Guild Wars 2

So, my necromancer is level 30 and I’ve been trying to play him as a minion master. I have 10 points in spite and 10 in death magic, mainly use a staff, and have most of the summon skills on my bars.

I’m finding these pets to be rather frustrating and annoying, mainly because I have zero control over them. They’re squishy, and they seem to despawn randomly if I jump down a cliff or move too far away from them (sometimes they move slowly for some reason).

Is there a less pet-centric build I can use while I level, or is MM pretty much the way to go until 80?

Don’t worry too much about specific builds when leveling. Honestly, almost any build should work up through 80.

Minions are actually pretty good for leveling, as they offer some decent damage and protection. You could also focus on power and use the dagger (high DPS) or axe (safer). Or go condition damage and use the scepter. Either way, staff should probably always be one of your weapons. An important thing to know about minions is that they aren’t meant to do everything for you, they more support you while you do your thing, so you need to be doing damage alongside them.

Around level 30 is where conditions start to not be terrible. They don’t get to be good until your 60s, and not great until you’re 80 and in full exotics.

At 30 you don’t yet have access to the traits that make minions good, and should probably just go 10 in Spite for the free heal every time something dies. Beyond that, you can run whatever utilities you want. I did most of my Necro leveling at the crafting table starting at around level 40 because I hate the mid-level zones, and despise the first 2 Orr zones (around 2 levels crafted for every 1 level “earned.”)

I tried most of the weapon sets leveling up, and almost all of them were terrible until I hit 80 and could make a full build. Mainhand Dagger or Mainhand Axe were the least bad, and Minions were also least-bad because of the cooldowns and non-gear dependence of them.

just started couple weeks ago and im 55 now, i have used staff with main hand scepter and off hand dagger is really good for aoe. For utils i run well of suffering with the 2 bone minions, if you explode minions in well of suffering it causes aoe blinds= more aoe dmg. for last util i go with the 25 percent move buff. As for traits you could go anything really, just look at the traits and pick what you like. Its all about experimenting with class till you get to 80.

I’ll have to play around with daggers/axes again now that I have access to trait lines. Thanks for the tips and hopefully I’ll find something that works. Do you guys find yourselves swapping between weapon sets often? I know elementalists swap often. Does necromancer gameplay require this?

Also, at 80 is it possible to have a build that minimizes the use of minions but remains effective? I realize that they aren’t supposed to do everything, but I hate the fact that I have zero control over them. If they didn’t regularly do stupid stuff, I could live with them. But not with the way they are now.

By minimize the use of minions do you mean not use them at all? Because that is definitely possible. I hardly use minions at all anymore. Only if I’m going for a full minion spec will I ever include a minion on my skill bar.

Many of the most popular builds don’t use minions at all.

Yup, and I’m very happy to hear that. I was worried that the intention for necromancers was for them to always use minions.

Paul.2745:

Yup, and I’m very happy to hear that. I was worried that the intention for necromancers was for them to always use minions.

No, and don’t worry that’s a commonly mistaken. Death Shroud is our class trait and Our specialty is condition manipulation. We apply more types of conditions and Death shroud gives us a bit more health so building around all the fun things we can do is fine.

Let me encourage you to check out the podcast by Andele and Takarazuka if you are interested in some good PVE ideas.

Play whatever you like, not what someone tells you is the “right way” to play or what you “should” play…

I never look at “common wiki builds” or people’s opinions of certain weapon sets or skills, I just go with the flow – what looks/feels/sounds the best, and then work around it. One utility skill can make you re-organize your traits. While re-organizing, you find a trait that you like, which makes you bring another utility skill you never thought you’d bring, which ties into that one weapon set that inflicts that one condition…. you get the picture experiment and don’t give a… poop.

Honestly I hate MM. I’m leveling with wells and doing quite well with it. I can easily go into a mob of 6 or more and wipe them in no more than two rotations.

You aren’t really forced to go full MM when levelling up your necro. When I was levelling up my necro, the only minion I used was flesh golem. I mainly used wells combined with marks (w/ greater marks trait) and it worked well for me.

Try to experiment and see what works for you.

Paul.2745:

So, my necromancer is level 30 and I’ve been trying to play him as a minion master. I have 10 points in spite and 10 in death magic, mainly use a staff, and have most of the summon skills on my bars.

I’m finding these pets to be rather frustrating and annoying, mainly because I have zero control over them. They’re squishy, and they seem to despawn randomly if I jump down a cliff or move too far away from them (sometimes they move slowly for some reason).

Is there a less pet-centric build I can use while I level, or is MM pretty much the way to go until 80?

If I were doing MM at that level, I’d respec to go 20 into Death so you can get Flesh of the Master so your minions have more health. I’d use Axe/Focus and Staff, and focus on giving regen to minions and vuln to targets, rather than trying to be the one doing the most damage.

That said, I personally prefer a Condition build, such as 20/30/0/15/5 or 10/30/0/20/10. At level 30, I’d probably be 5/10(II)/0/5/0 and use scepter/dagger and scepter/focus, or scepter/dagger and axe/focus. Skills would be Consume Conditions, BiP, Epidemic and Signet of the Locust.

If anything, I found myself pushed away from MM leveling my current necro. Minions seem to stink here in the low levels and that makes me sad. I mean I am playing a necromancer thats supposed to be able to summon dead minons to do my evil bidding but they are dumb, weak, and useless. I have found myself pushed to use weapons with aoe and lots of slow/chill conditions to kite mobs and kill them with bleeds (ie scepter / dagger with staff as alt.) That’s fun but the problems in minions are really a sore point for me. I feel more like some sort of hex placer than a summoner.

minions are relatively useless until level 40 when you can get 20 points in a trait line. Getting 20 in Death will let you get 50% more minion life, and 20 in spite will let you get 30% more minion damage.

At that point, minions are finally OK for leveling. But overall, minions are pretty weak in the game and I only use them for leveling post 40.

TheAgedGnome.7520:

Paul.2745:

So, my necromancer is level 30 and I’ve been trying to play him as a minion master. I have 10 points in spite and 10 in death magic, mainly use a staff, and have most of the summon skills on my bars.

I’m finding these pets to be rather frustrating and annoying, mainly because I have zero control over them. They’re squishy, and they seem to despawn randomly if I jump down a cliff or move too far away from them (sometimes they move slowly for some reason).

Is there a less pet-centric build I can use while I level, or is MM pretty much the way to go until 80?

If I were doing MM at that level, I’d respec to go 20 into Death so you can get Flesh of the Master so your minions have more health. I’d use Axe/Focus and Staff, and focus on giving regen to minions and vuln to targets, rather than trying to be the one doing the most damage.

That said, I personally prefer a Condition build, such as 20/30/0/15/5 or 10/30/0/20/10. At level 30, I’d probably be 5/10(II)/0/5/0 and use scepter/dagger and scepter/focus, or scepter/dagger and axe/focus. Skills would be Consume Conditions, BiP, Epidemic and Signet of the Locust.

Can you please link your builds or explain your trait allocation?

You should be able to play just about anything, but a main hand dagger will solve a lot of problems. Its not your typical mmo if this is your first character, dodging and retreating are required, facetanking ftl.

I levelled from ~10-80 using dagger/warhorn and staff. I picked up PVT gear and used wells for my utility skills. I found that setup to be fun and I felt almost invincible: well of blindness was very useful in that respect.

Moonrabbit.1543:

TheAgedGnome.7520:

….

That said, I personally prefer a Condition build, such as 20/30/0/15/5 or 10/30/0/20/10. At level 30, I’d probably be 5/10(II)/0/5/0 and use scepter/dagger and scepter/focus, or scepter/dagger and axe/focus. Skills would be Consume Conditions, BiP, Epidemic and Signet of the Locust.

Can you please link your builds or explain your trait allocation?

For 20/30/015/5:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRArY3djMap7tbKb8bKi5DcDSxtcf0DiZskRLA

For 10/30/0/20/10:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRArY3djMap7tbKb8bKgJFc7NUhbjeQsxJTVocA

I only recently tried Death’s Embrace and really like it – especially since I tend to get myself into trouble more often than I should.

I swap out traits/skills sometimes. E.g., Withering Precision instead of Lingering Curse if its a boss where I’m in more of a support role, or Ritual of Life instead of Vampiric Precision, in a group setting, Signet of the Locust with Pain Inverter/CPC/well, for some situations.

I’m currently using the first build and am overall pretty happy with the performance. Rabid gear w/Crest of the Rabid, mix of Rampager, Rabid and Berzerker (axe/focus) to get me to around 52% crit chance.

Only reason why necros suggest minions during leveling is because till 60 they can kill most content while you are afk drinking tea and reading the local newspaper (that is if they aggro the same enemy). Any necro setup works to around 74 (start of orr) since open pve aint that hard, just take care on some bosses that have a really small aggro range that will regenerate even if you are hitting them in lich form *cough abominations and flame effigies*

I made a necro just for the looks of it, charr with a wraith mask on it, geez thats scary.
As for minions while lvling, yea used some from lvl 1 to lets say 20 then no more minions as i hate them.
Scepter+dagger/ staff and at lvl 30 i was doing aoe with 5-10 mobs at a time no lies or nothing. I did maps with 2 of my friends at that lvl and they didnt had time to dps the mobs i was luring and killing them so fast. Even soloed the Nebo Terrace event in the night i took the time to get some new gear and weps (it was power and condition damage for stats) and tried this setup, also in that frenzy i was, made lvls 27-30 in like 1h. IT WAS FUN !
This insane aoe at that lvl is the the reason he is lvl 80 now fully geared and etc with the rest of my toons and stil no minions

Hey all,

Just wanted to drop in and thank you guys for the responses. After playing around with traits/weapons (and other professions), I’ve come to the determination that necromancers aren’t for me. When I play my Guardian, the traits and weapon skills just seem to fit so well, while on my necromancer stuff feels awkward. I just feel so much more active and effective on my Guardian and hope that feeling persists at 80.

Paul.2745:

Hey all,

Just wanted to drop in and thank you guys for the responses. After playing around with traits/weapons (and other professions), I’ve come to the determination that necromancers aren’t for me. When I play my Guardian, the traits and weapon skills just seem to fit so well, while on my necromancer stuff feels awkward. I just feel so much more active and effective on my Guardian and hope that feeling persists at 80.

Feeling active on a Guardian? I felt the complete opposite on my guardian :P. Have a great time though, and good luck in the game.