In Previous Elder Scrolls games my favorite skill tree was Conjuration as I loved being able to summon a range of creatures and I was looking forward to using the Daedric summoning skill line for the sorcerer. But Im considering mainly focusing on Cyrodil PVP. Are the summoning skills like Unstable Familiar and Winged Twilight viable; or even very useful; when fighting against other players instead of mobs?

From what I hear, not really. Damagewise they seem to be a bit lacking, and control is completely lacking.

Players will ignore summons and go after the summoner, if the summons aren't a threat.

The only abilities from the summoning tree worth using are Daedric Curse, Bound Armor and the ultimate (actually best Ultimate for leveling). The familiar is useless in both PvP and PvE. The magicka one losses when summoning it is better used somewhere else.

In addition of not doing any noticeable damage it tends to break crowd control.

I did not try the winged twilight after that experience. Imho the devs need to rework this tree from scratch.

Summoning is completely in the [censored]ter in this game. The summons are extremely weak.

Well that's a real shame . I hope the summoning abilities are completely buffed before release, otherwise I will have to completely reconsider my build.

Summon Clannfear. Clannfear sees enemy Aldmeri two miles away. Clannfear runs off. Summon Winged Twilight. Winged Twilight is a faithful gal that sticks by your side. Summon Clannfear again. Clannfear sees AD guards at the tower. Clannfear runs off. Clannfear gets killed by AD Tower Mage. *sigh* Adjust skill bar and remove Clannfear.

Edit: Clannfears are actually nice little personal tanks for solo leveling. But they are next to useless in PvP due to the lack of control. And also in PvE dungeons because of the lack of control, they get ko'd pretty quickly by bosses and they are easily killed by AOE.

Edit #2: Just to clarify, the Clannfear is the morph from the Unstable Familiar.

From what I have read the key change needs to make it so that you have control over who they target. I don't care if the summons is wiped as long it is wiping on something that I am taking down with DoT and/or kiting.

Not exactly solo, but I was partnered up with one other person in a PvE context. My friend and I were on opposite sides of the mob area, both out of combat. My friend entered combat, I did not. My familiar ran off to help out my teammate, leaving me all by my lonesome. Worse, the familiar ran right down the center of the area (straight line to my partner), and could have potentially dragged a train of mobs on his tail.

I appreciate the familiar trying to be helpful, but without controls, he really needs to be keyed to MY combat state, not the combat state of any member in my group!

Sorry to say aside from the ultimate, Daedric Curse and passives, this tree is kind of crappy, especially in PvP.

The clanfear works pretty well if you pull multiple enemies as it will tank the oter(s)

In group play or PvP its pretty pointless.

You did not kill the summon of summoners in Oblivion or Skyrim either unless they blocked access to the mage.

from what i saw in the beta, the summoned creatures do not scale in pvp like you do

this offcourse makes them svck hard!

i have no idea if they still svck hard, when you enter cyrodill at level 50 veteran rank 10, but i assume they will at least be better than what we see now

right now(level 12) my clanfear has 498 health in both pve and pvp, while i have around 500 in pve and 2000 in pvp, i think they forgot to scale the summons

Aye, agreed, sir frosty troll.