Guild Wars 2

Hi, old player here who has recently returned to the game. Looking to start a new character, and was wondering if MM necros was still a viable way to play? I played as one all the time in the first game and loved it. Thinking about mostly WvW and PvE (I know necros aren’t the hottest in PvE, but regardless).

Good to see theres still people looking to try MM. I can atleast give ya my thoughts on it.

Short Answer: Yes

Long Answer: Yes with catches. Itl take alot of effort from you in any non 1v1 scenario.

To start with the standard MM build (40640) is a 1v1 focused build. Designed mostly for PvP or open world PvE. Tankiness and selfsustain with outscourced sustain and damage. The necro himself acts as a meat shield and control bot for his pets. Probably the closest thing ive found to an attrition playstyle. It becomes a game of who can outlast who. Do you get whittle down or do your minions whittle him down. MMs are strong at this becuase of a necros liberal access to poison/chill/immobilize.

Fighting as an MM in a 1v1 you as the MM will know very early on how the fight is going to go. In fact youl probably know before your opponent does which gives you more time to prepare.

The issue for MMancers is in the group fighting scenarios. Ill be blunt. Most MM players ive met simply CANNOT handle group fighting. They train themselves to dominate in 1v1 situations and are easily blindsided and focused down. So if your gonna start a MM make sure not to fall into that trap.

One method is to keep some of your sustain away from your minions. I run a 4-0-6-0-4 build instead of hte standard vampiric method. Focusing on death shroud maintenance and the use of life blast for a more reliable damage source. Using the minions primarily as burst and control tools. Since im not fully invested in the minions I can contribute more readily to group fighting. And since my survivability is less outside of my characters control I can react more reliably when I start to become focused (this is especially good in WvW since life force is in excess supply)

This is from the perspective of someone that WvW’s with a minion mancer/DS hybrid usually in a group of 8-10 people.

Hope this gives ya an idea or two. Theres alot more id LIKE to type but im short on time. If ya have any questions theres several experienced necros that can lend ya some advice.

There is one thing I forgot to mention as far as PvE goes. In dungeons were suboptimal atm. Our damage is fairly set in stone. And as necros we dont bring anything unique.

However in the new open world pve areas MMancers are…pretty kitten amazing. Namely the new silverwaste area. It actually feels like the kind of battlefield my MM necro was designed for. Lots of mobs dieing=lots of jagged horrors(I can usually maintain 3-4) and life force. And our rather awesome ability are large area soft cc and debilitation (weakness bombs all over the place as well as some really well supplied condi transfers) makes us able to fight 7-8 mordrem at once. Ive often soloed a gate defense during sieges because everyone else was on the other side of the keep with little to no trouble.

MM is my love. Been MM since the good o’l days of gw1. My only advice to MM is synergy. Make sure your minions work with other aspect of the necro if you go full DPS and use your minions for that damage but don’t take survivability into consideration expect to lose all your minions very quick and along with them your utility skills. Personally I always go bunkerish builds for MM so they can hold out when you get swarmed with AOE and yes its when not if lol.

One struggle that MMs face is minion AI pathfinding bugs that cause them to sometimes stand in place when they should be moving towards an enemy. These don’t happen just all the time, can usually be broken by Haunt/Charge for those respective minions and are pretty moot for the ranged ones. These bugs are most likely to happen in situations of complex terrain and high player population, and so can be anticipated. These are far from crippling for the build, but can cause problems and do need to be anticipated.
My MM uses Soldier stats in both PvE and PvP to considerable effect, but many others are also viable choices, including Cleric’s, condi, and others.