Bortak's set Vs. Ghial's Staff Vs. The Nightbringer

Bortak's Bone Claw & Cesta (Prophecies)
Cold Dmg: 11-22 (Req. 9 Death)
Energy +12
HCT Death (20%)
HCT Death (20%)
Energy +5 (HP > 50%)
Death +1 (20%)

Ghail's Staff (Factions)
Dark Dmg: 11-22 (Req. 9 Death)
Energy +10
HCT Death (20%)
HSR Death (20%)
Energy +5
Death +1 (20%)

The Nightbringer (Nightfall)
Cold Dmg: 11-22 (Req. 9 Death)
Energy +10
HSR (20%)
HCT Death (20%)
HCT Death (20%)
Health +30

I'm just curious and interested to find out people's opinions on which one of these staves/set is the best choice for a Minion Master.

I use bortaks claw + collectors 20/20 death offhand.

Why? Bortaks skin is awesome<3
and 20/20 is a must.

I startup using the 20/20 collector wand and Bortak's Cesta, and then switch to Konruu's Fervor at 10 minions.

I really recommend Konruu's Ferver, it's a huge boost to your energy with little drawback.

I use Ghials Staff initially, and switch to a konruu's fervour (+15/-1) & Bazzr's Wail (+15/-1) set. Lots of energy, only two pips of regen, but in situations with high minion turnover, reaping helps to maintain this.

I don't really have energy problems (I set my SR to 13) when mming by using the scar patterns. And I don't really care for the +1 death 20%, so I stick to the 20/20 crafted wand and 20/20 collector offhand, giving me 40/40 HCT/HR and a total fo 49 energy.

I use Gihal's because I was dumb enough to buy it at 40k before the Canthan green crash. -___________-

5e > 50% hp is not really useful, becuase with high minion counts, you won't have 50% + health for long (Botm spamming). With the introduction of Order of Undeath, that is impossible ><

The Nightbringer would be awesome if it had +5e instead of +30 HP, due to the fact that less health on MM = better for sacrificing. With Order of Undeath, the last thing you want is more health.

36-4/36-4 is nice, but the energy bonus would be better.
You probably don't need that much recharge if you go Fiends, but if you are trying to get Vampiric + Shambling and nothing else (IDK why you ever would) you are better off getting 36-4 on HSR. 36-4 HCT isn't really that important unless you are running MM in PvP (Unless it's AB or Zaishen Challenges, you need to rethink your strategy).

+1 Death Mastery seems to help from time to time (lvl 28 Golem is FTW). If Nightbringer is +5e instead of +30 hp I might get it, because corpse raising speed is not that important in PvE so spending more gold to gain little bonus doesn't appeal to me.

My 2 cents.

Quote: I use Ghials Staff initially, and switch to a konruu's fervour (+15/-1) & Bazzr's Wail (+15/-1) set. Lots of energy, only two pips of regen, but in situations with high minion turnover, reaping helps to maintain this. Even though I don't MM much, I find that when there is a high minion turnover, The Nightbringer helps with its double 20% HCT.

I prefer double HSR, HCT is secondary imo... I already have the boots to help.
don't like the +hp mods when mming cause of the sacrifice. (and I mainly use AotL, so i don't want more hp)
I have no energy problems since I use minions as my energy management, so +energy is not what I need

I'll say both 20/20 wand/offhand, or just a 2*HSR + HCT set

I would say 20/20 set as well.

ghails staff =/ but if some 1 trades it for bortak ill be happy to trade +2 energy

and i hate the nightbringer :P

Double 20/20.

Problem with Bortak is as a MM, you won't be having 50%+ health a lot due to massive spammage of Botm during big fights.
I am usuallyaround the 33~40% mark =/

It's true you won't get the +5 energy bonus when your max health goes below 50%. However, it's not wise to keep spamming Blood of the Master until it drops below 50%, making you an easy target to pick off. You'll need to create new minions during the fight too. I guess the different MM weapon sets depend on where you are in the game. For example, in PvP, the double 20/20 will be useful since you want to be quick in raising your army and not have your foes use up the corpses.

I use the Bortak's set since it looks great and gives me a good status.

The double 20/20 is really only of any use if you are in the situation of competing for corpses (in Pve as well as pvp there are certain groups who will use consume corpse etc)

As for the difference between Bortaks and Ghials, not really a lot to shout about. One looks cooler (if u get a chance to stop and look), the others cheaper!

You takes your pick TBH

If this was the old, unnerfed MM (with no minion limit), I'd say double 20/20 and be done with it, for sure -- it was way more imperative to have stuff like your summoning skills and Verata's (also unnerfed back then) recharge and cast quick so you could spam them, especially in places like Tombs or Sorrow's where the body count could get really, really high. But times change :P

I don't use any of the above, personally; no staves, because wand/offhand has equal or better stats and with more energy, and not Bortak's Claw specifically because HCT is way less important than HSR, imho. Here's what I use:

Wayward Wand from Divine Path (or a gold weapon equivalent)
req. 9 Death Magic
Halves skill recharge of Death Magic (Chance: 20%)
Energy +5 (while Health is above 50%)

Bortak's Bone Cesta
Energy +12 (req. 9 Death Magic)
Death Magic +1 (20% chance while using skills)
Halves casting time of Death Magic spells (Chance: 20%)

Since I like running a curse MM (MoP and SS) nowadays, there are times when I have energy issues, especially if I've been spamming Death Nova a bit too frequently In cases where energy is low, I swap out to a 15/-1 focus like:

Konrru's Fervor
Energy +12 (req. 9 Death Magic)
Death Magic +1 (20% chance while using skills)
Energy +15
Energy Regeneration -1

and then swap back to the original set to regen energy once a battle is over. You could also add in Bazzr's Wail, as mentioned above, as well for even more emergency energy.

I just have a problem of forgetting to swap...

I gave a Bortak's Staff to my first Olias.

I haven't MMed for a while personally, but I'll say this -- the +30/-2 energy set is very nice to switch to when the bodies start falling.

I gave my ghial staff to my hero and now I use the Nightbringer, the double 20% HCT helps a great deal when you're trying to make minions quickly in a fight

i use ghials because it like the +1 20% thing, it is a long shot, but helps sometimes in a tight spot,a dn the extra 20/20 is just way too fast, i would run out of energy so fast and i have 53 energy