Guild Wars 2

ManCaptain.3154:

Hsinimod.5784:

Mesmer. #2 Deception allows the Mes to randomly teleport to a new location avoiding a whole group of stompers and summons a downed clone. #3 Phantasmal Rogue simply does high DPS. The Mes can’t reliably run toward allies, but they can avoid a stomp and with high DPS (#1 Mind Blast is not shabby), rally off their foe. Their downed state skill set is perfectly balanced imo, leaning neither toward too strong or too weak.

I can answer to this.
skill 1 is crap against stompers since they take no damage from Confusion.
skill 2 does work against multiple stompers but that’s about it. The clone is useless against stompers because it spams confusion and as a clone it only deals about 30 per attack. The clone is useless as a distractions as it always appears first and real mesmer always has a red arrow over his head.
skill 3 deals nice damage, but unless you waste time you can always stomp the mesmer before this one comes up.

Against a mesmer I just go for the stomp, he disappears, his clone appears, I wait about 0.5 sec more, the real mesmer appears, go to him and stomp before he can summon his phantasm. GG.

Really?

Mesmer have prolly the best downed state abilities in the game, and I think most people will agree on that.

I fought a mesmer once and I checked damage after, he was hitting me for 1.5 with mind blast, their first spamming skill. I will just stop there about the mesmer.

For the engineer, I recently switched back to my engi, from playing my necro. And kitten Necro don’t have the strongest downedstate, actually they are kinda bad.

BUT, I feel so weak now on my engi in downstate. Necro abilities are way better.

OP, you said necro #1 does weak damage. You never tried it man if you say that. I don’t even use the +50% damage and I’m doing crazy damage with my #1. It doesn’t hit for 1.5k , but it still hit for like 200-300 damage on CHANNELING. That’s really fast hitting. At the same time, you are surviving longer because you are leaching life. In WvW when you are downed, you can continu to ditch some good number before going down.

Our Hook is also bad, each time you use it, it’s like screaming “HEY FINISH ME MAN!”.
The only use is to Cancel one finisher, or hook somoene in a group fight when you have allies around you. Every other situation, using hook is a bad idea. You don’t pull melee, you don’t attrac people to you.

Our downed state #3 is a really good ability. Nothing to say about it. Sure it’s not vengeance, but it still good.

Our #1 is our worse skill, seriously, it doesn’t go anything good. Bad damage, and only chilled damage can be good. Since it’s a random effect, they could at least make it stronger. You don’t know what youy get, but when you get it it will be twice as strong.
Using #1 is like throwing wet noodle at somoene. Even in PvE it’s useless.

I don’t want OP abilities like that Jet Pack idea, this game as too much extreme downstate (myst form, teleport, vengeance) I don’t want another one. Just give us a bit more damage, hook shot should hit for crazy damage since it’s single target and it make us dying more often then not.

I won’t say it’s the top build, but it’s competitve.

I use vampiric on hit, on crit and on minion hit. I also got some healing and thoughtness gear some my #2 from dagger is pretty good.

PvE : Really good. You can tank quite a bit of damage and you always regen some. I only PvE for the new fractale and while I can still pack a punch, I heal pretty fast from ennemies damage. Axe #2 hit really fast so it regen a good number of hp.

WvW : Depend who you are fighting, some will burst tru it like nothing. Other build it will save your life. Ranged group abd siege it’s really useful because you don’t have to go back to heal. You take a bit of damage, but you heal over it.

sPvP : Didn’t try, could be garbage. But bunker vampiric build might be good?

Since BP seems to be angry at us, I don’t know why, I think next week I’m gonna focus entirely on BP.

I’m getting tired of those GOAT guild that just can’t fight without a Big ball of Zerg.

Will make sure I cut out your reinforcement from behind

Cirus.5748:

Jedahs mate, you are a legend of our server! Thank you so much for your hard work, diplomacy and loyalty.

It’s not until you suffer through the tough times that you can truly appreciate the good times. It’s been an amazing journey for our server so far, most other servers put in our situation would have capitulated and become WvW ghost towns.

I think the elitist guilds (or wanna be elitist) and bandwagon players transferring off the server during the difficult times has really strengthened our Oceanic and SEA communities. Together with our NA friends we will be able to put up one hell of a fight. Well done Sea of Sorrows, we’ve earned our place in tier 1. This will make for an interesting 7 days.

Most server put in your situation?

I don’t SoS had it worse then any other server?

They had a night crew since start, the greatest advantage in WvW you can get. They were also in midpack tier, so no shame to have.

They also received massive transfer, and aren’t losing since release.

I’m not here so say SoS doesn’t deserve to be tier 1, or anything bad about OP post. But to say they had it “bad” is ridicoulus.

Just ask Kaineng, in the last tier since day 1, getting stomped this week.

My server also, Anvil Rock, we didn’t Win a SINGLE match up since Release, and we still aren’t a ghost town.

Gratz SoS

Mindx.9610:

Powerr.3649:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;044Z;1kHFG0G4sJkJ0;9;4TT9;036B18A1;6SNH6;2NV05NV051ce

Here’s the link, I would appreciate those who end up using it to potentially support me by “following” my stream.

This spec made to win team fights fast.
This spec synergizes best with immobilize support
This spec beats any class 1v1 on a point, but can lose to many in a skirmish 1v1

I stress positioning as the primary factor to success. Be unseen, and nothing will survive more than 15 seconds.

This is the first time i’ve ever given out the rune set I use. Please respect that. We all know its unrealistic to think every build be viable. Please stop overreacting to other classes being more or less well rounded with more viable builds than necro. I promise you this spec outclasses every team fight dps build in the game. Most the top teams are using it now or a high cc dps teams i.e ranger, d/d ele.

So the stream again is www.twitch.tv/matchlesspowerr every “follow” and view is appreciated.

If there is one thing to take from this thread its this…….I’ve used this build months back while experimenting with countless other builds, it is the most powerfull condi spec necros have. Although i used blood is power and epidemic as well as corruption traits and didnt use thief runes (amazing addition). I’ve recently lost interest and playing since all my friends quit but its nice to see necros are doing well

Not to sound rude or anything, but is this not the classic build for any DPS condimancer?

That’s the first build I think of when I’m thinking about a Condimancer.

Only the signet of Undeath is different from any other build, and I think it’s a good idea for sPvP, not so much for WvW.

It’s basicaly a Glass Cannon Conditionner, so if somoene got some CC (you got no CC breaker), some mobility (you got no mobility) , some condition remover (most damage done with cond)(Ex : Invul to Condition Engineer Talent) or some bunker build, you will prolly have a hard time fighting.

I think it’s a good build, but I doubt you would win all your 1v1. Would like to see a video of this, just so I can see how you fight, maybe there is something I don’t see!

Have a good day!

Wait until they resolve this issue.

Except if you are a PvE player. In PvE there brain doesn’t seem to freeze often.

But man in WvW, it just crazy.

Each day, I have to convaince myself : “Don’t respect, you wanted to prove MM was useful”. Then I start playing and half my minions are chilling while I’M being killed.

You roam around in WvW, and you are always slowed because your kitten of Flesh Golem attack everthing and die.

Seriously, I have been playing MMORPG since Ultima Online, and I don’t remember a bug that annoyed me as much as this one.

BurnedToast.3781:

Well I agree for PvP/WvW eng. rifle is probably better overall because of the range, and because axe #2 is channeled which makes it very easy to dodge and thus negate 90% of the damage, and also because everyone spams condition removal so you can never stack any vulnerability with #1 either.

We can agree on that And I can agree that #1 isn’t bad in PvE, but I rarely use it.

@Cempa -> Axe is still viable, especially with a MM build. I run a Axe/Focus and Dagger/Warhorn Minion Master build in WvW.

Just stack vuln with #4 focus, then use your #2 Axe channeling. When I have my dps gear on, I can crit for 6k damage. And it was before the buff.

Axe is more of a off hand weapon for me, I use all the cooldown, then switch to Dagger for immobilize and DPS. Minion also take advantage of the vuln cond, so it’s not lost.

What I dislike about Axe #1 is, I just rarely use it enought to stack vuln. I also think Axe Training Grand Master trait should be ether in Death traits line, or lower then Grand master (30 points!) or buffed so it’s viable to take it over Closer to Death.

I want something to make up for not using staff, having 600 less range, and missing those sweeeeeeet AoE marks.

IT’s only to take more damage.

And I think LF scale with vitality, so it can be a huge boost in survability for soaking damage.

But I agree it stuck that it’s a % of our LF pool that degenerate.

I have terrible gear with my Engineer and I’m hiting for 1.6k crit, while my all exotic necro will hit for 1.1k max after the 2 attack hit. Not counting thew 600 range difference between the 2.

Easy to kite with the rifle, a lot harder with axe range.

On paper it might looks like it for the traits, but you have to take that into practice.

To get the Axe Training traits, you have to put 30 points in spite, and you also have to NOT take Close to death or what ever the name of the 20% more damage at 50%. I tried it for a week, and taking the axe traits is a waste. Most of the time you don’t need the reduce cooldown on the skill, and 15% more damage isn’t that great ether for 3 skill. You can get 20% increase for like half the fight duration on ALL skill with the other trait.

For the engi, 10% damage increase for rifle AND harpoon gun is really good as it’s a 20 point traits and affect 2 weapon. You don’t have to sacrifice a vital traits ether.

Also, the reduce cooldown Affect not only rifle 5(FIVE) abilities, but also affect EG. That’s why it’s on a different traits, like the staff, because it affect 5 abilities.

I didn’t do any direct test, but even if you tell me Axe damage is on par with Rifle damage, I would never trade rifle #1 for Axe #1. 600 range really? 1050 range untraited rifle is nearly the double, you can stay out of range and just dish crazy damage.

But I think our opinion disparency come from you doing PvE and me doing WvW/PvP. The dynamic isn’t the same, and 500 range in WvW is vital.

Have a good day!

BurnedToast.3781:

What’s wrong with #1?

The raw damage is not amazing, but it’s not terrible either – compare it to an actually terrible autoattack like engineer rifle 1. It also adds 2 stacks of vulnerability (5s) every 3/4ths of a second, so it’s sustaining ~ 8% – 10% extra damage for your whole group (less since you stop to use other skills, but more if you spec into spite for increased condition duration).

skill 2 is great, skill 3 is respectable (damage not amazing, but AoE cripple and potentially a very long duration retaliation).

So far after the #2 buff, I’m actually reasonably happy with axe.

Edit: I guess I should be clear this is for PvE. I can see why people might not like it as well for PvP

Terrible Engineer Auto atatck? Are you serious lol? :P

Man my main was an engineer, and I was critting for 1.6k on Auto attack, with a 1200 range. It was also percing target. Since playing my Necro, I miss rifle auto attack, it’s amazing. Don’t know what you think is wrong with it.

Axe #1 got a low damage output, and except for PvE Swarming, I find vuln to be one of the weaker condition. It still useful, but it stack slowly on the target.

You are talking about PvE, were axe is a lot better. But in WvW, stacking vuln will be a pain.

I use #4 focus to stack vuln, and I will maybe hit 1-2 time with #1 only because it’s auto attack. You are losing too much dps using #1 to make it worth it. As soon as I casted my #2-3-4-5 on Axe, I switch to dagger. #1 isn’t worth the dps loss.

And between 600 range and 130 range of dagger, there isn’t much difference. Might as well go melee and triple your dps output.

Overall, I don’t think Axe is a awful weapon, I think it’s decent. But I still feel kittened taking it over Staff, even if I use a MM build, which Axe is proly made for.

TehGFreeman.1534:

I tried Axe out after the update on a 5V5 Match and I was top of the board, killed a lot of people (Warriors, Thieves, Guardians, Rangers (A lot of Rangers lol there were so many on last nigh XD), and Elementalists) With only my axe, I even found it strange that I didn’t Switch to my other weapon.

Not trying to be “That Guy”, the one who has to defend everything but there was a definite improvement with it. Before I got kills and it was a Life force generator mostly but it isn’t as bad as it use to be IMO.

EDIT: Also I was a power build, but I wasn’t Berserker amulet full crit squishy build either.

So 10% damage increase on ONE of the three attack, which has a cooldown, so you’ll use it maybe 1-2 time during a fight, made you a god in pvp?

Don’t think so man

I have been using Axe for so long, and this change is welcome! But it’s still subpar to our other weapon.

Like others side, #1 really need something more!

Man This AI drives me craaaazy.

I really hoped it would be solved yesterday..

Then I did some WvW and my minions nearly bugged each fight.

When you play a MM, get a 1v1 fights with somoene, and none of your 4 minions are attacking…

IT’S A GAME BREAKING BUG! I don’t understand why it’s not debugged since beta!

I literaly have to run pass my target like a kitten so my bones minions will maybe position themself to explod. And most of the time, they don’t even follow each other, so I have 50% chance of hitting to good one.

Come on really!

Minion AI is a core mecanism.. make it work!

Vicarious.3047:

Goshalaten.2415:

While playing the game I wondered whether minions helped at all? wouldn’t it be better just to use non-minion abilities?

depends, you talking sPvP, PvE, or WvW?

in sPvP it is “sorta” viable. going straight up minionmancer isnt what i mean either, but atm im running the power dagger build, with the golem, wurm, and rats as minions, and they serve as a GREAT form of dps, not too mention the wurm serves as a stun breaker. but most my damage comes from my daggers and the well of suffering ive got as a utility as well. its probably not THE best spec for sPvP, but its definitely a lot of fun lol

as for PvE and WvW, no, minion builds are quite useless. bosses kill all your minions within the first 5 seconds of combat, and in WvW theres so much AoE your minions are downed even faster still.

Minions are far from useless in WvW.

The thing is, I don’t run with the zerg. Maybe with the zerg they die a lot, but I have been doing WvW all day for 2.5 week and didn’t have this issue yet.

I see no issue in WvW that I don’t have in the other game mode. Minion are really useful during siege because they had a lot of dps on the doors. Especially Flesh Golem act.

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

Shadowlancer.7102:

Just to throw it in there, I never had a proper with the Minions on pathing or not acting fast enough. Not sure if its a bug for you guys but my Necro is a Charr Male.

My Issues so far is trying to chain summon minions. When my minions die and Cooldowns are up, if you dont summon the Shadow Fiend first, it will cancel and cause a cooldown interruption reset, if you try to summon a different minion at any time.

Another Issue is they die to fast. I am almost level 40 to be able to increase their health by 50% but in the mean time, I seem to have issues on dealing enough damage to a target(s) 1-3 or 1-7 in time before I die.

I use Dagger/Dagger and Axe/Focus since they are easy for me to make a chain dance with them. My spec is 0/0/10/0/10 with 1 and 2 trait.

You got D/D and A/F !!!!!
Pure minion master should use Staff as main weapon to heal his minions via Mark of Blood skill.

Nop,

I too use D/W and A/F.

I don’t need to heal my minion, mes bone minion will die because I explod them, and nobody attack my Shadow fiend and my Flesh Golem.

Not having staff on a MM is, personnlly, better for me in WvW fights, as D/W is a must for roaming, bursting and healing, while Axe stack vuln that help your minions.

There is something bugged about fear traits.

Sometime with Fear of death, when you get downed your fear doesn’t cast. Or another thing that happens is your fear cast, but your downed state fear is on CD. Those 2 thing happenned to me, but I didn’t test it with reaper protection.

But if it’s not a bug, and they are linked, it really bad design Fear cd linked is cheap!

Yeah because right now encouraging “Mindless Zerg” is a lot better.

So since downed state are part of the game design, horrible design if you ask me, why are they so badly balanced?

Seriously, I down a Ranger, I know I can kill it in 3-5 sec. I down a thief, I sometime need 3 shot before finishing him.

I personnally dislike the downed state.

@testpig

Well AR lack any kind of harcore WvW guild, except maybe SoS, but it’s not enought to upgrade everything. Without those guild, pug and small guild lack any kind of gold to upgrade our points.

Also, we got our kitten kick since release prior to this match up, and I think the mentality of upgrading isn’t there yet. We could never hold anything, so people didn’t learn to defend/upgrade.

I think those 2 reason doesn’t help us at all

Anvil Rock still have a long way to go, but thats how we like it!

@DKz Lux

Don’t make it sound like if I’m not part of the zerg, you aren’t useful.

Fighting zerg vs zerg isn’t the best strategy, far from it.

I prefer to be part of the small group that will cut supply, take camp, kill reinforcement. Small group are the key to winning, and I won’t stop doing it.

If my team really need zerg help, be sure I will join them. Just check the post on the WvW forum, that explain supply raiding, and how useful it can be.

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).

Wwow didn’t know ether about the Dolyak.

And thanks Alsonia for this guide, it’s pretty useful to read it.

I don’t like zerging, so supply/tower capping is all I do right now. Your guid will help a lot.

testpig.5018:

My guild just transferred to Borlis Pass last week, and i can tell you something we noticed about all 3 servers.

You ALL zerg. BP has 4 commander dots, all in the same spot. They claim to not be a zerg, but they are.

GoM is nothing but a zerg.

AR, the few times i have seen them has been yet another zerg.

Where are the small scale guilds? Why does everyone think you need 50 players to take a depo? a tower? a keep?!

You win this objectives with persistence!

Next time come on your Borderland, BP BL. GoM and AR got some small scale guild running around and fighting.

We, LS, are a 2 man guild running BP BL all night long, capping camp and tower. Sometime we gather some allies, but 10 player is the most we can get usually..

Fights are pretty cool, as skill actually count in those small group fights. It’s a lot of fun really, I’m sure GoM player who play on this borderland also have some fun!

The only downside is during BP peak, they have a looooot of player there. It become AR small group vs GoM small group vs 40 player BP zerg. It’s annoying, as I go to this borderland to escape the EB zerg.

Yesterday we had some good fight at Red Refuge, defending it with balista, arrow cart and all. Seriously, I prefer defending this camp over the tower anytime of the day.

Lot of fun on this borderland when we can small fights!

If you want to try a different but effective build ( and soon to be more effective if they debugged our minion AI), try this build.

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

I named it Kamikaza MM build because not having staff or scepter, you will charge in a lot, burst people down and sacrifice minions for damage/escape.

Nah, I don’t see it working.

I use axe then dagger at melee, and most of the time my minion are just chilling around watching the horizon.

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!

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!

I didn’t say it was all about transfer,

but from the experience I had yesterday, seeing a group of 30-40 players traveling in a bunch from crossed sword to crossed word, it didn’t impress me.

And I know AR is doing the same thing, and I’m not proud of it ether.

There is no strategy in having a blue icon, waiting for 30 player to show up, and charging. Randomly shout “Take supply” or “Build this ram” isn’t much ether.

I wish we had more tactics then that, but sadly, the commander icon, the AoE limit, the small map : Those all promode zerging. Follow the blue dot and try to tag the ennemy to get the loot.

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

You are no longer considered the underdog, as you won the match 2 week ago.

The only reason you lost last week is because one of your major guild took a break.

The reason why AR is staying in this match up with faily good score, is only because of our offpeak team capping everything. It has nothing to do with our population, it’s just that we have player online when the Borderland are empty.

I won’t lie, I know since beginning that Anvil Rock is a PVE server. During the halloween event, we lost half our number, having the permanent outmanned buff. We have guild recruiting pve player for WvW, but it doesn’t cut it.

Borliss Pass got better out of nowhere 3 weeks ago. They had trouble cutting it into our tier, and all of suddent they won the match up. I don’t know, it just weird that all of suddent you had player everywhere.

But it’s all good, part of the game. AR didn’t win a single match up since release, so I don’t think we have any fair weather player left. We are used to losing, it doesn’t make any difference.

Oh and yeah you are right, our upleveled 80 player are hurting us really bad.

@Eviator : Man you are on the internet, you can’t expect everything to be rainbow and flower. And I love the way it is. We need some rivalry if we want to stay motivated.

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.

DKz Lux.4125:

@ Kardia – and your borderlands was being taken at the same time. Didn’t you worry about that? I don’t know about you, but once I have garrison, bay and hills with waypoint, I’m sure as hell going to defend it. Plus, all the while we were upgrading things, setting siege, and chatting in team chat. I’m sorry if AR people can’t get their pugs to actually defend. It does seem like you guys think the game is just about capping. Too bad.

Did you read what I wrote?

We were about 5 player in your borderland,.

You had between 30-40 player, ask Plok I’m sure he was there. I will post the SS I took of the group when they passed by.

We were running around capping, most of the time with a 2 man team. So what? We should have gone to our borderland to defend our Keep, adding 2 more guy to the zerg?

Or stay in your borderland, cap supply and tower, and keep your 30-40 zerg moving.

Using 5 player to keep 30-40 player in the map is a tactic I’m willing to use.

Plok, I rarely agreew with him, but he understood what I mean. I didn’t say you were doing anything bad, what I said is : I would love to have enought number to be able to counter a 5 man group with 30-40 players all evening/night.

And I was also asking, and Plok answered, is it really fun?

I’M WvWing since release, and rolling with a Zerg ball is no longer fun personally. That why I was wondering, Zerging without having any number of ennemies ot fight, was it fun.

By the way, were you there plok? Had some good time fighting this group!

I’m easy to reconize, I’m among the only Charr Necro with pink gear and rolling with Minions and using an Axe.

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.

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.

@Pincushion : I already did it, check my post :P

But to say any build work in WvW is wrong. Many build aren’t efficient in WvW. You always need an escape mecanism, and you gotta know how to counter zerg.

You won’t always fight upleveled newbies, and when you aren’t with the zerg (95% of the WVW I do I’m alone with another friend) you will most of the time be undernumbered.

You need good Build to fight underumbered, even if they don’t have the gear you have.

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.

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.

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…

Borliss Pass, GoAT and the other guild that I can’t spell (Just cheked it’s SBZY)
I have a question for you guys :

I have been in BP Borderland all night yesterday, and we were doing some tactical strike around on your map with my entire guild (2 player including myself). We also had the random commander logging in, just to steal every player we had helping us and going Karma train (…).

But that’s not the point. I wanted to ask : The entire night, I played at around 5pm, stopped at 6pm, then got back for 10pm to midnight. The entire evening, you guys had a GOAT/SBZY/random pug of around 30 players, running around in a bunch doing nothing at all except taking back camp and maybe one tower each 1 hour.

I gotta specify, that most of the time, we had like 5-6 AR player, and I didn’t see much GoM all night.

So all I did with my guildy during the night was capping camp, and rushing a random tower from time to time. we also followed your Zerg to kill the slower guys.

So finnaly here is my question : Do you guys really have so many player, that you can waste them in a Zerg vs 4-5 players capping camp? Seriously I gotta show the screen shot, that Zerg was enormous, and were travelling in a bunch. You guys had to run around the map to cover every camp we were taking.

We were hoping your zerg would disperse, so we could get some nice fight. But it wouldn’t. All night, a bioball of player running around.

Didn’t it get boring?

I see your point now.

We need more Cheerleader, my Flesh Golem clapping during my fight isn’t enought.

Join Anvil Rock if you want to cheer for us while we fight!

Cooome on Ibankai! :P

I don’t want any mass transfer over Anvil Rock.

We are prolly in the best tier right now, competitive and we don’t have to be there 24/24 to stay in the fight.

I don’t want a mass transfer coming over and destroying everything.

We have good fights, good players, yes we lack some number, but nothing too rought.

Keep it up Ibankai! We don’t need no outsider to hold this tier! :P

Please oh god no more water… DON’T ADD ANYMORE WATER!

chuiu.4985:

Buffing #1 damage would make it op? Warriors/Thieves can crit for 4k+ with auto attacks at melee, Guardians can get up to 3k with auto attacks. Buffing 1 on axe makes it crit for 1k damage on auto attack at 600 range, 2k total if the second hit crits. How is that over powered?

You can’t compare our axe damage to thief/warrior, because we don’t have the same mecanism.

Hell, our dagger hit for a lot less then a Warrior/Thieve melee attack.

Man for 2k + vuln with Axes is a lot. The 2 attack are really fast, it’s like one normal range autoattack.

I’m all for upgrading the axe damage, but 50% is a bit over the top.

digiowl.9620:

Thing is, do retaliation actually reduce damage taken? All i see is it doing damage when damage is taken, nothing regarding it actually reducing anything.

Nop it doesn’t, I meant at least if you get hit, you will hit them a bit too.

And I use as much as as my other set right now. Like I said, the damage is average, but I least can keep my vuln stack up.

And buffing #1 damage by 50% would be so op.

If you use a melee necro (Axe/dagger main hand) you will get hit a lot.

And If I know I will get hit, I might as well have a retaliation buff on me to counter some damage. And Yeah, most of the time, I cast it, then use DS, and use number #4 to mitigate damage.

He was hitting for 130 damage with his downstate, I doubt he was a squishy.

By that I mean he wasn’t a glass cannon for sure.

I keep saying it : Downstate need the balance stick. Some class have it so easy.

I have been a axe user for around 2 week now. I’m currently using a Burst/MM build. I even traited Axe training over the 20% damage under 50%. (CRAAAZYYY)

And, while I won’t say it’s a really good weapon, and to say the truth it prolly our weakest weapon, it still isn’t as bad a people make it look.

Take in account that I’m not a full exotic user, and I only WvW, I don’t sPvP, so it’s not a “balanced” opinion.

But with minions, the vuln from axe and focus is really effective. With my Sigil and skill, I can stack up to 12-15 vuln on an ennemy. I stack it, and right away I use #2 axe and bone minion activate.

Bone minion crit : 2x 3k damage.

Axe #2 Crit : around 5k damag.

That’s 11k damage in 2 sec if you crit on everything.

Then I switch to dagger/warhorn (yeah I don’t use generic staff) to finish them. Dagger + vuln = ouch.

I also have Life blast vuln, sometime criting between 3.2 – 3.5k with one hit.

And don’t underestimate Axe #3, if you add Retaliation damage, it pack a punch.

Axe #3 on crit : AoE damage for between 1.2 – 1.4 k, + retaliation damage ( didn’t check howe much I do). You also AoE slow.

Overall, I still think this weapon would need some love from Dev.

Axe #1 damage is kinda low, My highest crit are 2x 700 damage. I think it should be a bit higer since it’s 600 range. And we have no combo on it like dagger or scepter.

Axe #2 Could receive an aditionnal effect. Damage isn’t the highest since it’s a low range channeling, and it only add life force.

Axe #3 is great.

Sheobix.8796:

On he last tick of DS, hit #4 for life transfer and it will do crazy good siphon healing to your normal hp bar when DS auto-drops out. (Literally regenerated 70% of my hp when executed correctly)

Wow, if it’s true, it’s crazy ahahah. Will try this tonight.

I take CC heal anytime over Well of blood personnaly.

I can’t count the number of them it saved my life. Sure WoB can heal a bit more with ally around, but at least I’m healing those 10 blood stack, poison (30% healing efficient witrhout CC) and cripple I got. It’s vital for me.

I usually use a 2-5 man assault team in WvW, and we are moving too much during fight to use WoB. Positionning is vital in a fight, and I can’t stay in an AoE.

About the build now, I’m personally not a fan of signet of locus. 10% just doesn’t seem to make a difference for me during fight, and the activating heal isn’t as efficient as , let say, Well of darkness (5 sec of immunity vs most class.).

If it’s your only source of swiftnest, I agree with Spectral walk. But if you would be using warhorn, you could swap Spectral walk for Flesh worm. It’s seriously ownage for in and out attack! But yeah, it won’t happen since you need a least one swiftness skill.

Have a good day!

I don’t have much work around this, except using my minion skill to make them attack.

Also, in WvW, I don’t “presummon” my bone minion. If you pre-summon them, most of the time they won’t attack.

So I target the ennemy, I summon them, and they charge right away. BOOM BOOM 6k burst in their face.

But it’s not practical, as something you will lose some precious fight time summonning them.

Please repair that Anet, my new MM build suffer from it! And I also use the Axe, I’m kittening myself twice!

Hufflepuffer,

I’m currently using the axe with the axe training traits with a new MM build I’m testing in WvW ,and it’s a lot of fun.

Axe isn’t as bad has people make it looks. But I agree it’s weaker then other weapon.