a quick easy guide at becoming a fairly decent Minion Master
1. your death attribute should be 16: thats max + facial scar + superior rune
2. your soul reaping should be at least 12: that's either max or 11 + minor rune
3. you must have the following skills, no ifs nor buts:a. animate bone fiends
b. animate bone horrors
c. verata's sacrifice
d. blood of the master
e. a rez skill or signet (only reason i'm N/Mo is rebirth, in the heat of battle never allow your monks to rez and loose energy)
4. you must wear bloodstained boots, they finally help you claim corpses faster
5. the best and cheapest starting weapons are collectors: a. 20/20 death staff from Luven Underwood right outside Diviner's Ascent exit of Elona Reach
b. 20/20 death cesta (offhand) from Volsung Stoneketil right outside the Talus Chute exit of Droknar's Forge
c. +1 death +30 health cesta (offhand) from Ingrid Larson inside Maguuma Stadt
an MM's job is to animate, maintain and direct. the minions will earn +1 degen every 20 seconds so don't waste your energy keeping old ones alive but you have to try to keep verata's sac up so you always have an army, otherwise, an MM without minions is simply another liability. you must also target with your wand the mob you want to kill, while not all the minions will follow your direction, some at least will. and lastly, stay back until your tank has aggro before you unleash your minions by wanding the target. nothing can be worse than minions going berserk doing hardly any damage because they have scattered to each face different foes.
tip: heal your minions by tapping W A S or D first. this will bunch them up. when they are bunched up, hit your area heal like blood of the master or heal area or healing spring.
note: healing minions with healing prayers does not make them degen faster.
i am writing this as a guide to the many new MM's and up and coming MM's out there because the quality of this build has really gone down lately giving the MM build a bad rep in game. while this is not the bible of MM building, it is at least the basics most decent long time MM's have been following.
*thanks to fenixxor for the contributions.
*my apologies regarding the staff collector. my original post of John Verado at the Skyward Reach exit of Augery Rock has the 20/20 curses and not death staff.
MM Basics
xXa1
The Fenixxor
Hmmm, i dont use animate horrors, i often dont bring a res signet either - depending on who i'm with, nor do i think 11 soul reaping is neccessary all the time... simply depends on your build. You may want to add why you use bloodstained boots since new MM's might not know what it does...
Also talking about keeping minions grouped between battles for easy healing might be helpful.
Also talking about keeping minions grouped between battles for easy healing might be helpful.
xXa1
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Fenixxor
Hmmm, i dont use animate horrors, i often dont bring a res signet either - depending on who i'm with, nor do i think 11 soul reaping is neccessary all the time... simply depends on your build. You may want to add why you use bloodstained boots since new MM's might not know what it does...
Also talking about keeping minions grouped between battles for easy healing might be helpful. i agree, as you grow more comfortable with the build you can start customizing it and it will still be effective since you are already aware of how and why the build works
personally, i run around with some curses myself to help get me corpses faster 
Also talking about keeping minions grouped between battles for easy healing might be helpful. i agree, as you grow more comfortable with the build you can start customizing it and it will still be effective since you are already aware of how and why the build works
personally, i run around with some curses myself to help get me corpses faster
The Fenixxor
Much better nice guide.
nice guide.
Mistress Mindbender
IMO, Morgriff's Scepter and the 20/20 Grim Cesta own the bortak stuff. 1 level on a minion is not going to make that much of a difference, but increased chances of recharge do. Can save yourself 100k++. I guess bortak has an advantage where corpses are few, but still I dont think it makes much of a difference at all.
I find that elementalist secondary far exceeds any other for minion mastering due to energy management. With glyph of energy and glyph of lesser energy you can pretty much constantly cast bone fiends (even when your scepter and cesta recharge chances trigger at same time) as long as there are corpses. The faster you can make minions, the faster you can mow down enemies.
Offering of Blood is good as well, but it doesn't compare with glyph of energy; especially now that offering consumes 20% health. Glyph provides a net 20 energy with the cost of 0 attribute points. It also has same recharge as offering of blood.
I find that elementalist secondary far exceeds any other for minion mastering due to energy management. With glyph of energy and glyph of lesser energy you can pretty much constantly cast bone fiends (even when your scepter and cesta recharge chances trigger at same time) as long as there are corpses. The faster you can make minions, the faster you can mow down enemies.
Offering of Blood is good as well, but it doesn't compare with glyph of energy; especially now that offering consumes 20% health. Glyph provides a net 20 energy with the cost of 0 attribute points. It also has same recharge as offering of blood.
Miakoda
"I find that elementalist secondary far exceeds any other for minion mastering due to energy management. With glyph of energy and glyph of lesser energy you can pretty much constantly cast bone fiends (even when your scepter and cesta recharge chances trigger at same time)"
In my opinion OoB is better and keeps you in enough energy when there is a corpse but low on energy pool, with monk secondary the sac is nothing, as ele you are relying on the monk.
In my opinion OoB is better and keeps you in enough energy when there is a corpse but low on energy pool, with monk secondary the sac is nothing, as ele you are relying on the monk.
The Fenixxor
the point is: with Elementalist secondary you can have max death and max soul reaping while also having two VERY nice energy management skills, your NEVER going to run out of energy as a N/E with dual glyphs... also i'd say your relying on your monk more if your using OoB due to the sac... it nets you what? 10 energy with level 12 blood or whatever, which is one cast of heal area (which i also believe to be a completely useless skill) but whatever... different playstyles and all that - with OoB u can use Gordacs set for greater effect unlike the glyphs i suppose.
Also i wasnt aware that he advised you to buy bortaks set
Also i wasnt aware that he advised you to buy bortaks set
Miakoda
Energy management should not be much of an issue for a Mo secondary either, it's recharge times more often than not that is an annoyance.
Max death is the most important, max Reaping... not so much.
There are older posts and threads here argueing over the most effective etc..
Perhaps instead of rehashing opinions over and over we should go back to those threads where it's layed out.
Max death is the most important, max Reaping... not so much.
There are older posts and threads here argueing over the most effective etc..
Perhaps instead of rehashing opinions over and over we should go back to those threads where it's layed out.
Mistress Mindbender
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Fenixxor
Bel Ebih
Imo, 20/20 collector staves modded to a person's preference is simply way better than any Green set or item. As far as the whole N/E vs. N/Mo argument, please don't start that here since, like Miakoda said, it's been discussed very thoroughly in other threads. If you have anything to say about it, just continue the discussion on those insted of starting a new one here, especially since that's not the point of this thread.
The Fenixxor
We stopped over 8 hours ago
Aeon221
N/mo > N/e
N/e takes 1 second longer to cast because of the glyphs. Lets see you get a corpse first.
N/e takes 1 second longer to cast because of the glyphs. Lets see you get a corpse first.
Carinae
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aeon221
N/mo > N/e
N/e takes 1 second longer to cast because of the glyphs. Lets see you get a corpse first. Actually, it's 1.75 seconds, including the aftercast delay.
N/e takes 1 second longer to cast because of the glyphs. Lets see you get a corpse first. Actually, it's 1.75 seconds, including the aftercast delay.
xXa1
the point of my post is to make the beginner MM aware of the important skills, the important attributes and the possible starter weapons available to him in making a fairly decent MM (consider that beginners don't usually have the means to purchase golds or greens yet
).the choice of which weapon over which weapon and of which secondary over which secondary only muddles the issue. at this stage he still has to learn how to animate, maintain and direct his undead army to make it useful to the group effort. he still has to understand how his attributes affect his skills and how his skills work the way they do.
once he has mastered this he can always opt to get his weapons of choice with all the fancy bling bling, and his secondary of choice for whatever good he perceives it will do to his being an MM
. note: i am not in any way supporting any secondary at all, my choice of monk is only for rebirth which in my opinion an important utility skill for the entire party.
P.S:
Quote:
Quote:
He mentions Starting. I just assumed he meant bortaks
you assume wrongly, i am not advising the use of Bortak's even if i do use his set, however, i just love the bling it brings when some show-off spam's his weaponry and i spam back with "I am wielding Bortak's Claw and Bortak's Bone Cesta." 
Bone Jangle
I occasionally go it as N/R, for Serpent's Quickness. It really helps with keeping Verata's up as much as possible, and I find that it's not always necessary to put points into it if you need to be frugal, as it lasts 15 seconds on its own (Which is plenty of time to get off a few spells). The only problem is the 45s recharge.
With this secondary, you don't get much help with energy management, so keep that in mind.
With this secondary, you don't get much help with energy management, so keep that in mind.
Mistress Mindbender
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aeon221
N/mo > N/e
N/e takes 1 second longer to cast because of the glyphs. Lets see you get a corpse first. You only use the glyphs when you don't have the energy to summon without. That is why people have an elemental secondary.
When you have 10 energy, lets see you get the corpse first.
N/e takes 1 second longer to cast because of the glyphs. Lets see you get a corpse first. You only use the glyphs when you don't have the energy to summon without. That is why people have an elemental secondary.
When you have 10 energy, lets see you get the corpse first.
The Fenixxor
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mistress Mindbender
When you have 10 energy, lets see you get the corpse first.
*grin*
Bel Ebih
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mistress Mindbender
When you have 10 energy, lets see you get the corpse first.
). As far as VS, yeah, Renewal is always cast before it so there the extra second applies, but I don't see what an extra second to cast VS in order to keep it 100% up has to do with the casting of summons to get the corpses. ... oy... I don't like where this is going but I couldn't help it.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by xXa1
you assume wrongly, i am not advising the use of Bortak's even if i do use his set, however, i just love the bling it brings when some show-off spam's his weaponry and i spam back with "I am wielding Bortak's Claw and Bortak's Bone Cesta."
In my opinion, a perfect Insightful Bone Staff of Death Magic is more 'bling' than a lesser set with someone elses name.
Carinae
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Fenixxor
also i'd say your relying on your monk more if your using OoB due to the sac...
Hmm? Not trying to sound confrontational, but have you played N/Mo?
N/Mo (with Heal Area) is totally self-sufficient, except for damage mitigation, and they are highly resillient there as well. They can wander away from the monk (or vice-versa), survive err=7, drops, pugs, able to split the party, recover from near total party wipings (while maintaining their army), and can even solo. Throw Dark Bond in there, and you are virtually indestructable, and have an easier time justifying the points in Blood. I won't get into the debate about MM secondaries in this thread, but (and I think Bel will back me here) the one thing you can say for sure about N/Mo is that it's easy on the monks.
ender6
1) Energy Management:
I run with soul reaping at 10 never have any problems so i think the soul reaping at 12 req as stated in the start of this thread is a tad theatrical. The trick here is to use what works for you. If you are running into energy management issues then raise soul reaping. Or add OoB. 2) Monk as Secondary: yeah it's nice. Certainly not required I do just fine with my N/Me. Actually I do better than most N/Mo. But that has nothing to do with secondary. 3) Dark Bond: Yeah it makes you almost indestructable, of course where i usually MM it usually gets stripped. So I opted to utilize taste of death in place of Dark Bond, i never carry both. I find taste of death to be more reliable. Quick & EZ & no stripping. (just my personal preference for where I MM) 4) Energy Rediscovered: I often come across MM's who have the correct build but keep spamming for energy. Now how is this possible? Because they are wasting every ounce of energy to keep alive 4 minnions that have a degen of -10. Sometimes you've got to know when to say when. Let those little bastids die, reclaim some energy in the process and raise some new minnions. You strike up the balance correctly and you will have an army of 20+ minnions. No guide can teach you how to manage this, it is called common sense. **Lastly whenever I read an MM thread on here, I feel as though it is the one build that is suffering from over analyzing. If it isn't some obscure misnomer regarding minnion health degen being related to heal skills on your skill bar, or YOU MUST HAVE such and such skills.....my god MM is the easiest build to pull off. Put a generic model together go play it, and you will instantly see where you need to improve it. kaldak
Good guide. Hopefully it can make a dent in the "Why cant I MM???" type posts.
Just a few comments: -- 12 soul reaping is more than you really need. 10 works fine. I even go down to 9 if I'm going to be using Essence Bond on a tank doing the quest item trick (such as the gear in sf). --Bone Minions are worth considering. They're actually quite cheap in the long run once soul reaping kicks in. They're not neccessarily better than horrors, but if you're ever in a situation where you need more defence than offense, consider taking minions and horrors. --Blood of the Master can be replaced by Heal Area or Healing Spring. I still like to take BotM along if I have room, but if I'm carrying one those other two spells BotM is ususally the first thing to go if I need an additional slot. --There's another collector's set that gives you a total of +42 energy at the cost of -2 energy regen. Dont use this as your primary set, but its very nice to switch to when you need to eek out a few more spells after the battle has ended.
Bel Ebih
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood
I won't get into the debate about MM secondaries in this thread, but (and I think Bel will back me here) the one thing you can say for sure about N/Mo is that it's easy on the monks. Yeah, I agree. But the funny thing is, from my experience when I run as N/Mo, most Monks have these itchy trigger fingers that leads them to heal you anyway, even after they see you have a self-heal for sacs, and even if you tell them it's really not necessary. And since you usually use Heal Area right after saccing, they end up healing you after you've already self-healed. Same thing happens when I run any N/Mo build actually (Battery, Orders). Maybe they just get bored.
Contessa
I don't use scars when I minions nor do I have energy problems. With ranger secondary in PvE I just cast energizing wind and I can spam fiends and horrors. I love life transfer or troll unguent. I travel with one or the other to counter blood sacrificing for blood of the master and verata's sac. I travelled with this build tonight to run a friend to Copperhammer from the War Camp. It worked like a charm.
Death 16 Blood 11 Soul Reaping 9 Beast Mastery 6 or 7 (I can't remember the exact number, but it's the rest of the points for energiziing wind) Life Transfer Deathly Chill Horrors Fiends Verata's Sac Blood of the Master Demonic Flesh Energizing Wind I do all kinds of variations on this build for minioning. I've had my soul reaping down to even 7 and it works fine with energizing wind. An earlier build that I used was this: Ferocious Strike (for energy) or Feral Lunge Disrupting Lunge Horrors or minions* Fiends or rotting flesh* **Any combo of the following: Verata's Sac or Blood of the Master or Troll Unguent or Healing Spring Comfort Animal Charm animal It's lots of fun, but you need to have high soul reaping until you can cap Ferocious Strike. *Also, when I was a lower-level necro, I used animate bone minions and replaced the other summoning spell with rotting flesh or deathly swarm. The reason is that the extra soul reaping helped make up for the lack of attribute points and energy until I got to a higher level. **I didn't even bother with healing until I got past Kryta. I didn't need it for myself (or minions) because there were plenty of corpses to replenish my army except for a few places with undead like around Temple of Ages. I view myself as a healer for my minions. I don't like to tax the monk to heal me. Monks already focus on keeping everyone, including themselves, alive and watching their energy. I like to make sure they have enough energy and time for emergencies. Mistress Mindbender
Energizing winds is trash. Sure, you can summon minions for only 10 energy, but you have a 25% longer recharge on minions. You have to take 5 seconds to keep summoning it every time you move, and the kicker is that it makes the recharge time on verata's sacrifice 37.5 seconds, which means that at 16 death your minions degeneration is un countered for 16.5 seconds, or 44% of the time.
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