The New Minion Bomber

Soy Oil has a secret passion for books, as evidenced by her SEXY LIBRARIAN GLASSES.
Profession: Rt/N
Name: The New Minion Bomber
Type: PvE
Category: Nuker, Hexer, Degen, Conditions, Minion Master, Healer, Hero Build, I do it all!
Attributes:
12+3+1 Spawning Power (Base, Hat, and Superior Rune)
12 Death
3 Restoration (More if you’re feeling generous)

Basic Skill Bar:
[Boon of Creation][Explosive Growth][Animate Bone Minions][Death Nova]

Last four skills if you only own Factions:
[Taste of Death][Rotting Flesh][Flesh of my Flesh][Animate Flesh Golem]

Last three skills if you only own (Factions and) Nightfall:
[Putrid Flesh][Spirit's Gift][No Skill][Jagged Bones]
Optional slot:
[Signet of Creation] or [Flesh of my Flesh] or [Taste of Death]

Skillbar for the Avatar: Master of all four Campaigns
[build prof=Rt/N name="Minion Bomber Final Version" box Spawning=12+1+3 dea=12 Resto=3 desc="Weapon #1: Droknar's Spawning Staff{br}Weapon #2: 20/20 Death Wand//Armind's Focus"][Boon of Creation][Explosive Growth][Spirit's Gift][Animate Bone Minions][Jagged Bones][Taste of Death][Putrid Bile][No Skill][/build]
Optional slot:
[Necrosis] Combos nicely with [Putrid Bile]
[Flesh of My Flesh] Either you need it or you don’t. By this expansion, you could probably run 3 Monk Heroes, if you darn well wanted to.

Recommended Hero Builds: Your Heroes, your call on Runes/Insignia.
[Master of Whispers;OAVDMYxmSPAaBKg1MUBoBTVVVA]
[Olias;OAhjYwHc4M5BhmdoM4CtEV1LGA]
[Livia the Necro Healer;OAhjYghsoOjTst0cyNMxYV1LGA]
[Favorite Nuker Build;OgVDMjyMT4C0C+C0NjVLBMgNNA]
[Favorite Healer Build;OwUUMw2+G4SfE1VyEOgGNTETfZAA]
Dwayna's Sorrow on minions? YES, PLEASE!

These skills are not set in stone. Mix and match as you like, according to what area you're in, monster condition-resistance, what the party calls for, Capping an Elite skill, favorite PVE skill, expansion, Skill Updates, or personal playing style. Taste of Death, Rotting Flesh, Flesh/Flesh, EG, and Golem can all be swapped out for Signet of Creation, Cap Sig, Attuned Was Songkai + Animate of your choice, Tainted Flesh, Deathly Swarm, Well of Suffering, Intensity, Pain Inverter, Asuran Scan, Ebon Battle Standard of Honor, Great Dwarf Weapon, etc. Look further for other variations and skill sets. Also, I did not add code on runes for the Heroes, as this might be an investment not many are willing to make. I recommend that MOW gets Sup Vig/SR/Death.

Suggested Equipment:
The Weapons NPCs and Collecters can give you the Death equipment you need, until you get a suitable Rare or Green. Starting out as a level 1, find a Rod that gives you an Energy bonus when you’re Enchanted. If you can swing it, also get equipment that lowers Casting time. At least until you get the gold/materials/time to get something better, according to the handy-dandy guide down there. Up until GW:EN, I had a Poisonous(33%) Katana(+5 Energy) of Enchanting(20%). Got it from Shichiroji in Divine Path, the last mission in Factions. In my offhand, I had Armind's Focus: +12 Energy(Death), +1 Death Magic (20%), Halves Casting Time (Death 20%). For Armor, I’ve experimented with both the Energy and the Health-boosting sets. Personally, I settled onto the Energy set, Halycon if you're Factions and Radiant Insignia if you're Nightfall. Runes of Attunement are also pretty tasty.

Low level: Staff, Half Casting/Recharge(10%) when using Death Magic, Energy +5 (Weapons NPC at Shing Jea Monastary)
Middling: Staff, Half Casting/Recharge(20%) when using Death Magic, Energy +10 (Weapons NPC at Kaineng Center)

High: Rod with Half Casting(20%), Energy+5(Health>50%) when using Death Magic, Focus of Death Magic +1(20%), Energy +12, Health +30 (Sheco in Bukdek Byway)
Optional: Rod of Half Casting/Recharge(20%) when using Death Magic (Kurzick: Vasburg Armory/ Luxon: Leviathan Pits)

Elite: Poisonous(33%) Sword/Axe of Enchanting(20%), (+15% damage^50% Health or Energy +5,) with Bortak's Bone Claw and Bortak's Cesta in a second weapon slot (Tyria Greens). (Rare Drops. Shichiroji in Divine Path has +5 Energy Weapons, but no 15^50.)
Optional: Ghial's Staff Or the equivalent Middling Staff with Enchanting +20% instead
In Nightfall, you can also pick up Armind's Focus, which is pretty much the Bortak offhand, or The Nightbringer
When you've beaten GW:EN, you can pick up Droknar's Spawning Staff, which replaces the Poisonous Sword/Axe of Enchanting. Keep in mind that Spawning Power is a Primary Attribute, so you only get HCT 10%. This should not be an issue, as we should have already gotten into the habit of casting our enchants out of combat. The Staff is an even better upgrade because a stray Spacebar mash or a failure to switch weapons will not send us headlong into combat.

If you don't have the greens or all the parts of the Elite weapon sets, switch between your Rod/Focus and your Sword/Focus, depending on what spells you're casting, or whether you're starting the battle out. Takes practice, it does. And just because everyone keeps asking, Sheco needs a total of 190 Bone, 30 Scale, 6 Plant Fiber, and 10K for the Rod/Focus set. Shichiroji needs 40 Iron, 6 Steel, and 10K. You have to Salvage/Buy/Trade the mods yourself. You only get to Divine Path when you beat Shiro. Once you leave that area, you gotta beat Shiro AGAIN to go to the area again. If you didn't pick up a +5 Energy Weapon before you get to Shiro, then now's your chance to get one. FYI, I didn't, so I had to buy it. In general, Nightfall focuses on Half Skill Recharge equipment, which is useless to the minion bomber.

Quote: Originally Posted by BarGamer, from the Guildwiki: 1 being very important, and 5 being not so much:

(1*)Lengthens poison duration on foes by 33%
(1)+1 to Death Magic (20% chance)
(2)Halves casting time of Death Magic spells
(2)Enchantments last 20% longer
(2)Additional Energy
(5)Additional armor or health
(5)Halves skill recharge time of death magic spells

*Very important only in non-GWEN Campaigns. Otherwise, around 3-4 Playing a Minion Bomber:
This is for all those people who say that Ritualists stink, that Minion Mastering got nerfed, or on the flip side, just plain love to mini-manage and have the lightning-fast fingers to prove it. This build is an insane combination of condition-spreading, minion mastering, and non-aggro-breaking (minion-centered) Point-Blank AoE. With the Addition of Nightfall, you can experience this build with one of your Heroes! With the addition of GWEN, we have hexing, and less mini-management! With the addition of the Minion UI and seven Heroes, we can have Death Nova on our main bar again!

The Skill Bar explained:
The joy with this build is that when you get two minions for the price of one spell, you also reap double the benefits from Boon, Growth, and Spirit's Gift. Boon of Creation is the First-place winner, easily. At 12 Spawning, you're only eating 5 Energy loss per Animate Minions. At 16, you're only losing 3 Energy. Explosive Growth is the Second-Place winner, here. When you deal 136 Lighting damage to 5 foes, usually in the middle of those angry mobs, it's usually enough to kill off enemies that were softened up by the Death Nova.

Flesh Golem is not only another tank, but when he dies, he leaves behind an exploitable corpse. If you don't have a Flesh Golem around with you at all times in Factions, you are not fully exploiting this skill. Same thing with having 8 Jagged Horrors.

As can be assumed, use Taste of Death to blow them up, or when you're low on health. If you're feeling lazy or just need a slot for Capture Signet, drop Taste of Death and just let the enemy kill the minions for you. As you're not a Necro main, you don't have a Superior Death rune, so your minions are lower level. And therefore, easier to kill. I’ve also met with success in dropping Deathly Swarm/Rotting Flesh for the Cap Sig.

In Factions, Flesh of My Flesh is the hard Rez that every Minion Master needs. You should be THE last person to die, even after the Monks. When you have to run away, fire off a few Death Novas on your doomed party members, then make tracks. When you return, Animate their corpse, THEN Rez. The half-life the spell puts you at is irrelevant, when you've got Taste of Death a single tap away. If you do fall in battle, ask politely that you be Rezzed first, for the simple reason that you can Animate your fallen party members and that you have a hard Rez.

Nightfall Alternate Jagged Bones instead of Flesh Golem. This means that when a minion goes boom, it triggers Explosive Growth/Boon of Creation again and the resultant Jagged Horror is itself a target for Jagged Bones (and Death Nova). Furthermore, Jagged Bones doesn't need to be targetted. As long as your current selection, (for example an enemy) is not one of your minions, the AI will auto-cast it on the nearest minion without JB. This is doable even in levels that have few exploitable corpses.

To start out in Factions, you will be some wierd combination caster of sorts until you get your first Animate from the Skill Chaining quest in Shing Jea. Until then, suck it up to experience and go play with your Union/Shelter Spirit-summoning, Lightning-zapping, Item-holding, Swarm-slinging self. Do every quest that you can in the Monastery, especially the training ones, because they give you free skills AND experience. Save up on Bolts of Cloth, you need them for the Armor traders.

Know what you minions need: If you hit Y, it brings up the Minion UI panel. The previous GW patches let you know which minions are already primed, via that handy Enchanted arrow, so that you don't waste a Death Nova. After that, just watch for when red-bars-go-down and select that unfortunate minion for Taste of Death or whatever Big Kill Button you want. If you have Nightfall, don't forget to cast Jagged Bones on it, too.

Starting out as Rit/N in Nightfall and EOTN:You can't. Port your Factions one over. For more details, see Page 3.

Starting a battle in Factions:
First things first. If you don't have your max of 8 minions, or the ones you do have are on their last legs, Taste of Death your Flesh Golem. Now make Minions. Death Nova them while they politely stand in a circle around you. Do it fast, you only have ~30 seconds before the first one wears off. When handling henchmen, Flags lets you stay put while targeting/calling so that they go in first. After the Warrior henchies take the aggro, send in your first wand attack so that your minions can go in. Only then do you cast Boon and Growth, so that you get the maximum time out of your Enchantments. You don’t need them until the first enemy falls, right? Speed the process along with Rotting Flesh. When the first enemy falls, your first AND last Animate should be Flesh Golem, unless he's already up. First, so he can kill more things, and last, so you can start things off at the next group of enemies. Keep up your Boon and Growth enchantments throughout the battle.

Ending a battle in Factions:
When they're all dead, go ahead and Animate a few more times, replacing your low-health minions with fresh ones. Don't worry if you accidentally Animate from one of your party members, they can still be Rezzed, and hey, it's their fault for dying. If EG has worn off, don't bother re-casting it, you only need Boon for this. While your Animate is recharging, pick up loot, check your map/guide for directions, massage your poor fingers, etc.

Starting a battle in Nightfall:
If you have no minions, Flag your NPCs into battle, cast Boon, EG, and SG, put Nova on anything going into melee, and wait for the first mob to fall. Animate, Jagged, Nova-Nova. Repeat as necessary. When your Bone Minions get into range of a nice group of enemies, Taste of Death or Putrid Flesh it. Jagged. Every Animate or minion-kill-spell should be followed by a Jagged Bones, then anything else. Your Jagged Horrors are higher level than your Bone Minions, which means that they can do more melee damage and Bleeding degen. Needless to say, keep up your enchants.

Ending a battle in Nightfall:
Animate up to 8, then start casting on the run (with your Necro Hero) Jagged Bones on your Bone Minions and low-health Jagged Horrors. As before, no need for Explosive Growth, just Boon and SG. Some people like Blood of the Master for this, but I think it's a waste of a slot when in battle.

Starting a battle in GW:EN/Proph:
Precast your Enchants, and wand/Putrid Bile the first mob. This should get the rest of your Heroes and minions started. If no minions, then that means your Necro Hero will just have to spam Icy Veins a few times. Start flinging Putrid Bile and/or Necrosis on everything. Since you can target enemies a lot easier than minions, don't be shy about wasting a cast.

Ending a battle in GW:EN/Proph:
Animate, feeding your Necro Hero Energy via Animates/Soul Reaping if necessary. As before, Boon and SG only. If you have Jagged Bones, cast it on the run.


Suggested Henchies for Factions:
Healers, Fighters, Nukers, and the Earth henchy. If you have any other Animates besides Bone Minions or Flesh Golem, take Eve, she has Blood Ritual. Last-picks are Rits, Archers, and Brutus the Blood Necro, in that order. You don't need Interrupters, Illusion, or any of the others.

Suggested Henchies/Heroes for Nightfall:
Both Monk Heroes, both Elementalist Heroes, both Necro Heroes, Eve for Blood Rit, Cynn, Devona, Gehraz, and the last Hero slot open for "Required Hero:" or whatever. Adjust this last slot according to the area, personal preference, or however much you stripped your other characters for their equipment and gave it to your heroes. (My Prophesies MM and Nuker are pretty much naked now.) Once you cap Jagged Bones, that last slot will be Olias or Master of Whispers (MOW), whichever you like better, as a rather odd MM. As for Healing Prayers Monks, I gave Dunkoro "Dwayna's Sorrow," for party heals whenever a minion dies. How to use: I put Dunkoro's Hero Skill Panel right where I can see it, and select myself, then click the skill. I, and most importantly my minions, all get a 30-second buff. Repeat for your MM Hero, if you have one.

Suggested Henchies/Heroes for GW:EN/Proph:
The three Necro Heroes are pretty much the only requirement. For the others, I switched on and off between a Nuker Hero and a Healing Hero, two Monk Heroes, and two Rit Heroes. For one dungeon, I had to take the Healing Hero and two Rangers. Henchies are even more up in the air: By the start of EOTN, you could fill out your whole party with Heroes, and never bring another Henchy again. Due to the prevalence of Ice-themed dungeons, and the condition requirement for Necrosis, also consider getting Searing Flames for your Eles.

The Pre-20 Necro Hero:
Remember when we said that the damage becomes disgusting with another MM in the party? I wasn't lying. When you first get Olias or MOW, drag them over to Vizunah Square and level them up to 20. They should get a level per run. In places where you need a little more firepower and the corpses are plentiful, like Vizunah Square, go nuts having two MMs. Choose wisely what areas you take him through. Otherwise, he will be a source of aggravation as his primitive AI steals corpses from you. Shift-Click on an Animate skill to prevent this.
[build prof=N/Mo name="Vizunah Square pre-20 Necro"][Death Nova][Dark Bond][Heal Area][Karei's Healing Circle][Animate Flesh Golem][Animate Vampiric Horror][Animate Bone Fiend][Rebirth][/build]

Post-Jagged Bones Necro Hero
Once you cap Jagged Bones, Olias or MOW's roles change. Ideally, he'll never cast an Animate. Instead, he essentially becomes your Enchant Slave. Because MOW's primary profession is Necro, you can safely give him a Sup Death Rune/Soul Reaping, and let him go to town. Because of the way Enchantment-stacking works with Jagged Bones, you'll never waste a casting of Jagged Bones, and sometimes Nova. The optional slot is if you feel sorry for him, and want to give him Fiends for more damage, Vamps for more melee damage and survivability, Shambling Horrors for damage and two Jagged Horrors for one spell (Jagged Bones), Dwayna's Sorrow for party heals, Verata's Aura if you find yourself dying a lot but don't want your minions getting totally away from you, Deathly Chill, or any other spell you feel like sticking in there. Re-arrange the skills as you see fit, or to adapt for the Soul Reaping Nerfs.
[build prof=N/Mo name="Post-Jagged Bones Necro"][Death Nova][Jagged Bones][Heal Area][Karei's Healing Circle][Bitter Chill][Deathly Swarm][No Skill][Rebirth][/build]

In GW:EN, this changes a lot. I used MoW, cuz he's cooler. When the battlefield has the corpses, he casts Animates and Signet of Lost Souls. When the field is light, he does Hexes, direct damage, Novas, and Verata/Blood of the Master. More explosions = good. Due to the focus on Hexes, I found that most areas benefited from the single Animate choice of Fiends. I've also experimented with Signets, also to keep the Energy costs down.
[Repeated Above, Under Hero Builds;OAVDMYxmSPAaBKg1MUBoBTVVVA]

In Prophesies, if you've ever played through it with a Necro way back when, you should know that it was pretty darned easy with un-nerfed Soul Reaping/Death Magic. Just for kicks and giggles and the Tyria Protector Title, I decided to take MoW the Signet-popping Hex-Slave, Olias with SS+Barbs+Mark of Pain, and Dunk the post-buff Monk through Prophesies. And well, with max level Heroes, that you can order to use skills, not even Bloodstone Fen was much trouble. More as I progress.


The Rit Hero:
Ok, I admit it. I avoided Domain of Anguish until they started handing out free Razahs. Grab Gaze of Fury from Tohn in Kamadan or Warden of Whispers in the Kodash Bazaar if you got a spare Hero Point, and proceed to cheat through the "Finding a Purpose" mission. Kill all 3 Spirits with GoF, THEN talk to Razah. Easy. If you go with a group, more than likely, you'll be asked to go Resto, as trying to Minion Bomb through DoA is just... ew.

Once you get him in Nightfall, he'll be replacing your Necro. Give him the same equipment and skill bar as yourself, and a spare green Death Staff. Personally, I gave him The Nightbringer. There were lots of them on the market immediately after April 5th and 10th 2007, from people retiring their Necros. Feel free to tweak any of your Hero's skills if you like them better. Animate Vampiric Horror or Shambling Horror might be fun. Or, heck. He's a RIT. Make him a Spirit Spammer, Resto, Channeling, Splinter Barrage, whatever you want. Two Rits are always better than one. Issue with the AI, but they don't seem to manage Enchants very well.

Xandra: Having trouble with the Norn Tournament, but when I get her, Razah and her could replace my 2 Monks. Theoretically. 3 Rits and a Necro. What could go wrong?

Other Notes: If you as the player are not a Rit-main, but are putting this build onto a Hero, keep in mind that the AI has pretty poor Enchantment management. I recommend key-binding the three Enchantments to something. Also, they will not have access to PVE-only skills. However, they do have superior targeting skills. Feel free to put Jagged Bones, Death Nova, or interrupts on the Rit Hero.

The Ele Hero:
Ever since Nightfall, more and more Eles are going with Searing Fire as their Elite of choice. Having not seriously played one since Factions release, I only just discovered how I can make Burning work for me. (I’ve been running off of an ancient Echo-chain Fire Storm build until now.) The first thing you should realize before you start kicking your Heroes is, Destroyers are immune to Burning, indeed, they have high armor against fire damage. That means, knowledge of whether there are gonna be Destroyers in your future is the determining factor of whether you want a Nuker in your team. You might be better served with an Ice Ele or another Profession entirely.

With that out of the way, let’s assume you’re blowing up other weak, fleshy things, like Afflicted, Margonites, Baby Raptors, etc. The two enchantments are natch, as is SF itself. But what about the other skills? The 2 Hexes are both AOE, and inflict Burning. The new GW:EN skill, Glowing Gaze gives you Energy, and smacks it for more Fire damage when it’s Burning. Liquid Flame is the wider version of Fireball. All of these benefit from Glyph of Immolation, which just keeps getting buffed. Necrosis is gonna have LOTS of targets!


Tip for non-GW:EN Campaigns: Death Nova is a pain to use, I know. Outside of battle, if you can't keep track of your minions when they're right in front of you, and you can't predict their movements when a minion temporarily dies before getting back into the circle, it's a sign that you're not likely to do either of these critically important skills when in battle. Clean your mouse, replace the batteries, do ANYTHING to improve your hand-eye coordination. Spend some time practicing targeting your minions, ways to get them to light up, stopping on a misclick, and such. Customize your interface, your skill bar, your hot keys.

Tips for managing your MM Heroes: I've found that both MoW and Razah have a hard time maintaining their enchants. MoW's problem is Dark Bond and Mantra of Insignias, and Razah is all three Enchants. Open up their Skill panel, and either manually keep them up, or assign hotkeys. Annoying, I know. This is my personal setup, it might work well for you: QWER//ASDF = Putrid, SG, Boon, EG//Taste, Jagged, Animate, Nova. This puts C and Tab right there for enemy targeting and wanding, or moving with the Space Bar. Personally, I alternated between Tab+Space and the mouse to move around. If the battle is going badly, hit X to 180 and run away. With the Hero Skill Key-binds Update, I gleefully changed 0-9 to Hero skills. 1-4 for MoW, 5-8 for Razah or Olias, and Dunk has 9-0 for Heal Party and an Elite. Other people have success remapping other keys or using the keypad to move, that's just my method.

Notes: You need to have fast fingers, and lots of corpses. The areas where this build has difficulty include: Tahnnakai Temple Mission, where those Temple Guardians don't make exploitable corpses; Arborstone Mission, where you get interrupted to heck by falling rubble; any area with heavy Stonescale Kirin, because they corpse-steal to make minions too; and the Kessex Peak area in Tyria, because the Shepard of Verata use Verata's Aura on your minions. Most problems with this build fall under those categories. However, a good friend or two with Ursan-way should smooth your travels nicely. Thanks, guys!

Places where this build rocks the house include the narrow alleyways and sewers of Kaineng City, Vizunah Square, Echovald Forest, Raisu Palace, and especially against the Am Fah. Those guys are WEAK. Not like the Jade Brotherhood and their Knights. If you have a Necro-main MM with you in these areas, the damage just becomes disgusting, especially if you coordinate your Animates. In Napui Quarter, one of our fans recommends Well of Suffering instead of Rotting Flesh, because of the mixed fleshy/non-fleshy monster types.

In a corpse-rich environment, a Necro-main MM should be the happiest person/NPC you know, since all the Bombing you're doing is feeding him Energy. You see, he's forced to keep killing his minions, just to keep his Energy up, of which he needs a lot. More, since the SR nerf. The Ritualist doesn't, on both counts. The Ritualist gets Energy when he creates, and is just as happy letting his minions do melee damage until they die, whereupon they go boom. It's a critical difference in tempo.

Another strategy is to aggressively use the Minion Cap to your advantage. Once you have 8 minions (or however many your Death Magic has your Cap), all with Nova up, Animate another pair of minions. Two of your lowest-health minions are force-killed, double-Novas. You also gain two full-health minions, Boon Energy, and EG goes off. You just gained 8 separate benefits from one spell. You see, with high Spawning, Taste of Death is no guarantee that your minion will fall. The Minion Cap enforcement however, is hard-coded in. A necro-nerf is a Ritualist exploit, just waiting to be discovered.

In Nightfall, that same nerf/exploit becomes even more disgusting. Assuming an ideal situation where all 8 of your minions have Nova and Jagged Bones on them, a single Animate Bone Minions creates a cascade effect of activating Novas, EGs, Spirits Gifts, Boons, and Jagged Horror spawns, leaving you with nothing at the end but 8 Jagged Horrors, a field of dead corpses, and a screen full of numbers, and a full health and Energy bar. You might want some help with the enchant casting, therefore, due to nobody answering the previous update's rhetorical question, you guys get a new section!


Evolution of the Rit/N
Spirit's Gift and Putrid Flesh are awesome together for healing your minions and the new Heroes while making sure they stay un-diseased with Spirit's Gift. And even with the long recharge on Jagged Bones, it's worth the Elite slot.

So here's what's gonna happen. For all you Factions Minion Bombers who are porting over to Nightfall, here's how it's gonna break down. Until you cap Jagged Bones, you pretty much have TWO Optional slots, which I suggest you fill with Taste of Death and Flesh/Flesh, unless you REALLY like Flesh Golem. For PVE, use my skill template with the single-swap of Golem for Jagged Bones. If you're in PVP, use Signet of Creation AND Jagged Bones. Everyone is happy.

But just to be fair, let's compare and contrast all of them. The real difference between them all is: What is the kill condition, when does the degen start, and where is your energy?

Factions
Original Build: See above.
You've got good AOE damage upon minion creation and destruction, disease-degen at the beginning and throughout the fight and poison-degen upon minion death, and steady melee damage with Bone Minions and Golem. At the next fight, you will have a minimum of two Bone minions, and a max of 7 plus Golem, or 8 Bone minions. With Taste of Death, you will never, EVER, die. Health gain from Boon is largely ignored in PVE, might save your life in PVP. Rare energy management issues. Minions die either through battle or TOD.


Nightfall

Pre-Jagged Bones
This is what you have when you just ported over. Firstly, go to the skill trainers and get Spirit's Gift and Putrid Flesh. Your Elite is Flesh Golem, if you want it.

Jagged Bones Build Swap out Golem/Optional for Jagged Bones.
You've got good AOE damage upon Bone Minion creation and GREAT on destruction (which is actually creation again), disease and poison degen upon minion death, and steady melee damage with Bone Minions at the beginning of the first fight, and steady melee damage/Bleeding degen with Jagged Horrors at the end. At the next fight, you will have your max of 8 Horrors AND Henchies. Boon and Spirit's Gift keeps you and them alive, especially with Jagged Bones spawning healing you. If any Henchies die, let your two monks take care of it. Bone Minions WITH JAGGED BONES die through Putrid Flesh, Jagged Horrors never actually die.


GW:EN/Proph Variant: Jagged Bones build, swap Death Nova for Putrid Bile/Necrosis
Goodbye, mini-management. Hello, more explosions. Putrid Bile shifts the build more towards Hexes. Necrosis only builds on this. With the Necro Hero having a better Icy Veins/Nova and PB, you can spread a lot more explosions around, without sacrificing your minions. An Ele Hero is also adept at spreading Hexes, Burning, and AOE. More Explosions and more minions mean more things dying. Another change is the Necro Hero's single choice of Animate Bone Fiends, instead of Shambling and Minions, due to his more Hex-focused skillbar. In Prophesies, you might also find success with taking a SS/SV Necro.

Post-Embark Beach: With the addition of a Minion UI and the ability to bring seven Heroes, the biggest learning curves to the build have been essentially eliminated: Selecting minions and determining which minions need enchantments or heals. I fully look forward to casting Death Nova on a minion again.

And because everyone is asking, trade in 1, 3, or 5 Monastery Credits to the Quartermasters. Same thing with the Imperial Commendations, the Kurzick Equipment Requisitions, and the Luxon Totems. Mostly, I spend it on ID and Salvaging kits.

Credit: Bar Gamer, AKA Soy Oil, AKA Myself

Post-Notes: This guide has been cross-posted to GameAmp.com. However, since you can't EDIT your guides, like you can here, this guide is better.

Under Construction

Bargamer, I'm still on noob island, but I have been basing my build on this set up with anticipation of filling in the gaps when I finally make the main island.

This was exactly what I was looking for with my ritualist. I love Boon of Creation, and you could even throw in a Recuperation spirit in there if you felt inclined.

Thank you for a very clear and well written guide. It stays on my desktop for fast reference as I gain the remainder of my skill points and skills.

woops edit found it on wiki,
darn wiki is hard to navigate sometimes

Awesome build I am currently using it along with my Ritual Lord build. Just a small question, is it ok to use Blood of The Master to heal your undead allies instead of deadly swarm or death nova?

And a question which another user put a while ago, is there an effective way to target your minions to death nova them better?

Just updated the Suggested Equipment and Notes section, and added a Suggested Henchies section. Check it out!

BaRaKa, you do not EVER want to swap out Death Nova. Deathly Swarm, sure, but Blood of the Master is kinda iffy. First off, your minions are going to be dying pretty quickly, no matter what you do. Without 16 Death like a Necro primary, your Blood of the Master maxes out at 99. In my humble opinion, investing in a skill to keep your minions alive inbetween battles is kind of unnecessary. At the end of battle, go ahead and Animate a couple of times, to replace your low-health minions. If you take the Healer and Ritualist henchies, they have a habit of healing your minions every so often. If you have Flesh Golem, you're always guaranteed at least two minions at the start of battle. Also, the time that you're standing still, casting the Blood multiple times, is time that you could be using to run to the next group of enemies. But hey, it's a suggestion that I've heard before, so if it's your kind of style, go for it.

Ah, targeting your minions. Well, there's always holding down the Ctrl button, and using your mouse to target, as well as targeting them while they're being Animated. Pretty much, it's click-Nova, then click the second one, then firing off the Nova while it's running off. Some people over by GuildWiki have been asking the developers for something that will make targeting minions easier, but it's WAAAAY down on the list.

Quote: Originally Posted by Bargamer

Huh. I forgot about Sheco. Oops. *Updates again.* XD

Ok, here's how it works. I'm leaving the 'Middling' staff from Kaineng there, because I don't expect everyone to have either the money or the materials to get it, and you can make a pretty darn good modded staff from it. Seriously, 10K, 190 Bone, 30 Scale, and 6 Plant Fibers? Yeah, do a few missions, sell a few things, then come back and get it. Also, not expecting everyone to take their Rit back to Prophesies, for the Snake Dance Collector NPC. I mean, come on.

Edit: You can get to Sheco by going SouthEast, until you hit a bridge. Those who want the XP can take out the Afflicted across the bridge here, then go South.

Or you can NOT cross, go South, and cross the SECOND bridge, grab a few quests from the buck-passing officials, then swing back North for Sheco.

Was just in Urgok's Warren(Kurzick) yesterday, and traded out Deathly Swarm for Rotting Flesh, per my team's suggestions. We then took control all the way up until the second-to-last room. There, when I got near the chest, the room spawned enemies all over, and the door closed on us. We all died, but it was a pretty awesome run.

Does Rupture Soul work on minions? If so I'd really try to find a place for that.

Should play around with lamentation and/or putrid too.

Oh yea, and icy vein.

All these with... maybe EoE too. lol

Rupture Soul only works on Spirits, which Rangers and Ritualists have. Sorry, Hollerith. Let me know how that Rit/R works out, eh?

Lamentation is a Channeling spell. As you can see, there's not a lot of points left to spread around after 12 each in Spawning and Death. It would be a much more efficient use of Lamentation if you just went ahead and made a Channeling Rit. Also, this spell is useless at the beginning of areas, or other situations where you have no minions, or none near the enemy in question. And checking to see whether an enemy IS near a minion, when sometimes, minions don't show up, is very frustrating, and a waste of time.

Putrid exploits corpses, and is much more useful for the Necro-main, once they hit their max, and stay there. The corpse you explode now, will be unavailable to be Animated later, and you need all the corpses you can get.

Icy Veins is a Soul Reaping skill. Therefore, unless you are a Necro-main, you can't use this skill to maximum effectiveness. Why don't you try Rotting Flesh instead, if you want a Death Magic Hex, that does lots of spreadable damage? Or Tainted Flesh, if you're insisting on taking up that Elite slot for something other than Flesh Golem.

EoE, or Edge of Extinction, is a Ranger skill. As you can see, we've already got a Primary and Secondary class for this build. Secondly, EoE will utterly wreck havoc on the other humans in the area when you kill anything human. This includes yourself. Oh, and if one minion dies, it hurts all the other minions. Unless you want all your minions to die unexpectedly when you Taste of Death one, I would utterly not suggest this. There are much more efficient ways to kill all of your minions at once, with builds based on this concept. Signet of Creation, perhaps. Well, what do you know. I mentioned that skill at the top of my guide. Finally, EoE is only available in Prophesies. Not too useful for those Factions-only players, eh?

Why don't you and Hollerith get together, since it appears you both like Ranger skills?

How does it appear I like R skills? Or are you just being patronizing?

I only asked because I was with a Rt/N MM who was calling all his skills out, and noticed he used Rupture on his minion. I commented on it, but he never responded.

I'm sorry if I sounded patronizing, but I was honestly trying not to. Had a bit of a bad day yesterday. If I've offended you, I apologize.

If there were no spirits around, he could not have used Rupture in the first place. And unless he just liked being annoying, there's really no reason to call all of your skills. As for why he didn't reply to your comment, he might have missed it in the spam he was creating, or was embarassed that it didn't work.

Unless, that is, there were TWO Rits in your group, the Rit/N, and a Communing Rit. This changes everything. In that case, calling all your skills is polite, so they can coordinate, especially when it comes to corpse management. If a Spirit was about to die, then why not Rupture it, if it's surrounded by enemies?

As is true in life, PvE is full of unknowns and conditional statements.

Apparently you can call Rupture on yourself, even if no spirits are around.

Well, after playing around w/ variations of this, i swear by it. I spend 90% of the time playing by myself, so such a powerful offense as this has is loads of fun.

I too decided to drop the death nova. Of course i see the potential for how massive the zerg dropping would be (as if it wasn't already), but i just find the targeting of the minions to be a pia and a disruption of the 'flow'. I usually take 'pain' (just b/c its the quickest cast spirit) w/ rupture. It helps out a bit as an alternative aoe source for situations where you find your minion count low.

I was wondering, for using henchman wouldn't taking an illusion mesmer over the vile necromancer be better? The vile necro uses putrid explosion alot, which wouldn't leave much for your corpses I would think.

Spindraft: Yes, targeting your minions is a pain. No, the developers aren't thinking of improving upon this. Yes, this makes me sad. However, if you want to get the most out of the build, it helps to practice targeting your minions. Otherwise, the majority of your damage is coming from EG and minion-melee damage.
To push the build that much more into the realm of viability, you do have to Nova your minions, if only at the beginning of battle, before you aggro anything. Read the "Playing a Minion Bomber" section again. This still won't help you for those times when you have to hold down Control and Nova minions mid-battle, but hey, it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it.
Secondly, Pain is a Communing skill. Lowering Death/Spawning to put points into Communing, as well as the loss of two skill slots is not a decision to be made lightly. However, if that's the way you like to play, more power to you.

MercenaryKnight: Yes, two of the necro henchies use Putrid Explosion, but not Eve and Brutus. I've since editted the guide to reflect my appreciation for Brutus. If neither of them are available, pick up more Warriors, Rangers, Eles, and other damaging henchies. I'd pick up the Interrupter over the Illusion, personally.

After testing it out, I've officially dropped Deathly Swarm for Rotting Flesh, as 90% of the time, the enemies you see will have flesh for you to Disease. If they do not, oh well, just switch it back. Editted the guide to reflect this change. Also did a bit of tweaking and adding to the Suggested Equipment section, for the discovery of the Weapons NPC at the end of the game. That'll make it easier to get that +5 Energy for your Sword!

If you haven't heard, the Elite wand "Bortak's Bone Claw" just got the upgrade from +3 Energy to +5, making it that much nicer, and finally a viable Green replacement for your old Sheco Wand. Otherwise, it's exactly the same item. Woot for bragging rights.