[47] Guild Wars 2 Build - Necromancer: Scepter/Focus & Staff (Minion Master) |PVE

By: teaandbickies (Updated 8/4/2012)

.: Necromancer Build :.

Main Weapon: Scepter and Focus

Alt. Weapon: Staff

.: Utility Skills :.

Summon Blood Fiend

• Summon a blood fiend that transfers health to you on each attack.

Summon Bone Minions

• Summon two bone minions.

Summon Shadow Fiend

• Summon a shadow fiend to attack foes.

Signet of Undeath

• Passive: Generates life force while in combat.
• Active: Revive up to three downed allies in the target area.

Lich Form

• Assume the form of a lich for a brief time.

.: Traits :.

Spite – 5 points

Attribute Bonuses:  +50 Power, +5% Condition Duration

Adept

Minor Trait: Parasitic Bond

• Gain health whenever you kill something.

Curses – 10 points

Attribute Bonuses: +100 Precision, +100 Condition Damage

Adept

Minor Trait: Barbed Precision

• Critical hits cause bleeding.

Major Trait: Hemophilia (II)

• 20% increased bleeding duration.

Death Magic – 30 points

Attribute Bonuses: +300 Toughness, +30% Boon Duration

Adept

Minor Trait: Reanimator

• Chance to summon a Jagged Horror whenever you kill an enemy.

Major Trait: Minion Master (III)

• Minion recharges are reduced by 20%.

Master

Minor Trait: Protection of the Horde

• Gain +20 Toughness for each minion under your control.

Major Trait: Fateful Marks (VIII)

• Marks are unblockable.

Grandmaster

Minor Trait: Deadly Strength

• 10% of toughness is given as a bonus to power.

Major Trait: Death Nova (XI)

• Whenever a minion dies, it explodes in a cloud of poison.

Blood Magic – 20 points

Attribute Bonuses: +200 Vitality, +200 Healing Power

Adept

Minor Trait: Full of Life

• Gain 5 seconds of regeneration when your health reaches 90% (30-second cooldown).

Major Trait: Mark of Evasion (III)

• Leave a Mark of Blood when you dodge.

Master

Minor Trait: Vampiric

• Siphon health whenever you hit an enemy.

Major Trait: Vampiric Master (VII)

• Minions siphon health and transfer it to you.

Soul Reaping – 5 points

Attribute Bonuses: +5 Critical Damage, +5% Hunger (Life Force Pool Size)

Adept

Minor Trait: Gluttony

• Life force fills faster.

.: Commentary :.

I love my minions.  With my necromancer, I always have a bountiful amount of them available at my will, so making them more powerful and useful was essential.  Having the additional abilities to siphon health whenever I kill a foe or having my minions do it for me, on the other hand, is also very useful.  It both heals me and helps to deal damage to foes, so it merges both offense AND defense together.  >W<

In terms of stats, I wanted to make sure my toughness and health were increased to give me more survivability.  Although I have two health bars as a necromancer per say, some more defense and health wouldn’t hurt.  Also, I primarily use a staff and a scepter/focus combination of weapons, so I typically focus more so on applying conditions to foes than trying to damage them (especially with the latter weapon set).  Thus, adding more stats to increase condition damage was important as well.

Using a staff also equals a bountiful amount of marks for me to cast, so that’s why I made sure to add the trait that would make them unblockable.  Sorry foes, but it looks like you’re going to get a lot of conditions if you step on my marks.

[42] Guild Wars 2 Builds - Necromancer: Dual Dagger & Scepter/Focus - The Blood Bender |PVE

By: Soul Step (7/18/2012)

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[33] Guild Wars 2 Builds - Necromancer: Scepter/Dagger & Dagger/Warhorn "Minion Master Conditionova" Build |WvWvW and PVE

By: Soul Step (Updated 7/16/2012)

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Something that I enjoy about being a Minion Master, is that you can go various routes to fit a certain type of game play. In my first Minion Master build, it was focused on survival and strengthening your Minions. This build has focus on keeping pressure on enemies through conditions as well as some condition spiking.

Weapon Set:
Primary: Scepter/Dagger - Your more offensive set with 4 skills that apply conditions
Secondary: Dagger/Warhorn - Your support/survival set

Healing, Utility, Elite Skills:
Healing: 
(6) Summon Blood Fiend

Utility:
(7) Summon Bone Minions - Putrid Explosion + Death Nova = OUCH!

(8) Summon Bone Fiend - I chose this for the Immobilize effect. It's such a useful condition

(9) Signet of Spite - The passive will boost your Power and when activated you throw 5 conditions at your foes :)

Elite:
(0) Summon Flesh Golem - obvious Minion Master choice

Traits: Build output is 30/10/30. Maximize Spite to not only be a powerhouse but increase you condition duration by 30%. I put 10 into Curses mainly to have a slight condition damage boost. Death Magic is maximized to get Death Nova.
Spite:
(III) Spite Removal - utility trait for survival.

(X) Training of the Master - (it's a picture typo on the gw2db calculator) makes your minions hit harder

(XII) Chill of Death - free cast of Spinal Shivers as it applies more conditions

Curses:
(II) Hemophilia - Just from the primary scepter/dagger set, you get 3 skills that apply Bleed.

Death Magic:
(III) Minion Master - cooldown reduction.

(X) Flesh of the Master - makes your minions for beefy.

(XI) Death Nova - as said previously, this plus Putrid Explosion will hurt.

Minor Trait Notes:
With (15) Protection of the Horde and (25) Deadly Strength, they work together in giving you a boost in Power when your minions are summoned.


Example of a condition spike chain:
Using Scepter Dagger:
Blood Curse --> Grasping Dead --> Enfeebling Blood --> Deathly Swarm --> Signet of Spite --> Putrid Explosion --> Feast of Corruption (for added damage and regain Life Force)

That's a pretty brutal chain. I would use Dagger/Warhorn if I need to regain some health back or create distance between my enemies. This is a good blend of being a Condition-mancer and a Minion Master in one.  It also shows another way a Minion Master can be a wrecking force without having an incredibly large horde.

[23] Guild Wars 2 Builds - Necromancer: Staff & Scepter/Focus "Spectral Mark Mage" Build |WvWvW and PVE

By: Soul Step (7/10/2012)

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The build focuses on your Mark skills while using Spectral skills for support and survivability. You'll fill in the "mage" type roll weapon wise as you'll be using the Staff and Scepter/Focus combo. If you like being a power house from a safe distance, then this is a build for you.


Weapon Set:
Primary: Staff
Seconday: Scepter/Focus


Healing, Utility, Elite Skills:
Healing: You can choose any of the healing skills in this build. Specifically for me, I have two as options.
Option 1: 
(6) Consume Conditions - heal and condition remover in one.
Option 2:
(6) Summon Blood Fiend - with Protection of the Horde, you'll gain an extra +20 Toughness when your Blood Fiend is up.


Utility: 2 Spectral skills used here for your survival skills
(7) Spectral Armor - Gain life force and protection.


(8) Spectral Wall - another skills which grants protection and applies a condition.


(9) Signet of Spite - the passive improves your damage output, as the active inflicts plenty of conditions


Elite: 
(0) Lich Form - This elite's skill bar contains 2 Mark skills which is enough to warrant you using this over the over Elites.


Traits: Build output is 30/20/20/0/0 with traits chosen is maximize your Mark skills potential. It also maximizes Power as you can have high sustained damage.
Spite:
(III) Spiteful Removal - nice utility trait to have

(VII) Spiteful Marks - make your Mark skills hurt more

(XII) Chill of Death - a very nice offensive utility trait as it'll reduce the chance of your enemy of making a comeback

Curses:
(VI) Terror - To be used with Reaper's Mark and Doom (when in Death Shroud)

(X) Spectral Attunement - makes your Spectral skills last longer which is a great utility trait.

Death Magic:
(II) Greater Marks - makes your Mark skills larger.

(VIII) Fateful Marks - guaranteed that your Mark skills will hit when they are triggered by your foes.

This a fun build as it makes it can make you some sort of "death mage." Also, it's a step away from some of those high risk, high reward builds that Necromancers can be (like my "Corrupt and Dirty" build).

WvWvW: This is very useful in highly concentrated play battles and choke points as enemies will often run and trigger Marks.

[17] Guild Wars 2 Builds - Necromancer: Staff & Dual Dagger "Minion Master" Build |WvWvW and PVE

By: Soul Step (Updated 7/8/2012)

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Ah yes, the Minion Master is back in Guild Wars 2! Like in Guild Wars, playing the role of Minion Master is fun and you can deal tons of damage while you're at it. This build uses the Staff if you want to be far ranged and Dual Daggers if you want to be on the battlefront with your minions.

Weapon Set:
Primary: Staff
Secondary: Dual Daggers

Healing, Utility, Elite Skills: All minions!
Healing:
(6) Summon Blood Fiend

Utility:
(7) Summon Bone Fiend

(8) Summon Bone Minions

(9) Summon Shadow Fiend

Elite:
(0) Summon Flesh Golem

Traits: Build output is 10/0/30/30/0. Minion Master specialization will come from the Death Magic and Blood Magic traits. I chose to put the last 10 points into Spite because it increases Power. Power works well with the Minion Master build because some of the minor traits will boost your Power.
Spite: 
(III) Spiteful Removal - overall a great survival utility trait

Death Magic:
(III) Minion Master - standard in the Minion Master build. Cool downs :)

(X) Flesh of the Master - standard in the Minion Master build. Extra health for your minions!


Two options for your Grandmaster trait:
Option 1:
(XI) Death Nova - good way to inflict a condition.
Option 2:
(XII) Necromatic Corruption - this is a great utility for your minions to have.

Minor Trait Notes:
(15) Protection of the Horde - +20 Toughnes for each minion under your control. With this build, you can have up to 6 minions which is +120 Toughness for you.
(25) Deadly Strength - 10% of Toughness is given as a bonus to Power. Like I stated earlier, the minor traits work in favor of Power. With Death Magic maxed, you get +300 toughness, plus +120 toughness when all your minions are out and alive, you'll get +42 in Power. It's a nice Power boost.


Blood Magic:
(II) Bloodthirst  -  mostly for extra utility when using dual daggers. 


(VII) Vampiric Master - great survival utility trait for your minions and keeping you alive


(XI) Fetid Consumption - another useful utility trait for you minions to have.


Minor Trait Notes:
(25) Blood to Power - another boost for your Power output. +90 Power!


In perfect conditions/situation you can get a +132 Power Boost as a Minion Master! That's more damage for you and your minions. And with high toughness and health, you can afford to use dual daggers and fight in close range. Overall, being a Minion Master is just loads of fun :D

[15] Guild Wars 2 Builds - Necromancer: Scepter and Dagger/Warhorn off-hand "Corrupt and Dirty" Build |WvWvW and PVE

By: Soul Step (Updated 7/7/2012)

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One aspect I loved about the Necromancer profession that carried over from Guild Wars 1, is the ability to apply conditions (debuffs) on enemies and spread them. It's like another way to deal damage aside from a direct damage route. This build is solely for that purpose, apply and stack conditions to multiple foes. You will be using Scepter and Dagger/Warhorn skills with Corruption specialization from your utility skills to get the job done. 

You can use an Axe/Warhorn combo (I personally like that combo set) as the secondary for the extra skills that will be available, but this build should be effective on its own with just having the scepter and the two off-hands.

Weapon Set:

Primary: Scepter/Dagger

Secondary: Scepter/Warhorn

Healing, Utility, Elite Skills:

Healing:

(6) Consume Conditions - Use this in synergy with your Corruption skills as it removes your conditions. Great for condition and heal spiking.

Utility: All 3 of your utility skills are Corruptions .

(7) Corrupt Boon - Dirty move to use against your foe.

(8) Corrosive Poison - Great AOE to inflict conditions.

(9) Epidemic - Another great AOE to inflict conditions.

Elite:

(0) Plague - I love this skill as it is dirty and fun

Traits: Build set up as 20/30/10/0/10 as it'll provide great damage and crit, make your conditions more effective, specialize in Corruptions and provide some survivability.

Spite:

(III) Spiteful Removal - Good survival trait and works well with your Corruptions

(IX) Spiteful Vigor - Nice boon to have as it returns some damage back to foes.

Curses: 

(II) Hemophilia - Makes Blood Curse, Grasping Dead and Enfeebling Blood more effective

(VII) Master of Corruption - a must have since you're specializing in Corruptions.

(XI) Lingering Curse - Your main weapon is the scepter as it makes the skill conditions last longer.

Death Magic:

(VI) Shrouded Removal - Another utility trait that work well with your Corruptions. Also, you use this for condition spiking and removing your own at the same time.

Soul Reaping:

(II) Vital Persistance - Useful if you want to stay longer in Death Shroud.

You can say this is a high risk, high reward build as the Corruption skills affect you as well. With some practice, you can time your rotations nicely and condition spike without worrying being gimped from the applied conditions on yourself.