Curse

bhavv · Dec 13, 2008, 05:16 AM // 05:16

With the Life Sheath update, these prot hench now have:

RoF
Life Sheath
Draw Conditions
Mend Ailment

Two RoF skills and 3 condition removals.

Maybe simply swap their elite to the new Boon Signet which would be easier then a full rebalance, and maybe add deny hexes to the bar as well to synergise with this elite and give them a hex removal?

ac1inferno · Dec 13, 2008, 06:05 AM // 06:05

They have a tendency to cast [[Rebirth] during the heat of battle. This often leaves them in the thick of battle, completely drained of all energy, and quite likely under attack. The resurrected party member, after being teleported right next to them, will be in danger of quickly dying again. They also tend to use [[Draw Conditions] on Disease, thus infecting the party members standing near them. Their powerful Protection Prayers skills allow for great damage reduction but the lack of direct/non-situational heals in their skill bar make them inviable on their own.

KamikazeChicken · Dec 13, 2008, 06:37 AM // 06:37

At this point Anet needs to just tweak all the hench bars. They're not encouraging people to PUG because, honestly, there's nobody left to fill PUGs anymore. The original gimping serves no purpose, especially with that horrid Factions prot hench.

bhavv · Dec 13, 2008, 07:01 AM // 07:01

Yes rebirth has always needed removing from these henchmen.

I also just realised that Boon Signet's bonus heal wouldnt trigger off deny hexes, so that is just meh. At least the build either has the option of using Boon Signets bonus heal, or using its recharge to remove two hexes with deny hexes, overall it offers a better all round prot and red bar up combination then leaving the new Life Sheath on them does.

The new life sheath just invalidates the entire skill bar as pointless having 4 skills that do the same thing. The point of Life Sheath is that it condenses RoF and your condition removal into one skill, but they go and forget to apply this knowledge to the henchmen.

I would advise the following build for the factions only Prot hench, whether or not people agree or disagree, this seems to me to be the best possible combination for them (as long as Boon Signet doesnt get nerfed or changed anymore):

[reversal of fortune][gift of health][boon signet][mend ailment][deny hexes][protective spirit][aegis][resurrection chant] 12+1+1 DF, 9+1 Prot, 9+1 Heal

Which is almost the same as the build I am using for boon signet, but I use dismiss condition instead of mend ailment and shielding hands instead of the res.

They dont really need the res, but the majority of average PVE'rs expect their monk henchies to have a res, so they need to be suited to all conditions of course.

I dont know why I bother wasting my time with disussing henchmen bars anyway, no one ever listens.

Racthoh · Dec 13, 2008, 07:05 AM // 07:05

The protection henchmen having Draw Condition and Mend Ailment was bad enough. Nothing better than a condition landing, healer hench hits Blessed Light while the protection draws it away, then proceeds to Mend Ailment. Those 20 energy condition removals are so awesome!

bhavv · Dec 13, 2008, 07:12 AM // 07:12

Do you think the build I posted above is better? I do anyway, just cos its my build <3.

I never use the Blessed Light hench anyway, they have too many 10e spells to be usefull, the Prot hench + Rit healers was always awesome backup throughout Factions, at least I already completed all my Kurzick + Luxon area vanquishes using them, then refused to vanquish the few areas where they only have the Blessed Light monks.

IMO even change the healers to Boon Sig monks and have healing breeze removed, but Factions only skill healers would be so naff it is pointless changing them anyway. They would only have Jameis Gaze for the 10e heal then, which I doubt would ever get removed since it is based on the name of one of the henchies.

The Boon Siggie prot / heal hybrid monk in every outpost would be /win for H/H'ers

As for the factions healers, this would work (or divine intervention instead of sig of devotion):

[signet of devotion][orison of healing][jamei's gaze][healing burst][deny hexes][signet of rejuvenation][heaven's delight][resurrection chant] 12+1+1 Heal, 12+1 DF

That or good old WoH healer hench, but since you have Mhenlo in a lot of places, it would be nice to have a different elite, and Healing Burst is a very viable alternative as the AI doesnt consider whether or not the allies health is <50%. Better then just having the AI spam Blessed Light on anyone with 50 points of damage or something.

Two decent monk bars using Factions + Core skills only, Anet please listen.

upier · Dec 13, 2008, 08:05 AM // 08:05

Let's not forget the magic that happens when you add a ritualist hench!

* Attuned Was Songkai
* Flesh of My Flesh
* Mend Body and Soul
* Shelter
* Soothing Memories
* Spirit Light
* Weapon of Warding

Shelter has ABSOLUTELY no place whatsoever in any build.
Dump it and replace it with Splinter (@10 since the guys refuse to use runes). Add Life.

bhavv · Dec 13, 2008, 09:35 AM // 09:35

Agreed with changing Shelter to life, although using two of the rit healers along with the prot hench was always fine, it could be improved a lot.

And no one really cares about non monk henchmen anyway, damage is done by heroes, and hench slots are best filled with 3 healers and the earth elly, or charge warrior to speed vanqs up. Oh, but Odurra is also good now, and Erys Vasburg.

Factions monk henchmen are all terrible now, the old Life Sheath was actually better for them then the new one is.

upier · Dec 13, 2008, 10:45 AM // 10:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhavv

Agreed with changing Shelter to life, although using two of the rit healers along with the prot hench was always fine, it could be improved a lot.

The issue appears in places where you are stuck with the ritualist hench because you only have the 1 monk, 1 ritualist option.

Šiljo · Dec 13, 2008, 11:32 AM // 11:32

Factions monk henchmen have good timing on spirit bond and use whenever its recharged!

Tyla · Dec 13, 2008, 01:44 PM // 13:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by upier

The issue appears in places where you are stuck with the ritualist hench because you only have the 1 monk, 1 ritualist option.

The worst thing is, they can't even heal through:

"Save Yourselves!" chained constantly.
Enfeebling Blood.
Various Earth Support Skills.

in Normal Mode, but I used Jamei. Guess that means I'm taking a trip to Hell's Precipe again to cap that bastard Hundred Blades.

bhavv · Dec 13, 2008, 07:25 PM // 19:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Šiljo

Factions monk henchmen have good timing on spirit bond and use whenever its recharged!

So thats why they run out of energy maybe.

Spirit Bond isnt a spam skill like RoF, it is meant to be used as a counter spike skill. For the purpose of PVE and HM, I still rate Prot Spirit to be more useful for damage prevention. Spirit Bond is better for farming builds, and 8v8 GVG to counter spikes, but it wont do much when you take 300 damage from elly bosses.

Considering all of that, spirit bond is still the second most useful skill on their current bar after Aegis.

And for Upiers comment above, yes anywhere in factions with just a single monk, rit and earth hench is just useless on HM. They fail so hard at keeping your team alive, you almost forced to run sabway and an N/Rt healer as well just to help keep your team up long enough to kill stuff. Even then, the single monk and rit hench still have a tendency to completely fail, I blame it on how quickly the B light monks run out of energy.

Alesia and Lina in Prophecies actually offer better support and red bars up then a selection of any 2 healers in Factions does, except for if you can get 2 rit hench.

Oh, with more playing with Boon Signet, I found that you can use Deny Hexes after it, and the bonus heal stays on you for your next spell without getting used up, which is quite decent.

Abedeus · Dec 13, 2008, 09:13 PM // 21:13

Actually, I noticed that Prot Hench in Factions (Kurzick Lands) is pretty good. A lot of conditions there, though.

bhavv · Dec 14, 2008, 02:26 AM // 02:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abedeus

Actually, I noticed that Prot Hench in Factions (Kurzick Lands) is pretty good. A lot of conditions there, though.

Having three condition removing skills, plus one of them being elite is still a waste of two skill slots, plus there are lots of ranger spirits around in Kurzick lands and rit hench have Mend Body And Soul.

Using the monk bars above along with a rit henchman too will offer a good amount of both condition and hex removal, plus a major boost to healing and energy management for both the monk hench. If more removal skills are needed, these can be used easilly on a hero with secondary monk, maybe like an E/Mo or N/Mo with extinguish. A monk with 3 condition removals including an elite is just beyond bad.

Age · Dec 14, 2008, 02:56 AM // 02:56

They must come have the skills that are already in that campaign for eg. Alesia lvl 17 can not have WoH as capped after you do either 3 missions in the desert as well she can't have Factions skills.They aren't present in Tyria and the same can be said about the Factions henchman.

The only thing they those prophecies is a condition and hex remover.They need to think Sista Tai bar over again but that won't happen more or less give her good heal as she doesn't have Woh at 20.

bhavv · Dec 14, 2008, 03:56 AM // 03:56

^^

What?

The bars I suggested are using factions and core skills only and are intended for the factions henchmen.

The monks in prophecies are actually better then the factions ones now =X

They wont ever get changed, even though we have been asking since the dawn of guild wars, but the factions Prot hench skill bar is just such a joke now, and the healers have always been bad, but no one at Anet cares.

Age · Dec 14, 2008, 08:01 AM // 08:01

OK I see where you said about Prophecies henchies being better and I agree.The skill selection is not that great although gets a little better once you get to Kurzick Sistar Tai use nothing but Blight and Signet of Devotion and there is no Protection in KC as they is used for Rit.Rits aren't good at protecting I don't bother taking a Rit henchie anymore they are useless.

This guy disagrees with me.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...0340763&page=2

Div · Dec 14, 2008, 08:38 AM // 08:38

I think Anet designed henchmen to be bad and piss us off

bhavv · Dec 14, 2008, 09:36 AM // 09:36

Well, the NF hench are ok, and the EOTN ones are great, just except the pairing of ZB and WoH. The prophecies ones at least work and get the job done, and Factions proudly boasts the largest collection of terribad AI skill bars.

I remember I used to try making teams in factions with no healer henchmen, using heroes for healing and damage hench, I couldnt get through the missions I were trying at all without any necros. That was way back when I started learning how to use necros. Sabway is the only thing that really seems to work in factions because you need the support from it so badly with the lame henchmen.

(P.S, No I cant find nor want even one other player to play with and have all the luxon and kurz areas done, as well as everywhere else that has 2 rit hench available, and I am not complaining it is too hard, the henchmen in factions just suck giant lollisticks)

Reverend Dr · Jan 09, 2009, 07:41 PM // 19:41

When was the faction prot henchman good?

I henched all of factions multiple times. It went easier when I dropped the prot henchman and took the slightly less pathetic ritualist.

And considering how the healing henchman uses blessed light primarily as a condition remover, having yet another condition remover on the prot might very well better that pairing.