Guild Wars 2

Currently in pve or pvp the Minion mancer is rarely seen in dungeons, spvp, tPvP, and questing. Occasionally we will pass a Necromancer who has 1 or even two minions, but the minion mancer has slowly fallen out of favor due to the strength of the necromancers condition damage, and the dagger power/lich form builds.

As my tPVP team’s resident bunker killer I routinely run both tank minion builds as well as burst minion builds. I will not claim that it is for everyone or that I don’t get trainwrecked occassionally by good trap rangers, well necro, or 100B warrior team. However I did find them to be less of a hassle than others have claimed, and found them to be amazing in most pve dungeons.

I followed 3 principle rules when working on making the Minionmancer:

1. It must do a decent amount of damage to offset the loss of utility skills for Minions.
2. They can’t die within two to three seconds.
3. It must be fun to play, and allow me to stay upright a majority of the time.

I find that there are two essential rules you have to remember when running minions.

1. Flesh of the Master, Minion Master, and Training of the Master are mandatory pickups.
2. You have to run a power build.

Death Nova and Vampiric Master are amazing traits, but not necessary. You can swap either out for 10 more in Spite or 10 more in Blood Magic for Field Consumption. I never go anywhere without Vampiric Master. Personally, I prefer Death Nova for PVE and Boon Stripping for pvp.

With this build you can run Knights, Valkyrie, or Berzerker, It is probably the easiest gear to run Berzerker’s gear and survive. I prefer Berzerker’s simply because it’s ridiculously easy to avoid a majority of damage in this build, and since I prefer to have Vampiric Master, I can withstand a lot of stray damage.

Positives:

1. Easy to survive, and minions do live a lot longer than expected.
2. The strongest non-lich form power build out there.
3. Can tank or burst depending on gear level.
4. Minions, Minions, and more Minions

Negatives:

1. Without the minions you are extremely fragile
2. Condition damage currently is a lot stronger in aoe situations.
3. Loss of Lich form and the loss of constant DS of other power builds.
4. Without being able to pull the minions away from fights, you can lose all of them in one quick aoe blow. Ex. Lt Kohler.
5. I seriously hate the summoning time. In a fight for my life having to summon a minion is ridiculous.

Here are several builds that I run or have experimented with.

Minion Master build - http://www.gw2db.com/skill-builds/2568-minionmancer

Boon Stripper (more for pvp) – The boon stripping makes for an amazing neuter of bunker guardians and bunker ele’s. http://www.gw2db.com/skill-builds/2569-boonstripper-minions

Axe Smasher - I am a huge axe fan More personal damage less survival. http://www.gw2db.com/skill-builds/2570-axesmashing-minion

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to your feedback, and any questions.

Below I will post some of the more popular questions I am asked

Questions and Answers have been moved to https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/MinionMasters-The-Q-A-Thread/first#post1274660

I… I think I heart you. Seriously, the ONLY reasons I haven’t played a Necromancer is because 1) People laugh at me, and 2) I want to primarily summon stuff. Your posts reinforce the negatives, but also show me the possibilities of at least being decent with minions. It gives me a little hope that I don’t have to wait for a patch before being willing to really give necromancer a chance. Thanks for the info and inspiration.

However, your links say Bad Link when I click them. Could you post the actual http: so I could view your links?

I’m glad that someone is finally doing this. I used this same setup, exactly, until around level 30-40 then switched.

One question. Does it really have some of the highest damage? Even more than a DS crit build? Because those are beastly, especially combined with Wells

I’m glad to see we run the same build. I personally prefer the bone minions though as they self combo with death nova and are single-handedly our strongest nuke. They also apply a much higher DPS against 2 or more enemies if you can get their blasts off.

However, the flesh wurm is by far more reliable in any one on one fight.

I don’t have the same life force generation issue. In fact more often then not I have full life force before it comes off cooldown since axe+focus/staff has so many ways to gain life force.

Also, I personally think DS is almost always worth using when you have the cooldowns up off of it. That single target fear is great in PvP and the gap closer is useful for catching anyone who flees the horde. I don’t even need to mention how amazing life transfusion is for minion up-keep.

Ramiah.5648:

I… I think I heart you. Seriously, the ONLY reasons I haven’t played a Necromancer is because 1) People laugh at me, and 2) I want to primarily summon stuff. Your posts reinforce the negatives, but also show me the possibilities of at least being decent with minions. It gives me a little hope that I don’t have to wait for a patch before being willing to really give necromancer a chance. Thanks for the info and inspiration.

However, your links say Bad Link when I click them. Could you post the actual http: so I could view your links?

Sorry about that for some reason these forums don’t like into the mists.com So I switched it to GW2DB. The reason you have alts is to handle those who want to laugh at you ;P. Once you kill someone a few times using minions people stop laughing and they do one of two things.

1. Kill your minions leaving you to kill them.
2. Find a buddy to come kill you .

If it’s in pve, I don’t care what people say. I only have trouble with a few bosses, but that’s normal with every class and every build. I find that minions is the only way I like to play though Lich Form is awesome!

Levian.6742:

I’m glad that someone is finally doing this. I used this same setup, exactly, until around level 30-40 then switched.

One question. Does it really have some of the highest damage? Even more than a DS crit build? Because those are beastly, especially combined with Wells

It really depends on your definition of highest damage. Highest single target damage in a power build over a period of time. Easily! Highest burst belongs to lich form and highest aoe belongs to well builds. DS crit build is very nice, but it’s peaks and valley’s the minion s are consistent damage.

striker.3704:

I’m glad to see we run the same build. I personally prefer the bone minions though as they self combo with death nova and are single-handedly our strongest nuke. They also apply a much higher DPS against 2 or more enemies if you can get their blasts off.

However, the flesh wurm is by far more reliable in any one on one fight.

I don’t have the same life force generation issue. In fact more often then not I have full life force before it comes off cooldown since axe+focus/staff has so many ways to gain life force.

Also, I personally think DS is almost always worth using when you have the cooldowns up off of it. That single target fear is great in PvP and the gap closer is useful for catching anyone who flees the horde. I don’t even need to mention how amazing life transfusion is for minion up-keep.

Key word is if you can get the burst off, and only if you can get it off twice. Than bone minions are better. Axe/Focus and staff have 2 ways to build life force, axe 2 and Staff auto. Staff auto is slow as mollasses, and Axe 2 can be cut off. I find I rarely have probablems building life force in pve dungeons, in pvp I can go quite some time between DS compared to DS builds.

I ran across this question while playing last night, and figured it would add to our efforts.

Q: At what point should I look at running with minions?

A: From lvl 2 to lvl 35 I would say no problem. However once you start running Explorable and Story Mode Dungeons, you will face serious issues until you pick up Flesh of the Master. Other Power builds will feature more damage until you get at least 40 talent points to pick up Training of the Master as well. This is where Minionmancers generally call it quits, and switch to other specs. Essentially until lvl 50 we don’t see the full damage and survival skills the Minionmancer features. Once you pick up both of these you will find yourself at a disappointing disadvantage in dungeons to DS Power and condition Necros. In questing, Minions are always awesome!

Great posts! Minion Masters certainly have their share of issues but they are still a lot more viable than people give them credit for.

As a MM myself I think everything here is great and valuable information but the number one issue I’ve seen people have with running a MM is the AI issues minions have atm. While there’s no total fix for this yet I have figured out some tricks that can help a prospective MM overcome the issues brain-dead minions sometimes cause.

For general PvE play how you initiate combat is vital to how your minions perform. Often times if you simply start casting weapon attacks at your enemy your minions (melee ones specifically) will get very confused and not attack but simply stand at your side, I don’t know why this is but the flesh golem is particularly susceptible to this.

The solution I have found is to use alternate methods of initiating combat as minions will get hung up a lot less if you start combat by using a minion’s active skill on an enemy, the Shadow Fiend’s Haunt is great for this but the Flesh Golem’s Charge works as well. These skills can also be used to break those specific minions out of their trance, but it isn’t guaranteed. Alternatively you can start combat defensively by waiting until an enemy is aggroed and has drawn first blood, retaliating then will almost always ensure no minions get stuck. Additionally since the Flesh Golem is the only minion that will attack enemies without first being commanded to it can be used to initiate first blood on the enemy by simply moving it into aggro range.

Additionally if you’re in combat and notice some of your minions have gone brain-dead on you I have found switching between targets can sometimes break them out of it.

Please, creating minions out of AIR is simply ridiculous. At least on the predecessor of this game, you’d need corpses to animate your walking horrors.
MM on GW2 is horrible, it’s nowhere as powerful as it was on GW1

Riot Inducer.8964:

Great posts! Minion Masters certainly have their share of issues but they are still a lot more viable than people give them credit for.

As a MM myself I think everything here is great and valuable information but the number one issue I’ve seen people have with running a MM is the AI issues minions have atm. While there’s no total fix for this yet I have figured out some tricks that can help a prospective MM overcome the issues brain-dead minions sometimes cause.

For general PvE play how you initiate combat is vital to how your minions perform. Often times if you simply start casting weapon attacks at your enemy your minions (melee ones specifically) will get very confused and not attack but simply stand at your side, I don’t know why this is but the flesh golem is particularly susceptible to this.

The solution I have found is to use alternate methods of initiating combat as minions will get hung up a lot less if you start combat by using a minion’s active skill on an enemy, the Shadow Fiend’s Haunt is great for this but the Flesh Golem’s Charge works as well. These skills can also be used to break those specific minions out of their trance, but it isn’t guaranteed. Alternatively you can start combat defensively by waiting until an enemy is aggroed and has drawn first blood, retaliating then will almost always ensure no minions get stuck. Additionally since the Flesh Golem is the only minion that will attack enemies without first being commanded to it can be used to initiate first blood on the enemy by simply moving it into aggro range.

Additionally if you’re in combat and notice some of your minions have gone brain-dead on you I have found switching between targets can sometimes break them out of it.

Excellent points! I will add this to my question and answers portion at the top. I have noticed that if I send them in they all attack while if I attack there is a delay. I like to lead off with Bone Fiend’s lockdown over the Shadow Fiend Blind.

The Switching targets one works like a charm. One other thing for folks to remember is that for some reason Marks do not always trigger minion attacks. While your standard auto weapon attacks usually do. On the plus side, that still makes them leagues better than Turrets (I once dropped a rocket turret within 30m of a boss and it turned and started firing into a wall).

Razraal.1806:

Please, creating minions out of AIR is simply ridiculous. At least on the predecessor of this game, you’d need corpses to animate your walking horrors.
MM on GW2 is horrible, it’s nowhere as powerful as it was on GW1

I have no idea why you even commented. There are two obvious flaws to your comment.

1. You don’t create out of air. You summon from the darkness and/or shadow world or from the earth. Your lack of understanding of the basic storyline is evident, but we will overlook that and comment on your second comment.

2. Not everyone played GW1, in fact a lot of us in GW2 hated GW1’s over complicated ridiculousness. Plus MM is the best pet utility skills in GW2. Way better than Turrets and Spirit Pets, better lifetime and durability than Spirit Weapons and Elemenal Summons, and on par with the current state of ranger pets.

Hmmm, it won’t let me add Q&A to the above posts. I may have to start a new post and reserve 2 to 3 boxes for Q & A. I have reached the limit of characters on the top two posts.

Could you please post how you traited the MM build and what you chose for each one? The links are all blank trees. I am trying my hand at MM right now and am at lvl 23. I am loving it and would like to know how to trait for later levels cause I love my minions to much to give them up. Also what skill do you use for healing?

Here is what I have got >> focus on condition damage , power ( got it from 20 spite and little gears ) and toughness .
My build >> http://tinyurl.com/a5t3h9a >> check runes/sigils and traits.
My gear is carrion.

As our minions don’t benefit from our stats you should focus on condition damage as your main weapon should me Staff to heal them.

Bas.7406:

Axe/Focus and staff have 2 ways to build life force, axe 2 and Staff auto. Staff auto is slow as mollasses, and Axe 2 can be cut off. I find I rarely have probablems building life force in pve dungeons, in pvp I can go quite some time between DS compared to DS builds.

Axe/Focus and Staff in your setup has 3 ways to build Life Force. You forgot about Focus #4. If there is a party member within 600 range of your Focus #4 target, you’ll gain 15% Life Force once all the bounces are done. If there isn’t, then you run up to be within 600 range of your target and you’ll get 15% Life Force. That’s a lot of Life Force to not be mentioned.

Note: the actual max distance bounce of the Focus #4 is a tiny bit less than 600 range. And it does not bounce to minions or clones, that’s why you need to run up if there are no other players nearby.

The best and fastest way to build life force is via Dagger 1st skill , got staff as main ( landing marks ) and Dagger/focus ( switch to get might and damage ).

chocomamma.1539:

Could you please post how you traited the MM build and what you chose for each one? The links are all blank trees. I am trying my hand at MM right now and am at lvl 23. I am loving it and would like to know how to trait for later levels cause I love my minions to much to give them up. Also what skill do you use for healing?

I apologize for the links. It is odd that no matter what site I chose to link from it bugs out on these forums. The build numbers are as follows. I will see what I can do to fix the links.

1. Minion Master – 20/0/30/20/0
2. Boon Stripper – 20/0/30/20/0 – a few minor talent switches
3. Axe Smasher – 30/0/20/20/0

As a minionmaster you always heal with blood fiend, but I must warn you, that the blood fiend will die alot until you get Flesh of the Master. It’s one of the reasons I recommend holding off on full minions until 50. Though I did run blood fiend the whole way.

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

Here is what I have got >> focus on condition damage , power ( got it from 20 spite and little gears ) and toughness .
My build >> http://tinyurl.com/a5t3h9a >> check runes/sigils and traits.
My gear is carrion.

As our minions don’t benefit from our stats you should focus on condition damage as your main weapon should me Staff to heal them.

Absolutely not. Condition damage is the worst possible way to build a minion master. There are three reasons to ignore condition damage as a necro.

1. There are so many condition runners in dungeons, and your damage will be significantly worse since you don’t have a single beneficial trait to condition damage.

2. There are significantly better utilities for conditionmancers that running minions with a condition build is baffling.

3. Power builds benefit from Death Shroud much more than Condition builds, and since Death Shroud is your big hitter in a Minionmaster build it makes almost no sense to run conditions.

Haley.2390:

Bas.7406:

Axe/Focus and staff have 2 ways to build life force, axe 2 and Staff auto. Staff auto is slow as mollasses, and Axe 2 can be cut off. I find I rarely have probablems building life force in pve dungeons, in pvp I can go quite some time between DS compared to DS builds.

Axe/Focus and Staff in your setup has 3 ways to build Life Force. You forgot about Focus #4. If there is a party member within 600 range of your Focus #4 target, you’ll gain 15% Life Force once all the bounces are done. If there isn’t, then you run up to be within 600 range of your target and you’ll get 15% Life Force. That’s a lot of Life Force to not be mentioned.

Note: the actual max distance bounce of the Focus #4 is a tiny bit less than 600 range. And it does not bounce to minions or clones, that’s why you need to run up if there are no other players nearby.

You are absolutely correct, and I can’t believe I missed that. I am going to add your comment to the MM Q & A thread. I appreciate the correction. I didn’t notice the lifeforce gain because I am rarely within 600 feet when initially casting Dagger 4. I appreciate the correction and information.

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

The best and fastest way to build life force is via Dagger 1st skill , got staff as main ( landing marks ) and Dagger/focus ( switch to get might and damage ).

No one ever disputed this. Try dagger/warhorn for maximum damage ;p. Warhorn 5 is amazing for consistent damage, and works perfectly thanks to the cripple with dagger auto.

Edited and fixed the links. Please let me know if there are still issues.

Bas.7406:

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

Here is what I have got >> focus on condition damage , power ( got it from 20 spite and little gears ) and toughness .
My build >> http://tinyurl.com/a5t3h9a >> check runes/sigils and traits.
My gear is carrion.

As our minions don’t benefit from our stats you should focus on condition damage as your main weapon should me Staff to heal them.

Absolutely not. Condition damage is the worst possible way to build a minion master. There are three reasons to ignore condition damage as a necro.

1. There are so many condition runners in dungeons, and your damage will be significantly worse since you don’t have a single beneficial trait to condition damage.

2. There are significantly better utilities for conditionmancers that running minions with a condition build is baffling.

3. Power builds benefit from Death Shroud much more than Condition builds, and since Death Shroud is your big hitter in a Minionmaster build it makes almost no sense to run conditions.

So this build will be better ? ( check sigils and runes )

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

So this build will be better ? ( check sigils and runes )

I did notice your sigils and runes, but you lose out on 300 condition damage minimum and a host of damage from corruption skills and weaken your deathshroud capabilities. It’s not that it’s horrible it’s just not optimal.

Bas.7406:

Currently in pve or pvp the Minion mancer is rarely seen in dungeons, spvp, tPvP, and questing. Occasionally we will pass a Necromancer who has 1 or even two minions, but the minion mancer has slowly fallen out of favor due to the strength of the necromancers condition damage, and the dagger power/lich form builds.

Correction. “Minion” based builds didn’t fall out of favor because other builds were stronger, they fell out of favor because they were pretty bad. You’re relying on AI, which is rarely a good thing, and the minions themselves are rather lackluster. They’re not that strong, not that resistant, their abilities are meh at best, you can’t control them properly (even less so than Ranger pets), extremely long cast times and cooldowns, and most of the bloody things don’t even regen at all.

In PvE the minions are unreliable since you can’t control them properly, and summoning a new one is extremely unresponsive because of cooldowns and cast times. In PvP the whole concept is laughable since, again, the impossibility to properly control the minions together with slow cast times and long cooldowns makes them unreliable “meat walls”, and mostly everyone will simply ignore the minions and go directly for you, since you’ll be extremely weak.

It’s not that every other build is way better than them, although they generally are, it’s that the build itself is, currently, extremely flawed. I question whether it’s viable at all, really.

ProxyDamage.9826:

Bas.7406:

Currently in pve or pvp the Minion mancer is rarely seen in dungeons, spvp, tPvP, and questing. Occasionally we will pass a Necromancer who has 1 or even two minions, but the minion mancer has slowly fallen out of favor due to the strength of the necromancers condition damage, and the dagger power/lich form builds.

Correction. “Minion” based builds didn’t fall out of favor because other builds were stronger, they fell out of favor because they were pretty bad. You’re relying on AI, which is rarely a good thing, and the minions themselves are rather lackluster. They’re not that strong, not that resistant, their abilities are meh at best, you can’t control them properly (even less so than Ranger pets), extremely long cast times and cooldowns, and most of the bloody things don’t even regen at all.

In PvE the minions are unreliable since you can’t control them properly, and summoning a new one is extremely unresponsive because of cooldowns and cast times. In PvP the whole concept is laughable since, again, the impossibility to properly control the minions together with slow cast times and long cooldowns makes them unreliable “meat walls”, and mostly everyone will simply ignore the minions and go directly for you, since you’ll be extremely weak.

It’s not that every other build is way better than them, although they generally are, it’s that the build itself is, currently, extremely flawed. I question whether it’s viable at all, really.

Correction: None of this is factually true. They are very strong. Combined they are as powerful anything not named Lich Form. They respond very well with a few minor glitches that can be worked around which is still better than some of the other utilities we have. They are very resistant if specced correctly.

Your second point about getting wrecked when they ignore it is ignorant at best. If I dodge a thief’s burst. He gets trainwrecked a warrior who gets locked out or confusion during 100b gets trainwrecked. A condition necro who gets all his conditions cleansed will get wrecked.
Every single class and utility that doesn’t say bunker has the option of getting wrecked. Do I need to post more examples?

Let’s also clarify how you can’t control them. Let’s make this very clear just because you can’t do something doesn’t mean everyone can’t. Minions are easily controlled with their utility buttons, and I have yet to have one randomly attack something I didn’t want to attack or that wouldn’t have aggro’d to me anyways.

To top it all off, It’s better for minion masters when your pets are ignored. The good players destroy the minions and then kill me. The bad players who think minions are horrible leave the minions up and get farm killed by Minionmasters. I guess we know which category you fit in.

Thanks for your obviously biased opinion which contained nothing of any value to the Minion Master. In the future, constructive posts usually don’t contain worlds of misinformation along with overstated complaints while completely ignoring anything of value.

Bas.7406:

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

So this build will be better ? ( check sigils and runes )

I did notice your sigils and runes, but you lose out on 300 condition damage minimum and a host of damage from corruption skills and weaken your deathshroud capabilities. It’s not that it’s horrible it’s just not optimal.

Man , I’m so sorry.
I forgot to write the new link
So this build will be better ? ( check sigils and runes )
http://tinyurl.com/apd2ezp

Bas.7406:

ProxyDamage.9826:

Bas.7406:

Currently in pve or pvp the Minion mancer is rarely seen in dungeons, spvp, tPvP, and questing. Occasionally we will pass a Necromancer who has 1 or even two minions, but the minion mancer has slowly fallen out of favor due to the strength of the necromancers condition damage, and the dagger power/lich form builds.

Correction. “Minion” based builds didn’t fall out of favor because other builds were stronger, they fell out of favor because they were pretty bad. You’re relying on AI, which is rarely a good thing, and the minions themselves are rather lackluster. They’re not that strong, not that resistant, their abilities are meh at best, you can’t control them properly (even less so than Ranger pets), extremely long cast times and cooldowns, and most of the bloody things don’t even regen at all.

In PvE the minions are unreliable since you can’t control them properly, and summoning a new one is extremely unresponsive because of cooldowns and cast times. In PvP the whole concept is laughable since, again, the impossibility to properly control the minions together with slow cast times and long cooldowns makes them unreliable “meat walls”, and mostly everyone will simply ignore the minions and go directly for you, since you’ll be extremely weak.

It’s not that every other build is way better than them, although they generally are, it’s that the build itself is, currently, extremely flawed. I question whether it’s viable at all, really.

Correction: None of this is factually true. They are very strong. Combined they are as powerful anything not named Lich Form. They respond very well with a few minor glitches that can be worked around which is still better than some of the other utilities we have. They are very resistant if specced correctly.

Your second point about getting wrecked when they ignore it is ignorant at best. If I dodge a thief’s burst. He gets trainwrecked a warrior who gets locked out or confusion during 100b gets trainwrecked. A condition necro who gets all his conditions cleansed will get wrecked.
Every single class and utility that doesn’t say bunker has the option of getting wrecked. Do I need to post more examples?

Let’s also clarify how you can’t control them. Let’s make this very clear just because you can’t do something doesn’t mean everyone can’t. Minions are easily controlled with their utility buttons, and I have yet to have one randomly attack something I didn’t want to attack or that wouldn’t have aggro’d to me anyways.

To top it all off, It’s better for minion masters when your pets are ignored. The good players destroy the minions and then kill me. The bad players who think minions are horrible leave the minions up and get farm killed by Minionmasters. I guess we know which category you fit in.

Thanks for your obviously biased opinion which contained nothing of any value to the Minion Master. In the future, constructive posts usually don’t contain worlds of misinformation along with overstated complaints while completely ignoring anything of value.

Actually he has a point. The state of the AI of the minions right now they are really unreliable. I have tried minions too because I felt that’s the way to play necro. Some of them don’t fight sometimes. That’s kinda annoying.

The reason why people don’t go for minions is simple – for normal PVE content it really don’t matter what build you go with, they are a breeze. For harder stuffs (read dungeon more specifically bosses) then they are a liability. If they just die after a massive aoe from a boss then they just did nothing with 3 skills on cd in your utility bar (count 4 with the elite flesh golem). Those 4 cds could be spent on actually using skills that actually do something, support, damage, etc.

Minions are awesome, they provide constant firepower, but as it is in this game, the cd after they die is a tad too long, AI is not reliable because it doesn’t always work.

I think they could do with a charm like how another MMO I used to play deals with minions – give them a permanent buff that cannot be stripped that lets them have massive AOE damage resistance.

abelooi.9156:

Bas.7406:

ProxyDamage.9826:

Bas.7406:

Currently in pve or pvp the Minion mancer is rarely seen in dungeons, spvp, tPvP, and questing. Occasionally we will pass a Necromancer who has 1 or even two minions, but the minion mancer has slowly fallen out of favor due to the strength of the necromancers condition damage, and the dagger power/lich form builds.

Correction. “Minion” based builds didn’t fall out of favor because other builds were stronger, they fell out of favor because they were pretty bad. You’re relying on AI, which is rarely a good thing, and the minions themselves are rather lackluster. They’re not that strong, not that resistant, their abilities are meh at best, you can’t control them properly (even less so than Ranger pets), extremely long cast times and cooldowns, and most of the bloody things don’t even regen at all.

In PvE the minions are unreliable since you can’t control them properly, and summoning a new one is extremely unresponsive because of cooldowns and cast times. In PvP the whole concept is laughable since, again, the impossibility to properly control the minions together with slow cast times and long cooldowns makes them unreliable “meat walls”, and mostly everyone will simply ignore the minions and go directly for you, since you’ll be extremely weak.

It’s not that every other build is way better than them, although they generally are, it’s that the build itself is, currently, extremely flawed. I question whether it’s viable at all, really.

Correction: None of this is factually true. They are very strong. Combined they are as powerful anything not named Lich Form. They respond very well with a few minor glitches that can be worked around which is still better than some of the other utilities we have. They are very resistant if specced correctly.

Your second point about getting wrecked when they ignore it is ignorant at best. If I dodge a thief’s burst. He gets trainwrecked a warrior who gets locked out or confusion during 100b gets trainwrecked. A condition necro who gets all his conditions cleansed will get wrecked.
Every single class and utility that doesn’t say bunker has the option of getting wrecked. Do I need to post more examples?

Let’s also clarify how you can’t control them. Let’s make this very clear just because you can’t do something doesn’t mean everyone can’t. Minions are easily controlled with their utility buttons, and I have yet to have one randomly attack something I didn’t want to attack or that wouldn’t have aggro’d to me anyways.

To top it all off, It’s better for minion masters when your pets are ignored. The good players destroy the minions and then kill me. The bad players who think minions are horrible leave the minions up and get farm killed by Minionmasters. I guess we know which category you fit in.

Thanks for your obviously biased opinion which contained nothing of any value to the Minion Master. In the future, constructive posts usually don’t contain worlds of misinformation along with overstated complaints while completely ignoring anything of value.

Actually he has a point. The state of the AI of the minions right now they are really unreliable. I have tried minions too because I felt that’s the way to play necro. Some of them don’t fight sometimes. That’s kinda annoying.

The reason why people don’t go for minions is simple – for normal PVE content it really don’t matter what build you go with, they are a breeze. For harder stuffs (read dungeon more specifically bosses) then they are a liability. If they just die after a massive aoe from a boss then they just did nothing with 3 skills on cd in your utility bar (count 4 with the elite flesh golem). Those 4 cds could be spent on actually using skills that actually do something, support, damage, etc.

Minions are awesome, they provide constant firepower, but as it is in this game, the cd after they die is a tad too long, AI is not reliable because it doesn’t always work.

I think they could do with a charm like how another MMO I used to play deals with minions – give them a permanent buff that cannot be stripped that lets them have massive AOE damage resistance.

Summoning skills have long cd ??? – They have the half of wells cd , minions is much better.

Bas.7406:

Correction: None of this is factually true. They are very strong. Combined they are as powerful anything not named Lich Form. They respond very well with a few minor glitches that can be worked around which is still better than some of the other utilities we have. They are very resistant if specced correctly.

I just tested to make sure I wasn’t just being biased from my previous attempt at using the bloody things. The minions are very slow at reacting, and so very much not “powerful”. In the same time it takes them to kill one target my usual build has already killed an entire group of people, to say nothing of single target builds. Casting the entire entourage takes ages, so for any casualty your tiny army suffers you hurt a lot. And they are not resistant enough given that they have 0 survival instincts.

Bas.7406:

Every single class and utility that doesn’t say bunker has the option of getting wrecked.

The major difference being that you don’t just go “kitten it” and ignore a thief’s burst (unless you’re a bunker build, obviously). You can’t just ignore conditions on a condition build necro. You can cleanse them, but they’ll be reapplied. There are very few “all conditions” cleaning skills in the game, and the necro can reapply them faster than you can “re-clean” all of them. A warrior can easily cleanse a single confusion, or break hundred blades and wait it out, since you can’t perma-confuse him.

Bas.7406:

Minions are easily controlled with their utility buttons, and I have yet to have one randomly attack something I didn’t want to attack or that wouldn’t have aggro’d to me anyways.

I’d like to see you force a minion through a specific path with their utility buttons. No, please, go on. I’ll wait.

Or make them break away from a target they’ve already acquired.

Or prevent them from attacking a target you’re attacking.

Go on.

Bas.7406:

To top it all off, It’s better for minion masters when your pets are ignored. The good players destroy the minions and then kill me. The bad players who think minions are horrible leave the minions up and get farm killed by Minionmasters. I guess we know which category you fit in.

Times I’ve been killed by a minion master: 0

Seen very few of them and they’re always laughable. The only pet that’s a menace at all is Flesh Golem, and that’s because of his brutal charge move, which has a hefty enough cooldown. Meanwhile you have very little defense yourself. Your life syphoning simply mitigates some of the damage you take, but you have 0 condition clearing against condition damage or even CC.

And this is where you start to see the obvious core flaw in this build: you’re burning every single utility skill for your normal, single-target, output. You have no notable defense or general utility, and your damage is pretty “meh”. Pretty much any other damage-oriented build (not just Necro ones) will outperform it. You’re also extremely vulnerable to any form of condition (damaging, debuffing, or CC) or having your “army” slowly whittled down or AoE nuked since they don’t regen (aside from the golem) and are quite uncontrollable. Yes, yes, I know you think being able to choose a target is enough. It really isn’t.

In PvE MM builds fail because they lack either single target DPS or AoE, while being a pain to manage (low health minions need to be constantly noted, euthanized and re-summoned lest you end up forced to summon at a bad time) and impossible to control properly (to prevent accidental agro pulling, for once).

In PvP, they’re unreliable and extremely vulnerable, while also not having fantastic DPS or survivability. What exactly is the MM build bringing to the table that isn’t outperformed by roughly any other build with the same orientation from any other class? This isn’t an issue of “other Necro builds being better”, but when there isn’t anything the build does better than anyone else, then the build itself is bad. This isn’t to say that you can’t complete story mode or get a couple of WvW/PvP kills with it. You can, but they won’t perform on the same level of everything else. Fun? Maybe. Solid? No.

This actually brings out a question I have regarding your build: You claim to be a power-oriented build, if I read it correctly, and yet you have so little attack… 2.1k attack was it? That’s… nothing. A power build should boast over 3.5k attack at least. I have way more than 2.1k on my necro, and I’m paying a ridiculous premium for ~1.4k condition damage and nearly 30k health. So, what’s up with those stats? Not accounting for gear or something? If so, can you provide some numbers WITH gear? I’d be interested to see what kind of numbers you’re working with for damage and survivability. Who knows, maybe I am wrong about something. Very unlikely, but it has happened before.

I have been playing a MM for the last week now. I started to play this build, at least I became tempted as I entered Orr and was struggling (I had lowish 70’s and high-ish 60’s gear). Besides being bored with Condition, I also wanted to try something new for WvW and the GrandMaster trait Fetid Consumption sounded intriguing.

Well, I unfortunately have not been able to test my build in WvW because of the recent guild migrations. I happen to have been on a server that absorbed all these migrants, and has had complete map domination for close to the last two weeks. The WvW maps are virtual ghost towns.

This also blows because I consider WvW to be the penultimate end game.
On the environment level, which I have experienced now for the last week or so I can make so comments. Since switching over to MM, I first tried the condition build, that is 0/20/20/30. I ran with Epidemic and dropped the bone fiends. Again, this was in anticipation of trying the build in WvW.

I found it sub-par in PvE so I changed it up to 20/0/20/30 and have been going at the environment like so. First off my survivability jumped, the life-siphoning ability kept me near 90% or above. I ran axe first, but the axe sucks. I like the scepter because during the Dynamic Events, I could blanket an area with DoT’s and get my loots.

When looking for an axe replacement, I tried the staff, but the staff also sucks. I hate the repetitive sound, the annoying Wha Wha Wha Wha; I hate the other four buttons also, that have stupidly long cool downs and that are just in general under-powered and majestically BORING Clones of each other.

I found that I did not need the Staff #2 to revive Minions; it is no bother if my minion would die because with the 20% cool down on Minion Summoning, by the time I would even notice that I had had a Minion die, the cool down was already up. I am now using Dagger and Scepter/Dagger and am happy as far as our potential weapon combo’s go.

Summoning Minions in general though is a problem; the cast time is very long. You don’t notice it at first, or, at least, I was not aware of it at first, but, quickly I became aware at indeed how long the cool down is. When you are soloing a DE, in Orr, I found that, even with the staff, the Minions cannot handle four or five regular Mob’s and a Vet before they start dropping, and then to re-summon at that time is too late as the cast time to get those shields back up is enough to chew though your Hit Point pool.

The AI on Minions is tragic, to the point that I want to repeat this, the AI on Minions is TRAGIC. I think enough has been said on this topic already, and that we are all aware of these flaws. Bas has some pointers/potential work arounds above, but, unfortunately, I feel that is simply wishful thinking, (which he/she is amply aware of also, which is why he provided the work arounds in the first place).

Over-all, my last week and a half of MM has been a good experience. The 30 points into the Blood line could be potentially done better by the Consume Conditions; the Well of Power just has a ridiculous cool down, which, even traited brings it down to only 48 seconds. And makes it all but worthless.

I have found that I like bone fiends better then Well of Suffering as the cool downs on the Well is again just too long and that the Bone Minions are up really fast. The down side though to the Bone Minions is that the AI is broken and when you pop them, sometimes, a lot of the times, they are nowhere near the combat, a lot of times I found them gazing off into the distance, purring at my ankles or even behind me?

I would like a comparison to the Utility Corrosive Poison Cloud and Death Nova, so if anyone has tried this out and could comment?

Thanks

ProxyDamage.9826:

I just tested to make sure I wasn’t just being biased from my previous attempt at using the bloody things.

Where did you test at? How did you test them? How in the world it took you that long to kill them is beyond me. Did you send just them in while not attacking yourself? Did you attack with just auto and staff and pray? I have already stated my pet peeve is the 1 1/2 cast time of the summoning since they are necessary to my survival. However did you know that the cast time is a mere quarter of a second longer than most of our attacks?Which says alot more about the ridiculousness of the Necro as a whole than the Minion master.

I have no idea what your point on this was. You simply proved my point. Ignoring the minions will get you dead and me permanently healed. I actually fought a bunker ele with a thief chasing me the whole time. They both completely ignored my pets and tried to focus me down. They both died and I never once had to sacrifice my blood fiend. I used Siphon health, Life Transfer heals, and minion heals, and whenever I got to 50 percent health I would swap to DS and continue to kill them. I dropped the thief 3 times in the fight and the ele twice before finally stomping them. D/D ele bunkers are a pain when you are stomping their partner.

Again the only guys who I have a world of trouble with are engineers and condition rangers. Everyone else I can handle or competively kill. As a test, I once ran in circles while letting my pets single handly kill a warrior. Everytime he popped Frenzy I popped pet traits to get away. Blind for charge, Bone Fiend immobilize, Golem Charge, and Flesh Wurm Portal, all of them were amazingly effective.

ProxyDamage.9826:

Times I’ve been killed by a minion master: 0

1. Minions do not do laughable damage.
2. Times I have encounters a semi-decent Minionmaster in tPVP or sPVP = 1. The rarity of Minionmasters is amazing because of the amount of negativity and misinformation by fellow players. I had to convince my tPvP team to let me try it. I actually got messages from several engineers, elementalists, and bunker guardians complimenting my ability to not only compete but kill them. I had one engineer who screamed Fing Pets and then proceeded to kill them all the next time he saw me in a fight with someone.
3. You have multiple defense from siphon life, death shroud, and weapon abilities. I have the same defense as any Power build or tank does outside of the crappy Spectral skills.

ProxyDamage.9826:

In PvE MM builds fail because they lack either single target DPS or AoE, while being a pain to manage (low health minions need to be constantly noted, euthanized and re-summoned lest you end up forced to summon at a bad time) and impossible to control properly (to prevent accidental agro pulling, for once).
This actually brings out a question I have regarding your build: You claim to be a power-oriented build, if I read it correctly, and yet you have so little attack… 2.1k attack was it? That’s… nothing. A power build should boast over 3.5k attack at least. I have way more than 2.1k on my necro, and I’m paying a ridiculous premium for ~1.4k condition damage and nearly 30k health. So, what’s up with those stats? Not accounting for gear or something? If so, can you provide some numbers WITH gear? I’d be interested to see what kind of numbers you’re working with for damage and survivability. Who knows, maybe I am wrong about something. Very unlikely, but it has happened before.

I don’t run a pure power build. I run a crit happy power build in pvp. In PvE I run berzerker gear using orbs instead of gems to boost my crit and crit damage. I run glass cannon with Minions. I will check my numbers tonight and get back to you.

Look, I am not saying they are perfect my point lies in that they are better than advertised, and that a majority of your complaints are based on playstyle. here is a counter point to yours. Why would I ever bring a condition Necro? Rangers build bleeds faster and do better condition damage, Elementalists are significantly better hitters and roamers, and Mesmers (well we all know them). So If I am running a dungeon why bring a condition Necro since they die quickly compared to other classes and do significantly less damage while taking longer to get their conditions up.

My guild actually tested this with the same guy playing condition spec ele and condition spec necro. Ele destroyed the same target in a portion of the time with more health left over. In fact a grenade engineer brings more to the table than a condition mancer.

So Thief, engineer, Ranger (not in pvp), and ele alll apply conditions with better numbers, and Mesmers provide more utility so why bring the condition mancer?

@Hieronymus – Bone Minions are the absolute worst pets. They sometimes get stuck and never move. They die repeatedly before you can use them, and sometimes I want to chuck them. I never use them. Flesh Wurm is awesome! It does the most damage, and dies the least. It’s not great for questing, but for dungeon fights it’s awesome.

I wholeheartedly agree, that worrying about healign them is meh. It can be done, but I let them die and simply resummon them when the cd is up. It’s not that long of a cd, The cast time is ridiculous, which is my major complaint. That and the fact that sometime I have to hit the utility skill twice to get him to do their ability.

Death Nova is meh, but it’s an added damage. It applies it to a small area where the pet dies. About the size of an extended Mark.

Okay so in pvp my build gives me these stats

3104 attack
43/38 crit/crit damage
2100 Armor
23k health

With Runes of the Eagle and boons. I could end up with more health if I swapped out some abilities. I am currently runnning 30/0/20/20/0.

If i switch to a full power build, here are the stats

3269 attack
35/23
2100 armor
23k health

Runes of Ogre and Berzerker

Granted by swapping runes I could get a bit more power or health, but

I didn’t have time to check my pve stats.

Bas.7406:

@Hieronymus – Bone Minions are the absolute worst pets. They sometimes get stuck and never move. They die repeatedly before you can use them, and sometimes I want to chuck them. I never use them. Flesh Wurm is awesome! It does the most damage, and dies the least. It’s not great for questing, but for dungeon fights it’s awesome.

I wholeheartedly agree, that worrying about healign them is meh. It can be done, but I let them die and simply resummon them when the cd is up. It’s not that long of a cd, The cast time is ridiculous, which is my major complaint. That and the fact that sometime I have to hit the utility skill twice to get him to do their ability.

Death Nova is meh, but it’s an added damage. It applies it to a small area where the pet dies. About the size of an extended Mark.

Yeah, the cool down is not bad at all on Minions with the appropriate trait, I mis-typed when I typed cool down and meant the Cast time. Re-reading what you wrote at the top of the forum, about the cast time on the minions being roughly equilvalent to the cast time on all of our abilities, and so not making much of a difference in suckyness, though I agree with.

Yeah, bone minions are terribad, but when they go pop, I really love it. I am looking for a replacement for this utility, and will try the Wurm when I run a dungeon as you suggest.

As far as running everyday Pve/PvP, maybe I will stick with the Epidemic? I just hate the intolerable cool downs on the wells and corruptions, it makes it so, you have to stand around with your thumb up your necrotic kitten waiting to do something. At least with the Epidemic, I can target a MOB that is being focused by the group/zerg and spread some loving every 15 seconds, which is acceptable, as opposed to the 60 seconds or 45 seconds or half minute that is the current deal.

What are your thoughts on Fetid Consumption? I’m really enjoying that fact that my conditions get stripped off of me every few seconds. I have yet to take the MM build to WvW granted, won’t be able to till they reset and my server gets bumped up.

I have been scared actually to Dungeon run with the AI of minions. I am so worried that I will wipe the group because of the insane, psychopathic AI. You have given me a little courage to try though, any tips/pointers for doing this?

Also, you might want to check out the trait Death’s Embrace in the power tree, which makes your downed state 50% more effective. I found this to be a remarkable good trait that has saved me many times. It really eats through an enemy’s heath, transferring it to you.
I have to agree that so far my experience as MM has been pretty fun and effective.

Can’t wait to try it in WvW (whenever they reset). Also, hoping they fix this class or address it in three days.

Thanks

Hieronymus.2146:

Yeah, the cool down is not bad at all on Minions with the appropriate trait, I mis-typed when I typed cool down and meant the Cast time. Re-reading what you wrote at the top of the forum, about the cast time on the minions being roughly equilvalent to the cast time on all of our abilities, and so not making much of a difference in suckyness, though I agree with.

Yeah, bone minions are terribad, but when they go pop, I really love it. I am looking for a replacement for this utility, and will try the Wurm when I run a dungeon as you suggest.

As far as running everyday Pve/PvP, maybe I will stick with the Epidemic? I just hate the intolerable cool downs on the wells and corruptions, it makes it so, you have to stand around with your thumb up your necrotic kitten waiting to do something. At least with the Epidemic, I can target a MOB that is being focused by the group/zerg and spread some loving every 15 seconds, which is acceptable, as opposed to the 60 seconds or 45 seconds or half minute that is the current deal.

What are your thoughts on Fetid Consumption? I’m really enjoying that fact that my conditions get stripped off of me every few seconds. I have yet to take the MM build to WvW granted, won’t be able to till they reset and my server gets bumped up.

I have been scared actually to Dungeon run with the AI of minions. I am so worried that I will wipe the group because of the insane, psychopathic AI. You have given me a little courage to try though, any tips/pointers for doing this?

Also, you might want to check out the trait Death’s Embrace in the power tree, which makes your downed state 50% more effective. I found this to be a remarkable good trait that has saved me many times. It really eats through an enemy’s heath, transferring it to you.
I have to agree that so far my experience as MM has been pretty fun and effective.

Can’t wait to try it in WvW (whenever they reset). Also, hoping they fix this class or address it in three days.

Thanks

WvWvW is rough on minion builds. Heck it’s horrifying for any pet build. Engineer Turrets, Ranger Pets, and Thieves Guild all get rocked by the sheer amount of AoE which is one of the reasons Anet is looking at nerfing aoe. AoE Builds are the only way to do WvWvW, and Minionmasters are singletarget specialists.

Fetid Consumption is great if you run with no condition removal players. The downside is your pets drop even faster. I could see it being nice in WvWvW if your minions live, and in tPvP in a bunker type build or even in a questing facility. In dungeons, I run with either an engineer, elementalist, Condition Mancer, Guardian, or warrior with Rune of the Soldier so I never even worry about conditions. All of those classes have better group removal conditions than I have plus siphon life with pets = amazing for survival.

I have actually started runnign with Axe Mastery or Close to Death and only went to Flesh of the Master in the Death Magic tree.

Dungeon Tips:
1. Your minions won’t attack anything unless directly attacked or you attack first. The psychopathic ai has more to do with lazy bone minions and Flesh Golem’s desire to kill everything within 400m

2. Never begin a fight unless running bunker build as you will lose one or two of your Minions instantly.

3. Run Dagger for bunker build, and Axe for Berzerker Build. I don’t like Staff, but it does have it’s utility purposes. I usually run Axe/Focus primary and Dagger/Warhorn secondary.

4. Don’t summon the Flesh Wurm unless you know the fight is going to last longer than 40 seconds, and don’t bring the bone minions unless you have a combo field being cast all the time.

5. If you get a pet stuck where he isn’t fighting switch targets than switch back or use his ability to break him out.

6. Have fun, and enjoy watching others freak out when you solo a guy that was killing everyone.

Bumping in case people forgot

Thx for the bump recently started playing necro and i was kinda getting bored with the condi build …… this build is amazing maybe the changes triggered it but its amazing thx alot !!!! keep it updated if u can thx again …. btw i mainly spvp.

This build looks great. I have started a Necro and only at level 21, but loving the use of minions. Now the patch has aided minion builds, I definitely want to go down this route.

I am currently using dagger and focus, using bone horror, shadow horror and run speed signet (swapping for well when im not running much) and its ace. I am tempted by axe but dagger feels so powerful.

What would you say the best way to spend points is at low levels? I have put 10 in spite and 1 in death magic so far, but with the changes, do you think its worth going in at least 5 death magic to get the jagged horror?

I was also looking at 30 blood magic and 20 death magic for a final build.

What are your thoughts?

alexparris.3754:

This build looks great. I have started a Necro and only at level 21, but loving the use of minions. Now the patch has aided minion builds, I definitely want to go down this route.

I am currently using dagger and focus, using bone horror, shadow horror and run speed signet (swapping for well when im not running much) and its ace. I am tempted by axe but dagger feels so powerful.

What would you say the best way to spend points is at low levels? I have put 10 in spite and 1 in death magic so far, but with the changes, do you think its worth going in at least 5 death magic to get the jagged horror?

I was also looking at 30 blood magic and 20 death magic for a final build.

What are your thoughts?

I always go 10 in Death Magic first. The reduced cooldown is essential at lower levels. After that picking up 10 in Soul Reaping and 10 in Spite are the best ways to go until you reach lvl 40. From 40 all your points go back into Death Magic or Spite. I prefer Death magic for more lifetime on your minions or into Siphon Health from minions.

Dagger/Focus is fine. Dagger/WH is better for pure personal damage, and Axe/Focus is great for building vulnerability for your Minions. What alot of guys do is Focus 4 and Axe 1 to build vuln. Use Axe 2 swap to dagger/Wh hit wh 5, smack with the dagger until CD on weapon swap is up than swap back to axe hit 2 restock the vuln and repeat.

Have you tried focusing more on a vampiric minion build? With the new change to bloodthirsty affecting vampiric master, they siphon around 110 per hit. Add that to the near perma regen from staff2/focus4, dagger life siphon and the buff to the blood fiend and it makes a pretty good spvp tank.

What runes are you running on your armour? I’ve got dwayna’s to keep regen active, but I imagine there’s a better alternative

Alright guys, so stay tuned, but I think I might have cracked the code on Minion aggro. I was doing a lot of damage/regen testing for a guide, and I noticed a very, very consistent aggro if you do the right things. I’m heading off to the mist right now to check if it is what I think it is.

Bas.7406:

alexparris.3754:

This build looks great. I have started a Necro and only at level 21, but loving the use of minions. Now the patch has aided minion builds, I definitely want to go down this route.

I am currently using dagger and focus, using bone horror, shadow horror and run speed signet (swapping for well when im not running much) and its ace. I am tempted by axe but dagger feels so powerful.

What would you say the best way to spend points is at low levels? I have put 10 in spite and 1 in death magic so far, but with the changes, do you think its worth going in at least 5 death magic to get the jagged horror?

I was also looking at 30 blood magic and 20 death magic for a final build.

What are your thoughts?

I always go 10 in Death Magic first. The reduced cooldown is essential at lower levels. After that picking up 10 in Soul Reaping and 10 in Spite are the best ways to go until you reach lvl 40. From 40 all your points go back into Death Magic or Spite. I prefer Death magic for more lifetime on your minions or into Siphon Health from minions.

Dagger/Focus is fine. Dagger/WH is better for pure personal damage, and Axe/Focus is great for building vulnerability for your Minions. What alot of guys do is Focus 4 and Axe 1 to build vuln. Use Axe 2 swap to dagger/Wh hit wh 5, smack with the dagger until CD on weapon swap is up than swap back to axe hit 2 restock the vuln and repeat.

Thanks for that. I will give this a go later. I am a little reluctant to give up the staff at the moment though, as it is serving me well for AOE purposes, along with mark of blood and fear. Do you think using axe/focus instead is a good idea for lower levels?

Trying this MM build: 20/0/20/20/10
Spite: Spiteful Talisman, Training of the Master
Death Magic: Dark Armor, Flesh of the Master
Blood Magic: Transfusion, Vampiric Master
Soul Reaping: Path of Midnight

Weapons: axe/focus, dagger, dagger
Armor: Tahlkora’s (Seers) vit+, cond dm, heal (no change to runes, yet)
Jewelry: No change yet here, either. Still running exotic rabid with exquisite chrysocola for improved condition damage considering the traiting. May switch jewelry around later for more healing.

Utility: Blood Fiend, Bone Minions, Bone Fiend, Flesh Wurm, Flesh Golem (note all of the ranged pets were chosen)

The build is primarily minions and channeling with both weapon sets and DS4 for minion AoE heal using the Transfusion trait with Life Transfer. The goal is to tank for, and heal, minions. I hope to consistently keep aggro from the Bone Fiend with high armor and HP.

I’ve been playing 0/0/30/30/10.
Greater Marks, Flesh of the Master, Necromantic Corruption.
Transfusion, Vampiric Master, Fetid Consumption.
Vital Persistence.

Armor: Soldier’s. My runes are a little up in the air right now, currently I use 5x Vampiric and 1x Crest of the Soldier, but I’m thinking about 6x Dolyak, or 6x Melandru, or maybe 2x Vampiric and 4x Earth, or something like that.
Jewelery: Soldier’s with Knight’s slotted.
Weapons: Knight’s; staff, axe / focus. I am thinking about swapping axe / focus for dagger / warhorn. Currently I use Force and Accuracy offhand; I’m thinking about Blood and Accuracy offhand.

Utility: Blood Fiend, 2x Minions (usually Shadow Fiend and Bone Fiend, but I swap back and forth), Signet of the Locust, Flesh Golem.

I end up with about 3.2k power, 3k armor, 28k health, 20% crit. I mostly play WvW, and my goal is to not die or take as long as humanly possible to die. I go back and forth about whether or not the 10 points in Soul Reaping might be better elsewhere, or whether or not to use Carrion jewels instead of Knight’s. I’d love to find a place to put Minion Master, but I can’t give up Greater Marks and am very hesitant to give up FotM. Any advice is welcome.

Still running my main as a p/t/v dagger/focus & staff MM necro (20/0/30/20/0), since launch, I’ve got 6 level 80’s and its still my favorite. All this patch did, was make it even more fun to play. I still do moderate damage, have plenty of options, and can take a ridiculous beating. If anyone is complaining about minions today, I have to ask, why aren’t you just playing a ranger? Minions take a beating and go boom, just EXACTLY like they did in the previous game. Minions are NOT a class mechanic and there for do not start at a substantially higher survivability level then a Mesmer clone. This is called balancing the classes, and it’s usually the number one thing complained about on mmo forums. Any complaints that minions are “fail” are pointless, selfish and undeserved, as many Minion Masters are still out there doing just as good if not better then anyone else be they dressed in berserker, rampager, carrion. knight, or soldier gear. The only issue’s we face, is showing people the unjust stereo-type placed on us and the class, is ridiculous.

sas.6483:

I’ve been playing 0/0/30/30/10.
Greater Marks, Flesh of the Master, Necromantic Corruption.
Transfusion, Vampiric Master, Fetid Consumption.
Vital Persistence.

Armor: Soldier’s. My runes are a little up in the air right now, currently I use 5x Vampiric and 1x Crest of the Soldier, but I’m thinking about 6x Dolyak, or 6x Melandru, or maybe 2x Vampiric and 4x Earth, or something like that.
Jewelery: Soldier’s with Knight’s slotted.
Weapons: Knight’s; staff, axe / focus. I am thinking about swapping axe / focus for dagger / warhorn. Currently I use Force and Accuracy offhand; I’m thinking about Blood and Accuracy offhand.

Utility: Blood Fiend, 2x Minions (usually Shadow Fiend and Bone Fiend, but I swap back and forth), Signet of the Locust, Flesh Golem.

I end up with about 3.2k power, 3k armor, 28k health, 20% crit. I mostly play WvW, and my goal is to not die or take as long as humanly possible to die. I go back and forth about whether or not the 10 points in Soul Reaping might be better elsewhere, or whether or not to use Carrion jewels instead of Knight’s. I’d love to find a place to put Minion Master, but I can’t give up Greater Marks and am very hesitant to give up FotM. Any advice is welcome.

haha, wow! you must never die with that build. I would recommend not using the Staff until after you have your minions attacking. Staff tends to confuse Minions intially.