Guild Wars 2

Minion builds were never viable. The AI is dumb as a bag of bricks.

Well first off condi/MM mix has never been good. Minions work for PvP, they’re fine unless its your plan to be on a “pro” team, and they can work in roaming for WvW, but in PvE they really only work if you get stuck in a group so awful that they need the minions to be able to tank the boss for them a bit.

Minions work in most dungeons just fine outside of speed running groups. The only dungeons that they don’t work in off the top of my head are:
Crucible of Eternity (all paths, too many AOEs)
The Ghost eater boss in path 2 of Ascalonian catacombs (they get in the way of leading the boss to the traps)
Citadel of Flames path 2 boss (minion pathing issues and timing on killing alcolytes issues)

Outside of these you can use minions just fine.

Bhawb.7408:

Well first off condi/MM mix has never been good. Minions work for PvP, they’re fine unless its your plan to be on a “pro” team, and they can work in roaming for WvW, but in PvE they really only work if you get stuck in a group so awful that they need the minions to be able to tank the boss for them a bit.

There’s one other situation where they’re good – if you have a team with 3-5 minion master necromancers, they collectively deal monstrous damage and the sheer number of bodies on the field means that enemy AoEs very rarely hit the intended target. It’s a dumb setup and requires more than a couple people to do this, but It’s astonishingly effective.

Still not really worth it, though.

Minions in PvE are good against completely stupid AI in many veterans, champions, and a few open world bosses that do not spam too much AoE.

That is, Minions are good for farming.

The answer is that MMs have never been really viable and never will due to their their bad AI and their lack of a passive/aggressive toggle. If you don’t have that, than all you have are undependable minions that can’t be micromanaged to stop basic aggro/attacks. This leads to bad situations where bosses get stronger or pull off super specials because a Necro couldn’t stop their minions from attacking or move them out of a large AoE. I would wait for some news on the AI front before seriously thinking about MM investment.

I believe it depends on the gear you take whether condi or power as MM. At least before the upcoming Reaper implementation.

In my experience, when your gear only has one offensive secondary stat, condi damage setups win out in DPS vs. power setups (Dire vs Soldier, Apothecary vs Cleric etc.). It never mattered what build I was playing. Using gear with power as a secondary stat and sole offensive stat always proved underwhelming for my Necro. The DPS was always slower and less effective than my condi setups. Also, the pressure between AoE conditions and minions can be very potent in pvp.

The only problem with sustain condi MM builds compared to sustain power MM builds, is the nature of condi combat seems to fudge MM AI much easier (all those AoE attacks, not really targeting people except with scepter AA in between AoE bleed application). I feel more in control of my minions with power builds and weapons.

Some things to consider though about upcoming HoT changes:

- Reaper specialization will give us a lot more power AoE DPS and even single target DPS. Therefore it might change what I stated above about condi damage vs power damage as secondary stats. Although the range of condi weapons may still be advantageous, I’m always very close to my minions and in melee range anyways due to sigil, trait and skill usage. So Reaper melee combat shouldn’t be a drawback. Reaper MMs may really benefit from lots of area chill as well.

- A new version of Necromantic Corruption will combine the 25% more damage for minions with a minion draw/transfer ability. Each minion will draw conditions off you every 10 seconds. More importantly, each minion will transfer any conditions on them to enemies hit every 10 seconds. If you can sustain minions, then heavy area condi application on you and them could turn into a lot of extra condi DPS and stacks if specced condi damage.

- Some reports out of the closed beta talked about various enemies being near immuned to power damage, but affected normally by conditions like Evolved Jungle Wurm Husks. My own opinion is that this may favour condi damage initially, but I think some mastery lines tackle this if I remember correctly, eventually allowing you to damage normally with power.

- Condi caps being changed. Being even the least bit specced in condi damage with Epidemic on your bar may prove to be a lot of area DPS alone.

I forgot to add that, after the HoT patch, condition minion master builds will be more of a thing due to the reaper specialization. For example:
http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgQC5APUBqg~
utilities: blood fiend, bone minions, Rise!, shadow fiend, lich form
weapons: scepter+dagger, staff

With this combination, you get chill from your shadow fiend and dagger, which sets up all your death nova’s. You’ll have plenty of AOE and your minions surviving isn’t important at all. Honestly, I think this build will be a lot better for PvE than any current minion master build.

Harnel.6810:

Bhawb.7408:

Well first off condi/MM mix has never been good. Minions work for PvP, they’re fine unless its your plan to be on a “pro” team, and they can work in roaming for WvW, but in PvE they really only work if you get stuck in a group so awful that they need the minions to be able to tank the boss for them a bit.

There’s one other situation where they’re good – if you have a team with 3-5 minion master necromancers, they collectively deal monstrous damage and the sheer number of bodies on the field means that enemy AoEs very rarely hit the intended target. It’s a dumb setup and requires more than a couple people to do this, but It’s astonishingly effective.

Still not really worth it, though.

I really wish I had friends who used necromancers now. That sounds fun as hell.

Minions scale up the encounter, yes?

Anchoku.8142:

Minions scale up the encounter, yes?

No, just players. Otherwise rangers would be straight banned from every encounter.