Okay, here are the answers to your questions: I only carry 1 elemental infusion on me at any given time, to do any more than that would be to invite disaster as I wouldn't have enough memory slots for my DPS or utility spells. so it's 3 infusions, plus fortify and frost armor. That's 6 spells so far. Carrying shadow and warp infusion is niche, good, but niche. Are you in a situation where you need your incarnate to be able to jump from place to place? Why does he need corrupted blade? Can he be in a situation to even USE corrupted blade? If not, then why does he need chameleon skin? Summoning, unlike the other schools, is all about thought. The other schools are all DPS or CC oriented. They are simple. Heal, Burn, Slow, Stun, Freeze. Necro and Summoning both require thought to use, beyond AoE management of course. Do you need a Physical incarnate, or a magical one? Is there a risk of being slowed down? Is there a massive fire hazard? Do you need a healer? Are the enemies undead? Before you enter combat, think about who, and what, you will be fighting, and the terrain you'll be fighting in.
Another thing to take note of is resistances. Loremaster is an incredibly powerful skill that allows you to see exactly what your opponents can do, and what they are strong or weak against. Put points into it, and for heaven's sake, abuse its power, because the AI certainly does (Poor Fane).
As for my school choice, I discovered I was dead wrong about summoning electric incarnates. If a water or blood surface is electrified, you can summon an electric incarnate off that surface. That being said, fewer enemies have resistance to air or earth that they do to poison, fire, or water. It's just the way it is. Furthermore, slow is the only debuff to go through armor, as I said before, and it's incredibly powerful. Furthermore, Oil surfaces can be combo'd into any number of things. Oily carapace, fire, bless, living wall traps, etc. Geo is an incredibly versatile school that doesn't sacrifice damage for all the utility it has. Aero has fewer damaging abilities than any other elemental school in the game, tied with hydro and necro. But those few spells have a lot of large AoE's and combo into stuns very easily. Furthermore, can you recall how many enemies are resistant to it off the top of your head? Not many. Sure electric discharge isnt the best spell in the game due to its single target focus, but a cursed electric incarnate can walk into a crowd of enemies and drop down a static cloud for a hell of a lot of damage.
What I meant by the incarnate's skill in a school is tjis: Every incarnate gains your current skill level in all elements. So if you have 5 pyro, a pyro incarnate will have 5. BUT all infused incarnates have a bonus to their specific school as well. So that fire incarnate would have your 5 skill points + 3 for a total of 8.You can go a hydro pyro focus if you want, it wont bring your abilities down, I just preferred geo/aero myself. Aero is harder to pull off as far as summoning wise, but its utility, and its singular ability to remove ANY AND ALL surfaces is insane. Don't ignore it.
To answer the question of Savage Sortilege, Are you going to be a DPS or a Utility mage? If DPS then yes, if Utility then no. Everything has a purpose, and savage sortilege is no different. I've seen some insane numbers from it, and whole heartedly love it to death. But if you won't be doing the damage, dont grab the damage talent.
