User:Defiant Elements/Saving Vetted PvE Necromancer Builds

= N/D Heir to the Master = The N/D Heir to the Master is an MM build designed to withstand moderately heavy damage and health degeneration at the same time supporting other MM's. Excellent for Alliance Battles and can work in PvE with a few modifications.

Equipment

 * Armor - Recommend full Radiant Armor, though other set-ups are viable. Equip the best Vigor rune possible.
 * Weapons - Ghial's Staff or something similiar.

Usage

 * Maintain Aura of the Lich, Dark Bond, Mystic Regeneration and Infuse Condition
 * When playing as the only MM, animate minions as the situation permits.
 * When playing with other MM's, let them make more minions than you, and tell them that you will be healing their minions as through Blood of the Master spamming. Mystic Regeneration will fill your health back up before Blood of the Master is even recharged.

Counters

 * Traditional spell caster counters (Dazed, interruption, etc.) In this case dazed will have almost no effect since its usualy instantly passed on to a minion.
 * Enchantment stripping. However only multiple or mass enchant removal skills are truly dangerous. You can use mystic regeneration as cover for your other enchants, the fast recharge and cast time makes it ideal for this.
 * Life Stealing (with Aura of the Lich, your health will be lower but it cannot reduce life stealing skills such as Vampiric Gaze)
 * Low max health makes degeneration more dangerous. Extremely heavy health degeneration though (more than -12) which is unlikely exept for heavy hex based degen (remember you pass on your conditions). But a significant degen will impede your use of blood of the master.
 * Losing al your minions. This means that you have no damage reduction (from dark bond), are suceptible to conditions and most importantly posses no notable offense. If you lose al of them attempt to create more asap or retreat.

Variants

 * Replace Infuse Condition with Verata's Aura or Dark Aura.
 * Replace Animate Bone Horror with Animate Bone Minions.
 * Replace Signet of Lost Souls with Resurrection Signet or Sunspear Rebirth Signet or Consume Corpse.
 * Replace Animate Bone Horror with Animate Shambling Horror.
 * Replace Consume Corpse with Verata's Aura.

Attributes and Skills

 * Switch the Res Signet for Pious Restoration if it is unneeded or you would like to have hex removal. Otherwise switch it for one of the variant skills listed below.

Equipment
Because of the importance of your enchantments, a Blood Staff of Enchanting is required to get the longest possible duration. Armor with Radiant Insignias would probably be best, but Undertaker's Insignias could also be useful.

Usage

 * Try to stay back out of the fight and avoid aggro.
 * Keep Blood Renewal, Mystic Regeneration, and Vital Boon up at all times during combat.
 * Apply Blood Bond first to allies heading into combat that you expect to take damage such as the tank(s). Also apply it to other allies who come under attack or are experiencing health degeneration.
 * Apply Blood is Power to all casters in your party. At the beginning of the battle, prioritize damage dealing casters, followed by healers once the battle is underway.
 * Signet of Pious Light can be used to end Vital Boon or Blood Renewal for a large spike heal for yourself, or you can use it to heal an ally and still gain health for yourself from ending one of your enchantments.
 * The health boosts from Vital Boon and Blood Renewal can be used to quickly recover from the sacrifice cost of Blood is Power. Cast BiP just before either of these enchantments end, or end one of them using Signet of Pious Light to recover your sacrifice costs.
 * Use Mystic Healing if several of your party members need a quick health boost. Remember that Blood Bond provides more energy efficient health over time, so Mystic Healing should not be spammed and only used when really needed.

Counters

 * Enchantment removal.
 * Heavy melee pressure.
 * Backfire or other similar anti-caster skills.

Variants
Variations could add some of the following skills (possibly removing Res Signet or Mystic Healing):
 * Order of Pain: Boost your team's damage output, and its also an enchantment so it will boost your Mystic Regeneration. Signet of Pious Light will remove this only from yourself and not your teammates, so ending it early is not a concern.
 * Blood Ritual: Increased battery support. You may also consider a different elite skill if this is added.
 * Well of Blood: Increased healing support.
 * Signet of Lost Souls: Increased energy management if you feel it is needed.
 * Life Siphon: Increased health regeneration will allow you to use Blood Bond on more allies.

Equipment

 * Of the many armor options available to necromancers the mods on Scar Pattern Armor are the most useful. A large energy bar is the only way you can ensure a successful cast of several offensive spells on a single target.
 * Halves skill recharge time on Curses is a very useful mod as well as it will enable repeated casting of your Curses spells.  A truncheon from Nord Stonegrimm or Uderit Ignis will provide the build with the much needed chance of fast recharge and in the off hand Villnar's Glove provides a chance for level 19 Curses as well as an additional chance at halves spell recharge.  Another option for the focus would be the focus available from Cinder Linnwood or Goran Grimyak which will increase the chance at a fast recharge of Curses spells to 36% but without the added bonus of a 20% chance of +1 Curses. A third option would be to take the curse staff from Hoknil the Lesser, which has the two 20% fastcast/recharge upgrades built in while also allowing the addition of a +1 Curse Staff Wrapping. This also allows for the inclusion of a staff head of your choosing.

Usage

 * Usage of the spiker is fairly straightforward. Cast Awaken the Blood before combat, wait for a group to form up and hit them with Suffering. Echo Feast of Corruption, and send it at the group (twice).
 * Desecrate Enchantments does additional AoE armor-ignoring damage and can be used after Feast of Corruption, if the additional damage is needed to take out a group of targets.
 * Enfeebling Blood is an excellent utility skill to use to help mitigate damage. It works best on groups that are not targeted as it makes them that much easier to ignore. Also, use it on the targeted group if the initial AoE damage spike does not take them down.
 * Parasitic Bond is included as a self heal as well as a hex that can be used to trigger the life steal of Feast of Corruption when attacking single targets.

Variants

 * Shadow of Fear can be used instead of Suffering as an effective AoE hex that triggers Feast of Corruption. [NOTE: Suffering has a larger radius than Shadow of Fear.] Use which ever skill suits the individual corrupter's personal tastes. This skill particularly shines in areas where foes will fall to a single iteration of the AoE damage spike as it is cheaper than Suffering and if foes are dying before Suffering can deal any degeneration damage the extra 5 energy is wasted.  In higher level areas Suffering is preferable because its degeneration damage can often take down what is left of a group after the AoE damage iteration.
 * Meekness could also be used instead of Suffering. Its wider radius will allow Feast of Corruption to quickly steal back the sacrifice cost of the spell, with the only downside being a higher energy cost and a longer recharge time.
 * Spinal Shivers can be included as a utility skill to help shut down monks or casters of any kind. Coordinate with team mates, if a shutdown is needed this skill is indispensable.  If it is not needed a corrupter is better off with Enfeebling Blood.

= N/Me Midnight Solo = The Midnight Solo is one of a very few builds centered around the Mesmer elite skill Signet of Midnight. This solo build will work on all Warrior bosses located in the Jade Sea. It should be applicable to most Warrior and Assassin bosses in other areas, as long as you isolate them.

This build has been proven to work on:
 * Geoffer Pain Bringer (Boreas Seabed (Explorable))
 * Sskai, Dragon's Birth (Boreas Seabed (Explorable))
 * Jacqui The Reaver (Gyala Hatchery (Explorable))
 * Reefclaw Ragebound (Gyala Hatchery (Explorable))
 * Chkkr Locust Lord (Melandru's Hope)

This build focuses on blinding the target and uses failure hexes to get energy as well as deal some damage. With a high chance to miss with attacks (25%+25%+52% from hexes and 90% from blindness) the target will simply never hit you with an attack. Mixed with -9 Health degeneration this build is very effective and can kill almost any Jade Sea Boss in 60 seconds.

Equipment

 * +5 energy Wand or Sword and any collectors Curses offhand.
 * Wicked Scar Pattern (Curses +1).
 * Superior Curses Rune.

Usage
The usage is very simple.
 * Find the boss, cast Mantra of Resolve and pull him out.
 * Try to cast Signet of Midnight before his first attack. Normally he will hit you once before you can blind him and you should survive it.
 * Now cast the 3 failure hexes, start with Spirit of Failure to start getting energy right away.
 * Follow with Price of Failure which will deal 32 damage on each attack attempt.
 * And finally finish with Reckless Haste to speed up killing. This hex will also keep us safe with 52% chance to miss.
 * The total hit rate, factoring in all miss rates, is 2.7% for any melee boss.
 * Now cast Ignorance to disable Healing Signet.
 * And now cast Conjure Nightmare to add some final fun with -8 Health degeneration.
 * Cast Parasitic Bond as soon as possible as it will heal you only after 20 seconds.
 * Recast Signet of Midnight, Ignorance and Reckless Haste as soon as they are ready to cast, they are the key skills in this build.
 * Recast Conjure Nightmare and Price of Failure with Spirit of Failure as soon as their effect ends.

Variants

 * If you feel safe and don't need healing you can exchange Parasitic Bond for Empathy or Suffering.
 * If you feel you don't need protection against interrupts you can exchange Mantra of Resolve for Enfeebling Touch it will lower damage you receive from attacks and speed up killing. You can also exchange Mantra of Resolve with Mantra of Inscriptions to speed up recharge time of Signet of Midnight.
 * You can also replace Ignorance with a damage-dealing hex when the boss doesn't use Healing Signet.
 * Replace Parasitic Bond and Conjure Nightmare with Empathy and Vampiric Touch or Vampiric Bite. Move your attribute points from Illusion Magic to Blood Magic. You get a more immediate life steal skill in exchange for no degen on your target; but requires more careful energy use.
 * Chkkr Locust Lord farming: replace Mantra of Resolve and Ignorance for Spirit Shackles and Drain Enchantment (or Shatter Enchantment) to get rid of his Shadow Refuge or his Locust's Fury. Mind Wrack can also be used instead of Drain Enchantment.

Counters

 * Even though the hit rate of the boss does become 2.7%, if you are really unlucky, you may still die if the boss get some hits through between the time your hexes has worn off and before you get to replace them (most notably Reckless Haste).

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.
 * 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 with a cold-damage weapon.
 * Blood Ritual is used as a quick supply of energy for the party.
 * Enfeebling Blood should be used as a protective measure.

Variants

 * Replace Enfeebling Blood, Spinal Shivers, or Blood Ritual with:
 * Parasitic Bond should you need a cover hex or healing.
 * Suffering for additional degeneration.
 * Defile Enchantments or Desecrate Enchantments for additional spike damage.
 * Putrid Explosion and move some points to Death Magic for a strong finishing spike.
 * Consume Corpse for Corpse control.
 * Price of Failure for additional damage with Reckless Haste.
 * Strip Enchantment or Revealed Enchantment for control of strong enchanted foes.
 * Mark of Pain for additional pressure when your party deals physical damage.
 * Insidious Parasite or Vampiric Gaze for dealing with one or sometimes two scattering enemies.
 * Enfeebling blood and Oppressive Gaze combine well for spike damage and life stealing.
 * When farming The Deep, bring Blood Renewal instead of Awaken the Blood for self healing.
 * For Prophecies only characters, replace Reckless Haste with Parasitic Bond for additional self-healing.
 * Move a few points from Soul Reaping and Blood Magic to Inspiration Magic and use Auspicious Incantation on the echoed version of SS for better energy management.

= N/Mo Boss Farmer = This build is intended for quick and direct farming of bosses. It relies on the normal 55 standard and very high health regeneration for healing and damage reduction. Essence Bond and Balthazar's Spirit provide energy for the consistent spamming of regeneration skills. The main damage comes from Spoil Victor and possibly one Touch Attack. This build allows the user to charge directly for the boss monster and ignore the boss's mob.

Equipment

 * Each of your armor pieces need to have a superior attribute Rune. This will lower your base Health to 105. (The only required type is blood, but 5 are necessary to hit 105 health.)
 * It is a good idea to bring a second set of armor. This will allow you to adjust your health manually based on any Death Penalty you might accumulate.
 * Any +5 energy/20% longer enchanting sword/axe such as Rajazan's Fervor or Totem Axe.
 * The -50hp Grim Cesta from the Cities of Ascalon quest. (This is not required if you don't mind dying once and using a -20 offhand to hit 13hp. This will work better in most cases.)
 * For 13hp build, any -20hp offhand (preferably +12 energy). (Life is Pain Inscriptions help with this.)
 * If you have any +hp offhands they could also be useful if any DP is accumulated.

Usage

 * Cast your four maintained enchantments when entering the explorable area. Try to allow full energy regeneration after each one until you're used to an area.
 * As you approach your target cast Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze.
 * Target the boss monster and cast Spoil Victor.
 * Get as much aggro as possible from the boss's mob of monsters.
 * Begin using vampiric touch on the boss
 * After any touch attempt refresh either Healing Breeze or Protective Spirit. Alternate the refresh between the two.
 * Having the touches interrupted is not an issue. They have a fast refresh time.
 * Refreshing Healing Breeze and Protective Spirit early is ideal when facing a boss whose mob has interrupt capability. If they are interrupted this is less problematic as they'll likely refresh before they expire.
 * To keep melee foes from fleeing, keep hitting them with your axe or sword.

Counters

 * Enchantment stripping spells such as Chilblains, Lingering Curse, Well of the Profane, Gaze of Contempt, Rend Enchantments, Strip Enchantment, Inspired Enchantment, Dark Apostasy, Shatter Enchantment, or Expunge Enchantments.
 * Life Steal attacks will bypass the protection offered from Protective Spirit. This will usually kill you.

Variants

 * Consider using Blood of the Aggressor instead of Vampiric Touch for lesser energy use and damage from a distance (safer against interrupts from warriors or rangers). Vampiric Touch is sometimes impossible to use in areas where there's a lot of energy degeneration such as Domain of Secrets.


 * Some groups apply more degen than you can handle, in this case replace Vampiric Touch with either Life Siphon or Blood Renewal. Life Siphon is better for groups without a lot of interrupts, while Blood Renewal has a faster cast time, and the sacrifice will be healed before you notice it most of the time.


 * Another skill you may consider in replacing Vampiric Touch is Wallow's Bite or Touch of Agony. With only 5 energy cost and 3 sec recharge time, you can definitely spam this skill to speed up killing.  The 10% life sacrifice is hardly noticeable.  A good example would be the case of farming Wing's Axe.  If you encounter a mesmer with two ritualists, it's almost impossible to kill her with just Spoil Victor as she strips off hexes the moment you put it on her.  Not to mention she strips off hexes from the her party too.


 * Replacing Watchful Spirit with Vigorous Spirit and Vampiric Touch with Plague Touch opens up a lot of possibilities. Vigorous Spirit maybe be used as a cover enchantment versus enchantment removal or a cheaper heal than Healing Breeze when down to one or two attackers. When using Vigorous Spirit as a cover, it's usually best to cast Protective Spirit, then Vigorous Spirit, then Healing Breeze immediately before attacking the target mesmer or necro (Kournan Seers are one example of where this works very well). Plague Touch is useful to remove conditions such as Dazed from the Grasping Darknesses in the Underworld, or Deep Wound when fighting Stoneaxe Hekets while farming greens like the Eye of Argon and Balthazar's Fury though removing Deep Wound isn't always a good idea, since you end up taking less damage which makes you harder to kill.

Equipment
Wayward Wand (HSR of Death Magic 20%) Bleached Skull (Death Magic +1 20% / Heath +30) A Ghial's Staff works great too. Best Vigor Rune possible. Rune of Superior Death Magic.

Usage
Master of Whispers and/or Olias have shown that they use the build very well with minimal human support. The only exception to this may be the usage of Blood of the Master at in-opportune times as they tend to, literally, kill themselves by over using it. By adding Karei's Healing Circle to their bar they will alternate between the two skills, healing themselves and their minions as well as any nearby allies.

If you are in a heavy fight you may need to activate Jagged Bones and/or Death Nova periodically as they will sometimes ignore these skills in order to pull up more minions or to spam Blood of the Master, although this is a rare occurrence.

If you notice your Hero is running low on health or is in a bad situation you may need to manually make him use Taste of Death, although they normally do this themselves.

Variants
Use Feast for the Dead for a low cost heal instead of Karei's Healing Circle or Blood of the Master. It kills a minion but heals all of the others for a third of their health bar due to all of the points in death magic.

Verata's Aura can be used in the optional spot in the event that the MM should die. This will give him the ability to recover a few of the unbound minions.

Rather than using Taste of Death to destroy a minion, you can also use Putrid Flesh. Coupled with Death Nova, this will deal damage in the area, as well as spreading poison AND disease to all vulnerable foes.

Counters
Enemies that do not have flesh will render the build useless as they will be immune to poison and bleeding.

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.

= N/Mo New Orders Necromancer = Either Order of Pain (OoP) or Order of the Vampire (OoV) is maintained on the entire party to give them a damage buff. The orders Necromancer comes more in handy when the team consists of three or more physical damage dealers. This is a non-combat build, the Orders Necromancer should stay well out of range of combat.

Equipment

 * Armor - Scars are preferable due to higher max energy, since you won't be taking much damage (hopefully) AL shouldn't be a factor.
 * Weapons - Insightful 20/20 Blood staff of Enchanting to lengthen orders by 1 second on all of your party members.

Usage

 * Keep Vigorous Spirit and Awaken the Blood on constantly.
 * Keep Order of the Vampire up constantly when in battle.
 * Spam Heal Party whenever energy permits you to do so.
 * use Blood Ritual in emergency situations when your spellcasters are low on energy.
 * Use extinguish when your party is suffering from a lot of conditions
 * Stay out of combat.

Counters

 * 1) Mass enchantment removal, like Mirror of Disenchantment or Hex Eater Vortex.

Variants

 * For use of Order of Pain, replace Order of the Vampire with Aura of the Lich and Extinguish with Order of Pain.

= N/Mo Solo SS Necromancer = This build is designed to handle the new "erratic" AI with the Solo SS Farmer build.

Equipment
Armor:
 * Scar Pattern Armor or Cabalist's Armor type (if you have Guild Wars Factions) because they offer the most energy required for the build.
 * All armor pieces must have Necromancer superior runes: a Superior Death Magic is recommended but not compulsory. Aim for the cheapest runes.

Weapons:
 * Totem Axe for the energy and the +20% length of enchantments
 * To solo the Underworld you will need a max damage Truncheon such as the one from Uderit Ignis, or, if you have Factions, a Wailing Wand from Gertrud or Telamon.
 * The off-hand item is the Cities of Ascalon quest reward -50HP Grim Cesta

Usage
The proccess of this build is basically the same as the old one. Cast Essence Bond, Balthazar's Spirit, and Mending Before battle and let your energy recharge. As you aggro your target cast Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze. Once your target attacks cast Spiteful Spirit and shortly after, Rotting Flesh. If the target group is large enough they will start taking turns attacking. Once a body is available cast Well of Suffering. Remember to keep up the enchantments.

Counters

 * Any enchantment removal will most likely kill you.
 * Conditions also pose a threat to any 55. Stack too many and you will negate your health regeneration.
 * Death penalty will majorly mess you up.
 * Be very careful of interrupting attacks from warriors, an example is Mountain Trolls' Disrupting Chop. This is especially dangerous as it adds 20 second cool down to the recharge of the affected spell, if this hits on Protective Spirit or Healing Breeze it can leave you dead in seconds.

Variants

 * Well of the Profane may replace Well of Suffering to hinder enchantment reliant attacks
 * Guardian may be advisable for attacking a large group at one time. The AI still has everyone attack at once and then after some time (Undetermined) they break up
 * The use of Putrid Explosion may be helpful in certain situations.

Equipment

 * Scar Pattern, Cabalist's or Radiant armor is recommended for extra energy. Bloodstained Boots or Bloodstained Insignia on your armor are a good choice to reduce the casting time of the Wells. In addition to the Blood Magic and Soul Reaping runes, use the best vigor rune you can afford and 2 runes of attunement.
 * Use an Insightful Blood Staff of Fortitude with 20/20 Blood Magic cast and recharge.
 * Kyril's Fervor (green) suits this build perfectly

Usage

 * Before corpses are available, use Dark Pact, Vampiric Gaze, and Barbed Signet to help dispatch enemies.
 * When foes start dying, begin casting wells. If the closest corpse is near your party's casters, lead off with Well of Power. If not, it may just be best to use Well of Blood and save Well of Power for helping players who rely heavily on energy.
 * The two types of wells overlap and their effects stack which can provide a great deal of health regeneration.
 * Don't hesitate to spam wells if you have the energy.
 * Use Blood Ritual to act as a battery for your party. Prioritise the Monks, but if you have the health and energy to spare use it on any caster.
 * If the monks are having trouble keeping up with healing the party, use Heal Other. Prioritise healing the monks above other party members.
 * Even after all enemies are defeated, you should still cast another well or two to speed up the regeneration of your allies and shorten the time until everyone is ready for the next encounter.

Counters

 * The wells do have long casting times so watch out for interruption. Use Bloodstained Boots or Bloodstained Insignia on your armor if possible, to shorten casting times of spells that exploit corpses.
 * Exploitable corpses are required for the wells, so this is not a good build in places where they are scarce.
 * This build aids allies via regeneration so it is little help against spike damage.
 * Energy denial can be annoying, but even just a few wells are a great help and you are getting a fairly steady stream of energy from Soul Reaping.

Variants

 * For a more supportive build at the cost of losing the ability to do direct damage, replace Dark Pact, Vampiric Gaze and Barbed Signet with Life Siphon, Blood Bond and Blood Renewal. This allows you to transfer health from enemies to your party members, as well as providing you with a powerful self heal. If you run this variant consider using an of Enchanting staff, rather than one of Fortitude.
 * Heal Other can be replaced with:
 * Heal Area or Karei's Healing Circle, if you prefer to have more self-healing
 * Gift of Health, which heals 30 less HP than Heal Other and takes 2 seconds longer to recharge, but only costs half as much energy.
 * For a different approach go as a secondary Elementalist rather than Monk, using the Healing Prayers AP in Earth Magic. This will allow you to swap some/all of Heal Other, Dark Pact, Vampiric Gaze and Barbed Signet with ward spells. Wards to consider include:
 * Ward Against Elements
 * Ward Against Foes
 * Ward Against Melee
 * Ward of Stability

= N/Mo Supportive Minion Master = The N/Mo Supportive Minion Master is designed to play two roles. On the one hand, it is capable of creating and sustaining an army of minions as well as spreading Poison and Disease. However, it is also capable of providing a party-wide heal by using Dwayna's Sorrow, and by combining Infuse Condition with Draw Conditions, this build can remove the entire teams conditions. This build is mainly intended for PvE, but with some changes, it may be viable for AB.

Attributes and Skills

 * Generic Resurrection can be replaced by Blood of the Master
 * For AB, consider replacing the Generic Resurrection with a skill to boost survivability, like Dark Bond.

Equipment

 * Scar Pattern Armor is nice for the additional energy. Alternatively, Minion Master's Armor is nice for the additional armor.  Bloodstained Boots may also be nice to lower the rather long casting time of Animate Bone Minions.
 * The Nightbringer, Ghial's Staff, or a similar staff.

Usage

 * Build up an army of minions using Animate Bone Minions and cast Dwayna's Sorrow on one of your minions
 * Cast Putrid Flesh to spread disease and to activate Dwayna's Sorrow
 * Try to cast Death Nova immediately before Putrid Flesh to cause Poison and deal damage.
 * Cast Animate Flesh Golem to create a more powerful minion which even if sacrificed can be immediately raised again.
 * Cast Infuse Condition on yourself, and use Draw Conditions as necessary

Counters

 * See the Opposing forces section of the General minion mastery guide.

Variants
Skills to Consider:
 * Heal Area
 * Taste of Death
 * Animate Shambling Horror
 * Dark Bond
 * Signet of Lost Souls
 * Jagged Bones
 * Martyr

= N/Mo Tombs OOV = This build uses Prophecies and Core skills exclusively.

This is an Orders Necromancer build, geared for use in the Ruins of the Tomb of the Primeval Kings. A Barrage/Pet group is recommended, though other combinations are possible. Typically, they will bring one healing Monk, one Minion Master Necromancer, one Orders Necromancer, and five B/P Rangers. It is a Tombs OOV Necro's job to keep Order of the Vampire up on the Rangers and to assist the Monk with heals, hex removal, and energy regeneration.

Equipment

 * Armor: Any armor with Radiant Insignias (or purchased Scar Pattern Armor with no Insignia slots)
 * Weapon: Staff/Combo: +1 Blood Magic (20%), HCT Blood Magic (20%), +20% Enchantment duration (for +1 sec to OOV)
 * Runes: Superior Blood Magic (+3), Superior Soul Reaping (+3), Attunement x 3 (+2 en)
 * More Superior runes are optional for lowering your maximum health.

Preface
The OOV Necromancer's job is to stay out of combat whenever possible and maintain the Orders enchantment on his party. You are constantly sacrificing and regenerating your health, and because of this, you will be an easy target for enemy AI.

Combat Cycle

 * Upon entering Tombs, immediately cast Mending on yourself. This will provide you with a constant 3 pips of health regeneration.
 * Once the enemies are near the party, cast Order of the Vampire and Blood Renewal.
 * Keep OOV and Blood Renewal going at all times. This will result in a serious damage increase to your Rangers' Barrage as well as a fair amount of healing.
 * Use Heal Party whenever 3 or more people are taking damage to supplement your OOV and take some weight off of the Monk.
 * Remove Hex should be used to remove hexes like Empathy from the Rangers and hexes like Backfire from the casters. For the sake of your cycle, it is usually best if the hexed ally calls a potentially crippling hex rather than removing all hexes out of habit.
 * Use Blood Ritual on your Monk if he asks for it, but make sure that the Monk is a safe distance from enemies.

Self-healing options

 * Using Live Vicariously on a Ranger who is spamming Barrage may sometimes prove to be a more effective method of regeneration than the 3 pips from Mending, since you only need to sacrifice health while your party is engaged in combat. See the Notes section for more details.
 * Healing Breeze may be substituted for Blood Renewal if you are uncomfortable with a 25% health sacrifice, though it is considerably less effective due to the lack of a spike heal upon its completion or removal. It also costs 5 more energy to cast.

Remove Hex

 * Smite Hex maybe used in its place for a faster-casting removal, but with a longer recharge time.
 * Some people vouch for Holy Veil rather than Remove Hex, but the mechanics require that you cancel the maintained enchantment to remove a hex. HV also has a longer recharge.
 * Purge Signet can also be used to remove all hexes and conditions on one ally. Again, longer recharge time.

Optional Slot

 * Succor may be brought along to benefit the Monk or the MM Necro if your team can keep bodies dropping often enough to allow Soul Reaping to work its magic.
 * Add Smite Hex to get Backfire off more than one Ranger at a time, and also to completely free the Monk from the responsibility of Hex removal. Along with Remove Hex, this makes an effective combo for digging through cover hexes.
 * Awaken the Blood can give you +2 to Blood Magic, but at a rather serious cost in terms of health sacrifice.
 * Order of Pain can be cast inbetween Order of the Vampire to ensure constant Orders coverage.

N/Mo Tombs OOP

 * This build can be used for constant coverage of your Orders spell, with a greater energy regeneration boost to your Monk to make up for the lack of vampiric Barrages.
 * Blood is Power may also be cast from a distance, freeing the Monk up to move about as they please (Fingers of Chaos notwithstanding).
 * BIP may also be used to supply non-standard B/P Rangers (for instance, Elementalist primary) with more energy.
 * Additional 20% Enchantment duration is not as big of a deal with this build, so your equipment options are more flexible.

Counters

 * Being involved in combat
 * Enchantment removal on the Rangers (see Fingers of Chaos for more info)
 * Diversion is an easily-avoidable hex that can cripple your build entirely. Learn to recognize it and either get it removed or burn Mending rather than risk part of your cycle being disabled. This is a skill equipped by The Darknesses at the end of the Tombs levels.

Equipment

 * High-energy armor is preferable, though not required.
 * Vanahk's Staff or other Blood weaponry for recharge (or +1 to Blood Magic).

Usage
There are three parts to using this build properly:
 * Killing Maddened Spirits outside of the wurm.
 * Killing Lost Souls outside of the wurm.
 * Using your Junundu wurm effectively.

Maddened Spirits
Maddened Spirits are invulnerable to damage, hexes, and conditions. They are not, however, invulnerable to direct life stealing.

Wait for a single Maddened Spirit to approach you. Hit it with Vampiric Gaze, then hit Blood Renewal and "Can't Touch This!" as it closes in. Immediately start spamming Blood of the Aggressor, Blood Drinker, and Vampiric Gaze as they recharge. As soon as the Maddened Spirit loses more than 50% of its health, hit Signet of Lost Souls and resume spamming. You might also want to hit a nearby Infestation with Life Transfer for healing instead of Blood Renewal - if it's been wanded a few times you'll also get the Soul Reaping bonus.

With practice, you should be able to kill the Maddened Spirits before "Can't Touch This!" expires. However, if it doesn't look like this will happen, run from the Maddened Spirit beforehand. When you have enough energy, reapply "Can't Touch This!", hit the spirit with Signet of Lost Souls to regain a bit more energy, and resume spamming your life stealing skills.

As soon as the spirit dies, hit a nearby Infestation with Life Transfer and wand it to heal up while regenning your energy. Make sure to use Signet of Lost Souls on the Infestation once it gets under half health to help regen energy. Kill one or two Infestations while waiting for the next spirit to arrive, but make sure not to spend much energy on them - you'll want full health and energy for the next Maddened Spirit.

Once you get your score around 100, the spirits will begin spawning quite a bit more quickly. If you get behind and are about to get two of them attacking you, run to the Wurm Spoor and enter your Junundu wurm. If you can hit "Can't Touch This!" just before entry, you'll be protected for a bit as you get inside the wurm.

Lost Souls
Most Lost Souls spawn in locations where they are easy enough to just smack with the wurm. Junundu Bite does the trick in one shot, and you can get the extra heal if you use Junundu Tunnel to race up to them.

A few of the Lost Souls are on rocky terrain, however, so the wurm is useless. Get well ahead of the Maddened Spirits and exit the wurm. If any Maddened Spirits are nearby when you exit, immediately hit "Can't Touch This!" then "Fall Back!" and run towards the Lost Soul. Run as far as you can with "Fall Back!", past the Lost Soul if possible, but not out of casting range from it. Hit it with Life Transfer, then continue running to the next Wurm Spoor, using "Fall Back!" when available. At 16 Blood Magic, Life Transfer will kill the Lost Soul by itself. As you approach the next Wurm Spoor, use "Can't Touch This!" to protect your transition as you jump back into the wurm and race off.

Wurm Usage
For the most part, the basics of Junundu usage are described in the Remains of Sahlahja and the Junundu article. Here's a few additional pointers specifically for this farm:


 * "Can't Touch This!" protects you from Maddened Strike while entering a wurm, and in fact continues protecting you while in the wurm until its normal expiration time. Use it any time you're entering a wurm with Maddened Spirits on your tail.


 * To heal, get well ahead of any Maddened Spirits and use Junundu Tunnel. Find an Infestation you can reach while Junundu Tunnel is active, and use Junundu Bite. This will knock down the Infestation prior to the bite, thus netting you 500 health.  If you have enough time, use Junundu Feast to aquire an additional skill.  If you get really low, exit the wurm in a safe location and run to the nearest Wurm Spoor to get a new one.


 * Kill Infestations as described any chance you get, and make sure to use Junundu Feast if it's ready after the kill. If you happen to get Blinding Breath, you're ready to take on an entire mob of Maddened Spirits.  Get well ahead of the Maddened Spirits, find a Greater Infestation, and kill it quickly.  Then just spam Blinding Breath once the Maddened Spirits are in range until they die.  If you start with full health, killing 4 or 5 Maddened Spirits this way is fairly easy. For extra healing after the fight, use Junundu Wail if nothing else is around.

Counters

 * Death from lag/rubber banding can be extremely frustrating, especially if you get blocked in a doorway and it doesn't register locally. If you notice you are taking hits with no Maddened Spirits near, try running the opposite direction until the server and client resynch.  Another way to resynch is to type /stuck.


 * If you are going for a high score, realize that normal biological processes may be your worst enemy later on. Plan ahead.

Variants

 * If using purely to kill Maddened Spirits, and you don't care about killing Lost Souls at all, replace Life Transfer with Ravenous Gaze. Try to keep your health just below 50% between Maddened Spirits through sacrificing so you can use Ravenous Gaze as an opening attack to get the most out of it.


 * Another method is to remove Blood Drinker and Replace with Song of Power, then remove Life Transfer and replace with Vampiric Spirit. This will allow you to steal an additional 41 health every time you cast a spell.  Then if your energy gets to low, use "Fall Back!" followed by Song of Power.  I suggest taking Soul Reaping down to 5 + 1 for this build and placing those extra points into Motivation however since Song of Power will offset the decreased energy gain in between spirits.

=N/R Explosive Extinction = Used to farm Vermin outside Senji's Corner.

Equipment

 * Bloodstained Boots
 * A rod with faster Death Magic recharge and an offhand with +1 Death Magic.
 * A Staff with 20/20 Death Magic and +1 Death Magic wrapping.

Usage

 * Cast Tainted Flesh and Death Nova on you and your pet and let the Vermins tear you apart. The degen should kill them.
 * Go back the corpse of the Vermin and create 4-6 Bone Minions.
 * Find another mob and set up EoE where the Vermin can't kill it.
 * Cast Death Nova on all your minions and Tainted Flesh on your pet.
 * Order your minions/pet to fight with the Vermin. Wait for their health to drop to about 50% before activating Taste of Death which will trigger a chain explosion - killing all vermin.

Counters

 * Vermin shadow stepping away from minions.
 * Vermin killing EoE.

= N/R Stygian Solo Farmer = This build is made specifically to farm the Stygian Demons associated with the Breaching the Stygian Veil quest in the Stygian Veil for Stygian Gemstones and shiny weapons. It is capable of destroying all mobs, although the later mobs take more time and are much more difficult.

Equipment

 * You'll need one high-health set of armor and weapons and one 55 set (see Invincible Monk for details on 55 equipment).

Usage
When you enter the Stygian Veil, there is a mob in the trench immediately to your right (S-SE) that may be (mostly) killed easily for fun and profit and to get the first few no-drops out of the way. If you get a great drop from these, use Consume Corpse and retrieve it. This will end this farming run. Watch out for the patrol - particularly the Mind Tormentors and Water Tormentors that often spawn will hurt.

Head East, dodging the nasty Shadow patrols. Talk to the Whispers Informant to receive Anguish Hunt. Then talk to the Adept of Whispers, take the Breaching the Stygian Veil quest, and immediately run NE along the wall above the Dreadspawn Maw. Wait for three mobs of six Stygian Hungers to gather around the Adept of Whispers.

Carefully run along the wall to the lower area around the Dreadspawn Maw - there's just enough room to get down there from either side without aggro'ing any of the groups..

Now the fun begins....

Part 1 - The Hunger Mobs
Stygian Hungers are touch/AoE necros with Grenth's Balance as their elite. Switch to your 55 health setup to counter Grenth's Balance. Repeat the following:


 * Use 'c' to select the nearest target - make sure it is in one of the side mobs - save the center mob for last.
 * Cast Suffering.
 * Run away around the Dreadspawn Maw using a running skill until aggro is broken. Occasionally, this will be difficult. Do not stop running until aggro is broken.
 * Make sure you have the nearest target of the same mob, and cast Desecrate Enchantments. The Hungers use Dark Aura, making this do a decent amount of damage to the mob.
 * Run away and break aggro.
 * Nearest target, cast Feast of Corruption.
 * Run away.
 * Go back to the first step, and repeat until their health is low.

You really want to finish them off with Feast of Corruption or Desecrate Enchantments. If you let them degen to death while you're not in the area, you may not get any drops. They should be in an easily killable range with either skill once their health bar is into the 'Lvl' text. If you are using your 55 armor, then all can be killed simultaneously.

When a mob dies, it will be replaced by another one from a spawn point behind the gates the first three mobs came from. You have a lot of time to run around the Dreadspawn Maw to lose aggro from the other two mobs, but do try to avoid aggro'ing the new one.

Part 2 - The Brute Mobs
Stygian Brutes are hammer warriors. While facing them, you can switch to your high-health armor if you wish, but you're still probably dead if they actually hit you. Use the same techniques as on the Stygian Hungers, except only cast Desecrate Enchantments when you have energy to burn, as it is considerably less cost-effective for damaging the Brutes.



Part 3 - The Fiend Mobs
Stygian Fiends are rangers with Crippling Shot, Choking Gas, and other fun skills to mutilate necromancers with. Once again, you really don't want to get hit by these. Unfortunately, if they even shoot at you and miss, Demonic Miasma will make it hurt. Use the high-health armor when dealing with these, as you're likely to at least be *missed* by a barrage or two of arrows.

Once again, hit and run. If possible, run up the nearby hill while running away to minimize any height-advantage and additional range the Fiends may get. See the highlighted path in the map:



Part 4 - The Golem Mobs
Stygian Golems are Dervish beasts which use Harrier's Haste to catch up with you. It's almost impossible to reliably lose them with just running skills. The trick here is to circle around the mob and plant Muddy Terrain *behind* the mob, to the NE of the Adept of Whispers (center point on the map to the right). Then head back down below and do the following:


 * Cast Suffering
 * Run away (use a running skill just before leaving Muddy Terrain's area of effect).
 * Wait for mob to resettle.
 * Cast Feast of Corruption.
 * Run away and wait for mob to resettle.
 * Cast Suffering
 * Run away until you lose aggro, then head back and drop another Muddy Terrain spirit at the spot on the map.
 * Rinse, repeat.

It works best if you trigger your running skill just prior to leaving the area under the effect of Muddy Terrain. This makes you go fast while the Golems are still stuck trudging along. If the spirit is correctly placed, they'll give up before getting out of its range.

Part 5 - The Horror Mobs
Stygian Horrors are warriors which, similar to the Stygian Golems, use Bull's Charge to speed them on their way to killing you. Use the same technique with Muddy Terrain to kill these as used for Stygian Golems.



Part 6 - The Mixed Mobs
The last mob of each of the three sets has all of the Stygian Demons in it. You'll need to use the high-health armor to deal with the Fiends and use the Muddy Terrain technique (See the map images for placement for Eastern and Western mobs). Unfortunately, that means you're unlikely to kill them all simultaneously. Once the Stygian Hungers are the only ones left, switch back to your 55 armor for the final kills

Part 7 - How do I get my drops?!?!
Once you've killed all the mobs, the area around the Adept will be safe. However, it's easy enough to pick up valuable drops long before that point, either directly after killing one set or not.

If you've just killed a set, then run away *without* using a running skill. Go around the Dreadspawn Maw with the remaining two mobs trailing behind you. Just as you cross the halfway-around point, hit your running skills and head for your most valuable drops. If done correctly, you can pick up one or two items, then run away without being hit and be able to continue the farm if desired.

This will most likely not work if a mob of Fiends, Golems, or Horrors is present - only make hoover runs with Brutes and Hungers around. Look at the table showing the order of the mobs in Breaching the Stygian Veil to figure out your best kill order to get drops.

If you haven't just killed a set, just aggro them with Suffering and run around the Maw as described above.

Variants
A N/A using Deadly Paradox Shadow of Haste Dark Escape and Dash and 12 Shadow Arts instead of the ranger skills and Wilderness Survival. The strategy is very much the same except for the running away part. For that you activate Deadly Paradox then Shadow of Haste, run in, cast your spell(s), then use Dash to cancel out Shadow of Haste. This will teleport you back to the place where you used Shadow of Haste and you can proceed to run using Dark Escape if needed. For a more indepth guide to this version see here.

Counters

 * Everything in this area hits hard. Getting hit once is likely to produce a Necromancer-shaped corpse.  Try to avoid getting hit.

= N/R Toxic Discord = This build was designed for PVE use. It uses Rotting Flesh to spread disease, then Vile Miasma and Parasitic Bond, allowing Discord to be spammed on multiple targets in succession, using the Ranger spirit Toxicity for added degeneration.

Equipment

 * Armor - Recommend full Radiant Armor, though other set-ups are viable. Equip the best Vigor rune possible.
 * Weapons - Bortak's Bone Claw and Bortak's Bone Cesta or something similiar. Ghial's Staff also fine.

Usage

 * Lay down Toxicity just outside aggro range.
 * Aim for a target in the heart of a group, and cast Rotting Flesh, infecting as many of the enemy party as possible with Disease
 * Follow with Vile Miasma or Parasitic Bond.
 * Spam Discord
 * Use Signet of Lost Souls for energy management. Combined with Parasitic Bond, health management.
 * For non-fleshy creatures, counter with an Enfeeble/Parasitic Bond combination

Variants

 * Consider Enfeebling Blood to replace Enfeeble to give you a second mass-target condition causing spell, albeit at a high energy cost and cast time, not to mention the health sacrific of 10%.
 * If self heal is not a concern, and energy permits, consider replacing Parasitic Bond with Suffering, for mob-wide hexing.

Counters

 * Traditional spell caster counters (Dazed, interruption, etc.)
 * Party-wide condition removal skills such as Martyr or Cautery Signet. But Rotting Flesh has a low skill recharge, so can be re-cast quickly if this happens.
 * Discord is available when target is suffering from a condition and a hex OR an enchantment, therefore hex removal not as big of a hinderance. Also, dervishes and elementalists make easy targets for this build, as they frequently are enchanted

Equipment

 * Bloodstained Boots
 * Scar Pattern armor is recommended for extra energy.
 * Wand and Focus, both with HSR Death (20%) and HCT Death (20%)

Usage

 * Try to maintain Aura of the Lich all the time.
 * Involve in the battle by using Bitter Chill on the called target.
 * Avoid direct contact with enemies. Preserve your health for sacrifice costs.
 * Use Bone Horrors in the starting period. Later, use Vampiric Horrors, but keep in mind to reserve energy for Blood of the Master. Replace Bone Horrors with Vampiric Horrors, when you reach the minion limit.
 * When you possess at least 3-4 Vampiric Horrors, use Blood of the Master more frequently. Their healing will nullify your sacrifice costs.

Variants

 * Replace Taste of Pain with Infuse Condition, if you expect heavy degen from conditions.
 * Other Minion spells such as Animate Bone Fiend or Animate Shambling Horror can be used, in place of the existing minion spells.
 * Replace Taste of Pain and Animate Bone Horror with Death Nova and Animate Bone Minions for more damage and energy gain from Soul Reaping, but less body blocking capability.
 * Signet of Lost Souls may be an energy management option.
 * Skills that increase health regeneration can be effectively used in this build.

= N/any BiP Necro = The BiP necromancer (also known as a battery) is a powerful source of energy for the party using the skill Blood is Power. The core of the build involves using BiP on party members, getting healed (or self-healing) and doing the same over and over.

Equipment

 * Scar Pattern Armor is recommended for energy. Adding Superior Runes to reduce health is an option.
 * Any staff (or wand and focus item combination) that provides +5 Energy and fast recharge and cast time for Blood Magic is optimal. An item which reduces health or one that lengthens enchantments (for Blood Renewal and BiP) can help also.

Usage

 * Keep Blood Renewal on at all times.
 * Use Blood is Power on any party member you wish to give Energy to.
 * Use Blood Ritual as a cheaper and long-lasting alternative to Blood is Power (as your Energy permits).
 * A good Battery never waits for people to call their Energy. Instead, the bipper should have a plan:
 * Before a fight, the bipper should provide energy to "setup" party members (such as trappers, bonders or ritualists)
 * During a fight, the bipper should bip the healers, then other casters, then frontline attackers in that order of priority.
 * Use wells as Energy and circumstances permit.
 * Use Consume Corpse for energy, healing and/or corpse denial.
 * Having as little maximum health as possible allows the bipper to be extremely effective in doing his/her job, however, this should only be done if the bipper is very good at staying alive. Dying does not really harm the bipper, but having to do without the bipper in the middle of an intense fight is not a good thing for the other party members.

Variants
The only essential skills of the build are BiP and Blood Renewal. Therefore an endless number of variants (and combinations with other tasks) can be imagined usually at the expense of the attribute points in Death Magic. Some popular alternatives are:
 * Choose Order of Pain to increase the physical damage dealing.
 * Choosing a monk secondary and using Heal Area for self-healing or spamming Heal Party to help with the healing and self heal and also using Protective Spirit to account for the lack of health if you decide to go with lower HP.
 * Choosing an elementalist secondary and using wards to protect the backline of the party.
 * Replace Resurrection Signet with a hard rez when situations/secondary professions permit.

= N/any Icy Blighter = This is one of few builds that utilizes the Soul Reaping skill Icy Veins in order to deal massive area of effect damage and shut down heavy enchantment monks. This build is primarily aimed at PvE usage.

Equipment

 * Scar Pattern Armor or Cabalist's Armor with Bloodstained Boots is recommended.
 * A 20/20 Death Wand with 20/20 Death Offhand.
 * Ghial's Staff, Bortak's Bone Staff, or Woe Spreader are also acceptable choices.

Usage
This build is used to spread out degenerative effects, shutdown prot monks, and deal massive area of effect damage. A basic casting round starts thus:


 * Find a monk or other soft target.
 * Make sure to call your target for the rest of your party members so that they know who to attack.
 * Begin your casting round by starting off with Rotting Flesh followed by Deathly Swarm.
 * End the round by casting Icy Veins on your target. Once the target dies, it will spread area of effect damage to all foes around them. This will put the rest of the cluster (assuming they clustered) near the point of death.
 * Use the fresh body to either restore your hp/energy (Consume Corpse), spread poison to your enemies (Necrotic Traversal), shutdown the protection spammers (Well of the Profane), add more degeneration (Well of Suffering), or put out one more bit of spike damage(Putrid Explosion).
 * Rinse and repeat.

Counters
The main counter for this build would be another necromancer or necromancer secondary that is very good at corpse control or just straight spiking damage. This build's main weakness is no one dying. It relies heavily on people dying for energy and their corpses for most of the skills.

Frostbound Armor/armor vs. cold damage is also another good counter-strategy.

Variants
Other than listed above, replace Resurrection Signet with a hard rez such as Resurrection Chant or something equivalent depending on your secondary class.

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.
 * Ghials 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.