First thank you all for questions and comments. Any builds that you've had success with are much appreciated and your experience with necro will be invaluable as i progress. Will try to answer your questions as best I can.
Shira; Yes, I've been trying to build an apothecary set for heal and condi damage increase. I use the marks a lot, so the faster recycle of them allows faster spam.
Mostly, I used crafted carrions to get her to 80 as she is my tailor.
I do and did use the minions as a tank, and the heals to keep them up but...I don't want them to be up past level 60 in a protracted fight. I want a cycle of dying minions so death nova pops regularly. With the HoT from my staff and my life transfer in death shroud, I decided the minions were sufficiently "tanky" for my needs and started stepping up DoT. And there is a lot of Damage over Time to go around in the build. The MM build was my leveling setup, and i kept forgetting about pesky things like mob level. Running through the story mode--I rushed a little, she's technically my third level 80--I was successfully killing mobs 3-5 level higher than me up to and through Orr content. Until I hit the abominations she was nigh unstoppable. bomb builds do not sync well with those fellas.
Playstyle: I'm in my horde mos of the time, to the point most who watch would probably wonder why I'm not running a dagger set. I kite in and out of the minions when something agros me, and tend to try to pop them in a certain order when I need death nova to drop.
Example of a protracted fight: drop all marks,staggered with reapers mark closest to me and necrotic grasp to start the fight. the mobs run to me, through my marks, and usually hit the outer edge of reapers, giving a few more seconds to recast mark of blood, Chillblains and sometimes Putrid. this makes "the ball", horde and mobs together. reapply marks as they recharge; F1 and pop Life Transfer. If I get bad agro, I run through the horde and pop a--ONE--bone minion. if I don't get bad agro(ie, i'm not taking enough damage to worry) i wait untill one of the other minions drop, usually pop bone minion # one and save # two for the next fight. if things go badly, i pop both and after 20 seconds, those minions are back up and the fight is usually over. resummon, on to the next mob or--if the fight is still ongoing, I pop them in quick succession and kite through my horde using mark of blood to heal self and them.
Usually, the fight is well over before I need to do something as drastic as killing a bone minion though.
Of the three high level toons I've built so far(almost four now; Dewon is in orr now and hope to have him at 80 soon; will post how I got him there in separate thread so as not to derail Duh Generals.) Faith was the fastest and easiest to level as a solo play through the story mode and minor map exploration. She also seemed the most stable up to orr.
I do love--LOVE!--the staff in combat. The marks are just...nasty if you can stack them...and stack them...and stack them over and over again.
But once I hit Orr and end game content, things have certainly changed. Karka are a challenge. I can barely handle 3 at a time, and a veteran karka kicks my skinny white behind but right quick. As mentioned, Abominations seem to rip through my horde very fast, and then they turn on me with a will. I've been tinkering with her, trying to keep her a MM and making modifications. I've decided one of two choices; Increased health on the minions as you suggest or reduced recharge time on the minions so i can cycle them faster. I'm tinkering on my own; if you have a build suggestion, please post as i'd like to see what other necros have found most useful.
There is a third alternative, however. I just drop minions and rebuild her from the ground up. Hince the well build.
Plague Sig is on the Condi build...did you mean instead of mark of blood? Corrupt boon is there as a poison xfer but mostly as a strip mobs/players when they are relying on boons. There are certainly better condi builds out there than what I posted, but I was trying to be frugal with Faith and not respec her every three hours like I seemed to be doing with Melody.
shadowmouse: I out there alone a lot. When I die, I DIE
To be more accurate I get downed when I overpull or there are unexpected adds...or things just don't die right. A well build is not intended to 1v1 mobs, its intended to 1v5 or 1v10 them. The improved damage in down allows me to hit a mob and rally reliably in PvE. In PvP/WvW, I would swap for the focus trait in a gourp, but I find Signet mastery to be more apt when around a group of people as I'm picking up all the condis.
General; neither could I at lower levels; that's why I craft leveled her up to 20s. Once I got the elite skill, she became much less fragile and that much more enjoyable. I've had the same feel with my ele. She just seems so fragile at lower levels. but I hear that if I persevere, I can turn that little lady into a tank! After I get my warrior up to 80, much as I want my mesmer I expect to start on the ele in earnest.
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