So which of those 7 hero builds are working?

In nm it is overkill, but in HM it removes alot of pressure while SS can still deal it's damage. I thought it SS+Panic+Ineptitude was bad at first until I managed to survive some of the biggest overaggro while vanquishing Jaga Moraine. That's more of Panic + Ineptitude, not SS, however.

@Elnino - Orders with one physical, SS with Panic + Ineptitude + considerable amounts of shutdown, two healers, no Prot Spirit and two copies of Res Sig are the most glaring problems to me. I don't have the energy to fix all these problems right now though, just offering them for you to consider.

Now, I'm working with this and it's good imo

Again, Spiteful Spirit does NOT synergise well with the Dual Mesmer setup. If your mesmers are doing their job, your enemies will get very few spells or attacks out. Swap SS out for something else - perhaps Expel Hexes or Empathic Removal - that would mean you could take the Hex/Condition removals off the Ritualist and load a bit more damage on her (I'd go with Painful Bond).

Why do so many people use Jagged Bones instead of Aura of the Lich? I mean, I understand the minion multiplication part of it, but it's also nice to have strong minions that can take and deal damage on their own. Especially when you have an all caster, low armor team that shouldn't be getting hit too often by enemy melee attackers.

Minions can do a lot more than act as suicide bombers.
Totally agree. My Aotl MM using runes, masochism and Aotl itself can pump death magic up to 18(could be even more if using the +3 rune). At that attribute, Aotl is maintenable and create lvl 20 minions. Couple it the most simple minion evocation (animate bone horror: lvl 20 minion again) and you're done. 11 lvl 20 meat shield. Trow in Botm, taste of death, sols and some secondary or blood stuff. NO death nova.

Why do so many people use Jagged Bones instead of Aura of the Lich? I mean, I understand the minion multiplication part of it, but it's also nice to have strong minions that can take and deal damage on their own. Especially when you have an all caster, low armor team that shouldn't be getting hit too often by enemy melee attackers.

Minions can do a lot more than act as suicide bombers. I agree, but minions are suicide bombers. AoTL & Bone Fiends are a great combo, although so is OoU/bone fiends/Vampiric Horrors.

I usually don't use blood of the master on heroes, because it involves health sacrifice, and the LAST thing you want to have happen is to have a full army of minions going wild in the middle of a battle. If I was going to heal them (never do, heroes usually keep a full army up no matter what) I'd use feast for the dead instead of BotM. I can agree 100% to the little risk of giving BotM to a hero, but it is the ONLY skill that can really keep alive your army. Feast kill 1 minion to heal others for 100ish, which is nice, but every 10 sec. When fighting that can't keep up your minions. Btom has same heal capabilities, but evry 2 secs.
The healt sacrifice has never been an issue since i use Aotl(and i've VQ tyria+elona+various HM stuff with it), cause heroes seems to do not spam it mindlessy, never do it while under attack(that 11 minions will absorb anyways), and if needed i give my MM Taste of death to a spike self heal. And if rarely your army go wild, they will still be enemy for your foes, so it isn't that great problem, also cause w/o Botm they fall quickly after all. About Death nova, is just that i prefer have a MM supporting his minion army/party members that wasting time to cast 1 spell endless times.

Why so much love for Panic + Ineptitude and not for Psychic Instability (4s aoe ranged kd on 7s recharge...)? Panic interrupts and shuts down a lot more than PI does, and Ineptitude is just heavy damage plus attack mitigation and blind.

The damage output and shutdown from the two combined is just crazy good.