Stupid MM Wannabe's

I don't stick with just one build. I switch between the MM build (for areas with dense, flesh based monsters) and the plague build (all Degen and skills that disable the enemy). But, I keep MM by default until I get into areas where I notice it's not working very well. Mainly b/c in PvE, just sit back and let the Minions do the work.

Either way, I'm by no means going to assume that MM works everywhere. In Southern Shiver, I find Plague works better. Mainly b/c the Azure shadows, Jade armors, and other creatures are to powerful and not fleshbased to use minions against.

Yes, 150 skills. I use more than just Minion related ones, so I hope you don't think that I just ignore the fact that monster TYPE and spacing plays a hand in the choice of builds.

the point of res is not that u die often. U can die as many times as u want and if u dont die a lot that means u DO need it. wat do u think would happen if ur whole team dies and like u said u stay alive. well u either try to do it by urself or u restart. a res skill should always be brought and if all else u should replace it with suffering.

I could replace suffering for it....but....
Mainly, I have 1 throwaway skill. I could use Rez when I'm not skill capping.

To be honest, I'd rather dump Verata's Aura (when I'm not going against other MM's). Still, y'gotta know your place in battle. Necros & Mesmers seem to be the weakest of the casters. As such, I try to stay out of the fight and distance myself from combat. When I expect to have to get my hands dirty, it's Physical Resistance (or Elemental, depending on the area & monsters).

Fitting Rez into a set where I use most is quite difficult. Aura, I can toss (but keep gaze, since there's always a chance an enemy will die while using Malign to lessen healing).

BTW...
Malign lessens healing, so do a few other necro skills, but thye also require a sacrifice. I think Defile Flesh requires a 20% total health sacrifice, and only lasts 18 sec. But it does reduce the healing to 66%.

Honestly, the sacrificial skills are the ones that need to be balanced. Maybe in PvP, they're great, but in PvE, I find so many monks forget to heal others besides the warriors. Point in Fact, I realized I'm the only monk I've seen that actually heals pets. 8 Sec w/o skills can be rough, yet so many bring pets into battle and just don't support them. That's what makes pets a liability. With a Mo/R, I find that keeping Mending on my pet helps quite a bit. Then I don't use any other high maintainence enchantments.

Little off topic, but still, my point is that I find too many players that just don't Monk correctly. THey heal the warriors first, even if they're near full health and other partymembers are low. Otherwise, I'd have no issue with using sacrificial skillz (besides the Verata ones).

N E Rate...
Bottom line, I think balancing a Necro primary is very difficult. There are just too many that do it wrong and there are many uses for it b/c of it's status effects and afflictions. From what I've seen, I manage (not going to say I'm great, but I manage). There is only 1 other necro I've played with that understands the skill set. Others either sacrifice themselves to death or are minor minion masters. The reason I say minor is because that's all they do. Minions. Half the time, you have a high level Necro managing lvl 8 horrors. It's just stuff like this that pisses me off.

No, I'm not the best, and I'm admitting it before someone else decides to point it out, but I wish people would take more time to study the available skills before assembling their build. That's what upsets me most.

And the thread starter...
I still stand by saying, "What kinda fool uses Verata's Aura to pick up a few stragglers?" It's Verata's Gaze, not Aura that picks up 1-3.

If someone thinks I'm wrong in saying that, please make a case, b/c I'd like to know if there's a better way to control stragglers.

I pretty much stick to one build. Full MM on one accout aand a full curses build on the other account.

An echoed level 19 cast of SS is just plain mean.

well rember too that this is PVE so anyone can do wat they want. so if monks want to bring pets then let them. u also say that u bring characters with monk in their proffesion. well u can take as many of those as u want but it doesnt mean they are defensive. maybe they smite so it wouldnt be of good use to u.
u dont mention soul reaping so i dont know how u are getting ur energy back. and if it is high then u have low curses. with low curses there is no need to have suffering. it is a lot of energy and it may be aoe but rotting flesh is good enough. and since if tell u to take out suffering then take tainted flesh as ur elite cause u shouldn't have attribute points for 1 skill (unless is really really needed like energy drain or OoB) and SS is not really needed tainted might be better because it stops the disease from going in to ur team.
u can have as many necros as u want just that they dont overlap on what they are doing. u can have 1 necro who blood spikes and one MM and they dont overlap skills and dont overlap what they are doing as in they both dont depend on corpses and they both dont do massive degen where it goes far beyond 10.

Hmm....

BTW. I have major runes and items boosting my levels. I have 15 Death, and 8 Soul Reaping (I think curses is about 10.. but not sure off hand).

judge1121,
The reason I keep Suffering is because it works on every thing. I'd rather get rid of Rotting Flesh b/c there are patches where I have nightmare/shadow/whatever's that arent' flesh based. I try to keep 2 attack curses that are not flesh based and Rotting flesh rocks for it's ability to spread.

I don't have tainted flesh yet (but working on getting it). So many elites I want, but don't have.

Yes, in PvE, players can do quite a bit of what they want, but in harder missions (and when you have minion masters) it is my opinion that you need to have players being responsible for any liabilities they bring to battle. I've actually seen minions take out most of my group (not mine) in other missions. It's very upsetting when you're almost done and someoen looses control.

Either way, I don't PvP. Not my idea of fun. Sure, some enjoy it, but I like working with people, not against (and I know you can PvP w/ your guild, but I jsut prefer the more lax PvE).

Oh well.

judge1121, Thank you for your insight, and I'll keep it in mind as I venture further.

A lot of you are using more than one summon spell. I personally only use one. Then my skills are:

Blood of the Master
Verata's Sacrifice
Offering of Blood

Those are the most important skills in my opinion. If your doing SF runs, just throw in some skills like Deathly swarm, chill, and strip enchantment. If its for missions and such, use taste of death as a means of keeping yourself alive. A MM build rocks if you simply concentrate on only making and keeping minions

The problem is that on missions, I avoid sacrifices of HP.

Again, as my previous statement, you get too many monks that focus on healing the Warriors and meatshields more than the MM's or other necros. It's frustrating to get surrounded while outta corpses, so you can't use Soul Feast or anything else to self heal, then you get jakked by 3+ giants dealing major damage (for your level). In cases like that, sacrifices suck.

Except for recently, I usually keep Physical Resistance (Stance) equipped. It's nice for when I have to endure my way outta a jam b/c of bad healers.

Really, I haven't seen many monks that play healer very well. They forget the little things. Healing minions, healing pets, and (most important) supporting EVERYONE in the frickin' party.

People say, don't blame the monks, well, when you know there's a necro that has to sacrifice to perform some useful skills (or support minions), you should kinda keep them in mind. Especially when they're low and notifying you that they have 50 HP left.

URGH....
I like my Guild though (Point Blank Shot - PBS). We have a great monk (not me) that actually heals in the right priority.

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