User:Xskyzhighx

This build is designed to farm the Underworld with a team made of two trapping rangers. Its originality comes from the use of Echo to duplicate Dust Trap, as well as the Nightfall skill Trapper's Speed. The idea is to lay down just as few traps as you need to kill the group you are going to pull, and for that, Dust Trap is the best as it deals the most damage.

Equipment

 * Full Druid's Armor or equivalent in function.
 * As many Runes of Attunement as you can (up to 3)
 * A Staff of the Forgotten or a similar staff (with at least 15 energy bonus)

Usage
This build requires good coordination between the two players.
 * First, choose the trapping spot.
 * Then, the Mime uses Arcane Mimicry on the Puller to copy his Echo. The Puller must be carefull not to begin the combo before the Mime has copied Echo, so the Mime should Ctrl-click on Arcane Mimicry so that the Puller knows he can begin. Now both trappers have Echo.
 * The main sequence is: Trapper's Speed > Echo > Dust Trap > copy of Dust Trap > Trapper's Speed > Dust Trap > copy of Dust Trap. Just lay down the other traps while both Dust Traps are recharging, and don't forget to always have Trapper's Speed on you before you drop a trap.
 * When each trapper has dropped two series of traps (which makes a total of 8 Dust Traps equaling 8*5*26=1040dmg), the Puller can aggro (don't forget to use Troll Unguent and Whirling Defense to stay alive). The Mime should have finished laying down his second Spike Trap by the time the mobs arrive. He should make a step backwards and hit Whirling Defense.

Tips

 * You don't have to put all the traps on the exact same location. You can spread out a bit to cover a wider area. You'll just have to make sure that when mobs trigger the first trapper's traps, they trigger the second trapper's traps too.
 * Good spots to put traps on are corners. When the puller comes back, chased by mobs, they tend to take the shortest way, thus grinding the wall inside the corner. The Puller should drop his traps right inside the corner, while the Mime should drop his traps a bit farther outwards. This way, you are sure that all of them will be hit by Spike Trap and stay in the Dust Traps for their whole duration.
 * When you trap in an open area, put all your traps on the same spot, except Spike trap. The Mime should place one a bit backwards on the left and another one a bit backwards on the right of the spot where the other traps are. This tactic is meant to counter the AI which makes mobs spread out before engaging you to try to circle you.
 * Sometimes Aatxes won't stay on the traps for the whole duration, so you have basically two solutions:
 * Put a couple more Dust Traps on the trapping spot before pulling them.
 * Active trap them if they survive the initial traps.
 * The first solution is as fast as the second and more reliable, so each trapper should put 5 Dust Traps before the Aatxes are to be pulled.


 * Against Coldfire Nights, you can lay a single series each (for a total of 4 Dust Traps, 2 Barbed Traps, 1 Flame Trap and 1 Spike Trap) on their path, then run backwards. It's generally enough to kill them.
 * Against mobs that chase you from afar, such as the ones you aggroed but didn't manage to kill, just run away until they break aggro, then try to find the exact point where they aggro again. Put a first series of traps just behind that spot, wait, and when the second series is ready, put it down two steps forward. Stay on this spot until the mobs come back at you, then walk two steps backwards to make them trigger the first series of traps.

Variants
The build for trapper 1 can also be used to farm vermins outside Senji's Corner, then replace Resurrection Signet with Ether Signet and put the extra attribute points in inspiration magic and use it the second time you lay the echoed dust trap.
 * Take Tripwire instead of Troll Unguent for the mime. Use it just after the enemies are knocked down for the first time so they will be knocked down again, thus taking even more damage from the Dust Traps.


 * An excellent alternative for Trapper 1 is to run a pure Dust Bomber build, the skills would include Arcane Echo, Echo, Dust Trap, Serpent's Quickness, Ether Signet, Troll Unguent, Whirling Defense, and Sunspear Rebirth Signet. In order for this build to work, you need to have 57 energy exactly, no more no less. Take a end game Nightfall staff with plus 20 energy and set you armor up with Radiant Insignias (don't put one in the head peice), Runes of Attunement, and of course a Vigor of your choice. Your attributes should be as follows:

Inspiration: 6

Expertise: 11+1

Wilderness: 12+3+1

You will run Serpents Quickness+Arcane Echo+Echo+Dust Trap+Echo (from Arcane Echo)+Dust Trap+Dust Trap+Ether Signet

Go through your Dust Traps again once they recharge and if you want you can lay another 4 Dust Traps with just Echo (making sure to use Ether Signet in between skills) to make a grand total of 10 Dust Traps from Trapper 1 alone! If you do 10 Dust Traps, you'll only have a few seconds to pull before they start going off, so I recommend doing 8 until you find your medium.

Counters
This team build will give you a hard time against Terrorweb Dryders, but with proper aggro, it is not impossible to destroy them.

Attributes and Skills

 * See Variants for possible skills for the optional slot.
 * Karei's Healing Circle is the Factions equivalent skill for Heal Area.
 * The skill set presented here is an example. No claims are made to its supremacy.

Equipment

 * Bloodstained Boots or Insignia are a must. Other than that, any Necromancer armor is fine, although Minion Master insignia is preferred.
 * A staff or weapon/focus set that halves recharge and casting time of Death Magic is advisable. Ghial's Staff or The Nightbringer work great.
 * See the Equipment section of the General minion mastery guide for more options.

Usage

 * As soon as corpses are available, start by raising a Flesh Golem, then Bone Fiends. If you are low on energy or are waiting for Animate Bone Fiend to recharge, raise up some Bone Horrors. Summon new minions during battle if needed.
 * Use Dark Bond to mitigate damage, if you expect to be in a vulnerable position.
 * Use Blood of the Master and/or Heal Area to keep your minions alive.

Counters

 * An enemy with Diversion will screw you up if it gets used on Blood of the Master.
 * A good mesmer could mess you up when you try to summon minions.
 * Another necromancer may get to corpses before you do, which will leave you with a lack of corpses.
 * A mesmer with Conjure Phantasm or Conjure Nightmare will kill you pretty fast if you don't have a hex remover.
 * See also the Opposing forces section of the General minion mastery guide.

Variants

 * Some find the extra healing provided by Heal Area unnecessary. This gives the Minion Master more choices in selecting a secondary profession. Also, the points put into Healing Prayers can be used in other attributes.
 * Aura of the Lich can be used in place of Animate Flesh Golem to allow more spamming of Blood of the Master, although not advisable when anticipating health degeneration effects. This also makes Blood Renewal useful for self-healing if Blood Magic is used.
 * Taste of Death can be used in place of Dark Bond healing.
 * Skills such as Rotting Flesh, Putrid Explosion, Deathly Swarm and Bitter Chill can be added to give the Minion Master some direct damage skills that are linked to Death Magic.
 * You can bring Death Nova to make one last final use of a minion that's near death.
 * For more self healing Animate Vampiric Horror can be used in place of Animate Bone Fiend. This allows a more meat-shield like role of the minion master protecting the back line casters. If making this switch, it is a good idea to cast Animate Bone Horror more often due to the recharge time of Animate Vampiric Horror and to refresh your minions.
 * Fill the optional slot with Verata's Aura to reclaim your minions if you die, or possibly to steal minions from monsters who create them. Not many monsters can, however, and the ones that can do not create them nearly as fast as the average Minion Master Necromancer. As such, Verata's Gaze may be a better choice for stealing minions.
 * Infuse Condition in combination with Dark Bond is useful in scenarios where you are being targeted instead of your minions.
 * Some like to bring other healing skills such as Healing Breeze or Blood Renewal to offset the sacrifice damage suffered by using Blood of the Master.
 * Rebirth can be replaced by the resurrection skill of your choice.
 * Skills such as Putrid Explosion will exploit your corpses rendering them useless to a Minion Master. Instead of using Animate Bone Fiend and Dark Bond, try Fetid Ground and Deathly Swarm for damage when you need to kill enemies quickly without enemies.
 * You can use Animate Shambling Horror instead of Animate Bone Horror if you have Guild Wars Nightfall. The differences between a Shambling Horror and a Bone Horror, except for the 'skin', include a different attack range from Bone Minions and Vampiric Horrors, and the fact that when a Shambling Horror dies they will immediatly turn into a Jagged Horror, which will cause bleeding with its attacks. Those using Shambling Horror will find a longer recharge time in return for this fact, so faster-recharging summons are advised.
 * Using Dwayna's Sorrow on your minions can provide numerous, cheap heals for your entire party.
 * Signet of Lost Souls may be an energy management option.


 * If you consider the healing from Heal Area unnecessary, replace it with a Death Magic spell such as Deathly Swarm, Bitter Chill or any other high damage Death Magic spell.

Equipment

 * Minion Master's Armor or Cabalist's Armor.
 * Bloodstained Boots
 * Any 20/20 Bone Staff, Ghial's Staff, Woe Spreader or The Nightbringer

Usage
When starting out in a new area or low on minions:
 * Use Rotting Flesh on fleshy foes, preferably on large groups to spread the Disease condition. This is incredibly effective when used in PvE.
 * Create a Flesh Golem with the first dead body to start off.
 * Create other minions depending on your Energy pool.

Once you have a few minions: This build can happily stay alive by sacrificing a minion with Taste of Death while other minions kill foes, while disease from Rotting Flesh degenerates most foes in PvE when low on minions.
 * Create other minions, again, depending on remaining Energy.
 * Use Blood of the Master to keep your minions alive.
 * When without a monk on your team it is perfectly viable to use Taste of Death to keep yourself alive so long as you have Minions to feed off of.
 * When idle, spam Blood of the Master on your minion army and use Taste of Death on a Flesh golem to regain the health lost. Don't forget that it is usually easier to kill off an old Flesh Golem for a new one instead of repeatedly healing one.

Variants

 * For the optional slot:
 * Deathly Swarm can be used for AoE damage.
 * Take Rotting Flesh to spread degeneration. (NOTE: not recommended against human foes)
 * Use Infuse Condition for the transfer of conditions to your minions.
 * Aura of the Lich can be used in place of Animate Flesh Golem to allow more spamming of Blood of the Master, although not advisable when anticipating health degeneration effects. This also makes Blood Renewal useful for self-healing if a higher level Blood Magic is used.
 * Skills such as Putrid Explosion, Deathly Swarm and Bitter Chill can be added to give the Minion Master some direct damage skills that are linked to Death Magic.
 * You can bring Death Nova to make one last final use of a minion that's near death.
 * For more self healing Animate Vampiric Horror can be used in place of Animate Bone Fiend. This allows a more meat-shield like role of the minion master protecting the back line casters. If making this switch, it is a good idea to cast Animate Bone Horror more often due to the recharge time of Animate Vampiric Horror and to refresh your minions. Also great way to gain a positive health gained to sacrificed ratio if enough are summoned.
 * Bring Verata's Aura to reclaim your minions if you die, or possibly to steal minions from monsters who create them. Not many monsters can, however, and the ones that can do not create them nearly as fast as the average Minion Master Necromancer. As such, Verata's Gaze may be a better choice for stealing minions.
 * Infuse Condition in combination with Dark Bond is useful in scenarios where you are being targeted instead of your minions.
 * Skills such as Putrid Explosion will exploit your corpses rendering them useless to a Minion Master. Instead of using Animate Bone Fiend and Dark Bond, try Fetid Ground and Deathly Swarm for damage when you need to kill enemies quickly without minions.
 * You can use Animate Shambling Horror instead of Animate Bone Horror if you have Guild Wars Nightfall. The differences between a Shambling Horror and a Bone Horror, except for the 'skin', include a different attack range from Bone Minions and Vampiric Horrors, and the fact that when a Shambling Horror dies they will immediatly turn into a Jagged Horror, which will cause bleeding with its attacks. Those using Shambling Horror will find a longer recharge time in return for this fact, so faster-recharging summons are advised.
 * Signet of Lost Souls may be an energy management option.
 * Verata's Gaze and Verata's Aura Make excellent AB variant over the Resurrect skills because they allow the Minion Master to steal the enemy minions (Mostly other Flesh Golems or with aura all of the enemy minions). WARNING: Once Verata's Aura is used, especially with re-controlling your army MAINTAIN IT!

Equipment

 * Minion Master, Tormentor or Cabalist Armor With Runes Mentioned Above + Major Or Superior Vigor.
 * Ghial's or Nightbringer Staff Or 20/20 Wand And Offhand (Death Magic)

Usage
1. Activate Signet of Agony, then use Plague Sending in the middle of a group of enemies, followed by Virulence. If not under pressure, redo the combo when Signet and Virulence recharge (both have the same recharge - 15 seconds). If under pressure, simply use virulence on any targets of opportunity and plague send dangerous/long lasting conditions.

2. Regular MM activities - raise minions, heal yourself, if you can, and heal your minions.

Counters
Interrupts, Condition removal, Anti-caster spells such as Backfire, corpse denial, etc.

Variants
You can use your secondary (siphoning points off Soul Reaping) for added defense or utility. One suggestion would be using Dervish with 8 pts in Earth Prayers with Mystic Regeneration and Vital Boon, for instance. Or Monk for a hard res, Healing Breeze or Heal Area. Another suggestion would be a Mesmer secondary, using Epidemic.

Keep in mind that if you're taking points off soul reaping, you might want to replace bone fiend for bone horror (or even bone minions), since you'll have less energy.