Originally Posted by Neo-LD

The party-bar-off RA suggestion is a bit of an exagerration, imo. I've done it before, and while it can be challenging and induce some learning, it is not necessarily the best way to learn. Learning to visually prot is very important, and taking off the party bar will force you to do that. But then again, nowdays monking in arenas is pretty difficult compared to what it once was. Monking RA without a party bar was most possible in the boon prot days, ever since then its gotten progressively less easy. So I conclude that monking without a party bar is more a thing that already accomplished monks can do for fun and to prove that they can, etc. Nearly all new monks seeking to learn will pretty much just die miserably and get discouraged if they try it.

On the subject of prots:

Most decent monks can make hp bars go up, so intelligent use of healing is now tablestakes for high level monking. Thus, protection spells are one of the few ways possible that make it possible for an awesome monk to distinguish himself from the crowd of decent monks (and thus hold a very special place in my heart, but I digress). Anyways, the basic concept behind prot, as you have undoubtedly gathered, is to prevent red bars from going down, rather than make them go back up (the job of healing prayers). Protecting is desirable over healing for multiple reasons, including but not limited to time saving, spike prevention, and energy efficiency.

- Time saving. Prots will be working for you for their entire duration, sometimes even increasing in power over time (shield of absorption). Thus, if you have your prot spell(s) in place, you are free to do other things. Monks always have things they can do. Use the extra time to cast a free Devo Sig, or to get into a safer position, or to get more prots in place, etc.

For example. There is a warrior chasing you, and another one chasing your allied mesmer. You dont really have time to heal both, especially since you want to kite from the warrior on you. So, you can cast Spirit Bond on your mesmer, and the spirit bond will do your work for you (its very good against Dervishes) for its duration, and you are more or less free to worry only about the warrior on you.

-Spike prevention. Even with a good infuser, it is often easier, always safer, to save a spike with protection spells instead. Prot spells (especially Spirit Bond and Prot Spirit) are very good in this role. Prot spells get better and better with more and more people piling on their biggest damage. The one time you can be sure your ally is about to take a helluva load of damage is during a spike (This is where Visual Prot is key)

Example. The enemy has 2 warriors that have been more or less on different targets the entire game. Suddenly you see them converge to one target. You realize this as a clue that they will spike and prot him up accordingly. Optimally, your prot will be in place just before the warriors start unloading.

-Energy Efficiency. This is the big one. If used well, protection spells can be much more efficient than any healing spell. This is especially the case during a spike, where spirit bond and prot spirit can prevent and heal back insane amounts of damage. However, the enemy isnt always spiking, so what do you do in between?

This is the #1 flaw I find with most otherwise decent monks. They are overeager to prot. Its almost as if they think that just because a warrior is attacking one of your allies, it automatically makes it a good idea to prot that ally. BIG MISTAKE. You must weigh against many other factors, primarily: will your prot spell prevent more damage than you could have just healed back? The enemy isnt spiking, theres little risk they will die. So, will your little 5e prot spell prevent more damage than your 5e heal would heal? A standard 5e spell to compare to is Gift of Health, which heals about 100. Will your prot prevent 100 damage? Often it will not, and in those cases it is better not to prot. You must be even more judicial with your 10e prots. Those things are worth 2 Gifts. You have to get about 200 hp worth of prevention to make them "worth it".

Example. A long time ago (factions seasons, I think) I observed a game. I noticed the peculiar behavior of one of the monks. It was clear that he was paying VERY big attention to the battlefield, because every single time the thumper on the enemy team changed targets, he would have a prot spirit ready on his new target. Almost as if he had to prove, 'Im watching you thumper, I know what you're trying', or something. I bet he felt really clever for being able to pay so much attention to the battle, but in reality it was a colossal waste of energy. Hes lucky if those prots prevented anything at all - thumpers rarely inficlt 10% damage in any single packet.

So to recap -

1) Watch the field more than the HP bars. Use what you observe to help predict where damage will go before it arrives, so you arent surprised and (hopefully) have the prots set before the damage comes.

2) Use prots to save time and foil spikes. Its often safer, easier, and more energy efficient than trying to heal it back all, infuse or not.

3) If you dont detect an incoming "full spike", be very judicious with your use of prots. You must have very good reason to believe that you will 'get your money's worth', so to speak. Dont overprot.