Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

I’ve returned to GW2 after a long hiatus and finally am picking a character to level to cap. Loving my necro in all the builds even with all of the disadvantages compared to other classes. For leveling I’m running an MM build.

I was originally specced 20 into DM, 10 into curses, and began working on BM. This worked amazingly well but I noticed I was limiting myself from my minions damage as I level more so I wanted to try putting points into spite (So I can eventually hit 20 into spite as well for the +minion damage). Vulnerability etc makes sense as well from axe and focus.

I tried dagger/warhorn a bit when I was doing tough fights and it was ok but I find myself using axe/focus and staff most of the time. It seems my primary weapon is currently staff as the mark of blood spam keeps my pets alive more often etc. I know vulnerability would let me benefit from my pets more but it’s also rare to find just a single mob to fight when leveling.

Am I nuts for using staff as my primary weapon even on quick 1v1 fights and switching to axe when i need to say, apply vuln or focus fire down a single npc?

I honestly liked sceptre/dagger and staff more as a combo while leveling but then I’ll lose out on significant damage bonuses from the minions soon so I’m getting used to a spite point build for now.

Thanks,.
Bez

That bad huh? :P Ok! :P

Hi there , my main class is MM necro as I played in GW1 and it’s very powerful and surviving.
In dungeons I’m the last man standing and I belive that MM/zerker build is the best one ever.
Minions will heal you all the time , staff should be ur 1st weapon to use in any battle just to land ur mark so your minions can benifit from healing and other stuffs. Then switch to dagger/focus as they will give you the maximum DPS as Life Siphon heals you and does more damage than Ghastly Claws . Quick dagger attacks will grant you good healing , focus will increase your minions damage via Reaper’s Touch.
My build >> http://tinyurl.com/bs4jaon The most important trait to get 1st is minion master then bloodthirst and vampiric master then flesh of the master finally spite tree and transfusion.
In most battles > I land my marks then switch to dagger/focus and use 2-5 skills then switch to DS and use 2-3 then keep using 1 to grant maximum might , finally I use Life Transfer to heal myself and minions.

Bezerker.2379:

…Am I nuts for using staff as my primary weapon even on quick 1v1 fights and switching to axe when i need to say, apply vuln or focus fire down a single npc?

I honestly liked sceptre/dagger and staff more as a combo while leveling but then I’ll lose out on significant damage bonuses from the minions soon so I’m getting used to a spite point build for now.

Thanks,.
Bez

Staff and scepter/dagger works well for MM. Dagger5 AOE weakness is huge for lowering incoming damage to your minions and scepter2 is a very good AOE bleed. Scepter has a roughly 60/40 ration of direct/condition damage output, so don’t fret about using scepter and going into Spite, especially since Spite will add condition duration.

Keeping minions alive is perhaps your best DPS skill as an MM, so I like having alot of healing power to give staff2 alot of regen. See the build link in my signature – I just swap the traits to minion traits when I MM.

I agree, Staff + Scepter/Dagger is really strong for a MM. I know the Vulnerability from Axe/Focus sounds really good for your minions but in practice you’re still going to kill things faster if you just DPS them down yourself. It doesn’t help that Axe 3 is almost totally useless for you (your minions should be tanking the hits 90% of the time) as well as Focus 5 (mobs almost never have boons).

In PvE, just go ahead and run a berzerker build with your minions if you want the highest damage. Minions and condition weapons are okay, but not the best unless you are running an atypical minion build.

funny, I am level 41 also right now and just switched from a clueless just click on whatever build to all minions now that i have them all unlocked and it seems much easier and more fun to level with. I loved using minions in Diablo2 so this is very enjoyable for me. Havent determined the best set of skills but I am using sceptre/dagger and axe/focus (just had an awesome yellow focus drop for me yesterday)

my main goal now is to get to lvl 50 so i can unlock the minion dmg trait. but I really should try to figure out the most efficient battle rotation

DigitalMan.8592:

funny, I am level 41 also right now and just switched from a clueless just click on whatever build to all minions now that i have them all unlocked and it seems much easier and more fun to level with. I loved using minions in Diablo2 so this is very enjoyable for me. Havent determined the best set of skills but I am using sceptre/dagger and axe/focus (just had an awesome yellow focus drop for me yesterday)

my main goal now is to get to lvl 50 so i can unlock the minion dmg trait. but I really should try to figure out the most efficient battle rotation

Hi bro , you are making a mistake here as Staff should be your main weapon to keep your minions alive.

You are definitely not playing “wrong” for using staff and scepter/dagger. Put 10 points into Curses for Chilling Darkness or Terror to support your off-hand dagger or staff, respectively.

Demonic Spirit is right in that you should keep regen (staff #2) and putrid mark (staff #4) on minions you do not intentionally want dead (again).

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

DigitalMan.8592:

funny, I am level 41 also right now and just switched from a clueless just click on whatever build to all minions now that i have them all unlocked and it seems much easier and more fun to level with. I loved using minions in Diablo2 so this is very enjoyable for me. Havent determined the best set of skills but I am using sceptre/dagger and axe/focus (just had an awesome yellow focus drop for me yesterday)

my main goal now is to get to lvl 50 so i can unlock the minion dmg trait. but I really should try to figure out the most efficient battle rotation

Hi bro , you are making a mistake here as Staff should be your main weapon to keep your minions alive.

explain? (i dont really know) how does the weapon keep them alive? i actually got a decent staff drop last night and i can try it.

If you have greater marks traited, staff 2 will keep them all having permanent regen, and staff 4 will periodically remove conditions.

Anchoku.8142:

You are definitely not playing “wrong” for using staff and scepter/dagger. Put 10 points into Curses for Chilling Darkness or Terror to support your off-hand dagger or staff, respectively.

Demonic Spirit is right in that you should keep regen (staff #2) and putrid mark (staff #4) on minions you do not intentionally want dead (again).

Technically, you can run any weapon you want with minions as they aren’t based on your stats. Axe/focus is just the easiest way to max out their damage, so is the most common way to play, plus it gives you the burst a s/d build does not have.

Staff is really good when open world where the regent can keep them alive. However, in dungeons staff 2 is not enough so its better to just push your own damage, and let the die off.

I agree axe is more useful when running several minions but scepter/dagger is not much of a nerf in comparison and its longer range is often handy as well as the all the bleeds. I certainly do not bother either with trying to keep minions alive in dungeons but, while leveling to 80, the weapon set the OP settled on is perfectly fine.

Scepter dagger is fine in PvE because PvE can easily be done using whatever you feel like. If you are looking to min/max your minions, then you are looking at axe, focus, and staff. Axe/Focus stacks vulnerability, with cripple and chill to keep them slowed, staff gives you AoE control, a combo field, and minion support to keep them alive. With Scepter, you get… cripple, and that’s it.

If the question is, what can I make work in PvE? Then go ahead and run scepter with minions, and I’ll run my condition build using main hand dagger and berzerker gear. But if you are looking at the strongest way to use minions in PvE, its axe/focus, staff, and power gear.

Can you go Sceptre/dagger if you don’t have anything in curses? I working towards a 20/0/30/20/0 so it’s mostly power, and not much condition damage. Would Sceptre/dagger still be the way to go or should I stick with Axe/Focus?

You could theoretically go scepter still, just make sure that all your gear has condition damage, and your runes are condition duration (you do get 20% of that from Spite), you’ll only be losing out on at most 300 condition damage, 20% overall bleed duration, and 33% scepter condition duration (from the traits you don’t have in curses), and frankly that isn’t a huge deal since, like I said, if you are using scepter you aren’t aiming to min/max.