Nec - How do I Keep Minions Alive

I have tried to read through the many messages in this forum, and have reviewed a lot of the possible suggestions for Nec builds.

I created a Monk/Necromancer simply because I had to start somewhere, so I would prefer not having any replies telling me to start over or that i made a bad pick.

My question has to do with keeping Bone Horrors up and running for a longer time.

I am currently 9th level. I have placed 5 points in Death Magic to date. I have points in Healing Prayers, Divine favor and Blood Magic as well. I was hoping that a combination of Blood Magic and healing would keep the Bone Horrors up.

So, am I simply not high enough level yet, and I need to exercise a little patience or what? Most of the spells listed in what I would guess are end-game builds for characters I have yet to receive. I just don't want to continue on only to find I have been wasting my time i guess.

Thoughts?

The necromancers minions are not intended to last a long time. They are intended to help you out in battle and then die. You create them each time you fight. From what I can tell bumping up your Attributes won't make them last longer.

There are skills to help their life expectency, and you can get a sizable force going, but they will always be dying around you - you have to get back into combat and soul reap the energy for more minions Skills like Heal Area, Blood of the Master and so on can help. On the plus side any necromancer nearby is thrilled when your minions start dying - more energy for everyone!

While I understand that they were meant to die off, it isn't simply a matter of 'go and dight some more', as I may intentionally be trying to build a small army for when i enter an area that does not leave corpses which can be raised.

I was adventuring in The Breach last night with some friends. As long as we were fighting Charr, all was good for having 2-3 extra minions in on the bloodfest, but when we moved into an area with Hulking Stone Giants or whatever they are called, I have to switch tactics, becoming more of a healer or doing direct damage myself.

If I was able to keep the minions around for a longer period of time, our entire party would benefit greatly.

I haven't been able to locate any statistical data which may have been published on the rate at which minions lose HP. But, if I knew thet they lost HP at a rate of 4 per second (as an example), then I would know that I could keep them around by getting 4 regen on them, if you see where I am heading with this.

In fact, if I can slow their degeneration, and give them the occasional heal Area or something like that, then that will be cool.

I do recall seeing a post where someone claimed something like, "8-11 level 12 Bone Horrors is nothing to laugh at!"

So, apparently it is possible to keep them around long enough to build that kind of number up, right?

8-11 Horrors is about the max you'll probably ever get, rarely you will ever have that many corpses available and thats not even considering casting time/energy. As for you question - there is really no way to keep them alive for extended periods. Their health degen increases the longer they are alive, so if they've been alive for a few minutes your going to need to be constantly healing them to keep them alive. Use area heal or blood of the master to heal them before and after a battle and move to the next group of enemies quickly before they die. I've found spending any more energy than that on keeping them alive just isn't feasible.

C'mon, man.. you're a NECRO.. You're supposed to be EVIL. They're expendable!

Death Nova, Putrid Explosion, Self-Healing.. That's what corpses are for If you want minions, grab a Warrior.



Er.. I've never actually PLAYED a necro.. but y'know

Zorque>>
Thanks for the information. I was wondering why their degeneration seemed to increase. Sort of puts a damper on what I was hoping for of course, but thems the breaks as they say.

They won't last forever, but once you get Verata's Sacrifice, you'll keep them around awile - adds 10 arrows of regen to all your minions, can't recall for how long. But between that and heal Area, you can keep 'em up and running for a bit.

Well, I have level 14 death magic and they last absolutely forever with my heal area skills.

Marduke>>

How often do you find yourself casting heal Area on the Bone Horrors, and how many have you had at one time?