Boartato wrote:Thanks for the replies.
How do summons help me? All of my DPS is line of sight and/or AoE. I didn't think summons would be much use other than the servitor which tbh hasn't seemed super useful. It doesn't seem to cast very often and for the mana it costs I could have just cast those spells myself.
Although I think the poison arrow idea is interesting. Maybe my problem is in part my spells plinking off AC. Elemental damage of some kind could help me a lot.
I'm also using that +7 longsword instead of my staff of conjuration. My main interest in this has been due to running out of mana and needing to clean up small critters as well as get riposts while firing point blank spells. Not sure if this was a good idea in retrospect.
Summons are good in situations where you are fighting one or a limited number of enemies for their distraction properties (and confusion in the case of lightning spire). Be aware however that frequent use of summoning to kill things will drain a significant amount of XP. This isn't made very obvious to casual players. Some will argue that it doesn't matter, and others feel that it does. That is a big can of worms to open here, so suffice to say that you were warned. I limit my use of summons, and most games do not train summoning at all until I find Aura of Abjuration, and then it is usually my only summoning spell. Dragon call is good but not relevant until far enough into games that you'd already know when and why you'd want to use it. Lightning spire and mana vipers are probably the two strongest lowish level summon spells if you have a limited spell selection and you just need to stay alive. Also, be aware that summons cause a fair amount of noise. This is not good if you are going for ranged conjuration killing style. They also get in your way when targeting and you waste time ordering them around. I'd say sniping and hit 'n run is more effective for a more lightly armoured spell caster. Melee which use supplemental summons won't care about the noise level as much. I suggest just training evocations and using spiders and beasts and those water monsters if you want some distracting fodder from time to time instead of investing in summons, because you'll get additional utility for the other types of evocations as well.
Poison arrow is an excellent spell and i would consider training for it in any spell caster game. I've used it to kill everything up to Pan lords and bosses. It used to be even better, but it's still good. I only wish it was possible to find it more often. As it stands, it's extremely hard to find poison arrow, so maybe that will tell you something. The main consideration is just how it may affect you splitting up your XP between schools. At least it isn't that hard to cast, and you can spend more on conjurations than poison and still get a lot of other utility from other schools simultaneously. Toxic radiance and mephitic cloud are pretty nice for mid game so if you have either of those, it's an easier sell. I'd say go for it, and see how you like it. I think you will.
Sticky flame is better for a warrior/fire hybrid because it works better with more AC. You don't want to get splattered while attempting to apply it. In this case you would use fire for early game, combined with melee or ranged, but you wouldn't advance into high level fire spells until much, much later. Instead you'd build more of a melee character with a few low level support spells.
For elemental damage, my top picks would probably be fireball and ignition. Ignition is more pricey, but it's awesome. Air is good for shock, air strike and deflect missiles. Lightning bolt is a real disappointment most of the time, sadly, otherwise I'd play way more tengus. Most of the bolt spells miss fairly often, and seem like they really drain your mana, especially fighting single tough enemies, so while I used to love getting them, more recently I've been avoiding them more often.
Saturday, 27th April 2019, 22:47 
