
Summoner Classes • Mechanics • Summons • Resurrects • Ubers and Videos • Submission Guidelines • Appendix
Changelog
► 2.1
Read the patchnotes here. Will not be commenting on them for the time being, this is just for posterity. However, some of the summon entries below have been corrected with the changes below to make their descriptions more accurate:
https://www.median-xl.com/changelog.php
Archangel Dark Angel: now a Yew Wand base, necro skills now +(3 to 5)
Satanic Mantra: removed minion resist bonus from full set
Archbishop Lazarus:
Set item level increased from 110 to 120
Rebalanced full set bonus stats
Lazarus' Votive Lamp: necromancer skills now +(2 to 4)
Spirit Reave:
Damage increased by 20%
Duration is now 6 seconds, down from 8
Spirit Bond:
New passive skill, requires level 70
Increases spirit reave duration based on the maximum size of your spirit army
Bonus is 8% per Base Level for each additional spirit you can summon
Maximum Base Level is 4
Blood Skeleton:
No longer requires corpse to summon
Reduced mana cost
Increased chance to hit
Increased health
Grim Vision:
Increased crushing blow by 5%
Fixed stat and Skill description mismatch
Night Hawks:
Increased early level and late game damage
Reduced mana cost
Increased chance to hit
Now trigger their proc on death rather than on attack, allowing them to be effective when oversummoned
Violent Immolation:
Now adds 5% + 2% deadly strike per Base Level to Hawks (and Veil King)
No longer adds minion damage to Hawks
Max level is now 10
Abyss Knight:
Reworked their main skill to be more effective
New abyss spell deals 50% physical and 50% magic damage
Increased base health, damage and chance to hit
No longer receives damage synergy from Jinn
Reduced mana cost
Chaos Nova:
New level 50 skill, replaces Abyssal Guard
Passive upgrade that adds a Chaos Nova proc to your Abyss Knights (and Veil King)
Nova deals 100% weapon damage AoE converted to magic
10% chance to cast on Death (works on un/re-summon) per Base Level
0.5% chance to cast on Kill per Base Level
Max Level: 10
Iron Golem: fixed an issue that caused it to have very little attack rating
Metal Solace:
Now adds 50 + 10 life after each kill, which also heals the owner
Now heals 100% of health 5 seconds faster
Max level is now 10
Resurgence:
No longer adds minion avoid, but the health of all summons has been doubled (except Jinn)
Now gains 2% minion damage per soft point, up from 1%
Minion damage per base point increased from 3% to 10%
Doubled minion attack rating bonus
Max level now 5, down from 25
https://www.median-xl.com/changelog.php
Archangel Dark Angel: now a Yew Wand base, necro skills now +(3 to 5)
Satanic Mantra: removed minion resist bonus from full set
Archbishop Lazarus:
Set item level increased from 110 to 120
Rebalanced full set bonus stats
Lazarus' Votive Lamp: necromancer skills now +(2 to 4)
Spirit Reave:
Damage increased by 20%
Duration is now 6 seconds, down from 8
Spirit Bond:
New passive skill, requires level 70
Increases spirit reave duration based on the maximum size of your spirit army
Bonus is 8% per Base Level for each additional spirit you can summon
Maximum Base Level is 4
Blood Skeleton:
No longer requires corpse to summon
Reduced mana cost
Increased chance to hit
Increased health
Grim Vision:
Increased crushing blow by 5%
Fixed stat and Skill description mismatch
Night Hawks:
Increased early level and late game damage
Reduced mana cost
Increased chance to hit
Now trigger their proc on death rather than on attack, allowing them to be effective when oversummoned
Violent Immolation:
Now adds 5% + 2% deadly strike per Base Level to Hawks (and Veil King)
No longer adds minion damage to Hawks
Max level is now 10
Abyss Knight:
Reworked their main skill to be more effective
New abyss spell deals 50% physical and 50% magic damage
Increased base health, damage and chance to hit
No longer receives damage synergy from Jinn
Reduced mana cost
Chaos Nova:
New level 50 skill, replaces Abyssal Guard
Passive upgrade that adds a Chaos Nova proc to your Abyss Knights (and Veil King)
Nova deals 100% weapon damage AoE converted to magic
10% chance to cast on Death (works on un/re-summon) per Base Level
0.5% chance to cast on Kill per Base Level
Max Level: 10
Iron Golem: fixed an issue that caused it to have very little attack rating
Metal Solace:
Now adds 50 + 10 life after each kill, which also heals the owner
Now heals 100% of health 5 seconds faster
Max level is now 10
Resurgence:
No longer adds minion avoid, but the health of all summons has been doubled (except Jinn)
Now gains 2% minion damage per soft point, up from 1%
Minion damage per base point increased from 3% to 10%
Doubled minion attack rating bonus
Max level now 5, down from 25
► 1.7
Regular text indicates direct patch notes quotations, white text indicates my comments on them.
Summon relevant parts:
- Q: What changes will I see to skills and items?
A: The following were reduced: Enhanced Weapon Damage modifiers, bonus elemental damage to weapons and skills, Energy damage bonuses, Minion Damage modifiers, damage numbers on skills not affected by the previous stats (for example: Purify, Psi Crown, Immersion).
- Q: Do these changes mean my character got nerfed?
A: No, the killspeed of most builds will not be affected as monsters have had their HP values halved as well. Pure physical weapon damage builds (including damage conversion) will see a very small reduction in damage in the late endgame, to compensate for the fact that competing damage sources were never balanced around the bugged numbers. Life leech penalty was reduced accordingly.
- Monsters using Shower of Rocks have had the skill replaced as it will be too lethal after current patch changes.
+ This means that Shower of Rocks is unavailable on reanimates, making mercenaries with procs more crucial to Summoners.
- Shower of Rocks: Replaced attack speed debuff with -5% to physical resistance
Increased movement speed debuff to -25%, up from -15%
Changed attack rating debuff formula to -(10 + 1% per skill level)
+ This is generally a buff to Shower of Rocks, particularly with the physical resistance debuff.
+ Most Uber balance changes did not affect summoners in any significant way. The Kabraxis change simply makes the application of damage more consistent by replacing avoid with damage reduction. Primus deals less damage, but has more life. Jitan is still easy. The other changes are negligible. Dimensional Labyrinths are somewhat more lethal to most builds now, including summoners.
- Reduced the effectiveness of physical and magic resistance debuffing skills. Reduced the physical and magic resistances of endgame bosses to compensate. These debuffs were creating a very large damage output difference between builds with and without them. Now the debuffs are less effective and the base monster resistance is lower, evening out the playing field a bit better.
+ The above change is most noticeable for the Bane skill, native to the Necromancer. This is thus an indirect buff to Barbarian and other physical attack summoners in the context of endgame bosses.
- All stances have been changed from auras to buffs, thus freeing up the right mouse button for skill use
These buffs last 20 minutes, overwrite each other and can be turned off upon a recast
oSkill version of these skills have been replaced with auras (i.e. Auriel's Robe) where possible and removed/replaced otherwise, to prevent prebuff abuse
oSkill stances will overwrite Barbarian stances (if present)
+ Stance changes are now long-duration buffs rather than auras. This means that Stance Radius is no longer a relevant passive stat, meaning that any source of a Stance will globally apply the buff to your minions. This is immensely useful for non-Barbarians. Even for Barbarians, this is hugely useful because you get use of both mouse buttons for skill usage or the walk-only command. Finally, the technology for stance not being on right click is here.
- Acid Fiends:
Renamed to Harvesters
Modified sprite, now cast Harvest
Chance to cast spell on attack increased by 33%
Acid aura now works in town
Mana cost increased by 20%
+ Basically, Acid Fiends seem the same numerically. There was no mention of a change to their aura, meaning that it likely still provides Poison Spell Damage, Attack Speed, and Movement Speed at the same values. The Druid Summoner may or may not have been buffed by the changes to Poison Flash (now called Harvest), but we'll have to wait and see on that one.
- Bear Companion:
New Hunter skill, replacing Nova Shot
Summons a sturdy bear which draws enemy aggro and attacks in melee
Not affected by minion damage stats. Inherits your weapon physical and elemental stats such as damage, Attack Rating, ele pierce, Deadly Strike etc.
Inherits your physical resistance
Does not gain elemental resistances per skill level, but has 15/0/-15 elemental resistances on Normal/Nightmare/Hell
Casts Rend and Heart of the Pack
Heart of the Pack makes your Hunter skills not consume steady aim and regenerates your life
+ Bear Companion is not intended to be a summoner's summon. It is intended as a complementary skill to the Bow Druid build. It doesn't scale off of the usual Minion Damage stats and scales instead with Bow Druid attacker stats. As such, it will not be discussed as a summoner skill.
- Rathma's Chosen: clarified skill description to indicate necromancer minions only
- Nephalem Spirit: clarified on tooltip that it also affects your ancient spirits
+ Nice QoL changes; keep in mind that these skills always worked in this way. The tooltips were merely unclear about the way in which they worked.
- Familiar: is now a passive instead of a minion with an aura
+ This means that Familiar is a Sorceress-specific passive rather than a Relic with an Aura that can apply to one's other summons and party members. As such, Familiar will be relegated to the "Legacy Summons" section of the guide. Summoner Sorceresses can no longer act as supports to their party members.
- Summon Edyrem:
Halved avoid, replaced with 50% damage reduction
Can no longer be summoned outside of Toraja
Increased health by 50%
+ Edyrems are no longer a "free" summon for every class. This change means that obtaining a Summon relic or having an innate Summon skill is more useful to classes who have them, for the usual purposes of creating meatshields or distractions to lure enemies away from a large pack in dangerous places like the Dimensional Labyrinth. The changes to Edyrem life make Toraja more bearable if you're hunting for the charm specifically, but you still won't farm it without the set.
- Relics: Increased drop chance by 20%
Removed certain relics which were misleading, useless or else:
Dead Wall Totem
Elvensong
Exploding Totem
Fear Bomb Totem
Summon Bane Monster
Summon Darklings
Summon Daystar
Summon Shock Beast
Summon Siren
Summon Shredder
The removal leaves a total of 300 relics, making each one slightly easier to find than before
+ This change is quite massive. As this guide documents, all of the removed Relics were basically D-tier useless, hardly even good as meatshields. With this change, the better Relics are more obtainable, which is a good thing for everyone. All of the removed Summons will be documented in the "Legacy Summons" section of this guide.
- Relics: Rathma's Chosen: Evocation Aura now works
Summon Overlord: now adds minion damage
+ These changes are buffs to some of the strongest Summoner Relics in the game. The Evocation Aura is mostly just a nice touch since 4% Deadly Strike is effectively a 2% increase in damage and the increased Attack Speed may not be useful enough to change a monster's Frames per Animation as per this comment from Marco:

The Overlord change is uncertain. It either replaced the scaling Maximum Life that was on the Relic (which means the change isn't that great, since that life was quite useful and we don't know the magnitude of the Minion Damage being added) or the effect was added to the Dark Legion Aura effect on Overlord, which is great. Either way, we'll have to wait and see.
- Silks of the Victor: fixed a bug where the Nephalem Spirit aura was adding less damage than intended and not adding Innate Elemental Damage
+ It's probably still quite bad. Additional flat elemental damage is a side-benefit, not a major cornerstone of a physical attack summoner build. It also does nothing for casters. Lack of pierce makes this bonus especially mediocre for summons.
- Buried Hawk: will no longer drop. It varied too much between useless and incredibly strong, with no interesting way to balance it in between. Also confused players with skills which depended on Base Levels.
+ This change is a bit of a shame since it provided cool potential for min-max, but getting a good one was virtually impossible in Ladder. As such, certain summons are available only to their Innate class.
- Undead Crown: Deadly Strike conversion doubled, due to halving of minion damage stat
+ As it says, this helm does the same thing as before. Still a neat damage bonus for Barbarian Summoners.
- Gravetalon:
Fixed summon proc triggering a short cooldown
Reduced proc chance to 20% to prevent excessive resummoning with new lower minion cap
+ The minion cap is still 5 Ice Elementals. This weapon is niche anyways.
- Alnair:
Fixed summon proc triggering a short cooldown
Replaced minion damage with 150% Enhanced Weapon Damage, Enhanced Damage is now always 200%
+ Alnair is now a more consistent attacking weapon, but now almost entirely useless to Summoners as a stat-stick. This is an indirect nerf to non-Barbarian and Necromancer summoners, who naturally had less weapon options in the first place. The Blade Spirits are more of a thematic addition rather than an actual Summoner tool. As such, the relevant Summon will be lowered in tier due to the associated weapon being less useful to Summoners.
- Removed Colliding Fury, replaced with new item: Giyua's Grace
+ Colliding Fury's stats were as follows:

As such, Barbarians should use other options for Summoner weapons. This was mostly a niche choice anyways, so the change is not hugely impactful. The new item that replaced it has nothing to do with Summoners.
- Sanctuary: now allows you to summon Edyrem everywhere
+ Most people don't wear this set outside of Toraja. Edyrems are not bad attackers when you have a full complement of Edyrem-boosting charms (although they're still inferior to most innate summons with full Summoner gear and skill trees), but keep in mind that the Sanctuary set takes the place of three pieces of gear that could buff your other summons. In essence, this set's new effect is pointless.
- Satanic Mantra: replaced 3 piece bonus with 50% minion damage and +2 to Necromancer Skills
+ The previous set effect of Satanic Mantra was as follows:

This is a straight buff to this Necromancer set, as the previous effect was negligible (Snake Stance was a joke, Stance Radius was useful but new Stances have made Stance Radius an irrelevant stat).
Here is a comparison of the two set effects after the 1.7 patch (excluding less notably defensive/auxiliary stats like %Energy, %FHR, etc).

Ultimately, I would say that the full Satanic Mantra set is a step below the Lazarus set because of the resistance loss. However, maximum resistances are less important in a non-boss farming context, which happen to be where summoners excel. As such, the full Satanic Mantra set is an easy substitute for middling crafted gear.
Summon relevant parts:
- Q: What changes will I see to skills and items?
A: The following were reduced: Enhanced Weapon Damage modifiers, bonus elemental damage to weapons and skills, Energy damage bonuses, Minion Damage modifiers, damage numbers on skills not affected by the previous stats (for example: Purify, Psi Crown, Immersion).
- Q: Do these changes mean my character got nerfed?
A: No, the killspeed of most builds will not be affected as monsters have had their HP values halved as well. Pure physical weapon damage builds (including damage conversion) will see a very small reduction in damage in the late endgame, to compensate for the fact that competing damage sources were never balanced around the bugged numbers. Life leech penalty was reduced accordingly.
- Monsters using Shower of Rocks have had the skill replaced as it will be too lethal after current patch changes.
+ This means that Shower of Rocks is unavailable on reanimates, making mercenaries with procs more crucial to Summoners.
- Shower of Rocks: Replaced attack speed debuff with -5% to physical resistance
Increased movement speed debuff to -25%, up from -15%
Changed attack rating debuff formula to -(10 + 1% per skill level)
+ This is generally a buff to Shower of Rocks, particularly with the physical resistance debuff.
+ Most Uber balance changes did not affect summoners in any significant way. The Kabraxis change simply makes the application of damage more consistent by replacing avoid with damage reduction. Primus deals less damage, but has more life. Jitan is still easy. The other changes are negligible. Dimensional Labyrinths are somewhat more lethal to most builds now, including summoners.
- Reduced the effectiveness of physical and magic resistance debuffing skills. Reduced the physical and magic resistances of endgame bosses to compensate. These debuffs were creating a very large damage output difference between builds with and without them. Now the debuffs are less effective and the base monster resistance is lower, evening out the playing field a bit better.
+ The above change is most noticeable for the Bane skill, native to the Necromancer. This is thus an indirect buff to Barbarian and other physical attack summoners in the context of endgame bosses.
- All stances have been changed from auras to buffs, thus freeing up the right mouse button for skill use
These buffs last 20 minutes, overwrite each other and can be turned off upon a recast
oSkill version of these skills have been replaced with auras (i.e. Auriel's Robe) where possible and removed/replaced otherwise, to prevent prebuff abuse
oSkill stances will overwrite Barbarian stances (if present)
+ Stance changes are now long-duration buffs rather than auras. This means that Stance Radius is no longer a relevant passive stat, meaning that any source of a Stance will globally apply the buff to your minions. This is immensely useful for non-Barbarians. Even for Barbarians, this is hugely useful because you get use of both mouse buttons for skill usage or the walk-only command. Finally, the technology for stance not being on right click is here.
- Acid Fiends:
Renamed to Harvesters
Modified sprite, now cast Harvest
Chance to cast spell on attack increased by 33%
Acid aura now works in town
Mana cost increased by 20%
+ Basically, Acid Fiends seem the same numerically. There was no mention of a change to their aura, meaning that it likely still provides Poison Spell Damage, Attack Speed, and Movement Speed at the same values. The Druid Summoner may or may not have been buffed by the changes to Poison Flash (now called Harvest), but we'll have to wait and see on that one.
- Bear Companion:
New Hunter skill, replacing Nova Shot
Summons a sturdy bear which draws enemy aggro and attacks in melee
Not affected by minion damage stats. Inherits your weapon physical and elemental stats such as damage, Attack Rating, ele pierce, Deadly Strike etc.
Inherits your physical resistance
Does not gain elemental resistances per skill level, but has 15/0/-15 elemental resistances on Normal/Nightmare/Hell
Casts Rend and Heart of the Pack
Heart of the Pack makes your Hunter skills not consume steady aim and regenerates your life
+ Bear Companion is not intended to be a summoner's summon. It is intended as a complementary skill to the Bow Druid build. It doesn't scale off of the usual Minion Damage stats and scales instead with Bow Druid attacker stats. As such, it will not be discussed as a summoner skill.
- Rathma's Chosen: clarified skill description to indicate necromancer minions only
- Nephalem Spirit: clarified on tooltip that it also affects your ancient spirits
+ Nice QoL changes; keep in mind that these skills always worked in this way. The tooltips were merely unclear about the way in which they worked.
- Familiar: is now a passive instead of a minion with an aura
+ This means that Familiar is a Sorceress-specific passive rather than a Relic with an Aura that can apply to one's other summons and party members. As such, Familiar will be relegated to the "Legacy Summons" section of the guide. Summoner Sorceresses can no longer act as supports to their party members.
- Summon Edyrem:
Halved avoid, replaced with 50% damage reduction
Can no longer be summoned outside of Toraja
Increased health by 50%
+ Edyrems are no longer a "free" summon for every class. This change means that obtaining a Summon relic or having an innate Summon skill is more useful to classes who have them, for the usual purposes of creating meatshields or distractions to lure enemies away from a large pack in dangerous places like the Dimensional Labyrinth. The changes to Edyrem life make Toraja more bearable if you're hunting for the charm specifically, but you still won't farm it without the set.
- Relics: Increased drop chance by 20%
Removed certain relics which were misleading, useless or else:
Dead Wall Totem
Elvensong
Exploding Totem
Fear Bomb Totem
Summon Bane Monster
Summon Darklings
Summon Daystar
Summon Shock Beast
Summon Siren
Summon Shredder
The removal leaves a total of 300 relics, making each one slightly easier to find than before
+ This change is quite massive. As this guide documents, all of the removed Relics were basically D-tier useless, hardly even good as meatshields. With this change, the better Relics are more obtainable, which is a good thing for everyone. All of the removed Summons will be documented in the "Legacy Summons" section of this guide.
- Relics: Rathma's Chosen: Evocation Aura now works
Summon Overlord: now adds minion damage
+ These changes are buffs to some of the strongest Summoner Relics in the game. The Evocation Aura is mostly just a nice touch since 4% Deadly Strike is effectively a 2% increase in damage and the increased Attack Speed may not be useful enough to change a monster's Frames per Animation as per this comment from Marco:

The Overlord change is uncertain. It either replaced the scaling Maximum Life that was on the Relic (which means the change isn't that great, since that life was quite useful and we don't know the magnitude of the Minion Damage being added) or the effect was added to the Dark Legion Aura effect on Overlord, which is great. Either way, we'll have to wait and see.
- Silks of the Victor: fixed a bug where the Nephalem Spirit aura was adding less damage than intended and not adding Innate Elemental Damage
+ It's probably still quite bad. Additional flat elemental damage is a side-benefit, not a major cornerstone of a physical attack summoner build. It also does nothing for casters. Lack of pierce makes this bonus especially mediocre for summons.
- Buried Hawk: will no longer drop. It varied too much between useless and incredibly strong, with no interesting way to balance it in between. Also confused players with skills which depended on Base Levels.
+ This change is a bit of a shame since it provided cool potential for min-max, but getting a good one was virtually impossible in Ladder. As such, certain summons are available only to their Innate class.
- Undead Crown: Deadly Strike conversion doubled, due to halving of minion damage stat
+ As it says, this helm does the same thing as before. Still a neat damage bonus for Barbarian Summoners.
- Gravetalon:
Fixed summon proc triggering a short cooldown
Reduced proc chance to 20% to prevent excessive resummoning with new lower minion cap
+ The minion cap is still 5 Ice Elementals. This weapon is niche anyways.
- Alnair:
Fixed summon proc triggering a short cooldown
Replaced minion damage with 150% Enhanced Weapon Damage, Enhanced Damage is now always 200%
+ Alnair is now a more consistent attacking weapon, but now almost entirely useless to Summoners as a stat-stick. This is an indirect nerf to non-Barbarian and Necromancer summoners, who naturally had less weapon options in the first place. The Blade Spirits are more of a thematic addition rather than an actual Summoner tool. As such, the relevant Summon will be lowered in tier due to the associated weapon being less useful to Summoners.
- Removed Colliding Fury, replaced with new item: Giyua's Grace
+ Colliding Fury's stats were as follows:

As such, Barbarians should use other options for Summoner weapons. This was mostly a niche choice anyways, so the change is not hugely impactful. The new item that replaced it has nothing to do with Summoners.
- Sanctuary: now allows you to summon Edyrem everywhere
+ Most people don't wear this set outside of Toraja. Edyrems are not bad attackers when you have a full complement of Edyrem-boosting charms (although they're still inferior to most innate summons with full Summoner gear and skill trees), but keep in mind that the Sanctuary set takes the place of three pieces of gear that could buff your other summons. In essence, this set's new effect is pointless.
- Satanic Mantra: replaced 3 piece bonus with 50% minion damage and +2 to Necromancer Skills
+ The previous set effect of Satanic Mantra was as follows:

This is a straight buff to this Necromancer set, as the previous effect was negligible (Snake Stance was a joke, Stance Radius was useful but new Stances have made Stance Radius an irrelevant stat).
Here is a comparison of the two set effects after the 1.7 patch (excluding less notably defensive/auxiliary stats like %Energy, %FHR, etc).

Ultimately, I would say that the full Satanic Mantra set is a step below the Lazarus set because of the resistance loss. However, maximum resistances are less important in a non-boss farming context, which happen to be where summoners excel. As such, the full Satanic Mantra set is an easy substitute for middling crafted gear.
► 1.6.2
- Guide was created.
Introduction
This is not an all-inclusive and comprehensive guide to summoners. This is a guide to summons that I decided to create because many summons have become available across different classes and summoner types with the implementation of Relics (Cornerstones of the World) in Sigma patch 1.6.
Naturally, the different summoner archetypes will handle summons and endgame content in various ways, so there will be some cursory information about each summoner archetype and their capabilities.
If you want more detailed guides to summoners, including leveling processes and leveling items, please consult the following guides.
► Summoner Guides
Summoner Classes
Here, I will briefly touch on what each type of summoner gets as part of their innate skill tree, as well as any notable Sacred Uniques, exclusive Set Items, or Runewords that they can access.
Barbarian:
► Summon Baba Summary
- Has no issues wearing gear because he only levels Strength
- Innate 3 second cooldown warpstrike
- Innate Wolf Stance for comfy movement speed and good clear speed (Ideal for Toraja farm) with screen-wide stance radius
- Innate Bear Stance for huge defense and Physical Resistance cap with screen-wide stance radius
- Can scale up to have a large amount of summons that protect from projectiles, clear swathes of the screen (especially in Teganze), and can be easily resummoned. Gets anywhere from 2 of each to 12+ of each summon (6 to 36 in total).
- ~600% Minion Life from Shamanic Trance alone, applies to all Minions
- Innate Avoid (10-35%) While Standing Still, faster hit recovery (4 FPA, 2nd best breakpoint), cast speed (9 FPA, best breakpoint, 7 FPA if dualwielding swords)
- High potential for Defense (400k - 1mil+) depending on active stance, Reward skill choice and gear crafts.
- Has highly reliable Sacred Uniques (
- Has accessible craftable Runewords and Tiered Uniques that can carry before then (
- Has endgame DPS upgrade that can help with 125+ Ubers (
Summary: The tankier/easy AOE clear of Summoners due to all the free stats/class mechanics, but can suffer from low damage if not optimized at earlier stages. Cannot reach the damage potential of Necromancers, and his summons offer support through Bloodlust and being distractions.
Content cap: Everything short of anti-summon Ubers and solo high-tier Dimensional Labyrinths, where summons melt like paper. Also, lab bosses can be scary.
Tips: Get crafted double minion damage jewels (15-21%) as you can, alongside the usual SUs. Don't skimp on charms: These will increase survivability drastically. Teleport (
- Innate 3 second cooldown warpstrike
- Innate Wolf Stance for comfy movement speed and good clear speed (Ideal for Toraja farm) with screen-wide stance radius
- Innate Bear Stance for huge defense and Physical Resistance cap with screen-wide stance radius
- Can scale up to have a large amount of summons that protect from projectiles, clear swathes of the screen (especially in Teganze), and can be easily resummoned. Gets anywhere from 2 of each to 12+ of each summon (6 to 36 in total).
- ~600% Minion Life from Shamanic Trance alone, applies to all Minions
- Innate Avoid (10-35%) While Standing Still, faster hit recovery (4 FPA, 2nd best breakpoint), cast speed (9 FPA, best breakpoint, 7 FPA if dualwielding swords)
- High potential for Defense (400k - 1mil+) depending on active stance, Reward skill choice and gear crafts.
- Has highly reliable Sacred Uniques (
Gladiator's Rage
, 
Gladiator's Rage
Spatha (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: 46 to 48
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 500
Item Level: 120
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Strength)%
4% Chance to cast level 16 Bloodlust when Struck
+(2 to 4) to Barbarian Skill Levels
+(1 to 2) to Maximum Barbarian Minions
40% Cast Speed
+(50 to 75)% to Summoned Minion Life
+50% to Summoned Minion Damage
+50% to Summoned Minion Resistances
(10 to 30)% Gold Find
(10 to 30)% Magic Find
+(3 to 5) to Light Radius
Socketed (3)
Spatha (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: 46 to 48
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 500
Item Level: 120
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Strength)%
4% Chance to cast level 16 Bloodlust when Struck
+(2 to 4) to Barbarian Skill Levels
+(1 to 2) to Maximum Barbarian Minions
40% Cast Speed
+(50 to 75)% to Summoned Minion Life
+50% to Summoned Minion Damage
+50% to Summoned Minion Resistances
(10 to 30)% Gold Find
(10 to 30)% Magic Find
+(3 to 5) to Light Radius
Socketed (3)
Toraja's Champion
, 
Toraja's Champion
Gilded Shield (Sacred)
Defense: (7944 - 8978) to (9847 - 11129)
Chance to Block: 1%
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 700
Item Level: 105
+(2 to 3) to Barbarian Skill Levels
+2 to Maximum Barbarian Minions
+(30 to 38)% Damage to Protector Spirit Bloodlust
40% Cast Speed
+(21 to 25)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(115 to 143)% Enhanced Defense
+500 to Life
+250 to Mana
Elemental Resists +10%
+10 Life on Striking
+(6 to 7) Mana on Striking
Socketed (4)
Gilded Shield (Sacred)
Defense: (7944 - 8978) to (9847 - 11129)
Chance to Block: 1%
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 700
Item Level: 105
+(2 to 3) to Barbarian Skill Levels
+2 to Maximum Barbarian Minions
+(30 to 38)% Damage to Protector Spirit Bloodlust
40% Cast Speed
+(21 to 25)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(115 to 143)% Enhanced Defense
+500 to Life
+250 to Mana
Elemental Resists +10%
+10 Life on Striking
+(6 to 7) Mana on Striking
Socketed (4)
Shadowtwin
) that become cheaper midway through season. 
Shadowtwin
Fanged Helm (Sacred)
Defense: (2978 - 3285) to (3149 - 3474)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 500
Item Level: 105
Summon Two Ancient Spirits per Cast
+2 to Barbarian Skill Levels
+(41 to 50)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(31 to 40)% to Summoned Minion Resistances
+(172 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
Cold Resist +40%
Socketed (4)
Fanged Helm (Sacred)
Defense: (2978 - 3285) to (3149 - 3474)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 500
Item Level: 105
Summon Two Ancient Spirits per Cast
+2 to Barbarian Skill Levels
+(41 to 50)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(31 to 40)% to Summoned Minion Resistances
+(172 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
Cold Resist +40%
Socketed (4)
- Has accessible craftable Runewords and Tiered Uniques that can carry before then (
Uldyssian's Legion
x2, 
Uldyssian's Legion
Bronze Sword (4)
One-Hand Damage: (11 - 12) to (12 - 14)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 9
Required Strength: 82
Item Level: 19
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Strength)%
+1 to Barbarian Skill Levels
15% Attack Speed
15% Cast Speed
+(24 to 40)% Enhanced Damage
+(3 to 5)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(6 to 8)% to Summoned Minion Damage
Maximum Mana +(21 to 25)%
Elemental Resists +(5 to 7)%
Socketed (2)
One-Hand Damage: (28 - 31) to (33 - 36)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 27
Required Strength: 124
Item Level: 40
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Strength)%
+2 to Barbarian Skill Levels
25% Attack Speed
25% Cast Speed
+(58 to 75)% Enhanced Damage
+(9 to 11)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(11 to 13)% to Summoned Minion Damage
Maximum Mana +(31 to 35)%
Elemental Resists +(8 to 10)%
Socketed (4)
One-Hand Damage: (59 - 64) to (71 - 77)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 46
Required Strength: 244
Item Level: 59
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Strength)%
+3 to Barbarian Skill Levels
35% Attack Speed
35% Cast Speed
+(92 to 109)% Enhanced Damage
+(15 to 17)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(16 to 18)% to Summoned Minion Damage
Maximum Mana +(41 to 45)%
Elemental Resists +(11 to 12)%
Socketed (5)
One-Hand Damage: (77 - 83) to (94 - 101)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 55
Required Strength: 482
Item Level: 85
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Strength)%
+(3 to 4) to Barbarian Skill Levels
40% Attack Speed
40% Cast Speed
+(109 to 126)% Enhanced Damage
+(18 to 20)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(19 to 20)% to Summoned Minion Damage
Maximum Mana +(46 to 50)%
Elemental Resists +(13 to 15)%
Socketed (6)
Bronze Sword (4)
One-Hand Damage: (11 - 12) to (12 - 14)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 9
Required Strength: 82
Item Level: 19
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Strength)%
+1 to Barbarian Skill Levels
15% Attack Speed
15% Cast Speed
+(24 to 40)% Enhanced Damage
+(3 to 5)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(6 to 8)% to Summoned Minion Damage
Maximum Mana +(21 to 25)%
Elemental Resists +(5 to 7)%
Socketed (2)
One-Hand Damage: (28 - 31) to (33 - 36)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 27
Required Strength: 124
Item Level: 40
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Strength)%
+2 to Barbarian Skill Levels
25% Attack Speed
25% Cast Speed
+(58 to 75)% Enhanced Damage
+(9 to 11)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(11 to 13)% to Summoned Minion Damage
Maximum Mana +(31 to 35)%
Elemental Resists +(8 to 10)%
Socketed (4)
One-Hand Damage: (59 - 64) to (71 - 77)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 46
Required Strength: 244
Item Level: 59
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Strength)%
+3 to Barbarian Skill Levels
35% Attack Speed
35% Cast Speed
+(92 to 109)% Enhanced Damage
+(15 to 17)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(16 to 18)% to Summoned Minion Damage
Maximum Mana +(41 to 45)%
Elemental Resists +(11 to 12)%
Socketed (5)
One-Hand Damage: (77 - 83) to (94 - 101)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 55
Required Strength: 482
Item Level: 85
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Strength)%
+(3 to 4) to Barbarian Skill Levels
40% Attack Speed
40% Cast Speed
+(109 to 126)% Enhanced Damage
+(18 to 20)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(19 to 20)% to Summoned Minion Damage
Maximum Mana +(46 to 50)%
Elemental Resists +(13 to 15)%
Socketed (6)
Spirit Teacher's Headdress
, 
Spirit Teacher's Headdress
Avenger Guard (4)
Defense: (126 - 145) to (188 - 217)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 10
Required Strength: 27 to 28
Item Level: 19
+(16 to 20)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(9 to 10)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(24 to 43)% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana +(21 to 25)%
Elemental Resists +(11 to 15)%
Requirements -(11 to 15)%
Socketed (2)
Defense: (441 - 492) to (618 - 689)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 28
Required Strength: 47 to 49
Item Level: 40
+(26 to 30)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(14 to 15)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(64 to 83)% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana +(31 to 35)%
Elemental Resists +(21 to 25)%
Requirements -(21 to 25)%
Socketed (2)
Defense: (1122 - 1226) to (1548 - 1692)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 46
Required Strength: 142 to 151
Item Level: 67
+(36 to 40)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(19 to 20)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(104 to 123)% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana +(41 to 45)%
Elemental Resists +(31 to 35)%
Requirements -(31 to 35)%
Socketed (3)
Defense: (1684 - 1827) to (2302 - 2498)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 54
Required Strength: 262 to 280
Item Level: 85
+(41 to 45)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(21 to 23)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(124 to 143)% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana +(46 to 50)%
Elemental Resists +(36 to 40)%
Requirements -(36 to 40)%
Socketed (4)
Avenger Guard (4)
Defense: (126 - 145) to (188 - 217)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 10
Required Strength: 27 to 28
Item Level: 19
+(16 to 20)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(9 to 10)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(24 to 43)% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana +(21 to 25)%
Elemental Resists +(11 to 15)%
Requirements -(11 to 15)%
Socketed (2)
Defense: (441 - 492) to (618 - 689)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 28
Required Strength: 47 to 49
Item Level: 40
+(26 to 30)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(14 to 15)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(64 to 83)% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana +(31 to 35)%
Elemental Resists +(21 to 25)%
Requirements -(21 to 25)%
Socketed (2)
Defense: (1122 - 1226) to (1548 - 1692)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 46
Required Strength: 142 to 151
Item Level: 67
+(36 to 40)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(19 to 20)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(104 to 123)% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana +(41 to 45)%
Elemental Resists +(31 to 35)%
Requirements -(31 to 35)%
Socketed (3)
Defense: (1684 - 1827) to (2302 - 2498)
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 54
Required Strength: 262 to 280
Item Level: 85
+(41 to 45)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(21 to 23)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(124 to 143)% Enhanced Defense
Regenerate Mana +(46 to 50)%
Elemental Resists +(36 to 40)%
Requirements -(36 to 40)%
Socketed (4)
Morthwyrtha

, 

Morthwyrtha
Barbarian Helms
'IoSur'
Runeword Level: 75
+(3 to 4) to Barbarian Skill Levels
+1 to Maximum Barbarian Minions
+3 to Banish
+(16 to 20)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(50 to 75)% to Summoned Minion Attack Rating
Regenerate Mana +(6 to 10)%
Barbarian Helms
'IoSur'
Runeword Level: 75
+(3 to 4) to Barbarian Skill Levels
+1 to Maximum Barbarian Minions
+3 to Banish
+(16 to 20)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(50 to 75)% to Summoned Minion Attack Rating
Regenerate Mana +(6 to 10)%
Khan
)- Has endgame DPS upgrade that can help with 125+ Ubers (
Undead Crown
+ 
Undead Crown
Crown (Sacred)
Defense: 4437 to 4914
Required Level: 110
Required Strength: 675
Item Level: 120
12% of Minion Damage Increases Added as Deadly Strike
40% of Minion Life Increases Added as Bonus to Defense
Deal No Crushing Blows
Orb Effects Applied to this Item are Doubled
50% Attack Speed
+200% Enhanced Defense
Socketed (4)
Crown (Sacred)
Defense: 4437 to 4914
Required Level: 110
Required Strength: 675
Item Level: 120
12% of Minion Damage Increases Added as Deadly Strike
40% of Minion Life Increases Added as Bonus to Defense
Deal No Crushing Blows
Orb Effects Applied to this Item are Doubled
50% Attack Speed
+200% Enhanced Defense
Socketed (4)
Skeld's Battlesong
) and better Fauztinville farm.
Skeld's Battlesong
Kriegsmesser (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: 53 to 57
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 642
Item Level: 105
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Strength)%
Guardian Spirits Inherit 100% of Your Deadly Strike
+(3 to 5) to Barbarian Skill Levels
1% Base Block Chance
+(13 to 25)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(25 to 75) to Vitality
Regenerate Mana +(10 to 30)%
Maximum Lightning Resist +(1 to 2)%
Socketed (6)
Kriegsmesser (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: 53 to 57
(Barbarian Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 642
Item Level: 105
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.14 per Strength)%
Guardian Spirits Inherit 100% of Your Deadly Strike
+(3 to 5) to Barbarian Skill Levels
1% Base Block Chance
+(13 to 25)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(25 to 75) to Vitality
Regenerate Mana +(10 to 30)%
Maximum Lightning Resist +(1 to 2)%
Socketed (6)
Summary: The tankier/easy AOE clear of Summoners due to all the free stats/class mechanics, but can suffer from low damage if not optimized at earlier stages. Cannot reach the damage potential of Necromancers, and his summons offer support through Bloodlust and being distractions.
Content cap: Everything short of anti-summon Ubers and solo high-tier Dimensional Labyrinths, where summons melt like paper. Also, lab bosses can be scary.
Tips: Get crafted double minion damage jewels (15-21%) as you can, alongside the usual SUs. Don't skimp on charms: These will increase survivability drastically. Teleport (
Books of Kalan
) + Spirit Walk + Wolf Stance = Very fast, alongside minions with enough damage to keep up.
Books of Kalan
Required Level: 130
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
+1 to All Skills
+(3 to 15) to Teleport
+25 to Life
+50 to Mana
Required Level: 130
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
+1 to All Skills
+(3 to 15) to Teleport
+25 to Life
+50 to Mana
► Detailed Skills
For more information on Barbarian's innate summons, refer to the Summons section.
Nephalem Spirit: % of Base Strength, Vitality, and Dexterity added as Fire/Lightning Damage to Attacks. Also grants innate Elemental Damage (irrelevant to Summoners). Counts as a "Spirit" skill, so You must choose between this and Runemaster. Max this skill if you pick it, or just dump points (based on preference). Realistically caps at 2961 – 4410 per element before enemy resistance applies. Not hugely notable, but it exists. (Level 90 Reward skill)
Runemaster: 3-23% Total Character Defense bonus per socketed Rune. Sockets can range from 24 to 32 total on gear, assuming max sockets on all pieces and based on what’s used in the weapon/offhand slots. You must choose between this and Nephalem Spirit. Jewels have more bonuses than Runes; Runemaster is ideal for early season when you have no ACs, no Jewels, but plenty of Runes. This equates to a 72 – 736% Total Character Defense bonus with the capped effect of Runemaster (~base level 22). (Level 90 Reward skill)
Thundergod: Active buff, long duration. Stun length to attacks (irrelevant to summoners) and periodic (15s cooldown) stun nova with approximate range of ~16 yards, inflicting a 1 second stun. Marginally useful, 1 point only. (Level 115 Black Road skill)
Immortal: Passive. Grants 10% chance to Avoid Damage when standing still at base level, +1% per base level, capped at 35%. Grants 20% faster Hit Recovery, scales with soft levels. Both are useful stats, this is a dump skill when you have no other uses for points or max (preference). (Level 80 Ennead skill)
Ancient Blood: Passive. Grants % Attack Speed base, +2% per base level. Grants % maximum Life, increased by 0.5% per slvl. Grants +1 to Maximum Skill Levels, +1 per 4 base levels. Mostly a 1 point wonder, but sometimes worthwhile for extra levels into Shamanic Trance if you’re close enough to a breakpoint with minimal investment into Ancient Blood. (Level 6 Support Skill)
Spirit Guide: Passive. Grants 20% Bonus Defense base, +15% per Base Level. Grants 20% Weapon Physical Damage (irrelevant to summoners) and 20% Cast Speed base, scales with slvl. Bonuses only apply when near a Wolf Companion. Functionally, this skill caps your casting frames as a Barbarian just with 1 point allocated. (Level 18 Support skill)
Mountain King: Passive. Grants 1% to All Attributes base. Increased by 1.5% per base level and by 0.75% per slvl. Another 1 point wonder. (Level 24 Support skill)
Bear Stance: Stance skill. Stance effects are only active when selected as the right-mouse button skill. Ignore defense of Undead targets (sometimes useful for summons). Grants 12% Bonus Defense and 20% Physical Resistance to the summoner and his summons, increased by 12% Bonus Defense per slvl and 1% Physical Resistance per base level. Level this until you have 50% Physical Resistance with it active, which will depend on your gear, charms, and trophies. Stances have a base radius of X yards. Very useful for its defensive bonuses. (Level 12 Stance skill).
Wolf Stance: Stance skill. Stance effects are only active when selected as the right-mouse button skill. Grants 10% Crushing Blow, 40% Movement Speed, 29% increased Attack Speed, 20% Physical Damage, and 29% increased Hit Recovery at base. Gains 1.5% Crushing Blow per base level and 2% movement speed per base level. Gains 4% Attack Speed, 4% Hit Recovery, and 15% Physical Damage per slvl. Very popular offensive stance used by Bowzons and any other attacker who can get the 2pc set effect of Curse of the Zakarum. Or any Barbarian, for free. This has better returns per level than Protector Spirit, so I would advocate getting levels in this as a dump skill as well, depending on how you feel about defense vs. offense (better offense = better farming when your summons tank for you). Stances have a base radius of X yards. (Level 24 Stance skill).
Shamanic Trance: Active buff. Grants Weapon Damage and Strength Factor to the summoner (mostly irrelevant). Grants 1% bonus Spirits Minion Damage per point of base Strength. Grants 1% bonus Minion Life per 2 points of base Strength. Grants +1 Maximum Barbarian Summon, increased by +1 per 7 base levels. Grants 1% Weapon Damage to Spirits skills per base level, up to 15%. Functionally, this works out to 4-5 Maximum Barbarian summons, 580% Minion Life, and 1160% Spirits Minion Damage (with full investment of base points into Strength). Get this skill in multiples of 7 after it hits level 15. (Level 18 Summon skill).
Spirit Walk: Warp, functions similarly to Warp Strike (requires an enemy target). Base cooldown of 8.6 seconds. Does not share cooldown with Teleport or Jitan’s Gate despite being a Warp. Passive increase of Stance radius by 1.6 yards base, increased by 0.7 yards per slvl. Base levels in any Spirits skill reduces cooldown by 0.2 seconds (minimum 3 second cooldown, requires 28 base levels into Spirits skills). (Level 24 Summon skill)











Necromancer:
► Necromancer Summoner
- Has multiple builds and content possibilities, including: Night Hawks (Uber Bossing focused), Abyss Knights (Farming focused), Veil King (Being chill). Possibly the highest burst damage potential of all Summoners due to Hawks.
- +6 mana per skill point invested in Energy and ~170% increased Mana Regeneration from Embalming, ideal for casting of Hawks.
- ~160% increased Maximum Life from Embalming to back up the rubbish Life from Vitality scaling
- 25-30% chance to Avoid Damage (Unconditional) and ~600% bonus Defense (not as defensive as Barbarian but still fairly good)
- Innate Necromancer Minions have 50% Chance to Avoid Damage, making them even tankier against Attacks.
- ~330% Minion Damage from Resurgence, for free.
- Strong innate summons and potential for all content only from the skill tree, with even more potential from Relics.
- Very good gear options, benefits strongly from
- Suffers from having no innate Physical Resistance and mediocre Life earlier on while having less meatshields than other Summoners (but each one is high value).
-
Summary: Necromancer Summoner has diverse build options, scales very well from skill tree alone, and has excellent gear options. His summons (Jinn, Rathma's Chosen, Iron Golem auras, Blood Skeleton aura) can benefit parties in more diverse ways than other summons. Due to Hawks, Necro Summoner can do bosses that other summoners cannot.
Content cap: Probably everything short of Deimoss, but I haven't really gotten to that level. Can anyone else give a testimonial?
Tips: Like others, get crafted double minion damage jewels (15-21%) as you can, alongside the usual SUs. Don't skimp on charms: These will increase survivability drastically. Also for Necromancer particularly, get some form of auxiliary Tank that clusters around you or otherwise make sure Abyss Knights and Blood Skeletons can cover for you.
The Necromancer has hidden potential unavailable to other Summoners for three reasons:
Here's how it works: A Necromancer who specs into Jinn will maximize his benefits from Jinn and be able to use Abyss Knights well. Then he can get Veil King as a Relic or through the Buried Hawk and have an extra reliable strong tank without halving his innate minion counts (most crucially, of Abyss Knights or Hawks). He can then get Rathma's Chosen and give more damage synergies to every one of his innate minions (while giving up Evocation Aura, sadly), again without having to take points away from Jinn.
Then he can still choose between Hawks and Knights, and even the latter can still use Hawks to an extent due to Necromancer synergies. The extra min-max from other support-related Relics or Relics for his own innate summons (Jinn relic, Blood Skeletons relic, etc) is just icing on the cake. Necromancer is, without a doubt, the best user of Summon relics for this reason.
Keep in mind that not everyone can achieve this level of power. Only very few Relics of specific skills drop every season and min-maxing in this way is RNG-dependent. Necromancer is still strong, but what I've described just now will only be available to the few who can obtain those sorts of Relics (And likely for hundreds of TG each).
- +6 mana per skill point invested in Energy and ~170% increased Mana Regeneration from Embalming, ideal for casting of Hawks.
- ~160% increased Maximum Life from Embalming to back up the rubbish Life from Vitality scaling
- 25-30% chance to Avoid Damage (Unconditional) and ~600% bonus Defense (not as defensive as Barbarian but still fairly good)
- Innate Necromancer Minions have 50% Chance to Avoid Damage, making them even tankier against Attacks.
- ~330% Minion Damage from Resurgence, for free.
- Strong innate summons and potential for all content only from the skill tree, with even more potential from Relics.
- Very good gear options, benefits strongly from
Archbishop Lazarus
(Although many Summoners do), craftable items, Hounfor skill, and other Sacred Uniques. Can craft +1 Maximum Necromancer Minions (Goetia mod) on Necromancer Wands and Staves.Archbishop Lazarus
(Tribute Set)
Lazarus' Chasuble
Lazarus' Surplice Cap
Lazarus' Votive Lamp
Lazarus' Lamen
Set Bonus with 2 or more set items:
+25% to Summoned Minion Damage
+25% to Summoned Minion Resistances
Set Bonus with 3 or more set items:
+100% to Summoned Minion Life
+50% to Summoned Minion Attack Rating
Set Bonus with complete set:
+1 Extra Veil King
+2 to Necromancer Skill Levels
+100% to Summoned Minion Life
+50% to Summoned Minion Damage
+50% to Summoned Minion Attack Rating
(Tribute Set)
Lazarus' Chasuble
Lazarus' Surplice Cap
Lazarus' Votive Lamp
Lazarus' Lamen
Set Bonus with 2 or more set items:
+25% to Summoned Minion Damage
+25% to Summoned Minion Resistances
Set Bonus with 3 or more set items:
+100% to Summoned Minion Life
+50% to Summoned Minion Attack Rating
Set Bonus with complete set:
+1 Extra Veil King
+2 to Necromancer Skill Levels
+100% to Summoned Minion Life
+50% to Summoned Minion Damage
+50% to Summoned Minion Attack Rating
- Suffers from having no innate Physical Resistance and mediocre Life earlier on while having less meatshields than other Summoners (but each one is high value).
-
Shadowfiend

Shadowfiend
Marrow Staff (Sacred)
Two-Hand Damage: 45 to 49
(Necromancer Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 275
Item Level: 120
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.06 per Strength)%
+8 to Necromancer Skill Levels
(50 to 70)% Cast Speed
+100% to Summoned Minion Life
+(125 to 200)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(25 to 50)% to Summoned Minion Resistances
+(100 to 130) Life after each Kill
10% Reanimate as: Random Monster
Socketed (6)
Marrow Staff (Sacred)
Two-Hand Damage: 45 to 49
(Necromancer Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 275
Item Level: 120
Strength Damage Bonus: (0.06 per Strength)%
+8 to Necromancer Skill Levels
(50 to 70)% Cast Speed
+100% to Summoned Minion Life
+(125 to 200)% to Summoned Minion Damage
+(25 to 50)% to Summoned Minion Resistances
+(100 to 130) Life after each Kill
10% Reanimate as: Random Monster
Socketed (6)
Summary: Necromancer Summoner has diverse build options, scales very well from skill tree alone, and has excellent gear options. His summons (Jinn, Rathma's Chosen, Iron Golem auras, Blood Skeleton aura) can benefit parties in more diverse ways than other summons. Due to Hawks, Necro Summoner can do bosses that other summoners cannot.
Content cap: Probably everything short of Deimoss, but I haven't really gotten to that level. Can anyone else give a testimonial?
Tips: Like others, get crafted double minion damage jewels (15-21%) as you can, alongside the usual SUs. Don't skimp on charms: These will increase survivability drastically. Also for Necromancer particularly, get some form of auxiliary Tank that clusters around you or otherwise make sure Abyss Knights and Blood Skeletons can cover for you.
The Necromancer has hidden potential unavailable to other Summoners for three reasons:
- + His innate summons work best when scaled and used by him
+ He can make the best use of Elemental damage summons
+ All three of his Ultimate skills can be obtained as Relics to unlock power that others can only dream of
Here's how it works: A Necromancer who specs into Jinn will maximize his benefits from Jinn and be able to use Abyss Knights well. Then he can get Veil King as a Relic or through the Buried Hawk and have an extra reliable strong tank without halving his innate minion counts (most crucially, of Abyss Knights or Hawks). He can then get Rathma's Chosen and give more damage synergies to every one of his innate minions (while giving up Evocation Aura, sadly), again without having to take points away from Jinn.
Then he can still choose between Hawks and Knights, and even the latter can still use Hawks to an extent due to Necromancer synergies. The extra min-max from other support-related Relics or Relics for his own innate summons (Jinn relic, Blood Skeletons relic, etc) is just icing on the cake. Necromancer is, without a doubt, the best user of Summon relics for this reason.
Keep in mind that not everyone can achieve this level of power. Only very few Relics of specific skills drop every season and min-maxing in this way is RNG-dependent. Necromancer is still strong, but what I've described just now will only be available to the few who can obtain those sorts of Relics (And likely for hundreds of TG each).
► Detailed Skills
For more information on Necromancer's innate summons, refer to the Summons section.
Embalming: Passive. Grants 5% maximum Life to summoner and minions at base level, increased by 5% per base level. Grants 8% Mana Regeneration to the summoner at base level, increased by 2% per slvl. Max this skill. In conjunction with Necromancer’s +6 mana per point in Energy, this passive is responsible for most of Necromancer’s EHP and good mana sustain. Realistically, you can get up to 175% maximum Life from this. (Level 1 Support skill).
Bane: Curse. Requires a minion as a target. Duration of 10 seconds, cooldown of 1 second. Reduces the physical resistance of all affected enemies by a percentage (~25-35% or more dependent on level). This is useful for Hawks, Blood Skeletons, and Veil King when natively used by Necromancer. Enemies within the Dimensional Labyrinth at a certain tier are immune. (Level 18 Support skill).
Death Ward: Passive. Grants 1% chance to Avoid Damage at base level. Grants % Bonus Defense, gains 8% Bonus Defense per level per Base Level in Resurgence or Soulbound (Totem passive, irrelevant to Summoners). Gains 1% chance to Avoid Damage and 4% Bonus Defense per base level. Max this skill. This passive in conjunction with Embalming is what enables Necromancer to survive in Fauztinville and Viz-jun. (Level 24 Support skill).
Resurgence: Passive. Grants chance to Avoid Damage to Necromancer minions only, increased by 2% per base level and up to 50%. Grants Minion Damage at base level, increased by 6% per base level and 2% per slvl. Max this skill. This passive is why Necromancers have more Minion Damage than any other summoner class. (Level 24 Summon skill).
Talon’s Hold: Passive. Don’t level this as a Summoner, as it’ll never kick in or be useful to you. Reanimates only proc on kills made by you, not by your summons. Slow Target only procs on WDM hits (Level 80 Ennead skill).
Graveyard: Passive. Don’t level this as a Summoner. You don't scale the stats that make this relevant. Even 1 skill point would be a waste. Poison damage without Synergy stacking, Poison Spell Damage, or Poison Resistance reduction (barring Jinn) is worthless. (Level 115 Black Road skill).






Paladin:
► sumodin
- Innate 3 second cooldown warp that also freezes (Level 80 required)
- Innate 3 second cooldown (minimum) warpstrike that debuffs Defense and Physical Resistance (both relevant to Scourge summons)
- Up to 50% Physical Resistance and 100+ flat damage reduction (Level 115 passive, many levels required)
- Large amounts of % bonus defense (700%+)
- Large amounts of % bonus attributes (50-60%+) (Level 90 required)
- Relatively easy access to Wolf Stance via
Summary: See the section; "Why Paladin Summoner Sucks". Read the first line and the last paragraph.
Content cap: Level 120 content and a bit beyond if you optimize your gear. Within striking distance of many other summoners, but has difficulties.
Tips: If your summons die sometimes, you may need investment in Energy and Mana Regeneration Mystic Orbs alongside Mana Potions. If your summons die really often, you may need Magical Shrine crafts instead of Tainted Shrines, as Scourges deal plenty of damage on their own. You need a good balance of damage and survivability to maintain clearspeed and not interrupt your runs constantly by resummoning.
- Innate 3 second cooldown (minimum) warpstrike that debuffs Defense and Physical Resistance (both relevant to Scourge summons)
- Up to 50% Physical Resistance and 100+ flat damage reduction (Level 115 passive, many levels required)
- Large amounts of % bonus defense (700%+)
- Large amounts of % bonus attributes (50-60%+) (Level 90 required)
- Relatively easy access to Wolf Stance via
Barghest's Howl
. Wolf Stance will have poor radius, but Scourges will be near you after warping
Barghest's Howl
Hundsgugel (Sacred)
Defense: 5327 to 5684
(Paladin Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 500
Item Level: 105
Level 1 Wolf Stance
28% Attack Speed
40% Movement Speed
28% Hit Recovery
10% Crushing Blow
10% Weapon Physical Damage
5% Chance to cast level 23 Bloodlust on Melee Attack
(15 to 20)% Life stolen per Hit
Hit Causes Monster to Flee +1%
Slow Target 5%
+200% Enhanced Defense
+2000 Defense
+50 to Strength
+100 Life Regenerated per Second
3% Reanimate as: Random Monster
-2 to Light Radius
Socketed (4)
Hundsgugel (Sacred)
Defense: 5327 to 5684
(Paladin Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 500
Item Level: 105
Level 1 Wolf Stance
28% Attack Speed
40% Movement Speed
28% Hit Recovery
10% Crushing Blow
10% Weapon Physical Damage
5% Chance to cast level 23 Bloodlust on Melee Attack
(15 to 20)% Life stolen per Hit
Hit Causes Monster to Flee +1%
Slow Target 5%
+200% Enhanced Defense
+2000 Defense
+50 to Strength
+100 Life Regenerated per Second
3% Reanimate as: Random Monster
-2 to Light Radius
Socketed (4)
Summary: See the section; "Why Paladin Summoner Sucks". Read the first line and the last paragraph.
Content cap: Level 120 content and a bit beyond if you optimize your gear. Within striking distance of many other summoners, but has difficulties.
Tips: If your summons die sometimes, you may need investment in Energy and Mana Regeneration Mystic Orbs alongside Mana Potions. If your summons die really often, you may need Magical Shrine crafts instead of Tainted Shrines, as Scourges deal plenty of damage on their own. You need a good balance of damage and survivability to maintain clearspeed and not interrupt your runs constantly by resummoning.
► Detailed Skills
For more information on Paladin's innate summons[/color], refer to the Summons section.
For the purposes of this guide, I will assume that Paladin Summoner will use Shadow and Honor branches of the Paladin skill tree (Scourges + Holy Melee skills), as these are the best way to scale your damage.
Blessed Life: Passive. Adds Physical Resistance per level, up to 50%. 100+ flat damage reduction when leveled, gains X per level. Max this; this is a huge defensive layer. (Level 115 Black Road skill)
Divine Apparition: Warp. 3 second cooldown with chance to freeze enemies within 1 yard of target location. 1 point only. (Level 80 Ennead skill)
Dragon’s Blessing: Holy passive. Grants % bonus to all Attributes for any level added, typically 50-60% at endgame. 1 point only. (Level 90 Reward skill)
Dragonheart: Honor (Holy Melee) active buff. Adds 25% of Base Strength to Vitality (only relevant when you need Base Strength to wear equipment), 50% Physical Damage (irrelevant to summoners), Adds Bonus Defense%, up to 900%+ when leveled. Long duration. Dump points here for defense and added offense for Scourges. (Level 18 Honor skill)
Plague: Honor (Holy Melee) passive. Adds flat poison damage to attacks of self and Hoplites/Scourges. Only relevant for leveling, is otherwise useless due to lack of poison pierce on summons. 1 point to get to other Honor skills. (Level 12 Honor skill)
Colosseum: Honor (Holy Melee) Warp Strike. 50% WDM. Debuffs enemy -100% Defense, -25% Movement Speed, -25% Enemy Damage (WDM) and Physical Resistance. Base cooldown of 6 seconds, reduced by 0.2 per base level (minimum 3 second cooldown at level 15). Can be used in a supportive capacity with its debuff, level to 15. (Level 24 Honor skill)
For the purposes of this guide, I will assume that Paladin Summoner will use Shadow and Honor branches of the Paladin skill tree (Scourges + Holy Melee skills), as these are the best way to scale your damage.

Divine Apparition: Warp. 3 second cooldown with chance to freeze enemies within 1 yard of target location. 1 point only. (Level 80 Ennead skill)




► Why Paladin Summoner Sucks
The Paladin Summoner is an okay starter who will get to mid-game content then plateau around level 120.
He struggles to go further even with the highest level of optimizations because he combines the weaknesses of Melee builds and Summon builds
Real Melee Builds:
- Inherently at a disadvantage in most ARPGs by design. Need to carefully position themselves in order to both deal damage and take less damage from enemy attack patterns, which means lowered damage uptime. Needs to waste time on running up to enemies and hitting them.
- Median XL has several Uber bosses that specifically favor ranged builds over melee ones.
- However, real melee builds have some exclusive defensive layers in their class passives or specialized stats and equipment that improve survivability, unlike ranged and summoner builds. These include Life on Attack (procs if Defense/Block/Avoid checks are passed), Amazing Grace (Avoid proc), Block chance (also shared by Dex stacking ranged builds), Life Leech, lots of Total Character Defense.
Summoner Builds:
- Deliberately balanced downwards because summons automatically clear content. Within the meta balance of Median XL builds, they require enough damage to not feel bad at their main job of farming but can’t be strong enough to also steamroll Ubers automatically at a safe distance. Most “active” builds will have better sustained and burst damage, won’t have to micromanage summons, and don’t have to wrangle minion AI into doing what they want. Non-summoners can do Ubers that require precision targeting (Astrogha) and Ubers that punish having multiple targetable allies (Baal).
- Summons don’t get life regen unless they’re Iron Golem or Veil King. Without scaling from gear, jewels, and the passive tree, summons can and will melt in dangerous content. Especially in Dimensional Labyrinth. Summons that die will have a twofold adverse effect of reducing your tankiness and reducing your DPS uptime (because your summons act as both). You can also run out of mana while summoning if your summons die off too rapidly, which is extremely bad because the summoner is usually next to die in that sort of situation.
- However, summoners are inherently safer because their method of attack is indirect. They are constantly shielded by tanks who can increase a summoner’s effective HP and protect against spammed enemy projectiles. They can clear content automatically as stated above. Damage dealing summons either attack at a range, have lots of health and are shielded by fellow summons, or cannot be killed by enemy attacks.
That brings us to Paladin Summoners, who…
- Have melee summons, Scourges. They need to be in melee range to attack and have somewhat expensive mana upkeep when leveled (as is true of all leveled skills), so you need Energy and Mana Regeneration Mystic Orbs or gear. Paladins have +3/+3 base Life/Mana per point investment into Vitality or Energy, which is middling compared to the extremes of Barbarian and Necromancer. Paladin mana issues are unnoticeable with full investment into Energy, but definitely noticeable during mid-game when the summoner lacks a full set of charms.
- Scourge summons are squishy. They get Blessed Life damage reduction and physical resistance and a low chance to Avoid. But they have downright bad base Life and scaling. Since Minion Damage and Life tend to be a trade-off unless you’re willing to spends hundreds of Arcane Crystals on creating the very best jewels, your Scourges are unlikely to actually have the maximum Life to capitalize on these defensive layers.
- Paladin Summoners don’t get damage or life passives that are comparable to Necromancers or Barbarians. Their investment in the Holy tree + levels in Life and Death are meant to act as “increased Minion Life and Damage”. Numerically, this is equivalent to an extra 10-17 base levels available for Scourge, then 50 – 60 levels of scaling in Holy skills, which rounds out to a 250 – 300% damage increase and a 740-1258 base life increase / 113-192 base damage increase. The base scaling is really what damns it.
- These poor defensive layers make the summoner and their summons (Defense/flat reduction notwithstanding) extremely squishy, doubling down on the DPS uptime problem that was started by the fact that these are melee summons.
- Limited gear choices and scaling. Necromancer and Barbarian have far more end-game scaling options compared to Paladin, who has virtually nothing for summoning.
- This is really just insult to injury but going for Shadow and Honor branches locks you out of Resurrect and Rapture (and Sacred Armor). You could go for Neutraldin and get those skills, in addition to the relatively useless Hoplite, but then you lose out on the Holy minion damage increases on Scourge plus Colosseum.
Either way, your kit is limited and you either wind up lacking damage or utility.
Summoner Paladins are scuffed summoners due to their numerical issues, despite likely being the third strongest summoner candidate class. And every other Paladin build has an alright time with leveling up (barring Holy build upkeep of Dragon Oath at low levels) and can get by with day 1 farmed Tiered Uniques and unblessed Honorifics, meaning that Summoner Paladin isn’t even good at being a transitional build into a mid-game Unholy, Holy, or Neutraldin setup. But it'll certainly work for 120 content if you just want to play Paladin and Summoner.
He struggles to go further even with the highest level of optimizations because he combines the weaknesses of Melee builds and Summon builds
Real Melee Builds:
- Inherently at a disadvantage in most ARPGs by design. Need to carefully position themselves in order to both deal damage and take less damage from enemy attack patterns, which means lowered damage uptime. Needs to waste time on running up to enemies and hitting them.
- Median XL has several Uber bosses that specifically favor ranged builds over melee ones.
- + Kabraxis (level 120) can be kited with practice by ranged builds but melee builds need to tank his Whirlpool, Balefire, and watch for Flamestrike indicator in the middle of the green Whirlpool spam. To tank in this way, you need the best hit recovery and/or block recovery FPA.
+ Xazax (level 125) is much easier with ranged builds than melee ones due to Penitent spawns and dangerous spells at melee range, both of which are easily dodged by ranged builds.
+ Astrogha (level 125) casts a deadly Frozen Orb at melee range that not even 90% cold resistance will save against.
+ Uldyssian (level 130) summons pairs of powerful Edyrems constantly that deal notable damage at melee range.
+ Soul of Gluttony in the Void Uber (level 130) outheals melee builds.
+ Samael (level 135) is only doable by a few builds, let alone melee ones. He has few damage opportunity windows due to how he can chain his skills together and it becomes a matter of RNG whether he can be safely attacked or not. Entire minutes can pass without him being safely attackable.
- However, real melee builds have some exclusive defensive layers in their class passives or specialized stats and equipment that improve survivability, unlike ranged and summoner builds. These include Life on Attack (procs if Defense/Block/Avoid checks are passed), Amazing Grace (Avoid proc), Block chance (also shared by Dex stacking ranged builds), Life Leech, lots of Total Character Defense.
Summoner Builds:
- Deliberately balanced downwards because summons automatically clear content. Within the meta balance of Median XL builds, they require enough damage to not feel bad at their main job of farming but can’t be strong enough to also steamroll Ubers automatically at a safe distance. Most “active” builds will have better sustained and burst damage, won’t have to micromanage summons, and don’t have to wrangle minion AI into doing what they want. Non-summoners can do Ubers that require precision targeting (Astrogha) and Ubers that punish having multiple targetable allies (Baal).
- Summons don’t get life regen unless they’re Iron Golem or Veil King. Without scaling from gear, jewels, and the passive tree, summons can and will melt in dangerous content. Especially in Dimensional Labyrinth. Summons that die will have a twofold adverse effect of reducing your tankiness and reducing your DPS uptime (because your summons act as both). You can also run out of mana while summoning if your summons die off too rapidly, which is extremely bad because the summoner is usually next to die in that sort of situation.
- However, summoners are inherently safer because their method of attack is indirect. They are constantly shielded by tanks who can increase a summoner’s effective HP and protect against spammed enemy projectiles. They can clear content automatically as stated above. Damage dealing summons either attack at a range, have lots of health and are shielded by fellow summons, or cannot be killed by enemy attacks.
That brings us to Paladin Summoners, who…
- Have melee summons, Scourges. They need to be in melee range to attack and have somewhat expensive mana upkeep when leveled (as is true of all leveled skills), so you need Energy and Mana Regeneration Mystic Orbs or gear. Paladins have +3/+3 base Life/Mana per point investment into Vitality or Energy, which is middling compared to the extremes of Barbarian and Necromancer. Paladin mana issues are unnoticeable with full investment into Energy, but definitely noticeable during mid-game when the summoner lacks a full set of charms.
- Scourge summons are squishy. They get Blessed Life damage reduction and physical resistance and a low chance to Avoid. But they have downright bad base Life and scaling. Since Minion Damage and Life tend to be a trade-off unless you’re willing to spends hundreds of Arcane Crystals on creating the very best jewels, your Scourges are unlikely to actually have the maximum Life to capitalize on these defensive layers.
- Paladin Summoners don’t get damage or life passives that are comparable to Necromancers or Barbarians. Their investment in the Holy tree + levels in Life and Death are meant to act as “increased Minion Life and Damage”. Numerically, this is equivalent to an extra 10-17 base levels available for Scourge, then 50 – 60 levels of scaling in Holy skills, which rounds out to a 250 – 300% damage increase and a 740-1258 base life increase / 113-192 base damage increase. The base scaling is really what damns it.
- These poor defensive layers make the summoner and their summons (Defense/flat reduction notwithstanding) extremely squishy, doubling down on the DPS uptime problem that was started by the fact that these are melee summons.
- Limited gear choices and scaling. Necromancer and Barbarian have far more end-game scaling options compared to Paladin, who has virtually nothing for summoning.
- This is really just insult to injury but going for Shadow and Honor branches locks you out of Resurrect and Rapture (and Sacred Armor). You could go for Neutraldin and get those skills, in addition to the relatively useless Hoplite, but then you lose out on the Holy minion damage increases on Scourge plus Colosseum.
Either way, your kit is limited and you either wind up lacking damage or utility.
Summoner Paladins are scuffed summoners due to their numerical issues, despite likely being the third strongest summoner candidate class. And every other Paladin build has an alright time with leveling up (barring Holy build upkeep of Dragon Oath at low levels) and can get by with day 1 farmed Tiered Uniques and unblessed Honorifics, meaning that Summoner Paladin isn’t even good at being a transitional build into a mid-game Unholy, Holy, or Neutraldin setup. But it'll certainly work for 120 content if you just want to play Paladin and Summoner.
Sorceress:
► Support Summoner
Sorceress gets Blade Spirits, which scale with her own passives and minion stats normally. This isn't really a ringing endorsement. Familiar was changed, so... Support Sorceress doesn't exist anymore and Summoner Sorceress is a bit less capable as a result.
It probably ain’t that great though when you could just play literally… any other Sorceress build. Reminds me of Paladin Summoner, really, except at least Paladin Summoner gets a warpstrike that also debuffs and an innate warp at level 90 plus some free stats. Sorc defensive passives are great, but Paladin’s kit is at least more enabling for the summoner playstyle.
Content cap: ???
It probably ain’t that great though when you could just play literally… any other Sorceress build. Reminds me of Paladin Summoner, really, except at least Paladin Summoner gets a warpstrike that also debuffs and an innate warp at level 90 plus some free stats. Sorc defensive passives are great, but Paladin’s kit is at least more enabling for the summoner playstyle.
Content cap: ???
Druid:
► doodoo dudu
When playing Poison Druid, you can be something of a summoner who uses Acid Fiends. However, this reputedly falls off rapidly past 120 due to how Acid Fiends’ Poison Flash works, so this archetype isn’t really worthwhile. Patch 1.7 has changed poison druids, but the summoner aspect is likely unchanged. Bear Companion doesn't scale from Minion Stats, as the patch notes stated.
Also, Druid’s passives aren’t really supportive for Minion Damage or Minion Life, as his summons are his supports rather than the other way around.
Content cap: 120 Ubers
Also, Druid’s passives aren’t really supportive for Minion Damage or Minion Life, as his summons are his supports rather than the other way around.
Content cap: 120 Ubers
Amazon:
► Unsummonzon
You can play Unsummonzon, which functions by stacking normal Fire Caster stats (instead of or in addition to minion stats) and using
Reputedly quite nice in the Dimensional Labyrinth because you can basically hit around corners with Fire Cannonade and the elementals themselves can serve as tanks against Erinys projectiles and bait enemies into coming into attack range when it comes to doorways into crowded and dangerous rooms. Unsummonzon is the only real form of Amazon summoner.
If someone has more to say on Unsummonzon, please contribute. I'll give you my pair of Unsummonzon gloves.
Content cap: Your patience for Fire Cannonade procs
Vision of the Furies
and 
Vision of the Furies
Athulua's Hand (Sacred)
Defense: 2236 to 2331
Chance to Block: 4%
(Amazon Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 349
Item Level: 105
Fire Elementals Inherit Your Energy and Spell Focus
+25% Bonus Elemental Damage to Bloodlust
+75 Spell Focus
25% Cast Speed
0.375% to Fire Spell Damage (Based on Character Level)
+1000 Defense
(21 to 25)% to Vitality
10% to Energy
Physical Damage Reduced by 100
Socketed (4)
Athulua's Hand (Sacred)
Defense: 2236 to 2331
Chance to Block: 4%
(Amazon Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 349
Item Level: 105
Fire Elementals Inherit Your Energy and Spell Focus
+25% Bonus Elemental Damage to Bloodlust
+75 Spell Focus
25% Cast Speed
0.375% to Fire Spell Damage (Based on Character Level)
+1000 Defense
(21 to 25)% to Vitality
10% to Energy
Physical Damage Reduced by 100
Socketed (4)
The Redeemer
and base levels (for Fire Pierce) to deal huge damage with Fire Cannonade procs upon unsummoning Fire Elementals (Elementals can die, be unsummoned manually, be unsummoned by going over the minion cap). 
The Redeemer
Grand Scepter (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: 36 to 40
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 449
Item Level: 120
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
Fire Elementals Inherit Your Fire Spell Damage
5% Chance to cast level 36 Lava Pit on Death Blow
+(3 to 4) to Amazon Skill Levels
25% Cast Speed
+(20 to 30)% to Fire Spell Damage
-(20 to 25)% to Enemy Fire Resistance
+(51 to 60) to Energy
+(50 to 75) Life after each Kill
2% Reanimate as: Random Monster
Socketed (3)
Grand Scepter (Sacred)
One-Hand Damage: 36 to 40
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 449
Item Level: 120
Dexterity Damage Bonus: (0.11 per Dexterity)%
Fire Elementals Inherit Your Fire Spell Damage
5% Chance to cast level 36 Lava Pit on Death Blow
+(3 to 4) to Amazon Skill Levels
25% Cast Speed
+(20 to 30)% to Fire Spell Damage
-(20 to 25)% to Enemy Fire Resistance
+(51 to 60) to Energy
+(50 to 75) Life after each Kill
2% Reanimate as: Random Monster
Socketed (3)
Reputedly quite nice in the Dimensional Labyrinth because you can basically hit around corners with Fire Cannonade and the elementals themselves can serve as tanks against Erinys projectiles and bait enemies into coming into attack range when it comes to doorways into crowded and dangerous rooms. Unsummonzon is the only real form of Amazon summoner.
If someone has more to say on Unsummonzon, please contribute. I'll give you my pair of Unsummonzon gloves.
Content cap: Your patience for Fire Cannonade procs
Assassin:
► RIP Clawblock
Doesn’t even have innate Summon skills currently, so the existence of summon-related items (outdated Runewords) for her is an artifact of past versions of Median. No part of her kit supports summoning aside from her nice defensive passives.
She does get Veil King as a mod on crafted shields... but this is more of a fun mod that opens up Assassin playstyle options where the Veil King acts as an effective tank and support without investment into Minion stats rather than one that truly enables a pure summoner Assassin.
There might be a niche case where Assassin's specific defensive passives conjoined with many Relics and proper gear/investment can create a unique usage for Assassin's vestigial summon-related aspects, but I'm not holding my breath.
Content cap: The character selection screen.
She does get Veil King as a mod on crafted shields... but this is more of a fun mod that opens up Assassin playstyle options where the Veil King acts as an effective tank and support without investment into Minion stats rather than one that truly enables a pure summoner Assassin.
There might be a niche case where Assassin's specific defensive passives conjoined with many Relics and proper gear/investment can create a unique usage for Assassin's vestigial summon-related aspects, but I'm not holding my breath.
Content cap: The character selection screen.
Mechanics
► D2 Engine Backbone of MXL
Minions (or Pets, as D2 resources will often call them) are fundamentally limited by how Diablo 2's engine works. This means that many mechanics are the same, but the scaling is adjusted for Median XL.
► Median XL Mechanics
This is a helpful link that will explain some terms that are used later, including pierce and next delay on projectiles.
► Summons Warp to You If You Get Far Away
Summons will automatically attempt to teleport to an area nearby you if you stray too far from several of them. Each summon picks a different random location to teleport to.
► Summons Randomly Die If Too Far From You
Summons will occasionally die on their own if they fail this teleportation attempt and are also too far from you. This can generally happen if the summon is more than 2 screens away from you. If their teleportation picks an invalid spot and their AI doesn't follow you, this can be problematic. This is especially common for some Resurrects.
► Summoners Cannot Move Too Fast For the Above Reasons
The above reason is how Faster Run/Walk can be good for minions and summoners, but is effectively capped. While moving fast is desirable, you'll end up outpacing your summons in an unproductive way and end up needing to resummon them. For more information on the diminishing returns on FRW, see this page.
► Reanimates are not Summons
Reanimates do not benefit from minion bonuses. They use their base stats and behave exactly like whatever monster they're a reanimate of, except they're on the player's side.
► Summons Follow the Summoner and Die if the Summoner Dies
Summons will tend to follow the summoner as their default AI when not engaged in combat and will all die if the summoner dies.
► Soft skill level effect on procs
+Skill levels do not apply to procs, including summon procs.
► Summons Warp With the Summoner
Summons will warp with the summoner when they warp. Immobile summons (only Golden Calf, as even Totems will warp properly with their summoner) will disappear upon being warped.
► Summon AI is Pepega
Most summons are melee summons and will target the nearest enemy. The AI of ranged summons is more esoteric, as they will sometimes only attempt to attack their targets at set distances and only if positioned relative to the summoner and their target. This can make using Guardian Spirits or other ranged summons frustrating, as many summons will stand back and simply do nothing while others will correctly attack the enemy. To rectify this, either teleport into an appropriate range or resummon them within the right range. In farming scenarios, there are already enemies everywhere. So any attack in any direction is likely fine.
► Summons Have Unknown Frames Per Animation Breakpoints
Summons, exactly like every other entity in Diablo, work from the game's frames per animation and speed breakpoint system. However, all minion speeds and breakpoints are unknown. In addition, most monsters will scale their casting animations from increased attack speed for simplicity's sake. See videos of caster minions below for proof of this phenomenon.
► Minion Resistances
Summons have an innate resistance bonus which increases at 15% per soft point in that summon (caps at 75% and is hidden). They suffer the resistance penalties of Nightmare and Hell, requiring around 50% minion resistance and a full 75% (total res caps at 50% in Hell) from different sources (usually from items) in both difficulties respectively. You cannot overcap summon resistances.
► Minions Have Linear Scaling
All minion scaling in Median XL is linear and dependent on skill level, including the maximum Life, damage, attack rating, and mana cost of most minions. The only exceptions are increasing or diminishing custom effects of certain parts of minion skills.
► Minions Have Unknown Attack Rating
Many minions actually have Attack Rating values, they are simply hidden (according to Marco) to reduce confusion. As such, we cannot know from the UI how likely a minion is to hit a target sometimes.
► Class Specific +Level Does Not Apply to Item-Granted Skills If You Are Not That Class
If your class does not innately have a skill, +lvl and Synergies will not apply to them. If your class innately has a skill but you are granted it by an item, +lvl from class and Synergies will apply to it.
► Some Observations About Aura Summons
Aura effects that only scale from base levels (Hellfire Aura, Grim Vision aura) have no effects at 0 base level and thus no effect from their Relic, unless the Relic specifically adds effects for that aura. However, aura effects that scale from soft levels (Champions of the Sun aura, because they're an oskill and can't scale from base levels) work just fine in Relic form. Therefore, the skills to be most wary of are innate skills with scaling aura effects from base level. An aura that works the same at all levels (Venomous Aura from Acid Fiends) will likely function just fine on the Relic version. There are some auras with unscaled and scaled components, so it is unknown how their Relic will function.
► Minion Damage Formula
Minion Damage and Enhanced Weapon Damage are actually the same thing. Every minion skill is an attack and checks AR unless it is specifically described as using "Spell" scaling or mechanics (Basically only the elemental caster trio). Thus, every minion's damage can be described with the attack formula, which I have here lifted from the Mechanics thread.
Modifiers for weapon damage are applied as follows:
1: Ethereal Bonus (25% base damage on weapon)
2: %Enhanced Damage (%ED)
3: +Flat Damage.
4: %Physical Damage, this includes %EWD from items, %damage from skills / passives and buffs and str/dex factor, which are all ADDED up into one big multiplier (%dmg = %EWD + %physdmg + %dex/strbonus)
5: Deadly Strike (if it rolls successfully, x2 all damage up until this point)
6: %Conversion is applied.
7: +Flat elemental damage from weapon/gear/skills.
8: %WDM of skill used.
You take the base damage of the minion, apply modifiers, and that's your pre-mitigation damage assuming that the attack actually hits.
All minion damage tooltips already have your character's minion damage applied, but do not apply Deadly Strike or other additions (such as flat elemental damage from Nephalem Spirit).
Modifiers for weapon damage are applied as follows:
1: Ethereal Bonus (25% base damage on weapon)
2: %Enhanced Damage (%ED)
3: +Flat Damage.
4: %Physical Damage, this includes %EWD from items, %damage from skills / passives and buffs and str/dex factor, which are all ADDED up into one big multiplier (%dmg = %EWD + %physdmg + %dex/strbonus)
5: Deadly Strike (if it rolls successfully, x2 all damage up until this point)
6: %Conversion is applied.
7: +Flat elemental damage from weapon/gear/skills.
8: %WDM of skill used.
You take the base damage of the minion, apply modifiers, and that's your pre-mitigation damage assuming that the attack actually hits.
All minion damage tooltips already have your character's minion damage applied, but do not apply Deadly Strike or other additions (such as flat elemental damage from Nephalem Spirit).
► Minion Life Formula
In Median XL, minion health scales as follows: slvl scaling * ulvl * mhp
Where the elements are respectively:
MHP = Minion life modifier, all sources are additive
Ulvl = 1 + (Character level / 100). Character level scales minion life multiplicatively with minion life
Slvl scaling = Flat amount of base life, derived from base + levels
Some minions have hidden avoid chance or flat damage reduction to improve their effective life pool. With Necromancer minions, this is innate to Resurgence. Sources of avoid are designed to not overlap (e.g: Edyrems are not Necromancer minions, so their innate avoid does not stack with Necromancer minion avoid).
Where the elements are respectively:
MHP = Minion life modifier, all sources are additive
Ulvl = 1 + (Character level / 100). Character level scales minion life multiplicatively with minion life
Slvl scaling = Flat amount of base life, derived from base + levels
Some minions have hidden avoid chance or flat damage reduction to improve their effective life pool. With Necromancer minions, this is innate to Resurgence. Sources of avoid are designed to not overlap (e.g: Edyrems are not Necromancer minions, so their innate avoid does not stack with Necromancer minion avoid).
► Minions Are Snapshotted When Summoned
Minion effects are snapshotted at the time of casting and are used to determine the stats of the minion.
However, the minion count of a minion is associated with the player and updates whenever the D2 engine has to check the player's gear for action-related player stats. Therefore, if the valid count of a minion decreases (either becomes 0 because the player no longer has the associated skill or decreases because a maximum minion count source was lost), the minion count will also decrease accordingly. This means you cannot have an infinite easy army of summons that last forever then swap to full maximum Life equipment to improve summoner survivability. If you really felt like it, you could use the Necromancer-exclusive Hounfor skill (crafted onto Necromancer Staves and Shields) to improve your summoning via snapshotting.
If you aren't a summoner but have access to a Tank summon through a Relic or a piece of gear that you keep equipped, you could create a crafted set of equipment using Magical Shrines and equip it to cast your minion, then swap back to your main gear. This would create a highly tanky summon for you, although it would die if you died and you would have to recast it (and swap your gear every time) whenever you wanted to change games. Regardless, this is an interesting idea for players who need meatshields and distractions (due to a lack of EHP, leech, sustain, regen, Life after each Kill, etc)
However, the minion count of a minion is associated with the player and updates whenever the D2 engine has to check the player's gear for action-related player stats. Therefore, if the valid count of a minion decreases (either becomes 0 because the player no longer has the associated skill or decreases because a maximum minion count source was lost), the minion count will also decrease accordingly. This means you cannot have an infinite easy army of summons that last forever then swap to full maximum Life equipment to improve summoner survivability. If you really felt like it, you could use the Necromancer-exclusive Hounfor skill (crafted onto Necromancer Staves and Shields) to improve your summoning via snapshotting.
If you aren't a summoner but have access to a Tank summon through a Relic or a piece of gear that you keep equipped, you could create a crafted set of equipment using Magical Shrines and equip it to cast your minion, then swap back to your main gear. This would create a highly tanky summon for you, although it would die if you died and you would have to recast it (and swap your gear every time) whenever you wanted to change games. Regardless, this is an interesting idea for players who need meatshields and distractions (due to a lack of EHP, leech, sustain, regen, Life after each Kill, etc)