The Valks/Decimate defense combo is incredibly flexible for power Necros because of easy access to vulnerability in a lot of skills and traits. In PvE group settings, where 25 stacks of vul is pretty much guaranteed, this lets you sink more points into Vit, boosting your shroud tanking, and lets you keep the DPS going while the shroud soaks the damage. If you have Siphon traited, the speed and hit radius of the Reaper attacks actually becomes a respectable source of healing if surrounded. For open world, Reaper shroud does best if you play it as a brawler, and actually gets stronger sustain the more things you can engage at once.
This is a huge deal on HOT maps, because both events and the mob traits in general are made to overwhelm you, and thats when Reaper shroud is at its strongest. Their noticeably less impressive in 1v1 engagements, but thats mostly because its losing out on the substantial Life force generation from RS auto attack. But out of shroud, the Necro’s other skills have no issues dealing with single targets. This polar difference in Reaper shroud tactics (at the flip of a switch) gives the Necro a level of flexibility it lacked in older Core traits, and makes several builds viable that weren’t really possible with Core traits alone. Its seriously a shame chill damage took a hit, because it made for some respectable hybrid damage in the same way Ele and Guards do with their in-line burning.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR3dnM0At1gdbCe1As3glpBL+DmCfhTtsLwxSaAUACAA-TRhSwATU+ZUJYNdDRV/Bw+DAA-e
This is a Minion Master build I run in Open world….. its the tankist thing outside of a Hammer Guard, doesn’t require a single piece of defense gear, and has respectable sustain damage. I’m not even in full ascended gear, and the only place I still consider dangerous is the Blighting Towers in Dragon’s Stand and their endless AOE. I even send my minions out to go engage mobs, while I do some kind of event mechanic or operate a turret. You don’t even need to hit things to send them out, so long as its an offensive skill and you have a target selected (including auto attacking the air) . It’ll take them several seconds to kill basic mobs on their own… but with that 90% dmg reduction rule on companions, they can stay alive for a pretty long time. Conditions aren’t an issue as long as your minions are up, and have near constant healing because every hit double siphons life, and minion hits add a 3rd source of healing. (Vampiric passive trait, and Vampiric aura stack). Combine this with Unholy Martyr, and you draw conditions from allies, gain life force from it, and send it back out via the minions.
All in all, up to 12 minions under normal circumstances, “Rise!” minions absorbing damage for you (and then self healing), toughness from each minion, toughness from Shroud, multiple life stealing on hit, shroud as a second life bar, substantial damage increase and life stealing ability while in reaper shroud, access to 2 very strong CCs, easy access to strong soft CC, can burst stacks of vulnerability when needed (for Decimated defenses), and can fight while standing in all but the strongest damage fields. You’re only severe weaknesses is lack of stun break, and awkward Stability skill; but not a big issue in PvE, since you can activate shroud while disabled (maybe not stun, but every other disable CC still leaves it available).
Its not a particularly high skill build (ie, its pretty lazy outside of onslaught events), but its very survivable/forgiving in HOT maps without giving up the requisite damage potential… and thats not a claim the other classes can easily make.
Fun fact 1: If get access to an AOE healing skill on a turret or bundle, I’ve managed to get up to 6 jagged horrors up at one time using only the trait passive by healing over their HP degen. Theres an event in Auric Basin for a tower reactivation that has turrets, where I think its technically possible to create an unlimited amount of minions as long as they are far enough out to use the healing skill on them.)
Fun fact 2: Minions can life siphon through most invulnerability states. While the damage is pitiful, its still nice knowing you’re doing damage while not one else can.
Fun Fact 3: This would probably be a Meta tank for raids if it was a straight up fight….. but cheeky mechanics like to wipe whole parties if one person isn’t standing perfectly on a marked spot. So once again, the terrible AI control system they refuse to address still keeps pets/minions massive liabilities in “difficult” content.
.. but if you want to do high level fractals and raids you’d need a better build than the one you’re using right now.