Curse

Vinraith · Sep 25, 2007, 03:44 PM // 15:44

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Healing Breeze is a waste of 10 energy one healing someone slowly when if they're taking enough damage, they'll die anyway, if they're not, LoD fills in the blanks.

I hear this kind of thing from time to time, but isn't the benefit of a regen heal like healing breeze that it can be applied a split second BEFORE damage starts to be applied if you're a good anticipatory healer? I don't claim to be a great monk, by any stretch, but it's always seemed to work reasonably well for me as a momentary spike offset to give me that extra bit of time to apply real heals before people start dropping to the ground. I'm completely open to hearing why I'm wrong, though.

Alleji · Sep 25, 2007, 03:50 PM // 15:50

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Originally Posted by Vinraith

I hear this kind of thing from time to time, but isn't the benefit of a regen heal like healing breeze that it can be applied a split second BEFORE damage starts to be applied if you're a good anticipatory healer? I don't claim to be a great monk, by any stretch, but it's always seemed to work reasonably well for me as a momentary spike offset to give me that extra bit of time to apply real heals before people start dropping to the ground. I'm completely open to hearing why I'm wrong, though.

That's called pre-protting and it's done with prot skills. Such as spirit bond, protective spirit or even RoF. You have the right idea, but those will do a lot more than healing breeze.

Vinraith · Sep 25, 2007, 04:18 PM // 16:18

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Originally Posted by Alleji

That's called pre-protting and it's done with prot skills. Such as spirit bond, protective spirit or even RoF. You have the right idea, but those will do a lot more than healing breeze.

Thanks, that makes perfect sense actually.

Antheus · Sep 25, 2007, 04:19 PM // 16:19

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as a momentary spike offset to give me that extra bit of time to apply real heals before people start dropping to the ground

RoF is for this.

A spike is a < 2 second thing. Healing breeze at +10 will heal for 20 hp per second. RoF will not only negate the next damage, but also heal for it. That means, in a 2 second spike, the person only needs to be hit for 10 damage to outperform HB, at half the cost. But it'll *negate* arbitrary amount of damage, even 50000.

And not to mention shatter. You put HB around mesmers, and you just dealt extra 70-140 damage to them. Healers with HB do more damage in Glint's challenge than destroyers do through all other means. The second most frequent killer there, for example, is soul leech. People just cast through that, especially monks.

HB works in most Prophecies areas, and some other normal mode zones.

For all practical purposes, protection is where it's at. Either active or passive, as well as general damage mitigation is what makes or breaks a team. This is why holy trinity is so reliant on tank and fragile if anything goes wrong.

Healing is just upping the bars. But any even remotely difficult area will do more damage than any healer can outheal.

Crom The Pale · Sep 25, 2007, 04:29 PM // 16:29

Before you pick your build decide what your role in the party is. Are you interupter, condition spreader, damage dealer, healer ect...

Adjust your build to do one thing and do that one thing very well.

Many people tend to make a balanced char, which does work, but to contribute to a team and really notice it you need to have a role to fill and fill it to the best of your abilities.

Winterclaw · Sep 25, 2007, 04:30 PM // 16:30

HB heals too slowly to be good in pre-protecting. Healing seed or healing hands would be a better choice if that is what you want to do. Here's the problem with using HB and pre-healing. At best you might get 16 or 18hp a second from it. A good spike will kill whoever it long before HB has a chance to heal the person. And unlike pre-protection, HB isn't going to reduce future damage, which 95% of the time is the better idea.

It's also kind of silly to pre-heal because healing is only useful if you've taken damage. Protection is almost always useful because it keeps you from getting damage or reduces the damage. Also HB has a 1 second cast time and can't be easily applied a split second before hand and it can be interrupted.

To be honest I really can't think of a situation where you'd want healing breeze on your bar unless you are in a starter area and that's the only 10e option you have or you are a 55monk and don't have NF. I mean you could use it to counter degen, but you are better off removing the degen.

HB is one of those skills that needs to be buffed or altered for people to want to use it. I mean if it had double the healing bonus from divine favor, that'd be something. Or if it had a 5e cost and a 1/4cast, that might make it okay.

Saphrium · Sep 25, 2007, 04:38 PM // 16:38

Considering Protection spells as damage control, they effectively reduce high level pve mobs spike ability down to a humanly manageable level, and apply recovery upon that makes a good strategy.

Healing: Most efficient health recovery, even better when combined with divine favor spells.
Protection: Fastest activation, decent health recovery when combined with divine favor attribute, excellent abnormal status recovery, more variation of skills.
Smite: Other than Balthazar's as energy management and some hex removal skills, I don't see why doing damage is a monk's job in pve.

Winterclaw · Sep 25, 2007, 04:49 PM // 16:49

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Smite: Other than Balthazar's as energy management and some hex removal skills, I don't see why doing damage is a monk's job in pve.

I could sympathize with a monk player wanting to do something other than healing or protecting from time to time, however they really don't have all that great of selection of skills. Smiter's boons kind of makes them more desireable if you want to bring smite hex, smite condition, and RoD but overall they ain't that great.

Spazzer · Sep 25, 2007, 06:47 PM // 18:47

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Originally Posted by Antheus

RoF is for this.

But it'll *negate* arbitrary amount of damage, even 50000.

This is not true. ROF will only absorb up to the amount listed on the skill. If you're hit with a 150 dmg lightning orb and you catch it with a 70 healing RoF, the net effect is 10 damage. However, ROF becomes a 140pt heal.

Sekkira · Sep 25, 2007, 07:42 PM // 19:42

Everyone seems to be forgetting a spike isn't necessarily a single hit. Shield of Absorption is usually better to negate a spike than RoF. However, if it is single attack damage, RoF is key. You might also want to bring Prot spirit if there's a bit of 120+ damage attacks going around.

Guardian is a waste of time in quite a lot of situations, it only really protects against attacks and while you do have every monster in PvE that attacks, the only real damage you'll get is from melee which can be negated by kiting or Shield of Absorption and ranged arrow attacks (note: if you're facing a lot of rangers, not taking Guardian is a mortal sin). If wanding effects your party badly enough to worry about it, I suggest they go back to Consulate Docks, Droks or Kaineng to get better armour.

I would always take Signet of Rejuvenation over Signet of Devotion, assuming you have points in healing. while Devotion has a faster recharge and greater heal than Rejuvenation, it also has a longer cast time and no bonus. Over all, the cycle for Devotion is 8s while the cycle of Rejuvenation is 9s and where the latter shines is its bonus heal of more than double if the target is attacking or casting. Which most of the time they are anyway.

Winterclaw · Sep 25, 2007, 07:56 PM // 19:56

The only reason I suggest SoD over SoR is that any monk can use SoD. If you are a healer, SoR would probably be better in most cases.

Rocky Raccoon · Sep 25, 2007, 08:53 PM // 20:53

May I suggest helping lower level players to hone your skills, you will have less pressure on yourself while you can try out different skill sets.