Guild Wars 2

I’m curious as to which minions are acceptable to use in dungeons/fractals. I currently run a power MM reaper build for open world PvE with a full minion bar, but I could eliminate some of them or even switch to a non-MM power build (e.g., Spite/Reaper/BM or SR) for dungeons/fractals. I prefer playing with minions tho as I enjoy the classic necro playstyle more than the “melee reaper” style.

While dungeon meta elitism has long disappeared, minions are generally not a great idea due to their disruption of stacking. However for fractals they are ideal, especially in higher tiers where they absorb a lot of damage.

OK that makes sense. I haven’t done any of the dungeons yet (other than to solo some of the story modes), but I have watched a few videos on the various paths and am familiar with the stacking strategy (e.g., in AC). So it sounds like I can still bring Rise into dungeons, but only use my “permanent” minions in fractals.

“Rise!” is usually fine since the minions are on a pretty short timer. I’ve never had any complaints using it in dungeons. But as I only use it for the damage reduction, I tend to not need it unless I got stuck with a horribad group. I’ll also bring a flesh golem if my group isn’t breaking those break bars fast enough. Just be aware that your golem may decide to do something stupid.

Don’t ever use minions on the Dredge Suit or Ice Ele final boss in the Underground Facility fractal. They will draw aggro from the boss and prevent you from moving him under the pots to debuff his armor.

In any place other than that, minions work.

Obviously, in any dungeon like Arah where you’re doing skips (which don’t happen in fractals) and want to position bosses carefully, do not use minions as they will keep you in combat (you run slower in combat) and probably ruin the positioning of mobs.

The only minions you should be using are your blood fiend (heal minion), Rise, the ones from your Death Magic trait that procs on mob death, and Lich elite skill #4.

Regular minions are trash in PvE, such as the bone, shadow fiends.

You will occassionally use Flesh golem elite in cases where you want a boss to stay still and aggroed onto him, like with Mai Trin in fractals.

It’s ironic that the only build that uses minions is condi necro and it’s mostly for the utility condi transfers and bleed triggers. In general, our minion utilities outside our blood fiend (which is our best sustained heal imo) are pretty trash. They don’t scale well with gear at all and do pitiful damage as a result.

All minions are useful. Even the wurm, you can use it at stationary bosses like Thaumanova Anomaly. They all give you toughness and transfer conditions, also deal more damage when traited. Shadow Fiend has relatively short cd blind, Bone fiend has the immobilize, which can save the party in high fractals. Flesh golem is good damage and excellent to break cc bars. Even the bone minions are ok.
Lich Form minions are good damage, but I wouldn’t recommended it, because there is no healer(usually) to keep them alive. They will die very fast and you will be left with nothing. Flesh golem is the better choice.