Mummy Dust vs Dragon Knight

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 4:24 am

I know this has been discussed before but i couldn't find a thread so please point me to it.

My question is, if going as a high lvl caster eg around lvl 40 would it be better to take Mummy Dust as a summon since it scales with level or dragon knight, which is capped?

MasterYoda · Post by **MasterYoda** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:36 pm

depends.... ive seen a asimar , good / evil domain , epic cong solar be able to tear through zons, lessere elemental planes and dorfs with minimal help.

however ... if your going for casting damage then they mummy is nice cause its like having a mini pm at your command ... that doesnt have nearly the damage output.

But ive seen the undead summon fully buffed able to take quite a beating.

Post by **Binkyuk** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 6:12 pm

DK is constant power, so once you get over 35 caster levels MD outperforms it in almost every way anyway.

At lower levels DK has better damage output than the MD, but the undead immunities are a huuuge help to its survivability. The DK summons can go down in seconds to a few lucky crits before you can react, while the MD summon even at the worst of times will keep fighting for a while. It's just lower maintenance.

There a few auxiliary issues as well, such as the fact that clerics and wiz/sorcs can buff the weapon of the Solar and Balor, but not Slaad or MD. Planar subraces will get a buff to their DK.

I suppose if you want maximum burst damage while it's up and don't mind resting often then go DK (for this reason it *might* be a better PvP summon), but if you want something to do better damage over time (because it's up longer) and will last longer than one encounter then MD is the better choice.

Post by **Umpa** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:42 pm

The solar can have up to 59 SR, making it a magic absorbing monster. Mummies have weakness to Fire and implode. Balors do not have the Damage output or absorb of either of the above, but it can harm touch stuff such as Pale masters, where you would be nicking it with the other 2.

They each have their place, my wizards ussually can cast both.

The mummy does get better as you level, but its very easy to get rid of him if you know how.

I preffer the Solar for SR, with cleric buffs because short of a very uber BB he will keep on ticking unlike the mummy or balor.

Planar races, such as Asamir will have better solars and balors, but 3ecl is quite a price.

Umpa

Post by **LinuxPup** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:07 pm

I know this has been said many times, but can the summons be given weapons?

Post by **Umpa** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:10 pm

LinuxPup wrote:I know this has been said many times, but can the summons be given weapons?

Not that I'm aware of, the Solar has a silvery Crafted 2hdr, I think thats +4, the Balor is about the same. The mummy has no weapon.

I'm not sure how they would handle such a thing, giving a level 25 critter a weapon, that goes away? What would happen to the weapon?

They would either have to drop it or put it back in your inventory or make it go away.

While we are on the subject,

I'd really like to see level 10 henchman system, so you can hire some help at level 1-10, and the guy would level to your level, but after that it stops at 10, and you can't hire if your over 10. I think Nordock already has this code in place. Its a lot more fun having a henchman help get you over the first couple levels, perhaps even let them go to level 12, so you at least can get level 13 gear before having to solo for exp.

The higher level you are the more it costs, and let us tinker with their inventory.

Umpa

Post by **cely** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:19 pm

I saw someone doing the AO job where you get an ogre slave or something. Whomever it was gave the ogre slave a weapon, I believe it was a Scythe of Ice from frostdale. I know, not the same as a summon, but similar mechanics are involved.

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 3:56 am

AO toons can get the Command Slave ability and you do have access to their inventory hence can give them weapons.

Post by **LinuxPup** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:06 am

I meant can the developers give the summons weapons...

Alkapwn · Post by **Alkapwn** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:10 am

Yeah its novel but pretty much useless post10th levels. Though I've thought about having a clearout sales and Using Them to transport stock to avendell.
In the case of the Slave dying the items just drop and in the case of the player dying the slave just spawns aswell to bind point
I think the mechanics of a Summons it wouldnt be possible to do that as they're not considered "Followers" as per game mechanics

Post by **cely** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 12:35 pm

LinuxPup wrote:I meant can the developers give the summons weapons...

Oh I see what you're asking. Yes, you can give summons weapons in the toolset. So it's just up to the devs whether or not they want to depending on whatever balance issues they have to juggle.

Myrdyr · Post by **Myrdyr** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:39 pm

Which AO job lets you command slaves, Wyrmling Watcher.? It's not listed in the wiki as such.

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:47 pm

i have a toon with the ultimate mummy dust: death domain cleric with all the necro feats. (not sure if there's any way to buff it further than that).

he is great at lower levels but right now my toon is lvl 30 and the mummy gets owned by dwarves. he comes in, deals his 1d3 crappy crit range damage +str, and gets killed in medium short order.

my only other experience is my wizard with a death slaad (all conj feats, but elf). the slaad also sucks, but if you manage him right you can get him to cast all his spells on the critters outside the dwarf home and he can come in ready to kill.

he dies roughly twice as fast as the mummy but manages to deal a little damage before he goes. not enough to make any real impact, but it makes me feel a little better to see some numbers pop up before he bites it. ive seen some balor players and they manage to drop a few harms before they detonate, which is nice.

so my experience so far has been: mummy dust vs dragon knight... it just doesnt matter past lvl 30. they all suck.

MasterYoda · Post by **MasterYoda** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 3:37 pm

disastro wrote:i have a toon with the ultimate mummy dust: death domain cleric with all the necro feats. (not sure if there's any way to buff it further than that).

he is great at lower levels but right now my toon is lvl 30 and the mummy gets owned by dwarves. he comes in, deals his 1d3 crappy crit range damage +str, and gets killed in medium short order.

my only other experience is my wizard with a death slaad (all conj feats, but elf). the slaad also sucks, but if you manage him right you can get him to cast all his spells on the critters outside the dwarf home and he can come in ready to kill.

he dies roughly twice as fast as the mummy but manages to deal a little damage before he goes. not enough to make any real impact, but it makes me feel a little better to see some numbers pop up before he bites it. ive seen some balor players and they manage to drop a few harms before they detonate, which is nice.

so my experience so far has been: mummy dust vs dragon knight... it just doesnt matter past lvl 30. they all suck.

Your doing somethign wrong with DK then .....

My salaad ( which i think is the worst) can go heads up with a dorf or 2
granted i might need to heal it and such but the DK summons are immensly good

TnT cleric asimar with a solar ..... watch his summon cut through dorfs, zons, elemental planes....

Ive seen rocken summons ... u just need to know what your doing.

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 3:53 pm

MasterYoda wrote: Your doing somethign wrong with DK then .....
...
Ive seen rocken summons ... u just need to know what your doing.

we're talking about death slaad right? sure a small dwarf or two is ok... if you stay on top of him heal him re stone skin make sure he is done casting before you take him out for a walk grease and bigby everything that ever looks at him. and zone out if an elite busts loose.

slaad is not exactly "rockin" compared to solar or balor. he was great vs ice giants... after that not so much. if you are in a party those buffs are better spent on player characters, debuffs or direct damage.

i'm guessing all the "rocken summons" you have seen are solars or pm summons post 20.