So, as the title suggest I am here to talk about creature summoning. I recently started character which relies heavily on summoned creatures and followers, due to the fact that it has very low armor skill and only 150 health. I used to be pretty skeptical about summons but now I really enjoy using them and already 97 conjuration (as of yesterday). I wanted to know what are other player general thoughts about conjuration, do you like it, maybe you hate it, which is your favorite summon, if you have one, do you often use them and have you ever tried all of them. Since I am PC player, I made test account just for education purposes, and gave it 100 conjuration using console.
After few tests here and there I have come to conclusion - atronachs are overrated. Even enhanced thralls have fairly low stats and are not good at taking massive amounts of damage, which is main reason I need summoned creatures. Offensively they are not bad, my personal favorite is frost atronach/thrall mainly because melee is more accurate than magic and it can stagger enemy. When being in places like Dwemer ruins I noticed that all my atronachs die very quickly to even low level automatons, probably because they have no armor value.
So far my all time favorite summoned creature is Dremora Lord. The downside is...I feel that he is way too powerful even at high levels. Even on master difficulty he can give hard time for things like giants and mammoths. This is the main reason I refuse to use him, makes game too easy.
Next test subjects were the all mighty boneman, mistman and wrathman. The first two are fairly weak but nonetheless very useful if you are battling dragons. But now comes the prince on the white horse, wrathman. I finally found a perfect summon for myself. Not as powerful as Dremora but can take quite a bit of damage. Found myself using him/it to attract enemy attention every now even then. Greta help and is not permanent. And of course, lets not forget Arvak, he deserves a cookie. Greta help if you like to use horses.
Overall I am pretty impressed with conjuration and I definitely will make more builds that takes advantage of it.
On the side note, I made J'zargo into master conjurer, could not help myself. Gave him some conjuration spells, his favorite seemed to be wrathman as well. Also I tried giving him NPC only/special summon spells and it worked even if they are not made as spells.
High level Necromancers destroy Dremora Lords. The Wrathmen are way more useful against them. Also Storm Atronachs! Completely devastating against mages and can't be turned by Dragon priests. The dwarven automatons are immune to Frost, maybe that was the reason of having problems with them?
After many characters that utilize conjuration, I now only invest in the tree for necromancy and bound weapons oriented characters. The Dawnguard summons are very good situationally, but I usually use conjuration for distraction purposes while I blast, pinprick, slash, or crush my enemies, and then only when overwhelmed. Dremora Lord is very overrated in my opinion and have come to the point of ignoring the summon altogether.
Glad you like it though and happy testing!
Well, I am level 33 with like 30 light armor skill and 150 health. It is hybrid but my main combat skill is destruction. Since I did not get up close and personal when I was low level, it is pretty difficult task now. Opponents are bit too strong for me to tank. 67 armor rating...
I just feel that he is way too powerful. I was level 25 or so when I first got my hands on him. For a test I went to kill Zakriisos and was pretty much running away from him like a little girl. Had my dremora lord summoned. The priest killed him but second dremora managed to kill the priest. Don't forget that I have J'zargo with me everywhere. Him and lord would be bit too OP. I love that cat, not literary. So he is for keepers. So are summons.
I use only bound weapons as for now. Probably will use sword/bow until I can get my own daedric mace/bow. Then again free arrows are very good.
I am very fond of teaming with J'Zargo as well. Curently I am teamed with him and Serana. I feel like a BOSS with two mages blasting everything while I cleave the heads off my enemies.
I also had a strange kill cam last night with those two. I was fighting some hired thugs in Solitude when I get the decapitation cam. It starts and the head comes off, then suddenly it plays J'Zargo's flames kill cam. It was awesome.
I am not really enjoying my conjuration build, seems like I absolutely need illusion for more control I didn’t want to go down that road but I’m finding most enemy avoid the summoned creatures and only charge me, to the point where I run around in circles whilst my follower and summoned critter range them. Not a great gaming expierence. I also find the fire atronach to be painful for the reasons mentioned earlier.