I am having a hard time finding a very up-to-date build for Minion Masters. I’d appreciate it if you guys can help me out here. What stat should I prioritize in order to have them deal extra damage and all the other good stuff.
you want to max condition duration but also focus on raw power since it plays a part in the minions damage , there is no way to do that fully since a build for that gimps you so you have to make a choice , minion damage or their procs to be effective for maxed condi duration , if you are going for straight dps you will do a lot of damage and the worry about cc is a non issue due to food / oils that minus your applied condi duration against other players / condition removal / stability , this is all my perspective towards wvw /pvp play ,, if you don’t care about any of that and you are playing the build for pve fights only then power build would be best for you .
for me condi mm is best due to some players not using condi removal or foods / oils that minus your condi duration on them .
Condition duration only matters if you are playing condi MM, otherwise it is entirely unimportant. Minions don’t apply damaging conditions except via fields (and we only get poison) and Jagged Horrors. Also power doesn’t affect damage either.
You should be looking to go either Soldier, Cleric, or if condi, Dire or Shaman (or whichever is toughness/condi/healing). Generally the healing setups will give you much better sustain over the course of longer fights, whereas the other two will give you stronger up-front potential, but if you don’t win early you probably won’t do as well.
lorndarken brings up a good point. Condition duration will be a lot more beneficial for a condi based spec, but power can make some use of it through control conditions.
Bhawb I believe the amulet you are looking for is called Settlers.
Power: Prioritize power and toughness, then vitality and healing power, then crit damage+chance
Condi: Prioritize condi damage and toughess, then condi duration and healing power, then vitality and precision
Team Deathmatch for PvP – Raise the AoE cap for WvW – More unique events for PvE
Condition duration only matters if you are playing condi MM, otherwise it is entirely unimportant. Minions don’t apply damaging conditions except via fields (and we only get poison) and Jagged Horrors. Also power doesn’t affect damage either.
You should be looking to go either Soldier, Cleric, or if condi, Dire or Shaman (or whichever is toughness/condi/healing). Generally the healing setups will give you much better sustain over the course of longer fights, whereas the other two will give you stronger up-front potential, but if you don’t win early you probably won’t do as well.
the condi duration from the minions snares / roots is what i was referring to in terms of good sustained cc but that is only good against those that are not running lemongrass types food or condi removal , over all stability negates it entirely but more often than not most people are invested in removal of conditions , thats why i said that if he did not care about sustaining condi duration then power would be best for him . the damage from conditions would not be because of minion cause they have none that make a difference , it’s their duration that adds over if speced for duration .
some advice to the op is , if you are out in wvw then minions is the last thing you should be running and just focus on wells . that is what necros are in need of when zerging or camps , that is just my two cents .
Ogre, Melandru (only if you are using the -condi duration food and aren’t using staff/dagger OH), Dwayna/Water (if you are using Cleric), Pack, Vamp, maybe a few others if you are doing an off-build.
Probably Pack, then, as the 4th rune bonus will buff your minions as well. Vampirism is also a good choice. FYI, you can use Death Shroud during the Vampirism runes Mist Form and still be able to act as normal for death shroud while invulnerable.
I try to load up on Death Magic: Minion Master, Flesh of the Master, and Death Nova.
Toughness helps draw aggro and I want to tank for the minions, if I run a full MM build. After that is Training of the Master in Spite followed by Transfusion and Vampiric Master in Blood Magic. There are not many trait points left after that. :p
Tank for, and heal, your minions. They do most of my work in my standard, boring MM build. With low precision in the build, you can be flexible on your armor choice. I use Rabid because that is what I have and I gather crit chance for use later on.
I use ogre for my berserker necro, but if you’re going PVT like most MM’s suggest, I’d probably go Melandru. Ogre won’t be quite as useful on a non-zerk build ( but still good) where Melandru has that -20% stuns/conditions which is very usefull in WvW. If gold isn’t an issue definitely Melandru. When going soldiers gear (PVT) I think you should try to find the unique bonuses (suchs as minus stun duration) that you like more so than stats.
Oh I just thought of another one. IF using Warhorn and taking the Banshee’s Wail Trait. Banshee’s wail + mesmer runes gves you a 4 second aoe daze on under 30 second cooldown. OP.
tl;dr: provided going PVT stats, for runes: If using WH/banshees wail: rune of the mesmer, if not: Melandru. With a soldier’s gear MM you can almost ignore rune stats and go for the useful bonuses. Mesmer and melandru are both awesome, and there is one with a summon bird with blind thats good too.
