Classes/Elemental Summoner

Leveling Elemental Summoner

40-48

Ivory Tower Crater: 40 - 44

Leveling anywhere but here from 40 - 44 is dumb, IMHO. The quest is good, half the mobs in the crater are blunt-weak and they all go down fast with level 40 Merrow. The Quest is "Under the Shadow of the Ivory Tower" and you get it from Cema in Hardin's Private Academy (the general goods grocer). Collect the Nebulite Orbs from the Quest and cash them in every level or so for some EAD/EAC/etc. and sell them in Dion/Giran for a good Profit. This quest should allow you to level with your servitor and not have to worry about cost, because you also pick up adena when you kill. You should be able to do both sides of the crater even at level 40, just be careful not to agro the Raid boss there and watch out for the stunners on the "High Side".

Low Side has Manashen Gargoyles, High Side has Enchanted Gargoyles.

Heretics Merrowacomb: 40 - 44

You can get nice XP in Heretics but I found it to be inefficient because low level servitors IMO don't have enough HP to sustain the pounding that they can get here, and the Summoner doesn't have a lot of buffs for the servitor at their disposal. Even with level 58 SE buffs, it was rough simply because you have to break the room and kill the 4x HP mobs fast enough to not allow them to zerg you again. Even a small room can prove a challenge unless you have a buffer to assist heal in sketchy situations. The AA is nice, though, and you can buy things like GSAP/GMHP/GHP from the Priest of Dawn when Mammon Week rolls around.

Sea of Spores: 40 - 48

Sea of Spores is good from 40-48, but Ivory Tower is better especially given the quest giants. 40-44 in Sea of Spores is good, but you have to move down when you get to 44+ for better XP and my Summoner and Buffer got owned by Orfen yesterday leveling there. Stay away from Sea of Spores, IMO, because Orfen roams around and even warps from place to place (line of sight bug?) and one of those places may be on top of your head.

Forest of Evil: 44 - 48

This is the area around the crater at Ivory Tower and towards Outlaw Forest. It's good but all the mobs are agro and the Gargoyles stun. It's a good steady leveling zone, but not the most efficient there is.

Lower Enchanted Valley: 44 - 52/56

EV sucks, IMO. It lacks herb drops and the XP distribute among all mob types is not consistent and is lower than other more optimal areas. The lower part is easily doable at level 44, and you can move up top at level 48, but I would actually find a different place to level unless you're hunting for spell books. Also, a lot of the mobs here have high P.Def (like those trees), high M.Atk (like the casters), many are agro also. There are a lot of things that are "wrong" with this leveling area - like Herb drops would be really nice for an area with such high P.Def mobs and so many nukers but rather disappointing vulnerabilities (like trees have Fire Vulnerability O.o Axe are blunt and cut trees why not blunt vulnerability?). Go elsewhere, IMO. It's not as optimal as other people make it - I think they just haven't seen that many other places, or leveled in other places for a reasonable span of time to test it.

Pavel Ruins: 44 - 48

Excellent Place, but highly botted. However, there's usually a pit in the back with absolutely no bots in it. Lots of mobs to kill, many of them (all?) are blunt weak. Outside of the pits is a group of spiders I seen an Elemental Summoner AE'ing once The mobs seem to have some nice damage output though. Good place to level, albeit boring because you're restricted to the same enclosed area for such a long period of time. Most of the mobs here are agro. The biggest strike against this area is that it is out of Schuttgart - have fun with that port fee!

Cruma Tower - First Floor: 40 - 48

Cruma is probably the most optimal area for Summoner leveling up through to level 52-56. It's good. There is a room full of Portas on the first floor and they are all blunt weak. They can take you from 40-44 quickly. The entrance rooms are nice, but be careful of acros. Merrowherok have an AE stun that can really grief you. The XP is good and the lack of Herb Drops doesn't phase you cause quite frankly you don't need them becuase once you break the room you're set and the mobs are fairly low DPS. Porta Room is recommended, they are all 2x HP mobs so you can use both Binding and Storm Cubic rather effectively here. You'll have to break the room before you can do them 1 at a time, though. That requires keeping your servitor alive (easy to break it, Merrow is a beast).

Cruma Tower - Second Floor: 40 - 52/56

Second Floor Cruma Tower is, IMHO, Summoner Heaven...

When you get through the room with Dicor in it, Lol. Those flowers are a pain in the ass, I wouldn't level in a room with Dicors in it, not with the M.Def NCSoft blessed Servitors with (and no Servitor Magic Shield 2 until level 52). Go through the Dicor Room and you find a nice room with Stone Guys and Flying Eyes with Reflect Damage When you port to second floor go down the ramp and make a right, up into and through that room with Dicor in it, and you're there.

5.4-6.5k XP a kill, very efficient, especially when you realize 70% of the mobs there are blunt weak and the mobs with reflect damage can be killed extremely fast if you throw in a few Aura Burns (I've yet to have it fail, and it hits for over 700 with my setup on them - with Emp3). You can run around all day clearing the room without worries. Anyone else who comes back there (like a low level PKer) will most likely die in the Dicor room cause EVERYTHING in there is agro, and there is just a dead end from this room you're in (looks like a hallway but at the end is just a small room with a couple mobs in it). Stay there from 48-52 or so and if you want you can move to the room with Liangma/group mobs, in it.

Cruma Tower 2nd Floor can probably take a solo Summoner all the way to level 56, and is IMO more optimal than Enchanted Valley because the mobs have attributes that are in favor of servitor damage, with enough HP to make them very good XP but not overkill like in Merrowacombs.

48-56

Cemetary: 48 - 56

You can start killing here at level 48. Get a pit with just orcs in it (the quest mobs that spawn in one of the pits are ALL AGRO, and HURT) and kill them all. Orcs are non-agro, but social. If you clear the pit clear the other mobs on the edge of it while you wait for orcs respawn. As you levle up move further and further back. By the time you get to mid-high 50s you should be in Seal of Shilien (can port there from Aden GK) and that area can take you into the 60s, or you can go to Forsaken Plaines (heavily botted).

With Cruma being so good, though, there is no reason to go level here. But just in case you don't like Cruma Tower, I put it here.

Outlaw Forest: 48 - 56

Outlaw Forest is a good area, moderately botted, though. Witch Doctors heal themselves and have a lot of HP. They also nuke. They're the only Oel Mahum mob type there that is not aggressive. All the rest are. They however are social with the other Oel Mahum types. Gargoyles stun. There is an area out of the "valley" there that is very optimal for leveling. Don't go here before 48. If you like forests at those levels, Forest of Evil is the place for you.

Outside Aden - Vanor Silenos: 48 - 52

Nice area to level is right outside of Aden where the Vanor Silenos are. There are two sides. One side has Vanor Silenos [Scout/Grunt] and the other side has Vanor Silenos [Warrior/Chieftan/Shaman]. As a summoner, I would leevl on the latter side. You can almost two shot allt he 1x HP mobs on the former side and they are rather crap XP. On the higher side (by the Warrior/Chieftan/Shaman) there are mobs that are 2x HP and give over 6k XP. Only quirk is the Chieftan Battle Heal and it is very annoying. Luckily, you have Aura Burn. So melee with pet until it's at around 50-55% HP then throw in an Aura Burn or two to negate that.

60+

60-70

A good place to hunt, solo, at 60 to 70 is Valley of Saints. The monsters there are good exp, and most of the risk from getting nuked to death is mainly on the summon and not yourself. 70-76, FOTD is a nice place for solo summoners. Merrowacomb hunting can be done with a ES and minimal support, but I find it to be very boring. A summon with VR can hunt pretty much anywhere.

75-77

Hot Springs is good.

If you don't want to be a support, you are still a good party member to have. A ES can play the role of main tank/dd and healer all at once all the way up to places like Imperial tomb. While your summon can't actually hate, it is strong enough to maintain argo in most parties. Also, some summoners believe that summons have a passive hate which is why monsters will randomly switch to attacking your summon even if neither you nor your summon actually hit them.

Equipment and Tattoos

Tattoos

There is no end all tattoo setup for ES. If you have the money to burn, 40-52 should be a variation of +int +wit for nuke leveling. You may choose to keep the int and wit from then on +con if you are going to pvp. Even though summoners do not have true nukes, +int will increase the power of both your servitor heal and lvl 15 targetable heals. +wit is always good for keeping your summon alive and con is just a good thing to have all around. If you enjoy melee, then +str is a good way to go. If you are fanatical about melee with your pet, +str +dex +wit also works.

I am intentionally leaving out the - attribute for your tattoos. +str -con can work just as well as +str -dex if you use the right weapons and hunt in the right places. It really is up to personal preference. If you wish to be a purely defensive summoner, I suggest +4con-4str +4wit-4int +4men-4int is the way to go.

Armor

Summoners have both light armor and robe mastery. For c grade, I recommend either karmian or demon for nuking. Demon more so for people without a hoard of buffers to supply them with extra m.atk.

52 to 75, you can do just fine with bw light. Make it +6 and you got yourself a good set of armor for pve and pve. Very few summoners use draconic light, but if you are still pveing like a machine along side your summon, it's a good upgrade. Tallum also works at 61. The bleed/poison protection will make you nearly invulnerable for many parts of fotd. If you prefer robes, choose whichever fits your play style at 61 and stick with it til s80.

While major arcana robes share the name of your third class, they are not very good for ES. The reuse of your skills are dependant on casting speed, like all mages, and while your summons do have beastly p.atk, their pdef and mdef is generally low. Not being able to cast heal fast enough will get them killed. A summoner with a dead summon is basically a level 35 nuker.

With that being said, you may be forced to wear them for the elemental attribute protection if you find yourself getting one shotted by people with +10 s grade and lvl 4 water/fire attribute.

Weapons

For the most part, use either: a melee weapon (sword, dagger, blunt) and a shield or a 2hs for pve or a mage weapon with acumen. Getting a nuke augment on your acumen weapon is always a plus. For pvp, using an acumen weapon and having your summon tank will keep you alive longer, or hiding behind party members. Either way, acumen is best for pvp. In the past, using a bow in pvp was a viable alternative, but now wizard classes recieve cast speed and accuracy penalties when using a bow. It really isn't worth it. Acumen weapon + nuke augment = teh win. If you can get a fire nuke augment ++ fire stones, combo with mass surrender to fire and you will be a monster. Remember when putting an element on your weapon, your summon will inherit 80% of your element. So while a nuker using 150 element receives no benefit from casting surrender to x, a ES can still benefit from the skill.