Guild Wars 2

Cool name right? This will be a build for general PvE but mostly Dungeon play (since that’s all I do these days anyways). It boasts great survival ability and support, but best of all it can easily be switch into another build all together for boss fights. This is primarily a Minion Master build, but can be switched into Staff Support on the fly.

Anyhow, this started as just another build my necromancer carried around in her backpack until I realized it is actually quite decent. The build uses a complete set of Soldier’s gear. The armor and weapons are easily obtainable by doing AC, HotW, SE, or a combination of the 42k sets. Trinkets are a bit harder, in the mean time I’ve settled for rare trinkets from WvW Invader’s. Alternatively if you are swimming in Karma you can get a whole set of rares from WvW, or just the rare dungeon set from HotW.

the build
weapons:
Specifically I go for Axe/Focus + Staff. Axe and Focus I like to run with superior sigil of peril, allowing your Axe1 to ramp up to 11 vulnerability on its own. Focus4 also adds another healthy dose of vulnerability, easily getting 20+ stacks. Unfortunately bosses have resistance to vulnerability, but that doesn’t make it worthless. Staff has a superior sigil of force.

traits:
This build runs with 20/0/20/30/0.
As a Minion Master you’re going to be utilizing most of the traits that buff minions. Now I know Minion AI seems to be lacking but honestly in a dungeon I never really have this problem. I’m not sure why, maybe the isolated instance has something to do with it.

Spite: Focus -20% cd (II), Minion +30% damage (IX). This actually makes minion damage quite respectable, especially wurm and golem as well as buffing putrid explosion (there’s talk about whether it affects putrid explosion or not, I think it does).

Death: Minion -20% cd (III), Minion +50% hp (X). Quite self explanatory here. IIRC Jagged horrors seem to have over 6k hp now.

Blood: Most of the adept major traits are decent to use here. Minion siphon (VII) and Minion draw conditions (XI) are my picks for the other two traits. Minion siphon and draw condition actually works when you’re downed, and quite noticeably too, just another feature to add to the build’s survival ability.

As to what Minions to bring, that’ll really depend on the situation. In general I like to have blood fiend, bone fiend, bone minions, and flesh golem out, with signet of the locust or plague signet or epidemic as my last utility. Flesh wurm works nicely in scenarios where you won’t need to move much.

Minions however, will often be undesirable in boss fights. Fights such as Lupi and Jade Maw will punish you for having minions out. That’s when I do a complete 180 with the build. I think Death and Blood magic trait lines have some of the best traits and makes the necromancer entirely versatile.

For instance, against Lupi I’d use:
Spite: Signet -20% cd (IV), Marks +10% damage (VII).

Death: Staff skills -20% cd (V), Greater Marks (II).

Blood: Transfusion heal (VI), Mark of blood on evasion (III), Well of blood on revive (IV).

For skills I’d take consume conditions, Signet of the Locust, Undeath, and Spite. Instantly you become a source of stable dps and can easily help out the rest of your team with regen boons, ranged rally, and small heals.

For runes, currently I’m just rocking Melandru. It could be anything tbh.

I have berserker builds and condition builds and while those builds have much greater dps potential they aren’t as flexible. There’s quite a lot of fun to be had in flexibility. Will update this build as I discover more things.

I think those build names (Versatilomancer, Feralomancer, etc.-mancer) are getting out of hand.

Well I wanted to call it swiss army knife o mancer, but it doesnt do condition damage well. And he really is very versatile!

I love the build

I’d swap the minion cd trait in death10 for greater marks. That will let you hit regen from mark2 on more of your minions at once. The cooldowns on minions are so long in the first place, traiting for the cooldowns is a little unsubstantial imo.

in blood, i’d drop the minions draw conditions because they are already squishy as it is, you could do more things if you had the conditions honestly.. (transfer them, consume them for more hp, etc.) if you’re down and worried about conditions eating you, then maybe drawing conditions works well in those situations.. but only if you REALLY hope to rally.

I like where it’s going! but the title.. really >.>

Hmm, I like that greater marks idea! thanks! The minion recharge primarily favors bone minions and blood fiend most I guess. But hey, versatility! Can always change it around. I usually use my axe when my minions are out though, giving them more damage output thanks to vulnerability.

Heres a fun fact though: not sure if intended or not, but when minions draw conditions, they completely consume it. i.e. they don’t end up getting affected. However, bone minions can’t seem to draw any conditions at all.

Here are some things I’m exploring. Originally I thought of doing 20/0/30/20/0. The last 10 points for the grandmaster death trait would be for Minion boon stripping or death nova. I thought this would be a suitable build for dungeons where enemies favor boons rather than condition spreading, i.e. dredge enemies. If the 30 was on blood, then the build would favor condition removal, with the focus5 used as the boon stripper.

Tried this with 30 in death magic. Death nova is an OK trait, in the way that its fun (which is what this build is all about!) and can stack a billion seconds of poison on enemies, if poison was any useful in PVE it’d actually be great! Lacks a bit on the condition removal side though.