Guild Wars 2

Since returning to GW2 recently (after a long break) I haven’t played my Necro much at all… but I’ve been tossing spare Tomes of Knowledge his way and he’s nearing level 80 (he was already 50 from before).

His old build was wonky and not optimized to anything really well… but I really want to make him a solid Minion Master (now that they seem to function well). From what I can tell, though, you can build them many solid ways. Condition-focused, Power-focused, Healing-focused, etc… all seem possible in combination with the Minion Master thing.

MY GOAL: For solo PvEing, map completion, etc… I’m looking to build and gear a solid Minion Master (that could maybe move into small-group PvE content later).

So what I ask you all:
What “type” of Minion Master would you suggest (i.e. Condition MM, etc) and what specific gear stats should I be aiming for (by name, i.e. Berzerker, etc)? …and what weapons (staff, dagger, etc) would you pair with your suggestion? Also Sigil and Rune suggestions would be great.

NOTE: Keep in mind I’m just approaching 80 and still want to be going through the non-HoT stuff so the new specialization is NOT all unlocked and ready to use and likely won’t be for awhile…

Thanks a TON for any and all advice.

As good ol’ Bhawb used to say, go Cleric for gear. Take care of your minions, and they’ll take care of you. As for weapons, axe/focus works well because vulnerability helps your minions’ damage output significantly. Second weapon set, just stick with dagger/warhorn on base necro for those times you need to get in there with your wonderful little uglies.

I can only tell you what worked really well for me in a very similar situation. After reaching 80, I used a power-based build with dagger/wh and staff and Death Magic/Blood Magic/Soul Reaping (with full minion bar). I didn’t have much gold so bought a cheap set of Cavalier exotic armor until I could afford Zerker armor with Scholar’s runes (Zerker weapons and trinkets). This worked great for starting in the HoT zones. After Reaper was unlocked I switched to Death Magic/Blood Magic/Reaper and GS plus axe/dagger (still using all Zerker gear) and this has worked great for all PvE content up to high level fractals (switched to a Viper Horror condi build for those after crafting all ascended Viper gear). If you don’t plan to do high level fractals (or raids) then the power MM reaper build will be all you will ever need for PvE. And if you want you can easily switch out to a power non-MM reaper build with shouts/wells instead of minions (e.g., Spite/Soul Reaping/Reaper).

Good info …any other suggestions?

Also… which weapon sigils would you suggest? Likely Force + something I’m guessing? Accuracy maybe (that’s the 7% crit one right?)?

run D/W & Staff, use bone minion, fiend + WoS w/ flesh. Death/spite/blood for trait lines and run full zerk for PvE. no need to be in any tanky gear as a necro (huge HPs)

something like this (runes + sigils can be altered based on play-style)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBIhZakkG6qxmawlGYvxxvQNvhf4IkrQLkCwkOA+AA-TpBFABEcCAU/QAUVZAAeAAls/QDHBAA

run a full mm team

heh hard to run a full team when solo PvEing :p

Khaziel.3164:

heh hard to run a full team when solo PvEing :p

That’s actually the easiest (and arguably only) time to be using all minions

Minions do not scale of your equipment so they flatten the stat vs dps curve while adding a ton of sustain by holding aggro.

As long as you are running MM, max dps gear is not as glassy and bunker gear is not as impotent. Zerker, Carrion, Soldier, Dire, or temple armor choices are fine. Cleric’s armor is fine. Axe is fine. Everything is fine.

It is solo PvE and minions are easy-mode.

I run Reaper, Death Magic, Blood.

Blood minion, Rise, Power Signet, 25% Passive Speed Signet, and Flesh Golem

Weapons are GS and Staff

Armor is Valk, everything else zerker, Runes are Trooper (in a dungeon I run Spite and shouts instead of MM).

Sigils are Force/Accuracy, though I’ve thought of swapping a sigil for one that helps strip conditions off of party members since I trait for my minions to draw conditions from me anyway.

Relics of Orr did a ‘zombies versus plants’ run of the Silverwastes just before HoT, where people were encouraged to bring MMs if it was at all practical: it was surprisingly effective. Possibly just because in the open world anything is viable in large amounts, but even so it proved a lot easier than we were expecting. I think part of it was that there were just so many minions that PCs and important NPCs just never got targeted.

For raids and high-end fractals, though, yeah. Probably wouldn’t recommend a full team of minions. :o

Minions are fine in high-end fractals, but probably not a full bar. I run a minimum of the healing fiend, Rise and either lich form (for the minions from #4) or the flesh golem (if more bar breaking is needed in the group) with my Viper build.

With my power MM build I run the above plus the ranged fiend and usually take another shout (like the boon strip, which can be useful in 50+ fractals where the mobs gain boons when they are hit). I use Force and Air sigils on weapons with the power build.

As others have stated there are many ways you can go with a MM, but in my mind both Reaper and Death Magic are mandatory. Reaper for greatsword (when using a power build), Rise and the far superior reaper shroud. Death Magic for obvious reasons. When running power and mostly solo I use Blood Magic as the third line since it makes you tanky even with full zerker gear and the increased speed when wielding a dagger is great (which is why I run axe/dagger with GS). But Soul Reaping would also be an option for more of a shroud build (want to be in shroud as much as possible) and in this case you could easily use Valkyrie gear for extra health (to offset lack of Blood Magic life steal) since traits will bring you to 100% crit chance while in shroud anyway. Spite doesn’t seem to synergize that well with Reaper and Death Magic. With my condi MM (Viper) I take Curses as the third line and use scepter/dagger. When running around solo using the condi build I often switch out Reaper for Blood Magic.

The best thing to do is experiment for yourself to see what works for you.

For PvE/Map Completion I think Power (berserkers) is definitely the way to go. Everything in Tyria dies too fast for condition to really be worth it, and the majority of your summons are going to benefit more from you stacking power than stacking condition damage.

Probably Reaper, Death Magic, and Soul Reaping because with all your utilities dedicated to summons spending a lot of time in Reaper form isn’t really that inefficient. Maybe Blood instead of SR—worth it for the movement speed on dagger alone probably.

Good day

I use my necro as main, critdamage build (berserker). If you use crit damage build and want minion master build, then I can help you with that.

For base necro without reaper specialization.

Specialization will be.
*Spite -for vulnerability and might.

*Soul Reaping -Your shadow form will be your main form of damage. Shadowform acts as your second life and by getting this you will be more tankier and gain life force faster.

Either use Death Magic or Blood Magic for the last one.
*Death Magic- pet/power upgrade.
*Blood Magic- You and your pets will have lifesteal sustainable enough to get through most content.

*Main Weapon is axe and focus- for vulnerability, slow and heal.
*Secondary Weapon is dagger and warhorn – only use for lifesteal and increase movespeed.
*Remember your main damage comes from your shadowform.

*Use Rune of fire and air for your weapon
*Use either Sigil of Ranger (pet damage increase), Golemancy (additional pet), Strength (power/might) and Scholar (10% damage if life is 90% and above)

The best minion build you can get for PvE is the viper horrors build. Jagged Horrors are minions with decaying health that come from two places, a grandmaster death magic trait, and your 4th skill in lich form.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Viper_Horror

Personaly I run this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQJAWRnM0AdbiN1Ae1As3glpBTaAUACAxfwTYLcqldBqAA-TRSBAB4phJvDJwP7PUmyPAeSBIqLoRlgjq+zCXABA-e

I like the Celestial Runes because they give me a bit of everything. Rune of the Lich isn’t optimal but I like having as much minions as possible. I’ve a friend that runs this build with full zerker. The differense in survivability is supprising. Where this build allows me to solo champions quite easily, my friend with the zeker build dies more often.

Tobias.8632:

The best minion build you can get for PvE is the viper horrors build. Jagged Horrors are minions with decaying health that come from two places, a grandmaster death magic trait, and your 4th skill in lich form.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Viper_Horror

Viper horror is great, but for solo PvE and map exploration (what the OP is looking for) it lacks speed unless you run with the speed signet on your bar, or switch one of your trait lines to Blood Magic. Power MM reaper is much easier and cheaper to run in solo open world PvE. But if you want to do high level fractals or raiding, that’s a different story.

Red Rover.9810:

Tobias.8632:

The best minion build you can get for PvE is the viper horrors build. Jagged Horrors are minions with decaying health that come from two places, a grandmaster death magic trait, and your 4th skill in lich form.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Viper_Horror

Viper horror is great, but for solo PvE and map exploration (what the OP is looking for) it lacks speed unless you run with the speed signet on your bar, or switch one of your trait lines to Blood Magic. Power MM reaper is much easier and cheaper to run in solo open world PvE. But if you want to do high level fractals or raiding, that’s a different story.

Yeah, so you just switch either CPC or epi for locust sig depending on the mobs in the area, that’s no reason to switch to an inferior stat set that will set you back if you later decide to try raiding

2 weeks ago I came back to gw2 after about a 3 year break, bought HoT and played through all living story and HoT with the following build & Equipment

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNArYWnM0Ad1gdbCO1As3gFjBL6nFAOASdgPwGIeHOEPiA-TZRAQBkpMQGOCAd4UAww9HAwDAAA

(was using carrion gear to begin with, just getting the gold together for full vipers set)

tbh it was a faceroll with minions (was quite easy to do the champion HPs too solo) and “rise” is simply delicious

I have no doubt this is not an “optimal” build but I found it very very manageable for solo play ( which is what I do 99% of the time tbh)

Tobias.8632:

Red Rover.9810:

Tobias.8632:

The best minion build you can get for PvE is the viper horrors build. Jagged Horrors are minions with decaying health that come from two places, a grandmaster death magic trait, and your 4th skill in lich form.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Viper_Horror

Viper horror is great, but for solo PvE and map exploration (what the OP is looking for) it lacks speed unless you run with the speed signet on your bar, or switch one of your trait lines to Blood Magic. Power MM reaper is much easier and cheaper to run in solo open world PvE. But if you want to do high level fractals or raiding, that’s a different story.

Yeah, so you just switch either CPC or epi for locust sig depending on the mobs in the area, that’s no reason to switch to an inferior stat set that will set you back if you later decide to try raiding

Right, but you are forgetting that the OP is not even 80 yet, probably does not have much gold (I know I didn’t at that time), may not have the capability to craft his own gear (which is required for Viper’s since it can’t be bought on the TP), and does not have Reaper unlocked yet. So in this case it will be much easier for him to start with a power MM build. This is exactly what I did and it took me several months to gear up for my switch to Viper Horror. I now run condi MM for everything, but power MM reaper served me well for a long time while I accumulated the gear for condi.

Tobias.8632:

Red Rover.9810:

Tobias.8632:

The best minion build you can get for PvE is the viper horrors build. Jagged Horrors are minions with decaying health that come from two places, a grandmaster death magic trait, and your 4th skill in lich form.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Viper_Horror

Viper horror is great, but for solo PvE and map exploration (what the OP is looking for) it lacks speed unless you run with the speed signet on your bar, or switch one of your trait lines to Blood Magic. Power MM reaper is much easier and cheaper to run in solo open world PvE. But if you want to do high level fractals or raiding, that’s a different story.

Yeah, so you just switch either CPC or epi for locust sig depending on the mobs in the area, that’s no reason to switch to an inferior stat set that will set you back if you later decide to try raiding

Let’s remember to pay attention to the request of the OP … not to argue about what the best MM build is.

While Vipers is pretty great for large HP mobs and Rise has it’s place, it’s not the best for leveling or open world content; you’re killing lots trash remember. Extended duration conditions are a waste on trash and Rise is pretty pathetic on trash as well; most of the encounters in open world are trash.

OP, I’m using a Condi MM build here. I swap between Vipers and Sinisters; Vipers for non-Core content to get the most condi damage upfront as possible, Sinisters for everything else, where mbos have more HP and you benefit more from longer duration conditions.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBLRhG2IDN0Ujd1gbNwejjghaOD7w6GTgAICknQKUCA-ThTAQBU4ACcNlBBUfgYUilOzTR7JAaEwgSwZoBRanAgXs/ohQBHIAAcQAio6PMRphAgaA-e

Interesting. I have always found Rise to be pretty great in open world. Even after the “nerf”,, which to be honest I didn’t notice while soloing. I always run Rise on my power and condi MM reaper builds. It’s what allows the ability to solo champs because of all the life steal and extra toughness.

Rise isn’t for minions in a MM build, it’s for tanking so having it for soloing champs make alot of sense. In a MM build doing openworld content, I can’t see the appeal of Rise over Sommon Bone Minions … it’s not like you need the toughness and damage reduction for most of what you encounter in open world.

I would recommend that if you encounter a champ you want to solo in open world, it’s easy enough to swap one for the other, but I wouldn’t run Rise as part of a permanent setup for Openworld roaming around.