Today I’m presenting for the consideration of the community three variants of a minion build for the Necromancer. Two include team support aspects. I feel that these two aspects of Necromancer potential are not given enough attention. These builds are mostly just an idea at this point, as I need to farm for gear before I can test them. It is my hope that by presenting them I might gain some new ideas from the community, but I also hope that newer Necromancers might get some ideas of their own to realize that not every Necro has to focus on glassy dps builds.
This variant is one of the two group support variants. It has excellent healing power which matches up nicely with the constant AoE regen and the 32 second Well of Blood. Transfusion does not scale with healing power, but is a powerful heal anyway and should be included in the build. Well of Blood + Bone Minions means AoE retaliation for your other minions and party members that are in the well. Meanwhile, you are quite capable of tanking for your minions and party members with a high base health and good toughness. Your runes will help with this role by providing protection when it’s most useful: at the beginning of a fight. Finally, Plague Signet combined with Fetid Consumption is a powerful automatic AoE condition removal tool. Combined with the full AoE transfer from Putrid Mark, it should allow your party to ignore all but the most serious condition stacking. Depending on personal taste, party makeup, and testing results it may prove effective to replace Minion Master with Ritual of Protection. Such a change would increase your durability, and that of the party, but would also add pressure to keep your Shadow Fiend and Flesh Golem standing. I imagine this variant being best at PvE, but your mileage may vary. (NOTE: Fetid Consumption may or may not be working with Bone Minions. Last I checked it was not, but that was some time ago.)
This variant leaves out healing power to gain some precision and critical damage. The minions are swapped out for ranged versions. In order to provide team support the Plague Signet + Fetid Consumption combo and Transfusion are still included. In addition, allies that stand near you will gain 3 stacks of might and a fury boon every time you use your healing skill. Every time you summon and sacrifice your blood fiend, you will give this buff in a small area around you. This build loses access to protection entirely, but gains Vampiric Master and less reliance of 600 range combat as compensation. Depending on test results and personal preference, it may prove effective to replace the weapon sigils with something triggered by critical hits. I imagine this variant being good for WvW zerging, and in that context I suggest using sigils of fire and viewing your blood fiend as mostly as a buff/heal rather than an actual minion. (NOTE: The internal cooldown on runes of altruism is only 10 seconds. If you sacrifice your blood fiend, the runes will be ready to trigger again when you are able to resummon it. Therefore it is ALWAYS better to sacrifice it than to let it die when it starts taking damage. I don’t recommend sacrificing it if no allies are next to you and the Blood Fiend is not in danger.)
This final variant ignores team support entirely. It is intended for solo or small group roaming in WvW, or for those who prefer a more aggressive PvE minion build. Bone Fiend can easily be swapped for Bone Minions in PvE dungeons, and I suggest Shadow Fiend over Flesh Wurm in open world PvE. Signet of the Locust is excellent for it’s movement speed, but it’s also a highly underrated heal. Especially if it’kittenting multiple targets. Say, two guards or a guard and enemy player. If you end up running with a zerg, Signet of the Locust will probably be equivalent to a second healing skill since it will hit 5 targets all the time. This build uses Soldier’s gear for maximum durability while running solo, since Necromancer has very few escape tools. Close to Death and Infiltration runes provide a massive damage boost against foes at <50% health. Try to use DS #3 to stop an opponent from healing when they get low, and then hit them with Flesh Golem charge. This will allow you to capitalize on their low health.