Vine).

Sorceress has Enchant to buff up.*

Barbarians can use Battle Orders and Shout to confer great defensive bonuses.*

Paladin can use auras to buff up monsters.*

Amazons don't really have this direct synergy to summons, but they can take advantage of them as tanks and start shooting arrows or throwing javelins.

Assassins also don't have a synergy, really, just as tanks for far-range assault with traps and Blade Fury.


* - other classes can't do as well even with items that confer such bonuses.

 

[Doomazon]

Don't forget about the 'Faith' bow runeword. I had a straferzon last ladder with faith and it has a (% to summon skellys or revives or something) mod and in a big group of bad guys they would pop up like mad.