which summon spell for my sorc

[pete]

i haven't had chance to get online lately so haven't heard much about the summons

from this thread:
highergroundpoa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Tavern&action=display&thread=20944&page=3

i gather that if i want the best summons available i need a total of 60 or more on this formula:

CL - 7 + (the level of the summon creature spell - 5) + (number of conj foci) + (a random number between 0 and 4)

so with my sorc, channeling for 63 CL and LSF conj i could use the lvl 5 spell to get the top pool all the time:
63 - 7 + (5-5) + 4 + 0 (adding 0 for the random so i would get it all the time) = 60

is this right?

and is it worth it? reading comments from some threads it seems that the planar binding spells get used more

[pete]

is there anyone who has played with these summons able to advise me?

seems a shame not to take one with LSF conj but its got to be the lvl 5 slot on my build

I cant play my sorc till i commit spells but dont want to risk taking a spell i wont use.....

any advise welcome

[Raj]

if you'd use them for solo farming and are evil alligned, planar binding summons are better, in case get shadows at 5 to have the demon for underwater.
Summon creature spells are already availabe on divine casters and are lil weaker as solo helpers, but their predictability helps when you want to fit them into parties, expecially daos and efreetis are nice to have for abyss runs ( with lot of healers around you really don't want to summon a random dmg helper ).

[pete]

ty

its partly for solo hades and partly group for hell/ely/abo (wouldnt use it in abyss at the moment as i dont know all the healers yet)

toon is neutral
after more testing getting voidwraths, quells and spectral lyrists (and very rarely shadow daemon) from greater shadow conjuration which is quite awesome (plus the spells shadow conj gives anyway)

summon 5 when channeling was giving me Aoa's, Dao's Efreeti and jaani quite frequently, and when not channeling but maximized gave some nice summons

so now i defiantly want one, but I'm not sure which

the lvl 1 persistent blade seems quite nice when channeling and maximized (may as well take it since i don't use that many lvl 1s)

[Werehound Silverfang]

Primal Fire Elementals do fantastically in Hades.

[pete]

is there any way to see the stats of a summon, resists and immunities etc. in more detail than examining its character sheet? as i have been comparing the summons from greater shadow conj and summon 5 (in the test chamber)

they seem to have about the same damage and AB, but the dulv mobs have about 10 lower AC, and wondered if they had some other benefit that made up for it

as I'm only using the test chamber its hard to tell if a summon will use its abilities, does anyone know will a spectral lyricist use curse? and will a Quells aura stop enemy divine casting?

a primal fire elemental is from a lower tear of the summon monster spells right?

[chainlink]

Summons do not use their special abilities as far as I am aware, they are effectively big lumps of meat that wield slashy/stabby/beaty objects with some decent elemental/exotic damage types on them.
There are a few buffs that make them much more impressive but these get dispelled very quickly when they come up against a breaching or mording creature as they have no defence against this.