A conductor of spirits
Summoners fight beside one pact spirit at a time and support it with their own pact magic. The Summoner is the only class that changes element mid-fight by swapping spirits, and every swap is an attack. These combat spirits are separate from the Hearthling soul companion that provides your death rescue.
At Novice Job Level 10, choose Summoner through Iona in Archer Village, under Other paths, and complete her short trial. The Pact Keeper in Archer Village sells pacts and teaches your later lessons. The job stays at Job Level 1; Base Levels, your pacts and Bond replace the usual job-point progression.
Begin with a wisp
The Pact Keeper in Archer Village, near Iona, sells permanent Cinder, Spring, Gale and Pebble Wisp pacts. The four primal pacts (Ember Sovereign, Tide Regent, Storm Herald and Stone Warden) are earned in their primal trials from Base Level 50 and are a later goal, not a requirement for starting the class. A trial asks for at least two adventurers, and your called pact counts as one, so a Summoner can face a primal alone with their spirit. The keepers wait in Magma Dungeon 1, Byalan 3, Mt. Mjolnir 2 and Mjolnir Mine 2.
Ask the Pact Keeper about The road ahead for the whole path in one place: Bond and the Triad at Bond 160, where the primals are, and what the Covenant Sovereign's form needs.
Open Skills or use /summon to view the pact journal: call or dismiss a spirit, bind pacts, choose a stance and check abilities. This is your class interface, not the Lantern Road quest journal.
How your spirits grow
When your active spirit helps win a fight, it earns a share of the experience you earned and levels on the same table you do, so it keeps pace a few levels behind you. Waiting bound pacts learn a little, and your other pacts a little less. A pact that has fallen far behind your strongest pact catches up faster. A spirit can never pass your Base Level (pacts can grow all the way to 175 beside you), and hunting the same creature over and over still gives less.
Spirits trained before these rules were recalculated, and each kept whichever level was higher, so no one lost levels.
Your spirit in battle
- Your spirit follows you through warps, portals and teleports, keeping its health, SP and blessings.
- Summon abilities always work; they never falter.
- Your damage and your spirit's damage count together for MVP rewards.
- Soul Volley takes your active spirit's element (neutral with no spirit out), so it can strike a Break weakness; its colour changes with the element.
- In Break and Boost, your spirit's basic attacks reveal weaknesses and build your Boost Points, but only its abilities chip a shield, so a spirit cannot break a boss alone. When your spirit's element is a hidden weakness of its target, you alone may notice it reacting eagerly.
- Your spirit's hits charge your Latent Power. Pack Call also strengthens your spirit and removes Pact Shift's cooldown while it lasts.
- Pact Ward makes both you and your spirit take less damage, and Pact Cleanse also frees your spirit from stun, sleep, freeze and stone.
Stances
From Base Level 10 your spirit takes a stance. Guard (the default) joins your attacks and turns on whatever hits you, a nearby party member or itself. Hunt also picks its own targets. Heel keeps it at your side; Pact Recall calls it to heel.
Binding and Pact Shift
Out of combat, bind two pacts as your Pair; only bound pacts answer a call, and a primal takes one place. At Bond 160 the Pair grows into a Triad of three. Binding keeps the class fair: you never have every element on demand, so choose a pairing for the map.
From Base Level 25, after a Pact Keeper lesson, Pact Shift swaps your active spirit for the next bound pact with a quick cast that damage cannot interrupt. The spirit that leaves keeps its health and SP and pays no upkeep while it waits. The one that arrives makes an entrance, at most once in a while per pact; a primal's is stronger.
| Arriving pact | Arrival effect |
|---|---|
| Cinder | A fire burst on your target |
| Spring | A small heal for nearby party members |
| Gale | Agility and speed for nearby party members |
| Pebble | Draws nearby monsters onto itself |
Residue and Confluence
Your spirits' bolts, arrival effects and a practised Soul Volley leave a Residue of their element on the target, shown as a small icon over it. When a different element of yours hits that target, the Residue is used up and a Confluence fires. Each target can only have one Confluence every so often, and a primal's Confluence is larger and stronger. The Weave tab in your pact journal lists them all.
| Elements | Confluence | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Fire + Wind | Wildfire | The burn spreads to nearby enemies |
| Water + Earth | Mire | Slowing ground |
| Fire + Earth | Obsidian | Chips Break shields, or briefly stuns an unshielded foe |
| Water + Wind | Squall | Knocks the enemy back and may freeze it |
| Fire + Water | Steam | A blinding cloud that also helps allies inside dodge |
| Earth + Wind | Sandstorm | Reveals a weakness and chips a shield |
Pact arts
| Base Level | Art | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | Wisp Lantern | At night your wisp lights the area around you and reveals hidden monsters; your pacts hit harder at night. Learned on a field at night. |
| 35 | Pact Communion | Shares your active pact's blessing with nearby party members for a minute (never an element); once a minute |
| 45 | Interpose | Your spirit blinks to you or a party member, trades places and draws the attackers |
| 50 | Spirit Release | Sacrifice your spirit in a finale: fire, a party heal, a tailwind or a barrier |
| 50 | Primal Commands | One party technique per primal you own, paid with Primal Cores |
| 60 | Spirit Sight | Marks Magic, Rare and Mythic monsters on your minimap and reads when an MVP will return from its tombstone |
| 70 | Wardbearer | With a guild, your spirit contests Wardstones and can chip the Crown Lantern in sieges |
Primals, Cores and Sigils
A primal's burst plays out like its trial: the Ember Sovereign's delayed fire circles, the Tide Regent's wave, the Storm Herald's chaining lightning and the Stone Warden's fault line, with the same warning circles players know. Primal Cores from the trials buy and fuel the Primal Commands. From Base Level 99, each keeper also offers a harder Ascendant trial that keeps pace with strong parties and gives more Cores.
Each pact also chooses a Sigil at summon levels 10, 30, 60 and 99: a permanent choice between two traits, such as the Cinder Wisp's Kindled (it attacks from range) or Brand (its blows burn). The Pact Keeper can clear a pact's Sigils for Cores. Each wisp has a personality too: the Gale Wisp's bolt slows, the Pebble Wisp's bolt draws attention, and the Spring Wisp's blessing also lifts an ailment.
Bond, class stats and titles
Bond, the sum of all your pact levels, is the Summoner's visible job level; the Bond tab in the pact journal tracks it. Bond earns class stats up to +30 and opens the Triad at 160. Your class title shows in the journal and under your name: Summoner, then Pactbinder at Bond 160, then Covenant Sovereign through the Valkyrie. Titles are cosmetic.
Two lasting lessons
Both passives have five ranks. Check the Passives tab, accept the available lesson from the Pact Keeper, complete its field exercise, and return to confirm the rank. Their benefits apply automatically while you are a Summoner.
- Deepened Pact increases your active summon's maximum HP.
- Aether Stewardship makes summon upkeep less frequent.
Covenant Sovereign
At Base Level 99, holding all four primal pacts and with Bond 480, a Summoner can take an advanced form through the Valkyrie, by the same offering and road to Valhalla as transcendence (see Transcendence). You stay a Summoner and keep every level, pact and piece of gear.
The Covenant Sovereign gains the transcendence package (25% more maximum HP and SP, and 52 extra stat points), the title, a Sovereign's Mantle, a cosmetic Bond star for every 100 Bond past 480, Full Circle binding (all four bound pacts answer) and Twin Call, which brings your next bound pact to fight beside your active spirit for a short time.
Laurels: mastery past rank 10
Soul Volley mastery earned after rank 10 is not lost: it becomes Laurels. The Laurel Steward beside the Arcane Mentor in Geffen trades them for classic headgear, a replacement mantle, or a reforge of an unequipped Magic or Rare weapon's affixes.