Guild Wars 2

I enjoy running MM and think I will focus the rest of my traits in more of a power setup. My question is should I go 30 in spite for the close to death trait and get 20% damage when foe is below 50%, or should i go for the trait that causes damage and poison when my minions die?

It just depends on your playstyle and how much you want to go aggressive.
I just suggest you taking Death Nova if you run Bone Minions, to have more control on its effect, for poison on call and eventually some cohordinated aoe weakness.
Just consider that Close to Death won’t affect any of your minions’ damages. Nor autoattacks nor activated abilities.

It doesn’t? What does close to death affect then?

Close to Death affects all direct damage from the Necromancer. All weapon skills and damaging utilities receive the bonus. What Luke’s saying is that the trait doesn’t affect Minion damage or skills.

Close to death affects your damage only, not the minions.

The trait decision, if you use a lot or all minion, is probably better with death nova.

Agreed. Death Nova is a pretty awesome trait for a Minion Master. Especially since we now are able to have more little Horrors out on the field as well. Every time one of them expires it creates a pretty big poison field.