Guild Wars 2

I’m leveling my first character (chose Necromancer because I think Humans have better racial gear for an Elementalist) I intend to mostly solo for now (will probably go Reaper at 80, question is how do I get there?)

So I’ve been looking at Necromancer skills. Now, weird thing about me is I don’t actually micromanage skills very well (I’m very thankful Guild Wars 2 only has… 10 buttons plus specials I need to look at, I don’t enjoy MMOs that have like 4 hotbars minimum requirement) since I’m soloing anyway, I figured I should get Minions.

The question is, what are the best to summon? I plan on keeping Signet of the Locust to speed up leveling by virtue of getting where I need to go faster, but what about other slots? Should I use Signet of Vampirism or use a Blood Fiend? is Blood Wurm worth the hassle of moving? what other two Minions should I get?

I’d appreciate any advice or help, thanks!

as a former necro/reaper player I would say none.
there are so many other skills that are way better than those stupid minions in pve. It just hurts me everytime I see a necro running around with all the minions out.
you basicly split up in condi or zerk gameplay:

as zerk, you prefer to use the 2 damage wells (corruption and suffering)
as condi, its best to go for something like blood is power and epidemic

as for the healing skill, you’d be better off with consume conditions

for the other minions theres almost no use at pve, except for the golem which is fine to use if you feel like it (and the flesh worm in fractals for port)

Check out the specialization tracks. Bone Minion can be very helpful but Signet of the Locust or Quickening Thirst for 25% movement increase should take priority. Once you have more travel speed, pick a trait circle and start filling it. Partial specializations do not work as well as full ones but I am not too familiar with the new system.

I never touched minions, except for the elite Flesh Golem. I found them to be unreliable with their AI…I’d be standing there getting my butt kicked while they’d be off picking daisies for my funeral. I think they’ve improved the AI these days, but I still have left over hate from before. Leveling, I used mostly wells because running into a group of things, setting off a well bomb and then watching things melt in front of me was always fun. When they didn’t quite melt like they should, just enter Shroud and finish them off.

Reaper is well worth leveling to 80 and getting the hero points needed though! I was hesitant for so long bothering getting Reaper because I wasn’t much of a necro player. Got bored, got the HP for Reaper and holy kittens it’s awesome! It changes necro game play and the profession completely. Go from being ranged reliant and hoping your Life Blast will hit more than one target to charging into the middle of the fray and just beating the ever living crud out of everything.

Basically, don’t become reliant on the minions to kill everything for you. Have to learn how to be a proper punching bag in light armor first. When you get to the higher levels they aren’t that useful and then you find yourself having to deal with switching things out and you go back to having to learn how to play again, only now it’s against things that murder you a bit more quickly.

No matter which one, just take signet of locust on one spot

Kuronan.2504:

I’m leveling my first character (chose Necromancer because I think Humans have better racial gear for an Elementalist) I intend to mostly solo for now (will probably go Reaper at 80, question is how do I get there?)

So I’ve been looking at Necromancer skills. Now, weird thing about me is I don’t actually micromanage skills very well (I’m very thankful Guild Wars 2 only has… 10 buttons plus specials I need to look at, I don’t enjoy MMOs that have like 4 hotbars minimum requirement) since I’m soloing anyway, I figured I should get Minions.

The question is, what are the best to summon? I plan on keeping Signet of the Locust to speed up leveling by virtue of getting where I need to go faster, but what about other slots? Should I use Signet of Vampirism or use a Blood Fiend? is Blood Wurm worth the hassle of moving? what other two Minions should I get?

I’d appreciate any advice or help, thanks!

The only times minion master is great is when soloing HoT champ Hero pts bosses, other than that id go with anything else. When u unlock reaper, the shouts are quite powerful as theyre quick, effective and cover aoe ground.

So Minions are basically useless (save Flesh Golem) and I should be leveling using other skills? Also yes I am running Locust, I see no reason not to run Locust, the 25% movement speed is just too valuable in saving time getting from Point A to Point B.

I don’t have Specializations yet (though this will be remedied in a day or two) but another question I have is should I stick with staff or double daggers for leveling solo?

Folks, please remember Kuroran is leveling and probably does not have fully populated specializations.

Minions are also much better than they used to be and are a big help for new players because they do not need to be controlled to do damage. Minions also hold aggro and so are good for defense, too. Let us not forget minions do not scale with character stats, either, and so may appear very powerful to a leveling player without exotic gear. Traiting Death Magic right after getting a movement bonus is legit for leveling.

Kuroran, all trait lines are also specializations with Reaper being the first elite specialization. With SotL down, feel free to stuff points into getting minions. They are fine, now. Also, with minions you can run any weapon or stat combination. Dagger-focus is my current favorite short range set and staff, scepter, or axe are nearly interchangeable for long range, though stats come into play.

All this minion hate

Seriously i had a great, fast and save leveling experience with minions!

- Get Signet of Locust and ur first minions (bloodfiend, boneminions etc.)
-> alternatively/additionally use Sigil of Speed and stack swiftness while leveling, thats what i did with every class.. speed > all
- Spec Death Magic
- Get a dagger
- when turning 45 spec Blood Magic (trait the 25% dagger movement)
- now use all minions
up until 80 that gives u a great time… (i leveled almost every class except engineer to 80 and compared to them the minion master leveling is one of the easiest)

minions rock from 21-80 and when u encounter a champ u dont need to wait for backup

after that u can do the usual spite/blood magic/reaper 2 wells bla

edit: use dagger/focus and a warhorn in second slot

The problem I found with leveling with minions is you don’t actually learn how to be self sufficient. It’s a lesser version of the bearbow that happens. You don’t learn how to use your DS for anything but DPS so when you end up swapping them for a more basic Necro/Reaper build…you find yourself unable to cope with the higher level content. Why cripple your learning curve when you don’t plan on using them later? It makes for a more frustrating end content, especially if he has HoT.

The Problem here is absolutely NOT the minion leveling spec, but rather the
attitude of the player…

I played minions..as soon as i turned 80 and unlocked all reaper traits i transitioned
to a dungeon/fractal dps build and it worked out pretty well..

Its a bit elitist to tell new players to run with Spec XY so they can “learn how to play” when they would maybe have much more fun and satisfaction running a different build that leads them safe towards endgame.

edit :: reaper minionmaster wont give u a bad time in HoT especially with rise
in party play/eventzergs thats a difference, but the good player will figure that out by themselves..
This player here already uses the forum..i doubt he would turn into a bowboneminion rangermaster

Blood Fiend, Bone Fiend, Bone Minions, Signet of Locust, Flesh Golem.

Bone Minions can be fun to bomb stuff with them, especially once you unlock Death Nova in Death Magic specialization, but if you don’t want to manage them, pick Shadow Fiend instead.

Most people don’t know how to properly play a Minion master and ignorantly call it bad. If soloing content is your thing, a full clerics MM build can solo all Story mode dungeons,all Heart of thorn champs that don’t have life leech, and everything in old world tyria open world content.

Necromancer’s healing abilities scale very well with +healing gear, with staff 3 healing and traited for transfuse, your minion’s will never die nor will you, along with insane toughness.

For group content the only use a MM build would provide is healing support and other classes can do that much better. So if you enjoy soloing content MM is great.

The only real downside to Minion master, is the pet AI in this game is atrociously bad, sometimes they won’t attack right away ect, but this goes for all pet AI in guild wars 2, Ranger pet AI is terrible as well.

But for group content stick to standard condi and power builds.

And it’s a little foolish to think that someone leveling their first character in game will be able to properly learn the dodge mechanics and how not to take damage when they are running around with a pack of minions taking the hits for them. Sure you can mow down most of the core content with them and think you are playing well but the minute you get into group work (which is what our end content mostly is these days) gonna get wrecked and hard. Being reliant on AI isn’t a good idea in this game at all, it’s not elitist at all to try to get that point across…it’s common sense

For a first character, I’d say try everything out. Pick a new weapon(s) to use every few levels. Use all the skills, all the traits, all the minions. There’s no need to rush on a first character. You’ll have a much greater understanding of its mechanics that way.

Morgan.5170:

For a first character, I’d say try everything out. Pick a new weapon(s) to use every few levels. Use all the skills, all the traits, all the minions. There’s no need to rush on a first character. You’ll have a much greater understanding of its mechanics that way.

WvW and PvP. In PvE, weapon skills, utilities, and traits are doled out a little at a time.