Guild Wars 2

First of all, this would be IF, only IF, minions’ AI will be fixed at some point, maybe when greece will pay its dept, and germans will discover humour….
BUT, as we have right now a main weapon for power (dagger), one for condi (scepter) and one for utility (staff), plus the off hands weapons, that more or less fit in between (and are kinda good at their jobs), we could have one weapon that in some way would revolve around minions.
AI or not, minions ARE a core element of our class. Not to say that they’re mandatory for necros, even with all bugs fixed, we should be able to play just fine without them. But they remain one of the key elements that define our class, and probably the reason why many of us first fell in love with it, before being sadly disappointed.
So, after all those weapons, remains the axe, which is just underperforming right now. There have been lots of suggestions, all nice I must say, that Anet may or may not have looked at; either a power weapon with different abilities (or just tweaked numbers) or a condi weapon.
But IMO minions, despite everything, deserve a special place in our still hearts, so what about a weapon that revolves around them? Such weapon could be the axe.
I’m not gonna list all possible skills here, I’ll talk more about the concept overall…

One important thing, that many asked, others refused, but could actually be very useful, is the option to actually give orders to minions. Since the F key is already taken, and others over there could be confusing, the axe could play that role.
Of course, basic movements, aggros, and other things, NEED to be baseline for minions, but that has to with AI.
Here I’m talking about a weapon that could do a bit more. Like, 1 skill that summons minions on hit, 1 that buffs and/or heals them, 1 that could give their attacks an area effect, all while dealing dmg to the enemy you’re attacking.
It could still be a weapon able to work effectively on its own, but it would reach its full potential when supporting minions, while dealing damage.
For example, a skill like axe 3, the gives retaliation to yourself and minions and makes their attacks unblockable. One that summons a couple minions, to add to our small army. Axe 1 could, instead of applying vuln, apply a debuff that improves the dmg of minions, your’s and others, against that target. In such way axe could, SHOULD get more dmg.
I mean axe first of all needs to be viable in terms of damage, but apart from that, it could get some new interactions, so why not minions? Not to say it should be mandatory, right now I’ve seen dagger and scepter work fine too, but I think that a weapon related to minions, like the weapons we associate with power or condi right now, would be interesting.
Of course, as I said, that would work ONLY IF the AI worked fine, and generally most bugs affecting minions would be fixed.

I love minions very much . Even with all minions bugs at the moment , I still believe that MM is the best build in GW2. I always wanted a specific weapon for MM , modifying axe and adding torch that summons flaming minions would be amazing !

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

I love minions very much . Even with all minions bugs at the moment , I still believe that MM is the best build in GW2. I always wanted a specific weapon for MM , modifying axe and adding torch that summons flaming minions would be amazing !

It would need to be an off hand. And it would have to be a new weapon that possibly comes with a new elite specialization dedicated to summoning or just a new weapon. I personally feel the best weapon for this would be shield. I’ve given this allot of thought. Torch isn’t bad though. Wouldn’t mind having a skill to summon jagged horrors then set them all alight to explode.

The only way to conceptually do a minions based weapon would be to have it summon a jagged horror with one of it’s attacks. If you set a specific buff to only be given to minions, it locks the weapon out of too many builds. Weapons need to fit into a wide range of builds as they more or less are what make the true core of the class. Weapon abilities that give a buff to allies accomplishes the goal of being a good minions weapon without being a detriment when all your minions are dead, as it will buff your minions if you’re alone, and buff allies when your with your whole party. However Necromancer doesn’t give buffs to allies, instead it hinders it’s enemies to make it’s allies proportionally stronger.

This means that the only other way to make a weapon minion based would be by making a weapon that centers around debuffing and locking down an enemy so your minions can maximize the damage they do to that enemy. Axe+focus in a way fulfills this role as it’s auto attack applies vulnerability, 3 cripples (and corrupts a boon), focus 4 applies vulnerability, and focus 5 locks them down with chill (and removes up to 3 boons). All of these effects make the enemy easier for your minions to catch and kill.

In reality, the best solution is to simply make axe better at debuffing the enemy. More specifically, buffing it’s auto attack. Maybe change the auto attack into a chain that applies vulnerability->vulnerability->weakness (greatly reducing the damage the enemy does to your minions).

In my eyes the staff is already a pretty good weapon to go with minions. I mean it could use a bit more synergy, but the ability to give them regeneration with #2 is quite good. Ideally #4 should transfer both conditions from us, as well as the minions to make it better.

The second weapon combo that seemingly is good for MM is Axe/Focus.
The Axe stacks vulnerability, which is a debuff the minions benefit from.
The focus stacks more vulnerability and regen (both good). And allows you to chill opponents.
Chills / Weakness / Vulnerability are all debuffs that keep your minions from dying while allowing them to do more damage.
The Axe #2 and #3 skill really need a rework regardless, but it would be nice if they would benefit MM as well.

I’m a bit on the fence about a weapon designed specifically around MM, because that’s generally not how weapons work; they generally don’t lock you into 1 fairly rigid build.
I mean on one hand I wouldn’t be opposed to having a skill that summons 1-2 Jagged Horrors, as you get the army feeling back a bit that MM necro’s so desperately seek.
On the other hand I’m not sure how much that would really add for MM, let alone how useless such a skill would be for non-MM users. Which circles back to the fact weapons shouldn’t be designed around a utility set.
For Mesmers and Rangers it makes more sense, as both their “minions” are part of their class mechanics. But for Necro’s they’re just a utility category.

Axe 1 could, instead of applying vuln, apply a debuff that improves the dmg of minions, your’s and others, against that target.

Isn’t that exactly what vulnerability does ?

In the end though; the main things minions need at the moment is improved AI. This is the biggest issue. Commanding minions like rangers pets really shouldn’t be needed at all if they just make the AI work properly. Once they fix this, only then can we look at other things; because we won’t really know how strong MM would get if you fix the AI.

Nyth.3492:

In my eyes the staff is already a pretty good weapon to go with minions. I mean it could use a bit more synergy, but the ability to give them regeneration with #2 is quite good.

Staff is pretty mediocre with minions. Regen you get from a minor trait already, and it doesn’t bring anything else special.

If we did get a minion weapon it’d have to be an off-hand. Honestly though any type of support weapons we get would work with minions, so just a proper support specialization would most likely do more than a “minion” weapon.

Bhawb.7408:

Nyth.3492:

In my eyes the staff is already a pretty good weapon to go with minions. I mean it could use a bit more synergy, but the ability to give them regeneration with #2 is quite good.

Staff is pretty mediocre with minions. Regen you get from a minor trait already, and it doesn’t bring anything else special.

If we did get a minion weapon it’d have to be an off-hand. Honestly though any type of support weapons we get would work with minions, so just a proper support specialization would most likely do more than a “minion” weapon.

Cough cough Ritualist Cough cough

What about this:

Trait (Graven Seals): Each time a mark is activated it spawns a jagged horror. Every Third mark will summon a greater minion.

Its not a great way to play with the minions, its just passive summon minions that passive attack until they passive die. However, for a great design, I’d like to give more publicity to Rym’s amazing idea which includes a lot of active minion play.

sebradle.7034:

Lily.1935:

Bhawb.7408:

Nyth.3492:

In my eyes the staff is already a pretty good weapon to go with minions. I mean it could use a bit more synergy, but the ability to give them regeneration with #2 is quite good.

Staff is pretty mediocre with minions. Regen you get from a minor trait already, and it doesn’t bring anything else special.

If we did get a minion weapon it’d have to be an off-hand. Honestly though any type of support weapons we get would work with minions, so just a proper support specialization would most likely do more than a “minion” weapon.

Cough cough Ritualist Cough cough

Or Lich even though that name might be a little overdone. Thing is if we got a minion focused elite specialization wouldn’t the new utilities just compete against our current minions.

Elite specializations do two things we know right off the bat:
1. They have their own utility type and weapon for the class that doesn’t already exist within that class, but can support other builds
2.Elite specializations cannot be used with one another

Because we know that it will be a new utility type, it’s safe to assume that we won’t get any more “minion” utilities as parts of elite specializations. However, we might get utilities that happen to create minions (“Rise!”) or traits that happen to make minions more potent (vampiric aura).

If we get more utilities outside of elite specializations, I would expect ones that currently are absent from select sets. IE: Elite well, Elite signet, spectral healing skill, ect.