Man, my build choice breezed through acts 1-4 but after act 5 I'm getting plastered, it looks like that negative resistance hit really adds to the challenge. I'm also low DPS as I went with a high defense/life/regen build but I didn't expect such a difference.
I'm looking at a farming build based on minions and having low life all the time. My question, does high energy shield negate the effect of low life or can I have both? I found 2 uniques where one is +100% rare drops and the other 20% all elemental with another 20% on low life... I assume there's more like those so I think it could be fun to have minions fight while I stand back and let the drops pile up. Oh, another question, can you cap the drop rate or can it go over 100%? I was thinking I'd aim for 150% and see what happens.
I found mirrored claws which are ok, but since they are mirrored it looks like there's one each for left and right hand so I can do a wolverine build.
Yeah the resistance penalty after Act 5 can catch you off guard. It's important to have decent resistances while levelling (I'd recommend 60+ for all resistances other than chaos resistance, you can ignore that one). Although having capped resistances can be extremely beneficial, while levelling you really only need to cap the resistance of the mob you are currently fighting. For instance, in act 1, the only resistance you need is cold, act 2 is lightning, etc. From your post, I'm going to assume this is your first playthrough so you don't really know what to expect, that's why I recommend having 60+ all resistances.
Low life builds can be extremely powerful, especially this league since Shav's are only ~55c. With low life, you are able to reserve your life for more auras which give you more damage. Since you plan on going summoner, you are going to be relatively safe compared to a lot of builds since your zombies will soak up a lot of damage. Keep in mind that going low life does require you to reserve your life, linking hatred to blood magic for instance. You can't reliably be low life by just getting hit by enemies. Make sure that you have either a solaris lorica or a shavronne's wrapping before you make the transition. These 2 chest pieces negate chaos damage which bypasses energy shield and hits your life pool directly.
Your magic find stats can never cap. You can definitely have over 100% increased drop rate. Keep in mind that getting item QUANTITY is far better than item RARITY. Also, it sounds like you are going pretty heavy into unique items. Be careful with that. When you hit endgame, it becomes almost necessary to have capped resistances (75%) and it's hard to cap them when you are running so many uniques. Drop a few that only give rarity for some decent rolled uniques.
Not sure why you'd be using claws on a summoner other than a few specific ones that can't be mirrored. If you are talking about a different build, than feel free to try it out. While dual wielding, you are able to use 2 different weapons. Obviously they have to be 1 handed, and you can't dual wield a wand with anything else, but try mixing it up and using a claw and maybe a unique mace that gives stats that juice up your damage.
If you want, feel free to post your build idea and we can give some pointers if you'd like. Without that, it's hard to set you in the right direction. I've never played a magic find summoner, but played quite a few magic find characters and am messing with one now. Mainly bow characters, but that's largely just preference.