Titan Quest – Lazy Summoner Build

A very simple and reliable class setup for clearing out any difficulty.

Other Titan Quest Guides:

• Super Tanky Caster (Summoner) Build.
• Conqueror (Defense / Warfare) Build Guide.

Introduction

All credit goes to Andrew True!

This is the pure pet based build. Pets will be your only source of damage. I recommend trying this if you like steady gameplay as a support character.

The Summoner class is a combination of Earth and Nature masteries.

Pros:

• Good for beginners. Smooth gameplay on any difficulty.
• Very simple. You use only 2 skills most of the time.
• No rare gear needed at all. All necessary items are common and can be bought from vendors.
• A lot of spare atribute points.
• Many ways to increase resistances. Large hp pool.
• Earth mastery will provide a perfect tank summon (Core Dweller). Just keep him alive and you will be ace.
• Summoner is good in multiplayer. Heals, buffs and debuffs you can provide are very useful in co-op.

Cons:

• Summoner has average self survivability.
• Your character is basically dealing no damage. Pets will do the work for you, but passive playstyle can be a real disadvantage for some players.
• Pet survivability and killspeed varies quite a bit until endgame build status is reached. Progression speed will decrease by the end of the game on every difficulty.

The summoner is an overpowered class combo overall. Only a few enemies can hurt you and your pets really bad during the first playthrough (Typhon), Dactyl (can be avoided) and Toxeus (optional)). But properly geared summoner will tear apart everyone on any difficulty.

Pet Knowledge

• Pets do not benefit from your attributes.
• You can scale pets with gear and talents.
• Affected by pet gear and pet specific buffs are only creatures summoned by player skills. Any item summons or converted monsters are regarded as allies.
• There are physical, vitality and elemental damage type buffs on gear (Bonus to All Pets:). Any bonus damage type can be added to the standard damage type a pet has.
• The Sylvan Nymph deals flat piercing damage, it is not regarded as physical damage. You can add different flat damage types to her standard attack and buff these.
• Pets get +75%/+150% to all damage types in Epic/Legendary difficulty.
• Except Pierce and DoT Damage, those are increased by +60%/+110%.
• Difficulty buffs now also give some (flat) damage through extra STR and INT rather than just high +% to damage.
• This leads to high damage spikes in early acts and decreasing killspeed nearing the end of each difficulty mode.
• Pets gain +200/+400 health in Epic/Legendary difficulty flat. They gain +100% health from difficulty changes and +100% health from a quest mid act 3 each difficulty, resulting in +500% Health overall.
• Pets receive some Movement and Attack Speed each difficulty.
• Pets are subject to Offensive Ability and Defensive Ability calculations. They obtain about +350/+600 OA and DA in Epic/Legendary difficulty respectively. About 850 for both is considered “normal” for heroes in legendary (OA needed for melee only obv.), so the pets are somewhere in that territory.
• Pets have Resistances.

Attributes

Unlike skill points, attribute points can’t be reset. You will get 2 attribute points every level. Every attribute point towards Strength, Intelligence or Dexterity is raising it by the value of 4. Every attribute point put in Health / Energy gives you extra 40 health/energy.

Since you are not dealing damage by yourself, Str/Int/Dex stats are somewhat irrelevant. Increase these stats only to meet the requirements of the gear.

Total stats gained from masteries:

Masteries give you only Int and Dex, so you are supposed to wear Int/Dex items.

Bonus Stats

By the end of the game, the player would have recieved a total of 855 Health, 42 Strength, 18 Intelligence, 18 Dexterity and 18 attribute points.

The Nature Mastery

The Nature is very strong mastery by it’s own.

Regrowth
Great healing ability. Put some points into this and max out when needed.

Accelerated Growth
Nice recharge boost. Put a couple of points into this. Upgrade some more if needed.

Dissemination
Irrelevant in this build. Put one point into or skip this. Maxed out skill can be used during bossfights, but it’s not worth 12 skill points.

Call of the Wild
Our main source of damage. Max out ASAP.

Maul
Needed to reach the next skills. Put one point into this.

Survival Instinct
Nice damage absorption an physical damage boost while dropping under 33% health. Makes the wolves almost ukillable. Put some points into this and max out when needed.

Strength of the Pack
Outstanding physical damage and total speed boost for everyone. Minor armor and mana regen boost. Max out ASAP.

Heart of Oak
Great hp and total speed percental boost. Max out when needed.

Tranquility of Water
Needed for the next skills. Put one point into this.

Permanence of Stone
Slight elemental resist to you and your pets. Put some points into this and max out when needed.

Plague
One of the best debuffs in the game due to its auto spreading ability. Not necessary though. Put one point into this. Improve the skill if you want to increase the duration.

Fatigue
Nice flat and percental damage reduction plus total speed reduction. One point into this. Improve if needed.

Susceptibility
Nice resistance reduction. Max this out.

Put points in Plague and Susceptibility if you really need to boost your pets’ damage or if you have spare skill points. These skills are very good against bosses and tanky enemies.

Briar Ward
Never used this skill a lot. High cool down and stationary. I tend to skip this skill branch.

Stinging Nettle
Skip this.

Sanctuary
Maxed out Sanctuary provides decent damage absorbtion. Skip this anyway.

Sylvan Nymph
Nice single target damage dealer. AI is quite buggy though.

Overgrowth
Not very useful, but somewhat convenient. Improve if you have spare skill points.

Nature’s Wrath
Elemental damage boost. Improve if you have spare skill points.

Refresh
Flat cool down reduction. Very useful for summoning full party quickly. Improve if you have spare skill points.

The Earth Mastery

The Earth is great mastery providing decent offensive and defensive skills.

Earth Enchantment
Minor flat fire damage bonus. Good percental fire and burn damage boosts. Medium aura radius. Invest in this skill branch if you have spare skill points.

Brimstone
Minor percental physical damage bonus. Burn DOT. Invest in this skill if you want to further boost physical dmage output of your pets.

Stone Skin
Flat armor bonus. Okayish fire resistance.

Flame Surge
For casters only. Skip this skill branch.

Heat Shield
Outstanding fire damage absorbtion. 15% Damage resistance. Put a couple of skill points into this skill if you really need fire protection.

Ring of Flame
Great skill to gain some levels in early game. I tend to skip this skill branch anyway.

Volcanic Orb
Perferct skill for a caster. Skip this skill branch.

Stone Form
A one point wonder. 6 seconds of full damage immunity. Put one point in this skill.

Molten Rock
Skip this.

Summon Core Dweller
Core skill of the build. Perfect tank unit with innate Provoke ability. Low dps, kinda squishy on Normal mode. Absolute beast on Epic and Legendary. Max out ASAP.

Inner Fire
Dexterity, Health Regen and Total Speed percental boosts. Max out when needed.

Wildfire
Put one point into this to reach the next skill.

Metamorphosis
Health, Armor, Armor Absorption and Elemental Resistance percental boosts. Max out when needed.

Volativity
Great skill for caster. Skip this.

Eruption
Can be cast anywhere. Good damage. I use this only to kill enemies in the sealed cage in Secret Passage.

Gear

Gearing up the Summoner is as simple as it could be. Every piece of gear you will need can be bougth from Arcanist merchants. Therefore you main problem will be money and/or time, depending on your luck.

Your aim is to find gear with damage pet bonuses: rings, amulet and staff. Arcanists can sell magical (yellow) and rare (green) items with pet bonuses.

There are 7 tiers of damage pet bonuses (staff, rings, amulet):

Other pet related affixes:

• Puppetmaster’s prefix – (staff, amulet) +200 Health +10% Total Speed, lvl 24.
• Convocation suffix – (amulet) 20% of Attack damage converted to Health +20% Total Damage, lvl 35.
• Servitude/Subjugation/Enslavement suffix – (amulet, rings, staff) +40/75/100 Health +10/25/40 Armor, lvl3.

Rings, amulets and staffs can have both prefix and suffix with pet bonuses.

When choosing armor and swap gear look for:

• Light/Lithe/Weightless prefix – (chest, head, arms, legs) – 8/13/18% Reduction to all Requirements, lvl 8/15/25.
• Wanderer’s/Druid’s prefix – (staff, amulet) +1/2 to all skills in Nature Mastery, lvl 12/25.
• Sacrificial prefix – (amulet) +30% Increased Experience -50% Health -18.0 Health Regeneration per second, lvl 38.
• Divine/Sacred prefix – (amulet) +1/2 to all Skills, lvl 25/50.
• Hallowed prefix – (head) 50% Vitality Damage Resistance +1.0 Health Regeneration per second +1 to all Skills, lvl 15.
• Any armor suffixes with +Health flat bonuses.

Artifacts (optional):

• Razor Claw
• Summoner’s Totem
• Druidic Wreath
• Hand of Gaia
• Glorybringer
• Thoth’s Glory

Relics and Charms

• Amun-Ra’s Glory
• Dionysus’ Wineskin
• Hermes’ Sandal
• Li-Nezha’s Guile
• Herakles’ Might
• Shen-Nong’s Dark Medicine
• Ankh of Isis
• Code of Hammurabi
• Cunning of Odysseus
• Monkey King’s Trickery
• Demon’s Blood
• Crystal of Erebus
• Rigid Carapace
• Pristine Plumage

Gameplay and Levelling

Act 1 Normal

Start with the Nture mastery and max out wolves. Set pets behavior as “aggressive”. Fell free to change the behavior settings depending on situation. Reassign “Choose all pets” button to any convenient for you. Try to find Beastcaller’s staff, rings and amulet. I prefer physical damage boost because it synergize perfectly with Strength of the Pack skill. Also try to improve your self survivability – keep an eye on armor pieces with +Health and – to all requirements affixes. This will allow you to be beefy and always have spare attribute points.

Lvl 10 Build example:

https://www.kirmiziperfect.com/titancalc-anniversary-edition/TitanCalc44c344c344c3.html?mastery=Summoner&master1=4&master2=1&sa=0&m1=10-0-16-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&m2=0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Act 2 Normal

Your next goal is to find Wanderer’s staff and amulet to recieve +2 to all skills in Nature mastery. This will allow you to summon 3 wolves. Use the staff and amulet as a swap gear – cast full pack and swap back to damage. Tier 2 rings and staff are also available. Start climbing Earth skill tree, invest in Summon Core Dweller. Put a couple of points in Regrowth before Act 3. Consider completing these side quests to recieve bonus skill points.

Lvl 20 build example:

https://www.kirmiziperfect.com/titancalc-anniversary-edition/TitanCalc44c344c344c3.html?mastery=Summoner&master1=4&master2=1&sa=0&m1=24-0-16-0-0-1-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&m2=10-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-4-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Act 3 Normal

This is the most difficult point. Invest in Regrowth untill you feel comfortable. Max out Core Dweller. Consider using scrolls if needed.

Act 3 final boss strategy: Buy a couple of Scrolls of the Sky’s Rage before the bossfight. At the beginning of the figth run to the Battle Marker shrine, choose all pets and force them to stand near the shrine, use it. Cast Sky’s Rage. When your pets are dead retreat to the bridge and Typhon will stop attacking you. Try to finish him off with scrolls, because he will definitely heal back from your resummoned pets. I believe that it is possible to kill him just using Scrolls of the Sky’s Rage.

Lvl 30 build example:

https://www.kirmiziperfect.com/titancalc-anniversary-edition/TitanCalc44c344c344c3.html?mastery=Summoner&master1=4&master2=1&sa=5&m1=24-10-16-4-0-1-0-0-1-0-1-0-0-0-1-8-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&m2=10-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-16-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Act 4 Normal

You can now find Tier 3 rings, amulet and staff. Amulets of Convocation and Hallowed headgear can be found as well. Nothing particularly difficult in this act, just try to avoid aoe vitality damage and bring scrolls in bossfights. Max out wolves. Invest in Heart of Oak and improve Core Dweller.

Lvl 40 build example:

https://www.kirmiziperfect.com/titancalc-anniversary-edition/TitanCalc44c344c344c3.html?mastery=Summoner&master1=4&master2=1&sa=7&m1=24-10-16-12-0-1-0-0-16-0-1-0-0-0-1-12-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&m2=16-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-16-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Epic – Legendary

With Epic difficulty buffs your pets will become stupidly overpowered. Invest in Plague skill branch to make the bossfights easier, be careful with damage reflection though. Shen-Nong’s Dark Medicine and Monkey King’s Trickery combined with Plague will allow you to trash literally any boss in a matter of seconds.

Lvl 60 build example:

https://www.kirmiziperfect.com/titancalc-anniversary-edition/TitanCalc44c344c344c3.html?mastery=Summoner&master1=4&master2=1&sa=21&m1=32-14-16-12-5-1-3-0-16-1-1-0-0-1-6-12-1-8-0-0-1-0-0-0&m2=32-1-0-1-0-0-0-0-16-0-1-8-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-8-0