Guild Wars 2

For a condition heavy necromancer, would the Flesh Golem make for a good enough tank without the Flesh of the Master trait? Or without the health boost does it wind up spending more time on CD than it does tanking? Thanks.

It depends on the scenario.
I see Flesh of the Master mandatory only in a full minion build.
Flesh Golem is, even considering his flaws, the best overall elite for generic situations, while Plague is just situational and Lich Form is mainly for bossfights with power builds.

So yes, you can and should run it in general pve even without Flesh of the Master.

To answer your question flesh golem is the only option we really have. Like Luke said our other elites are so situational. You really don’t need that trait, you just have to make sure to manage it.
I would like necros to get more useable elites, maybe an oh crap button that would allow you to escape combat…

I always use flesh golem for running around in open world pve, Plague for wvw and Lich for instances.

If you are condition, why dont you use plague? I use the golem for his stun, and his damage aren’t bad but wont change the fight.

They ninja nerfed the Flesh Golem Charge DMG. It does only 200 per target mehh.

I play condition damage necro with a lot of crit too, I find that the golem is best when you are out in the open world because it gives extra damage and it is constantly up. Whereas in wvw it dies immediately when you enter a big zerg so for wvw I use plagues for the debuffs and to get a lot of kills. Lich form is for doing massive damage to boss.