Ghials Staff Question!

imo you should stop asking other people to make your decisions for you and add whatever you want

No, as you can't add it anyway. Staffs can upgraded with a head and a wrapping and come with two built in inherents(or one inherent and an inscription for NF and EoTN staffs/staves). You've already meet that quota.

And while Hou may come off as a bit rude, he/she has a point. You started this thread already knowing what you want, just make it and move on. All the extra stuff added since, while might be interesting, doesn't answer your original question and shouldn't change what you want to get.

It comes down to this: "something that always works against you" or "something that sometimes works for you." Decisions, decisions.

You never get a benefit from a fortitude mod if you are using BotM even moderately. Not only does it increase your sacrifice costs, but it automatically makes you the primary target, even after one use.

Plus, you get the added benefit of actually getting a use out of a Mastery wrapping! (They have absolutely no use beyond minions and maintained enchants.)

Not a bad build at all. Pretty close to what I run:
[skill]Order of Undeath[/skill][skill]Animate Shambling Horror[/skill][skill]Animate Bone Fiend[/skill][skill]Blood of the Master[/skill][skill]Karei's Healing Circle[/skill][skill]Dark Bond[/skill][skill]Infuse Condition[/skill][skill]Restore Life[/skill]

The last slot is optional, a variety of things can go here. Ebon Battle Standard of Honor is pretty decent among other area-specific choices. The second to last slot is optional in a real pinch. Shamblings can be swapped for Vampirics. The rest is fixed.

380hp, dual sups. Shift one point from SR into Healing. Minion Master armor plus Bloodstained.

Don't listen to Chthon about Dark Bond. He must have had too much Absinthe. Dark Bond is good. Dark Bond is life. Keep it up always. ALWAYS. Be resigned to the fact that you will always be "Priority Target 1". No matter how you position, or work the field, someone will get to you sooner or later. Since you'll be ~100hp a substantial fraction of the time, and in HM enemies won't even break a sweat dealing this much damage in a single shot, Dark Bond is not optional. In fact, cover it with Infuse Condition just to make sure it stays put.

Use BotM like crazy. No, more than that, stand on it. Mash-on-Recharge, while minions are in combat. Be tapping BotM as it comes due. Auto-lock it down. Cast everything else around BotM casts.

That's "HM MMing 101" in a nutshell.

Now, finally:



Note to all Minion Masters
Assuming you want dual HCT, HRT, and +1 mods, you are better off with a wand and offhand as you will get a +2 permanent energy from this combination. Get a 20/20 death wand and a focus with HCT and +1 mods. There are crafter, collecter and greens available for both. Toss in a second focus with 15/-1 and +1 mods as an optional high energy set.

Agreed, and thank you! Couldn't have said it better myself, though I've tried several times now.

The more I've played with it, the more fond I've become of Ebon Battle Standard of Honor. Even without the vs-Charr bonus, it's still like having an extra copy of Order of Undeath + Order of Pain all in one skill. Stacked with OoU, it turns your minions into vicious little killing machines (not that they weren't already), and it turns vampiric horrors into godmode auto-healing.

I rarely find myself wishing I had dark bond in PvE. Perhaps it's because I run a little bit higher life, or perhaps it's just my personal tolerance for risk is a little higher. Anywho, Dark Bond is not a bad skill, it's just not one I'd call "mandatory," or even in the top tier among contenders for the option slots, and, above all, it is not a replacement for a self-heal (which so many people seem to think it is).
Slightly aside, although I prefer heal area over mystic regen most of the time, if you're already running 2 other enchants, why not use mystic regen?

Good advice.

Yep. If you want a second HCT mod instead of +e, wand+focus works better. It's basically trading 3e for a second HCT mod.

If I had trouble keeping a minion army going, I would do that. Since I am able to keep minions running without spamming it, I'll save my energy and time, and health. I don't run minion bombing, so I don't want my minions to die fast. They are there to deal damage and body block. However, I only use Blood of the Master between battles, or during long battles with few new corpses. Since I am always finding new corpses to use for new minions, there is no need to heal my minions, I just make new ones. I've seen many noob MMs spam Blood of the Master to keep their army alive, and die because they had low health and got attacked. That, or the Monk wastes his energy keeping the MM alive because they don't have energy to self heal, and then the Monk can't heal the team.

If you spam Blood of the Master, and it works for you, continue to do it. Know, however, that it is not the only way to succeed as an MM. In fact, it may not be the best way.