Spoilers: Necro Minion Master Elite Spec

[EMTDJ.9042]

Hey Everyone,

Hope all is well for you all. While my computer is being repaired I thought I would check in with the forums on my phone and address an idea I thought of when playing through POF. Spoilers ahead!!! You have been warned...

In POF we get the opportunity to command the students/recruits of one of Joko's generals during an instance. Doing this and the final instance where you are in charge of an entire army of undead brought me back to my days of playing Guild Wars 1 when I had my Minion master who could summon 12 minions and run with them all at once. I loved it, and I loved the spirit summoning ritualist - which we get a little bit with the Rev new elite spec but not as much as I would have hoped. I loved the opportunity of running around with my group of minions, who I healed and cared for as we went. I understand there are some Minion skills and traits in the core necromancer profession, but I feel they don't have the flavor and survivability that the ones in GW1 did. Yes, you can summon the ones in GW2 anywhere, no need for dead bodies and such in GW2 but they die very easily as well and you end up with yourself getting squished. Where as other professions have been able to solo things and such, I feel that necromancer has been lacking, as well as Rev, in the "survive on your own" category outside of viper reaper. I would like to get some one's ideas on what if Necro got an elite spec or something where they could summon minions from their dead enemies and these minions were stronger and tougher than the current ones that are in the game now. It could be through weapon skills or, even better, a mechanic like the scourge where the different minions were slotted above the weapon skills bar and use life force to be summoned. Then the Minion master would need dead bodies and life force to summon the minions. That would help with balance I believe and it would give those of us GW1 Minion masters the chance to relive our Minion master days.

Lore wise: we know that the scourge goes against Joko, which I even followed through with on my character, but what about those who wanted to side with Joko? Making an army of undead from those who have just died would fit in perfect with that story path. Joko granting them the power to create a Minion army to advance his goals in the region and the world would fit great in the Lore. I feel this would finally give us a decent summoning class with the survivability that we find in other classes. This definitely would work well in PVE since there are areas with a lot of enemies and other that don't have as much so it would give balance to where the necro wouldn't be just running in with way more numbers that what enemies were in the area. plus it would make necros a great way to even out the playing field if you don't have enough numbers on things like meta events or story instances where there are a lot of enemies and you don't have others to join you.

Please tell me what you think. Developers, please chime in. I would love to hear from you as far as what would complicate this as far as mechanics and game play. I just want to have a conversation. I love this game and POF story was absolutely astounding. Awesome work everyone who worked on it. Everyone from environmental design, to story, to sound, and all the people in between. Great job and I truly hope you continue to do just as amazing work in the future.

Thanks everyone,Eternal

[Acheron.4576]

Yes, I hope that we get a new elite spec dedicated to minions and that they take to that instance for inspiration. I had so much fun commanding my army of undead. I also like how they filed into ranks/columns when you were idle. It made it really feel like you were commanding a army or squad of undead. They could just give us new weapons. (I like the idea of sword and shield) and give us a kit that allows us to swap and command the undead. Maybe design the new weapon/s around creating and supporting the undead and swap to the commanding kit when we have enough minions and have given them enough support.

[EMTDJ.9042]

If we can get the devs to look at it, it would be great!

[Kam.4092]

I'd like a Minion Master Elite. It could be called "Lich", and instead of Death Shroud, it had "Aura of the Lich".

Aura of the Lich was one of my favorite Guild Wars 1 Elite Skills https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Aura_of_the_Lich

The Aura mechanics would be focused on spawning minions with your own health, mass summoning, exploding minions, and buffing them.

When exploding a Minion it would add a new debuff unique to the Necromancer.

Acidic Armor. This would reduce a target's Toughness by 10%.

The Elite weapon would be Mainhand Mace.

Skill 1 would be an auto attack that was pure Power damage, and hit 3 targets on the last attack.

Skill 2 would be an AoE blast finisher that did mass vulnerability.

Skill 3 would be an evade attack that was a leap and stun.

F1 could be summon a Minion for x% of your current health, or hold down to mass summon from nearby corpses (max minions at once is 10, in PvP it would be 5). The summon Minion for x% of your health only happened if no corpses were near. This would allow you to slowly get 10 minions throughout a fight. The build up would take near 20-30 seconds.

F2 would be a ranged attack for the minions. It would cripple, would be weaker in PvP

F3 would be a melee attack for minions. It would stack Vulnerability.

F4 would be the bomb explosion attack for Acidic Armor. It would be able to stay up 80% of the time.

F5 would be called Order of Undeath, and do the same thing as it did in Guild Wars 1 https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Order_of_UndeathIt would buff Damage of your minions by 20%, and every minion's attack drained 1% of your health.

The minions could look like Awakened, or https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Jagged_Horror.jpg the old Jagged Horror animation looked way better to me. They would need to look more menacing than current minions.

The Heal could be a multiuse skill. The first use would be a buff that healed your minions, while you lost health per Minion out slowly (they'd be losing health like in GW1) the Heal would be called Flesh of the Master (could rename the Trait to Undead Armor) the on use Heal would sacrifice a Minion for a big self heal.

Utility 1 would be exploding a Minion for AoE blind, and Cripple. Scaling off of Power damage.

Utility 2 would be teleporting to one of your minions, and transferring Conditions on you to your Minion, then using the skill again would explode the Minion sending the Conditions out in an AoE wave.

Utility 3 would be pulling a Minion to you, and exploding it giving self Retaliation, and Swiftness, while slowing enemies near you.

Utility 4 would be an AoE stun break for you and your minions, and would fear enemies.

The Elite would be an explosion that sacrificed 3 minions instead of 1, and would do massive AoE Power damage, while stacking Acidic Armor.

The Traits would be centered around buffing minions, and adding conditions to the minions. These would be like Chill, Wekaness, and Taunt. No damaging ones.

This Elite would be an extreme sustained Power DPS build, with offensive and defensive play. It would have Traits to be more tank like, then Traits to be more damage focused. In PvP this would be a bunker bomber like build, or a group nuke build.

My suggestions and ideas are based on how MM Necros felt like in Guild Wars 1. I main a Necro in GW2 like I did in GW1. I loved the build, and minions currently in GW2 are just plain boring.

A true MM Necro like in GW1 is a want of mine.

I hope this suggestion sounds ok.

[particlepinata.9865]

I was thinking exactly the same playing through the Pof story, wouldn't it be great if a gw 2 necro minionmaster could do that :p it felt great building an army of undead, playing with the melee and ranged attack options.

[Afropenguinn.3675]

Haven't went through the story yet, so I won't read the OP post, but I'd LOVE a Minion Master elite spec. I always run with all minions, even if it's not optimal. It's just what I enjoy, so I'd love an elite spec dedicated to it! I also hope it's viable with a power build, I like getting right into the action along side my minions :) Reaper + minions is the closest I can get for now.

[Andred.1087]

It would be really cool if they could make an elite spec inspired by that instance. MM was always fun in GW1 and it sucks that it's never really been good in GW2.

[Quells.2498]

I would love an Elite specialization related to minions.

[Ellisande.5218]

I wanted to eat Trahearne's heart so that I could gain his ability to summon 5 Flesh Golems at once instead of 1.

I run with almost all minions too because I like being able to have a tea party no matter where I am, be it while sitting with the Queen or knocking heads in.