Worth it to cure conditions/hexes in PvE? - Guild Wars Forums

Mikar · Feb 20, 2008, 09:25 PM // 21:25

I am fairly new to GW and almost solely H/H due to limited play time playing a monk myself.

Sofar my experience with curing conditions and/or hexes has been that
- its too confusing for me to do well
- when I do cure the condition/hex seems to land soon after again making it pointless
- when my team suffers they seem to suffer all at once meaning I simply dont have the time to cure all anyway.
- its just simpler to heal the damage and wait for the condition to expire.

However, I cannot help to think that I may be missing something concerning curing - so my question is how others handle this with H/H. Do you set a hero up as curer, let the hench handle it, handle it yourself or just ignore it? Are there places where you ignore curing and others where its wiser to prioritize curing?

Flem · Feb 20, 2008, 09:37 PM // 21:37

It's according to what mobs your fighting, but usually I don't have too hard of a time removing the conditions and hexes as long as there is more then one monk per party of 8.

Some mobs are specifically hard because they stack on so many hexes and cond., those are always gonna be hard on monks unless you bring/put skills on your heros that make hexes cast slower and such.

Removing conditions are a very important part of being a monk, tho. You really utilize your team if they aren't weakened, dazed, blind, ect.

itsvictor · Feb 20, 2008, 09:40 PM // 21:40

It's worth removing hexes/conditions when it is hindering your team's ability to kill. Blind and daze are very potent conditions and should be removed, and hexes like insidious parasite,price of failure,empathy, and so far that all can mess with your team should be removed. Even if it's re-applied right after, it takes more energy for them to cast it then it does to remove it. Healing through it doesn't work when there are other damage sources besides the condition/hexes and it'll relieve pressure if you remove it, if it's like poison and being repeatedly apply, don't remove it then and just wait for the right time to heal.

HawkofStorms · Feb 20, 2008, 09:42 PM // 21:42

Yes, it is worth it. AI Heroes tend to kill themselves fairly quickly when hexed with backfire, etc.

With that in mind, you should know what skills are used by what monsters in what areas. If your ele is hexed with Rust or a water snare hex, who the heck cares? If your ele is dazed or hexed with migrane... now that is a problem. Try to learn what conditions and hexes should be removed and prioritize accordingly. Don't try to keep your party free of conditions and hexes all the time. Try to focus on removing stuff that is detramental to that specific class.

Emu · Feb 20, 2008, 09:46 PM // 21:46

I prefer to carry mend condition and cure hex myself, but I don't make a mission of keeping the party clean of conditions/hexes. Generally speaking for conditions/hexes that cause no ill affects beyond degen you can just handle it with healing. Other conditions are usually worth chasing down (daze, blind, cripple, cracked armour) as they can disable a character in the worst case scenario. Some hexes are serious enough to warrant removal (backfire, spiteful spirit, soul leach and empathy come to mind), but for the most part I only keep cure hex around as a spike heal.

Remember you can find out what hexes and conditions are being slung about by clicking on the number to the left of the heroes name in the party panel. That'll open a window with the heroes skillbar and all affects currently on that hero.

pygar · Feb 20, 2008, 09:48 PM // 21:48

Early on you can just wait for hexes and conditions to fade, but later on some mobs will get really nasty with conditions and hexes, and having some removal will be required....towards the end areas of the game and in hard mode degen and hexes almost become the primary ways for monsters to do damage to you. (and they do get very good at it)

From my own experiences, I would even go so far as to say that somehow if you don't have condition/hex removal of some sort then the monster AI will go out of their way to apply conditions and hexes on you....so yes even if you can only afford to spare one or two skill slots for it, the removal spells/skills are very worth it. (or another way to look at it is right now, your monks are probably casting heals to overcome the degen...they may cast a heal 2 or 3 times to counter an effect that could have been wiped with one spell, and same said removal spell likely gave a small bit of healing to boot....a lot of the hex and condition removal spells for monk are really good, and way more efficient for your healers than having them cast regular heals to keep up)

If you can only do one, worry about condition removal first...Hex removal you can get by without until you encounter something like wind riders that only attack by using hexes.

Mikar · Feb 20, 2008, 10:00 PM // 22:00

Thank you for the replies. I suppose that part of the problem sofar has been that I am playing mostly with henchmen and I am finding it hard to know whats on them but I will just have to learn.

I do wish though that the game offered alot more combat information in text form (and logable) - it seems so odd not being able to parse battles afterwards as I used to do so in another game when I played that years ago.

Ministry · Feb 20, 2008, 11:04 PM // 23:04

With H/H, I keep an eye on my individual hero bars and generally watch my henchies to see if anyone is not performing as well as they should be. If I'm playing with any humans, I let them know to call out anything that's giving them a hard time (ctrl-clicking) and then I do what I can to relieve them of it. Obviously your necromancer shouldn't bother you if they're blinded.

Ultimately, knowledge of what hex/cond(s) are going to be problematic in any area is your best tool, just as everyone else has said.

Wirt · Feb 21, 2008, 12:13 AM // 00:13

You might know already, but you can tell somewhat if there is a condition or hex on a henchman. The Henchman HP bar will turn a lighter red if they are bleeding, green if they are poisoned or diseased, and grey-out area if there is deep wound. Blind causes the guys to have what looks like flies flying around their eyes and dazed will cauase a bubbly animation around the guy as he is running around.

Also there will be a down triangle if they are being degenerated, or a up triangle if they are enchanted in the HP bar (hitpoint bar).

Hexes will usually cause the HP bar to appear a purply red color. However you cannot tell what hex is on them, whether its migraine or wastels worry.

Crom The Pale · Feb 21, 2008, 01:09 AM // 01:09

Its not really that hard to figure out what hexes monsters are using. There are lists for almost every monster on Wiki that will tell you what skills they carry. Once you know what hexes/conditions you are facing on any particular map you can decide if they are worth removing or ignoring. Many are easily ignored but a few can really harm your party if you leave them alone for to long.

Learn, Adapt, Win.

Targuil · Feb 21, 2008, 05:37 AM // 05:37

Most hexes and conditions are harmless but when it comes to Daze, Blind,Miss -hexes or something like migraine, it's worth to remove those to make as much damage as possible.

gremlin · Feb 21, 2008, 11:35 AM // 11:35

Pretty good advice so far.
It's also important to remember that these conditions are not just your problem.

The Ranger and Mesmer should be preventing them happening at all or at least repeatedly happening.
The Assassin should be stalking these condition casters as soon as their healer is dead.

Your necro using any spare bodies up so they cannot be used against the party.
While Ele and Warrior cause chaos with the remaining enemy.

There is an order to mob killing and its often a mistake to target the damage dealers first.

Chthon · Feb 21, 2008, 03:36 PM // 15:36

You're going to hate me for saying this, but it depends which condition or hex and who it's on.

Daze on a caster - take it off... FAST!
Daze on a warrior - leave it on.
Blind on a warrior - take it off.
Blind on a caster - leave it on.
Etc.

As for hexes, out of the nearly 200 hexes in the game, only a dozen or so really, really require removal, and maybe another dozen are "worth" removing if you can.

tijo · Feb 21, 2008, 03:56 PM // 15:56

As said previously, removing condition and hexes depends on the condition and hex and the professoin it's applied to. Considering that you can also take advantage of certain hexes and conditions using skills like [skill=text]Dwayna's Kiss[/skill] or [skill=text]Words of Comfort[/skill]. When i used to farm sf, i took advantage of rust since it doesn't really affect casters and it lasts long. Using Dwayna's Kiss with that provided me with cheap healing.

angmar_nite · Feb 21, 2008, 04:12 PM // 16:12

One thing to note, is that you can usually power heal through degen, seeing as it caps at 10. A key example of this is in the deep where the whole party suffers 7 degen, but it is easily healed through.

Ouchie · Feb 21, 2008, 05:04 PM // 17:04

Extinguish is a great skill - At least one of my Heros carries it

Feb 20, 2008, 09:25 PM // 21:25	#1
Mikar Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Jan 2008 Profession: Mo/Me	Worth it to cure conditions/hexes in PvE? I am fairly new to GW and almost solely H/H due to limited play time playing a monk myself. Sofar my experience with curing conditions and/or hexes has been that - its too confusing for me to do well - when I do cure the condition/hex seems to land soon after again making it pointless - when my team suffers they seem to suffer all at once meaning I simply dont have the time to cure all anyway. - its just simpler to heal the damage and wait for the condition to expire. However, I cannot help to think that I may be missing something concerning curing - so my question is how others handle this with H/H. Do you set a hero up as curer, let the hench handle it, handle it yourself or just ignore it? Are there places where you ignore curing and others where its wiser to prioritize curing?

Feb 20, 2008, 09:48 PM // 21:48	#6
pygar Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Dec 2007 Guild: KORM Profession: R/Mo	Early on you can just wait for hexes and conditions to fade, but later on some mobs will get really nasty with conditions and hexes, and having some removal will be required....towards the end areas of the game and in hard mode degen and hexes almost become the primary ways for monsters to do damage to you. (and they do get very good at it) From my own experiences, I would even go so far as to say that somehow if you don't have condition/hex removal of some sort then the monster AI will go out of their way to apply conditions and hexes on you....so yes even if you can only afford to spare one or two skill slots for it, the removal spells/skills are very worth it. (or another way to look at it is right now, your monks are probably casting heals to overcome the degen...they may cast a heal 2 or 3 times to counter an effect that could have been wiped with one spell, and same said removal spell likely gave a small bit of healing to boot....a lot of the hex and condition removal spells for monk are really good, and way more efficient for your healers than having them cast regular heals to keep up) If you can only do one, worry about condition removal first...Hex removal you can get by without until you encounter something like wind riders that only attack by using hexes. Last edited by pygar; Feb 20, 2008 at 10:00 PM // 22:00..

Feb 20, 2008, 09:37 PM // 21:37	#2
Flem Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Jul 2005 Guild: NA Profession: N/Me	It's according to what mobs your fighting, but usually I don't have too hard of a time removing the conditions and hexes as long as there is more then one monk per party of 8. Some mobs are specifically hard because they stack on so many hexes and cond., those are always gonna be hard on monks unless you bring/put skills on your heros that make hexes cast slower and such. Removing conditions are a very important part of being a monk, tho. You really utilize your team if they aren't weakened, dazed, blind, ect.

Feb 20, 2008, 09:40 PM // 21:40	#3
itsvictor Krytan Explorer Join Date: Jan 2008	It's worth removing hexes/conditions when it is hindering your team's ability to kill. Blind and daze are very potent conditions and should be removed, and hexes like insidious parasite,price of failure,empathy, and so far that all can mess with your team should be removed. Even if it's re-applied right after, it takes more energy for them to cast it then it does to remove it. Healing through it doesn't work when there are other damage sources besides the condition/hexes and it'll relieve pressure if you remove it, if it's like poison and being repeatedly apply, don't remove it then and just wait for the right time to heal.

Feb 20, 2008, 09:42 PM // 21:42	#4
HawkofStorms Hall Hero Join Date: Aug 2005 Profession: E/	Yes, it is worth it. AI Heroes tend to kill themselves fairly quickly when hexed with backfire, etc. With that in mind, you should know what skills are used by what monsters in what areas. If your ele is hexed with Rust or a water snare hex, who the heck cares? If your ele is dazed or hexed with migrane... now that is a problem. Try to learn what conditions and hexes should be removed and prioritize accordingly. Don't try to keep your party free of conditions and hexes all the time. Try to focus on removing stuff that is detramental to that specific class.

Feb 20, 2008, 09:46 PM // 21:46	#5
Emu Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Jan 2006 Guild: Riddle Of Kings Profession: Mo/	I prefer to carry mend condition and cure hex myself, but I don't make a mission of keeping the party clean of conditions/hexes. Generally speaking for conditions/hexes that cause no ill affects beyond degen you can just handle it with healing. Other conditions are usually worth chasing down (daze, blind, cripple, cracked armour) as they can disable a character in the worst case scenario. Some hexes are serious enough to warrant removal (backfire, spiteful spirit, soul leach and empathy come to mind), but for the most part I only keep cure hex around as a spike heal. Remember you can find out what hexes and conditions are being slung about by clicking on the number to the left of the heroes name in the party panel. That'll open a window with the heroes skillbar and all affects currently on that hero.

Feb 20, 2008, 10:00 PM // 22:00	#7
Mikar Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Jan 2008 Profession: Mo/Me	Thank you for the replies. I suppose that part of the problem sofar has been that I am playing mostly with henchmen and I am finding it hard to know whats on them but I will just have to learn. I do wish though that the game offered alot more combat information in text form (and logable) - it seems so odd not being able to parse battles afterwards as I used to do so in another game when I played that years ago.

Feb 20, 2008, 11:04 PM // 23:04	#8
Ministry Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Aug 2007 Guild: Blood Fanatics [BITE] Profession: N/Mo	With H/H, I keep an eye on my individual hero bars and generally watch my henchies to see if anyone is not performing as well as they should be. If I'm playing with any humans, I let them know to call out anything that's giving them a hard time (ctrl-clicking) and then I do what I can to relieve them of it. Obviously your necromancer shouldn't bother you if they're blinded. Ultimately, knowledge of what hex/cond(s) are going to be problematic in any area is your best tool, just as everyone else has said.

Feb 21, 2008, 12:13 AM // 00:13	#9
Wirt Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Nov 2007 Guild: Conscripts of Ascalon Profession: W/	You might know already, but you can tell somewhat if there is a condition or hex on a henchman. The Henchman HP bar will turn a lighter red if they are bleeding, green if they are poisoned or diseased, and grey-out area if there is deep wound. Blind causes the guys to have what looks like flies flying around their eyes and dazed will cauase a bubbly animation around the guy as he is running around. Also there will be a down triangle if they are being degenerated, or a up triangle if they are enchanted in the HP bar (hitpoint bar). Hexes will usually cause the HP bar to appear a purply red color. However you cannot tell what hex is on them, whether its migraine or wastels worry.

Feb 21, 2008, 01:09 AM // 01:09	#10
Crom The Pale Furnace Stoker Join Date: Nov 2006 Guild: Ageis Ascending Profession: W/	Its not really that hard to figure out what hexes monsters are using. There are lists for almost every monster on Wiki that will tell you what skills they carry. Once you know what hexes/conditions you are facing on any particular map you can decide if they are worth removing or ignoring. Many are easily ignored but a few can really harm your party if you leave them alone for to long. Learn, Adapt, Win.

Feb 21, 2008, 05:37 AM // 05:37	#11
Targuil Krytan Explorer Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Tampere, Finland Guild: Keep Dreaming [Yawn] Profession: E/	Most hexes and conditions are harmless but when it comes to Daze, Blind,Miss -hexes or something like migraine, it's worth to remove those to make as much damage as possible.

Feb 21, 2008, 11:35 AM // 11:35	#12
gremlin Furnace Stoker Join Date: Oct 2006 Guild: GWAR Profession: Me/Mo	Pretty good advice so far. It's also important to remember that these conditions are not just your problem. The Ranger and Mesmer should be preventing them happening at all or at least repeatedly happening. The Assassin should be stalking these condition casters as soon as their healer is dead. Your necro using any spare bodies up so they cannot be used against the party. While Ele and Warrior cause chaos with the remaining enemy. There is an order to mob killing and its often a mistake to target the damage dealers first.

Feb 21, 2008, 03:36 PM // 15:36	#13
Chthon Grotto Attendant Join Date: Apr 2007	You're going to hate me for saying this, but it depends which condition or hex and who it's on. Daze on a caster - take it off... FAST! Daze on a warrior - leave it on. Blind on a warrior - take it off. Blind on a caster - leave it on. Etc. As for hexes, out of the nearly 200 hexes in the game, only a dozen or so really, really require removal, and maybe another dozen are "worth" removing if you can.

Feb 21, 2008, 03:56 PM // 15:56	#14
tijo Jungle Guide Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Montreal Guild: [CDDR] Profession: R/	As said previously, removing condition and hexes depends on the condition and hex and the professoin it's applied to. Considering that you can also take advantage of certain hexes and conditions using skills like [skill=text]Dwayna's Kiss[/skill] or [skill=text]Words of Comfort[/skill]. When i used to farm sf, i took advantage of rust since it doesn't really affect casters and it lasts long. Using Dwayna's Kiss with that provided me with cheap healing.

Feb 21, 2008, 04:12 PM // 16:12	#15
angmar_nite Jungle Guide Join Date: Feb 2007 Guild: [SNOW] of [YUM] Profession: E/	One thing to note, is that you can usually power heal through degen, seeing as it caps at 10. A key example of this is in the deep where the whole party suffers 7 degen, but it is easily healed through.

Feb 21, 2008, 05:04 PM // 17:04	#16
Ouchie Krytan Explorer Join Date: Jan 2007 Guild: [Leet] Profession: R/	Extinguish is a great skill - At least one of my Heros carries it