Summoner: Earth + Nature build
Why Nature and Earth for a super tanky caster build:
Nature provides Heart of Oak skill tree which provides 85% health increase and 31% elemental resistance
Nature has Plague, one the best debuffs in the game
Earth has strong spells that do physical damages (Eruption and Volcanic Orb) which can be boosted by Strength and +% Physical damage, which means we can use Hale gears (+% Health and +% Strength) and other Strength-based gears that makes the character more tanky
Earth has skills that boost physical damages, and Nature has Wolves which can boost physical damage that works well with the above Earth spells.
Earth:
Earth Enchantment tree: Brimstone: full, Earth Enchantment: 1 point, Stone Skin: 1 point initially then more when you have spare.
Volatility: full. Good offense buff.
Heat Shield: initial 1 point then more when you have spare. Good defense buff.
Stone Form: 1 point (basic skill only). Very good defense cooldown.
Volcanic Orb tree: optional (1 point in Confragration only). The basic skill is required at start.
Eruption: full.
Nature:
Heart of Oak tree: full (Tranquility of Water low priority, when you have spare).
Refresh: 1 point. Level 4 is needed but you should have +4 skills.
Call of the Wild tree: full.
Plague tree: full.
In terms of progression:
- Start with 1 point in Earth Enchantment (basic), then max Volcanic Orb (basic) and Heart of Oak (basic) and put 1 point in Brimstone
- When you can reach Eruption, reclaim basic Volcanic Orb points and max Eruption
- Then develop Volatility, Refresh and Plague tree, maybe start with 1 point in each skill, and put 1 point in Stone Form
- Then develop Call of the Wild tree (in Epic difficulty, as in Normal the wolf dies easily)
- Then develop the rest
Late Game Set-Up
For late game (late Legendary), this is what you should aim for (and you can achieve) in terms of set-up:
All skills: +4
Defense:
Health: 20k or more
Elemental/Pierce/Vitality/Poison Resistance: around 40 - 50% or more
Stun Resistance: 50%+, ideally close to 80%
Bleeding Resistance: 0%+
Offense:
Strength: around 800+
Farming Spots
Best farming spots are:
Minoan Labyrinth, right before the last rebirth fountain (Act 1): for Stonebinder’s Cuffs
Hydra (Act 1): for Legendary items and relics
Telkin Act 2/3 or Manticore: for Egyptian relics
Fafnir (Act 5): for Legendary items and relics
Tactics
In general the cast sequence is:
Plague -> Eruption -> Refresh -> Plague -> Eruption
or optionally with Volcanic Orb:
Plague -> Volcanic Orb -> Eruption -> Refresh -> Plague -> Volcanic Orb -> Eruption
Works well vs both single target (bosses) and AoE (mobs). Most mobs die within one cast sequence.
Use Stone Form if health is low or to avoid a big incoming damage. With this build you rarely have to use it though.