N/R Build - New player needs your opinion

I am getting the game for fathers day, and have been thinking of what to build. So far I have come up with this. I would love some opinions, since I have not played for more than half an hour. (and not as this build)

My Idea is to have a good damage dealing archer with minions running around to help out and keep me safe.

Necromancer/Ranger

10 Marksmaship -To help deal damage?
8 Wilderness Survival -To help deal damage/conditions, and help heal?
10 Death Magic -For pets
8 Soul Reaping -So I don't run out of energy

I have not learned all the skills yet, but will be using your advice on what to try out.

Ideas, suggestions, comments?

So, you are going to be a pet master on your necro side, but with your ranger secondary you don't want to use a pet. Correct? Also, is this for PvE or PvP? I'm gonna assume PvP and leaving your attribute points where they are I would suggest...

Animate Bone Horror (Death) Description: Exploit target corpse to animate a level 1/14/18 Bone Horror. (NB: If you die the minions become masterless and may attack your allies.)

Death Nova (Death) Description: For the next 30 seconds, if target ally dies, Death Nova deals 26/85/105 damage to all nearby creatures, and they become Poisoned for 15 seconds.

Taste of Death (Death) Description: Steal 100/340/420 health from target animated undead ally.

Verata's Sacrifice (Death) Description: Sacrifice 15% of your maximum health. For the next 8/18/22 seconds, all undead allies gain +10 health regeneration. All Conditions are removed from those allies and transferred to you.

Troll Unguent (Wilderness Survival) Description: For the next 10 seconds, you gain health regeneration +3/+9/+11.

Pin Down (Marksmanship) Description: If this attack hits, the target enemy is Crippled for 3/13/17 seconds.

Melandru's Resiliance (Wilderness Survival + ELITE) Description: For the next 8/23 seconds, you gain +2 health regeneration and +1 energy regeneration for each Condition and Hex you are suffering.

Hunter's Shot (Marksmanship) Description: If this attack hits, you strike for +3/+13/+17 damage. If this attacks hits an enemy that is moving or knocked down, that enemy begins Bleeding for 3/21/27 seconds.

Okay... so... basically the first 4 skills are your minion master skills. Basically every pet master needs them. Taste of Death + Death Nova = Suicide bomb + free health. Verata's Sacrifice is to keep them alive longer cause they die so fast at high lvls.

You'll notice the elite skill I picked was Melandru's Resiliance. I have a feeling this build will have some trouble with energy and if you notice Verata's Sacrifice gives you conditions that your undead might be suffering from, so you've got a little combo there.

Pin Down + Troll Unguent are there because they are basically required in most ranger builds. Both will save your arse countless times and Pin Down is amazing for runners.

I picked Hunter's Shot for the final skill because of the bleed.

Anyways, hope I helped. Have fun.

It will be PvE for now, and yes I want necro minions but no ranger pet.
You helpoed a lot, thanks for the suggestion/info. I am really happy you put in why you chose the skills. Since I am new and don't know anything yet (except for the little reading I have done so far) I appreciate the extra info, so I can learn a bit more about the skill and strats.

ne1 else?

Quote:

I'd switch out Wilderness for Blood. Blood line is great for doing damage and healing at the same time.

I'm not sure why you'd want to skip the free ranger pet. It could be the cornerstone of your little army, especially when you're raising the first couple minions. It's the most efficient DoT in the game.

My main concern would be whether Soul Reaping could substitute well enough for Expertise in allowing consistent use of bow specials while raising minions. Without specials, bow damage isn't very impressive. But I guess asking Reaping to fuel raising + archery specials isn't much different than expecting it to fuel raising + Blood spells. I'd still lean toward Blood, though, because you get damage and healing instead of just damage with Marksmanship. For example, with 5 or so in Blood, Vampiric Gaze for 10 energy will do about 30 damage and heal you for that same amount; I don't think 5 in Marksmanship adds even 30 damage for Power Shot's 10 energy (someone correct me if I'm mistaken).