Guild Wars 2

So I was leveling my Charr Necro and I was really hoping i could have endless hordes of minions at my call that all looked awesome…
I can have a total of 6. It took some time and I was cool with it.
I was like awesome bone fiends, turns out they are undead squirrels with a long recharge when killed. I came to terms with that and put them on the back burner.
I was getting very down about the fact that I can’t a group of half way decent minions that all look cool.
Than I read the 5 point skill on Death Magic trait line which reads.
“Reanimator
Summon a jagged horrid whenever you kill a foe. 30 second cooldown.”
So in my joy of wanting to have a horrid of minions I went from 10 to 15 in about an hour and a half by just grinding out quests (I hate questing)
So I spent the 10 silver and got the 5 points and put them in there.
I was doing some stupid little quest in an area where I wasn’t scaled back.
I killed a trash mob and my horror spawned and i was like YES! wait… Its a dead squirrel…
It had 300 health and took 62 damage a second and died…..
If I would have known that the skill i was hoping would be my saving grace for the necromancer class and this game in general was total garbage i would just just stop playing there.
Can you please update the tool tip and not give me a since of false hope about a move i was hoping would be rather awesome…
Thanks….

I hope someone can explain this a little better.

I think his issue is that he cannot have a horde of minions following him, although tooltips suggest otherwise (I did not read them I’m just taking his word for it). I reckon that would bee upsetting if you are lead to believe otherwise so if the tooltip is misleading I reckon it should be altered.

The description just needs to be clearer. A lot of traits are like that, not specifying duration and amount of damage dealt.

On the plus side, you can respec pretty easily, so you can plan it out better.

When in doubt, i youtube.

Yeah, that trait is worthless. Summon ONE minion randomly every 30 seconds that basically commits suicide. It either gets one attack off or dies before doing jack.

The Golem is worth it

The Jagged Horror is summoned with quite a high degen and for me continues to degen even after it is laying on the ground dead. Tho I have not timed it, it’s degen seems to tick twice per second for a total life span of maybe 5 seconds. When not doing an event where mobs are spawning right and left its life span is usually not enough to reach the next monster. So its main purpose seems to be allowing me to hear my toon say “Your time has come again minion” and “I loved that minion”

Not a bug.
Traits are not supposed to change the game in such a degree as to make a Necromancer with 5 pets into a Necromancer with an army.
Like similar traits/talents in many many similar games, they are made to be small temporary pets that do some damage before they die as a bonus to things you are already doing.

They should NOT be the focus of your game play, or even really paid attention to, as they are made to be small temporary bits of extra damage.

ToxicToothpick.4396:

They should NOT be the focus of your game play, or even really paid attention to, as they are made to be small temporary bits of extra damage.

While I agree with this there is the point that more often than not they do NOT live long enough to do any damage.

While I agree that this ability is not actually bugged, I do think it could use a balance pass. It would be nice if it lasted, say 10 seconds instead of the current 3 seconds or so. Usually it is dead before it has finished running to mob to do a little melee damage. The ability already has a 30 second cooldown, so I really don’t see the harm of letting them live a little longer so they are actually of some minor use in a fight rather than the current state where they are really almost entirely useless.

The best will be to let minion dont lose hp over time, and just set a cap to 3? Minions at one time. They are weak and have low hp. So it will be some kind of bonus after killing enemies.

I think plenty of necro will apreciate this and it cant unbalance game much

The jagged summon trait was really something before it became nerfed. But I suppose that it was a bit out of balance to have 5 of them causing bleeding with every attack on a build that doesn’t even specialize on minion mastery.

And LOL undead squirrels.

It’s not a bug, and at the risk of sounding rude, stop being so entitled. Don’t like it, play another build? And if you don’t think having 7 minions plus you is big, then…

My current problem with the necromancer is also related to minions, I too have unfortunately specced into the bone minion tree, and the useless little thing barely even gets 1 hit off before it dies.

All my other minions are simply useless aswell, theres no way for me to take aggro usually, so they end up tanking and die in like 3 hits, even my Flesh Golum isnt that strong when a level 30 spider can kill it…

I feel like im playing a Warlock or something instead of a Necromancer that raises undeads minion to do his bidding, because all the minions I raise are near useless to me and just equipping a Sigil or some kind of debuffing spell already puts my damage to double that of my glass cannon minions.

Im hoping ANet can address this issue with necromancers and what their thought process behind how the class should be played is.

Btw I dont think these count as bugs, (except the bone minion) im just hijacking this thread since someone started it, but I believe this is the wrong area on the forums for it.

I think allowing you to change your skills every time you’re out of combat, encourages you to pick skills for a situation, rather than a ‘pve build’ that you use 1-80.

Some skills are great for mob heavy events, others for single target bosses.

While I agree the tooltips could provide more clarity, its hardly a game bug that you can’t use every skill optimally in every type of situation.

As a necromancer myself, I do favour the minion master tree. Creating a minion for free every time you kill a foe is incredibly potent, if you combine it with 2 other skills. Part of game play though, is working out what skills work best, in what combination ; and more importantly, for your own style.

Minion masters just suck, deny it all you want but with such an AI in place right now, it simply is outclassed by other Necromancer builds.

It isn’t really bugged, but it is exceptionally weak and amongst the worst traits in the game due to just how brief the lifespan of jagged horrors are.

I don’t know if it’s a bug, but the jagged horror is indeed, useless, weak, dies immediately, and most insulting of all, shares the same texture as the little bone fiends.

Yeah, the necromancer isn’t a necromancer its a warlock with some weird looking creeps that die way to fast.
I don’t enjoy playing a dot machine that’s why I picked the necromancer… I was hoping it would be some reflection of the necro from gw1

BrokenAzs.1897:

Yeah, the necromancer isn’t a necromancer its a warlock with some weird looking creeps that die way to fast.
I don’t enjoy playing a dot machine that’s why I picked the necromancer… I was hoping it would be some reflection of the necro from gw1

Just because it’s a necromancer, it doesn’t have to be a minion-master. That’s narrow-minded. And the minion design is almost the same as GW, so I have no idea of what you’re going on about.

It’s not a bug, and they probably have a use. Not high enough on my necro yet, but if they add the extra 20 toughness with the traits further on that tree, and they explode in a poison cloud when they die (top trait), then they could be quite useful…

I think a lot of it has to do with the AI. It seems that the AI is unresponsive and horrible at times negating any damage you might want to do with the pets. This isn’t a issue with just melee pets as it happens to all pets. The wurm for example doesn’t even automatically hit people attacking it, it will just sit there and die. If we could have ranger pet AI I agree that would work fine.

The reanimator trait sucks. It is entirely worthless with the AI and degen it doesn’t do anything at all. I heard that they use to stack up to 5 and didn’t degen. I really wish that was the case still.

I agree…. I was excited to do the ‘minion master’ thing. Then I saw them in action…..what a HUGE letdown. Their attack speed is so slow…damage is entirely negligable. Often I summon minions and they instantly die having no effect and going on a long cooldown…

Totally worthless and any other option is better than minnions.

I was excited for the worm summon but the joke is HE IS IMMOBILE?! So much for awesome undead worm idea… He is basicly a boring turret. Since when did the minion necro ever want turrets with LONG cd’s?

All I can say is if you want to use minions in this game you better make darn sure you have a good weapon because your utility skills and minion traits are worthless.

I personally think the Jagged Horrors are basically useless now. They despawn before they can even animate enough to move from where they spawned, much less actually cause bleeding or any damage to anything before dying.

If it weren’t an automatic minor trait on my way to getting the 20% cooldown reduction, I would never pick it because the insta-dying makes it completely worthless.

It was fine before when they would just stay around for a certain amount of time (no health degen) and then poof out of existence.

Reanimator is complete garbage atm. Rest of the minion’s are fine imo.
Bone fiend can immobilize (rigor mortis), bone minions provide the necro’s biggest burst damage (putrid explosion). Wurm & Necrotic traversal: Mediocre turret + break stun teleport + combo finisher blast + aoe poison = how can this be a bad skill? (Although i usually end up leaving the wurm behind and then realizing i have to use NT and then let it recharge b4 i can cast it again, kinda silly). Shadow fiend & Haunt is the worst minion in my current opinion. Haunt gives little bang for the buck in cast time.

While I don’t feel the pain because I chose a different necromancer build, my build does include the death magic route and that gives the little spawning bone minion. I do agree that it is completely worthless. Its down to half health from its degen before its even fully spawned, and then dead before it gets to the actual enemy half the time.

Change it so that it doesn’t lose health until its fully spawned, then give it a timer, not a degen, of say 10 seconds? That would actually make it at least a little bit useful. Also, perhaps a Major trait could be that for every minion on the field, each minion gains X% toughness and X% power or something.

Eochaidh.4106:

Just because it’s a necromancer, it doesn’t have to be a minion-master. That’s narrow-minded. And the minion design is almost the same as GW, so I have no idea of what you’re going on about.

LOL what?

I don’t even know where to begin….

How on earth are you telling me its the same design as gw1? Did you even play gw1?

Minions were summoned from mob CORPSES in gw1…aslong as you fought you had an infinite supply of minions.

In gw2 you have to rely on skills that you use up on your slots and they have a cooldown so how you even compared the two is beyond me.

Choppah.4398:

Eochaidh.4106:

Just because it’s a necromancer, it doesn’t have to be a minion-master. That’s narrow-minded. And the minion design is almost the same as GW, so I have no idea of what you’re going on about.

LOL what?

I don’t even know where to begin….

How on earth are you telling me its the same design as gw1? Did you even play gw1?

Minions were summoned from mob CORPSES in gw1…aslong as you fought you had an infinite supply of minions.

In gw2 you have to rely on skills that you use up on your slots and they have a cooldown so how you even compared the two is beyond me.

^Exactly this. In GW1, you also had to worry about your minions’ health decreasing at an exponential rate from the moment it’s spawned. You could have a whole party full of Monks and just you, but they probably wouldn’t be able to keep up in the end. You could get up to eight minions before using a particular elite skill to gain an additional eight (at least on my build). Although, the eight additional ones were the most squishy type. To balance, the minions in GW2 have considerably more health and don’t decompose (with the exception of the Jagged Horror).

To be completely honest, as someone who plays a minion master in both games, it’s much more viable in GW2. If you can grab a staff and properly micro-manage your minions, you can solo storyline quests up to ten levels above your own (though this number seems to have gone down to about four in the 50s).

My only agreement with any qualm in this thread is that the Jagged Horror seems to have too short of a lifespan. However, I haven’t had the chance to really try them after taking the trait to give minions 50% more health. Even then, I’d love to see a few hits from those little guys.

If they made minions able to kite and dodge, I think it would be a big improvement. This tiny little change could help them avoid damage and last longer. The same thing should happen with Mesmer clones as well (though I read a suggestion on here to make them mirror your movement, which is very mesmer like and awesome).

Reaminator is not useless nor a bug, its good for late game minion master with the trait death nova which has your minions explode into a cloud of poison when they die, so this means your jagged horror is there to serve as your kamikaze minion, useful to jump in and die to poison everyone around the place it dies and the trait flesh master which increases minion HP by 50% also makes it more durable allowing it to reach target before it dies…although..it seems more useful for other minions then to Jagged horror..as you want it to die and explode into the poison cloud

This isn’t a HUGE issue. You were just uninformed. Many descriptions are vague, but I suppose that’s lower priority right now.

Keikat.1752:

Reaminator is not useless nor a bug, its good for late game minion master with the trait death nova which has your minions explode into a cloud of poison when they die, so this means your jagged horror is there to serve as your kamikaze minion, useful to jump in and die to poison everyone around the place it dies and the trait flesh master which increases minion HP by 50% also makes it more durable allowing it to reach target before it dies…although..it seems more useful for other minions then to Jagged horror..as you want it to die and explode into the poison cloud

If reanimator is specifically requires you to use 2 major traits (dumb for a minor trait in my eyes) then it should be a higher level minor trait. You can get it at level 15 but its worthless until end game? Bad design if you ask me. I wish they didn’t degen at all or had a timer. I would like to be able to spawn a bunch of them. Its not like they do huge amounts of damage.

Well..Minion master is a end game build not something that can be done fully successful at low level and if you see that it is very useless at low level then spec another way, you arent forced to go with death magic.

I like the minions. The 2 downsides for me are not being able to dismiss them. Say all of them are below 25% health. I can not get rid of one or two of them so I can refresh new ones before fights. I off set this by leaving one not summoned so when one dies I summon a back up.
Other downside is sometimes my golem just goes crazy and attacks everything in site so I just run after him. He should be waiting for me to tell him what to attack.

But over all I really like the Necro and my minions.

Lumines.3916:

Minion masters just suck, deny it all you want but with such an AI in place right now, it simply is outclassed by other Necromancer builds.

I’m so freaking glad someone else thinks so, too. To me, necromancers are all about minions. What’s the point of having power over death if you don’t have undead minions?

Then again, what’s the point of having minions if their AI is so horrible that they either don’t attack anything when you do, or attack EVERYTHING on the map from a mile away.

BrokenAzs.1897:

So I was leveling my Charr Necro and I was really hoping i could have endless hordes of minions at my call that all looked awesome…
I can have a total of 6. It took some time and I was cool with it.
I was like awesome bone fiends, turns out they are undead squirrels with a long recharge when killed. I came to terms with that and put them on the back burner.
I was getting very down about the fact that I can’t a group of half way decent minions that all look cool.
Than I read the 5 point skill on Death Magic trait line which reads.
“Reanimator
Summon a jagged horrid whenever you kill a foe. 30 second cooldown.”
So in my joy of wanting to have a horrid of minions I went from 10 to 15 in about an hour and a half by just grinding out quests (I hate questing)
So I spent the 10 silver and got the 5 points and put them in there.
I was doing some stupid little quest in an area where I wasn’t scaled back.
I killed a trash mob and my horror spawned and i was like YES! wait… Its a dead squirrel…
It had 300 health and took 62 damage a second and died…..
If I would have known that the skill i was hoping would be my saving grace for the necromancer class and this game in general was total garbage i would just just stop playing there.
Can you please update the tool tip and not give me a since of false hope about a move i was hoping would be rather awesome…
Thanks….

It does not says “horde,” it says “horrid.” You read wrong. The meanings could not be any different. This issue isn’t huge. It isn’t even small. It almost doesn’t exist.