Curse

Coloneh · Jan 14, 2007, 04:52 PM // 16:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by - Gobby -

Well im gona do this build but..... but.......can u have 10 minions max? and would blood of the master and vertaris work well? with it? like a proper minions master...and as arkantos said Enchatment remover = owned....HELP ME!

8 minions max on a ritualist.
you could you blood of the master, but if you take jagged bones you can maintain an army without killing yourself.
and enchantment removal isnt that bad, just slow down on your summoning until you can recast boon of creation.

- Gobby - · Jan 14, 2007, 05:31 PM // 17:31

Ive just thought of sumthing? because bone minions raise 2 from 1 body does the 2 bone minions count as 1 Minion?

Arkantos · Jan 14, 2007, 05:44 PM // 17:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by - Gobby -

Ive just thought of sumthing? because bone minions raise 2 from 1 body does the 2 bone minions count as 1 Minion?

No, the 2 bone minions count as 2.

- Gobby - · Jan 14, 2007, 06:01 PM // 18:01

aww that sucks hehe so u get 1 Flesh golem and 7 low lvl minions?

Coloneh · Jan 14, 2007, 07:22 PM // 19:22

any other death magic or spawning elite > Flesh golem

Bargamer · Jan 15, 2007, 07:20 AM // 07:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epinephrine

I don't draw lines in terms of amount of variation in skills, but rather in terms of information management.

Surely, you will admit that a full article on "Ritualist minion mastery", presenting the variants, the playstyles, and offering comparisons between them, including when one or another may be preferable is better than a few scattered build pages? I would have no problem keeping separate build pages for each one, consisting of a re-direct for example to the approriate section of a minion master guide, but really the subject is rich enough and well enough understood for a good guide, and that to me seems the ideal solution. A redirect to a section would suffice I think, presenting a way to locate it without searching for a guide, while directing players to a more complete resource.

Information management instead of skill variation... Oddly enough, one of my friends said the same thing, the other day. Reclaim Essence is not that great in and of itself. It's your safety net against enchantment strippers and Energy-drainers. Bring it when you need it. But Jagged Bones IS an active involvement of your resources, whether energy, time, or "information management". Furthermore, a Ritualist MM guide would be lost on most people, especially since between the Explosive Creation pages and the "General Minion Mastery" guide, the wiki already strives to achieve the inclusion principle. If we split the Minion Mastery Guide, one for Necros and one for Rits, it would anger the Necro-main Minion Bombers. (Yes, they exist.) But trying to shove both professions and all their variations into one guide would be a literal nightmare.

Talking with one of my friends (same one) made me think again about the uselessness of the Minion Cap icon. (See rant on page 3.) If you implemented my suggestions, Ritualists would benefit more than Necro-mains, but hey, we WORKED for our place in line. Honestly speaking, give any MM the choice of 50 Animates to play with OR the removal of the Minion Cap, and they would, hands down, still choose to have 50 to 70+ of Bone Horrors and Fiends.

Needless to say, having 50 different kinds of minions running around the map would be like... a WoW PVP Battleground.

Bargamer · Jan 21, 2007, 08:00 AM // 08:00

So I've capped Reclaim and Jagged Bones, finally. And I must say, it's very, very, broken. I've updated the Equipment, Starting Out in Factions, and Notes. I also added some more sections for Nightfall: Suggested Heroes/Henchies and Starting, Ending a Battle in Nightfall, and The Necro Hero. People will come to appreciate Olias and Master of Whispers more in PVE, I'm pretty sure.

Bargamer · Jan 26, 2007, 05:36 AM // 05:36

I finally got Armind's Focus after about a week or so of farming Bahdok Caverns. Also, the idea occured to me of giving MOW (Master of Whispers, or whoever your Necro Hero is) Animate Shambling Horrors, for corpse-heavy areas. A friend of mine also rebuilt my Monk Heroes, which will come in handy, but took away Dwayna's Sorrow, which I will be sad about. Ah, well. Updated my weapons accordingly.

Bargamer · Feb 07, 2007, 06:15 AM // 06:15

Killed Abaddon, and WTF. First attempt, 14 minutes. He was easier than Shiro, by FAR. Yes, that traitor is BACK, and this time, he's selling out the whole dimension, and not just his Emperor. He's more annoying this time around, too. I guess we didn't beat his face far enough into the back of his skull in Factions.

Anyways, for the last two missions, it's a sad truth that you're likely only going to beat them in one of two ways: Henching it yourself or making a Resto Rit build. I went with the second option, and took: Attuned was Songkai, Flesh/Flesh, Recuperation, Ghostly Haste, Soothing Memories, Spirit Light, Mend Body and Soul, and Ghostmirror Light. Feel free to use variations.

Torment is a pain in the ass. Level 28 mobs, patrols of 5+ each, Mesmers and Nukers galore, Titans don't leave exploitable corpses, and Enviromental Effects. And for a final reward, you get a crappy, UGLY green, that's barely different (+5 Energy) from the crap you get from the other 20 Weapons NPCs throughout the game, and NO INSCRIPTION SLOT?? Oh, and halfway inside the area, the Heroes you didn't get the first time around. And they're not even lvl 20. Feel free to level them up, go do the other missions, explore, or get drunk. Get some Titles or something. Go PVP, if you want. Hero Battles, perhaps? If you didn't get enough Torment, there is the Realm of Anguish, that is said to be harder than the Prophesies end-end-game. Um, no thanks. We already GOT a Ritualist Hero, it's called "The One We're F-ing Playing." Non-Rits would probably think that Razah was lame-sauce anyways. If you want to set yourself up for tons of farming for useless greens and gems that probably won't pan out, Realm of Anguish is for you.

If you feel you must, make a new character, strip your Heroes all over again, and start over anew. Maybe a Dervish or Paragon, if you feel like checking out Nightfall from an original point of view. Keep in mind that you pretty much have to buy your armor from scratch, especially the insignia.

PS: Oh yeah, got bored of the 3X Farming Weekend and traded some Peppermint CCs for Ghial's Staff. Yummy. Next stop, The Nightbringer! Jagged Bones got a heavier-than-deserved nerf, IMO. Granted, the game is chock-ful of HSR weapons, and those PVPers probably screwed it up for the rest of us. To a Minion Bomber, keep around a spare wand that has HCT/HSR (Death 20%) and you should be fine. No idea on whether you can put mods and inscriptions on the Nightfall reward green, but I know you could with the reward you got from Factions. It's how I got my Poisonous Katana of Enchanting. Therefore, it is with the utmost confidence, that with the nerf of the one Elite that had everyone excited, that I state that "Factions > Nightfall." GG, Anet.

JoeKnowMo · Feb 07, 2007, 07:46 AM // 07:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bargamer

No idea on whether you can put mods and inscriptions on the Nightfall reward green, but I know you could with the reward you got from Factions. It's how I got my Poisonous Katana of Enchanting. Therefore, it is with the utmost confidence, that with the nerf of the one Elite that had everyone excited, that I state that "Factions > Nightfall." GG, Anet.

You couldn't mod factions greens either (or any green for that matter). You must be thinking about the Crafter weapons that you can get when you beat factions.

Also, my jagged bones MM hero is still pretty good after the nerf. It seems that they're much weaker in pvp, but they still do well in pve.

UnMonoLoco · Feb 07, 2007, 09:57 AM // 09:57

I had fun and success doing the one with Shiro and the Lich as a offensive spirit spammer. Though hero/henched it with a friend, and that forgotten staff for communing is pretty sweet to. ^^

Bargamer · Feb 08, 2007, 11:50 PM // 23:50

Joe: that was what I meant. Apologies for the confusion. Yeah, Necros have it so much better than Rits. We get no love. T_T

Un: Yum, yum, spirit spamming. Glad to hear that it can be done. However, I still think that the Nightfall rewards are lame-sauce, especially since you only get +5 Energy and HSR. HSR would be useful for a Spirit Spammer, but most Minion Bombers like HCT, (as this IS the guide for,) thus the anger and frustration. If all the Nightfall rewards had a Inscription slot instead (or in addition,) it wouldn't be so bad. But to get one of those, you have to wait until Domain of Anguish. No thanks. XP The best solution would be allowing you to customize your reward, like in a PVP panel. I mean, most people only get one Book of Secrets, and you just slogged through Torment to get it. Shouldn't the reward be representative of the difficulty?

Anyways, I've got the suspicion that about 2 months after the Christmas season, they're really piling on the events. Could it be that Anet is trying to drum up support after putting us through so much Torment? If they need suggestions, I got a thread-ful, starting with making the Minion Cap button freaking USEFUL, and not just a "Ctrl-click to spam," and ending with making Resto Rits heal LOTS MORE than Monks, especially since we have to deal with "Jump through this hoop first" to do the same healing, AND we don't get Divine Favor.

Bargamer · Mar 15, 2007, 07:47 AM // 07:47

Copy and pasted the build compare-and-contrasts onto the first post, C&Ped THAT whole mess to the Rit build directory, and bumping this thread. I'm still tempted to make a joke article about minions, I mean, give Anet something to do instead of these weekend circuses. Not that I don't appreciate them, but hey. Is it honestly that hard/bad to give MMs a leg up? Bah, whatever, I'm biased.

If they don't do something soon to attract back the weekday players, I'm gonna be spending that time on LOTR Online, for real. I'm not joking, here. I got in the Stress Test, that -bleet- is the BOMB. Kind of a farm-fest, though. But that's ok. Save up some money, get a new graphics card, stand by for serious solo-farming, with none of the risks. (For those of you who got a new card for NWN2, you're straight. We're talking about my old-arse GeForce 5700LE. I mean, dang. I'm gonna bury the geezer when I upgrade.)

Bargamer · Apr 12, 2007, 03:53 AM // 03:53

Bumping this guide back to the top since Anet's apparent opinion that the SR nerf is not going to change. Let's see if I can't get ANOTHER 10K views.

Valkyries · Apr 12, 2007, 04:51 AM // 04:51

Anyone who has tried this build SHOULD love it!

I just gave it a go today and WOW... I don't think I've ever had as much fun. Its so deadly. There were quests Icould never do on my own and with this build I had no issues. With so many minions coming up and down, the damage burst you get is amazing.

Nice job, Ill be playing this one for a while.

Bargamer · Apr 12, 2007, 08:34 AM // 08:34

Wiki Builds Directory is going, might as well take the links out now. Also editted to adjust for Jagged Bones and SR nerf. Added Rit Hero section. Pondered adding the suggestion to make a pseudo-CoS Spike team from this, and chose not to add it to the guide until further testing. No idea if CoS considers minions as allies, nor how effective it would be. Essentially, have MoW and Olias provide the minions, and Razah and yourself as the CoS Spikers. Maybe it would work better in Factions, where you have Master Togo running around. Maybe it work better with 2 players. Any volunteers?

Carboplatin · Apr 12, 2007, 02:49 PM // 14:49

i am not bashing this build in anyway, but until they implement a minion window in the UI i find this to be way to tedious.

the damage is good, the build is good, but just too much work

Bargamer · Apr 13, 2007, 04:15 AM // 04:15

[silly]OH, Dwayna FORBID that we have to WORK for anything. Wouldn't that just SUCK?![/silly] No, no, I kid. Well, that's one vote of support for that keybind-(or Click-Minion-Cap-Icon)-Select-Next-Minion. Maybe if this is a success, I can also push through my customized RPG-style "Make Your Own Minion" option. Tweak their levels, conditions, damage type, Energy cost, Casting Time, Recharge Time, anything. But it'll never happen. *Sigh.*

ScorpiusX · Apr 14, 2007, 04:16 PM // 16:16

Hey Bargamer very nice work with this here build. Just a pity I have loads of trouble with selecting minions

.

However I did try this with Razah and he is pretty awesome using it, good enough so that a) I'm not going to run this myself (until theres an easier way of selecting minions) b) Olias and Master of Whispers can now Curse and spit Blood as much as they want they'll never Minion Bomb or MM again. On another note though if Razah casts death nova on me one more time while I'm at full health he's gonna feel my boot where the sun don't shine

ScorpiusX

Bargamer · Apr 18, 2007, 05:52 AM // 05:52

Did a little experimentation with Razah in Jennur's Horde, and I found that he's pretty bad with maintaining his Enchants. MoW and Dark Bond has the same problem. Never found Death Nova on me, though. Maybe his AI is just a bit wierd? I mean, if he was a REAL person, he should be learning from me, like his introduction says he would be doing. Boon, THEN Animate, you dolt!

Added a few lines to the Razah section, and added a new section about the MM Heroes in general.