Summoners aren't even "stupidly strong". They start off very solid, but the damage and tankiness fall flat in mid- to lategame. When your Incarnate (with Summoning 12 + Infusions) does about 980 per swing, and your physical tank does about 1200+ per auto-attack with crap gear and almost no points in Warfare..you know something's off.
Yeah, this again. You mean late Act 3 or Act 4 when the game is about over? And you don't use the Incarnate just for its melee attacks. They can do whatever you need them to do and have extremely strong hitting spells too. Good luck doing 1200+ auto attacks before then. Besides, you aren't just limited to the Incarnate with a high Summon skill anyway.
This isn't all that different from the Widow vs Incarnate thread either where some are complaining about how much more damage the Widow does. Yep, it does more physical damage and has a teleport by default. It also has zero magic armor and gets CC'd like no other and cannot launch 1K+ AoE spells or stand in cursed fire getting healed.
My post wasn't about a Summoner exclusively you know? Since you're so focused on end game anyway, by the time a specialized melee character is hitting that hard, a Summoner/Ranger will be doing
way more damage overall per battle.
Prior to end game yes, they really are very strong. They just don't scale as well as gear does for
melee attacks at the end.
But look, I hear what you're saying in your first post. The armor system really screwed up the classic Mage gameplay early on, and the best thing they have going for them is Fossil Strike (later Impalement), Teleport and the occasional oil + fire combo. Both Hydro and Aero are terrible for setting up combos, and both are weaker than Pyro for damage. Pyromancy Mages scale pretty well though, and Ellezard already hit upon how Mages are probably the most balanced baseline. It's the other stuff that's out of whack. I already realized from day one though that physical damage dealers were simply better in general anyway though, but I didn't want to play that way for a first playthrough.
