Utterly Mad

I've summoned phantoms, I just don't see the summon signs often. I'm going through NG+ right now and I just saw the dragon covenant sign for the first time. Most of the summon signs I do see are placed in places where they are not needed. The last time I summoned another player was back when the game first came out just before the pursuer boss fight. I summoned two guys and one of them kept trying to hit me with the ballista. He actually killed the other guy I had summoned by hitting him twice with it. It wasn't an accident either, the pursuer was no where near the ballista's firing line.