I noticed that the DE Forums were lacking in threads for classes whereas the other forums have them so i made one for each 2nd Class, and this way it's easier for people to find info on the class which they want to become. So Post the Pro's and Cons and Talk about Phantom Summoner here!

http://www.l2pets.com
This website has a whole community of summoners and pet trainers. Feel free to waddle along and take a look. Just click on forums to get at the good stuff..

Yes Degraca is right the L2pets.com site is great and has a ton of good posts on summoning and pets.

However, being Hinde's resident Summoner of the Phantom variety, I'll answer any question someone may have on the class.

Just post :)

* - Dem

i've been a PS for quite a few months (i like to craft/fool around waaaaaaay too much, been a summoner since like mid march, not even lvl 50 but getter close :D) i've been pretty disapointed with our pvp in c3, i've heard a few ppl say "oh ya pvp picks up when you get transfer pain lvl 4" but that's at least lvl 60, and just to get some decent pvp i have to get to lvl 60? jeez. another thing which i'm really disapointed in is how we have complete shit for cp and our summon doesn't even have any, gg Nc. thankfully pve is good and i enjoy the class otherwise i would've rerolled looooooonnnnng ago.

now i know that nukers absolutly own us (600 damage a hit with TP on and top C lux shop jewels against a 45 nuker) and because they're the fotm this chronicle, i'm just worried that if they get a nerf, we'll get nerfed too (being so close to em) and pvp will only get worse. (but hey! my shaman will soon be an Ol and pvp will be fun, and i'll know i'm actually helping the fight)

but at least pve is good (except knowing that a duo which can kill faster with ss get's 80% of the xp, while we're stuck with 70%) and we can kill efficiently and for extremely long periods of time so we can pull off a nice 10% an hour.

but my thoughts on how to make this class more enjoyable in general

-diferent xp penalty, sure in C2 30% was fine since we still got 13% more xp than a duo, but a duo could kill faster than us, so it balenced. but now that things have changed, our xp rate needs to change too, with a 20% penalty i'd be happy because it'd be even, or 10% penalty would be great (we won't have that 13% advantage, but i'd be happy)

-CP for the love of god CP!! i don't ask for much, just i want my summon to have some CP! it doesn't have to be much, don't want to be overpowered, just want to be equal, and have a fair advatage in pvp

-hp passive, c'mon 1200 hp at lvl 45? wtf? (too lazy to check how much i have, too lazy to remove my SA health wep) we need more hp passives, we're a fighter now, we need more hp passives that Sh's, they don't get hit.

-party/clan buffs affecting my summon, i hate being in a party or are about to rush enemy flags when the WC or OL buffs everyone and they head out, while i have to spend more time buffing my summon, slowly down the group, or being left behind by the rush.

the last two would be a convienence, while the first two would make the class more respectable in pvp and actually fair for lvling, if i were to get my clan hall buffs, and just spam ss, i'd be lvling faster, that shouldn't be right for a summoner. and again the CP doesn't have to be much, just enough to give us a chance in pvp, until lvl 60.

what would be your thoughts on these changes?

I agree with you 100% Evil. Our summons having no CP absolutely crap! And then to top it off they gimp us summoners with actually giving us hardly any.

The 30% handicap because of summons is also an area they need to look at. If a duo of any other group (besides summoners) can get a bonus of grouping together, then the 30% penality we get, should be lessened.

These are just my opinions. But they (NC Soft, the supreme being) has to take a look at our class for the next chronicle. And not just give us another bunch of skills that are useless but don't even get them until we hit lvl 75 :(

* - Dem

[B]demia wrote:[/b]
These are just my opinions. But they (NC Soft, the supreme being) has to take a look at our class for the next chronicle. And not just give us another bunch of skills that are useless but don't even get them until we hit lvl 75 :(

* - Dem

definatly, this isn't a problem that will be fixed with just throwing around skills here and there that we get at lvl 60 (yay, now i can finally un-para my summon that that damn necro has been anchoring since i've been lvl 40) this is a class that needs a lot of thought put into it, and a full overhaul.(just too add to my list of things)

how about a toggle so that it consumes d cry at regular intervals (the same rate as it normally is) except non stop so that we don't have to worry about our summon running out and getting attacked by multiple mobs and probably dieing, and a button to de-summon our summon if it get's stuck or just stops responding because of lag, instead of having to kill it and risk getting stuck, or having to log out and log back in, also it could help for changing summons on the fly in groups.

speaking of groups, groups NEED to be able to see our summon's health and status, and for it to be affected by party/alliance buffs for reasons stated above.

our summons need more skills, if they gave shadow the skill hate, i'd be so happy, or if they gave silhouette even a debuff of some sort, i don't think that as a summoner, i should be using the basic skills that a Sh builds off of, soulless is a great start giving him 2 skills, but the penalty is rediculous, now that i actually have some skills that could make me usefull in an AoE group, i also have this nasty penalty that he steals my mp, throwing it wherever he puts all that damn xp.

if you think about what skills you use, you'll realise that you use more of your skills from sub 40 (b2m, sleep, slow, corpse life drain, twister, shadow spark and aura burn (just those nukes are used from time to time)) that what you use after 40 (summon silhouette, servitor heal, servitor ultimate defence, transfer pain, polt cube, and spark cube) which shouldn't be.

i'm not asking to be overpowered, in fact i'd hate the idea of being overpowered, i like to win and lose, but when i 1v1 it usually goes lose, lose, lose, lose, win, rematch, lose. something is up. this thread should be devoted to a discussion of how we can improve a class that is in need of so much work, but how to not over do it, but once i get my summoner to 52, i'll get back to my shaman -> overlord so i'll actually have a class that doesn't die instantly in mass pvp because as soon as you heal your summon once, you're dropped, because healers are the high priority in sieges >.<.

Excellent idea's evil.

I do think our shadow should have a hate skill. I always try to party with people on the premice that I can use my shadow as a tank, which we can. But as soon as a DD gets in the mob quickly turns on them!? How effective of a tank is that :(

Bet regardless, we need some help! Yes, we are a very very, challenged group of idividuals when it comes to pvp. I still haven't quite figured out my role in a seige besides just annoying people with my silo or soulless.

Speaking of the soulless I understand the penality.......but do we have to sit through the aggony of watch me bleed!!!! And everyone coming up to you to offer a pot to stop the bleeding. The sound effects of it is annoying too.

* -Dem

Are phantom summoners good in Chronicle 2? thx :)

private servers are bad! but since you aren't asking about those i'll tell you, we were average in pvp, we could win and lose, i even beat a dagger from time to time, but in C3, we are as gimpy as gimpy gets.

also, i don't think the penalty on soulless is fair, compared to the other summoners, yes he needs something to balence him, but with his hp (or lack thereof) he needs lots of heals, and with his mp drain, he's only good for showing off or annoying groups of ppl that will gank you if you poison em.

and sieges are absolutely horrible as a summoner, we can do alright (as decent as a summoner can do) but when our summon needs a heal if someone is attacking you, you'll get jumped by like 5 ppl as soon as they see you cast one heal, and you'll be taking a dirt nap in no time, which is why servitor heal should look diferent than a regular heal, it instantly makes us the priority target, when we have a hard enough time holding our own.

oh well, we just have to put up with this BS until c4, and only then can we hope for the best :/

i just did a bit of research to tell the diferance in hp between Sh's and Ps's, and that just shows how little thought was used when choosing our skills. we get the EXACT same hp passive, at the EXACT same lvls, and by lvl 70, we have a whole 103 hp more than an SH. BUT here is the big part which makes it unfair, is that Sh's get the same lvls of boost mana and fast mana recover at the same time as us BUT they also get clear mind (faster mp regain when standing/walking [hitting a mob with a melee wep does count as standing]) AND they get higher mana gain (more mp from recharges, for those who didn't know).

now i can understand a class that is more mp reliant than us having more mana passives, but, with us being melee and therefore more hp reliant, where are our extra hp passives? we are basically just sh's with mediocre pdef (if we wear light instead of robes) and with slower mana regain.

and i will be done complaining with this final statement that sums up my opinion of how NC did with summoner classes in c3. wtf nc, wtf.

so what does a soulless look like, if its rare then can someone plz post pic of it, and if its not could you tell me where the mob is that does look like it

I don't have a pic, but it is damn neat looking...It also has its own identity as far as I can tell, so can't help you there either.

I'm finally starting my phantom summoner. Going to be awesome using doom light, dualies, and giving insane buffs to my summon as I go and pulverize crap. :)

i heard bw was better, thats what lynxounette on lionna showed us all, and alot of others seem to go that path

bw light is definatly better, espcially with my tattoo setup it really balences the stats i need and pulverises the crap out of the stats i don't need. the bw light set is
+15% cast speed
+3men
-2int
-1wit

now with my tat setup of -5str +5 con -4 int +4 wit that gives me a final setup of

+15% cast speed
+3 men
+3 wit
+5 con
-5 str
-6 int

and depending on whether i'm in pvp (sa health wep) or pve (homu with acumen for faster buffs+heals) will also affect that final set.

I was reading at PS's skill.

can PS drive 2 somum at time?

LIke shadow and siloutte

are 2 hatling?

I saw a skill call Cubic Mastery. but I juste realize that the cubic is the bal that run over the head of all sk......

PLZ people tell me that they can drive 2 at time:)

you can run 2 cubes, but you can only run one summon at a time.

Hello,
I have a phantom sumomer level 42 and i dont know which weapon is better to him..Some friends recomend me a sword o Dual swords,but other persons tell me is better a staff..can you give me your opinion please?thanks for all

anything except a bow, your mp can't hold up servitor buffs/heals and the bow. but just use whatever you want, i personally like an sa health blunt+shield some people like duals, some people like sword+shield. just use whatever you want either Sa wise, or how they look, or how they perform, like with a blunt you're sacrificing crit rate for accuracy etc. however some Sa's i would recomend are:

-Sa acumen(+15% cast speed): (faster buffs/heals, great combined with a +15% robe if you're going the nuker summoner route)

-Sa conversion(-40% hp +60% mp): PVE ONLY it gives you lots of mp, however it gimps your hp and is bad for pvp. but it gives you lots of mp to play around with while soloing(also good for nuker summone route, however you have to be careful with how much damage you're using because you may pull agro and with that low hp it might cause trouble).

-Sa Health(+25% hp): amazing for pvp, the 25% hp rocks but not usefull in pve

-Sa bless the body(chance of btb buff, not sure of what lvl): great for pvp and pve, because it works on your summon (great for pve and pvp), you can also get a cheap crystal staff and put it on that, which then can be used VERY effectively with a Sa health weapon for pvp.

-Sa Focus (crit rate increase depends on weapon): it's alright with pve so you can contribute some nice damage, however your summon will always outdamage you so it's only alright.

however, there might be some Sa's that other people prefer, so feel free to add any, but explain why they're useful.

Yeah, that is a nice setup there Evil. But I plan on going somewhat offensive with my character, so either the dexterity from doom or evasion from zubei. Or I might always end up doing something similar to yours.

I'm glad they're changing for the better in C4.

Thanks, actually even with my setup i still hit pretty hard with my nukes and i cast them damn fast too. And, even with -6 Int i still have more Int than a sps, and way more than most fighters. I prefered to not reduce my men because my setup is generally geared towards defence (men primarily affects mdef).

Ever since i've finished my setup, I've had no problem with tanks (Da's with their summon out is tricky), daggers, archers (unbuffed), and other melee classes (sws, bd's, glads etc.) The only classes i have trouble with are nukers and warlords.

Also, If you aren't a nuker-summoner you should really try it. I can hit for 200-300 damage a nuke, which adds up fast when i have an acu 3 pot on. If you don't nuke in pvp, you should grab some bsps, an acumen pot, and give it a shot, it helps a lot if you're fighting a target in your level range (if they're too high above you all your nukes will fail).

Actually, Evil, I dont 100% agree with you on your statement that your pet will always outdamage you, though I know thats the conventional thinking.

I'm fortunate enough to be able to two box an SE and have opted for a more DD oriented set up. Im in doom light with +dex tattoo and use bg focus duals. If I have se buffs, a haste pot and spam SS, I can infact out damage my pet enough to pull aggro. I would guess its the combo of dex from doom, dex from tat, focus buff, and focus SA giving me a hefty crit rate. Our pets have no crit rate to speak of, and until c4 when they can use SS, it is in selected situations possible to out DD your pet.

I would also note that the BTB on a crystal staff is lower than it is on higher level staffs--for example, I think its level 2 on a crystal staff and level 5 on a SOES. Level 2 is almost not worth bothering with, I would think.

Well, in your case you are correct, you can outdamage shadow, however, not everyone has a 2 boxed Se :P i was referring to solo, self buffed, and melee as that is the cheapest way to solo for a summoner, and how most summoners solo. I too can outdamage shadow through nuking, however it's very expensive compared to just meleeing with our without spamming ss.

Also, the reason i suggested a crystal staff with btb, was because it's fairly cheap, both the weapon is cheap and it's much cheaper to sa it, however, if someone has the money to get a better staff with sa btb, then they should go right ahead.

Btw. Even lvl 2 btb has quite a nice effect on summons givin how they have such high hp (because btb, like all other buffs work by a %).

Well I have a 52 phantom summoner now. I'm just waiting for C4 to continue my leveling. With pet soulshots I can hopefully level faster.

hi there... o woould like to know what skills does the PSīs summons have... i know they can attack .. but i mean magic attacks.... unicorn boxer have aqua splash or somethinf like that.. it damaged all nearby mobs... thnx

ES are different from PS and Warlocks in that they have magic attacks that can do significant damage.

For the PS, our pets have some magic but nothing feasible for use in PVE. The Silouette, which is the pvp/farming pet, has a Drain Blood skill, which is single target but slow cast, slow renew. The Soulless, our 10% xp penalty pet, has an AOE poison and a AOE corpse burst. Neither is powerful enough to be very useful in hunting.

Warlock''s have a windstrike skill on their PVP summons and thats it.

Well, hopefully you got my pm bubo, but i'll post the list here too for future reference.

1. Shadow
-Average hp/patk/pdef/etc (based on other summons)
-Vamp rage passive (regains hp based on how much damage he does from punchin stuff)
-30% exp drain (30% less xp per mob you kill)
-costs multiple d crystals

2. Silhouette
-Average stats
-Drain energy - 900 range nuke that regains some hp, not sure exact %
-90% exp drain
-always costs 1 d cry

3. Soulless
-Lowered hp, boosted patk/pdef/run speed (206 instead of the 150ish speed of other summons)
-Aoe poison, not that great till higher levels
-corpse burst, requires one mob corpse, damages surrounding mobs
-mana drain - drains your mp, effect depends on skill level of soulless
-10% exp drain
-Costs C cry, total cost is higher than shadow
-great for a DD in a group

4. Nightshade
-Higher hp, greatly decreased patk
-hate/hex/gloom - decreases the target's pdef/mdef and changes their target to nightshade, if they already have nightshade targetted then the player will attack nightshade (just like hitting the attack button, you can just stop your character immediately).

-aoe hate/aoe hex/ aoe gloom - decreases surround enemy's pdef/mdef and changes their target to nightshade, if they already have nightshade targetted they attack him.

-sacrifice of shade - uses some of nightshade's hp to heal other players, casts quickly. At first lvl of nightshade (you get him at 56), with bsps it will take about 600 of his hp and give the person about 760hp. about 1 servitor heal regains what he used up.

Well, hope that helps, lemme know if you have any other questions :D.

Which summon do u suggest in pvps?pvp with a nuker (sps/howler)?pvp with a dd (archers,daggers)?pvp with worriors/tanks (da,sk,bd)?pvp with another summoner (es,warlock,ps)?and sthing else.i have a summoner lvl 52+ with bw set +3 and sls*nm +4 (it gives me health).wich tatoo is best for me?

Well, for summons (BIG NOTE: The summon can vary greatly depending on your personal style of pvping, this is only what i use) I personally use:

Soulless for nukers/archers, with his higher run speed he can get in there faster and make it even harder for nukers to keep the summoner and summon under control.

Silhouette/shadow are interchangable for melee's. You can either use shadow for his passive VR to make him harder to kill, or silhouette for more ranged damage (if you nuke alongside your summon to take advantage of people with bad jewels, only works if you have an acu 3 pot on and +wit at higher levels, where the number of nukes you get off makes up for the lower damage/fail rate)

Silhouette for warlords. This is a MUST, because warlords can hit more than one target, they are highly effective against summoners. With transfer pain, a warlord will be doing 60% damage to you, but 140% damage to your summon at the same time. Which is extremely difficult if not near impossible to keep up with. So what i do is tell silhouette to stay in one spot. While i kite the warlord, try to keep him away from your summon so he can't try and stun when you're close. Just keep kiting while silhouette spams bsps drains, and you can throw off your own nukes quickly while running, or just try to slow him. It's a slow process, but you have no hope if you both run in and melee.

Pvp with other summoners, there are a lot of factors, weapon, sa's, armor, what summon they're using, so it's mostly a major judgement call. If they're only able to melee at the time, go for shadow for the hp return with vamp rage. If they have the capability to kite (bow/ranged summon) you'll want silhouette, just incase they switch from melee'ing to kiting. it's mostly Judgement.

Well, there are a lot of setups that work very well with summoners. I personally went -5 str +5 con, -4 INT and +4 WIT, heavy war axe with sa health, bw light/bw robes (if i'm acting as a healer or am hunting in a tougher spot). I went the -5 str because my summons are the primary source of melee damage anyways, and +5 con since i play a bit more defencively, and i get extra hp, more cp, higher weight limit, and a little more stun resist. -4 INT since i only would nuke occasionally on targets where my nukes still worked, and -4 int wasn't even that big of a hit with my INT still being very high (3 more than a sps, but 1 less than a sorc) and the +4 WIT payoff was huge. Roughly 20% more cast speed.

However, tattoos that work well range greatly, and also quite a few depend heavily on weapon/armor, and i just don't feel like listing all of the possible combinations.. Just try to think of how your class works, what you need, how you personally play in pvp (do you run in there and melee, assist nuke, just sit and spam heals, kite with a bow etc. etc.) However, one tattoo that you can't go wrong with is +wit, wit is your best friend (roughly +5% cast speed per point added) you can cast heals faster, summon faster, nuke faster, and slightly better resist to sleep/hold (although in C5 the sleep resist etc. is changed to MEN. Probably due to the really high land rates of sleep, and that fighters have much more MEN than WIT, sometimes more than double).

[Edited by XxevilxX at 5:35 PM on 5/3/2006]

Hi,Im a Phantom Summoner 5x with Bw and Nm*Sls +4.My style at pvp and exp is i go at the front and the summon assist me.
So,I'm asking u guys what tattoo you think its better for me.I thought about -int and +sthing.But if i -int the servitor heal will be not as much as without the tattoo right?and also i dont wanna -str cause if in pvp the enemy kill my summon i will die for sure (no str=no dmg).Ofc i will never -men cause our weakness r the nukers.So any options any suggestions?
The bad thing with our class is that we need every stat.:(
And plus have heard of the new skill for buffer?ERASE.it erase our summons.omg we will die from buffers?
And sthing else.in c5 the nightshade will have aoe hate?and nightshade's heal is it good?it worth it?p def?is nightshade good for pvp and exp.(5%exp!!)
Thx :)

[B]Nerisha wrote:[/b]

Hi,Im a Phantom Summoner 5x with Bw and Nm*Sls +4.My style at pvp and exp is i go at the front and the summon assist me.
So,I'm asking u guys what tattoo you think its better for me.I thought about -int and +sthing.But if i -int the servitor heal will be not as much as without the tattoo right?and also i dont wanna -str cause if in pvp the enemy kill my summon i will die for sure (no str=no dmg).Ofc i will never -men cause our weakness r the nukers.So any options any suggestions?
The bad thing with our class is that we need every stat.:(

Well, you can keep your physical stats the same, however, if you really want to do melee damage as opposed to relying on your summon, you can -con +str. Your sa health weap will more than make up for the drop in hp. However, i would greatly recommend getting something to replace your duals for c5, in c5 mages can't use duals or a bow without getting -30% cast speed and -8 accuracy. So, you should probably go with a greatsword with health, or maybe consider a different weapon (ie. kris with focus could also work well, but be a little different with the tats)

Just to clarify for ya with the Int, if you aren't going to do nuking in pvp, and only do this if you won't do any nuking in pvp. Then you can go -4 int +4 wit, and -4 int +4 men. The +4 to Men will be really good in c5, especially combined with your bw light (+3 men) because debuff resists will be moved to men instead of wit (sleep, silence, paralise, etc.). However, you shouldn't do exactly what i said, you should still put thought into your class and how you're going to play it etc.

And plus have heard of the new skill for buffer?ERASE.it erase our summons.omg we will die from buffers?

don't worry about that too much, healers will be too busy healing in mass/group pvp to go out of their way to erase your summon. Plus, to use erase they need spirit ore, so they'll most likely forget that too. There are worse nerfs to look out for. (ie. summon damage in pvp is lowered, nukers get fear, etc.)

And sthing else.in c5 the nightshade will have aoe hate?and nightshade's heal is it good?it worth it?p def?is nightshade good for pvp and exp.(5%exp!!)
Thx :)

Nightshade already has aoe hate :P and his heal is actually pretty good, i can't remember exactly, but it's around 600 when you first get him. You can be an effective healer if the group already has a buffer (wc or prophet), although, combined with a se you're also really effective (Se buffs/group heals if necessary, and you're primary healer.) I havn't really bothered using nightshade as a tank, as he's more effective as a healer imo. However, his aoe hate and single target hate are really good in mass/small scale pvp because you can ud him, and have him spam hates making it harder for the enemies to target the prime targets.