Deep Elf Summoner


Ask fellow adventurers how to stay alive in the deep, dark, dangerous dungeon below, or share your own accumulated wisdom.

User avatar

Blades Runner

Posts: 624

Joined: Saturday, 18th December 2010, 04:50

Post Monday, 3rd January 2011, 21:06

Deep Elf Summoner

I have found that Deep Elf Summoners are just awesome. The game is so much easier when you don't have to do any of the fighting yourself. Spammals gets you through most of the early game, and it can be used for an escape spell early on. I haven't found much use for Summon Imp, it blinks way too much and seems less useful than spammals. Call Canine Familiar can be used to take care of invisible monsters and things spammals can't kill, and at the rate a Deep Elf Summoner summons those war dogs and wolves (and wargs), it can be quite useful during the midgame. Summon Scorpions are useful for their poison, but the chances of them being summoned hostile is usually too great of a risk so I usually don't use it. Summon Ice Beast is amphibious so it is useful in water areas and (very) useful in some vaults (i.e. bailey), but it does less damage than war dogs. Ice Beasts do, however, have lots of resistances so they sometimes are a better choice than Summon Canine Familiar.

When a tough monster appears, I find it most effective to use spammals 4 - 5 times to stop it, then summon some war dogs to finish it off, t + a is your friend. :D

This gets me to D:7 - D:8 consistently, even early game killers like Sigmund aren't a big deal.
User avatar

Mines Malingerer

Posts: 43

Joined: Thursday, 23rd December 2010, 03:50

Post Monday, 3rd January 2011, 21:34

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

/signed


About 2-3 weeks ago I lost a level 27 summoner going for the orb...I was sooooo pissed off.

Things like hydras give me the most problems, since they can "one shot" (kill in one turn from their # of attacks) most summons you have by the time you start seeing them-unless you just get lucky with books. Spammals seems to be marginally helpful to me in these situations. I usually go with fire or air magic as a backup for the tougher guys I run into.

I disagree with your opinion of Imps though. The red ones are a little weak and unreliable, but the ice, iron and especially shadow imps are quite powerful in their own right for a level 2 spell. In my experience you summon the "better" imps often enough that it makes the spell useful for a stronger spammals later on in the game.
Arsenal FC...I'm a gooner.

Slime Squisher

Posts: 390

Joined: Friday, 24th December 2010, 07:29

Post Thursday, 6th January 2011, 07:41

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

Agreed, Summon Imps is a great spell because of its versatility (cold damage, zombies, etc.). Even regular imps are good because their blinking, high EV, and fast regen make them great at surviving, and they distract opponents well if you have enough blinking around. And if they pick up a weapon they can do some damage.

Call Canine Familiar is great. I remember on one summoning DeWz all I had was CCF for the entire Lair until Lair:8 where I finally got a Book of Callings from Vehumet. Until then, my answer to roughies like Uniates and player ghosts was always canine spam, and it works. Even hydras with their one-shotting get overwhelmed eventually. Unfortunately I found Wargs to be very rare. I had only summoned 3 or so by the end of Lair, but boy are they powerful! Trivia: When Hill Orcs cast CCF their wolves are replaced by wargs half the time.

Summon Scorpions is great. Even with moderate spellpower you'll usually get no more than 1 hostile scorpion, and your other friendly ones will kill it easily. The poison stacking and large summon groups make this spell viable until the late midgame.
TrCK:
Xom grants you an implement of some kind.
_Something appears at your feet!
4790 gold pieces {god gift}.

DsAr:
You blink. You feel slightly more hungry. Prince Ribbit hits you. You die...
"Hey, that's my toy!"
Xom revives you!
User avatar

Blades Runner

Posts: 624

Joined: Saturday, 18th December 2010, 04:50

Post Friday, 7th January 2011, 23:35

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

The reason that I don't like summon scorpions is that it is the only summoner starting spell that uses poison magic, and the spell relies on skill in poison magic to be cast reliably. So, with my experience with the spell, it usually has a good chance of being summoned hostile until long after you have better summons.

I will admit that I haven't really tried summon imps that much, the only time I used it I couldn't kill anything with it because whenever my imps got into range they would blink away. It was really annoying so I just stopped using the spell altogether. I had a hard time killing rats and goblins with it.

Mines Malingerer

Posts: 32

Joined: Wednesday, 5th January 2011, 18:52

Post Saturday, 8th January 2011, 01:03

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

Laraso wrote:I will admit that I haven't really tried summon imps that much, the only time I used it I couldn't kill anything with it because whenever my imps got into range they would blink away. It was really annoying so I just stopped using the spell altogether. I had a hard time killing rats and goblins with it.


I think that's just the RNG screwing you.

Lair Larrikin

Posts: 16

Joined: Sunday, 27th March 2011, 15:43

Post Tuesday, 26th July 2011, 21:54

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

Im really enjoying it right now! But I don´t start as a summoner, I start as a wizard and focus on the summoning, that way I have blink and repel missels too, in case the enemies get near me! And the imps are great! many kinds, all together are really strong!
User avatar

Snake Sneak

Posts: 128

Joined: Friday, 13th May 2011, 12:06

Post Wednesday, 27th July 2011, 12:34

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

GNFR wrote:Im really enjoying it right now! But I don´t start as a summoner, I start as a wizard and focus on the summoning, that way I have blink and repel missels too, in case the enemies get near me! And the imps are great! many kinds, all together are really strong!


and you may end up with some permenant zombie followers if the RNG gods are kind (shadow imps? IIRC) - and you have mephi (imps don't breathe IIRC) the problem is getting the spell after that - Wizards seem to be defined by the second spell book that they get.
A troll caster is a hybrid

Lair Larrikin

Posts: 19

Joined: Monday, 11th July 2011, 17:32

Post Sunday, 7th August 2011, 19:21

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

Hey, I'm currently playing a DESu right now, and I've got a question about stats. How many points of strength should I add during the third level up, if at all? I always seem to go into the Overloaded state with just 7 Str so putting more into Str is tempting, but I hear that Int is more important than Str or Dex when playing spellcasters.
User avatar

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 5832

Joined: Thursday, 10th February 2011, 18:30

Post Monday, 8th August 2011, 01:00

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

minmay wrote:(potions of restore abilities are very common)


As are royal jellies, which do the same thing and feed you. Many new players do not realize a royal jelly is almost like drinking a potion of restore abilities and a potion of porridge simultaneously.
"Be aware that a lot of people on this forum, such as mageykun and XuaXua, have a habit of making things up." - minmay a.k.a. duvessa
Did I make a lame complaint? Check for Bingo!
Totally gracious CSDC Season 2 Division 4 Champeen!

Shoals Surfer

Posts: 312

Joined: Thursday, 9th June 2011, 19:12

Post Monday, 8th August 2011, 19:46

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

XuaXua wrote:
minmay wrote:(potions of restore abilities are very common)


As are royal jellies, which do the same thing and feed you. Many new players do not realize a royal jelly is almost like drinking a potion of restore abilities and a potion of porridge simultaneously.

Execpt it takes 3 turns to eat vice 2 turns to drink 2 potions.

If you can, wait to picnic until after all the foes are dead.
User avatar

Spider Stomper

Posts: 207

Joined: Sunday, 26th December 2010, 23:55

Location: Maryland, USA

Post Tuesday, 9th August 2011, 16:25

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

Actually, I think they take only one...

(I bet that the next guy who posts will say they take zero just to keep up the pattern :P)
You see here a dire elephant corpse.
You start butchering the dire elephant corpse with your claws.
You continue butchering the corpse.
You are engulfed in roaring flames. You stop butchering the corpse.
You die...

For this message the author Un67 has received thanks:
pratamawirya

Shoals Surfer

Posts: 312

Joined: Thursday, 9th June 2011, 19:12

Post Tuesday, 9th August 2011, 19:00

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

minmay wrote:uh, royal jellies take 2 turns to eat, actually

Do they? I thought "snacks" took two turns and "rations" took 3. I would assume a royal jelly would be a ration, but I did not check my reference before posting.

Thank you Minmay.
User avatar

Spider Stomper

Posts: 207

Joined: Sunday, 26th December 2010, 23:55

Location: Maryland, USA

Post Tuesday, 9th August 2011, 19:04

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

Snacks take one, chunks take two, and rations take three, actually, or at least according to the wiki. But yeah, royal jellies count as snacks.
You see here a dire elephant corpse.
You start butchering the dire elephant corpse with your claws.
You continue butchering the corpse.
You are engulfed in roaring flames. You stop butchering the corpse.
You die...

Dungeon Master

Posts: 1613

Joined: Thursday, 16th December 2010, 21:54

Post Tuesday, 9th August 2011, 19:30

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

Any non-ration permafood takes two turns, chunks take three turns, rations take four turns. You can see it using the show_game_turns option.
User avatar

Spider Stomper

Posts: 207

Joined: Sunday, 26th December 2010, 23:55

Location: Maryland, USA

Post Tuesday, 9th August 2011, 19:43

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

Well, there's another thing the wiki has wrong :?
You see here a dire elephant corpse.
You start butchering the dire elephant corpse with your claws.
You continue butchering the corpse.
You are engulfed in roaring flames. You stop butchering the corpse.
You die...

Vaults Vanquisher

Posts: 461

Joined: Monday, 13th June 2011, 00:21

Post Tuesday, 9th August 2011, 20:35

Re: Deep Elf Summoner

Fixed.

For this message the author Happy Corner has received thanks: 2
galehar, zogre

Return to Dungeon Crawling Advice

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests

cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by ST Software for PTF.