Curse

Zaka · May 02, 2006, 11:52 PM // 23:52

Just an FYI, Blood of the Master now has a range that covers the compass. Please note that the Student of Weakness is at the upper edge of the Compass.

unholy guardian · May 03, 2006, 12:06 AM // 00:06

lol if you have 10 minions you gotta be carful, its pretty easy to kill yourself

i don't heal my minions at all anymore, i just use spirits to begin fighting, then minions. The constant death of the minions helps my energy anyway.

Zaka · May 03, 2006, 09:05 AM // 09:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by unholy guardian

lol if you have 10 minions you gotta be carful, its pretty easy to kill yourself

i don't heal my minions at all anymore, i just use spirits to begin fighting, then minions. The constant death of the minions helps my energy anyway.

Actually, it's kind of difficult to kill yourself if you're paying attention.....

N/Mo

Blood: 5 + 1
Death: 12 + 4
Soul: 8 + 2
Healing: 9

Blood of the Master
Healing Breeze
Offering of Blood
Animate Vampiric Horror
Animate Bone Horror
Animate Bone Minions
Signet of Capture
Rebirth

Before enemy contact: BotM, Breeze, BotM and let those minions go.....

Animate down the list. (Avoid Bone Minions if possible, sub Bone Fiend if you want, but Fiends are energy pigs)

Use Healing Breeze to get started and OoB as needed for energy.

Spam BotM every 2 to 10 seconds while fighting, 15 to 30 seconds while traveling. Add breeze to hold health approx. even.

Taking 10 minions between battles is not usually a problem.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Cirian · May 03, 2006, 11:23 AM // 11:23

Ok, a HUGE concern people are having with combining necromancers is the scaling cost of using BotM on hordes of minions. There is an answer!

Aura of the Lich cuts your sacrifice to 1/4 of the normal - that will cut a deadly 120 health sacrifice down to a managable 30. It also gives a 253 point heal after 46 seconds, regardless if you refresh it every 20 - that means if you refresh it as soon as it recharges, you can have regular 253 point heals flowing in every ~20s. Use it!

Same with pairing it with Blood Renewal - typically I will have 9 Blood, for +5 regen and a 130 point heal after 10s. With a base life of 485, AotL reduced the 25% health sacrifice down to a mere 31, while I will regen 100 life and be healed 130 life - a net +199 life for 5 energy!

If I spam BotM on 10 minions I will similarly sacrifice just 31 life, and heal them all for 122 for just 5 energy. Even healing 20 minions (10 more from another necro), I can support the health sacrifice easily with the massive healing coming in from AotL and BR. Without AotL, that's asking for a swift death from massive health sacrifice!

Of course, the big vulnerability is enchantment stripping - if you get hit with Shatter Enchantment it will basically do no damage... if AotL is shattered you might take say 107 damage from the Shatter, but be healed 253 from AotL ending... no problem. The problem is that sacrifices will now crucify you until you can get AotL back up

If you had BR up as a cover enchant then you will take no damage from Shatter - a 107 point shatter will get reduced to 54 by AotL, but BR ending prematurely will heal you 130... sweet!

Another cover enchant could be Death Nova, which is cheap but otherwise quite useless

The other alternative is Dark Aura. This is nice in a way since all the sacrifice spamming will cause you to radiate AoE and scatter anything that tried to melee you (nice defensive ability), or you could deliberately Aura Bomb if you wanted... The bad side is that Dark Aura deals damage to you, so it can be an unwelcome health drain by itself.

I'm sure there are other / better cover enchants, so lets hear them

edit: oh yeah... Dark Bond

Fargin Scotchsman · May 04, 2006, 11:41 PM // 23:41

hmmm, havnt tried yet, but wud healing seed work wit anything??? jus a thought dat popped in me head. to bad minions dun count as temporary party membesrs, of heal party wud work (stupid idea, yes, but still a thought) also, why is cap sig in the build u made!?!?!

heavenscloud2 · May 05, 2006, 03:04 AM // 03:04

offering of blood, aura of the lich.... wouldnt u want a flesh golem by ur side =)

Ecksor · May 05, 2006, 03:08 AM // 03:08

i guess Flesh Golems are REALLY good in RA.. not sure though

Zaka · May 05, 2006, 06:18 AM // 06:18

At this point in time, I'm running around looking for Caps. Thus the cap sig... It can be replaced by any other skill as necessary.

I was looking at the Mesmer Echo Spells and wondering if anyone thought of doing a Minion Echo. Echoing Vampiric Minions.

Njall · May 05, 2006, 07:37 AM // 07:37

Quote:

offering of blood, aura of the lich.... wouldnt u want a flesh golem by ur side

No.

I prefer 10 fiends kept alive at all time that one golem who may die at the worst time.

Quote:

Echoing Vampiric Minions.

Vampiric Minon + Echoed Vampiric Minion is 50 energy... 34 if you have 16 Soulreaping (12+3+1 from Grenth's blessings). It's still a high cost.

Dr. Fire · May 05, 2006, 11:46 AM // 11:46

One caution when using AotL. AotL takes your health off the "backside" of your health, while damage to you is being taken off the front side. When in heated combat in Factions the high lvl baddies can take huge chunks of health off of you at any given time. If you kick in AotL at the wrong time you will basically be losing health from the front and back of your health bar. This can spell instant death. This is not a reason not to use AotL, just a warning to be careful with it when using it in combat.

shoot n loot · May 05, 2006, 01:06 PM // 13:06

flesh golum is good pretty much anywhere you go.. soo id prefer to keep it, i just bring BoTM + heal area (for 110) and it negates the saccing, also really, ive never had a prolbem killign myself other then 1 time (cas it was 3 am and i was tired and was rushing a friend thru nub mission note: mm dieing with a lvl 28 flesh golum in a group of 7s = not good, but very funny in its own quaint way lol)

Bel Ebih · May 05, 2006, 04:28 PM // 16:28

When I'm using the Flesh Golem with Fiends, which is what I mostly do now, I just run Blood Renewal+Healing Breeze and spam BotM like I run Orders, I also take Heal Area to counter the sac when high powered healing isn't needed. I've never killed myself, and my minions usually survive even the worst AoE. Another build I run uses Bone Horrors and Vampiric Horrors for tanking, and I just use Blood Renewal and the heals from the Vamps to help me spam BotM. Again, never sacced to death and all my minions stay alive easily. With this last set up I also use Well of Blood to help heal minions after I cap since they are all melee, and the Elite I use is OoB. AotL is nice, but not really necessary in my opinion.

Edit: I knew I had taken a screenshot relevant to this thread. It kind of speaks for it's self. Like I said, that's what I've been running since I got the Flesh Golem and have never sacced to death. Also, note to self: even if your minions are plowing through everything with ease, remember to send out henchies to attack. They get bored.

P.S. That's me at Arborstone going to cap Vampiric Spirit. In place of the cap sig I usually take Dark Bond.

Serra Knightfang · May 06, 2006, 02:59 AM // 02:59

The first thing I have to say is that I have not tried AotL (because I don't have it) but the way it reads..."For 15-39 seconds, your maximum health is halved, but you take half damage from all sources. When Aura of the Lich ends, you're healed for 50-202 health."...it doesn't cover saccing health as this does not count as damage. I'm just curious about this. Has it been tested or is all this theory.
Secondly, Flesh Golem is awesome anywhere. He does 80+ damage to lvl 20 mobs. I use him, fiends and vamps along with Blood renewal and HA and I don't have a problem staying alive. When I have vamps up I don't even have to use HA.

Cowboy Nastyman · May 06, 2006, 08:16 AM // 08:16

sorry but aura does in fact cut sacrificing try it yourself

Evilsod · May 06, 2006, 01:55 PM // 13:55

Yeah Aura does cut sacrifces. Your max health is halved and the sacrifices are halved again. So basically your sacrifices do 1/4 damage. Want proof?

BotM = 19 health sacrifced
AotL
Botm = 4 Health sacrificed

Perhaps Anet need to learn how to round numbers properly...

Veratis Sacrifice is just embaressing, the skill sucks too much to even look at, so spamming BotM using AotL is much better than GoR VS. Until Anet sort out the skills they just completely screwed over, i will never be using Flesh Golem as my elite.

captainccc · May 06, 2006, 04:07 PM // 16:07

Veretas sacrafice is ok for farming.....

~Captain CCC

ShazBo · May 08, 2006, 05:34 AM // 05:34

I usually put heal breeze or troll urgent (depending on my build) before castering any minion healing spells that usually keeps me from dying.