Guild Wars Guru

The New Minion Bomber

6 pages • Page 6
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Bargamer
Krytan Explorer
• #101
Targeting is, indeed, the hardest part of the build. My advice is, leave it to the Heroes. Instead, equip Putrid Bile. It's a Death Magic Hex introduced in GWEN, so targeting the enemy is just a keybind away. (Default is "C".)

As for which minions already have enchantments, they have a green upwards pointing triangle once you have targetted one. WHICH enchantment however... Well, Nova is a green fog, and Jagged Bones is a white fog. Unless that was a Monk Enchantment...
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Bargamer
Krytan Explorer
• #102
So my EB Games merchant was all, "Forgot your Pre-order reciept, eh?" *Look. Look-look. Shakes head.* "Sorry, can't find it... How do you spell your name again?" *Look.* "There we go! Ok, Guild Wars... Guild Wars..." *Looks. Hand passes over it, twice.* "Oh wait, here it is. Cash or Card?" *Swipe. Swipe. Enters PIN...* "Not going? Ok, entering it manually... Still no?? Ok, we'll have to get an imprint of your card..." *Crrrrrunch.* "Oops, did it wrong!" *Crrrrrunch.* "Good enough."

Throughout this ordeal, I was imagining killing the guy and raising him as a pair of minions, then making them run to the Stupid Indian Watch Repair Girl and blowing her up. Incompentants. All in all, a very amusing morning.

So there I was, getting my butt handed to me by White Out. Switched over to a Rit Lord build, and went with Dissonance, Shelter, Union, and the Ranger Interrupter Henchy. Avarr the Fallen was the only time I ever considered taking Verata's Aura or Gaze, because walking past him on the way to White Out, I saw 2 Bone Fiends in the middle of nowhere. I didn't, but even so, he's ridiculously easy, summons nothing but Fiends so he fell to Bone, Jagged, and Shambling melee damage. Wanted to corpse-steal, but eh, it's all good.

After getting Rank 3 in Norn Reputation, I bought about 4 Perfect Salvaging Kits, and went nuts on my Xunlai Storage full of items, it was so awesome. Sold the non-perfect items afterwards, I was up to 9K or so. Kinda makes the Treasure Hunter and Wisdom Titles worthless, lol. I mean, 250 gold, 1 skill point, and 25 each Wood/Iron is a small price to pay next to the 6 MILLION+ gold you would have shelled out otherwise.

After that bit of giddiness, I soberly had to consider whether I wanted to go help the Asura or Ebon Vanguard. After considering that ranks in Ebon Vanguard gave you +Armor vs Charr and Energy when you killed them, (almost like Soul Reaping!) the decision to take it to the furballs was not hard. I was repaid for my decision by the ability to ride a Siege Devourer. It is more awesome than the Siege Wurm, because the rest of your party stays the same. So that means that while you are Nuking the hell outta everything, MoW can happily Animate everything. And you can take it anywhere, even across zones. Um, can you say, "Norn Rep Farming made EZ!" I bet you can.

I decided to keep questing though, and got into a good group for Warband of Brothers. Well, except for one person who just never showed up. Lost during loading, we guessed. Because of the group thing, I didn't get to bring MoW, so no Death Novas, and so my AOE suffered. We wiped twice. First time we rezzed inside, so we kept going, and the second time the Monk rezzed us all, and I went nuts with the Minions. The Charr were too spread out, so we pwned them at our leisure.

Then I ate dinner, and bought 300 and Blades of Glory at Blockbuster. XDDD It was a good day.
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Bargamer
Krytan Explorer
• #103
Ok, so I'm wandering around, and I spot something I haven't seen in 2 Campaigns: A Red Iris Flower. I pick it up, and forgot about it. Then I go back to my HoM for one reason or another, and whaddayaknow, Gwen has a quest for me. A Elite Master quest, full of Fire (Elementals), Pain (not the spirit), DP, and Charr. I musta blew every buff I had, Honeycombs, Powerstone of Courage, Armor of Salvation, Grail of Might, the whole nine yards, and yet I still only beat it by... attrition. I could rez at the shrine, they could not.

So I took my normal bomber build, and changed it up. Swapped out Jagged Bones for Breath of the Great Dwarf, Razah became my Rit Lord build, with Shelter, Union, and Dissonance. Gwen had to come, so I made her an Interrupter build with Mantra of Flame, Echo, and Arcane Echo. I finished out the party with the Earth, Ranger Interrupter, and both Monk Henchies.

60DP later, I finished it, Assassin's Revenge, Fall out, and maybe one other quest. It was still a pain in the butt. I came from the Dalada Uplands exit, which was how I stumbled upon Brave Brent Poltroon.

Edit: Also had Tah running Prot Spirit and some condition removal. Removing Burning is very important.
Alvar
Alvar
Ascalonian Squire
• #104
thnks for the help Bargamer.
Dr Strangelove
Dr Strangelove
Furnace Stoker
• #105
So I was doing the undead portion of Slaver's Exile the other day, in which there are rit minion bombers with explosive growth and death nova working side by side with necros raising bone fiends and casting barbs.

My squishy little rit laughed off the 2*40 damage from explosive growth, and proceeded to ignore the harmless bone minions who randomly blew up with mediocre damage.

Then a giant group of level 19 bone fiends backed up by barbs spam proceeded to wipe my group in record time.


Moral of the story: If you want minions, run a necro.
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Bargamer
Krytan Explorer
• #106
OMG, GWEN actually had Minion Bombers and Necros working together?! That's awesome! Where is this mission?!

All that physical damage stacks up, don't it? What kind of build were you and your party running, and how did you adapt for that mission? If I were designing that mission, I'd toss in some Mesmers and Rit/Mo Healers too, just to really be mean. XD

Has anyone else experienced that mission? I noticed from the "official" wiki that (until I editted it,) the Stone Summit Summoner was a Necro/Rit, instead of the other way around. Just by looking at what else was in the area, it's likely the Bombers softened you up, and the Barbs finished the job.

Secondly, (and in my own biased and humble opinion,) a Necro-main MM with Fiends sacrifices more DPS for endurance. It is like a sprinter versus a marathon/cross-country runner. A Rit's minions are heartier, and can therefore take more damage than Bone Fiends, and when the time is right, is blown up by Death Nova. The Rit herself can raise minions aaaall day and won't ever break a sweat. The Necro-MM, by the very nature of Soul-Reaping, experiences periods of sitting around waiting for Energy or recharging skills, or for the first 3 Fiends that stay up. With the release of GWEN, a Rit can go from zero to 60 from the very first death, as the dying enemy does Icy Vein and Putrid Bile damage, the Animate afterwards does Explosive Growth damage, and will just compound from there, depending on what you like: Death Nova, Ebon Battle Standard of Honor, Barbs, Vile Miasma, Bleeding from Jagged Bones, disease from Putrid Explosion, Gwen can load up on degen spells from the Illusion Attribute...

And finally, I run what I like, with what profession I like, but thanks for your input.
Dr Strangelove
Dr Strangelove
Furnace Stoker
• #107
Quote: Originally Posted by Bargamer
OMG, GWEN actually had Minion Bombers and Necros working together?! That's awesome! Where is this mission?!

All that physical damage stacks up, don't it? What kind of build were you and your party running, and how did you adapt for that mission? If I were designing that mission, I'd toss in some Mesmers and Rit/Mo Healers too, just to really be mean. XD

Has anyone else experienced that mission? I noticed from the "official" wiki that (until I editted it,) the Stone Summit Summoner was a Necro/Rit, instead of the other way around. Just by looking at what else was in the area, it's likely the Bombers softened you up, and the Barbs finished the job.

Secondly, (and in my own biased and humble opinion,) a Necro-main MM with Fiends sacrifices more DPS for endurance. It is like a sprinter versus a marathon/cross-country runner. A Rit's minions are heartier, and can therefore take more damage than Bone Fiends, and when the time is right, is blown up by Death Nova. The Rit herself can raise minions aaaall day and won't ever break a sweat. The Necro-MM, by the very nature of Soul-Reaping, experiences periods of sitting around waiting for Energy or recharging skills, or for the first 3 Fiends that stay up. With the release of GWEN, a Rit can go from zero to 60 from the very first death, as the dying enemy does Icy Vein and Putrid Bile damage, the Animate afterwards does Explosive Growth damage, and will just compound from there, depending on what you like: Death Nova, Ebon Battle Standard of Honor, Barbs, Vile Miasma, Bleeding from Jagged Bones, disease from Putrid Explosion, Gwen can load up on degen spells from the Illusion Attribute...

And finally, I run what I like, with what profession I like, but thanks for your input. Really, they're harmless. It's the elite dungeon necro area. Our warrior was laughing at them because he was taking 13 damage from the explosive growths. Death novas are mostly just random -90s scattered around, which LoD took care of just fine.

The necros with bone fiends are more of a finisher. What really wipes you is insanely overpowered hammer warriors, AoE earth eles against retard henchman, and monks good enough to stop you from wiping them. Really more like a 150 damage backbreaker softened me up, then a pile of AoE wiped us.

1) Rit minions are not as hearty as primary necro minions. Blood of the master easily will heal for more than the advantage that spawning power gives. Rit minions have significantly lower armor and level, making them die more quickly. You can still smack them around for a bit, but they just can't tank as well as a necros minions.

2)They don't deal as much damage. The minions themselves are lower level, and if they're bone minions they do less than 10 damage/hit. Yes, yes, death nova, putrid bile etc. etc. There's a reason necro primaries don't run those spells. You're using them in an attempt to make up for the deficiencies of your build. If they were good spells at 12 DM with minions, they'd be great spells at 16 DM with minions. They ain't. Explosive growth compares pretty unfavorably to other AoE options, like fireball and spirit rift.

3) Necros don't have energy issues. First, they don't spam bone fiend, there's usually shambling horrors and vamp horrors too, which are 15e. When each death gives you 11-13e, it's not hard to keep them up. Second, signet of lost souls rocks. When a retarded hero mm can keep full energy all the time with a full army, you know energy isn't an issue.

4) I know you run what you like without caring for the effectiveness. Why else would this thread have degenerated into a huge blog for you? The whole point of campfire is putting builds up and discussing them, not putting up pretty things that don't work.
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Bargamer
Krytan Explorer
• #108
Good thing you quoted me AFTER I finished/editing my post. That would've been a tad embarrassing! XD

In any case, until I see this mission for myself (and bring Verata's Aura!), I'll have to go by your first-hand account. Still, I'd like to hear what builds were in your party, including your own, and how you eventually beat the Barb Necros, Hammer Warriors, Earth Eles, and such. (Rit would help the Resto f us. Haha, Guild Wars puns!)

While you are a tad condescending, you're still far and away more polite than SOME detractors of the build I've heard, as you did explain your points. However, I must respectfully disagree with you: The Minion Bomber does work, but it's not the specialist that the Necro-main is. We are a jack-of-all-trades profession, and so this build does several things pretty well, instead of just one thing very well. Yes, we use skills that the specialists discarded, because we have our own wonky and unique style. I must've forgotten to mention earlier that "Fire and Pain," for all it's difficulty, was also the most fun I had with a mission yet. It forced me to think, adapt, and reconsider the build. (And look it up on the wiki. XD) Someday, I hope to retry that mission on a Rit, and come out less scarred. XDDD

PS: Blogging is a big thing right now, or was. I don't think it's degenerated into a blog, since it's really ALWAYS been a blog: I've (most of the time) made it a habit of responding to each poster as they arrived. Since I'm an amateur writer, if my guides seem to read like blogs, that happens to be another aspect of my personal style. And are we not discussing the build, positively or negatively? As so many seem to be found of quoting, I have one for you, from the Hall of Knowledge forum: "The Campfire: Share your strategies, experience and tips here for builds and groups for PvE." Strategies, check. Experiences and tips, check. PVE build? That's three for three!

PSS: In conclusion, I'd like you to calm down and read Purpose of Build Forums again. I think you'll see that, in this thread, I comply with or exceed every stated and implied purpose in that post. Therefore, unless you have a problem with me personally, I see no reason why this guide, thread, or blog should not continue as is. Can't we all just get along?
B
Bargamer
Krytan Explorer
• #109
Attention everyone: I just smacked down the Glacial Griffon with nothing but minions, Putrid Bile, and Necrosis (Rank 8). It was hilarious. Don't try to use Consume Soul or Unnatural Signet, he spams faster than you. Instead, just degen him to death. Sif Shadowhunter, eat your heart out.

Seriously, all he had was Bloodsong, and I was left with 1HP. It couldn't steal anything!
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Bargamer
Krytan Explorer
• #110
Finally finished the Asura quests, Against the Destroyers, and all that up to the Central Transfer Chamber. I had to use a Rit Lord build on 2 of the missions: the Oola's Lab instance and Heart of the Shiverpeaks. Twice I had to do the quest up to the instance as a Bomber, go back to Rata Sum, switch to a Rit Lord, and start spamming LFG, then do the instance.

With that said, Heart of the Shiverpeaks is a 4 hour investment, with a slightly clueless group. It is not doable with Heroes and Henchies. You need at least a Spirit Spammer with Union/Shelter and a Bonder, both who should have plenty of condition removal, another Healer, and 3 damage dealers/Barrel runners. Essentially, just keep ferrying barrels between Bulgy and Cynder, and you should take him down evenutally. Poison, Deep Wound, and Life Steal work, as well as Pain Inverter + SV. Bring plenty of Consumables, especially Powerstones.

But here's the catch: You get shuttled from cut scene to cut scene, dungeon to dungeon, for the next 3 hours, smacking down Destroyers, dying, smacking them some more, dying... So a team that works against Cynder the Mountain Heart might not work against hordes of Destroyers, especially Disc of Chaos, a lvl 30 Elementalist, and all his Destroyer friends. Thankfully, you get Semi-invincible Golems to help you out. When they "die," walk over to them to reactivate. Send a tank or 2 to keep them up. I mean, what does a Warrior need with 15 Energy?

Alternatively, you can use an Assassin with a running build to keep the Golems up, and against Cynder. Thanks to Cosmitz! http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Talk:De...hs_%28Quest%29
horseradish
horseradish
Wilds Pathfinder
• #111
so i was playing as my R/Rt today (NOT splinter barrager, i'm so proud of myself...although i haven't gotten far enough to cap barrage lol!. i'm more interested in Escape anyways

and we had a minion bomber in our group, so i was like

"HOLY S**T A MINION BOMBER :O!!!!!"

unfortunately, i didn't notice much from him since we were doing that...Nahpui Quarter? mission..you know...the one in Cantha with the ...1...2...3.. 3!! different rooms of afflicted and that last one with the "big bad ____" and we all die at the last cut scene and there's this cow envoy thingy lol but anyways.....


yeah. i didn't notice much from him except whenever he casted Blood of the Master (which i easily healed with one of the 5e skills from the rit ) and that this mission was MUCH easier. things dropped like flies!!!

but i couldn't see the animation cuz i had to keep an eye out for Togo and Mhenlo

BUT

the red dots on my compass thingy kept blipping out every moment or so.

we got masters too ^_^

eventhough....we had a fire ele and a fast cast fire nuker in the group, they kept dying, so i heard the "blehchkehckehcyhekchhch" sound of minions.

yeah, so i'ma make a Rit minion bomber now
B
Bargamer
Krytan Explorer
• #112
You mean Vizunah Square. That mission is my favorite for power-leveling Heroes to level 20. But yeah, unless a Necro-main is willing to bring Death Nova or whatever, the DPS really isn't enough to deal with the sheer numbers of Afflicted. You really do want the Rit/N Minion Bomber. Bring at least 1 nuker and 2 Bombers, and maybe a Prot monk for Mhenlo and Togo, and assuming the other side isn't 7 Henchies, you're almost guaranteed to get Masters.

Yeah, you really do not want to bring Blood of the Master either. Since the other side brings 2 Necro-main MM and your side brings 2 Bombers, that's 36 possible minions. 2 casts = death. Besides, that mission has plenty of corpses. One time, my friend had SIX MM running that mission, lol.

What're you gonna name your Rit?
horseradish
horseradish
Wilds Pathfinder
• #113
YES that's the mission! thx!

i have a rit right now.....but his secondary is a mesmer....and i was thinking of just changing it to necro, but i'm working on a channeling build that has mesmer skills in it, and i don't know shit about changing secondaries so i'm worried that if i change my secondary back to mesmer if i need it, that i'll lose the skills from the necro line.

i'm kinda sure that it won't happen, but i'm worried about the scenario of capping Flesh Golem and then losing it *dies*

i have the same dilemma with my ranger, cuz i wanna switch back and forth depending on the areas, but i frankly have no idea. i just got prophecies in ....march? and Factions in AUGUST ._.


My current rit is Guan Hao yes very asian but i used to play dynasty warriors and Guan Yu was my favorite guy and all the people are real so he's a blood relative


so yeah, i COULD make a rit/n and train with him in the beginning to get more experience with minion bombing, OR i could just change my profession and i don't know anything about changing secondary professions besides that your secondary profession changes
horseradish
horseradish
Wilds Pathfinder
• #114
i love ur ign btw.

Soy Oil hehe. also very asian
B
Bargamer
Krytan Explorer
• #115
Horseradish: Sounds like you need a Profession Changer NPC. To summarize, in Prophesies, you have to do a quest, in Factions you just pay 500G. You don't lose the skills, not even your Ranger Pet, and you can change back anytime by using the Attributes Tab. It's the dropdown menu at the top where it says your profession. You will need to buy the skills, but eh. Also, you can change the secondaries of your Heroes, and make them a bit more useful. As for starting a Rit from scratch, that IS the best way to use my guide, or you could just practice in Vizunah Square.

Honestly though, GW:EN has the Putrid Bile skill, which replaces Death Nova in so many ways. Let your Necro or Rit Hero do the Death Novas, hahaha! The end-game Rit staff in GW:EN is also pretty damn awesome, as it comes pre-equipped with +20% Enchants and HSR/HCT mods. The +30 Health was a yawn for me, as I never run out of Health with Taste of Death. XD

Now that I beat the game, I'm running around the Asura Lands farming for Reputation. Found Tarnished Haven, and doing the Cipher quests there. I want Slim Spectacles for Soy Oil, give her that "Sexy Librarian" look. 9K Rep to go... My only question is, should I go to Riven Earth, take the Golem 1.0, and just repeatedly farm Raptor Babies, or farm Magus Stones or Arbor Bay, as both of those have 3000+ enemies?

In other news, Bargamer the W/Mo is now 2 years old. He got Koss. How fitting. XD
horseradish
horseradish
Wilds Pathfinder
• #116
yay!

i DON'T lose any elites XD

oh, but.....i only have Factions and Prophecies so....yeah, i only have those skills -__-

my oldest character is.....5 months? and the farthest i've gotten in factions is Unwaking Waters (with my rit/mes ) and Maguuma Jungle with my monk/warrior (which i'ma change to mesmer. my monk has NO energy management lol)

so anyways....how does your build translate to Unwaking Waters? i take it the minions don't explode close enough to .... Kunna..kunni...Ku-damnit you know, the dragon. i suck at names >.<

i am currently a resto rit

my build is

1. Attuned ws Songkai
2. Recuperation
3. Soothing Memories
4. Ghostly Haste
5. Draw Spirit
6. Spirit Light
7. Mend Body & Soul
8. Flesh of my flesh

16 resto.

13 spawning.

it's times like this that i wish i had nightfall and had Warmonger's weapon

and the lack of players all the TIME is disheartening :'(
B
Bargamer
Krytan Explorer
• #117
It's kinda hidden among the various comments, but sometimes, you just can't bomb. That is when you switch your build to a Spirit Spammer or a Resto Rit, sometimes a hybrid of both.

For Unwaking Waters, you can either bomb the Afflicted, Spirit Spam Shelter/Union and Life or such, or you can be a Resto Rit and concentrate on your party, while they take out Kuunavang. In each case, be damn careful that you don't die, or most likely everyone else will, too. Whatever you do, don't try to be a Necro-main and take Animate Bone Fiends and minion support spells and taking a direct role against the dragon, since he will just kill you and all your minions instantly.

Most of the reason Prophesies and Factions aren't getting much action is because most everyone is playing GWEN. When it is revealed what Hall of Monuments stuff carries over into GW2, all three-and-a-half Campaigns should balance out. This is, of course, wishful thinking. XDDD

In other news: Yay, page 7 and 19,500+ views!
horseradish
horseradish
Wilds Pathfinder
• #118
YES that's his name. ^^;;

alright thx!

My current build worked for me so far, but the Dark Chain Lightnings are a bitch to heal, cuz the only "party heal" i have is NOTHING

Rits=greater single heal & party prot and conditional condition removers

Monks=more variety of moderate heals and MUCHO mejor single target protections and condition removals and hex removal

resto rit and proto monk=no worries

anyways...i just have to wait out the craze of GW:EN and ... i'ma make a new rit from scratch. it is one of my favorite classes so i'll have fun...except for the profession quests X__X

i guess i'm also gonna have to cap Rit lord for a defensive build, or i'll get 10k luxon faction again and get Summon Spirits and be a MOBILE offensive spirit spammer. lol. both builds seem to be really passive though. :/

so...if i can't bomb....i'll curse >=D
Fierce Eyed Tiger
Fierce Eyed Tiger
Pre-Searing Cadet
• #119
Bargamer-

Thanks so much for posting this comprehensive explanation of the Rt/N Minion Bomber build and how to use it. It is the most well constructed post I've seen on the Web regarding not only the build itself, but all the little details about actually making it work. Thanks for including the EotN updates as well. It was so kind of you to share all your experience with the rest of us.

This post actually inspired me to create a new character, as you make the possibilities sound very intriguing. And with your helpful suggestions, I have run my new character around to level 20 in no time flat. I'm just loving it. I'll be bringing her over to EotN today.

Great work! Bless you.
B
Bargamer
Krytan Explorer
• #120
You're welcome, FET. As glad as I am to hear that the guide was helpful, was there anywhere in particular that I can improve upon? Some tips that you might find helpful, that I didn't include? Perhaps including the Spirit Spam and Resto builds that I've been using, into the Opening Post(OP)? (Seven pages is a lot to slog through, haha!)

I forgot to post this yesterday, but I did tweak the OP to adjust for Jagged Bones changes, Necro Hero, suggested equipment, as well as adding sections for GWEN. (I only beat it a few days ago. Yeah, I'm slow.)