Since no one seems to care about my thread enough to post, I'll just answer my own question. (I've looked into a little more now) Summoning is complete Bull[Expletive Deleted]! (whew, glad I got that off my chest) Anyway, like I was saying. I believe Summoning is just a futile attempt by Jagex to make us forgot about these ridiculous updates they've come out with recently. Sure it's a great idea, but obviously not very well thought out. It raises your combat lvl even though its virtually no help at all in a real combat situation. The time and money it takes to level are comparable to construction and farming, with half the benefits. Jagex released a statement trying to persuade angry players that the skill was beneficial if used right. Yeah right! Their main argument is that your summoned "friend" will increase the drop time of valuable item thus increasing one's money. The only problem with this is that they do not factor in the time a player waste: getting charms, ingredients, making the pouches, or the inventory space taken up by the pouches and scrolls (that could be used to hold more items. i.e.- super sets and p pots, which would actually help someone kill a monster faster!) So there you go.