User:D Force/My favored Builds

BUILD 1: N/ME SS NUKER

Equipment

 * Necromancer armor of personal preference.
 * a 20/20 cold damage weapon and 20/20 offhand, such as the Wailing Wand from Gertrud or Telamon and Villnar's Glove or The Shadestone (as long as you have 9 blood magic).
 * The Stonereaper is also good for this build, however it deals dark damage that will not trigger Spinal Shivers. Therefore you might also consider its collector counterparts.

Usage

 * Be conscious of the aggro distribution around the tanking characters. The success of this build relies on proper placement of Spiteful Spirit, and poor placement can be the difference between eliminating the group and a wasted spell.
 * Before battle, cast Awaken the Blood, followed by Arcane Echo.
 * Choose a target and cast Spiteful Spirit, followed by Reckless Haste. Assassins are ideal targets, due to their higher attack speed.
 * Select a second nearby target and cast a second Spiteful Spirit.
 * Cast Spiteful Spirit on any remaining foes as energy and recharging skills allow.
 * Cast Spinal Shivers on any monk targets standing after the initial hexes, and attack them w

BUILD 2: Ri/X ATTUNED RESTORER This Ritualist Restoration build uses Attuned Was Songkai to create a whirlwind of healing and support, and is very effective at energy management. It is usually coupled with at least one Monk and aims to help save fading life and to ease their job.

Equipment

 * Halcyon's Armor for maximum energy or Mystic's Armor (you will be spamming skills constantly). You will usually not gain the effects of any equipped weapons.
 * No weapons or foci (see usage).
 * +15 energy -1 regen Restoration Focus and 20% recharge wand (see usage).

Usage

 * At 16 Spawning Power, Attuned Was Songkai provides 53% reduction in spell/ritual costs. For 5 energy spells, the game rounds down to 2; for 10, to 5; and for 15 it rounds to 7. Note because it reduces cost you can begin casting the spell/ritual as soon as you have the reduced cost, not the regular cost.
 * Your weapon and/or focus item are not used when Attuned Was Songkai is active. When a battle begins, you start with Attuned Was Songkai, which fills your hands. It is recommended to switch to an empty weapon slot for this build most of the time. Attuned Was Songkai causes you to stop holding your weapons, which can have the same negative energy effect as switching to weapons with no energy bonus.
 * Although you begin holding weapons again as soon as Attuned Was Songkai ends, if you cast it at only 10 energy with your weapons equipped you will receive a lot of negative energy, making you wait a dangerous amount of time with 0 energy. You only have no items in your hand for 15 seconds (Attuned Was Songkai lasts 45 seconds, recharges in 60), after which you re-cast it. One trick to get by this is to swap for a +15 energy -1 regen focus for that time, to cast one or two spells, then swapping back to the empty slot before re-casting Attuned Was Songkai.
 * Soothing Memories also helps with energy management. The spell costs 2 energy while holding Songkai's Ashes and returns 3 energy because you are holding an item, resulting in a free heal.
 * Use Recuperation immediately after Attuned Was Songkai when a battle begins. Recuperation, if placed in a safe location, will usually last the whole battle. Recuperation also greatly takes pressure off monks, because it fixes small healing tasks and counters weak degen, such as that from Bleeding.
 * If Attuned Was Songkai ever fast recharges, either from weapons or a Morale Boost, do not re-cast it until it's effects are about to fade. Heal someone instead, or save if for the next battle. It is sometimes smarter to not re-cast it if the battle is only going to last another 10-15 seconds or so, because you need it recharged for the next battle.

Counters

 * Interrupt Attuned Was Songkai, an Elite Item Spell.
 * Kill the Recuperation spirit.
 * Divert, Power Block, or Backfire the healer. Any anti-spamming tactic works.

Variants

 * Resilient Weapon can be replaced with Signet of Capture, a Celestial Skill, or something else your party needs.
 * A Rt/Me variant of this build uses Arcane Echo to copy Soothing Memories for a spin of free heals. Arcane Echo, however, still costs 8 energy to cast. This build can be less effective if you don't compensate for Arcane Echo's downtime.
 * Spirit Light is effective in PvE, where you rarely have to move away from your Recuperation Spirit. Resilient Weapon or either of the other healing spells can be replaced in this situation.
 * Flesh of My Flesh can be swapped for a better Resurrection skill, such as Rebirth if you're a monk secondary. Resurrection Signet is usually a better choice in areas where there are many bosses that can recharge it, or at times when fast, in-battle resurrection is crucial.
 * Replace Resilient Weapon with Ghostly Haste to keep Attuned Was Songkai up indefinitely.
 * Switch to Ranger secondary to use Serpent's Quickness immediately before (or during) the casting of Attuned Was. That will make Attuned match Serpent's 45 second recharge, allowing you to keep Attuned up indefinitely.
 * Replace Weapon of Warding with Wielder's Boon. Use boon on any targets under resilient weapon. Do not use with Vengeful Weapon since it will be likely removed very quickly.
 * This build is incredibly resilient as it is, so two superiors are easy to use. In that case, use a headgear for restoration instead of spawning. The difference between 15 and 16 on Spawning Power will not affect the cost reduction on 5 or 10 energy spells, and the 16 Restoration will make your spells much more effective.

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!