Minion Masters Are Useless?
From what I have heard:
PvE (Open world) – Yes, you’re fine.
PvE (Dungeons) – Some fights will kill off all your minions ruthlessly, and there’s not much to be done about it. In others you’ll have some good fodder / extra damage though. Once you know what fights are coming, you’ll be able to switch out a few of your minions for specific skills that fit the fight.
PvP – You’re exceptionally powerful in a 1v1 situation, but opponents with strong AoE damage can still neutralize you. I can’t advise much here, since I’m still foggy on the roles in sPvP, let alone how necromancers fit into them.
One thing to note about PvE is that while minions are OK for levelling, they get much more powerful after you put a couple of traits (Training of the Master, Flesh of the Master) into them.
Mixing insults with your post is like pooping in a salad.
It’s pretty obvious, and nobody’s impressed.
It’s pretty obvious, and nobody’s impressed.
Yes. However, do not expect them to play like GW1, the entire playstyle has changed vastly. They used to be all about numbers, microing their HP and enchants on them, and spamming them out as often as possible to be flesh walls. Now they can’t body block nearly as well, nor are they about numbers/death nova (/jagged horror) spam, but they deal pretty good sustained damage, and have different actives. Think of them more as a utility type like Corruption, where the theme is AI controlled summons that deal damage and have a secondary utility associated with them, and possible added utility from traits.
Minion Master is very much improved over it was but the profession is not really like GW1. Consider yourself lucky not to have experienced minions as they were released. Sit back with your ugly flesh lumps and relax. They will not wither when anything looks at them cross-ways, or scurry away in search of trouble only to bring it back and lay it at your feet like a proud kitty-cat while you are still on cool-down from the last fight.
Like its been stated general pve its… sort of a … walking healing train as long as your minions are alive. Soon as they die… you are instantly as squishy as a thief with no stealth and stunbreaks or heal for that matter. Unfortunately in dungeons most of aoe which is every second pull 1 shots or 2 shots your noddle squad. In wvw they get shredded by aoe/conditions that fly around like peanuts in a bar.
From what I have heard:
PvE (Open world) – Yes, you’re fine.
PvE (Dungeons) – Some fights will kill off all your minions ruthlessly, and there’s not much to be done about it. In others you’ll have some good fodder / extra damage though. Once you know what fights are coming, you’ll be able to switch out a few of your minions for specific skills that fit the fight.
PvP – You’re exceptionally powerful in a 1v1 situation, but opponents with strong AoE damage can still neutralize you. I can’t advise much here, since I’m still foggy on the roles in sPvP, let alone how necromancers fit into them.One thing to note about PvE is that while minions are OK for levelling, they get much more powerful after you put a couple of traits (Training of the Master, Flesh of the Master) into them.
This, more or less.
In SPvP, they are good for PUGs, for specific team builds, i.e. premade teams it’s not a good choice, because the greatest strength of the necromancer isn’t bunkering per se, but applying pressure through conditions.
As Softspoken stated, they are WORTHLESS in PvE dungeons, since you have to move around a lot or get one-shot by the myriad AoE attacks… or traps.. etc. while avoiding aggro. For the more difficult dungeons you won’t want to use any pets.
For Solo PvE, they are great… more or less due to their terrible AI.
For Solo WvW, they can be great when you are traveling alone and need to get a Dolyak across by yourself, or simply want to explore and strike fear into the hears of rogues… that are dumb enough to try and kill you by themselves.
For normal/group WvW, worthless. Die readily in AoE even with fotm.
I would recommend a minion build ONLY for leveling, personally. You will find yourself much more useful in a group setting as any other spec.
All good feedback so far. I’d like to add that if you want to optimize your minion build, you should use an axe/focus to stack vulnerability. It’s the only way afaik to increase minion damage (by causing their targets to take increased damage). Think of it like using the Barbs hex in a GW1 minion build.
As Softspoken stated, they are WORTHLESS in PvE dungeons, since you have to move around a lot or get one-shot by the myriad AoE attacks… or traps.. etc. while avoiding aggro. For the more difficult dungeons you won’t want to use any pets.
That’s not what I said.
PvE (Dungeons) – Some fights will kill off all your minions ruthlessly, and there’s not much to be done about it. In others you’ll have some good fodder / extra damage though. Once you know what fights are coming, you’ll be able to switch out a few of your minions for specific skills that fit the fight.
I’m going to try and clarify on this: certain boss fights and veteran pack compositions are not minion friendly, but for everything else, minions are a pretty solid choice. Having all your minions killed off every few minutes in a run isn’t a big deal: it’s when you can’t keep any of your minions active through a fight that you’ve got a major problem. Once you run dungeons a little, you can identify bosses that use single target / small cleave attacks, or just have poor AoE damage. Those are the ones that you can keep minions up on. Some other bosses, like say Subject Alpha in Crucible of Eternity, will gib your minions relentlessly. For those battles, you’ll want to substitute other utility skills.
So minions very much can be used in dungeons. Some of the other cons listed there by crestpie I want to talk about:
Traps – Typically you will avoid going through these and fighting simultaneously. If you lose all your minions to them, in 30 seconds they’ll be back up – poor for speedrunning, but acceptable for your typical pug that hesitates at most bosses anyways.
Running / Skipping – Minions won’t pull non-aggressive mobs, but they will take aggro and serve as a handy distraction if something latches on to you anyways. Having your flesh golem charge through a pack can give your team a necessary window of opportunity.
Mixing insults with your post is like pooping in a salad.
It’s pretty obvious, and nobody’s impressed.
It’s pretty obvious, and nobody’s impressed.
Here’s the base minion build I would use. Put the extra 10 points into death magic and take either Death Shiver, Death Nova, or Necromantic Corruption, whichever you like. Or you can put the 10 points into Blood magic and take Fetid Consumption. I think Death Nova or Death Shiver would be my favorite options for PvE, and the others for PvP. You can swap Blood Fiend for Consume Conditions if you don’t like that minion and would prefer stronger self-heal + cleanse. Switch Shadow Fiend for Flesh Worm if you need a stun breaker. Try to get those bone minions to run inside a combo field before you explode them. Also make sure you hop in to death shroud and use #4 near your minions as it will heal them a lot due to the Transfusion trait.
Edit: Remember to busy yourself with the axe/focus by stacking vulnerability. Set your gear for condition duration, and you might as well give yourself vitality and toughness to keep yourself alive, because I’m pretty sure your minions are unaffected by your personal gear and stats. On the other hand considering your minions will eat at least some of the enemy’s damage, you might be safe to go full offense, since your minions are ultimately limited in their damage output.
(edited by Xenon.4537)
They’re not useless. You could just do a lot better.
But an axe with full spite (and that minion health trait) will get the most mileage out of them.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
for there you have been and there you will long to return.