Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Lone wolf summoner. Is 20 summoning worth it?

I finished a duo lone wolf playthrough (tactitian, first playthrough at all for me) with a strength summoner and a finesse archer some weeks ago, but the balancing hasn't seen much change ever since, so maybe my impressions could be of use for you.

• In the early game summoning and especially infusing the incarnation was really powerful not even paying attention to the tactical opportunities you get by opening combat with the incarnation. The surface based infusions are also very helpful and versatile, but you will soon stop making use of them in such a team composition because of the armor system. I'd say summoning is outright overpowered in Act 1 when playing lone wolves.
• Because of the armor system you want to avoid spreading damage types and rather focus on either magical or physical damage. Unless you have an elf in your party (flesh sacrifice) this means that with an archer and a physical based summoner you will want to avoid surface based infusions on your incarnation, except for the blood infusion. They turn the incarnation's damage type to the corresponding element, so you'd have to take down both armor ratings. By the way, Source Points don't have their own infusion type. The Source Point will be absorbed and you'll have an uninfused incarnation. ^-^
• Elemental Totems very quickly grow less powerful than attacking with weapons.
• After you hit 10 Summoning, go for 1st) some support skills such as haste and clear mind, 2nd) for warfare. Warfare's impact on your dealt damage surpasses that of all the weapon based skills due to how it is calculated, as frequently discussed in these forums. Some support skills will keep your team able to act at all, as blind, charmed or crippled team members will likely be useless.
• Actual healing skills aren't too helpful. You'll rather want to further increase your damage output or add other layers of defense, such as living on the edge and numerous mobility skills such as tactical retreat and teleportation. (Get on high ground and teleport that nasty melee boss 30 meters away, allowing you to fire another 6 arrows on him before he, if he was to survive that which is unlikely, may reach you again!) For healing purposes, put 1-2 points (=2-4 due to lone wolf) in necromancy. Unless your foes have retribution, which is quite seldom, your selfheal with necromancy is sufficient. If they do have retribution, go for living on the edge.
• If you play a melee, get Blitz Attack, Phoenix Dive, Battering Ram and if possible 1-2 more mobility skills. Never again waste a whole turn on getting close your opponent or delaying your turn in order to have them get close to you first.
• The further you get, the more your weapon attacks will outshine the incarnation. You hit harder than it does, you have better abilities for applying status effects such as knocked down, you have some more skills which allow for AoE damage. With ending Act 2 and going for Act 3 I thought about dropping summoning completely as it felt like a waste of action points mid-combat, but using it before combat was still a nice to have and I didn't feel like hunting for new non-summoner equipment.
• If you keep your plan to play a finesse based summoner, try a spear. Spears will make use of warfare, have the warfare skills skale with finesse and their range is glorious. Enjoy the Opportunist Talent and, iirc, increased range for all your weapon skills including battle stomp.
• As of late Act 2 and definitely in Act 3 lone wolves will be grotesquely overpowered. A warfare/huntman archer will onehit boss foes with skills such as ballistic shot without further preparation. Skyshot will become really strong while no high ground is available.
• There are some foes with permanent evading (auras for their whole team), so you should have glitter dust on one of your lone wolves in order to hit them.
• Special arrows are very powerful. Knockdown arrows, e.g., turn the whole combat. Slowing arrows deal double damage. I never wanted to waste them so I didn't use any of them until the end of the game xD Use consumables, don't save them for later. The later it is in the game, the less you need them. Unless you happen to face a troll, of course. Then those arrows shine.

Well, maybe I'll add some more points to the list at a later point, but now I have to hurry and do something else. Feel free to ask any more specific question, I may share some experience, as well as the other players around here.