Hi Borg, if the spell mastery/damage path is the strongest in the game, I would argue that the summoner path is the second strongest.  Personally, I tend to shy away from summoner path because I know if I take it, it's an automatic win for me.  If I'm playing the harder levels, then it's definitely a must.  Maybe it's the way you're using the summons.  You mentioned you are using them as distractions... while that's a strategy for some battles, the summons can be much more than that.  All of the summons have a special ability when you summon them.  Make sure you're summoning in the right place to take advantage of that extra bonus.

Ice Elemental and Ignys are rather useless, but the others are terrific.  The healing power of wisps is amazing.  The wisp should be strategically summoned as a permanent unit.  The Air Elemental is a one-man wrecking crew.  Early to mid-game, I keep a strategically summoned Air Elemental permanently in my stack.  In the late game, I tactically summon the Air Elemental because he blows all the units down in the surrounding tiles where he gets summoned.  Summon him next to stack of archers and they all fall down... not to mention he has an ability where we can blow three more units down himself after that.  Cast your Crag Spawn tactically near a bunch of units and then just spam stinking mud to keep their movement to 1 tile.  Then let your ranged units pick them off one by one.  Strategically cast an Earth Elemental and it will never die.  Tactically cast Grave Elemental near the troops you have and all of those troops will be resurrected if they die in battle.

The only thing that should happen (and I hope that Derek isn't reading this) is that Summon Ignys (weak) and Summon Air Elemental (strong) should be switched in the trait tree.

Well said, the summons are all great - if you know the benefits of summoning them tactically. I think the main issue is that the trait descriptions for these summon traits don't mention the benefits when cast in tactical. If players could mouse over and see these effects, investing in summoning would have its benefits clear from the start. 

Summoner and Evoker should be separate paths. 

The two paths should have some generic mage stuff in common - a summoner should get an evokation option or two but their path line should focus on summoning things and supporting and buffing their summons.

+1, but I'm perfectly satisfied with the mod too. Abob is gonna release an updated version soon that's gonna make it even better. 

The Summoner path is very powerful. Granted, that's only because of one unit, the Air Elemental. Summon it strategically and never let it die, as it's (lightning!) damage and initiative go up every level. Combined with Wisp/Lightbringer or 9 Skellies for a powerful army.

The other summons are not so great. The Ice Elemental is ok, but everything after the Air Elemental could use a buff.

I finished a game where, after reaching level 5, I b-lined the summoner path.

I used Trojamic's suggestions utilizing the summoned creatures special abilities, but they didn't seem all that usufull.  Sure the turn I summon them, I can use the special effect, but it usually doen't help to "turn the tide" of the battle, and the targets can often resist. A big disadvantage seems to be their initiative. Even if I cast haste on them, by the time they get a chance to take their turn, the battle is just about over.

So finally, I got to the end of the summon branch and was able to summon the pyre of man...for a measly 3 turns. IMO, that is underpowered for the level you've achieved by then, and the monsters or AI stacks you'll encounter late game.

I still think it's a better return on investment to go up the general magic tree to get to spells like tornado or Vet's howl.

Just my 2 cents.

I used all of them with the exception of the crag's.

yeah, I would like to see this fixed in the next patch.