Geonor Sucks As Necromancer

The way I beat him, with around 25% cold res is using 1 arsonist and full skeleton warriors.

The skeleton warriors had 2 support gems:

- Life Gasp;
- Minion Pact;

Then I could use my dmg skill with the Sacrifical Lamb support gem. Allowing me to blow them twice since they don't die instantly because of Life Gasp.

Maybe you would want to control the amount of minions you sacrifice then I would move the Sacrificial Lamb gem to the Unearth spell, since it doesn't need to be constantly cast.

I had to avoid big hits and conserve flasks until last phase.

The hardest part is to maintain calm and have a minion to explode packs on the mist phase. Since I had low cold res the mobs did a considerable amount of damage that I had to be aware of and cautious.

You can probably swap some evasion gear or stats to improve your cold res.

I also recommend two arsonists if possible, way faster explosions.

Yeah, avoiding hits on the mist phase... That's n.1 tip from me.

There is also the combo with arsonist and archer explosion gas cloud.

My minions didn't die on first hit, unless its a big hit. But soon they would be back or at least I could explode them twice before they would disappear.

I do not remember if I used elemental res on them. Probably on the arsonists..

A tip I could give to struggeling newbie summoners is try this setup from Act1 to Act 6:

1. Skeleton Archers (goal is around 5-7 of them).

Link 'em with more damage supports when you can (especially the command one). Their job is dropping gas clouds all over the place.

2. Raging Spirit (sorceress's spirit gem skill).

Link 'em with immolation and exposure when you can (you could buy some level 2 and 3 supports if you are on trade). Their job is igniting monsters standing in gas clouds.

3. Flame Wall.

Link with faster casting and cheaper cast if needed. It's job is to buff you archers' arrows a little (got nerfed) and summon 2 Raging Spirits. And also ignite gas clouds until your skulls are strong enough to do that themselves.

4. Rest of spirit into tanking minions like Skeletal Warriors, Reavers and Brutes.

Main job is to try and take as much aggro off you as possible and stun bosses.

This setup makes the entire campaign a breeze.

Edit: And yeah the Act 1 boss' cold storm phase is a bit nasty for summoners, I usually end up doing a lot of rolling around and using my flask there ^^;

Get the infolding dawn chest. Play with 4 or 5 frost mages. Pain offering. Nothing else to say. Sure spirits might be useful .

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what exactly, am I meant to do as a player when I can't respec, when I can't just 'get' some extra resists, when I have no runes or artificer orbs, WHAT am I meant to do in order to beat a boss this early, if I struggle on it?

grind until you want to cry, then grind some more. fun isn't it. ok sarcasm aside, there are some fairly strong minion options you could experiment with, go look up some builds to get some ideas.

having said that, here's the cold hard truth, some bosses are just horrible to fight using minions.

I need to know something, do you use the "direct minions" bind? I ask because it is not clear that players can do that, so I wonder how many players do not use it because they do not know about or because they do not think it is useful.

I had zero issues with Geonor. If your minions are dying, put passive points on minion revive time reduction and use Last Gasp on your main damage dealers.