Soloing normal Diablo with a summoner of any type is crazy scary.
I'm working on a hardcore "deathpoll" character on USWest Hardcore Ladder whose progress I'm chronicling on the AB forums when they come back up. His name is Brother_Francis and he's a peaceful preaching man. No weapon no shield and very very low end armor items. Currently he's up to act 4 nightmare, and still using dire wolves exclusively for thematic reasons (an anecdote of St. Francis of Assisi involves him taming a wolf that was threatening a village).
I've been beating most act bosses by spamming wolves to distract while my rogue merc does the damage. That didn't work so well for the big D. My summons and merc got toasted every time D as much as sneezed. Normal Diablo has been the longest and hardest battle he has faced so far.
My ravens actually helped quite a bit, since they can't be killed, so they did a bit of whittling down on his health. Mainly it was an exercise in reviving my merc a lot and staying quick on my feet and quick to recast cyclone armor (my only form of elemental defense at the time due to Francis' equipment restrictions). Used up about a tome's worth of TP scrolls. I spammed wolves when I was able, but mainly it was just patience and trying to get D to concentrate on something other than my rogue so she could get in a few shots before dying to a firestorm or LBoD. (She had near maxed fire and lightning resist thanks to a nice rare circlet, but still died very quickly.)
Are you using a poison creeper much? They are surprisingly helpful, even as a one point wonder. Monsters like to chase it and it spends enough time underground that it tends to survive quite well. The creeper also did a good job helping take D's health down since it survived better than the other summons. Keep combat casting it near him.
With regard to things other than just Diablo...
You might consider switching between wolves and bear situationally -- the bear is nice for tanking mean things, but the wolves are nice for distracing big mobs.
My rogue used an Edge bow until act 3 NM when I found a WWS with another character (merc does not have equipment restrictions -- she's Francis' guardian angel and so need not be poorly dressed). It was really nice, the speed in particular helped. I really like using a rogue merc with a summoner to give a ranged attack. (Actually I'm a big fan of rogue mercs for everything except caster characters). The Edge works very nicely, although the thorns doesn't do as much as you might hope -- thorns works best with bone walls or decoys, rather than moving targets. But if you have no other pressing equipment needs, by all means it doesn't hurt. If Francis didn't have moral objections to bearing arms I'd probably let him hold an edge bow now that my rogue isn't using one anymore.
Anyway, good luck with big D, I hope for a favorable progress report!
Heather
I'm working on a hardcore "deathpoll" character on USWest Hardcore Ladder whose progress I'm chronicling on the AB forums when they come back up. His name is Brother_Francis and he's a peaceful preaching man. No weapon no shield and very very low end armor items. Currently he's up to act 4 nightmare, and still using dire wolves exclusively for thematic reasons (an anecdote of St. Francis of Assisi involves him taming a wolf that was threatening a village).
I've been beating most act bosses by spamming wolves to distract while my rogue merc does the damage. That didn't work so well for the big D. My summons and merc got toasted every time D as much as sneezed. Normal Diablo has been the longest and hardest battle he has faced so far.
My ravens actually helped quite a bit, since they can't be killed, so they did a bit of whittling down on his health. Mainly it was an exercise in reviving my merc a lot and staying quick on my feet and quick to recast cyclone armor (my only form of elemental defense at the time due to Francis' equipment restrictions). Used up about a tome's worth of TP scrolls. I spammed wolves when I was able, but mainly it was just patience and trying to get D to concentrate on something other than my rogue so she could get in a few shots before dying to a firestorm or LBoD. (She had near maxed fire and lightning resist thanks to a nice rare circlet, but still died very quickly.)
Are you using a poison creeper much? They are surprisingly helpful, even as a one point wonder. Monsters like to chase it and it spends enough time underground that it tends to survive quite well. The creeper also did a good job helping take D's health down since it survived better than the other summons. Keep combat casting it near him.
With regard to things other than just Diablo...
You might consider switching between wolves and bear situationally -- the bear is nice for tanking mean things, but the wolves are nice for distracing big mobs.
My rogue used an Edge bow until act 3 NM when I found a WWS with another character (merc does not have equipment restrictions -- she's Francis' guardian angel and so need not be poorly dressed). It was really nice, the speed in particular helped. I really like using a rogue merc with a summoner to give a ranged attack. (Actually I'm a big fan of rogue mercs for everything except caster characters). The Edge works very nicely, although the thorns doesn't do as much as you might hope -- thorns works best with bone walls or decoys, rather than moving targets. But if you have no other pressing equipment needs, by all means it doesn't hurt. If Francis didn't have moral objections to bearing arms I'd probably let him hold an edge bow now that my rogue isn't using one anymore.
Anyway, good luck with big D, I hope for a favorable progress report!
Heather