Curse

jmsjags · May 21, 2005, 05:22 PM // 17:22

Class: Necromancer / Monk

Attributes: (cost)
Soul Reaping: 9 (48)
Death Magic: 12 (97)
Protection Prayers: 9 (48)

Total attribute points used: 193/200

Skills:
1) Deathly Swarm - (10,3,3) Deathly Swarm flies out slowly and strikes for 67 cold damage (before armor) on up to three targets.
2) Shield of Regeneration (elite) - (15,1,20) For 9 seconds, target ally gains 8 health regeneration and 40 armor. This is an elite skill.
3) Aegis - (15,1,30) For 9 seconds, all party members have a 50% chance to block attacks.
4) Animate Bone Horror - (15,3,5) Exploit nearest corpse to animate a level 14 Bone Horror.
5) Dark Aura - (10,1,10) For 30 seconds, whenever target ally sacrifices health, Dark Aura deals 41 shadow damage to adjacent foes, and you lose 17 health.
6) Verata's Sacrifice - (10,2,30) Sacrifice 15% max health. For 18 seconds, all undead allies gain 10 health regeneration. All conditions are removed from those allies and transferred to you.
7) Taste of Death - (5,1/4,0) Steal 340 health from target animated undead ally.
8) Rebirth - (10,6,0) Resurrect target party member, teleporting him to your current location. All of target's skills are disabled for 6 seconds. This spell consumes all your remaining energy.

Suggestions?

Zeru · May 21, 2005, 05:37 PM // 17:37

Death nova!

That's going to be your primary way of dealing damage later on when minions die at a very fast rate.

I'd replace deathly swarm with it, as imo that just isn't all too worthwhile later on.

Looks pretty solid otherwise.

jmsjags · May 21, 2005, 05:51 PM // 17:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeru

Death nova!

That's going to be your primary way of dealing damage later on when minions die at a very fast rate.

I'd replace deathly swarm with it, as imo that just isn't all too worthwhile later on.

Looks pretty solid otherwise.

You're right about minions dying at a very fast rate later on; ArenaNet should probably do something about that. However, this build focuses on keeping minions alive as long as possible. Death nova only works well with minions, and it affects enemies and allies alike, so it's not a party-friendly spell. In addition to hurting enemies, it would also hurt the rest of my minions and any close-combat party members.

And as for deathly swarm, it's probably one of the most reliable necro damage-dealing spells in the game. I've used it in every area in the game, and it's a very effective way of killing enemies.

Skyro · May 21, 2005, 10:13 PM // 22:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmsjags

You're right about minions dying at a very fast rate later on; ArenaNet should probably do something about that. However, this build focuses on keeping minions alive as long as possible. Death nova only works well with minions, and it affects enemies and allies alike, so it's not a party-friendly spell. In addition to hurting enemies, it would also hurt the rest of my minions and any close-combat party members.

And as for deathly swarm, it's probably one of the most reliable necro damage-dealing spells in the game. I've used it in every area in the game, and it's a very effective way of killing enemies.

Death Nova doesn't hurt allies. I assume you got that they hurt all creatures in range from the description but that is horribly outdated.

As for suggestions I don't suggest DA unless 1) You always party with a blood necro or 2) you really want to focus on it (i.e. focus on blood magic yourself). It isn't worth the skill slot just for triggering with verata's sacrifice.

I would also look into life bond as it is a really good skill for a minion master for keeping focused teammates alive and works well with taste of death. Also the martyr + infuse condition is a good situational combo that works well to keep you and all your teammates condition-free.

Finally, if you're focusing on keeping minions alive I would suggest fiends, unless you really need the tankage. They seem to do more damage (perhaps because of focus fire and/or they are ranged, I'm not sure) and live longer because they don't have to be in meele range to attack.

edit: and oh yeah if you're focusing on keeping minions *alive*, you don't need that high soul reaping. I suggest lowering it a point or 2 to bump up your protection prayers.

jmsjags · May 22, 2005, 12:02 AM // 00:02

Thanks for the suggestions both of you. I decided to go in another direction and use healing spells instead of protection spells. Here's my updated build:

Class: Necromancer / Monk

Assumed items:
+1 to Soul Reaping
+4 to Death Magic

Attributes: (cost)
Soul Reaping: 8+1 (37)
Death Magic: 12+4 (97)
Healing Prayers: 10 (61)
Protection Prayers: 2 (3)

Total attribute points used: 198/200

Skills:
1) Deathly Swarm - (10,3,3) Deathly Swarm flies out slowly and strikes for 84 cold damage (before armor) on up to three targets.
2) Word of Healing (elite) - (5,3/4,4) Heal target other ally for 59 points. Heal for an additional 72 points if that ally is below 50% health. This is an elite skill.
3) Death Nova - (5,2,0) For 30 seconds, if target ally dies, Death Nova deals 105 damage and suffer from Poison for 15 seconds.
4) Heal Area - (10,1,5) Heal yourself and all nearby creatures for 130 health.
5) Animate Bone Fiend - (25,3,5) Exploit nearest target corpse to animate a level 18 Bone Fiend. Bone Fiends can attack at range.
6) Verata's Sacrifice - (10,2,30) Sacrifice 15% max health. For 21 seconds, all undead allies gain 10 health regeneration. All conditions are removed from those allies and transferred to you.
7) Life Bond - (10+,2,0) While you maintain this enchantment, whenever target other ally takes damage from an attack, half the damage is redirected to you. The damage you receive this way is reduced by 7 points.
8) Rebirth - (10,6,0) Resurrect target party member, teleporting him to your current location. All of target's skills are disabled for 9 seconds. This spell consumes all your remaining energy.

Any more suggestions?

JAGeAkurei · May 22, 2005, 12:07 AM // 00:07

fun tactic for rough missions to start your army, if you switch that to necro/ranger

get a lvl 1 ranger pet, bring him into mission, he will die constantly, so all you have to do is summon undead whatever, rez pet, since he's low level and weak he'll die again nigh instantly, rinse repeat, and you'll be up to your eyes in minions

pHobac · May 23, 2005, 06:08 AM // 06:08

Just thought I'd toss in my two cents. You guys have focused on two types of summoners really, sustaining minions, and using them as bombs. But I go for totally overwhelming numbers.

I try to focus as much as I can on bone fiends because they do more damage, but the key for me is to never stop summoning.

I stand in combat and I'm always summoning. I can easily exploit every corpse in a mob. And I cast Veratas Sacrifice every 30 seconds, even in combat, to keep the boys alive. I find that it works anywhere in the game. Here are my stats and skills.

Death 12+3 (15) (would be 16 but I haven't found a seller with a Sup. Death rune)
Soul Reaping 9+2 (11) (need it to summon at the rate that I do)
Healing Prayers 9

Deathly Swarm
Dark Bond
Heal Area
Animate Bone Horror
Veratas Sacrifice
Animate Bone Fiends
Healing Breeze
and either
Rebirth or Vengence (Vengence is fun if you want to piss off the warriors in your party)

And I basically just stand close enough to the fight that I can exploit every corpse with a minimum ammount of movement, and so that I get my soul reaping bonus.

Outside of combat I cast Veratas Sacrifice and Heal Area all the time. I move fairly slowly and I always have 0-15 energy, but it works really well for me. Takes some practice to get used to though.

Edit::
Forgot to mention one thing. Storm Kin are like Satan dipped in evil sauce wrapped in pure blackness for me. Im always casting, and they can interupt at will, so they piss me off a lot.