Poor Poor Smiter - Guild Wars Forums

Evil Mr Happy · Aug 02, 2005, 01:46 PM // 13:46

Hello eveyone, this is my first post. I joined yesterday and have been looking around for a thread to post in, i got home from work yesterday to play my smite monk, and i found out what i want to post. First let me set the scene, i was doing riverside over the weekend and was having a really fun time with my monk, so i decided to show my friend yesterday.... mistake.

i use the following skills (though i'm sure you already know by now)

1.Zealots fire
2.Bals Aura
3.Symbol of wrath
4.Reversal of fortune
5.Orison of healing
6.Healing Breeze
7.Bals Spirit (Channeling) depends on how many Mobs i feel like aggroing
8.Filler - i dont have a specific skill for this spot i use whatever.

Well, after i entered the mission i aggro'd the first few mobs at riverside and got OWNED, plain and simple. I tried again, same thing. SO, i left to go do some ascension missions, this is where the poor poor smiter comes in to play.

I was with a rather decent PUG and we were doing thirsty river, i started my smite fest and was immediately owned. They bypassed EVERYONE else in my group(even the healer) and killed me, i was res'd, they killed ME again. Everytime i was their target, so i started to stand away from the group and act as a secondary healer, didnt matter... they ran past the group and killed me. I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this lately, it seems (to me) like they added a check to the AI in the game. IF Smite > 0 then OWN this char.

Sorry for such a long post, but i've never been the target EVERYTIME i was alive, and it just seemed a little excessive. I'll gladly welcome your comments, or suggestions to my build, and i just want to state i'm not farming, just playing through the game.

congrats to me on mu first post in this great community!!!

Ray Nutorious · Aug 02, 2005, 01:53 PM // 13:53

Well, I don't know.
I think they are just going after monks in general.

Esprit · Aug 02, 2005, 02:00 PM // 14:00

The AI prioritizes their attack focus. Spell casters are at the top of the list, which include Monks. Warriors are pretty low on the rung. Yes the warrior does damage, but a warrrior's damage can increase significantly with spells from the casters. And a monk is most logical to remove since they have weak armor and can't defend themselves very well.

If you don't want to be attacked, make sure you stay out of the enemy aggro range. Maybe get closer once the warriors have picked up the mobs.

If you see you are going to be attacked, run around the warriors to peal the mobs off of you back to the warriors.

Evil Mr Happy · Aug 02, 2005, 02:04 PM // 14:04

I started doing that after the first few times i died, it didnt matter. Dont get me wrong, I personally didnt mind dying, but i'm sure my group was getting irritated, that's when i started to stay back and heal, but for some reason they would Bypass the rest of the group to get to me. It just struck me as odd, since when i started healing i was well out of aggro range.

Mr. Matt · Aug 02, 2005, 02:11 PM // 14:11

I'm surprised you managed to find a PUG as a smiter monk! I had one once, but as soon as I mentioned that it was a smiter monk the room got mysterious cold and I was out on my ear...

I think, as mentioned above, it doesn't matter whether you're a smiter, or a healer, or a protector, or a bit of them all... the AI will go for you. I think the basic 'thought' is, 'Monk = HEALER! KILL! KILL! DESTROY!!!'. I notice the healer henchman gets the roughest treatment of all the henchmen as well. I guess the only solution is to make sure you don't take point... let the Warriors and Rangers -- the high armour dudes -- grab the attention of mobs first, then move in with your smiting skills.

Silmor · Aug 02, 2005, 02:18 PM // 14:18

First things first, avoiding aggro. You avoid aggro by keeping whatever you DO want to attract aggro (typically the warrior(s)) just outside of healing range - that's just a little further than the grey circle around your blip on the radar. Once monsters have stopped running and are wailing on him/them, you're free to get a little closer.

If you stand adjacent to a monster (for instance to cast Symbol of Wrath in your build), the monster gets a choice: that beefy warrior, or that juicy monk. They'll go for the monk. Avoid this by standing -just- a little further away from the monster - the area effect for 'adjacent' is just large enough to allow you to keep a step distance between you and the monster, which avoids the monster switching to you.

Check your health and armour. Through liberal use of superior runes, your health can drop below that of your teammates, and monsters have a knack for sniffing out the weaker guy in the pack - you. If you're still using 51 armour (from Amnoon Oasis), try the Crafter outside of Sanctum Cay (head into Stingray Strand, keep left until you see a Crafter NPC) for 57 armour options - higher armour makes you less attractive.

In a group, point-blank smiting through something like Symbol of Wrath and potentially Zealot's Fire can only work if you have a competent monk there to save you, or if you supply your own healing (and a smiting monk using Orison of Healing and Healing Breeze to keep himself alive will typically not have very much damage output). With you up front, you will be taking the hits, not the warrior(s), so make sure you or your support can handle this.

If you insist on being up front, accept the fact that you will be taking damage, and use it to your advantage. Bring both Essence Bond and Balthazar's Spirit to get 2 energy out of most hits on you (only non-physical, non-elemental damage won't trigger Essence Bond), and use a self-heal like Divine Boon (a maintained enchantment, but for some reason you can keep casting it on yourself with 0s recharge, 1/4s activation and triggering itself, coughing out a decent heal for 7 energy) along to not only keep yourself alive, but send waves of pain every time you do it on top of that. Taking Blessed Signet along can help you recover energy inbetween fights and during longer fights - with Essence Bond, Balthazar's Spirit and Divine Boon up, your natural energy regen can be problematic if you're not getting hit enough (for instance when facing only one enemy). If you have room for it, Divine Spirit (at high divine favor) can help you spam Divine Boon repeatedly in a pinch, which through Zealot's Fire also improves your damaging efficiency considerably (through the nature of Divine Boon, you will be using up 3 energy per cast - if you find this is eating into your energy too much, make sure you cancel the Divine Boon enchantment after every cast, which will reduce the cost to 1 energy per cast - this significantly reduces your self-healing capabilities though).

However, in a group like that it is far more efficient to smite from a distance - remove Symbol of Wrath from your bar, take a Signet of Capture into Riverside Province (or Sanctum Cay), track down the Damned Cleric boss, and capture Draw Conditions from him. Now bring Essence Bond instead of Balthazar's Spirit, cast it on the tank you notice gets targeted the most, and use Balthazar's Aura for brunt damage and Draw Conditions repeatedly on the tank (at 0s recharge and 1/4s casttime, this shouldn't be a problem), triggering Zealot's Fire with each cast. Divine Spirit really shines here - if you can crank it up to 10 seconds or more, you can basically keep mashing the Draw Conditions button which should make quick work of whatever is bugging the tank. The disadvantage of this setup is that you don't always have the option of staying way behind your tank (the cramped quarters of Thirsty River are a good example of this), and it requires a good tank who knows you need him to be hugging the monsters.

Considering your weaponry, try to get an Insightful Holy Staff/Smiting Staff of Enchanting (+5 energy on insightful, +20% longer enchantment duration on the Enchanting part), the former will simply increase your smiting capacity, the latter will tack on a good two or three hits on Balthazar's Aura, lengthen Divine Spirit for precious seconds and make Zealot's Fire less of a pain to recast (although this skill is incredibly forgiving in this regard anyhow). Having 20% chance on fast smiting prayers recharge and 20% chance on fast smiting prayers casting is probably best for this sort of setup.

Finally, take along skills that fit the circumstances. For instance in the case of Thirsty River, Smite Hex is a nice complement to the build. Note that if you're a smiting monk, you shouldn't need to bother with Healing Prayers at all. Max Divine Favor and Smiting Prayers, use double superior runes to push them beyond 12, and rely on the competence of your teammates, or Divine Boon in case you're up front, to stay alive.

Evil Mr Happy · Aug 02, 2005, 02:25 PM // 14:25

Thanks for your responses. I'll try the suggestions you mentioned Silmor, i'm still kinda new so i dont have all these skills you're talking about but i'll go capturing tonight and try to get them. Thanks eveyone.

FrogDevourer · Aug 02, 2005, 02:29 PM // 14:29

Hmm... Weird. Monks can solo their way quite easily in Riverside.

Smiting, healing, protection and divine? 4 attributes is generally a bad idea for this kind of monk build. Especially when you have few healing skills.

What were your attributes ?
Which armor were you using ?

Silmor · Aug 02, 2005, 02:38 PM // 14:38

Essence Bond can be purchased in Beetletun from the skill trainer.
Divine Spirit should be a reward for the Hungry Devourer quest from Beacon's Perch.
Divine Boon is rewarded for the Wayward Monk quest from Yak's Bend.

I recommend tattoo armour for a smiting monk, the additional energy is always nice, and the +5 vs. physical isn't going to be too impressive from Judge's.

Evil Mr Happy · Aug 02, 2005, 03:12 PM // 15:12

My current attributes are.

Smiting - 14 (12 + hat + rune)
Healing - 8
Inspiration - 8 (i used it for the longer duration on channeling)

I may need to look into the tatoo armor though, thanks.

FrogDevourer · Aug 02, 2005, 03:45 PM // 15:45

You're wearing a desert or forge armor, right ? Not an ascalon/collector one.

Your attributes show that:
- you shouldn't be using Reversal of Fortune with 0 prot
- you should be using inspiration skills (your first post shows no Inspiration skill)
- you have very little self healing/protection (no divine, little healing)

Your skill set shows that
- you want to play point blank area of effect (PBAoE) smiting skills with B.Spirit, Symb of Wrath...
- therefore you need a lot of self-healing to stay alive

There is a contradiction in your build. You might want to either:
- drastically improve your survival potential with smiting/divine/healing and with more self-healing skills
or
- play only range smiting, and to stay far away from the enemy (keep the red dots out of your aggro circle)

Evil Mr Happy · Aug 02, 2005, 03:54 PM // 15:54

I do list an inspiration skill in my build, Channeling. It's in () next to #7.

FrogDevourer · Aug 02, 2005, 04:18 PM // 16:18

Try this PBAoE smiter. It's using only 159 attribute points like in your 14/8/8 template, and you should already have access to all these skills. It has a better survival capability and you lose very little smiting damage.

Quote:

Divine Favor: 9 (8+1)
Healing Prayers: 12 (10+2)
Smiting Prayers: 11 (10+1)

Orison of Healing (Healing Prayers)
Heal target ally for 60.
Energy:5 Cast Time:1 Recharge:2

Healing Breeze (Healing Prayers)
For the next 10 seconds, target ally regenerates 8 health regeneration each second.
Energy:10 Cast Time:1 Recharge:2

Healing Touch (Healing Prayers)
Heal target touched ally for 51 health. Health gain from Divine Favor is doubled for this spell.
Energy:5 Cast Time:0.75 Recharge:5

Zealot's Fire (Smiting Prayers)
For 60 seconds, whenever you use a skill on an ally, all foes adjacent to your target are struck for 34 fire damage.
Energy:10 Cast Time:1 Recharge:30

Balthazar's Aura (Smiting Prayers)
For the next 10 seconds, enemies adjacent to target ally take 21 holy damage each second.
Energy:25 Cast Time:1 Recharge:15

Symbol of Wrath (Smiting Prayers)
For the next 5 seconds, foes in this location take 25 holy damage each second.
Energy:5 Cast Time:2 Recharge:30

Balthazar's Spirit (Smiting Prayers)
While you maintain this enchantment, target ally gains adrenaline and energy after taking damage. (The amount of adrenaline gained increases depending on your rank in Smiting Prayers.)
Energy:10 Cast Time:2 Recharge:0

Rebirth (Protection Prayers)
Resurrect target party member, teleporting him to your current location. All of target's skills are disabled for 10..4 seconds. This spell consumes all your remaining energy.
Energy:10 Cast Time:6 Recharge:0

Evil Mr Happy · Aug 02, 2005, 05:29 PM // 17:29

Thanks i'll try that.

Aug 02, 2005, 01:46 PM // 13:46	#1
Evil Mr Happy Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2005 Guild: Anel Raiders Anonymous Profession: Mo/Me	Poor Poor Smiter Hello eveyone, this is my first post. I joined yesterday and have been looking around for a thread to post in, i got home from work yesterday to play my smite monk, and i found out what i want to post. First let me set the scene, i was doing riverside over the weekend and was having a really fun time with my monk, so i decided to show my friend yesterday.... mistake. i use the following skills (though i'm sure you already know by now) 1.Zealots fire 2.Bals Aura 3.Symbol of wrath 4.Reversal of fortune 5.Orison of healing 6.Healing Breeze 7.Bals Spirit (Channeling) depends on how many Mobs i feel like aggroing 8.Filler - i dont have a specific skill for this spot i use whatever. Well, after i entered the mission i aggro'd the first few mobs at riverside and got OWNED, plain and simple. I tried again, same thing. SO, i left to go do some ascension missions, this is where the poor poor smiter comes in to play. I was with a rather decent PUG and we were doing thirsty river, i started my smite fest and was immediately owned. They bypassed EVERYONE else in my group(even the healer) and killed me, i was res'd, they killed ME again. Everytime i was their target, so i started to stand away from the group and act as a secondary healer, didnt matter... they ran past the group and killed me. I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this lately, it seems (to me) like they added a check to the AI in the game. IF Smite > 0 then OWN this char. Sorry for such a long post, but i've never been the target EVERYTIME i was alive, and it just seemed a little excessive. I'll gladly welcome your comments, or suggestions to my build, and i just want to state i'm not farming, just playing through the game. congrats to me on mu first post in this great community!!!

Aug 02, 2005, 02:18 PM // 14:18	#6
Silmor Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Mar 2005	First things first, avoiding aggro. You avoid aggro by keeping whatever you DO want to attract aggro (typically the warrior(s)) just outside of healing range - that's just a little further than the grey circle around your blip on the radar. Once monsters have stopped running and are wailing on him/them, you're free to get a little closer. If you stand adjacent to a monster (for instance to cast Symbol of Wrath in your build), the monster gets a choice: that beefy warrior, or that juicy monk. They'll go for the monk. Avoid this by standing -just- a little further away from the monster - the area effect for 'adjacent' is just large enough to allow you to keep a step distance between you and the monster, which avoids the monster switching to you. Check your health and armour. Through liberal use of superior runes, your health can drop below that of your teammates, and monsters have a knack for sniffing out the weaker guy in the pack - you. If you're still using 51 armour (from Amnoon Oasis), try the Crafter outside of Sanctum Cay (head into Stingray Strand, keep left until you see a Crafter NPC) for 57 armour options - higher armour makes you less attractive. In a group, point-blank smiting through something like Symbol of Wrath and potentially Zealot's Fire can only work if you have a competent monk there to save you, or if you supply your own healing (and a smiting monk using Orison of Healing and Healing Breeze to keep himself alive will typically not have very much damage output). With you up front, you will be taking the hits, not the warrior(s), so make sure you or your support can handle this. If you insist on being up front, accept the fact that you will be taking damage, and use it to your advantage. Bring both Essence Bond and Balthazar's Spirit to get 2 energy out of most hits on you (only non-physical, non-elemental damage won't trigger Essence Bond), and use a self-heal like Divine Boon (a maintained enchantment, but for some reason you can keep casting it on yourself with 0s recharge, 1/4s activation and triggering itself, coughing out a decent heal for 7 energy) along to not only keep yourself alive, but send waves of pain every time you do it on top of that. Taking Blessed Signet along can help you recover energy inbetween fights and during longer fights - with Essence Bond, Balthazar's Spirit and Divine Boon up, your natural energy regen can be problematic if you're not getting hit enough (for instance when facing only one enemy). If you have room for it, Divine Spirit (at high divine favor) can help you spam Divine Boon repeatedly in a pinch, which through Zealot's Fire also improves your damaging efficiency considerably (through the nature of Divine Boon, you will be using up 3 energy per cast - if you find this is eating into your energy too much, make sure you cancel the Divine Boon enchantment after every cast, which will reduce the cost to 1 energy per cast - this significantly reduces your self-healing capabilities though). However, in a group like that it is far more efficient to smite from a distance - remove Symbol of Wrath from your bar, take a Signet of Capture into Riverside Province (or Sanctum Cay), track down the Damned Cleric boss, and capture Draw Conditions from him. Now bring Essence Bond instead of Balthazar's Spirit, cast it on the tank you notice gets targeted the most, and use Balthazar's Aura for brunt damage and Draw Conditions repeatedly on the tank (at 0s recharge and 1/4s casttime, this shouldn't be a problem), triggering Zealot's Fire with each cast. Divine Spirit really shines here - if you can crank it up to 10 seconds or more, you can basically keep mashing the Draw Conditions button which should make quick work of whatever is bugging the tank. The disadvantage of this setup is that you don't always have the option of staying way behind your tank (the cramped quarters of Thirsty River are a good example of this), and it requires a good tank who knows you need him to be hugging the monsters. Considering your weaponry, try to get an Insightful Holy Staff/Smiting Staff of Enchanting (+5 energy on insightful, +20% longer enchantment duration on the Enchanting part), the former will simply increase your smiting capacity, the latter will tack on a good two or three hits on Balthazar's Aura, lengthen Divine Spirit for precious seconds and make Zealot's Fire less of a pain to recast (although this skill is incredibly forgiving in this regard anyhow). Having 20% chance on fast smiting prayers recharge and 20% chance on fast smiting prayers casting is probably best for this sort of setup. Finally, take along skills that fit the circumstances. For instance in the case of Thirsty River, Smite Hex is a nice complement to the build. Note that if you're a smiting monk, you shouldn't need to bother with Healing Prayers at all. Max Divine Favor and Smiting Prayers, use double superior runes to push them beyond 12, and rely on the competence of your teammates, or Divine Boon in case you're up front, to stay alive. Last edited by Silmor; Aug 02, 2005 at 02:25 PM // 14:25..

Aug 02, 2005, 02:29 PM // 14:29	#8
FrogDevourer on a GW break until C4 Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: In your shadow Guild: Servants of Fortuna	Hmm... Weird. Monks can solo their way quite easily in Riverside. Smiting, healing, protection and divine? 4 attributes is generally a bad idea for this kind of monk build. Especially when you have few healing skills. What were your attributes ? Which armor were you using ? __________________

Aug 02, 2005, 03:45 PM // 15:45	#11
FrogDevourer on a GW break until C4 Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: In your shadow Guild: Servants of Fortuna	You're wearing a desert or forge armor, right ? Not an ascalon/collector one. Your attributes show that: - you shouldn't be using Reversal of Fortune with 0 prot - you should be using inspiration skills (your first post shows no Inspiration skill) - you have very little self healing/protection (no divine, little healing) Your skill set shows that - you want to play point blank area of effect (PBAoE) smiting skills with B.Spirit, Symb of Wrath... - therefore you need a lot of self-healing to stay alive There is a contradiction in your build. You might want to either: - drastically improve your survival potential with smiting/divine/healing and with more self-healing skills or - play only range smiting, and to stay far away from the enemy (keep the red dots out of your aggro circle) __________________

Aug 02, 2005, 01:53 PM // 13:53	#2
Ray Nutorious Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Internet!!!!!!!!11111 Guild: Dark Dimension Profession: Mo/	Well, I don't know. I think they are just going after monks in general.

Aug 02, 2005, 02:00 PM // 14:00	#3
Esprit Desert Nomad Join Date: Jun 2005 Guild: Dvd Forums [DVDF] Profession: E/	The AI prioritizes their attack focus. Spell casters are at the top of the list, which include Monks. Warriors are pretty low on the rung. Yes the warrior does damage, but a warrrior's damage can increase significantly with spells from the casters. And a monk is most logical to remove since they have weak armor and can't defend themselves very well. If you don't want to be attacked, make sure you stay out of the enemy aggro range. Maybe get closer once the warriors have picked up the mobs. If you see you are going to be attacked, run around the warriors to peal the mobs off of you back to the warriors.

Aug 02, 2005, 02:04 PM // 14:04	#4
Evil Mr Happy Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2005 Guild: Anel Raiders Anonymous Profession: Mo/Me	I started doing that after the first few times i died, it didnt matter. Dont get me wrong, I personally didnt mind dying, but i'm sure my group was getting irritated, that's when i started to stay back and heal, but for some reason they would Bypass the rest of the group to get to me. It just struck me as odd, since when i started healing i was well out of aggro range.

Aug 02, 2005, 02:11 PM // 14:11	#5
Mr. Matt Krytan Explorer Join Date: May 2005 Profession: R/Mo	I'm surprised you managed to find a PUG as a smiter monk! I had one once, but as soon as I mentioned that it was a smiter monk the room got mysterious cold and I was out on my ear... I think, as mentioned above, it doesn't matter whether you're a smiter, or a healer, or a protector, or a bit of them all... the AI will go for you. I think the basic 'thought' is, 'Monk = HEALER! KILL! KILL! DESTROY!!!'. I notice the healer henchman gets the roughest treatment of all the henchmen as well. I guess the only solution is to make sure you don't take point... let the Warriors and Rangers -- the high armour dudes -- grab the attention of mobs first, then move in with your smiting skills.

Aug 02, 2005, 02:25 PM // 14:25	#7
Evil Mr Happy Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2005 Guild: Anel Raiders Anonymous Profession: Mo/Me	Thanks for your responses. I'll try the suggestions you mentioned Silmor, i'm still kinda new so i dont have all these skills you're talking about but i'll go capturing tonight and try to get them. Thanks eveyone.

Aug 02, 2005, 02:38 PM // 14:38	#9
Silmor Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Mar 2005	Essence Bond can be purchased in Beetletun from the skill trainer. Divine Spirit should be a reward for the Hungry Devourer quest from Beacon's Perch. Divine Boon is rewarded for the Wayward Monk quest from Yak's Bend. I recommend tattoo armour for a smiting monk, the additional energy is always nice, and the +5 vs. physical isn't going to be too impressive from Judge's.

Aug 02, 2005, 03:12 PM // 15:12	#10
Evil Mr Happy Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2005 Guild: Anel Raiders Anonymous Profession: Mo/Me	My current attributes are. Smiting - 14 (12 + hat + rune) Healing - 8 Inspiration - 8 (i used it for the longer duration on channeling) I may need to look into the tatoo armor though, thanks.

Aug 02, 2005, 03:54 PM // 15:54	#12
Evil Mr Happy Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2005 Guild: Anel Raiders Anonymous Profession: Mo/Me	I do list an inspiration skill in my build, Channeling. It's in () next to #7.

Aug 02, 2005, 05:29 PM // 17:29	#14
Evil Mr Happy Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2005 Guild: Anel Raiders Anonymous Profession: Mo/Me	Thanks i'll try that.