Summoner

“

The Summoner and their Familiar are a team, fighting together to overwhelm their enemies. The Familiar rushes into the thick of it, dealing heavy physical damage and holding the attention of their opponent. Meanwhile, the Summoner hangs back, supporting their Familiar with long range skills that both help their feline friend and hinder their shared enemy.

Don’t let the adorable appearance of these two fool you. Summoner attacks deal constant damage and can readily control the flow of battle, making them particularly hard to deal with. Even if one part of the team is defeated, they can revive their fallen ally and jump right back into the fight.

The Summoner and their Familiar are the strongest at transferring health from foes to themselves. While it is a great class for novices, actually mastering the Summoner is a difficult process given their wide range of tactics and abilities.

„

~ Official Class Description

Summoner

Difficulty	2/5, Easy
Race(s)	Lyn
Weapon	Staves
Abbreviation	SUM

Overview[]

The Summoner is a versatile class in Blade & Soul, and is best described as a jack-of-all-trades. Summoners call upon a Familiar to take damage for the player and to assist in close-range combat. A Summoner's primary attacks cast spells at a distance, and so are excellent at ranged combat. With their mix of support and defensive skills, they are easy for most players to use.

Races[]

The Summoner is exclusive to the Lyn.

Familiars[]

The introductory quest Master Hong's Summons goes a little bit different for Summoners than for other classes. At the end of the quest, the player is prompted to choose a Familiar out of five options.

Toggle for the Cats!

	Feisty "You ready to fight? I'm ready to fight. You ready to kick some tail? I'm ready to kick some tail! Let's conquer the world... together! Purr! Meow! Pick me, and you can name me whatever you want. As long as it's ferocious!"
	Fido "I don't know you, but I already love you! I'll be the most loyal Familiar ever! Please pick me! My name is Fido, but you can call me whatever you want. Can we play fetch? Ruff! Uh, I mean meow."
	Fifi "I'm trying to look my best for you, Summoner. This is my first time to your realm! Are you nervous? I am. Oh, please pick me. You seem nice, purr. Are you really going to make me your Familiar? I'm so excited! Take your time naming me. Purr, meow!"
	Fluffy "I'm very experienced in the ways of your world, Summoner! In return for my services, I ask only for your trust... and a few fish! Will you bond with me, Summoner? Please pick a name that suits you... and me-ow!"
	Frisky "So we're going to learn martial arts and fight for good, right? I guess I can do that between naps. My name's Frisky, but name me whatever you want."

Playstyle[]

Solo[]

Using their cats as a tank that attracts all sort of damage from mobs and bosses, Summoners can stay in a safe distance from afar and dish out damage to their heart's contents

Along with their tanking cats, Summoners also boast great self-healing, nice amount of CC/Double CC skills for self-rescue when in pinch, and be able to stealth away for a good while when the situation become dire.

Being a ranged-attacker, Summoners have easier time to avoid boss' deadly melee-ranged AoE in some contents, such as Soulstone Plains.

Grouping[]

Summoner accesses diverse utilities to offer to their group.

When the group has no real tanker like Kung Fu Master and Blade Master, or have one but cannot do their role properly, and the aggro is upon the strongest damage dealer in the group, Summoners can use their cats to force taunt, temporarily alleviating the tanking pressure of the tanker for a good while.

Summoner is one of few classes with Snare skill. Using Grasping Root or Weed Whack, a Summoner can keep mobs in place, waiting for being slaughtered by AoE (Area of Effect) while the cat taunt is in cooldown, or even stall a boss from doing his mechanic attacks, giving free DPS time to achieve some difficult achievements.

Summoners also offer Healing or Focus Regeneration. The first is preferred during random grouping in cross-server dungeons, to keep your party members alive. The latter is to offer a boost in DPS of some classes, when you're confident about your group's performance.

Next is Crowd Control. Except for Knock Back, Summoners can do double Daze, Stun and Knock Down with ease, but they need their cat to not be CCed first in order to execute these CCs. Additionally, Summoner is the only class that can have a boss pinned for free DPS time with their cats, without sacrificing their own DPS contribution like Destroyer and Blade Dancer.

Finally, Summoner is also known as a Party-saver. They can send their cat to aid the revival of a dead/chi-recovering party member, protect a Chi-recovering member from being killed by upcoming attack, and stealth a whole party from a deadly AoE. In case of bad luck where Summoner is killed, as long as their cat is alive, they can do self-revive, or even whole-party revive (the latter comes with long cooldown).

PvP[]

Summoner is a strong class against inexperienced players, where you often meet them in Lower Gold metal rating. Self-healing, stealth, being able to CC the opponent even when being CCed, and simple damage-dealing mechanic make the class newbie-friendly, and a headache to players who are not used to deal with them. This also make Summoner a good class to farm Zen Bean for extra income and other necessary goodies.

However, when facing experienced players in Upper Gold metal rating, Summoner starts to fall behind, due to the lack of escape skills, and their great reliance on the cat, which is often killed, rendered useless, or have its auto-attack taken advantage in high-tier matches. Participating to such matches mean that you will have to learn how to control and protect your own cat, in addition of knowing how to handle your enemy.

Skills[]

LMB
	Rosethorn	Inflicts Wind/Earth damage.
	Butterfly Swarm	Second attack following after Rosethorn. Inflicts Wind/Earth damage.
	Footloose	Decreases the Chi recovery time of the summoner or a party member by 6 seconds.
	Helping Paw!	Resurrect an unconscious ally.
	Awakened Rosethorn	Soulburn version of Rosethorn. Inflicts Wind/Earth damage with special effects
	Awakened Butterfly Swarm	Soulburn version of Butterfly Swarm, following after Rosethorn Inflicts Wind/Earth damage with special effects
RMB
	Rumblebees	Inflicts wind damage.
	Sunflower	Inflicts earth damage.
	Super Sunflower	Inflicts earth damage.
	Entangle	Knocks down an enemy.
F
	Doom 'n' Bloom	Deals earth damage over time to enemies in an area around the targeted enemy.
	Retreat	Escape from knockdown, daze, and unconsciousness.
	Flying Nettles	Decreases movement speed and deals damage over time to enemies in an area around the targeted enemy.
	Guard Duty	Commands the summoner's familiar to take damage in place of the summoner while the summoner is in Chi Recovery mode.
	Farewell	The summoner's familiar sacrifices itself in order to resurrect the summoner along with any other unconscious party members in range.
	Enhanced Seed Shroud	On a successful counter of an attack, the summoner and party members gain stealth for 6 seconds and resists damage and status effects for 1 seconds.
	Ride Dragon Pulse	Rides a nearby Dragon Pulse to its natural outlet.
Tab
	Wish	Resurrects the summoner's familiar.
	Lunge	Commands the summoner's familiar to charge the target.
	Power Pounce	The summoner's familiar pins the enemy and inflicts damage when the pin is over.
	Kapow!	The cat attacks the target that is stunned, dazed,grabed, or grappled.
1
	Grasping Roots	Summon roots around the target which snare enemies and deal earth damage.
	Weed Whack	Summon roots around the target which snare the target and deal earth damage. Also deal additional earth damage-over-time
	Tag Team	When the summoner is knocked down the familiar will switch places with the summoner, allowing the summoner to escape.
	Second Wind	The summoner escapes from grapples and grabs and retreats 10 meters.
2
	Thorn Strike	Inflicts earth damage.
	Backstep	The summer recovers from knockdown or unconsciousness and retreats 10 meters.
3
	Petal Storm	The summoner resists ranged attacks and status effects while preventing nearby enemies from blocking or evading.
4
	Seed Shroud	On a successful counter of an attack, the summoner gains stealth for 6 seconds, 4 focus, and resists damage and status effects for 1.5 seconds.
	Briar Patch	Inflicts earth damage and decreases movement speed of the targeted enemy and nearby enemies.
Z
	Huzzah!	The summoner sacrifices some HP to heal the familiar over time.
X
	True Friend	Transfers HP from the familiar to the summoner.
	Headbutt	The familiar knocks a grappled enemy unconscious.
C
	Strike	The familiar strikes the target with its hammer.
	Clawnado	The familiar claws the enemies consecutively.
	Hammer Spin	The familiar spins with its hammer, damaging nearby enemies.
V
	Anklebiter	The summoner's familiar knocks down any nearby enemies in front of it.
	Surprise Gift	The summoner's familiar plants a bomb that can be denoted at will.
	Bomb Away!	The summoner's familiar calls down a missile strike after 8s.
	Uppercut	The familiar launches the target into the air.
	Playtime	The familiar inflicts damage on an airborne target and resists damage and status effects during use.
Q
	Crouching Tiger	The summoner's familiar curls up, reducing the damage it receives for some time.
E
	Beckon	The familiar returns to the summoner's side and is cured of status effects.
A
	Dash Left	Move 8m to the left.
D
	Dash Right	Move 8m to the right.
W
	Sprint	Run swiftly across the ground.
	Water Dash	Dash swiftly across the water.
	Air Dash	Soar quickly through the air.
	Wall Dash	Dash quickly across a wall.
	Surge	Sprint following a dive.
S
	Evade	Move backwards 10m.
	Dive	Descend quickly towards the ground.
Space
	Glide	Glides slowly through the air.
	Vault	Leap over obstacles.
None
	Paw	The familiar slashes the enemy it is attacking, causing bleed.
	Swipe	Following Paw, the familiar slashes the enemy it is attacking, causing bleed.
	Heavy Swipe	Following Swipe, the familiar slashes the enemy it is attacking, causing bleed.
	Roundabout	Following Swipe, the familiar spins a giant hammer round and round, damaging and causing bleed on enemies around it
	Alley Cat	Increase's the familiar's damage.
	House Cat	Increases the familiar's defense.
	Swoosh	The familiar moves behind the target.

Rotation[]

How Summoner's DPS works[]

Summoner has the simplest but yet efficient DPS rotation, revolving around the use of Rosethorn, Sunflower, Doom'n'Gloom and Flying Nettle. Maybe Power Pounce too, if the situation calls.

The Sunflower build requires to execute Sunflower on enemies are being life-drained by Doom'n'Gloom, standing on Flying Nettle area of effect, or being pinned down by Power Pounce to proc Super Sunflower, in order to build up stacks of Photosynthesis up to tier 5, converting the buff to Overflow for focus-free Sunflower spam for 3-5sec. (depend on if you have the Hongmoon version of Sunflower or not). Therefore, it requires a bit of rotation in order to maintain the uptime of Super Sunflower.

The rotation is simple and easy to execute: Keep the cooldown of Doom'n'Gloom and Briar Patch being 5-8 seconds apart. Whichever skill hits first does not matter. Only use Power Pounce if the target moves outside of Flying Nettle area of effect, or when you find yourself run out of conditions to proc Super Sunflower, or when you or your party member are in a pinch. The reason is that if you spam all of skills that can proc Super Sunflower at once, you may get a few rotations of Overflow, then find yourself in an awkward situation where you have like four stack of Photosynthesis, but can no longer build it up as all required skills are in cooldown. Hence DPS loss for a short while.

The build is highly dependent on critical hit of Rosethorn in order to maintain focus for Sunflower and Super Sunflower until Overflow, it is recommended to have at least 50% critical rate.

Basic DPS rotations[]

Begin with Doom'n'Gloom:

Doom'n'Gloom.
Weave Rosethorn and Sunflower until the Photosynthesis stack reaches 2-3.
Flying Nettle.
Weave Rosethorn and Sunflower until Overflow
Spam Overflow Sunflower.
Repeat

= + = + +

Begin with Flying Nettle:

Grasping Roots or Weed Whack
Flying Nettle
Weave Rosethorn and Sunflower until the Photosynthesis stack reaches 2-3, or nearly run out of Focus.
Doom'n'Gloom.
Weave Rosethorn and Sunflower until Overflow
Spam Overflow Sunflower.
Repeat

= = + = = +

Or:

= = + = = +

Begin with Power Pounce, followed with Flying Nettle

CC or Double CC of choice on the target. Lunge or Thorn Strike + Strike
Power Pounce
Weave Rosethorn and Sunflower until the Photosynthesis stack reaches 2-3, or nearly run out of Focus, or when the pinning ends
Weed Whack. It's better to cast it during the pin.
Flying Nettle
Weave Rosethorn and Sunflower until Overflow
Spam Overflow Sunflower.
Start another rotation with Doom'n'Gloom first.

= = + = = = + =

Or:

+ = = + = = = + =

Begin with Power Pounce, followed with Doom'n'Gloom

Same as above
Same as above
Same as above
Doom'n'Gloom
Weave Rosethorn and Sunflower until Overflow
Spam Overflow Sunflower.
Start another rotation with Weed Whack to trigger Flying Neetle

= = + = = + = =

Or:

+ = = + = = + = =

DPS together other Summoners[]

Summoners can help each other with their skills to build up Photosynthesis, so you can rotate your skills 10 seconds after a fight to maintain the uptime for Super Sunflower proc.

DPS together Warlocks[]

Warlocks will often do their rotation for the first 10 seconds before execute Soulburn. The buff will boost DPS, reset all cooldown, and enable Awakened Rosethorn in place of its normal counterpart.

To maximize your DPS output, it's better to reach Tier 4 Photosynthesis or Overflow upon Soulburn, and have all of your skills in cooldown so that the buff will reset them all. Within the buff duration, you can spam Overflow Sunflower, then build up to another one before the buff end.

After that, it's pretty hard to keep track for another Soulburn, so just do normal DPS rotations. If you want to keep track, you have consider the Warlock's Soulburn cooldown, which is 3 minutes. If there are two Warlocks in the party, they will cast the buff as soon as the global cooldown of the buff is gone.

NOTE: During the buff, if your party has Force Masters, do not Power Pounce, because it will make them lose the chance to execute of of their strongest attacks.

How to do CC chain[]

Summoner can easy to pull off CC chain, both single and double CC, provided the target does not have long CC resistance period.

Double Daze:
1. Thorn Strike T2S3
2. Strike T2S2

+

Double Stun:
1. Lunge T3S1

Double Knock Down:
1. Make sure that your cat face the target.
2. Anklebiter
3. Beckon T3S2

+

Or

Beckon
Surprise Gift T2S2. Must press twice

+

Or:

Anklebiter T4S1 x2 (Hongmoon version)

+ Or:

Surprise Gift T4S1 (Hongmoon version). Must press twice

+

Chain CC target with single CC bar:
1. Double Daze or Stun with Lunge or Thorn Strike + Strike
2. Power Pounce T3S1
3. Wait for the Cat to start to slash, or the Defense Reduction debuff to appears and count down to 9.
4. Weed Whack T3S2 to get reduced cooldown
5. Wait for the target to get knocked down when the debuff hits zero.
6. Weed Whack
7. CC of choices when the Snare runs out
8. Repeat.

= = =

Or: = = =

Or: = = = Or: = = =

Chain CC target with double-CC bar:
1. Double CC either Lunge T3S1 (stun), Thorn Strike T2S3 + Hammer Strike T2S2 (daze).
2. Power Pounce T3S1
3. Wait for the Cat to start to slash, or the Defense Reduction debuff to appears and count down to 9.
4. Weed Whack T3S2 to get reduced cooldown
5. Wait for the buff to hit zero and proc a Knock Down bar.
6. Anklebiter
7. Weed Whack
8. CC of choices when the Snare runs out
9. Repeat.

= = = = + = = = =

Trivia[]

In the G-Star 2009 Trailer, a prototype Summoner was shown at the beginning but never revealed as being one until the Korean CBT3.
The prototype Summoner was quite different from the current Summoner. The class used to be somewhat dark-themed class, using a giant brush to summoning circles on the air, and summon a Thrall-like dark creature to fight.
Later, the dark creature is replaced by a cute bipedal cat, brightening the class' theme. The brush is also replaced by the staff, though there are still a few staff skins in the game that resemble to a brush.