Guild Wars 2

Since i see alot of folks really do not like minions Its hard to locate any builds for pve with minions. I know they are squishy but ive always enjoyed pet type classes all through my 17 years playing mmos.

Any tips on what to spec in trait wise first if I am planning on going minions and power? condition or precision etc whats more important for minion based build as well.

I have some ideas but the more tips I can get the better I can build my necro.

I solo alot but do gorup when i can(dungoens I love them so I will need to group of course for those)

I enjoy WvW but id say that wil be about 25 percent of my play time while mainly pve/dungeons is the rest.

Thanks in advance!

if you want all out from minions you want 20/20/20 in spite/death/blood for 30% damage/50% health and minions life siphon.. well life siphon isnt that important but nice in pve.
leaving you 10-30 to spend for curses if you wish to do condition damage or crit more often. or soul reaving to get some deathshroud stuff, like 15% speed when in shroud as with minions you can’t get speed boosts unless you use horn.

Ok thanks and stat wise what would be moire important in order to a minion based necro? condition presicion etc?

i prefer using scepter/dagger and staff so if you go that line then condition damage at least. I use carrion plus some precision toughness condition damage items mixed to get some extra survivability and it works well. Might not be that much damage but i survive quite a lot damage in www and very durable in pve.

Does the minion life siphon work at all? I could swear it is still bugged but correct me if I am wrong

works for me. and they actually pull quite nice amount hp
well ahven’t played my mm necro bit since i have been leveling my alts now. but it worked week ago.

my mm necro is 20/30/20 20 spite gives me the minion damage 30% (and spiteful removal as the 10 in spite for removing conditions but thats really just a filler)

the 30 in death is what makes minions amazing
20% faster minion summon 50% more minion hp and EXPLODING MINIONS ..the exploding minion trait makes your jagged horrors become very useful instead of just being some random wasted mini trait , plus u get a ton of toughness and power from the minions due to the other mini traits… 20 blood gives you life siphon, minion lifesteal is amazing i NEVER use my heal becuase the minions can handle keeping me alive with the lifesteal on there own …now here is my trick to keeping my minions alive forever…i wear full cleric (healing power) gear, and the 10 trait in blood magic that makes it so life transfer heals nearby allies heals your minions in giant bursts , that and i use a staff and use the 2 skill whenever i can, this makes me become a support healer/dmg mitigation necromancer…i dont know why people say MM are bad becuase i can fight as many monsters as i want in the lvl 80 areas and i NEVER die ever…(ok i die if i fall off a cliff) the cycle of healing i do to the minions and the healing i get from the minions just makes me so hard to kill, for added fun i am using runes of the ogre for the rock dog pet (another minion but isnt affect by traits) and the sigil of demon summoning(these are for fun and i dont recomend them if u want to be as effective as possible) but i can fight 10 risen easily due to minion overload, just plop down the circles and go into your shroud as much as u can (its really funny to see green numbers and white numbers everywhere from shrouding

as for your secondary weapon, i couldnt care less about the mainhand I use but warhorns are nice for the movement speed if u wanna get around (the minions will distract the mobs for you if u dont feel like fighting)

My minion master necro is what got me ’’’been there done that’’

^What he said.

My MM build is far from squishy, I’m sitting strong at 28.5k HP with some nice Toughness as well. I prefer to roll with Staff, Dagger+Dagger for control, damage. Wear down your opponents with Staff CC and conditions plus minion shenanigans. By the time they get to you, prison shank with Daggers and it’s game. I play sPVP with this build and hardly ever lose 1v1’s.

high five to the pvp version of me xD

MM is great for solo pve, it’s fairly crappy for large scale events and most instances (exp mode) where the buggy AI gets them killed or get your party killed by randomly aggroing mob packs.

That being said, MM really is one of the most faceroll leveling builds of the 4 professions I’ve played. Here is how:
Minimum 20 in death magic (20% summon, 50% hp)
Minimum 20 in blood magic (life transfer, minion siphon)
the other 30 are more flexible, but I suggest curses (condition dmg) since you’re going to be relying on aoe bleeds for the most part of your dmg (necro aoe is all essentially condition based). Suggested 20 pts minimum for hemophilia (required) and either ground targeted wells or enfeebling shroud. Last 10 pts can go wherever you like really, between these 3 trees.
For actual skills you can run all minion slots (‘army spec’) or if you don’t feel like micromanaging your bone minions you can pick up well of suffering (or darkness for safety), which will let you get some nice combos with your own weapon skills (blast = aoe blindness or siphoning projectiles). Aim for vit/toughness/cond dmg gear.

Just remember to drop a mark of blood every so often to keep your minions up (or shroud→transfer also for a nice aoe dps boost).

For instances and events, I suggest well/conditionmaster (30 in curses, 20 blood magic, 20 optional between death magic or soul reaping or whatever you feel like). Wells are amazing for combo setups and cc (5s of blindness = 5 seconds of life leeching for your ranged team members and 5s of your melee members not getting hit at all), and for tagging aoe mobs during events. Well of blood, epidemic (or signet of corruption/well of power depending on situation), well of darkness, well of suffering, plague form. S/D and staff. Try to find condition/bleed duration runes/sigils and condition dmg (also vit/toughness or healing power/vit) gear.

PvP you can run MM for suvivability or condition master (no wells though, except maybe darkness for your own safety) depending on your group.

like others have said:
-get at least 20 into spite for +30% minion damage
-get at least 20 into death magic for -20% minion cooldown and +50% minion health
-get at least 20 into blood magic for vampiric minions
put the last 10 into death magic for death nova or boon removal. (boon removal is more PvP)
or
put the last 10 into blood magic for the trait that makes your minions draw your conditions.

get a minion for each slot. If you’re about to fight a boss in PvE bring the flesh wurm instead of bone minions As it’s DPS is higher than the bone minions. Otherwise bone minions are better as they deal good burst AOE damage.

staff is core for minion master. ATM the secondary weapon set is up to you.