General minion mastery guide

Overview
The primary focus of this build is simple: create and sustain as many minions as possible. There are three minion creation skills: Bone Fiends, Bone Horrors or Bone Minions. Each has their own set of pros and cons. The Fiends attack quickly and deliver high amounts of damage but are extremely frail. Horrors are slower to attack and deal less amounts of damage but can survive longer. Minions degenerate very quickly and don't do much for initial damage, which is why they are used as bombers. The following example build will be for a high damage Minion Master.

Attributes
The secondary profession is not critical to this build.

Skill Set
You may replace the final three skill slots with any skill you choose. Consume Corpse and Vile Touch are two common choices, along with a Resurrection Signet.

Playstyle
While this build may not be for some, it is possible to sustain on average 15 Fiends at a single time. Animating the first few Fiends is not easy due to your lack of damage-causing spells, but a good Monk will make sure you stay alive long enough to create a few. Killing all enemies in each mission is advisable, to sustain a constant level of energy and corpses for minion creation.

The basic skills for maintaining minions are Verata's Sacrifice and Blood of the Master. Simply using these skills does not mean infinite life for your Fiends. Fiends generally tend to group together so they are easier to heal than Minions, but they are that much easier to attack via AoE spells. Before the fight begins, start by casting Verata's Sacrifice followed immediately by Blood of the Master - begin the fight as soon as possible, keep a watchful eye on your Fiends as they create corpses to Animate, watch their health along with yours and above all: don't waste Soul Reaping! You get 10 energy for everything that dies - including your allies, enemies, pets, minions, creatures or anything without a heartbeat in the area! Try to keep your energy 10-15 beneath your maximum, to ensure no energy is wasted. Use time spent not animating more Fiends doing things like healing your minions, healing yourself or using damage spells. You've got free energy headed your way, don't waste it, but don't get too far ahead of yourself.

Due to the sacrificial nature of your healing spells on your minions, you will eventually need to heal yourself. This can be done by Taste of Death and Consume Corpse. Remember that sacrificing your minion for 420 health also will yield you 5 energy as well. Not to mention the 1/4 second casting time and no cooldown! Try using that under extreme circumstances. Consume Corpse allows you to gain a substantial amount of health, and may take out of aggro when under attack. Try to create a minion every 5 seconds.

Playing the MM this way is extremely tricky as you have one too many things going on: our health, your Fiend's health (all of them), your energy vs Soul Reaping, available corpses to exploit, explode, consume etc. Sacrificing too much will certainly wipe your entire team. They won't like it when once subservient Fiends turn on them because they now have no master! It is extremely important you maintain your health. Sacrificing a minion is not always a bad thing, it can save your hide. Remember, there should be plenty of corpses lying around to animate!

Contrary to what most people believe about any type of minion, is that they do degenerate health immediately and will not gain the full healing benefits of Verata's Sacrifice. Verata's Sacrifice is +10 health regeneration for X number of seconds. Each arrow of health regeneration is 2 hit points... so +10 means 20 hit points per second. Your friends will NEVER see that, since they are born with a degen penalty of -1. As time goes on, they begin to degen faster and faster until even Verata's Sacrifice will not help. Blood of the Master in effect at 16 Death Magic is more powerful than Verata's Sacrifice, however, combine the two for an excellent advantage. Do not use Verata's Sacrifice while out of battle, simply spam your AoE heal-bomb every 5 seconds. Verata's Sacrifice is much more important in-battle than out of it.

Moving fast is where it begins to get slightly difficult. As a MM you cannot afford the time to wait for cooldowns on healing spells or cooldowns on "utility" spells or skills. Waiting around to naturally regenerate health is not efficient. You must continuously press forward, ensuring your entire party is ready for it, taking a few moments before a boss to get your bearings, but never waiting on excessive cooldowns. You have to be constantly animating whenever you get the chance and make sure you stay alive.

There are many factors to keep an eye on and it can be pretty hectic at times. This build requires a lot of patience and practice to adjust to constantly throwing a heal every 5 seconds, animating, maintaining sub-full energy levels, aggro control, not over-healing, over-using skills etc. Don't be discouraged if you aren't able to get the hang of it right away. Just remember the key to mastering this build is time. That's it.

Equipment
Bloodstained Boots

Bone Staff from Luven Underwood

Perfect Staff Wrapping of Fortitude, giving +30 Health

Perfect Insightful Staff Head, giving +5 Energy

Or simply use whatever Staff Wrapping or Staff Head you choose. Armor can be anything you like, you can mix and match flavors or go with a complete outfit. It is entirely up to you.

Understanding Healing
I've been playing my Necromancer since June of '05 and have tried virtually every build in the book. By far this build offers the most healing to your Fiends and yourself. Simply do the math: heal amount / (casting time + cooldown time) = hit points healed per second. Some skills may boast a greater heal as an over-time or single use - but they come with a hefty price: excessive cooldowns which means LESS healing. A larger heal may also not be needed if your Fiends are still pretty good on health, it would just mean a wasted heal when you could have saved it for a more dire situation. You need fast, reliable heals every few seconds at times, but at the same time heals that do not over-heal your Fiends while requiring excessive cooldowns.

Example: Blood of the Master heals for 20.33 damage per second - 122/(5+1)=20.33 ... Verata's Sacrifice heals for no more than 18 damage per second and is subject to constant health degeneration of your minions. Remember any condition your Fiend may be suffering will LOWER the healing ability of Verata's Sacrifice. The conditions transferred to you are only upon the initial cast of the spell, any degeneration will counter the regeneration of the spell. Your minions are animated with -1 health degeneration.

Example: Your minion is currently degenerating health at -4 ... you cast Verata's Sacrifice -4 + 10 = 6 ... your Fiend is now regenerating at +6.

Remember and pay close attention to these examples. Just because a heal may seem better, don't forget to take into consideration the casting time, cooldown time and heal over time (if applicable) per spell. These are all important factors when considering what healing skills to bring.

And to put an end to a myth: Fiends DO NOT degenerate quicker the more you heal them, it is a time-based degeneration system.

Soul Reaping and Energy Management
Although I haven't included really any different skills that another MM may choose to bring, it's how you use these skills together that make for a good MM. Most people do not pay attention to wasted Soul Reaping. It is a key factor in maintaining the ability to animate every 5 seconds. You have to anticipate an enemie's death and pay attention to all health of all enemies, allies and Fiends to know when you are going to recieve the benefits of Soul Reaping. You must be aware of how much energy you use to take full advantage of a fresh carcass on the ground when one becomes available. Sometimes, I may pick out a Fiend that is on the brink of death and sacrifice him using Taste of Death for the energy I gain, simply because a NEW minion as fast as possible may turn the tide. Perhaps two or three corpses are on the ground and I need to animate but only have 18 energy, Consume Corpse will not only heal me, but give me 11 energy on top of it! (10 energy to cast, 21 energy in return = 11 gained) Soul Reaping and energy management are key factors to maintaining a large and healthy group of Fiends.

Pressing Forward
Moving fast is a key aspect of sustaining a large army, taking time to wait for cooldowns is not a viable option with 20-something minions running around. Move from battle to battle as quickly as you can to keep the minion train rolling.

Dying
Upon death of the minion master, all controlled minions will become masterless. This means that all your minions will now attack all targets, including your team mates. In this situation it is possible that your entire party will be wiped out, therefore the minion master should remain the highest healing priorty. Verata's Gaze can be useful to recapturing masterless minions after resurrection.