Guild Wars 2

Hey guys! So after reading the patch notes from Oct 15, and seeing that some players still don’t believe the lifestealing minion build can work, I decided to give it a try again. All I have to say is I’ve been having great success with this build in every aspect of the game, it offers very high sustainability through life siphoning, along with heavy single target damage. I would say though that it’s a shame we don’t get some sort of come back button, because when the minions focus on one player, they bunch up and are much easier to AoE down. I also think that agony being applied to minions/pets could be looked at again.

Let me know what you think!

I was getting bored of my necro.. I will give this a try ty

I would never choose clerics over soldiers or knights, healing power as a stat just does not provide a point for point benefit compared to precision, power, toughness, or even vitality IMO. The scaling on HP is just too low.

Stx.4857:

I would never choose clerics over soldiers or knights, healing power as a stat just does not provide a point for point benefit compared to precision, power, toughness, or even vitality IMO. The scaling on HP is just too low.

This.

Healing power is most definitely a wasted stat on any gear, it simply has not been tied in very well with our skills.

Stx.4857:

I would never choose clerics over soldiers or knights, healing power as a stat just does not provide a point for point benefit compared to precision, power, toughness, or even vitality IMO. The scaling on HP is just too low.

Vampiric traits received a nice buff to healing power scaling, as well as power scaling which have great synergy in this build, not to mention the 100% healing scaling buff to life transfer. So you’re saying I should choose precision over healing power, but how come? My minions don’t benefit at all from my precision, nor am I depending on my own damage to kill people, yet healing power/power increase the damage of my minions. If it was before the Oct 15th patch, I’d agree that healing power wasn’t effective enough to take, but my point with the build is that it’s very much viable now after the vampiric trait changes. I’d be curious to see why precision or even vitality would benefit this build over healing power. Thanks

It would be nice if we could get viable lifesteal without minions… i can’t stand Necro minions (except fleshy).

Pretty good video I enjoyed it. Been looking for a MM build for my wife as she enjoys them. I am going to have her give this a go.

As for the ones who said cleric would be bad and doesn’t scale well. Can you explain a more proper choice with this build and why? We don’t have a lot of gold to throw around buying different set of armor and weapons and need to make the proper choices. She mostly PVEs with some WVW once in a while.

As for the video. You don’t talk or seem to explain why you use the well, or how this effects pve at all, or some of the other choices you might take. I realize this is most a sPVP build or seems to be aimed at that. However if you are going to make recommendation for say PvE then please say what and why you would make those choices. Just makes things a little more clear for those less familiar with the class in general. Quick example, you say in PVE warhorn might be a solid choice but don’t talk about the sigil or why it’s good in PVE.

I also realize there might be time constraints on the video itself. Still found it enjoyable to watch and was easy to follow. Thanks.

Healing Power, contrary to popular belief, is actually very good on Necro. However, its effectiveness comes down to mainly 2 skills (WoB and MoB), their traited versions (RoL, MoE) and now Transfusion. To be effective HP needs a Necro to have:

- Damage Reduction (Toughness, Protection, Weakness etc.) to increase effective self healing via damage reduction. Also best if allies also have some form of extra damage mitigation.
- Well of Blood which turns into one of the best, non combo based heal skills in the game, especially when fully traited with well traits (3-4 seconds of protection, LS, ground targeting, 32 sec recharge).
- Mark of Blood for the quick reapplication, if not perpetual regeneration on allies.
- Transfusion is also now one of the best non combo based healing abilities in the game (about 5K+ with 1350ish HP).

It would be more useful if even a fraction of healing could heal necros or restore LF in DS, but a necro with high HP can easily heal 20-24K+ health on self and 16-20K health on allies over 30 second intervals without water fields. This means that enemies must damage through you and your allies entire health pools/damage mitigation + through your ability to fully restore effective health over time. If they cannot then you’re essentially unkillable as Necro healing is so easy and fluid to sustain in a fight (especially on melee fights).

More on topic though, I agree that soldiers/knights may be a better bet for power MM even with the new LS buffs. If you’re not using staff (for MoB regen+weakness combo), WoB or Transfusion, there’s really no need for healing power as nothing else is seriously effected by high HP. Healing Power in general only scales well on group heals as a general rule, not self heals. If you aren’t using group heal abilities on whatever class you play, don’t use healing power gear.

KOPPER.1458:

Pretty good video I enjoyed it. Been looking for a MM build for my wife as she enjoys them. I am going to have her give this a go.

As for the ones who said cleric would be bad and doesn’t scale well. Can you explain a more proper choice with this build and why? We don’t have a lot of gold to throw around buying different set of armor and weapons and need to make the proper choices. She mostly PVEs with some WVW once in a while.

As for the video. You don’t talk or seem to explain why you use the well, or how this effects pve at all, or some of the other choices you might take. I realize this is most a sPVP build or seems to be aimed at that. However if you are going to make recommendation for say PvE then please say what and why you would make those choices. Just makes things a little more clear for those less familiar with the class in general. Quick example, you say in PVE warhorn might be a solid choice but don’t talk about the sigil or why it’s good in PVE.

I also realize there might be time constraints on the video itself. Still found it enjoyable to watch and was easy to follow. Thanks.

Hey, thanks for the comment and you’re right. I didn’t take time to explain the well choice all that much, but the well of power is a stunbreaker and also has the condi to boons effect. In PvE, you could go a different way, but like you said that choice was mostly for PvP. The Warhorn is good in PvE/WvW because of the swiftness application, which in WvW is a good thing

I was thinking of mixing soldiers with clerics. Thoughts on this. I did a little testing in mists and using a soldiers neck with cleric stone was pretty effective and got my health nearly 30k.

Little unsure in wvw and pve where to split things though. How much HP do you recommend to be as effective for healing minions (I assume this is the main reason for it?)

any tips on keeping the bone minions up, they seem to have the shortest life span. Might just be a practice thing

edit: Considering going staff as well but then I think that defeats the purpose of this build which is to life steal.

edit2: I just realized while looking this over again. How do you deal with conditions? No removal? Is the goal to heal through it? I’ll have to seriously test that out.

This is the build as shown in the video, with plenty of guess work to fill in the blanks.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRAnY4YjEat6dama07JAJFRT90Du7GcIF7KNA-jQxAEkQThCUWsIasFzioxqUJiqBA-e

This build is very easy to beat,I fight Vamp MM alot and they go down fast after you take out the healing pet.

Banjal.7328:

This build is very easy to beat,I fight Vamp MM alot and they go down fast after you take out the healing pet.

That is the right strategy to beat them, but by the time you get it down, the Necro should have been able to put enough damage in to you to have a good chance of winning the fight. While you are going for his pet, he can root you, daze you, fear you, and burn you.

Stx.4857:

Banjal.7328:

This build is very easy to beat,I fight Vamp MM alot and they go down fast after you take out the healing pet.

That is the right strategy to beat them, but by the time you get it down, the Necro should have been able to put enough damage in to you to have a good chance of winning the fight. While you are going for his pet, he can root you, daze you, fear you, and burn you.

I’m a Neco,I will be doing far more dmg to him lol. Relying on Anet’s Pet Ai to heal you isn’t going to work to well vs people that know how to fight them.

Taking anything but Consume Conditions in PvP is bad.

KOPPER.1458:

I was thinking of mixing soldiers with clerics. Thoughts on this. I did a little testing in mists and using a soldiers neck with cleric stone was pretty effective and got my health nearly 30k.

Little unsure in wvw and pve where to split things though. How much HP do you recommend to be as effective for healing minions (I assume this is the main reason for it?)

any tips on keeping the bone minions up, they seem to have the shortest life span. Might just be a practice thing

edit: Considering going staff as well but then I think that defeats the purpose of this build which is to life steal.

edit2: I just realized while looking this over again. How do you deal with conditions? No removal? Is the goal to heal through it? I’ll have to seriously test that out.

The number 4 skill on your off hand dagger is deathly swarm which is on an 18s cd. It’s a powerful condi removal especially since you are applying it to your target. If you’re up against a LB warrior, wait until they throw pindown and fan of fire/combustive shot on you and throw the bleed/immob/burn right back on him. This is why I also bring Well of Power, not just for the stun break but for heavy condi removal. Between those two, I haven’t had any problems in the current PvP meta.

Stx.4857:

Banjal.7328:

This build is very easy to beat,I fight Vamp MM alot and they go down fast after you take out the healing pet.

That is the right strategy to beat them, but by the time you get it down, the Necro should have been able to put enough damage in to you to have a good chance of winning the fight. While you are going for his pet, he can root you, daze you, fear you, and burn you.

Yep that’s right. With the kiting abilities that the MM build has, we can buy time to get our healing pet back up.

Lopez.7369:

Taking anything but Consume Conditions in PvP is bad.

lol

KOPPER.1458:

I was thinking of mixing soldiers with clerics. Thoughts on this. I did a little testing in mists and using a soldiers neck with cleric stone was pretty effective and got my health nearly 30k.

Little unsure in wvw and pve where to split things though. How much HP do you recommend to be as effective for healing minions (I assume this is the main reason for it?)

any tips on keeping the bone minions up, they seem to have the shortest life span. Might just be a practice thing

edit: Considering going staff as well but then I think that defeats the purpose of this build which is to life steal.

edit2: I just realized while looking this over again. How do you deal with conditions? No removal? Is the goal to heal through it? I’ll have to seriously test that out.

Also Kopper, if you feel that you are struggling to remove conditions, you could use Lyssa runes, which cures all conditions and gives you all boons for a short time, instead of Speed runes. The charge on the flesh golem counts as using an elite skill. The build is fairly flexible in that regard.

Thanks Birdn I’ll give it a try. I haven’t played the build much other than to toy with it in the mists, Conditions haven’t been an issue yet, just looked like it could be.

My issue is more trying to keep the bone minions alive, they seem to be the only ones that die. But I believe that is more me not paying enough attention to their health, they can be fragile.

Bone minions deal a nice amount of damage when you detonate them, and their recharge is very short.

I wouldn’t worry about keeping them alive, but you do need to be aware of when they are low on health so you can blow them up before they die.

Stx.4857:

Lopez.7369:

Taking anything but Consume Conditions in PvP is bad.

lol

Consume Conditions is superior to Blood Fiend and Well of Blood in sPvP, this is a known fact.

Somoe.3621:

Stx.4857:

Lopez.7369:

Taking anything but Consume Conditions in PvP is bad.

lol

Consume Conditions is superior to Blood Fiend and Well of Blood in sPvP, this is a known fact.

For a minion vampire build? I would disagree.

Conditions aren’t really an issue between dagger #4 and Well of Power, so the superior healing per second from Blood Fiend is great, not to mention it boosts all your minion traits.

Either way, his attitude was poor, so its hard to take seriously.