I'm a huge fan of necros and I've played many different builds for them. Out of them all, I think that MM is the most fun (and the most powerful given the right circumstances...can you say new UW?) I made this guide because I noticed a number of people were trying to find a good MM build and also because I saw a number of posts of MM builds that, although they have become relatively standard, are not what I would consider to be the best. This is a work-in-progress and I plan to update it with more information at some point.
Something you should first understand is that this build is primarily designed to be used in areas with very large amounts of enemies i.e. new UW, SF, Ring of Fire, etc. Because of that, I think I should say that this build will not necessarily be the best in ALL situations. But the truth is, no build will; because what works in one situation will not necessarily work for the entire game. Nevertheless, these are what I would consider to be the most important areas of the game, so that's what this build is designed for. Okay, enough with the disclaimer (phew).
Death magic is awesome, and in my opinion, it's even better when you compliment it with some monk healing spells. So first of all, my build is a N/Mo.
Here's my general MM skill set:
Animate Bone Fiend
Animate Bone Horror
Verata's Sacrifice
Death Nova
Taste of Death
Offering of Blood (Elite)
Heal Area
Healing Breeze
(Sometimes I put Healing Seed in there somewhere, but rarely)
Animate Bone Fiend - Minion Level 18
Animate Bone Horror - Minion Level 18
Verata's Sacrifice - Regen lasts 21 Secs
Death Nova - 105 Damage
Taste of Death - +420 Health
Offering of Blood - +14 Energy
Heal Area - +110 Health
Healing Breeze - +6 Health Regen
I've tried many different MM variations and this is the one that's worked best for me.
A lot of people I've seen use stuff like Rotting Flesh, Deathly Swarm, and Tainted Flesh in their MM builds...I am not one of those people. This is because I believe firmly in the following: The purpose of a Minion Master is to make, maintain, and manipulate minions, nothing more nothing less. The purpose of the Minion Master is not to do direct attack-spell damage nor is it to do degen. If you want to do those things, make a Blood Magic necro or maybe a Death Magic necro that isn't an MM, otherwise, leave them alone. All of my attention during battle is on making minions, healing minions, and blowing up minions. If you do those things well, trust me, you won't need any thing else to do your damage.
1. If you're in any type of environment where you'll be facing a large amount of enemies (such as say new UW) make sure you use both Bone Fiend and Bone Horror. Now I've heard people who swear by simply one or the other, but if you and your team are doing your jobs well, enemy creatures should be dying faster than the amount of time it takes for one of these summoning spells to recharge. So use them both - alternating back and forth. Also, there are different advantages to each of these minion types. Horrors are great meat shields, which is always a plus. Also, they're great to use Death Nova and then Taste of Death on ("Sorry Mr. Horror, it's time for you to take one for the team ;p"). So take them to help protect yourself and your allies. Fiends are beneficial in that sometimes you'll be fighting enemies that Horrors cannot reach (or at least not without them running around to get to the enemy - agroing half the map in the process...which can happen if you're not careful). Meanwhile, you're nice little Fiends can just sit there and shoot their projectiles at an enemy that is not easily accessible on foot. Also, though I can't say this with absolute certainty, I think Fiends actually attack slightly faster than Horrors. So, long story short: take both of these spells.
2. Verata's Sacrifice - keep this on all the time, period.
3. Death Nova - as I mentioned earlier, use this on either a Horror that is about to die or on a Horror that is near a large grouping of enemies and then hit that Horror with Taste of Death for a fast, cheap, powerful nuke (and one that will heal you for 420 health to boot if you use the Taste of Death combo). Using this spell effectively takes practice, but keep with it - it's worth it.
4. Taste of Death - use it if your monk is sleeping on the job or as a combo with Death Nova.
5. Offering of Blood - I don't think many people use this skill in their MM builds but I've found it to be very helpful at times. If you're summoning minions pretty much non-stop (as I often find myself doing) then you're gonna be spending a lot of energy. Thankfully, Soul Reaping will be replenishing your energy supply relatively quickly; however, it simply isn't always enough. When things are rough and you're energy supply is running low, a fast +9 energy (14 energy received from spell minus the casting cost of 5 means you'll be gaining 9 energy) is really nice. If you figure out something that works better for you in place of this, more power to ya; but in my experience, this spell can really help in a pinch.
There are a number of benefits to having monk as your secondary when using an MM:
1. Heal Area does basically the same thing as Blood of the Master, except you don't have to sacrifice any health, instead you are actually healed as well. Because of this, it's much easier to spam this spell (when things get rough) than Blood of the Master. Also, Blood of the Master only affects minions whereas Heal Area also heals all allies around you.
2. Healing Breeze is just a great spell to have in general. As a necromancer, many of your skills require you to sacrifice health; so having a big health regenerator is always nice. Plus you can use it on any ally or minion. Another nice thing about this spell is the short recharge time (2 seconds), because of that, you could essentially have this spell on all the time (if you really needed to). Now since the build I've submitted only has two spells that require you to sacrifice health, I only have my healing attribute set to level 8, but if you really need to, you can get +8 health regen at level 12.
And so, that's it (for the moment anyway). Follow this guide and you should be trampling your enemies with an army of the undead in no time.
This guide is sortof' quasi-comprehensive, but I hope you find it beneficial. I'm interested to hear what you guys think about this, so let me know. :)
Other builds a necro might want to look into/try out:
N/Me - The staple Echo SS build; my second favorite to MM
N/Mo - This is what I usually see as the configuration for Orders necros. I have not spent a great deal of time using an orders build, mainly because I think doing orders is relatively boring. Orders are pretty decent and a lot of groups like to have one on the team but I usually have the attitude of "take em or leave em, no huge deal either way." One instance in which orders necros can be relatively helpful is in the case of a barrage/pet group (which has become a very common setup in new UW groups).
N/E - Blood Nuker - my first build; it was okay but overall I'd give it a solid "meh"
Enjoy,
Core-X (GW name - Maya Painmonger)
***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***
02/24/06 02:44
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Rin Trueshot
Posts: 8
Joined: 12/26/2005
Credibility: 0 pts
RE: Ultimate Minion Master Build
Doesn't "white" monk magic cause the minions to degen even more?
Rin Trueshot Lvl 20 R/Mo - R/Me
Rin Bladesinger Lvl 20 W/Mo - W/Me
Rin Deathcry Lvl 10 N/Me
Rin Silverlight Lvl 4 Mo/Me
healing monk spells do not cause undead minions to degen more than they would otherwise. Their degeneration accelerates at the same rate constantly regardless of what you or anyone else does. The only reason why it might appear to cause further degeneration is because eventually the minion's natural degen will overcome any regen you could possibly give them after about a minute of existence.
Even if that WASN'T true, the degen a minion can get, as with everything else, is capped at 10, though "extra" degen will still count towards net degen. In other words, when Verata's Sacrifice is active on a minion with 15 points of life degen, they would end up with a degen of 5, but if Sacrifice wasn't active, they would have a degen of 10, NOT 15. So, Heal Area would still add about 10 seconds of life to minions in the effect when it was cast each time.
necro/monk is not the best MM combo as you will you Heal area far to much and there degen will get so bad even sacerfice won't help it
Heh, that's a good one. I hadn't heard that one before. No, monk spells do NOT increase the amount of degen a minion has - only time does that.
02/24/06 04:08
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The Hobbesinator
Posts: 24
Joined: 02/01/2006
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RE: Ultimate Minion Master Build
i like the N/Me because i can use echo so when i get +10 energy perdeath you can spam feinds, horrors (with echo so there are 2 horror skills) and fiedns... right now im only lvl 10 but i can get around 15-20 minions and keep them alive with blood of the master
but when i can change to N/Mo i will try this build out... thanx man
IGN
Merely Death 20 E/?
Merely Make You Cry 20 Mo/W
Libitina The Great 20 N/Mo
Merely Miss Spike 20 R/?
Merely X Lax 20 W/Mo
Merely Your Death 20 Me/E
ANET HURRY UP I NEED MORE CHARACTER SLOTS... plus more storage
looks good but...the only thing I would like to point out is. If you're say soloing and what not, you will need a spell that can kill things for you so you have bodies to use to raise minions. That is the reason why people bring DS, bc that is the base dmg for MM at the beginning to make bodies faster, so IMO your is good for a support MM
02/24/06 20:47
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The Hobbesinator
Posts: 24
Joined: 02/01/2006
Credibility: 0 pts
RE: Ultimate Minion Master Build
it looks like a mm who would hang back from the fighting and then just rais the bodies the warriors create (or as i like to do is rais the body of the dead warrior, then rez him... and so on)
IGN
Merely Death 20 E/?
Merely Make You Cry 20 Mo/W
Libitina The Great 20 N/Mo
Merely Miss Spike 20 R/?
Merely X Lax 20 W/Mo
Merely Your Death 20 Me/E
ANET HURRY UP I NEED MORE CHARACTER SLOTS... plus more storage
looks good but...the only thing I would like to point out is. If you're say soloing and what not, you will need a spell that can kill things for you so you have bodies to use to raise minions. That is the reason why people bring DS, bc that is the base dmg for MM at the beginning to make bodies faster, so IMO your is good for a support MM
I suppose that's true. This isn't designed to be a solo MM. There are a few builds out there to do that but admittedly this is not one of them. Most of my time is spent in new UW and SF, where MMs aren't really used for solo. But anyway, you are right, so thanks for pointing that out.
QUOTE
it looks like a mm who would hang back from the fighting and then just rais the bodies the warriors create (or as i like to do is rais the body of the dead warrior, then rez him... and so on)
I usually join barrage/pet groups for new UW (5 Barrage/Pet Rangers; 1 Healing Monk; 1 Minion Master; 1 Orders Necro). Pet's are awesome for MMs cause they still count as corpses. So usually we all stand back while the pets run up to the enemies and stop them, then the rangers barrage while the orders necro uses orders and the monk heals. Pets will die relatively quickly, even at level 20. When they die, I summon a minion. Then an enemy will die and I'll summon another minion; meanwhile rangers rez their pets. Another pet will die...so on and so on. Before you know it, you've got 30-35 minions beatin on the enemy. So yeah, I hang back from the battle...but in a barrage/pet group, so does everyone else :)
well heres a small change im thinking of, instead of healing breeze use symbol of wrath, dont add any smite. because incase if anything atks u, that symbol will make em run back. and let u cast. even in pvp
Miranda Esteve I
-Warrior/Monk (lvl20 got all skills i need)
Miranda Esteve Il
-Monk/Warrior (lvl10, going to be a solo UW)
i like the mm build with blood of master veratas sacrifice and what not hel area and its relly good to take putrid explosion whn your doing liek an fa run so when u dont have 25 energy withc is rre use that to hit a feew 126 on nearby fows and then get energ up or while fiends is recharging sue it and more fends for the making for you
i like the mm build with blood of master veratas sacrifice and what not hel area and its relly good to take putrid explosion whn your doing liek an fa run so when u dont have 25 energy withc is rre use that to hit a feew 126 on nearby fows and then get energ up or while fiends is recharging sue it and more fends for the making for you
Excellent guide, almost exactly same as build I use. The only difference is I dropped OoB. the 20% health drop just isnt worth it for 9 energy gain (14-5 for spellcost of OoB). I throw the extra pts into soulreap and grab a skill of choice for empty slot (depending on where you are, pick appropriate skill) Example:In Sorrows I like to take Rotting Flesh or Deathly Swarm to help out if there are no corpses, or sometimes Grenths Balance to use on a boss. Bringing Restore Life can be a party savior sometimes too...lol.
If your looking for sacking your health go with the N/Me, and the N/Mo is the Main factory. His guide was originally ment for a gvg battle or team battles. Either way works, but hey its worth a shot to try it out if you want to.
The Characters under this account are currently taking a break from Guild Wars. For the time being, I am diverting my time to Star Wars Galaxies. *don't worry i will be back when nightfall comes out*
03/15/06 13:45
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Clean My Bosha
Posts: 14
Joined: 03/15/2006
Credibility: 0 pts
RE: Ultimate Minion Master Build
I'm pretty sure you dont need anything in healing. I'd just put everything into Death and Soulreap (for the energy). My Build is
1. Animate Bone Horror
2. Animate Bone Fiend
3. Veratas Sacrifice
4. Blood of the Master
5. Deathly Swarm (just in case there is no corpses)
6. Taste of Death
7. Purge Conditions (since veratas gives you all of the negative conditions of your minions)
8. Res
I usually get many minions this way by using a constant Veratas and if the minions are weak Blood of the Master.
Excellent guide, almost exactly same as build I use. The only difference is I dropped OoB. the 20% health drop just isnt worth it for 9 energy gain (14-5 for spellcost of OoB). I throw the extra pts into soulreap and grab a skill of choice for empty slot (depending on where you are, pick appropriate skill) Example:In Sorrows I like to take Rotting Flesh or Deathly Swarm to help out if there are no corpses, or sometimes Grenths Balance to use on a boss. Bringing Restore Life can be a party savior sometimes too...lol.
You'll want to take tainted flesh into sorrows instead, especially if you have a tank who knows how to 'work the crowd'...
the great thing about having taint is that it's a low skill cost and highly effective if used properly in an otherwise high energy cost build. OoB is too much of a sac, if your soul reaping is high, you shouldn't run into any energy management skills, and if you do, that's what the BR necro is for.
I'm a huge fan of necros and I've played many different builds for them. Out of them all, I think that MM is the most fun (and the most powerful given the right circumstances...can you say new UW?) I made this guide because I noticed a number of people were trying to find a good MM build and also because I saw a number of posts of MM builds that, although they have become relatively standard, are not what I would consider to be the best. This is a work-in-progress and I plan to update it with more information at some point.
Something you should first understand is that this build is primarily designed to be used in areas with very large amounts of enemies i.e. new UW, SF, Ring of Fire, etc. Because of that, I think I should say that this build will not necessarily be the best in ALL situations. But the truth is, no build will; because what works in one situation will not necessarily work for the entire game. Nevertheless, these are what I would consider to be the most important areas of the game, so that's what this build is designed for. Okay, enough with the disclaimer (phew).
Death magic is awesome, and in my opinion, it's even better when you compliment it with some monk healing spells. So first of all, my build is a N/Mo.
Here's my general MM skill set:
Animate Bone Fiend
Animate Bone Horror
Verata's Sacrifice
Death Nova
Taste of Death
Offering of Blood (Elite)
Heal Area
Healing Breeze
(Sometimes I put Healing Seed in there somewhere, but rarely)
Animate Bone Fiend - Minion Level 18
Animate Bone Horror - Minion Level 18
Verata's Sacrifice - Regen lasts 21 Secs
Death Nova - 105 Damage
Taste of Death - +420 Health
Offering of Blood - +14 Energy
Heal Area - +110 Health
Healing Breeze - +6 Health Regen
I've tried many different MM variations and this is the one that's worked best for me.
A lot of people I've seen use stuff like Rotting Flesh, Deathly Swarm, and Tainted Flesh in their MM builds...I am not one of those people. This is because I believe firmly in the following: The purpose of a Minion Master is to make, maintain, and manipulate minions, nothing more nothing less. The purpose of the Minion Master is not to do direct attack-spell damage nor is it to do degen. If you want to do those things, make a Blood Magic necro or maybe a Death Magic necro that isn't an MM, otherwise, leave them alone. All of my attention during battle is on making minions, healing minions, and blowing up minions. If you do those things well, trust me, you won't need any thing else to do your damage.
1. If you're in any type of environment where you'll be facing a large amount of enemies (such as say new UW) make sure you use both Bone Fiend and Bone Horror. Now I've heard people who swear by simply one or the other, but if you and your team are doing your jobs well, enemy creatures should be dying faster than the amount of time it takes for one of these summoning spells to recharge. So use them both - alternating back and forth. Also, there are different advantages to each of these minion types. Horrors are great meat shields, which is always a plus. Also, they're great to use Death Nova and then Taste of Death on ("Sorry Mr. Horror, it's time for you to take one for the team ;p"). So take them to help protect yourself and your allies. Fiends are beneficial in that sometimes you'll be fighting enemies that Horrors cannot reach (or at least not without them running around to get to the enemy - agroing half the map in the process...which can happen if you're not careful). Meanwhile, you're nice little Fiends can just sit there and shoot their projectiles at an enemy that is not easily accessible on foot. Also, though I can't say this with absolute certainty, I think Fiends actually attack slightly faster than Horrors. So, long story short: take both of these spells.
2. Verata's Sacrifice - keep this on all the time, period.
3. Death Nova - as I mentioned earlier, use this on either a Horror that is about to die or on a Horror that is near a large grouping of enemies and then hit that Horror with Taste of Death for a fast, cheap, powerful nuke (and one that will heal you for 420 health to boot if you use the Taste of Death combo). Using this spell effectively takes practice, but keep with it - it's worth it.
4. Taste of Death - use it if your monk is sleeping on the job or as a combo with Death Nova.
5. Offering of Blood - I don't think many people use this skill in their MM builds but I've found it to be very helpful at times. If you're summoning minions pretty much non-stop (as I often find myself doing) then you're gonna be spending a lot of energy. Thankfully, Soul Reaping will be replenishing your energy supply relatively quickly; however, it simply isn't always enough. When things are rough and you're energy supply is running low, a fast +9 energy (14 energy received from spell minus the casting cost of 5 means you'll be gaining 9 energy) is really nice. If you figure out something that works better for you in place of this, more power to ya; but in my experience, this spell can really help in a pinch.
There are a number of benefits to having monk as your secondary when using an MM:
1. Heal Area does basically the same thing as Blood of the Master, except you don't have to sacrifice any health, instead you are actually healed as well. Because of this, it's much easier to spam this spell (when things get rough) than Blood of the Master. Also, Blood of the Master only affects minions whereas Heal Area also heals all allies around you.
2. Healing Breeze is just a great spell to have in general. As a necromancer, many of your skills require you to sacrifice health; so having a big health regenerator is always nice. Plus you can use it on any ally or minion. Another nice thing about this spell is the short recharge time (2 seconds), because of that, you could essentially have this spell on all the time (if you really needed to). Now since the build I've submitted only has two spells that require you to sacrifice health, I only have my healing attribute set to level 8, but if you really need to, you can get +8 health regen at level 12.
And so, that's it (for the moment anyway). Follow this guide and you should be trampling your enemies with an army of the undead in no time.
This guide is sortof' quasi-comprehensive, but I hope you find it beneficial. I'm interested to hear what you guys think about this, so let me know. :)
Other builds a necro might want to look into/try out:
N/Me - The staple Echo SS build; my second favorite to MM
N/Mo - This is what I usually see as the configuration for Orders necros. I have not spent a great deal of time using an orders build, mainly because I think doing orders is relatively boring. Orders are pretty decent and a lot of groups like to have one on the team but I usually have the attitude of "take em or leave em, no huge deal either way." One instance in which orders necros can be relatively helpful is in the case of a barrage/pet group (which has become a very common setup in new UW groups).
N/E - Blood Nuker - my first build; it was okay but overall I'd give it a solid "meh"
I don't suppose you can back that up with reasoning?
IMO This build is great for the task at hand, my UW2 build is very similar.
Only I swap Offering of Blood for Blood of the Master, Death Nova for Ressurect and Healing Breeze for Heal Party. Reasons being, 11 in Soul Reaping gives me energy when I need it most, and I've never run out of energy yet. It's always good to have Res, and Heal Party is good support for you Monk, if agros go wrong.
First of all, Where is your blood of the master skill. Second too all the people who dont know, Monk skills does not increase the degen of your minions health. The degen of minions increases over time, when you have monk skills your minions last longer but when they are near the end of their life there degen is large and unable to handle.
Torlax The Great - R/(Everything) - lvl 20
Drogod Rathen - E/Mo - lvl 19
Torlax The Brute - W/Mo - lvl 8
Desin Of The Lost - Mo/Me - lvl 9
