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[Oneir]

The Horned horror is nasty. For a lot of people, it's enough to make the alternate Maze layout the last Tier 2 dungeon they do. That grab is even worse if you're a spellcaster, since it silences you. A Wild infusion can clear at least some of the debuffs it hits you with, and teleporting (which you can only do through items if you're still silenced) will break his hold. I don't remember whether the various jumping skills will break a pin, but it seems plausible. As a summoner, you might want to invest in a psychoportation torc if you can find one, but failing that just stay as far away from the big nasties as you can.

[Frumple]

Oddly enough, unless it's changed since the last time I paid attention to summoners, you actually will, very rarely, want to wear a bow or sling over a mindstar.

You'll never actually shoot with it, but you'll wear it. They're one of the absolute best sources of high level bonus physical damage % in the game, and a really killer sling in one hand and mindstar in the other can potentially put your summons damage output (which, unless it's changed and/or I'm forgetting, inherits your +phys%) higher than dual 'star would. Not quite as likely as it used to be with all the nice mindstar artifacts/egos faffing about these days, but it's a possibility.

... also, melee summoners totally work. People have done that, heh. The mindstar tree is actually really powerful, and with heroism infusions (or just going with shields or whatev'), you can make even the naturally fairly flimsy summoners pretty tanky. Significantly weaker than the classic 'Summon crap from around a corner and press the wait button as necessary' build, but it's faintly viable (at least on normal. It gets wreck't on any difficulty higher than that, iirc).

[Ukrainian Ranger]

I thin that mindstars are not that good for summoners because they don't really need more willpower once wil and cun are maxed

Good shields offer nice resistances and more armor never hurt low HP classes

[Frumple]

Eeehhh... resists, defenses in general, are kinda' useless for summoners. They should never really be getting hit, since their entire shtick is spewing meatshields everywhere. More damage means your adds kill stuff faster, which is probably going to help more than maybe taking another hit or two. Armor's kinda' junky on a summoner unless they're going heavy/massive armor (which is a maybe, but the best stuff for 'em is cloth or leather, so...) since they'd otherwise be lacking hardiness. Some of the other shield stuff is alright, but not something I'd suggest unless you get a serious windfall.

Mindstars actually have pretty decent resists themselves, and a number of other advantages beyond the mindpower. A hella' good shield might make up the difference, but that's almost certainly going to lock you out of AM (which is another maybe, but again some of the best artifact stuff for summoners get benefits from the user being anti-magic, soo...), and almost certainly be a notable damage reduction compared to a mindstar or +% damage sling.

So, like. Maybe? I wouldn't recommend a shield, per se, but it's a thing you could do.

[Arcvasti]

Hah, I killed the Master for the first time. Oddly, he didn't seem to do much after his initial freeze other then throw paltry hexes and a couple minor damage spells that splatted against my time shield. He didn't do the "SUMMON ALL THE UNDEAD" thing that killed my Archmage this time, which was neat. I just unloaded all my damage spells into him over and over again until he died, since he didn't do anything to warrant more complex tactics. Literally the only danger was Paradox anomalies. And then I promptly got wrecked by this one orc boss who ambushed me when I exited Dreadfell and took my PLOTSTICK.

[RedWarrior0]

Hah, I killed the Master for the first time. Oddly, he didn't seem to do much after his initial freeze other then throw paltry hexes and a couple minor damage spells that splatted against my time shield. He didn't do the "SUMMON ALL THE UNDEAD" thing that killed my Archmage this time, which was neat. I just unloaded all my damage spells into him over and over again until he died, since he didn't do anything to warrant more complex tactics. Literally the only danger was Paradox anomalies. And then I promptly got wrecked by this one orc boss who ambushed me when I exited Dreadfell and took my PLOTSTICK.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The first time I fought that guy, I was playing a doombringer and, as a result, I didn't realize you're normally expected to "die" there.

[Robsoie]

Note :

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You can actually win that orc ambush and kill them all despite the ambush boss is overpowered at the level you're supposed to be.
Some classes will have more chances than other to deal enough damage and avoid/heal fast enough for the lots of hits you're taking.

Make sure to do every dungeons and sub-dungeons as you'll need all the XP/levels (for the skills) for your character to have a chance.

Winning or losing that ambush isn't much important in the end, the story will still move toward the same direction, only a couple of dialogues at Last Hope will change (and you get the "Against all odds" achievement).

[Frumple]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Just, uh. Make sure to kill everything but the boss, first. Pretty sure it hasn't been changed where if the boss dies first and the rest of them manage to kill you, you actually eat a death on top of having your plot stick janked.

And yeah, all you get from winning is the XP, cheevo, and a guaranteed at-least-dwarven-steel (usually voratun, honestly) randart.

[Arcvasti]

Yeah, I Time Skipped the boss and killed the minions while he was outside of time. He then two-hitted me. Same character got permanently killed in one of the Orc Pride things because a Wyrmic boss critted for 500 on a breath attack when I thought I was out of range[And thus didn't have my shield up]. I guess now its time to play some of the cool new classes I unlocked. I've already tried out Wyrmic and was not terribly impressed[Doing the antimagic questline at level ~14 and dying to an orc corrupter may or may not have helped any]. I guess I just don't like melee classes that much[Not that I've played any before Wyrmics]. I did get Anorithil and Doomed unlocked while I was in the Far East though, so I guess the journey there wasn't a COMPLETE waste. I feel like I missed something though. The Dark Crypt and whatever-the-dungeon-with-all-the-spiders-is-called were both either easy or managable. Whereas walking into one of the Orc Pride places puts me face to face with a Corrupter as powerful as the one in the Mark of the Spellblaze. I really, REALLY dislike Corrupters. Lifesteal + High damage + annoying disable + that fucking bone shield thing = MAXIMUM ANNOYINGNESS. Add in a boss-sized health pool and you have hellFearscape.

[Darkmere]

Hitting really hard is corrupter's schtick. Blight resistance takes some teeth out of their bite. I think they also do acid? But not enough relatively to bother stacking resists for. You want to incapacitate or just flat out kill them immediately, one on one if possible.

[Frumple]

Mm... yeah, you generally save the prides for after you've gone back west and cleared that stuff out, as well as whatever side dungeons you can manage in the east. Lead up to the end, basically. The opening rooms to pretty much all the prides can be pretty damn brutal. Also the necromancer/elementalist pair is probably best saved for after the (generally much less painful) wyrmic one, with the fighter one last. Tinker with the order, basically, to make things a bit more manageable. It'll still be pretty rough -- these are basically the next-to-last zones in the game -- but you can do a lot to make things easier.

You... might be able to teleport out, or at least movement-infusion through the door to give yourself some better room to play with? I've always just kinda' killed them all (barring an occasional splat to the fighter pride one, which is the worst of the lot  by a fair margin), so I've never actually tried to just dip out of that initial entryway.

And yeah, corruptor's primarily blight, with some acid/nature and darkness. Little bit of fire (mainly via fearscape, but there's a little bit of other, too). Blowing them up immediately really is your best option, with disabling coming a close second.

E: Oooh, merchant just gave my ogre sunpa warmaking/dispersal (plus some other junk) gauntlets. +20/17% phys/spellcrit and disperse magic, yes, thank you. Physcrit is now at... 73, spell at 89. Not 100%, but it's verra' nice anyway.

[Oneir]

Also, if you have trouble with bone shield specifically, try to get some extra damage types. For weapons that's easy enough, but for spells you pretty much need the few artifacts that add damage conversion. Every tick of every type of damage counts as a different attack as far taking out layers of bone shield.

[Arcvasti]

Mm... yeah, you generally save the prides for after you've gone back west and cleared that stuff out, as well as whatever side dungeons you can manage in the east. Lead up to the end, basically. The opening rooms to pretty much all the prides can be pretty damn brutal. Also the necromancer/elementalist pair is probably best saved for after the (generally much less painful) wyrmic one, with the fighter one last. Tinker with the order, basically, to make things a bit more manageable. It'll still be pretty rough -- these are basically the next-to-last zones in the game -- but you can do a lot to make things easier.

You... might be able to teleport out, or at least movement-infusion through the door to give yourself some better room to play with? I've always just kinda' killed them all (barring an occasional splat to the fighter pride one, which is the worst of the lot  by a fair margin), so I've never actually tried to just dip out of that initial entryway.

Yeah, after I died twice charging in I teleported behind the starting room and began killing everyone in there while ignoring the ones in the starting room. I did try to go back to Maj'Eyal before I did the Prides, but I opened the vault with the rainbow wyrms in it and made it almost impossible to get the Athame thing I needed. Will remember next time I get to that place.

Also, if you have trouble with bone shield specifically, try to get some extra damage types. For weapons that's easy enough, but for spells you pretty much need the few artifacts that add damage conversion. Every tick of every type of damage counts as a different attack as far taking out layers of bone shield.

Huh, that sounds useful. Dust to Dust deals two damage types, so combing that with Temporal Bolt could take out five layers in three turns. I'll remember that, although it'll probably be forever before I play a Paradox Mage again[I've got to play all the new classes I've unlocked first before repeating old ones].

[Sharp]

So I have a skirmisher (after unlocking by using a Bulwark as a skirmisher ) and across my travels in a store I see an item called tentacled totem of somethingness which grants me the talent to tentacle (for no cost) and also has -1 cooldown so can be used every 6 turns, as well as a totem charm to cleanse disease or something. So I think hmm tentacle, maybe it roots an enemy in place, handy for a skirmisher.

I was right, but I was so wrong, the tentacle is called Grimmlarkys tentacle, this is a tentacle that a boss summons and needs to be killed to hurt the boss. I can spawn them every 6 turns, they last for 10 turns, they have 180 health and do 50 damage and have resistances going from 50% to 100%. I am level 12, even if these tentacles don't scale up I think I have broken the game. Oh and how much did this wondrous totem cost me? Well only the princely sum of 35 gold.

Combined with acrobatic talents then apart from getting surprised and frozen immediately I think I should be able to beat anything the game can throw at me. Even in the most dire of situations I think I can probably survive long enough to use the rod of recall to escape (and this time I won't go to the damn far portal room until I am ready)

[Frumple]

Yeah, the tentacles are pretty great. Only downside is they (currently, anyway -- it may be fixed in the future) don't give XP for anything they kill. Quite useful, though, and you'll probably find even better ones later in the game.

E: Also, I may be misremembering, or it may have been fixed, but try aiming the tentacle outside the displayed range. Iirc, at one point, it would drop the thing wherever you put the cursor, rather than just where you were supposed to be able to put the cursor.