Guild Wars 2

Thinking of adding bone minions to my build for the blast damage and blast finisher.

How bad are they untraited? Does the ‘blow up’ part of the skill need the 20% damage trait? What about flesh golem. How good would it be without the minion traits?

Plus, isn’t Putrid Mark essentially very similar the well that removes conditions in a way?

Is there any advantage in taking the well, or does putrid mark do the same job without needing a long cooldown and a utility slot?

putrid mark transfers all of your conditions off of you onto your target, so it’s very good. If you’re looking for another condition removal, the heal consume conditions is very strong. I’d recommend that over the well. (you shouldn’t need more condition removal than that).

bone minions are the only other blast finisher after putrid mark, so if you want another blast finisher, they’re OK. However they’re AI inhibits them so much you might not find them worth it. (as a base skill, they don’t need the +30% damage)

the flesh golem is strong in it’s own right.

Well of Power converts the Conditions into Boons.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Well_of_Power

Bleeding → Vigor
Blind → Fury
Burning → Aegis
Chilled → Vigor
Confusion → Retaliation
Crippled → Swiftness
Fear → Stability
Immobilized → Swiftness
Poison → Regeneration
Vulnerability → Protection
Weakness → Might

It can be nice in Dungeons or if you Self-Inflict a lot of Conditions.
It’s situational but it can be quite nice when used at the right time.

As you can see from that list it turns those nasty Immobilizes and Cripples into Swiftness which makes escaping much easier than just removing them.
It some parts of dungeons there are huge amounts of conditions and Well of Power can be useful there.

I don’t think that it’s a “must have” skill, but it can come in handy.
It’ll probably be used much more once Plague Signet works properly.