Minion

Overview
Minions (a.k.a "Animated Undead") are undead servants animated by a Necromancer. A necromancer can use specific skills to exploit any nearby corpse, raising from it one or more minions. Necromancers whose strategy focuses around the raising and maintenance of minions are called minion masters.

Minions are very handy as they follow their master closely and serve as tanks and cannon fodder. At high levels, they become formidable damage dealers in great numbers. Their biggest drawback is their constant health degeneration. Minions are considered a subcategory of summoned creatures.

Minion Varieties
There are eight kinds of minions in the game:

Summoning Minions

 * Minion Level: A minion's level is dependent on caster's Death Magic attribute rank and minion type. Higher level minions have more health, greater armor, and stronger attacks.
 * Number of Minions: A character can control 2 minions plus one for every two ranks in Death Magic, allowing primary and secondary Necromancers to control up to 11 or 8 minions, respectively.
 * If a new summoning spell raises more Minions than allowed by your Death Magic, one or more of your minions (ones with the fewest remaining hit points) will die until the limit is satisfied. Flesh Golems that die as a result will leave an exploitable corpse (unless the new Minion is also a Flesh Golem).
 * Minions Require Corpses: Raising minions requires a supply of corpses. Only Fleshy creatures leave exploitable corpses, so, ironically, Minion Masters are at a disadvantage combating the Undead. All wild animals leave exploitable corpses, however once charmed as pets, their corpse will be exploited upon death, and thus not usable.
 * Soul Reaping: Death of allied and enemy minions alike will trigger the Soul Reaping energy bonus for all necromancers in range. With higher ranks in Soul Reaping a minion master will get a refund of all or part of the summoning cost when the minion dies, even if the death was caused by exceeding the number of minions allowed by Death Magic rank.
 * Minion Size: A minion's level determines its size, as the picture shows.

Minions in Combat

 * Attack Speed: Minions attack once every 3.17 seconds (Exception: Bone Fiends attack faster).
 * Holy Damage: Minions, as Undead, suffer double damage from Holy
 * Minion AI: Minions do not use pet AI: they do not always attack the same target as their master; they do attack hostile creatures that enter their aggro circle; and they do not respond to called targets.
 * Minion Damage: Minions do physical damage unless under the influence of a skill that alters damage type (e.g. Greater Conflagration, Judge's Insight).
 * Critical Hits: Minions can inflict critical hits. Like animal companions, minion critical hits do not automatically inflict maximum damage.

Minion Health &amp; Effect of Skills on Minions

 * Health Degeneration: Minions are subject to constant health degeneration:
 * Upon summoning, minions already suffer 1 pip degeneration (equal to -2 Health/sec), increasing an additional pip every 20 seconds.
 * The total degeneration can surpass the character health degeneration cap of -10 pips, counteracting any regenerative skills you might cast, but the effective degeneration (the amount affecting a minion at any point in time) will still cap out at -10 pips (or -20 Health/sec).
 * Healing Minions: Minions can be healed by many regenerative skills and direct healing skills, including Necromancer spells (e.g. Verata's Sacrifice, Blood of the Master and Feast for the Dead), Monk spells (e.g. Heal Other or Heal Area), Ritualist Restoration Magic, Dervish skills (e.g. Signet of Pious Light, Imbue Health), and Paragon skills (e.g. Signet of Synergy). Contrary to some rumors, healing a minion with a Healing Prayers skill does not increase its degeneration.
 * Blood of the Master can be very effective at healing your minion army, but beware of using it if there is a second minion master in your party, as it will heal and cause the health sacrifice for each allied minion, even if they were not summoned by you.
 * Minions are not Party Members: Minions do not count as party members and do not benefit from skills that target the caster's party members (e.g. Aegis, Heal Party, Order of Pain, Feast of Souls and Rejuvenation).
 * Minions are Allies: Friendly minions count as allies and will benefit from single-target and location-based skills that affect allies, including Weapon Spells, some Ritualist Spirits, Shouts, Echoes and Chants.

Related Articles

 * Animate minion skills quick reference
 * Minion master
 * General minion mastery guide