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PC Only Content Information on this page is PC specific. |
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Summoner - Extensive Guide | By ForeverMaster | Version:Beta 1.3 |
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| of this guide is complete. |
Add pending images. - FM
The Summoner is a hero class who specializes in summoning and commanding minions. He cannot use any weapons, but can equip two pets to attack enemies, support allies or simply increase his stats.
Minions[]
The Summoner creates crystallized versions of enemies for defenses. These minions occupy Minion Units (MU), a resource separate from Defense Units (DU).
Minions are primarily used as walls, especially on Nightmare difficulty where Spiders, Djinn, Sharken, and Goblin Copters all pose threats to other defense types. Sharken cannot push minions, despite being physical defenses, but some bosses are still able to push them.
Archer Minion (40 mana, 4 MU)
Archers shoot one arrow at a time to hit a single enemy. They are the most used of all minions, due to their low cost for minion walls. Archers are not distracted by the flares Goblin Copters release and can interrupt Djinn spells.
Spider Minion (80 mana, 5 MU)
Spiders throw short-ranged web balls which deal splash poison damage and temporarily cripple enemies. Those entangled move slower, cannot use certain attacks or abilities and take double damage. Enemy Spiders cannot web this minion. Almost every group of minions should have at least one spider to web Ogres which will make them much easier to take down.
Orc Minion (140 mana, 6 MU)
Though they are melee-only and more expensive, orcs have ~60% more health than archers and can hit multiple enemies at once. Enemy Ogres are also less likely to attack Orc Minions when distracted by a different defense outside their melee attack range.
Mage Minion (180 mana, 7 MU)
This is the minion that makes self-repairing walls possible. Mages will periodically heal themselves, other minions and heroes within a radius, for 6.5% of their maximum health. They cast fireballs to attack, but are unable to summon Skeletons. Alongside archers, Mage Minions ignore flares from Goblin Copters and are able to cancel Djinn spells. However, they have the least amount of health out of all minions (~57% that of archers).
Warrior Minion (300 mana, 8 MU)
Warriors run up to enemies to slice them with their two blades. A warrior loses 1% of its current health every time it lands a hit in its 3-hit melee combo. Dash attacks do not have recoil. Unfortunately, this minion is prone to getting stuck or even jumping off certain maps.
Ogre Minion (600 mana, 13 MU)
The Ogre Minion is the single most expensive defense in the Vanilla game, but has the highest health of all minions (250+% of archers) and can deal high melee damage to multiple opponents. It will occasionally fire a poison snot ball which has a very large splash radius. Ogres are also taller than any other physical defense; Dark Elf Warriors have a harder time jumping over them in order to reach a target hero. Their size can be utilized to protect heroes and other defenses from projectiles Reflection Beams cannot bounce back, such as Harbinger lightning balls and (in Vanilla) the Ancient Dragon's fireballs.
Enemy Ogres will very likely attack this minion over nearby Eternia Crystals, until a hero or other physical defense does sufficient damage to it.
Minion Commands[]
The Command Wheel
Minions can move around the map based on orders given by any Summoner. They "Hold Defensive" by default, meaning that they remain stationary (excluding Warrior Minions) even when an enemy comes near them. If a boss pushes a minion, it will try to move back to its original position.
Commands outside Hold Defensive and Move Defensive are rarely ever used, since minions can get stuck while moving around the map and may resort to holding defensive at unintended locations.
Abilities[]
[summon_abilities_img]
Hovering[]
The Summoner is the only hero class who can hover in midair by default. He can levitate for up to 15 seconds before falling. Any hero who hovers against an incline will automatically climb up the surface.
Phase Shift[]
Toggleable invincibility. No enemies can hit the Summoner. He does not collide with enemies or defenses. However, pets are disabled and he cannot gather mana.
Flash Heal[]
Costs 150 mana and has a 10-second cooldown. Allows for instant healing of defenses and allies around the Summoner, by a percentage of their maximum health (35% max). It is many times faster to repair high-health defenses (ex: Ogre Minions) with Flash Heals than standard repairing.
Overlord Mode[]
Puts the Summoner in Phase Shift and sets the controls to a scheme reminiscent of traditional real-time strategy (RTS) games. The camera is set to a top-down perspective too. Most of the time, this is the better way to summon and command minions. The player can observe the map from anywhere to manage defenses, heal allies (w/ Flash Heal) and call to points of interest. When split-screening, only Player 1 can enter Overlord Mode.
Both Phase Shift and Overlord Mode cost zero mana to activate. In combat, the Summoner cannot reenter either mode for three (3) seconds after exiting Phase Shift.
Stat Allocation[]
All heroes created to participate in combat need enough health and high-to-max (90%) damage resistances to survive.
[IMG_of_minion_health_and_damage_builds]
(Main) Minion Summoner[]
Minion Health and Minion Damage are the two most important stats to a Summoner's minions. More HP lets them survive longer against multiple Ogres at a time, while more damage aggros Ogres and checks Djinn easier and kills all enemies faster, Goblin Copters especially, before they can manually drop their Ogres. The Minion Attack Rate stat does not upscale equally across all minions. Archers receive the greatest rate multiplier, while ogres (and spider queens in Redux) are barely affected.
Support Summoner[]
Support roles, particularly those incompatible with Phase Shift (which disables pets), need a good amount of health and mid-to-high resistances to survive. Otherwise, the Summoner will likely die to a single Ogre snot ball or other surprise attack.
Costumes[]
The Summoner has one alternative costume: the Demoness, who is unlocked by clearing the Talay Mining Complex on at least Medium difficulty. She moves faster, but has less health. She is better at grabbing mana quickly to summon minions when the time to build is limited.
Armor Farming[]
Survival Mode with 2-6 Summoners active is the best way to farm armor. Because he cannot equip weapons, enemies and chests will only drop armor and accessories if everyone is a Summoner. Support Summoners are particularly useful under these circumstances. A DPS with two Deadly Striker pets (or one Deadly Striker and a Propeller Cat) can also substitute regular DSTs to take out stuck mobs.
Guardians[]
The Apprentice and Huntress Guardians multiply the DPS of up to five (5) towers close to the Summoner. A Monk Guardian can be added to extend the reach of Lightning Towers across large maps.
Automatic Repairing[]
With both an Imp and a Djinnlet equipped, the Summoner can collect mana and repair defenses automatically. This allows the player to completely AFK through long Survival waves on certain maps, such as Moonbase. Swapping the Imp for a Crystal Core lets him auto-repair Eternia Crystals.
Healer/Medic[]
Harbingers are a critical threat to stationary heroes. Flash heals and Fairies will buy more time to kill these enemies before they electrocute everyone.
Dungeon Defenders Redux[]
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Redux Only Content Information on this page or section is specific to the DD1 Redux branch on PC. |
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In Redux, the Summoner has two new abilities which drastically improve his viability as a DPS hero. He also has a new minion that surpasses his ogres for the most bulky and expensive minion. However, in Survival Mode on the new Ascension difficulty, the Cyclopes' snot bubbles pose a serious threat to minions and heroes. Reflection Beams must be placed carefully if you wish to protect your infantry and supportive allies.
Minions always ignore collision with each other after they are summoned, making them easier to stack within the same space. The Ogre Minion's mana cost is down to 400 (from 600).
Flash Heal can now be casted while the Summoner is airborne.
Spider Queen Minion (600 Mana, 30 Minion Units)[]
The Summoner can create crystallized versions of the Spider Queen boss for a very high price. This minion has slightly more health than an Ogre Minion and comes with 10% damage reduction. The Queen inflicts high damage and webs enemies in a spreadshot; she shoots five web balls at a time. She not only excels against Ogres and can withstand multiple snot bubbles from Cyclopes, but also web flying enemies with great accuracy, even Goblin Copters from a high angle.
She also has the largest footprint of all minions which is a benefit to building walls (if affordable). For reference: the width and length of the Spider Queen's hitbox excludes her legs.
Pet Boost (15 Mana to activate, drains mana overtime, 15-second cooldown)[]
This is the ability that launches the Summoner's viability to DPS himself close to solo Monk levels (with Hero Boost active). Pet Boost dramatically increases the damage and attack speed of the Summoner's pets, based on his Hero Damage stat. Certain pets, the Mummy for example, do not attack faster for the sake of game balance.
Summon Kobold (100 Mana, 35-second cooldown)[]
Instantly deploys a friendly Kobold that seeks out for an enemy and explodes on them, causing massive fire damage to it and surrounding foes. This ability also scales with the Summoner's Hero Damage stat. Though unaffected by Damage Totems and damage-boosting abilities (Pet Boost included), the damage dealt can be increased by webbing and/or oiling the enemy (via Oil Trap). The Summoner does not have to be grounded to activate this ability.
Other Notes/Tips[]
- The Summoner has the by-far slowest casting rate of all heroes. This is likely to balance the fact he can repair/upgrade defenses from anywhere on the map and do so while he is invincible.
- Minion summoning times are fixed, unaffected by the Summoner's Casting Rate. These are VERY slow during a Combat Phase. However, you can process multiple minion types simultaneously, even while in the middle of exiting Overlord Mode.
- You can rebind specific minions to the hotkeys 0-9 to summon faster. While hovering over a minion in the Action Wheel, press and hold a number key to assign it to that number.
- A faster way to switch heroes from Overlord Mode is to "activate" Phase Shift to return the camera to normal, but not exit Phase Shift, in order to access the forge. This trick can skip the Summoner's exiting animation AND the entry animation of the hero you swap to.
- Hold Defensive is a useful command to keep binded. It makes moving minions to precise locations much easier.
- Remember to bring out your main Summoner when farming armor. Minions get a 25% damage bonus when their creator is present.
- When playing Survival Mode or preparing for a long boss fight, test your minion walls for gaps. If you can fit through, so can enemy Ogres.
- The healing radius of a Mage Minion approximates to a 5-DU Shock or Tower Buff Beam, at maximum length. A distance passed a max-length 1-DU Reflection Beam from a minion wall is far enough to keep mages out of ogre melee range.
- Minions can target the Kraken's tentacles; this makes the boss technically beatable without DPS heroes.
- In Redux, the Jester cannot move minions.
- Ogre and Spider Queen Minions have fixed attack ranges of 8.00 and 12.00 respectively.
Hotkey/Hotbar Suggestions[]
*Modifications to the default hotkeys are italicized.
| 6 | 7, 8, 9, 0 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Hold Defensive" | Minion Summons - Archer, Spider, Mage and Orc by default. | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Flash Heal | Overlord Mode | Phase Shift | Repair Defense | Upgrade Defense |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Hold Defensive" | "Detonate Traps" | "Detonate Traps" | "Detonate Traps" | Flash Heal |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Flash Heal | Overlord Mode | Phase Shift | Repair Defense | Upgrade Defense |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Hold Defensive" | Overlord Mode | Phase Shift | "Detonate Traps" | "Detonate Traps" |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Flash Heal | Pet Boost | Summon Kobold | Repair Defense | Upgrade Defense |
Minion-Tower Interactions[]
- For <8 seconds after they are summoned, minions collide with non-minion defenses and don't collide with other minions. The collision rules then flip: minions collide with each other, but not with other defenses. This allows any player to stack minions of any type or move minions inside other towers while in Overload Mode.
- In Redux, summoned minions never collide with each other.
- Any number of spiders can be placed on top of each other. An archer or mage can also be placed on top of the pile.
- Neither Tower Buff Beams or Huntress Guardians will increase the actual attack speed of minions.
- Warrior Minions are unaffected by Tower Buff Beams. The beam won't be destroyed if a warrior dies while touching it.