Please tear down my necro!

[Alaris]

The thing about "clicking", Lensor, I totally agree with.

The way I go about it is that a build has to be fun to play as well as fairly effective. I don't like gimping myself, but I also don't like to run builds that I don't enjoy playing just because they are more effective.

So for me, minions is a requirement, and I have lots of leeway on how to make that work.

But when I look at other people's builds, I generally think what traits would best serve them (and possibly what skill changes). But I try to keep the same weapons and skills as much as possible because I figure that's what they enjoy. I might discuss weapons if I see that their weapons are not used for their purpose (e.g. mesmer scepter for dps... not the best choice).

One thing about conditions I noticed is that some bosses (e.g. tree boss in Twilight), as well as many items (barrels, doors, totems), don't show conditions stacked below the health bar. I don't really know what happens to conditions on them. Are conditions converted to damage? Are they completely lost? I have no idea, and frankly, I think that might be an issue worth investigating.

[The King of Dust]

I'm pretty sure they're completely "lost". Objects never seemed to be affected by conditions for me.

[Raye]

That is correct. Objects are not affected by conditions, only direct damage. So you shouldn't be applying bleeding and poison to that centaur catapult or similar things. If a boss seems to never have conditions, check the description to see if it says that he removes conditions. Those would be the only two instances in which conditions are "lost"

[The King of Dust]

It's very rare, but some enemies are also completely immune to all conditions. Like that Largos assassin that you have to defeat as part of an event in Brisban Wildlands.

[nkuvu]

If a boss seems to never have conditions, check the description to see if it says that he removes conditions. Those would be the only two instances in which conditions are "lost"

The description under the name plates is not exhaustive, however.

More obvious examples: All dredge are immune to blind. But not all dredge have "Immune to Blind" listed under their nameplates. All Hylek are immune to poison. But again, not all Hylek have this listed. Blaize, the NPC I referred to earlier, lists absolutely nothing under his name plate, but has a high resistance to conditions.

The Largos assassin does list that he's immune to conditions, at least. So, it varies.

[Raye]

Huh did not know that at all. I'll have to pay more attention. I usually bank on what the descriptions say under their bar.

[Alaris]

I was more referring to bosses that are more like "animated objects", I seem to remember some being immunite to all conditions despite them not saying anything in their description.

Maybe ANet has regular foes, and then objects... and forgot to make a third category for bosses.

[shadowhand]

That build you linked to is very close to the one I'm using currently, King of Dust. Interesting :)

I tend to prefer dagger/dagger and staff though.

I love being able to place my wells like they were marks so that's the main draw of it I guess - and with the main hand dagger I can use Dark Pact for immobilizing troublesome foes in my wells.

I guess it all comes down to personal preferences at that point however.

I go with II and IV in death magic though and I drop well of corruption for blood is power.

[MisterB]

Why you no use minions?

Because they're unfocused, uncontrolled single target damage with poor AI, like the Flesh Golem who likes to stand there and drool while Mister Risen Abomination is pounding your face into the ground like a hammer hitting a nail. They are more work to manage than GW, and we can't offload the menial task to a hero to benefit from the meatshield wall of garbage.

They also slow you down considerably, since they automatically engage anything with red letters, so you are slowed in turn due to a constant state of combat mode. So rather than picking your battles and your battlefield position, you instead must follow your minions. You can of course kill them off by jumping in a puddle, or using an elite like Plague or Lich.

But if all of that sounds like fun or an enjoyable play style, then go for it. It's a viable build to play if you like killing all the things all of the time.

I miss my minion bomber/protter hero. RIP, Olias.

[Alaris]

@MisterB: hahah, well, the question was more rhetorical. There's lots of good reasons to not use minions.

When I play necro I want to play minions. I do have 5-6 other alts (still considering rolling a warrior) so I have pretty much every gameplay style covered except minion-master (which the mesmer is not). Which means that for me, it's not a decision about whether to play minions or not, it's a decision about playing necro or another profession.

You're right about a lot of the complaints, and btw afaik jumping in water does not work because the minions work underwater too.

But some of the complaints I have accepted as a limitation of the profession. I don't tend to run as much with my necro (although I do use that 25% run speed skill, which means even with minions I can run just as well). I also don't use them as mean shield, I find the necro himself is very durable especially if using the F1 and some health stealing. I also view minions as bonus damage rather than main damage, I really like the fact that I am more active in combat than I was in GW1 as a necro or Rt/N.

I was also never a fan of micro-managing my minions, i.e. putting death nova or ... on them.

edit: this is a minion build that I put up quickly, that I would run in general PvE:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simul...0.0.10.30.30.0

and to do dungeons, I would switch to wells:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simul...0.0.10.30.30.0

The advantage is that I wouldn't have to pay for respecs.

Comments more than welcome!