[PvE] Demolitionist (N/Rt)

Profession: N/Rt
Name: Demolitionist
Type: PvE/Alliance
Category: AoE Spiker/Nuker

Attributes:
Death Magic - 12 + 3 + 1
Soul Reaping - 11 + 3
Channeling - 6

Skills Set
Death Nova
Animate Bone Minions
Blood of the Master
Signet of Creation
Taste of Death
Destruction
Rupture Soul
Icy Veins {Elite}

Summary: Basically, the concept behind this build is to be an explosives expert. With this build, you can deal upwards of 1050 poisonous AoE damage in one attack. To do this, you would raise 10 minions with Animate Bone Minions, cast Death Nova on two of them, use Signet of Creation, and cast Death Nova on the other 8 (I suggest using a weapon that at least has the 20% chance to reduce cast time of DM spells, and you must have the +20% to enchantment mod or the timing doesn't line up).

When you use Signet of Creation, it gives all your nearby minions 30 seconds to live, at which point they will all die simultaneously. This is crucial to dealing massive damage in one hit, to not allow an enemy monk any time to heal your attack. The reason behind casting Death Nova on two minions before using the signet is because, with the +20% to enchantments weapon mod, Death Nova lasts 36 seconds. Hence, you can easily cast 2 Death Novas before you start the 30s countdown with the signet, and the minions will still be enchanted with it when they die.

Now, after all your minions have Death Nova on them, you have roughly 15 seconds before they detonate, assuming you were able to keep casting Death Nova without any lapses. Get the minions to surround your target, and use Blood of the Master to keep them alive until the explosion. Once the effect of Signet of Creation kicks in, 1050 poisonous AoE damage in one instantaneous explosion. Even if you can't find the prep time before the fight to set that up completely, it's relatively easy to do with 4-6 minions at a time, and you still have Taste of Death to make your minions walking explosives (enchant any minions with Death Nova, and immediately use Taste of Death to kill it).

The other spells listed are used similarly, turning spirits and even enemies into explosives. With Destruction and Rupture Soul, you can deal about 140 AoE damage from the explosion, which also causes an additional 3 seconds of blindness. To do this, simply create the Spirit of Destruction, and make sure the skill has at least recharged (it has a 20s recharge, so waiting 20s at 3 dmg/sec will still deal 60 damage to nearby foes when it dies). To detonate the spirit, you'll want to use Rupture Soul. This will cause Destruction to die, deal an additional 50 damage, and causes 3 seconds of blindness. If you waited until Destruction recharged, it will deal at least 110 AoE damage.

Lastly, with Icy Veins, you not only deal damage, but turn your enemies into bombs as well. Until you cap this elite, I suggest using Flesh of my Flesh in the meantime to have a res spell. Icy Veins is a fun spell to use though, and has the potential to raise the AoE damage of any of your explosions by 100+, assuming you're able to kill the hexed enemy in the blast.

There are other ways the demolitionist can makes use of their skills to deal explosive damage, such as cooperating with a MM to make their minions explosive, destroying allied spirits with Rupture Soul, using Death Nova to have yourself or allies kamikaze (a desperation move, I suppose), and many other practical applications are available.

Notes & Concerns: I suggest having as many mods and armor pieces which will give you additional energy as possible, but the only required mod for this build is a 20% Staff Wrapping of Enchanting.

Also, it should be noted that you cannot always anticipate an enemy's movements, and it is entirely possible that once you use the signet, an enemy will move within your aggro circle before all of your minions have been enchanted with Death Nova, causing them to run forward and group together. However, you can keep casting Death Nova on them; to determine if they have been enchanted with it yet or not, select one, and then look for the green 'up' arrow at the right side of their life bar, which will show up if they have Death Nova on them.

Credit: Azrael STX

How do you manage corpse count?

Honestly, you need to have 5 corpses for 10 minions. I can't see this working in PvP unless you have a steady supply of corpses. Destruction (on the other hand) is a nice touch. The problem with it is that you should probably consider using draw spirit. This way, it becomes a portable bomb. Plus, if you like counting cards, you can time where and when destruction will explode.

If you're going to kill your minions anyway, why bring blood of the master? That kinda puzzles me.

I'm also noticing that your average casting time is a little high.

Honestly, I think you have the start of something, but it could use a little tweaking.

Have you tested this?

I use it regularly (it's the only build I use on my necro). The reason I said "PvE/Alliance" is because this doesn't work in PvP.

The point of Blood of the Master is to keep them alive long enough to have all 10 explode at once (in fact, you will generally have to use BotM at least once while casting the mass Death Nova just to keep them all alive long enough to enchant them all). When you use the build, it won't take long to see why Blood of the Master is a crucial part of the skillbar.

Rupture Soul is required to make Destruction do the most damage possible. Draw Spirit would waste a skill slot; if there were an extra slot, I'd bring Flesh of my Flesh before Draw Spirit (what I used until I got the elite). Draw Spirit also requires you to stand directly next to the enemies, which is a bad idea for any caster, nevermind one using minions. If you need a portable explosive, a minion works much better.

The original build was somewhat different, but only after countless hours of playing, experimenting, and tweaking, did I finally come to this finished product. It's quite amazing how much damage you can do in one attack, not to mention how many people will give you a "LMAO THAT WAS F***ING AWESOME!!! ROFLMAO!!!!!" whenever you pull off the 'ultimate' explosion and kill an entire group of enemies in one hit.

There is one concern you had which is quite valid though - there is a good deal of preperation time required to do the major attacks. Casting time can be an issue, which is why I advise a weapon that gives a 20% chance for reduction of casting and recharge times on Death Magic spells. However, you won't find a need for that, or much problem with casting times, in a 4 to 6 minion detonation (420-630 AoE damage), or any of the other attacks mentioned. Casting time only becomes an issue if you're planning to do the 1050 AoE damage attack, in which case every second counts.

honestly, I've never thought of going N/Rt for explosives, but I can see how your build would work in an PvE or Alliance battle.

Still, it could be easily shutdown using spinal shivers/shivers of dread. It's too bad necros & Rt's don't have a form of Mantra of Concentration. That would be nice.


I guess your build goes to show that GW allows for all different types of play.

Thank you for your thoughts and comments ^_^ I always appreciate thought-out input. Luckily for me, there aren't many monsters running a build with Spinal Shivers =) It works very effectively on a regular basis in PvE, but in Alliance, there's always the chance (with any build) that someone on the other side is going to be setup specifically to render you useless. Generally though, the only thing someone brings which effects me drastically is Well of the Profane, which defuses all my minions at the same time.

I havn't really experimented with the necro yet. Sounds like a fun way to go. Thanks for all the detail. Really helps the inexperienced (like myself) to picture it.

Nice to see something different! I'll have to give this one a try, sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks

looks like a cool build