Guild Wars 2

Hi all,
I have been playing Necro as my main Character for the past 2 months. I have won several free tournaments with him and have about an 80% winning streak in spvp hot join. I am also on the PVE “kill Zaihtan” story mission but haven’t tried it yet since my brother said it is bugged.(is it still???) I have had not a problem in any of the pve areas. Even Orr which i have seen many necromancers complain about…
I typically don’t believe in sharing my best builds. If every one knows my build and uses it then it will become quickly countered and I will no longer enjoy the advantage I have when I decide to PvP(or it may become nerfed…) but since i will no longer have much time to play GW2, and because all I usually see on the necro forums is complaining about how weak us necros are, I decided to share my build so other necros can enjoy the game without complaining so much!

1st off- there are 3 viable ways to play necromancer- one is to be a conditionmancer, two a minionmancer, three a power/lifesteal daggermancer. or the 4th-DeathShroudMancer- which just tries to see how long you can stay alive….

I have tried a little of the 1st and 3rd builds and quickly found i do not like them, they both lack versatility. A conditionmancer ALWAYS relies on another teamate vs any competent pvp opponent/s. and a dagger/lifesteal is great 1v1 but it is no good vs more than 1 opponent at a time.

BUILD- ok on to the good stuff-
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBmQDbkQrVvUzWjePBI945rneSR3gDpYXpB;ToABXUNZaS0ktJXTymWiMWY3B

This build works great and is very versatile. Yes I know that minion AI is not the best when esp. compared to mesmer illusions, but it is good enough to beat mesmers 1v1..

How To Use It-
-This build depends on minions for healing while they also do a lot of direct melee damage. you do condition damage/and regen heal(staff 1) the majority of the time until you switch to dagger. Dagger will grant might which will bring your condition damage up and your actual dagger damage.
-bone fiend is great since it does 2x hit from ranged- thus healing you consistently
-blood fiend does decent damage and can also explode upon command creating a poison cloud.
-The dagger is usually only needed to finish an opponent off. ( especially if they are invisible or if they are at 25% health and you want to throw in a quick surprise burst)
-Minions will move as fast as you do. When you use the horn #5 skill all or your minions will speed up, making it easier for them to hit a fast moving target.
-this build works coherently. You can do almost anything a conditionmacer can do, while your minions can do as much damage as any thief can do if attacking
-some times you will need to lead your minions into the thick of battle in order to make them useful but at the same time you can usually get out of the mess while your minions heal and/or you use death shroud.
-PVE change the deathmagic master trait from 11 to 10. you will rarely need a long duration of poison to kill pve mobs, what you will need is extra healing and absorption. minions with more life help you do this.

Remember to keep an eye on your bone fiend and blood fiend when fighting vs thiefs and guardians! bone minions/blood fiend/jagged horror when they die can stack 60 seconds of poison on an enemy very fast and that is very effective vs a glass cannon***

PVP-
-when you are fighting a thief- lay your marks while kiting/try to keep them in front of you since they deal less damage if they are in front of you. lay staff skill “2” 2 times and then blow-up your bone minions and blood fiend while kiting/rolling towards them. this will lure the thief to them when they explode. Usually after this the thief will be dead, unless they are good they will be running away until they heal, by which time you will be ready for round 2.(All the awesome thiefs i have faced just avoid me after the first encounter unless they have backup and its 2v1:()

-Guardians- They drop fast when you use all of your staff skills/minions skills at the same time. Just make sure your bone minions are close to them when they explode. if the guardian is doing a lot of AOE damage like spinning his sword then just blow your minions right away to be sure you get the extra damage before they die. Some times you will need to wait until the bone minions recharge before you can get them. Guardians require a very syncopated spike damage to bring down.

Eles- In the tourneys I have mostly encountered bunker eles. They are fast. do lots of AOE damage and heal a bunch. So i have learned vs Eles you will want to change your GM deathmagic trait. instead of depending on poison you will need to depend on your minions surviving in order to heal you and do damage while you kite. when vs an ele change the GM DM(30 point) trait to 10 and do not blow up your minions. all you need to do then is kite and lay your marks and you will usually win without needing to switch to dagger..

Warriors- They are usually easy to counter 1v1. but i have run into a few that will lock you down with a stun and then do a lot of damage. If your DS is not 100% ready then you are probably going to die. I have found this situation mostly in tournaments and the best solution to it is to switch either bone fiends or shadow minion with the Worm! Just lay the worm down and if you get locked down use its 2nd ability to get free. however i have found in tourneys in this situation you will most likely be 2v1 for some reason and you will not survive much longer, but at least you are a distraction for so the rest of your team should be able to win…

Rangers- your weakness. they have a lot of health like you and apply decent damage- fight them from long distance and let your minions engage while you pretend to be a ranger with your staff.. i often end up on the ground vs a good ranger, but at then necros do more damage while down so i win.

Strengths of this build- it is versatile. the minions do great melee damage while you offer strong condition damage
Weaknesses of this build- it is weak verse ranged attacks since it depends 90% on the minions to heal you and they have a hard time reaching ranged enemies before they disappear or run off.

As a player who loves the MM build, I like this and can’t wait to try it out.

Question on your trait selection though; Wouldn’t Blood Thirst be a better option in the Blood Magic line?

I have tried bloodthirst and i think it is about equal. if you are 1v1 more then it is better, but if you are vs more than one opponent and need to heal allies or you encounter AOE damage and you need to heal your minions then “transfusion” is better. I have found that transfusion is better in more situations and makes you more sustainable. Also BloodThirst does not effect minions life transfer to you, so it is only really noticed when you use your dagger. i think that one is better if you want to run a life transfer build with minions.

the only thing i am wondering about now is signet of the locust. if you replace it with shadow fiend- it gives you and your bone fiend/flesh golem +25% movement speed. It will let them hit moving targets easier and and it makes the build more mobile. I do not know if it is a fair trade off for the healing/damage that shadow fiend offers…

Possible improvements/substitute- i have been trying this out since the update- replace shadow fiend with signet of the locust. it gives +25% movement speed! this frees up your daggers second hand since you no longer need the WH #5 skill! It definitely makes the build a lot faster so you can cap more points or back up allies more often. but at the same time it cuts damage output down significantly. I will update when i have more experience with this setup.

Best Necromancer Build?
Considering Pet’s AI is broken and MM isn’t that good on Tpvp, yet brings some flaw to it.
The fact you’re bringing no stun breaker in Pvp means a lot more (I can’t really see Shadow Fiend).
By the moment your pets are squishy, you’ll need the trait Flesh of the Master, or else, whoever smart player gonna spam Aoes to destroy them.
Transfusion is just terrible.
In Pvp the healing from Blood Fiend is slow (it’s still dazable, counterable, and the pet without FotM is easy to take out.) and isn’t even comparable to Consume Conditions, you still have no condition removal over the Staff 4.
Atm you have no utilities for your team over the Staff, which can be incorporated better in whaveter other build.

I really hope they gonna change some traits to make Minion master builds available and competitive in pvp (which actually isn’t). Good Luck with it!

MyFe.1398:

BUILD- ok on to the good stuff-
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBmQDbkQrVvUzWjePBI945rneSR3gDpYXpB;ToABXUNZaS0ktJXTymWiMWY3B

Link doesn’t work.

Oh, and this build (from your description) is tailored to sPvP, not strictly PvE.

Plz clarify as sPvP is a different world from PvE and require totally different traits.

I wouldn’t mind messing wth a minion build but it seems you have to sacrifice stun breaker and condition removal which is pretty much a non starter typically n spvp.

@TheCakeIsALie – just copy and past the link into your browser. This build works well for both pve and pvp. if you read through my post you will see how you will need to make minor changes depending on your environment.

@Leadfoot- in regular spvp i can get away without a stun breaker with this build 90% of the time. you have deathshroud which can eat a bit of damage+ it gives you retaliation and a fear to deter an enemy.(DS might actually work as a stun break sometimes. not sure if it is a bug or what, but i can often move when i switch to it.) If you are facing 2v1 a lot or if you are facing a warrior with a lot of lock downs then you will need to change bone minions(if there is no thief) or shadow fiend(if you are going to possibly face a thief) to flesh worm. it gives you a stun break as long as it is alive and it does good damage. But the damage often is not as important as the stun break in that situation. In WvW you will need flesh worm all the time, i wont destroy it in WVW even if i have to run half way across the map. it will still save you from a lot of surprise attacks half way across the map.

You have good condition removal too. staff 4 removes all conditions and transfers them to the enemy. also since you are being healed constantly and can focus more on kiting/dodging you will not feel the effects of a few conditions.

@Luke- Read through the post and try the build. The only thing i think you are right about it the blood fiend being weak healing, but it also does consistent damage so it works really well with this build. The only situation where consume conditions might be a better option is vs an invisible condition thief. Your minions never get to attack him so you have no healing without consuming your conditions…

My guess is you didn’t want to make a pure minion master build?

Off the top of my head, all the possible builds for Necromancers are:

• Minion Master
• Power-Critical Damage
• Power-Condition Damage
• Downed State Terror
• Bunker Support
• Bunker Disruption
• Death Shroud

Most work well in hot-join SPvP and Tournaments, i wouldn’t say there’s a ‘Best’ all-round build though Power-Condition Damage would be my choice for the best out of them.

With the current state of Minions i would never use them in PvP, there mainly for leveling 1-80 in PvE.

> Downed State Terror

Also known as the “I’ll kill myself and then you’ll ALL be sorry!” build.

@TheCakeIsALie- I started with a ranger in pve- switched to guardian and got to level 40- i found both ranger and guardian lacking but i had an idea that guardian/necro would work perfect together. guardian can do decent damage but they can also buff/heal a necro minion army – so you would end up with an awesome guardian leading an army of undead into battle with a necro throwing down conditions… I never found an awesome guardian to play with, but this MM build can do way more than a guardian/ranger can by himself so i stuck with it.. and I am sick of seeing so many complaints about minions on the forums. I know they don’t attack a lot of times, but if you learn what they do do and you keep an eye on them during battle you can still make them useful enough to win most 1v1s.

the only problem i have with all this is the amount of changing you have to do in order to fight most classes, especially the 2 biggest facerolling ones, GJ overall I’ve tried minion/condition builds and as long as the minions attack they do amazing in 1 v 1, but in any sort of a teamfight i find everything just dies so fast that it’s pretty useless.

MyFe.1398:

@TheCakeIsALie- I started with a ranger in pve- switched to guardian and got to level 40- i found both ranger and guardian lacking but i had an idea that guardian/necro would work perfect together. guardian can do decent damage but they can also buff/heal a necro minion army – so you would end up with an awesome guardian leading an army of undead into battle with a necro throwing down conditions… I never found an awesome guardian to play with, but this MM build can do way more than a guardian/ranger can by himself so i stuck with it.. and I am sick of seeing so many complaints about minions on the forums. I know they don’t attack a lot of times, but if you learn what they do do and you keep an eye on them during battle you can still make them useful enough to win most 1v1s.

You didn’t answer my question. I asked if you were or weren’t trying to make a pure minion master build?

Oh, and this build is for sPvP? Then plz do us a favor and make the title say it that way. PvE and PvP are two different ball fields and I don’t run minions in either, but I do run different builds depending on if it’s PvP or PvE.

So my guess is, from looking at your traits, you didn’t want to make a PURE minion master build?

ThCakeIsALie.5306:

MyFe.1398:

@TheCakeIsALie- I started with a ranger in pve- switched to guardian and got to level 40- i found both ranger and guardian lacking but i had an idea that guardian/necro would work perfect together. guardian can do decent damage but they can also buff/heal a necro minion army – so you would end up with an awesome guardian leading an army of undead into battle with a necro throwing down conditions… I never found an awesome guardian to play with, but this MM build can do way more than a guardian/ranger can by himself so i stuck with it.. and I am sick of seeing so many complaints about minions on the forums. I know they don’t attack a lot of times, but if you learn what they do do and you keep an eye on them during battle you can still make them useful enough to win most 1v1s.

You didn’t answer my question. I asked if you were or weren’t trying to make a pure minion master build?

Oh, and this build is for sPvP? Then plz do us a favor and make the title say it that way. PvE and PvP are two different ball fields and I don’t run minions in either, but I do run different builds depending on if it’s PvP or PvE.

I’m not sure what you mean by a pure minion master build. I just wanted to make a build that works and that’s what I got.
If you would read my post through you will see that the build works GREAT for PVE, i’ve already stated that in my other post as well. I am on the last mission in the game and am about to go solo zhaitan right now.

This build sounds as reliable as “world’s best cup of coffee” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUPDRnUWeBA

It sounds great in theory but a good player will rip through your minions in 2 seconds and be straight to you. Besides, minions can’t help you if you get backstabbed by a thief.

+1 brickforlife, that’s exactament what i mean.
Some ppl seems blind or they just have religious faith in the minion functionality, while the system doesn’t really work.
They get carried in pvp or smash some noob’s face and think their build works… wtf..

I wouldn’t trust a minion to pee on me if I was on fire.

Just my opinion here, but all of these changes that have to be made to fight a different class is further proof this class needs further refinement. I’m glad you have the patience and micromanagement in order to pull it off enough of to have fun.

You sir, are the minority.

brickforlife.1364:

This build sounds as reliable as “world’s best cup of coffee” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUPDRnUWeBA

It sounds great in theory but a good player will rip through your minions in 2 seconds and be straight to you. Besides, minions can’t help you if you get backstabbed by a thief.

Haha,
yes I know what you mean, but it is not theory. it is tested by me. in pvp thiefs are only a problem when you are 2v1(but then you are usually dead in 25 secs in any 2v1 vs good players) and any pvp player that focuses on your minions in this build will have to deal with a ton of poison clouds+your extra conditions….

Zatria.5783:

Just my opinion here, but all of these changes that have to be made to fight a different class is further proof this class needs further refinement. I’m glad you have the patience and micromanagement in order to pull it off enough of to have fun.

You sir, are the minority.

Ya all the changes in the build take a while to get used to, but i think to play any build really well you need to be able to adjust on the fly. however the TPvP no longer allows this… I have found that the build i posted here is still the strongest for the majority of situations you will face in tourneys. the only thing you really need to know is- since you can not give your minions more life when facing a bunker ele you will need to be ready to retreat from his damage temporarily (about 10 secs) while you minion skills recharge.

Also I don’t think i mentioned this, but to use your minions effectively, you need to lead them into battle most times… especially the bone minions if you want your clouds to hit(and whoever they hit when they explode adds up to more healing for you so you get longer survivability if you need to retreat.)