Guild Wars 2

I would like to see them work better, but with minion AI as bad as it is, I’d rather just have a blank slot.

As bad as it is how short they live, imagine if they didn’t die right away…..

I know right? Scary huh?

150 replies… People have spoken… Let reanimator die already.

This little pet doesn’t seem to do anything but get in the way. Anytime i wanna do Arah i have to respec my traits and cannot put any in that line because of this minor trait. The pet isn’t controlable and spawns constantly during Lupi phase 1. Which then allows him to eat the grubs when they spawn off it. Which then gets your entire group mad at you. Making grubs not spawn off of it would help but still , I’d rather just see it go away. It tends to pull unwanted mobs on you and also interferes with Jade maw fight by getting targeted ect . . .

It just seems this thing has very little upside and a huge downside to it. There may be people out there that would like to keep it (although i have never met one) In that case i dont see why you couldn’t swap it with one of the adept trait in that line. Something that doesn’t cause as much trouble.

As a MM. I find this trait useless. If it served some sort of viable function I could be more forgiving, but its not even worth keeping around in the hope of getting a Death Nova Proc off of, as it never makes it close to anything before it explodes and dies. If it has ever made it to a mob and nova’ed its an act of Grenth pure and simple. In absolutely every other conceivable situation it’s a lead weight around our necks. I’m fairly forgiving of the way minions currently work, I’ll take what I can get from ArenaNet, save for this one. It needs to be retooled, overhauled, or cut, plain and simple. The minion does hardly any damage. It can’t take more then one hit. It’s death only helps you if your extremely lucky in combat and took a top tier trait slot specifically for it, and even then its for a 3 second poison (whoopty doo!). It bugs your pulls. It’s so useless its a waist of pixel space that could have been used to animate the grass, and I think that’s how most necromancer players, minion master or otherwise feel. If you want a talent called ‘Reanimator’ this isn’t the way to go, at least not with that jagged horror nonsense. Give us a tiny heal on minion use, or something, even if that something is an empty trait slot. we’ll take even that! lol

I’m not sure if anyone would agree with me or not, but Jagged Horrors first need to not degen so we can actually have a chance of hitting the 5 cap.

Second they need to be the 10 point major in Death Magic.

Third, and this is only personal opinion but I think they need to move the two staff traits in Death Magic elsewhere. As it is Death Magic has some of the best traits – the two staff traits, protection with wells, fear when we get CC’d, plus if you’re running minions you’re going to need the minion traits. We all know how the staff is supposed to be the minion master weapon, yet you don’t have any chance to grab the staff traits once you’re traited for minions.

I must be one of the only folks here that thinks the trait is mostly fine. Yes, I would like to see it buffed (either removing or reducing the cooldown or upping the surviability), but the minion itself I think is fine for the following reasons:

1. The bleeding out doesn’t keep you in combat. It used to, but that got fixed back in either September or October.

2. It does not run off and aggro things. If it draws any additional aggro, it’s because you dragged it through the enemy’s aggro radius or because the enemy you are attacking is in their aggro radius (and you would draw that aggro yourself if you’re using Dagger/X)

3. It absorbs a hit or two. Yeah, it’s like an Aegis on killing something. Not 100% effective, but it’s pretty nice and sometimes can absorb multiple hits.

In dungeons, groups are very clustered. If the minion is drawing any aggro, you already have that mob’s attention.

I kind of like the free poison fields, but maybe I’m just in love with Death Nova.

Please get rid of Reanimator. The only thing the little guy accomplishes is aggro-ing something I don’t want to fight. Unless you’re specifically traited for minions, the amount of damage and/or distraction he is capable of is near-negligible.

One of the problems with JH is that at low player levels it literally dies before it can do anything. You can get it as early as level 16, but I never saw it do anything for me until finally when I hit 40 or so. Then I finally began to see mobs waste a hit on it instead of me — which is quite nice, actually. I can’t tell if it actually gets any hits in, but if it can mitigate 100% of one swing, that’s a nice little bonus.

Still, I’d rather it be changed. There are situations where having any kind of pet/minion out causes problems, and we should be able to be 100% minionless for a fight if we want to. Reanimator’s not optional if we put points into its trait line, and I think that’s bad design.

So, what’s the magic number of complaints before we see any action on this?

We’ve laid out the reasons why forcing this trait on people is a bad idea, and pointed out that it shuts down an entire trait line for a major segment of the population: Dungeon runners who don’t want to skip several important ones.

It’s time for a temporary patch unless a permanent fix is imminent and no, fixing the AI is not a fix for this problem.

Pets of any kind should never be mandatory. It’s well past time to take care of the problem or at least slap a band-aid on it.

Please DO NOT GET RID OF REANIMATOR! I really like the skill, it only needs 2 changes-

1. Switch it with the 25 point minor trait since it is really only useful with the top death magic traits like exploding in a poison cloud or removing boons.

2. Make it live longer and give it better AI.

That might work, since both of the grandmaster death magic majors are minion-specific.

I really dislike the jagged horror, could we have some other buff of any sort? or perhaps something that can also be useful to people that aren;t neccessary specialized in minions.

Actually I realized that I’m a bit annoyed by death magic traits in overall, since it offers staff mastery besides minion mastery, I still get useless traits which I don’t need of benefit from them.

signed. the whole tree is a no-go cause of this.

please blank it out till its fixed.

MyFe.1398:

Please DO NOT GET RID OF REANIMATOR! I really like the skill, it only needs 2 changes-

1. Switch it with the 25 point minor trait since it is really only useful with the top death magic traits like exploding in a poison cloud or removing boons.

2. Make it live longer and give it better AI.

yes, thats what we ALL whish for. but as long as its broken, blank it out, at least we can use death magic again.

Happened yesterday. First time in 3 months of play.

The karma will heavily revenge for this.

(The jagged horrors are still useless, I never seen them hit not even once, until today. The exception that confirm the rule).

JonPeters.5630:

It does not give a free res. These guys can’t rally you. Also they die in about 11 seconds, not 2 seconds. I would like them to have a bit more survivable, but the real problem is obviously them aggroing. Necro minions are supposed to aggro based on what you attack only, so if this particular minion is not following that rule that is the real problem. We are currently investigating it and will make any changes we think are necessary.

oh my gosh. just read this one… so your telling me your not even aware that in fact ALL pets agrro on there own?

and we are not talking about a once a hour thing but an: ALL THE TIME thing?

im sad. and i am sad for every hour i have spend playing the nekro as i realise nothing will change.

why cant we just get the minion Ai from GW1?

I honestly think that Reanimator should be 20 trait point and have and added effect: regeneration out of combat for your minions.
I think it should be an optional trait (Protection of the Horde too) because Death Magic is the only trait line in the entire game that is better with certain utility skills (in this case, minions). So if I want to be a “hard” guy with thoughness but I don’t want to go MM I can’t have all the potential because of Protection of the Horde.

JonPeters.5630:
It does not give a free res. These guys can’t rally you. Also they die in about 11 seconds, not 2 seconds. I would like them to have a bit more survivable, but the real problem is obviously them aggroing. Necro minions are supposed to aggro based on what you attack only, so if this particular minion is not following that rule that is the real problem. We are currently investigating it and will make any changes we think are necessary.

What John Ment to say was -

“We here at Arena Net dont care about Necromancers in our game Guild Warriors 2”
“stay tuned for more tool tip changes for your necromancers, dont forget to reroll to a class that John actuly cares about !

@NecropsY: I think the issue is when you get Reanimator. If it’s literally your first five trait points, you have it at level 16, and at that level it does die in about 3 or 4 seconds, having done nothing. It wasn’t until I hit level 40 that I started seeing any effects at all — mobs would waste a swing killing the JH instead of hitting me sometimes. I’m persuaded that it wasn’t until at least level 30 that it actually lived long enough to strike anything.

I can see how, at level 80 it’ll be fairly strong, but most of us get a negative impression of it at much lower levels.

I’d also say that I have yet to play an RPG or MMO where there were not situations (places, boss mechanics, etc) where you simply do not want any kind of pet or minion out. Reanimator is non-optional if you want to put any points in the trait line, and it guarantees you will have a minion out in any fight that involves more than one enemy.

So I’d be happy if that trait position was changed to something else, but I’ll also be reasonably happy with Reanimator. I’ll always have it because I’ll always have 10 in Death Magic, so it’s a bit of a moot point.

Druitt, I don’t agree. I never used this stupid trait until I figured out that staff cooldown reduction/mark size was very useful, and even at level 80, by the time this stupid thing spawns, it has 7 seconds left… followed by a slower than heck run speed that does not allow it to hit anything unless you stand still and the mob stand still. It bleeds out long after it is dead, which keeps you in combat longer. Aside from that, I have seen it rise out of the ground, stand there, bleed, and not attack, just like the other kittening minions…. (interesting enough, if my flesh golem is not attacking, niether is my stupid JH).

Top top things off, I have killed a mob, watched it spawn, only to see it go running after the mobs cousin or family member 30-50 feet away. Maybe I did not want to kill that mob, maybe i felt bad that I just melted his bros face and I wanted to leave him standing, but my JH took it upon himself, to run all they way over there, throw up on the mob (or pee on its boots) and die, which kitten him off further and caused him to run over and attack me. So there goes his entire family and i now have to burn him down. All of this would be awesome if I was a true necromancer because i woudl rez all their corpse and make them dance and kill other mobs, but no, im just a JH spawner, which just keeps the kitten process going over and over again, and eventually i get tired of wiping entire families off the face of the map and I respect so I dont have the stupid provoker that is the JH

I sometimes wonder if the reason Necro pets go running off is that at one point in a fight we were spamming attacks and tab targetting and accidentally had one out-of-range attack on the remote mob.

I could reliably get my flesh golem to go running off by doing this on purpose, and I know in the heat of battle sometimes I mistarget… and if they remember that enemy was targeted they may run off to it after the more immediate threat is dead.

KirinDave.6451:

I sometimes wonder if the reason Necro pets go running off is that at one point in a fight we were spamming attacks and tab targetting and accidentally had one out-of-range attack on the remote mob.

I could reliably get my flesh golem to go running off by doing this on purpose, and I know in the heat of battle sometimes I mistarget… and if they remember that enemy was targeted they may run off to it after the more immediate threat is dead.

This definitely happens. I know I have had it occur. Luckily, I was farming and was going to kill that mob next anyway, but I’m pretty sure this is actually what happens when they go off on their own.

Fleshie, though, seems to have a bigger aggro radius than other minions.

Yes please just give us the ability to disable it. I’ve no suggestions or angry remarks other than this is just another example of why I’ve been disappointed playing necro. Disappointed w/ Anet and GW2 really – I had 20k+ hours in GW1 and had fun – I had such high hopes for GW2

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

KirinDave.6451:

I sometimes wonder if the reason Necro pets go running off is that at one point in a fight we were spamming attacks and tab targetting and accidentally had one out-of-range attack on the remote mob.

I could reliably get my flesh golem to go running off by doing this on purpose, and I know in the heat of battle sometimes I mistarget… and if they remember that enemy was targeted they may run off to it after the more immediate threat is dead.

This definitely happens. I know I have had it occur. Luckily, I was farming and was going to kill that mob next anyway, but I’m pretty sure this is actually what happens when they go off on their own.

Fleshie, though, seems to have a bigger aggro radius than other minions.

If that’s the case, then it’s really difficult to fix without giving the necrocs a “recall pets” kind of button.

I think minions need a total overhaul should be able to stand alone against other builds atleast in a PvE aspect maybe not so much for PvP but def should be extremely viable in PvP. Still 11 seconds of what exactly? How much does this 11 seconds help us? I think just about ANY other minor trait is more helpful.

Gryph.8237:

Druitt, I don’t agree.

As I said, the JH isn’t as bad as some of us think, BUT it would be best if we could choose to have no pets out when we want to and Reanimator, being non-optional, doesn’t allow that choice.

Greater Marks is way too powerful to not put 10 into the traitline, but Reanimator should be changed to do something else. (My proposal in another thread was to give health regeneration to deployed pets, as a percentage of your Life Force accumulated. No pets out, no benefit, but you don’t have a pet forced on you.)

I’ve always thought this skill should be something closer to how this http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Jagged_Bones
worked in GW1

What makes it even more depressing is that their bleeding is weaker than our actual bleeds, so instead of doing 130-140 ticks they do 80-90.

Jagged horror brings zero benefits, and its a free rally for the enemy. And given how hard it is to kill certain classes like thief, mesmer and guardian, rallying them could turn the whole battle against your team.

CHIPS.6018:

Jagged horror brings zero benefits, and its a free rally for the enemy. And given how hard it is to kill certain classes like thief, mesmer and guardian, rallying them could turn the whole battle against your team.

I’m guessing you’ve missed the videos linked where someone was testing to see if it rallies and it in fact does not. If they rally, then something else they had hit just died. Sometimes if you hit something right befor eyou go down then target what’s in front of you, if target #1 dies first, you still rally. The guy in the videos tested it pretty well imo. I know myself i have never been able to rally off of a minion.

It may not rally but that doesn’t discount the fact that it is thee most useless trait ever conceived. I am waiting to heal after every kill and not even given the chance before that little cs drags another 3 mobs to me (end result death,wasted time,cost for repair,high blood pressure,and the desire to kill the mail man). I agree with the original poster here .JUST DISABLE IT!!! Really is that so hard to do until its fixed properly!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Illusion-of-Life-and-Vengeance/first#post991907

interesting video…

hackks.3687:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Illusion-of-Life-and-Vengeance/first#post991907

interesting video…

its been so long since ive seen someone just rally from the down state i just assumed they fixed it. I did not think of seeing if vengeance and illusions of life would cause a rally from the horror kill. I am back to hating him for free rallies.

This is a garbage trait at lvl 16 when you can first get it and even in the 50s and 60s, however at 80 in a high density mob area like Orr which I visited for the first time yesterday it actually stays up long enough to be useful and actually tanked a mob for me on occasion with liberal use of staff #2 which I would be spamming anyway. Reviewing my opinion of this trait a little…

I don’t think it’s a garbage trait as so many mentioned, it does have it’s uses, but as something that we have no choice over (other than to ignore the death magic line completely) it needs to have more upsides than down and currently there’s more downsides. We’ve all speculated about fixes for it, ect. and a Red has commented about it, so let’s see where it goes from here.

It still exists, just lasts slightly longer…just what we needed, a small almost pointless cheerleader. Its damage is still small, we cant have more then one up at a time, the AI is still broken, and o yeah, they still allow players to get a rally from players under teh effects of having vengeance up and or illusions of life from a mesmer, tested and video to prove it. Video link is in the forum page i linked.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Illusion-of-Life-and-Vengeance/first#post992594

Regardless if anyone has a single anecdote where once it might have been useful, the central point is that it is bad game design to force a minion on a player if it can be used against them.

Bad. Design.

/thread

This is ridiculous.
We asked to have this removed because it makes us a liability in a lot of fights.
Now that the duration of these things has been buffed I’ve somehow managed to start stacking them on my support necro who naturally generates a lot of healing.

I had two of these terrible things out during a jade maw fight and the little rats managed to absorb 5 beams in a row, slowing down my entire group and putting them at risk and causing my group to rage at me.

At one point a CORPSE of one that had just gotten BEAMED got targeted and SHOT AGAIN.

Now instead of it being a fast dying single liability I have two liabilities to make my group rage out at me.

DISABLE THIS TRAIT.

Yes please. I would not miss my reanimator trait at all. That little bugger is not really worth it even if he does get some 3-4 hits in – seeing him spawn a grub on Lupus just saddens me when I can’t command it to be defensive and stay near me on phase 1.

Otherwise the trait is decent but not what I look for in a toughness trait line and it seems completely out of place.