Shaman Summon Strategies
grippe
Member Posts: 8
Messing around with the Shaman Dance on the first few maps I was. You can't count on anything appearing, maybe one ghostie every 3 rounds, not good enough.
So I picked a spot on the map and started dancing. Eventually I got 2 ghosties, then I kept dancing and sent Imoen around shooting mobs and pulling them back to my spot. This worked just fine, we even killed the Ogre with the Belt Fetish this way. When one ghostie died another took his place the next round, almost like I had a backlog of them from continually dancing.
Maybe this is the best way to use them. Very limited testing though. Opinions?
So I picked a spot on the map and started dancing. Eventually I got 2 ghosties, then I kept dancing and sent Imoen around shooting mobs and pulling them back to my spot. This worked just fine, we even killed the Ogre with the Belt Fetish this way. When one ghostie died another took his place the next round, almost like I had a backlog of them from continually dancing.
Maybe this is the best way to use them. Very limited testing though. Opinions?
1
Comments
You tactic is basically not that different from "run in circles until other char shoots down enemy with arrows". That being said, I do think it is hard to balance a character who has, practically, unlimited summons. However, these summons are not really worth it imho.
Additionally, allowing the shaman to get low-tier summons at higher levels just makes it even more obnoxious and random.
If you want summons and druid spells you are FAR better off with Totemic Druid. I mean, have you seen the stats and immunities and on hit effects they have? Wolfie for example gets both hold and level drain on hit, your very own uber Vampiric Wolf with +6 fangs as soon as level 10!
Have your teammates run in circles while summoning - usually take a round or two - unless you fail then its more like 3 or 4. But I summoned some spirits in time to face the ogre with the belts (still at level 1) and they helped defeat the ogre and later the assassin - was able to summon some spirits but it was M (who got a lucky stab in before getting charmed) and X along with Imoen that cleaned it up - my spirits just tried to hit the assassin - but no luck.
I think that the worse thing is you can't move while doing it at least the bard can sing and move around and the song lingers so the bard can act for one round before it ends.
Also you don't control them at all - although they will attack your enemies but sometimes that just wander around as well - they followed M when he got hit with charm by the assassin at the Friendly Arms. You teammates actually have to drag the monster towards you to get the spirits to attack - again not useful and really dangerous - as you can't run either.
No control + no movement means you are a sitting duck especially since there is no protection for you. If you got a barrier that prevented attacks or something (enemies ignored you while dancing) then it might prove useful but sadly if you want to use the dance effectively its not really possible without some strategy and even then there are easier ways to get summons.
If you want free summons - you can either wait for the skeletons from the cleric spell, bring a druid along, find the mage spells for them or the easiest thing by a wand of monster summoning.