I'm usually not a "pet" guy but conjuration got me excited early on.

My Atro is awesome...he usually lasts long enough to get the job done. Sometimes I hang back in stealth and flame arrow what he's tanking (hopefully getting x-damage once or twice), but when I get rushed I have trouble getting my dual swords cast before I go down.

The other way is cast summon, then go right to dual conjured sword. But again...I get rushed and go down quickly.

I'm thinking maybe a should scrap the whole bound sword thing and get a few nice daggers that I can whip out fast.

I'm not sure about the bound weapon thing in general...maybe the system is broken.

I know what you are talking about but the base fact is that you are defenseless while creating the weapons. I find that running around for a bit until my summon gets their attention works best. King of makes my character look like a coward though.