Minion Master Secondary Profession

I've just finished the game on my W/R and hes pretty able at farming griffons and all around use. I'm just started my new character, hes a Necro. For PVE, its just obvious to go Minion Master for many obvious reasons.. I've often used Guild Wiki for profession/build tips, but its never been too in depth about it. What would the most effective Minion Master be? I hear N/Mo is the classic MM build, but doesn't keeping it alive for a long period of time with heal area just make the degen higher (and more of a pain), and aren't skills like Verata's Sacrifice there for a reason? Or would a N/R with Winnowing work better? (do Beast Master skills working on Minions?)... another thing I've thought about is a more all around Necro E/N, the obvious reason being Energy Storage over Soul Reaping, with some nuking to get the corpses piling.

I'm new to the whole Necro thing, any MM builds would be much appreciated too.

stick with the necro primary.

N/E is probably the most efficient, and i use it as well.

Skills:
1. Glyph of Renewal {E}
2. Glyph of Lesser Energy
3. Animate Bone Fiend
4. Animate Bone Horror
5. Blood of the Master
6. Verata's Sacrifice
7. Res signet or free
8. free slot, depending on where you're going

Normally i carry animate bone minions in 7 and death nova in 8, once they get insane degen, i put death nova on them and make them suicide bombs, it's lovely.

Glyph of renewal; Elementalist Elite, allows instant regen to verata's sacrifice, so you can keep spamming it without your minions losing alot of health; great while in battles.

Glyph of lesser for energy management. Also an elementalist spell.

Very efficient build, i can keep armies up for a while.

A N/R does seem interesting, with serpents quickness on the recharge perhaps, 45 second recharge on the spell, but other skills charge 33% faster, for 15-27 seconds.

Verata's Sacrifice has a 30 second recharge, making it approximatley a 10 second with serpents.

Meaning you can only charge it once or twice with serpents before you have to wait for a 30 second recharge. In the end, it wouldn't be too effective as your minions would suffer major health loss.

ya ele is best for the lesser energy..maybe use channeling heh.. for every foe 1 energy

I use a mes necro for MM, and steal most of my energy from enemies... However I can only maintain about 8 Lev 14 fiends and horrors... I have seen massive armies of fiends using the N/M builds.. so obviously heal area is useful.

bodies>veratas sacrifice>blood of the master> around 30 fiends if you get the bodies. all without heal area

I have run minions as N/Mo, N/Me and N/E, and there is simply no comparison...

Hands Down, N/Mo is the best for a pure MM.

N/Me and N/E could certainly be useful for alternate builds, like the Minion Bomber build. But in terms of raising and maintaining the largest possible army, N/Mo is unrivaled.

There's a reason for this: Heal Area

With a 7 in Healing, HA heals YOU and your nearby minions for 100 points. So you can use Offering, BotM, and Verata's Sacrifice, followed with a Heal Area chaser, and the sacrifices are canceled.

Healing is very important, because as a MM you need to keep moving. You don't have a lot of time to wait and regen. Additionally, you have the option to use HA in combat if you absolutely NEED healing.

Also, Heal Area does NOT affect minion degen rates. That's a nasty, totally baseless rumor I'm trying to squash.

Only the N/Mo class can keep a minion alive indefinately. While it's not practical in combat, it CAN be done. I have kept one fiend and one horror alive for over an hour, solo.

Trust Carinae, a true Minion Master. Heal area is, no doubt, the missing link for a healthy minion army.

Quote: Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood

healing spring > heal area
and with healing spring you can also add serpents quickness for faster rechargeing fiends and verata sac

N/Mo with Offering of Blood and Heal Area. I've played with the builds as well and this by far can raise some very large armies. Almost never out of energy and plenty of healing to keep them going. When the bodies fall fast enough other party members start to complain the minions are blocking them.

Literally 25 minions and fiends up at once and for a long time.

I agree with N/Mo, although other builds certainly have their uses.

An extra minion heal, and nearly refilling your life loss due to saccing is nice.

If you go SF, one option would be to bring Essence Bond to place on the Gear Tank to keep your energy replenished

or ask the stance tank to succor you and/or the heal monk

i would go with carinae