BG's advice to me when I started the LoC mod was to try a Summoner (Earth/Nature).
"To really get the hang of strategic summoning, I would go with Summoner.
Start with Earth, 1 point in Fire Enchantment and pump Fire Sprites until you can summon 2 at a time, rush Core Dweller. Start Nature, pump Bogdweller until you can summon 2 at a time, rush Heart of Oak and put at least one point in Root of Willow for some extra damage.
After that you can get a point in Flame Shield for the fire resist for Bogdwellers and +%physical resist for everyone else. Then it's time to start looking at Regrowth to heal pets. After that, I would pump Earth mastery to get Coredweller's Tanking skill Metamorphosis.
Once all that is done, you will be virtually unstoppable. The strategy for this and many pet builds is to hang back from the mobs...it's hard sometimes to resist the urge to wade in, and there's no reason you can't build that way...but once you have 2 Fire Sprites, Core Dweller and 2 Bogdwellers...you can pretty much just move up to mobs far enough for your pets to rush them.
Now you can play with adding more summons or Earth damage skills, your choice."
Since pets do most of the work you just turn them loose and watch the fun.
And the Nymph can add to the fun as well. 2nd summons occur at 5 points in the skills so doesn't take long to build your pet army up.