Guild Wars 2

Warning : Freaking long post

Hey all!

Two week ago, I posted on the forum that I was going to try a Minion Master build, since most people said it was bad, bugged and inefficient.

Note : My testing have been done in WvW, I don’t sPvp as I get bored after 1-2 match of static fight. So it’s not all about balance since I can fight underleveled player. It’s more about the efficience of the build.

Note 2 : I’m about 70% exotic, so I’m not the best geared player around, and I don’t use food yet for combat buff.

The Kamikaza Minion Master

The Weapon

This build doesn’t use the staff. I find the staff to be boring because every necro use it, and I wanted to use and exploit the synergy between the Axe and the Dagger.

Axe\Focus : Stack vuln with #4 and #1 to unleash #2. The channeling from number 2 can hit up to 5k, if you are lucky. #4 can also bounce for some good damage on crit. I also use a lot the shiver on #5 to chase people or just as an opener, since it has a long casting time. I can keep up to 12-14 vuln stack with my sigil. It’s your only way to boost your minion damage, it’s a must.

The damage of the Axe is subpar to other weapon, but it still isn’t that bad. The #3 skill, I love it. AoE damage that can crit up to 1.3k and retalition/slow. Really good vs thief.

Dagger\Warhorn : After stacking vulnerability, I switch to dagger and immobilize with #3(awesome skill). I then unleash #1 combo that does crazy damage. If they start moving again, I daze and continu. #5 will be up as soon as it ready. Cripple + swift + damage is good.

The utilities

Summon Bones fiend : This one I’m not sure at all, I kinda use it by default. It’s range so it can add some damage up, but the buggy AI kitten it. Is activation is average at best. The effect is good, immobilize.

But it’s just not reliable. Long cast time, you have to cast it yourself, and your scorpion have to cast it too. It’s really loooong to cast. Sometime It take around 3-4 second before it casts it. It’s a really long time during a fight. And if your ennemy get out of range, it’s a miss.

Summon Bones Minions : I love it. I don’t care about their auto attack, They are dead most of the time. I summon them, wait until they reach the target like homing missile, then BOOM. Crazy damage. Sometime both of them can hit for around 6-7k damage. And it’s a combo blast(x2 each)! Another thing : IT’s instant cast. You don’t have to stop fighting to use it, just click it.

The bad side right now, is the Bugged Minion AI affect it a lot. You have to summon them during the fight, or most of the time they won’t run to the target, so you will have to run past the target, hope your minion run with you, and hope you will explode the right one of the two that is on target. That’s so annoying.

Flesh Worm : As I explaned in other post, this is one of my favorite skill. Really, really useful. The summon itself is descend, some fair damage (between 800-1000 damage each hit) but slow missile mouvement and slow attack rate.

the activation skill is what make it so useful. You can teleport back to your worm, and poison people around. So many option. First, I use it to travel. When my swiftness is on CD, I cast the worm as far as I can and teleport to it. a good boost in movement! 30 sec CD tho.

It also among your only escape mecanism. Ether precast it in a strategic location so you can port safely during fight, or cast it during the fight, for a free 1200 range port.
If you run north, then port south, most people will lose you, because they don’t expect a Necro to port. They won’t even realize you have a Flesh Worm.

You can also use it to gank. Some Ranger try to stay a range and bomb you from afar? Cast worm at his location, then port to him. BOOM dead.

I LOVE FLESH WORM!

Flesh Golem : A really good elite. The stun is wonderful. It can destroy somoene entire combo. It stun people for a long time, and can stun an entire group of player. I use it everytime I fight.

When it’s not bugged, he can crit up to 1.5k. So he hits hard. I don’t have much to say about it, except don’t go swimming. It’s annoying in WvW when you have to travel a lot, and it dispel your elite once you start swimming…

The Traits

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRBHbhG2IjWrepmvG9eCQSR0UD9IXprlSx6uD

Spiteful Talisman : I use focus skill a lots, especially #4, the short cooldown is perfect. Increased range on #5 is also very good.

Training of the master : Our only way to boost minion damage other then Vulnerability. 30% is good, your Flesh Worm and Flesh Golem can pack a punch.

Axe training or Close to Death : I try to use Axe a lot, so I decided to use Axe Training. But I’m not sure at all, I think Close to Death might be more efficient. Axe Training will lower your cooldown for #2 and #3, and you gain 15% more damage only on axe skill. That’s not a lot.

Close to Death gives you 20% damage on 50% hp target on EVERY kind of DD damage. That’s a lot. I usually only use #2 and #3 axe once before switching to dagger, so I think Close to Death might be better, even with a Axe heavy build.

Minion Master : I have to double check, but I read on the forum that this skill is bugged. But it still get my Bones minions explode from 20 to 16 second, which I love.

Flesh of the master : This one can be swaped, I use it so my minion doesn’t die from AoE damage, but it’s not a must have. I took it because I didn’t really like the other traits. Death Shiver (apply vuln in DS) is so slow, 1 vuln stack every 3 sec isn’t going to make a difference. Well for me I didn’t like it.

Unyielding Blast : I love this traits. Add 2 stack of vuln and missile goes tru the target. The more vuln, the better, so it ’s really good for that build. Life pierce is also really good, as hitting 2 target for 3.5k is always fun. The only issue I have is hitting more then 1 target seems to be really hard. The 2 target have to be like right on each other, or it rarely hit.

Vital Persistence : 25% slower draining in DS, a really nice boost do you survivability. It’s also mean when you are in DS life blasting the hell out of somoene, you will keep your dps higer for a longer time.

Gear

I use a lot of Berserk Gear (newb glass cannon) and some Power/thoughness/vit gear. The reason I go class cannon, is because I think DS already give us some survivability. Add to this gaining thougness from minion, some gear and traits, and you are not that glassy anymore.

Gameplay

The kamikaza MM build have a good burst, good damage soaking abilities and good escape mecanisme.

You start your fight by summoning Flesh worm somewhere useful for retrait, like behind a building so you only have to LoS it to port and hide behind. As soon as you can target your ennemy, you summon bone minions, so they don’t bug out. Shiver them with #5 focus, then #4 then #2 channeling Axe.

During #2, if they aren’t moving a lot, use your Bone minion EXPLOD to dish out some damage. With some crits, they should have between 10-16k less HP(Counting Explosing, #4 focus, minion auto attack and #2 axe). That’s enought to kill the bad geared/pre80/ glass player. They won’t have time to do much before standing at your feet imploring you to finish them.

They survive? No big deal. Charge with your Flesh Golem. They are down on their kitten Switch to dagger, Cast #5 locus and immobilize with #3 as soon as they get up. Continu to spawm #1 dagger they should be dead by now. Use Daze #4 if they try to fight back.

If not, they will try to heal. As soon as they try (You can “feel” when people are going to heal) switch to DS. When they cast heal, time it right and fear them. It will put their heal on a short cooldown. You will hit them for 2-4k with life blast. You should be able to finish them.

If it’s get bad for you (usually when I have more then 2 players again me), run in some random direction, but try to get in line of sight with your flesh worm. Try to align them, so they can’t see your worm. As soon as you are in position, Port to your worm. Player will lose you 80% of the time. NECRO TELEPORTING DUUUU.

CONS

This build is a lot of fun and is powerful in WvW, but you will have some weakness.

Minion AI : Come on Anet! Really? This is the most annoying part when you are a MM necro. Your minion are stupid as kitten. Out of nowhere they will stop attacking. Attack somoene? Half your minion will stay idle.

You can’t pre-summon your bone minion, because 90% of the time they won’t run to the target to explod. And even more annoying, they won’t follow you!! Sometime they will stay away from you, and both of them in different direction. So you will have to run around to have ONE of them in range for an explosion, you will activate it, BAM the other one exploded, the one that was too far away.

It’s really, really frustrating.

As annoying, is their kitten habit of attacking everything else. By that I mean every kitten mob you see will roaming, they will attack it. “Oh you just casted switchness and trying to run somewhere? Sorry man I gotta attack this wolf and slow you down fore 50% for 2 minute until I die.” You will lose half your minions travelling, and they will always put you in combat, slowing the hell out of you.

Thief and Mesmer : Those two won’t be easy to fight. But I think most class suffer from fighting Thief and Mesmer, but especially MM.

By the time they render from invis, you’ll prolly be 50% HP, since you are still glassy. Even worse, each time they invis, 50-100% of your minion will stop attacking. YEAH minion AI!

Both class do crazy damage, are hard to hit, and abuse of the culling issue. If you can burst them down they are dead, but if you miss, you are in for trouble.

Overall

In the end, I only wanted to share my experience. I think this Kamikaze MM build is a lot of fun, and is really viable in WvW. As soon as the Minion AI is resolved, it should be a very reliable build.

If you are bored, try it. Even if WvW isn’t the best way to evaluate a build, I can 1v2 and sometime 1v3 most people.(except thief and mesmer)

I’m currently making a video of some Kamikaza MM action, that I will add later.

Close to Death tops Axe Training any day its no contest. Close to Death boosts minion damage, death shroud damage all utilities.

I am extremely surprised your not using Death Nova with that many minions, 10 additional points in Death Magic would give you quite a nice Power boost too and you could wear Knights Armour (Power, Precision, Toughness) and get even more of a boost.

As minions can crit and crit chance is based of yours, i would recommend Curses over Soul Reaping. Increasing the chance to crit is always better then damage done apon crit.

(Copy and Paste)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRBHbhG2IjWpevmrG9eCQ6R0UPN0jcl25oCID;ToAKkMIJQyikDJJSLCGEsFZKC

Wait wait wait!

Minion use my crit chance? Are you serious? I thought minion had static stats and were not using any stats boost I had. Is it official? :P

Same thing for Close to Death, are you sure it increase Minion damage? I know it doesn’t work with Cond damage, and since pet damage were static, I thought it would’nt use it ether.

But yeah, Close to Death is better then Axe Training. I was using it more as a gimmick build with Axe, to try to convince myself that it was worth it.

The Reason why I’m not using Death Nova, is because I don’t see it as a signifiant upgrade. The only minion I have that die often are my bone minions, and they die because I make them explod, so they doesn’t trigger Death Nova.

My Flesh Golem never dien and my bone fiend really ever die too. He is range, so he usually stay away from damage. My Flesh Worm die from me porting to it, so it doesn’t trigger it ether.

Poison is good, but is also based off condition damage, something I have no stats at all. I just don’t think it worth it the way I use my minions.

SR might be bugged right now, but I’m not sure about taking 10 point from SR and puting it in Curse. I tried this build with Curse over SR last week, but I just couldn’t find any fitting traits to take.

Reaper precision doesn’t make it for the 15% slower Life force I can take in SR.th’ats like 15% chance of getting 1% life force for me.

I retract my previous statement of Close to Death and player critical chance affecting Minions :P (just tested in Mists) Shows you how little i play and know about minions!

I would of assumed minions in larger scale fights would die more easily then you make out but i would at least take 5 points out Soul Reaping for Death Magic and benefit from 5% toughness to power which would be at least +65 power not including armour add-ons.

HNmm you might have a point.

Will see about the 5% thoughtness to power. It’s a close call.

15% slower LF drain and 5% crit damage, or +5% thoughtness to power and +50 thoughtness/5% boon duration.

Might give it a try.

Ill give minions another try even though the AI has driven me insane in the past, but I will not be using the bone fiend. Ill take spectral walk or something more useful then that minions and its horrible root.

I agree I’m still wondering if I should keep this horrible minion.

Pros : Range minion, if it attacks, it will be consistant 500 damage. Still not bad. It also stay away from the ennemy, so less chance of being killed by AoE. Having point in Death traits, I get +20 toughtness from him. And IF, a big IF, the snare land, he can be useful for stopping somoene.

Cons : Don’t attack 50% of the time because of AI. Low HP. Horrible root cast time and not reliable at all since it get out of range most of the time.

I thought about getting the other minion, but it’s a melee minion with fairly low damage output. And the blind only cut off one attack, not that strong.

Kardiamond.6952:

I agree I’m still wondering if I should keep this horrible minion.

Pros : Range minion, if it attacks, it will be consistant 500 damage. Still not bad. It also stay away from the ennemy, so less chance of being killed by AoE. Having point in Death traits, I get +20 toughtness from him. And IF, a big IF, the snare land, he can be useful for stopping somoene.

Cons : Don’t attack 50% of the time because of AI. Low HP. Horrible root cast time and not reliable at all since it get out of range most of the time.

I thought about getting the other minion, but it’s a melee minion with fairly low damage output. And the blind only cut off one attack, not that strong.

You could always use another stun breaker or a nice well to convert conditions or buffs on enemies.

I think we should be able to have another set of minions out, yes its unfair to other class’s who cannot have the same skill twice, or even three times on the hotbar but it would let use feel more like necros from gw1 again since we could just have 3 sets of worms, suicide bombers, and etc. I miss just having 8 ranged minions or bone minions from the first once, I miss just spamming them back to back as long as I had the corpses to do so.

Man, if they give me 3 set of bones minions, those thief will explod as soon as they render. It would be so OP

I’m not a fan of well, but yeah they can be really useful. I think I feel bad about removing a minion from my skillbar

Kardiamond.6952:

Man, if they give me 3 set of bones minions, those thief will explod as soon as they render. It would be so OP

I’m not a fan of well, but yeah they can be really useful. I think I feel bad about removing a minion from my skillbar

I just miss old gw1 when i could just spam the same minion over and over to fill the ranks. I miss that they actually hit something and could kill something on its own and not need me to do damage to it, just keep spamming out more minions or a heal. I just miss my old necro.

Don’t dismiss the Shadow Fiend! The blind ability has a very short cooldown and is instant cast! Not only that, but usually when you have it blind someone all the other minions follow it (usually….).

Thanks for posting this. I’ve been running this same experiment with decent results. I’m still in mostly Masterwork gear, so I won’t really know for sure if it’s doable until I can bump up to exotics.

Didn’t know Shadow Fiend was instant! I might take a look at it then! And even better if other minion follow up.

Thanks for the tip!

It isnt instant. It has a very long windup time

By windup, you mean the minion have to cast it? Or I have to cast it?

Because as long as I don’t have any cast time, I don’t mind my minion windup up.

And if it make my other minions attack, it’s even better!

The minion has to cast it, and it is as good for making minions attack something as any other ability you have. There simply is no way around their kitteny AI

shadowfiend and bonefiend are both not really worth it its always good to have shadowwalk in your build for a stunbreaker/teleport to loose people add that with the flesh wurm teleport and you got yourself a toon that can get out of almost any sticky situation

i dont really see why the build is called the kamikaze build tho.. there was a build here before that was called the bomb build and that focused on deathnova and power to get 3~5k damage when you go down.. now thats kamkaze jsut having boneminions explode isnt really kamikaze.. since you re not going down in flames to reach a high as possible damage count. this seems more like the average mm build that makes sense to most people.

also boneminions ai is indeed fickle and they barely ever explode where you want them.. so might as well consider well of blood for the aoe ret aura

Name it the way you want, only put a name there so you could differency that build.
I used kamizake because this is basically a melee build (ala well) with a lot of minion popping and few defence mecanism. Glass cannon + melee + not much defence mitigation = a lot of damage and a lot of death if you aren’t careful.

I only wanted to test and share a build that I knew could work in WvW for Minion master.

What is different from the build that “most” people use, and that I want people to try is

1- Not using staff
2- Not going Bunker minion build, going glass canon even if it won’t make your minion damage better. That’s what I wanted to try. Defence stats affect your minion, because the longer you survive, the more damage they can do. Offense stats doesn’t change your minion damage output.

3- Using Flesh Worm, not all MM use it.

4- Different fighting tactic.

You can use it or not, it’s up to you.

And for the bones minions, it depend when you summon them. Summon them as the fight start, and they will attack. They are actually pretty useful, as they act like homing missile.

Ennemy is hiding behind the wall and you have it targeted? Send in your bones minions for 6k homing damage. It also produce x4 combo blast!

Also It personal, but I don’t like well of blood. Sure it good for the blast and all, might even give it a try. But the shorter cooldown, condition removal, and on the move heal that is CC is vital for me. I just can’t play without it. That’s how I escape zerg.

I also move A LOT during fight, I’m never at the same place. I would miss the regen from Well of blood.

But I will prolly give it a try this week, just to try the combo.

Shadow walk : Yeah I think it would be really efficient too. I just try to go minion heavy, just for the gimmick of the build. I also tried Shadowfiend yestersay, and it’s not that bad. The activate can save you from a ton of damage, and is still a free 700 damage ability (no cast time).