Minion builds: are they viable?

[TwoTonTuna]

Total GW2 noob here. I did some research on minion builds. specifically Necromancer summons and Engineer turrets/mech. I found a lot of posts saying that minion builds are only viable for open world. And even then, they perform worse than other builds.

For the GW2 vets out there, is this still true? Will I be essentially lock myself out of certain GW2 content if I decide to go for a minion build?

[Deadlynk]

Like with most games, builds that rely on AI are generally worse than ones that have more active engagement. This is the same for Gw2, but most content can be cleared with sub-optimal builds, so you'll be fine. The big exception to this "rule" is the engineer's elite-spec Mechanist, which is incredibly strong across all gamemodes both with healing and damage builds and relies on its minion. (Which is the Mech).

[Σ(￣□￣|||)]

Minion builds can pretty much face roll anything open world throws at you because they take lower dmg. PvP is ok at lower ranked play. WvW is pretty much no because they die too easily from 50 men zergs, you are pretty much a free target since cd for re-summon is bit long

[Tiberius]

Theres no such thing like locking you out of content in gw2. Swapping traits and skills are free. If you're so worried abt it, just use the meta build equipment, then swap your traits and skills to minion build for open world stuffs.

[TwoTonTuna]

Thanks for the feedback! It's reassuring to know that I can easily swap out traits/skills if needed.

[Drake]

also while undeads are not that good, the scourge necro spec has access to shades which are very powerful.

[ChiasaChan]

Calling Engi turrets "Minions" is a bit of a stretch because they are just stationary items. I would call the Mechanist and Ranger a pet class (with only one main pet that can be given commands) and only the Necromancer a class with minions (more than one).

99% of the game really is about playing what you want, not playing what performs best. If you want a pet just play Engi and go Mechanist, or play Ranger and go anything. If you want to be the master of a tiny army go Necro and make as many minions as you have skills. You can always change and go minionless if you feel the need to do that for the very difficult content where a minion build may not be really suited for. Also you can adjust the number of minions you have on the fly and simply switch some of them out for other skills that you might need for a specific situation anytime when you are not currently fighting.

[Red Death]

Originally posted by Kodesh:

Thanks for the feedback! It's reassuring to know that I can easily swap out traits/skills if needed.

Every character has 2 loadouts for gear and 3 loadouts for skills/traits that you can instantly swap between (out of combat) so it is indeed easy to switch around.

[Mr RocknRoll]

In casual PvE content everything is viable. You can do 99% of all PvE content with whatever weapon, traits, gear you want.

[GS Killerkram]

My wife plays minion based necromancer and she has fun. She does not PVP with it but does story and open world content and its really fun. She has run into a single issue in Heart of Thorns expansion on one boss where the minions prevented a mechanic from working so she needed to respec out of minions to get it done but other than that its great.
For the times you want to put the minions away I do one of the elite specializations Reaper which is A LOT of fun but I do not use the minions for this.

[SinisterSlay]

Minions are great fun and totally viable for open world content.
They have limited usefulness in group content. And are a detriment in raids.
Minions like to engage whenever. And hold you engaged. This can be a problem.

[Dallo]

Minion master builds for necromancer are surprisingly very powerful in sPvP!

[lance10ca]

Elementalist also has a good off-meta condition minion build but ele is not the easiest class in the world to play. It's a celestial stat build, which a new player won't have access to but you won't need it for the personal story or open world.
Build here: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAs2lZwuYVdtJGZoOKPmrUA-zxIY1oo/EiZBAA-e

You get one elite minion 120s and then a relatively low cooldown summon for lesser minons 40s cooldown, 120s summon. Up to three of the lessers in a fight. Each of the four elements has it's own type of minion. Earth is for tanking, water for healing/chill , air for ranged DPS/swiftness/stun and fire for straight dps.

I ran this build through the whole story, LW and the expansions solo so can attest to the viability in story/open world.

[SeaDog]

Minion necro can be a lot of fun but there is so much more available on that class that I'm sure you will outgrow it after a while. Unlike mechanist engineer, minion necro does not depend on specialization. You can start playing it from the beginning levels and work with it all the way to 80 and elite specialization. There are minion necro builds for all three elite specializations so if you really like this type of build there are a lot of possibilities to play around with. Necros also make good healers, high dps dealers, and an excellent support class depending on the builds you use so you can play them in all content. Outside of open world, though, you will probably not play much minion necro.

[Mars]

In open world content anything is viable, minionmancer necro used to be quite strong pvp, it's still playable, but weaker than other necro builds, in high end pve or wvw, I wouldn't recommend using minions.

[Zyme]

You'll most likely find that you use different builds in different game modes. Once you've unlocked skills and traits you can change those that are active at any time, as long as you're out of combat.