Jaedong wrote:when do people switch to summoner?
i'd say never . surviving was never an issue with barbarians .
go for a throw barb build with full vitality , snake stance+eagle stance , runemaster , wolves and spirit guide . you can't fail with massive defence and tons of HP while fighting from a safe distance (+slow target from Snake stance/+other items) .
if you still want to play HC as a summoner , i suggest you do that
after level 90 , when you can pump your summons with Shamanic trance and some good crafts (but this requires you to invest into str instead of vitality , that will leave you with crapy HP -> you trade your HP for some fat tanks and that is not always a good decision , since when you'll have low HP you will be easyer to get killed , and the secret of HC is not getting killed...) .
untill then , don't bother . you may then ditch the wolves and spirit guide and invest into greater manifestations + a type of summon you prefer ( to get low timer / timerless spirit walk for crowd control/summons control/pulverising single targets ) , while sticking to your throwing main attack (rebound puts a good distance between you and your opponents)