The Qwerks behind MM Builds..

I don't really seem to get the hang of this build. How do people keep armies of 30-40 at bay when I can't even hold up to 10. Do people just use Verata's Sac, BotM, and/or Heal Area excessively?

Whats the trick, because I don't seem to get it exactly.

I'm pretty sure Blood of the Master, Veretas Sacrifice, and Offering of Blood are pretty much the three main ones, plus the minion skills of course. Thats six, so you could throw in heal area and something else. Personally I carry those, and then my last two would be Taste of Death and Res Signet as I am a N/Me.

But I am a newbie MM so I'm pretty sure someone can give you better advice.

Ok here the thing, for a mission like thirsty,its good to have a felow mm coem along and heal so you cna spend all your energy rasining minions. that was my secret now i have to kill you.

Hmmm... I had this problem when I first looked at a MM build, at the time I didn't have Blood of the Master or Verata's Sacrifice. That seems like a long time ago. Now I have both and also switched secondary to Monk for Heal Area, I still have the same problem in keeping the lil buggers alive.

I think 6 is the max I've ever reached. Going from one mob to the next, I may loose one, even though I periodically stop to heal them along the way. I would loose most during battle, the fresh corpses will get me some new minions (4-6), but then the above will just repeat itself.

Other MMs make it look so simple, so I must be missing something.

I can maintain 20+ minions regularly using the skills mentioned above. I always stay in the far back of any group. Make every effort to keep my minions from causing any aggro because that's a warriors job. I let the enemies focus on my tank in the group before I allow my minions to engage in battle thus keeping them alive much longer and easier since they don't have to endure the initial spike dmg. The ONLY thing I do is raise minions and keep them alive. I'm an MM so that's all I need to do. Another to watch for is to know your enemies. Know who the necro's are and take care of them asap since they're bound to hinder your ability to raise minions. But if taking them out early in battle isn't a wise choice just watch the centre of your screen. Each time you see +XX xp (displayed in the color green) it means somewhere on your map some enemie died and hopefull he's within your aggro circle. If an enemy necro is present during the death you have approximately 1 sec to react and res a minion before the necro does. It's a matter reflex. But of course if the opposing enemy casts wells then chances are they'll pull it off before you raise the dead but I've only noticed each necro enemy would only cast wells once.

Forgot to mention I bring Fiends and Horrors. Fiends outnumber horrors 3-1 usually. I raise Horrors only as a decoy aka tank in an attempt to keep myself, my party and my Fiends safe while constantly spamming BoTM, Heal Area and Verata's Sacrifice when I'm not busy rezzing a minion.

Constant maintenance is key.

However, I don't find it too practical to have a huge army. When verata's wears off during a fight, those minions are dropping like flies. I keep around 10-15 "fresher" minions, and let the rest die.

I'm only using Fiends with Verata's Sacrifice. On my own, extra minion heals are too much of a mana sink - but with a Healing Spring trapper looking after them too, that's really good healing!

BotM and Heal Area are relatively mana inefficient next to those other two skills. They work though.

For purposes of aggro management I don't use melee minions... they can pull in too many enemies unnecessarily. I like Fiends, but they're expensive.

I also like Consume Corpse for when things get really rolling. A big army makes more corpses than you can raise quickly, so I consume the surplus for life and energy (cost 10, gain 105 life, 21 energy @ 16 Death). Always remember that waiting around for mana makes your minions degen faster and faster... consume what you can't raise in good time and keep the pace up!

Consume Corpse is also great to deny enemy necros a corpse - an enemy Well of Suffering is not kind to minions, so you might need to counter it.

There's loads of other little tricks too, but well, you can find them yourself

Quote: Originally Posted by byteme!

The thing is it's hard to learn the proper usage of a MM build because if you go out with Henchmen, you HAVE to pull the aggro. And of course if you try out this build with a PUG, you are going to piss a few people off while you learn.

Get a group of friends. One that knows how to pull, and another that knows how to tank. Then you can just focus on Raising and Healing (R&H). Don't even send them into battle at all until you've learned how to maintain them properly.

Oh, and byteme!'s ratio of 3-1 is right in my experience. The Horrors get beaten on while the Fiends perforate them. XD

sometimes i use minions instead of fiends since they are just shock troops and line fodder anyway.

OoB is probably the best elite for an MM, fast recharge, and gets you lots of energy very quickly. If you mainly stick to fiends, spamming OoB, BotM, heal area, and veretas sacrafice, you can sometimes get up to 30 fiends. I did it a few times. Oh possibly the reason you are losing them so quickly is because they are at a lower level, it is much easier to keep them alive the higher the level they are.

My personal favorite build for MM would be Ne/E with glyph of renewal i can keep veratas sac up constantly and i can use glyph of lesser energy to reduce the cost every so often I'm not too fond of going Ne/Mo just for heal area when i can keep constant regen on all of my minions with Ne/E. Also i find that i never need energy since whenever something dies i get 13 energy.

Animate Bone Fiend
Glyph Of Lesser Energy
Blood Of the Master
Veratas Sacrifice
Glyph Of Renewal
Deathly Swarm
Blood Ritual (just to be monk friendly)
Rez Sig

Death: 16
Soul Reaping: 13
Blood: 3 (extra points so the monks like me)

I am also just getting into the MM build and struggling with the balance between Heal and Create.

I have a guildie who does a great job and here are some of the tips she gave me:

1. Quantity of minions is often better than quality of minions. That is to say that their health isn't as important as making an army.
2. MM leads the charge. This is especially effective in tombs. Pulling aggro is not just a job for the warrior, in the tombs situation it is better that the MM pull since the rangers are ranged attackers.

The trick to doing this is to move up so that your aggro circle is just outside of the target and stop. Your minions when they are done lining up behind you, will form a perimiter circle around you, thus their aggro circle will extend out to the target and they will pull the aggro to them. Initiate an attack, create the wall, then move back and and start the creation and healing.

3. Heal area is less effective than the other necro spells as you have to be within range or have them surround you and you will only usually get a few of them unless you are in the thick of things.

Cherno is right... I just started a MM and its a change from what I am use to but lots of fun for Tombs.

Basically I create a wall of minions so that they are the ones that aggro. Also the rangers bring their pets and they die quite often so even more minions. At the beginning my spell speed couldn't keep up with the number of minions i needed to create. At one time I think I had around 15 minions but lost them all cause we completed the level.

Quote: Originally Posted by Undead Shadowknight