Guild Wars 2

During the last But of Corpse podcast an interesting discussion started on the topic of Minion stat scaling.
Bhawb mentioned that a dev had stated that minion stats don’t scale with player stats because the minions are a utility skill rather than a profession mechanic; Ranger Pets are unique in stat scaling.
Zombify countered by saying Mesmer Illusions also have stat scaling and should be considered utilities, and thus the developers owe us a better explanation than that.
—Correct me if I’m wrong on any of this please, this is how I interpreted the discussion. If any of you meant something different, please tell me so.

Personally I would argue that Mesmer Illusions are both a profession mechanic and not technically Pets, but rather killable DoT skills. Where pets follow around the player and (theoretically) follow instructions the player gives, Illusions follow their target and attack that regardless of the Mesmers actions.
Our minions are almost exclusively Utility skills and are player-based rather than enemy-targeted, so I don’t really see the connection to Mesmer Illusions.

What do you guys think; What is the place of minions for Necromancers? Should they get stat scaling? Do minions need a different type of ‘fix’?
I’ve never really played Minion Master builds, so I’m no expert on the subject. I’m rather fond of Bone Minions in PvE because they can distract mobs and Putrid Explosion can put out a lot of damage. I tend not to use any of the other Minion skills.

I think that making minions scale off the owner would be a bad idea. One of the perks of running minion master that makes it really shine, imo, is that the master can run whatever stats they want and not have to worry about “will this affect my minions in a negative way”. It gives minion master builds much more flexibility and customization. Also, you can’t really compare minions to illusions, because like the devs said, they are not our profession mechanic. Illusions have tons of traits dedicated to them, in fact just about every trait tree (possibly every one on a mesmer, I could be wrong, not looking at my mesmer right now) has something to do with an illusion somewhere in the line. To me that makes a profession mechanic. We only have a small handful of traits dedicated to our minions compared to the traits dedicated to DS (which is supposed to be our class mechanic). That being said, they are just disposable utilities, We are not supposed to have inifinite upkeep on them the way people would like for them to be. We already have several tricks to extend their life as well as a trait to reduce the cooldown. Now as far as the minion skills themselves, that’s a different discussion. But as far as them scaling off my own stats, I’m siding on No.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

I think that making minions scale off the owner would be a bad idea. One of the perks of running minion master that makes it really shine, imo, is that the master can run whatever stats they want and not have to worry about “will this affect my minions in a negative way”. It gives minion master builds much more flexibility and customization.

Kind of funny that the absence of control over the stats increases the flexibility, isn’t it?
I think the amount of traits we have relating to minions is really big compared to the average Utility skill type, and this variety of traits can make minion skills useful for different situations.
You can make quite tanky, defensive, sustainable minions with Flesh of the Master, Necromatic Corruption and Vampiric Master.
You can make high damage sustainable minions with Training of the Masters and Flesh of the Master.
You can make disposable minions with Minion Master, and you can use Death Nova, Training of the Masters and/or Fetid Consumption to give them additional flexibility.

That is a LOT of possible uses for one skill-type. I feel like we don’t get the same level of customization on Death Shroud.

I feel like this topic’s been beaten to hell and back for the nth time.

Here’s a better question; -How- would Minions scale with our stats? Are they going to scale with our Power, hit like trucks, and be one-shot for having a lack of HP? They die quickly as it is right now; would anyone taking them really want them dead even faster? Are they going to be sturdy, un-killable kittens that hit for pitiful damage? As it stands, Minions are balanced around… Being Minions. They’re utilities that can be boosted through Traits. It makes the balance passes far easier than it would otherwise be if they scaled with our stats at all. If they were to scale with our stats and balance remained intact, we would gain something at a loss to something else. The only stat set that would keep them remotely on par with what they are currently is Solder gear. It would be a pointless change.

Scaling could put minion builds into an even worse shape, so I’d go with no. I like the fact you can go as tanky as you like without losing any minion damage, and I’d hate to see that change.

Maybe add/change some minion traits which give minions fury so we can actually customize minion builds to be more than just bunker builds with fairly decent damage. Mesmers can get fury and regen on their clones and they can permanently spawn them.

spoj.9672:

Maybe add/change some minion traits which give minions fury so we can actually customize minion builds to be more than just bunker builds with fairly decent damage. Mesmers can get fury and regen on their clones and they can permanently spawn them.

Having the DS traits affect minions too would be interesting. The you could have your fury, and with it being in the curses line, you wouldn’t be able to run tanky, dps-y, and vampiric minions without sacrificing a lot to make it work. Would make it so you have to choose between a dps set or a tanky/vampy set of minions, which would be pretty balanced imo. Or you know, just roll a charr and you can give your minions fury all day ;-)

Personally I don’t believe minions should scale any more than they do (which is indirectly through condition duration and condition damage, to any conditions they apply, which makes sense).

It has been said why scaling can be bad. The problem is that unless they add scaling on top of what they already do, meaning minions are just as useful to anyone, but now a bit “customized” you hit huge balance issues. There are a few things they could do to make minions as “perfectly” balanced as they will get, but scaling isn’t it.