Curse

Lord MorKhan · Aug 21, 2006, 03:07 PM // 15:07

Necromancer Minion Tactics

"In Death there is Power"

This post isn't and end all guide to Minion Masters nor is it a build submission to be taken exactly the way it is. This post is intended to give my insight into a powerful class and hopefully to spark others own creative spirit so that they can be successful without simple using the build of the week. Of all the guides I've seen written for Minion Masters nearly all of them simple give the build and give a short order of activation. Well thats all well and good except when the situation isn't ideal, and to be honest the situation IS NEVER ideal. So my purpose here is to provide a tactical overview of a minion masters powers that will benefit both the master and the other heroes that fight alongside him. Their are many other excellent guides that give a breakdown on every skill regarding minions and I highly encourage everyone to go read these as well, most can be found on the Guild Wars Wiki site.

Regardless of anyones 'opinions' of the necromancer and their undead minions, its stands without contest that the power wielded by an experienced avatar of death is nearly unstoppable both offensively and defensively. I've been playing guild wars since shortly after the original release, my avatar has taken me from the gates of hell to the depths of the jade sea and nothing short of a god has ever stood for long within his path. So I've been around long enough to see what works and what doesn't, I've played all the classes and analyzed nearly every possible build that I've ever come across that was valid. The bottom line is however that regardless of skill set, attribute distribution or equipment the thing that will fell even the most dominating of builds is poor tactics. Kind of a obvious statement but every veteran knows that most if not all poor players simple do not grasp the concept of tactical combat.

Minion Mastery, and every other viable build in this game, is an art form. It requires patients, skill and understanding of your own strengths and weakness to truly be considered epic. As such what follows will be my own basic build with a breakdown of why I choose what I do so that hopefully others will be able to take the same line of thinking and learn to utilize their own particular brand of skill within their builds.

Build: General PvE

Skills:
Deathly Swarm
Barbs
Animate Flesh Golem
Animate Bone Fiends
Blood of the Master
Heal Area
Dark Bond
Any Rez

Attributes:
Death 12 + 1 + 3 = 16
Soul Reaping 9 + 1 = 10
Blood 2 + 1 = 3
Curses 5 + 1 = 6
Healing Prayers 8 + 0 = 8

Equipment is personal Preference but my avatar uses the following:
Minion Master Armor with Blood Stained Boots
Death Scar Pattern
Woe Spreader (For unique appearance and large health increase)
All Minor Runes, Superior Death Rune and highest Vigor Rune

Now for a break down of why I choose some skills over others. A successful Minion Master regardless of what other people or guides would like to think doesn't completely revolve around simple raising minions and keeping them alive. In battle your purpose isn't to simple spam BotM over and over and wait for something to die. That line of thinking will quickly lead to ineffective and potential deadly results.

Obviously Flesh Golem, Bone Fiends and BotM are the core skills that I use as a minion master, horrors of any kind in my own opinion are simple too inefficient in terms of energy and ability to make a true difference in my battles, but if anyone can effectively wield horrors themselves then by all means use them as that will be one of your strengths. Now my builds are designed to be multi purpose so that when I run into a situation that requires something alittle different I won't be without a card or two to play, hence why I bring a damage spell, a defense spell, a curse, and a rez/heal because even the best MM will quickly realize that their will ALWAYS be times when your minions will fail you. Minions by design are fragile and as such a well placed AoE will quickly eliminate 90% of your army rather quickly so learn to adapt and be flexible. When corpses are available raise your minions and in between spells and attacks make sure to heal them, your health will obviously take a hit but as a MM your purpose is to not be in the front lines and with Dark Bond your health is effectively quadrupled therefore just be aware of your health bar but don't be afraid to live near the edge, and if you find yourself in trouble hit Heal area and move.
Note about Vereta's Sacrifice, this skill had a place on my bar for the longest time until I realized just how unneeded it is. Basically it is only good with 3 or less minions and even then BotM can easily make up for it so don't waste the skill slot on it, once you get rolling the 60 second cool down just makes it obsolete.

Deathly Swarm: Simple & obvious, damage dealing capable to multiple targets for when you have extra energy or simple need a slightly harder hit to push that monks life bar to 0. Not taken to be spammed nor used in every situation and as such can easily be replaced with another damage dealing spell of your preference. Some so called experienced MM will tell you to avoid bringing a damage spell in favor of more minion oriented abilities but in so doing you will force yourself into one particular tactic that when the situation demands change you will be unable to successfully adapt and therefore you become a liability to your team. Too often have I seen other MMs stand around waiting for something to die contributing nothing to the team as the rest of the party is struggling to put down some particularly hard mob. Note about Death Nova, generally considered a great spell that even I myself love to take. Again it can only be used with minions and therefore will not always be useful, also it works MUCH better with horrors than fiends as the horrors can survive more than 2 hits to allow more mobs to gather around them.

Barbs (or Mark of Pain): 5 extra damage from melee my seem insignificant but the fact that fiends do physical damage this skill can effectively double their damage output on hard targets allowing you to quickly eliminate a foe and provide another minion to your service. Just be aware of what target your minions are assaulting as they generally won't be attacking what your attacking. Note, Mark of Pain makes an excellent backup for this if you know you'll be fighting in closed quarters. For example while I was farming the two Oni groups in Rheas Crater this skill and the bridge made at times difficult foes nearly laughable in ease, as your fiends while set this off at a ridiculous rate, seeing your screen turn yellow due to all the damage is very satisfying. Besides the above two, any good curse in this slot will be more helpful than another minion skill as you'll be able to contribute to those battles where your minions are unable to be at (For instance the first battle).

Animate Flesh Golem / Bone Fiend (Or Horrors) & Blood of the Master: Required abilities to a MM as such always replace your old minions and keep the new ones health up. As for other MM builds that think they need to bring another summon my advice is don't. 9 Fiends and 1 golem will serve you just as well as a mixture with Horrors without wasting a valuable skill slot.

Dark Bond: Without this most MM make for rather soft targets which can easily be brought down to break their control over their minions. With this however your health gets effectively quadrupled which takes both pressure off you and any monks in your party (With the Woe Spreader and a Sup Vigor 2060 effective health is hard to deplete). Undeniable this skill is almost a must and I have to question anyone that doesn't bring it. It simple offers too much benefit for a low expense, but if you believe that you know a better defensive skill that seems to be working for you then this can easily be replaced.

Heal Area / Rez: Heal Area can easily be switched out as well as the Rez but in my own opinion these two skills offer enough to the MM and team to be taken. Useful as a secondary way to heal your minions or as an emergency heal when the teams monk is under severe pressure. Making a back to back stand and casting heal area can help stem off the incoming damage.

Now regardless of my own opinions and skill choices the key to an effective build is utilizing your own strengths and minimizing the weaknesses, as such the above is simple what I bring and why, if something else works for you then run with it. Learn to be open minded and flexible, if another skill would work better for the particular situation the bring it, just because you like a particular skill doesn't mean it will be useful in the upcoming battle.

Summary on Skill choice:
Obviously your going to be bringing your Animates and BotM as they are core MM skills but don't overload on minion abilities, my bar generally never has more than 4 skills involving minions, 2 Animates (Fiends & Golem), 1 Heal (BotM), 1 Defense (Dark Bond). The other 4 slots are what determine an outstanding MM from an average MM. If you desire more damage output then bring a damage spell like Deathly Swarm or a curse like barbs, need team support bring Blood Ritual so you can function as a battery for the teams casters, afraid of a party wipe bring a rez to get those that go down back up quickly, dieing to often then bring another defensive skill. Also nothing says that an outstanding MM requires a Monk Secondary, a N/Me can easily be just as effective with additional hexing or energy saving abilities. The key point to this is remain flexible and experiment, the quickest path the failure comes from putting all your so called eggs into one basket. Having an undead army is of great benefit but if thats all you can do then you will quickly become very worthless when your army fails you.

Brief Tactics Discussion:
The art of combat is about more than just your skills, as such certain techniques that I HIGHLY recommend that I won't go over here are, learning to pull effectively and basic henchmen control. There are much better guides available on the above which will explain them in better detail than I will. However some specific things dealing with MM I will go over here. As with the nature of Guild Wars you will undoubtedly be in a party with other players. With a MM in the party certain things must be addressed.

1st is understanding that as a MM you are in no way a front line fighter. This needs to be established first and foremost in order to be successful in your adventures. Hanging near the back lines with the Monks is probable the best place for you. If you die your party very likely will as well, so don't take any unnecessary risks and lose control of your minions.

2nd Unless your group has an outstanding tank then as the MM you should be the point man when engaging groups but never the first to aggro groups. This takes some understanding and practice to get good at. Basically you should be the one that initiates the battles by getting close enough to the mobs so that your minions can engage, then you should take your place near the back row. A quick staff/wand blast will usually send any minions around you into combat while only drawing minimal attention to yourself as you back up, the rest of your party should then take their respective places in the battle. Even with a good tank in your party, closely following their initial engagement will insure that the party's softer targets have a nice wall of cover between them and the attackers.

3rd minions provide outstanding defensive cover for your team, but along with this many inexperienced players will believe that this makes them invincible and will take risks that they otherwise wouldn't, as the MM it is your duty to see when this is happening and make every effort to stop it. Also be aware of certain skills in game that can quickly make all your minions very deadly to your own party, best case of this involves Shiver Armor that the Shiro'ken Elementalists use. If this skill gets put up and your minions are attacking then anything and everything around it will simple implode. Be sure to point this out when you come across situations like these BEFORE someone in your party goes down.

Finally target calling as an MM becomes a bit different as most good players will understand this to a degree but there are some subtle differences for MM parties. Since minions work off their own AI they will not always be assaulting the primary target for your party (Monks generally being the primary). This leads to a bit of difficulty when determining target priority. What you need to be aware of in these situations is what the majority of your minions are attacking and whether a concentrated attack on this target would put it down quickly. Simply put if a quick focus fire change of the party onto the mob would kill it before the monk has a chance to heal it then by all means put the beast down and go back to the monk, after your minions will engage another target and if it happens to be the monk all the better. This tactic is incredible useful as it reduces the number of enemies you face, provides you with another corpse and allows reorganization of the party's fire. Generally speaking if your minions are attacking a soft target for instance and making a dent in its health, it is usually more beneficial to put it down then focus on the monk because although both targets may die eventually, the loss of one much earlier than the other will reduce the pressure on your party.

In summary a good MM isn't determined by what build their using (however a poor build is still a poor build) but by the tactics employed by the players. Same goes with every other class, learning the tactics involved with your build/party will greatly reduce the amount of difficulties that you will experience. As such don't simple take the build of the week as the end all of MM builds, experiment, find out what works for you and run with it.

If you have any questions or would like to contact me then feel free to pm me.

BogusDude · Aug 22, 2006, 12:23 PM // 12:23

I like to use HB with mine, which i would replace Barbs with. I use this after BoM when the minions are at range. Gives the advantage of healing 2 BoM's rather than just the 1 from HA. Also good for protection with quick cast and less chance of interrupt than HA.

When i play monk i always use HB on the mm too, saves him mana to look after his minions and keep creating new minions. And obviously my monk has a better HB than the mm will so when playing mm watch if your monk has cast it on you and wait before you cast yours.

Always a good tactic for the ranger to carry EoE when you have a MM in the team too, or if your N/R

Blackhawk · Aug 23, 2006, 02:25 AM // 02:25

Good Guide Lord MorKhan, hopefully some people will take the time to read it rather than think being able to pop a minion up is all thats required to be a MM.

I only use Horrors when a Fiends range might cause a few problems when you're trying to control aggro, as like you say, minions work off thier own AI, contrary to what some people in game I've come across seem to think.

Plus when in a PuG I always ask the Monk whether he/she will be looking out for me as I have a Monk friend who I normally do Tombs with who looks out for me but on the same token knows that I'm pretty self sufficient if he's needed elsewhere.

Hidden Prayers · Aug 23, 2006, 04:34 AM // 04:34

This was really helpful reading, makes me want to play MM again.

Carinae · Aug 23, 2006, 08:02 PM // 20:02

Really good article. Nice to read something by someone who knows their stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord MorKahn

Some so called experienced MM will tell you to avoid bringing a damage spell in favor of more minion oriented abilities but in so doing you will force yourself into one particular tactic that when the situation demands change you will be unable to successfully adapt and therefore you become a liability to your team. Too often have I seen other MMs stand around waiting for something to die contributing nothing to the team as the rest of the party is struggling to put down some particularly hard mob.

You shouldn't bring an attack spell. You can't deal diddly damage with a single attack spell, and the energy is better served on the minions. If you want to augment damage to help the team, then drop Deathly Swarm in favor of Mark of Pain or another Curse.

Both Barbs and Mark of Pain work just fine if teammates are beating a target. So if you have no minions, you are a hexer necro. Personally, I also run Gaze of Contempt and Empathatic Removal, allowing me to perform Enchantment, Hex and Condition Removal as well. So, if you build right, there are lots of ways to help out even with zero minions.

Flesh Golem...Seems to be a mixed bag. It isn't bad, but I just don't think it brings enough to the table to justify using my elite slot for it. However, it's not a bad choice, because there just aren't that many elites that appeal to MMs. FG is also REALLY STUPID, moreso than the other types. He can get you into trouble occasionally.

Excellent tactical section there! As a MM, either lead the battle outright and engage the mobs first with a wand tap, or hang way in the back, and let the tank engage first, and you sweep in second. Plus, the rear-guard (MM or tank) then provides 'cover' in the event of an unexpected rear-patrol.

Either plan works, but don't attack with the tank. Inevitably, the mobs will charge the tank, and then turn on the squishy MM. Lead or Follow alone.