Guild Wars 2

So, on my necromancer since I got the game (about a month after launch), I’ve been running a minion mastery build. I don’t have to tell any of you how unfortunate such a situation is, given the unfortunate levels of AI we’ve witnessed over the years. However, with the reaper specialization having just been completely revealed, I was inspired to do a little theorycrafting.

Those who were watching closely may have noticed something interesting during the Reaper livestream. Specifically, the Jagged Horrors raised by the “Rise!” shout were dealing 300 damage per hit. Even traited for damage, jagged horrors on live barely break 100 damage per hit, suggesting that to go with the AI improvements minions are being buffed considerably. So, keeping that in mind, try to not say that MMs suck in this thread. It’s not constructive. What I am interested in hearing is constructive input regarding the build.

Equipment:

• Weapons: Greatsword/Staff
• Armor: Soldier
• Runes: Pack or Traveler
• Sigils: Frailty and Strength/Energy and Leeching

Skills:

• Healing: Blood Fiend
• Utility: Bone Minions/Flesh Wurm, Shadow Fiend, Bone Fiend
• Elite: Flesh Golem

Traits:

• Death Magic: Flesh of the Master, Deathly Strength, Necromantic Corruption
• Blood Magic: Bloodthirst, Vampiric Precision, Unholy Martyr
• Reaper: Relentless Pursuit, Decimate Defenses, Blighter’s Boon

On Offense:
Current Minion Master builds suffer from two unfortunate problems – lack of personal damage and lack of AoE. In the past I’ve tried to utilize the Staff’s marks, but they’re not amazing for the job. However, the Reaper Elite Spec covers both rather nicely here – The Greatsword cleaves well, and has a high level of damage. Assuming you’re fighting a large number of enemies, you can also go into Reaper Shroud and spam the auto-attack, which will give you back up to 10% of your life force every time you finish the combo, which is great for staying in the shroud. The shroud also gives you a chasing ability, so rely on it.

While you may be in Soldier gear, the increase to base statistics and Decimate Defenses work hand in hand – Greatsword skill #3 will inflict 12 stacks of vulnerability every time it hits, increasing your critical hit chance by 24% for the duration. the Sigil of Frailty also adds to this, and this is on top of the vulnerability adding to your base damage in the first place, meaning despite your low precision you should consistently get critical hits assuming your target isn’t consistently condi cleansing. you also have several source of chill and cripple, and a few sources of control effects, meaning your enemy is unlikely to escape without a lot of hindrance. Finally, the Sigil of Strength giving you might consistently is excellent for what should be obvious reasons.

A thing worth noting is that most necromancers going into their Death/Reaper Shroud lose access to their utilities until they get out. this is much less true for this build, as the minions stick around and continue dishing out damage despite you not directly having access to your utility bar anymore. This is a considerable boon to the DPS you bring to the fore, as even just the flesh golem on live can dish out over 800 damage per hit.

On Defense:
Being in Soldier’s Gear gives you a level of tankiness most of your opposition won’t have – not only does it increase your maximum death shroud and HP pools, but the high toughness mitigates incoming damage. If you can keep the Chilled condition on your opponents (which you can apply even with the Greatsword auto-attack) you’ll take even less damage from them, giving you a massive ability to take hits and dish them back out.

Blighter’s Boon comes in here, and is the primary reason for Sigil of Strength – every time you have a boon applied to you, such as the might you’ll be consistently stacking onto yourself, you’ll either gain some life force, or heal if you’re in death shroud, which is considerable given how hard you are to hurt in the first place.

Conditions go on a bit of a journey with this setup. Say an enemy applies a condition to one of your buddies. After a moment, you’ll pull it off them. Then your minions pull it off of you. The next time they hit something, they’ll apply the condition off of them to the target. This can be a bit dangerous for the minions in the case of powerful, hard hitting conditions, but they’re expendable anyways, while you’re not. You, on the other hand, will be an extremely difficult target to keep conditions on, which is nice as normally they’d bypass your toughness and go straight for your vitality or life force.

the staff as an off-weapon gives an extra level of survivability to the build – if you’re being overwhelmed, the sigil of energy can grant you a much needed extra dodge. Mark of blood can give you and your minions (or other allies) regeneration, it can apply chill, a fear (which also applies chill), and even condi cleanse you and nearby allies. It’s definitely a defensive weapon, so it’s what you want to use if you’re being overwhelmed in one way or another.

Finally, life stealing is a powerful thing in this build. As long as you’re outside your shroud, your minions and your critical hits will constantly steal health for you, adding to the levels of defense you already have oodles of.

And one last thing! This is a bit of combo defense and offense, but while you have minions out, you gain increased toughness. While you’re in reaper shroud, you have increased toughness. your toughness contributes to your overall power, giving you that extra little edge you may need to turn your opponent into mush.

Weaknesses:
This is a slow build. The Traveler Runes, and Relentless Pursuit are meant to mitigate that problem, but unless you have judicious use of your Flesh Golem’s knockdown and your greatsword’s pull, your enemies will be able to consistently get away from you unless you burst them down which, conveniently, you can.

The other issue is the minions. They can be a powerful tool and add quite a bit to your character in terms of both defense and offense, but as everybody knows, they’re idiots. Hopefully they AI improvements being brought in with HoT improve that issue. Additionally, they have serious problems dealing with AoEs, as they have no ability to dodge, meaning they could get slammed pretty hard by an AoE focused character. This is, thankfully, mitigated by the fact that they’re also completely expendable, and you’re not relying solely on their DPS to take down enemies.

Conclusion:
I’m tempted to call this build rather lazy – you’re constantly healing, are extremely hard to hurt, and a large chunk of your DPS is autonomous from you. It works against multiple enemies, a few enemies, single enemies, and in the event that it starts taking real hits it can just pop into death shroud where it actually heals itself as long as it’s slapping people. However, it can be an extremely active setup rather than the purely defensive setup that exists as part of the current minionmaster design, and that’s a huge boon for people who like actual control over battlefields.

Variations:
It has a little support in that it’s consistently pulling conditions off of allies to regift back to the ones who originally put those conditions on your team. One variation I thought of is that you can take transfusion over Vampiric Precision if you want your minions to heal each other and your allies in addition to you, giving you some more support options and ensuring your minions last a little bit longer.

If you don’t like Blighter’s Boon, you can also swap that out for Deatthly Chill for additional condition damage since you realistically should have Chill up on your target all the time, or for Reaper’s Onslaught to improve just how killy you are in Death Shroud. It’s trading defense for offense, which isn’t something I’d personally do, but to each their own. In that case though, the Sigil of Strength should be swapped out for something else – perhaps Bloodlust would be good, but I’ll leave that to you.

The sigils I’ll use are probably going to be different to yours, and I like my Dolyak runes for great toughness and a nice vitality boost and a bit more regen (minimal, but still.) The only other changes I’d make is Transfusion instead of Vamp Prec (which you mentioned as an alternative) and Soul Eater and Deathly Chill instead of Decimate Defenses and Blighter’s Boon. Mostly that’s because I’m going to attempt a perma chill sigil set (or near to it) and that added siphon should stack with the Vampiric minor in Blood will add some nice healing, though still not a ton

The reason I prefer Decimate Defenses over Chilling Force is because of the damage that critical hits can churn out if you use them properly. Still, if it’s a permachill build I can totally see Deathly Chill being very powerful.

Permachill and minions (whether just meat shields or actual substantial support). Plus condi shedding. Plus AoE. Does not sound like a pleasant experience. Sounds like a bad time for anyone that tries to tackle you, even if a bunch of enemies go after you at once, you’ll give them plenty of hell before you get downed because of all that life and toughness which will set them up to be taken out by teammates. I can’t wait

I have hopes that, maybe, just maybe, when HoT comes out, Reapers Masters will be at least kiiind of in the meta. Certainly won’t be fun to fight, anyway

Seems nice for open world, GS would make an excellent replacement to axe/focus for my MM build(only use it in open world).

I think it’d probably also be pretty good in sPvP – Ridiculous levels of tankiness and the minions mean that you can bunker on points extremely effectively. It’d probably also work pretty well in Stronghold.

Hell, roaming in WvW wouldn’t be bad either. Yeah, we have little mobility. But, with a full escort of minions and heavy attacks and sustain, I’m guessing single or pair roamers will steer clear in large part, so we don’t have to worry too much. Except when you’re escorting a dolyak and meet a zerg on the way…….. That hurts. But at that point, not many can escape anyway

Yeah, I don’t think “how Tanky is it vs a zerg?” is something we really have to put consideration into, given at that point it’s pretty screwed regardless :P

Harnel.6810:

Yeah, I don’t think “how Tanky is it vs a zerg?” is something we really have to put consideration into, given at that point it’s pretty screwed regardless :P

Nope. Gotta be able to 1vZ. Necro god of death. ultra op. Kills streams. Next we take down all the servers. Rulers of Tyria.

Vydahr.4285:

Harnel.6810:

Yeah, I don’t think “how Tanky is it vs a zerg?” is something we really have to put consideration into, given at that point it’s pretty screwed regardless :P

Nope. Gotta be able to 1vZ. Necro god of death. ultra op. Kills streams. Next we take down all the servers. Rulers of Tyria.

Its been done before in EoTM bridges… Spot zerg near a bridge + remain undetected + spectral wall = profit

Vizardlorde.8243:

Vydahr.4285:

Nope. Gotta be able to 1vZ. Necro god of death. ultra op. Kills streams. Next we take down all the servers. Rulers of Tyria.

Its been done before in EoTM bridges… Spot zerg near a bridge + remain undetected + spectral wall = profit

I.. well… Hm. That’s something that I wish I had known. You know. Before the satirical statement getting after those who want just huge OP abilities and stuff and don’t care about balance.

In all seriousness, though, I do like the build potential as a Reaper Master, especially if they really do buff/improve the AI of minions

Vydahr.4285:

Vizardlorde.8243:

Vydahr.4285:

Nope. Gotta be able to 1vZ. Necro god of death. ultra op. Kills streams. Next we take down all the servers. Rulers of Tyria.

Its been done before in EoTM bridges… Spot zerg near a bridge + remain undetected + spectral wall = profit

I.. well… Hm. That’s something that I wish I had known. You know. Before the satirical statement getting after those who want just huge OP abilities and stuff and don’t care about balance.

In all seriousness, though, I do like the build potential as a Reaper Master, especially if they really do buff/improve the AI of minions

Just saying that some necros are a step ahead of you in the world domination plot :p

Vydahr.4285:

Vizardlorde.8243:

Vydahr.4285:

Nope. Gotta be able to 1vZ. Necro god of death. ultra op. Kills streams. Next we take down all the servers. Rulers of Tyria.

Its been done before in EoTM bridges… Spot zerg near a bridge + remain undetected + spectral wall = profit

I.. well… Hm. That’s something that I wish I had known. You know. Before the satirical statement getting after those who want just huge OP abilities and stuff and don’t care about balance.

In all seriousness, though, I do like the build potential as a Reaper Master, especially if they really do buff/improve the AI of minions

yeah, necromancers are one of the very few classes that can, in the right geography, win 1vZ. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG_399O1epE

definitely not in a straight up fight though.

kitten that was amazing. I think I showed my relative newness to the class there a bit by not really realizing that… Ahem. Oops lol

Looks pretty good, but I’d personally shy away from the Blood Fiend heal. Imo, practically any other heal would be better, but otherwise looks like an interesting setup.

I’m gonna say blood fiend because of the Vampiric trait and healing through DS via siphons is a good idea. Especially if they decide to let his typical passive heal do its thing. Plus another minion for toughness and condi removal

yeah, every minion on the field is another condi cleanse every ten seconds. If you have 6 up, you have 6 condi cleanses every 10 seconds, which is far from small. +20 toughness, and furthermore if they buff the blood fiend as well as the others we could be looking at an even better heal from it. As it stands, it’s the only heal that procs continuously, which means it’s a lot like the Warrior Signet of Healing. Frankly, I’ve always found the other heals kinda lackluster, save maybe Consume Conditions.

Really, Consume Conditions is the only one that is suitable to replace Blood Fiend with. And, even on top of that…. I love my uglies too much to let them go without trying to make them work first

Axe+focus has more synergy with that build than staff due to the chill+vulnerability. The Staff’s condition transfer mark isn’t useful when you’re constantly losing and transfering conditions anyway, and you don’t have the condition damage to make the blood mark useful.

Use runes of the lich. The toughness and condition duration benefit you more (longer vulnerability, cripple, and chill), and the jagged horror works well with necromantic corruption.

for sigils I’d use Ice and chilling on great sword, peril+frailty on axe+focus

For utility I’d consider “Rise!” over bone minions because in 1 v 1 you shouldn’t need bone minions or flesh wurm, so you can save your shout for bigger fights. This depends on how “Rise!” looks in the final build though. If it keeps it’s 40 second cooldown, then you’d get more minions (that also violently explode) in a shorter time with the 16 second cooldown bone minion spawns.

for traits I’d take transfusion over vampiric precision, the healing would benefit your minions and allies more.

I’d also take chilling force over decimate defenses, as you can maintain chill pretty easily between focus and the great sword.

blighter’s boon isn’t useful to a minion master as none of your traits really give you many boons. Deathly chill or Onslaught are better overall.

Vydahr.4285:

Really, Consume Conditions is the only one that is suitable to replace Blood Fiend with. And, even on top of that…. I love my uglies too much to let them go without trying to make them work first

Does blood fiend count as a tranfusion/siphon? Because then it could heal you in Deathshroud, now that that is a thing…

The only problem is that Minions will still go boom in an AE…there should be sth that made AE’s do only 50% dmg on minions or something. And the other thing I’d love would be a way to share transfusions/siphons with our minions to sustain them at least a little… But, that being said, I’d totally try out a Reaper MM IF theay fix the pathing issues. If not… I still might, but instead of going for the “minions cause detruction by attacking” I’d most likely go the "Oh, you cleave? have a Rise!, and get shredded by death nova… unblockable 6k direct dmg and 15 stacks of poison, as well as a lot more poison from whirls and weakness from le leap… In short, a minion bomber rather than a MM.

If minions get an overall buff and tweak, I think they’d be very viable. Even right now, people seem to sort of, not forget, exactly, but not pay much attention to minions. Considering that you can still use minion skills when you get knocked down and through a number of other things like that, it’s not wise to just drop an AoE and then focus the necro. And with all the life siphon and chill that we’ll have almost makes it necessary to ignore the minions while they hit you from the back, otherwise you give the big bad reaper a chance to maul you with little worry of immediate retaliation.

Either way, I think that, in general, minions (whether bomber or master) will fit quite well with Reaper

striker.3704:

Axe+focus has more synergy with that build than staff due to the chill+vulnerability. The Staff’s condition transfer mark isn’t useful when you’re constantly losing and transfering conditions anyway, and you don’t have the condition damage to make the blood mark useful.

Use runes of the lich. The toughness and condition duration benefit you more (longer vulnerability, cripple, and chill), and the jagged horror works well with necromantic corruption.

for sigils I’d use Ice and chilling on great sword, peril+frailty on axe+focus

For utility I’d consider “Rise!” over bone minions because in 1 v 1 you shouldn’t need bone minions or flesh wurm, so you can save your shout for bigger fights. This depends on how “Rise!” looks in the final build though. If it keeps it’s 40 second cooldown, then you’d get more minions (that also violently explode) in a shorter time with the 16 second cooldown bone minion spawns.

for traits I’d take transfusion over vampiric precision, the healing would benefit your minions and allies more.

I’d also take chilling force over decimate defenses, as you can maintain chill pretty easily between focus and the great sword.

blighter’s boon isn’t useful to a minion master as none of your traits really give you many boons. Deathly chill or Onslaught are better overall.

I’m just very used to using a staff, which is why I jumped on it first, I think. After taking a good look, the focus can even convert boons into conditions, so you’re correct in that it’s a good trade, and the vuln from axe hits is good.

I disagree that Chilling Force is better than Decimate Defenses. This build has next to no ability to critically hit without it, and a massive chance to actually crit with it, and given Gravedigger can be spammed, it’s a good idea to keep that up, as you can get a permanent 12 vuln stacks just with Greatsword #3. the Sigil of Frailty also adds on. while the might stacking might give you something like an additional +15% or so damage, in dungeon runs with competent players you should be getting a load of boons constantly anyways, and your allies will apply Vulnerability a lot for you on top of your own stuff, meaning 25 stacks will be easy to maintain for +50% crit chance, which is most certainly nothing to sneeze at. If one of them can keep fury up on the team, you’ll be looking at something like a 90% critical chance against bosses, despite being in tank gear.

Vampiric precision is what I’d personally take. Transfusion is good, and I can see the utility, I just prefer lifesteal on crits I suppose. I’ll be testing both out when Reaper becomes available, and revise my statements on it then.

Sigil of Ice, sure, but since I’m keeping Decimate Defenses personally, I’m thinking I’d keep sigil of Frailty on the Weapon you want to be using with it. The class already has what is basically perma-chill if you use it properly, so I’m not overly concerned with duration. the Sigil of Peril is a good call though, and pairing it with Frailty is a good call. I’d use them on the greatsword. Purely from a mechanics standpoint, though, I’d agree that they’re better on the axe.

Rise is problematic because we don’t know how it’s going to work just yet. I’ve also always preferred permanent minions over ones with health degeneration, so bone minions are my pick, though I can definitely see the merit in “Rise!”

Blighter’s boon is meant as a way to help you stay standing in situations where you have teammates helping you out. the sigil of strength was meant to help you out there, but ah well. I think you may be right, but in my opinion Reaper’s Onslaught will be better because than Deathly Chill as you pointed out earlier this build has basically no condi damage, and so would benefit more from the increased speed of the power based attacks you can get from Onslaught