Curse

Eclair · Jun 20, 2005, 09:44 PM // 21:44

PvE purposes

1. Healing Touch (self heal)
2. Orison of Healing (backup heal)
3. Balthazar's Aura (The best defense is a good offense =P Toss it on some warrior that's tanking a few monsters and let the numbers fly)
4. Words of Healing (Hands down best healing prayers spell IMO, with good timing and analysis of the battle situation, this + orison during the recharge times would be enough for almost any battle)
5. Storm Chaser (Ranger secondary for unlocking, good for running away from the battle when everyone else is dead, or throwing off melee chasers)
6. Mend ailment (a blind/weakened warrior is half useless, fix that =P)
7. Rebirth (Live and fight another day!)
8. Signet of Capture

11+4 healign Prayers, 10+1 smiting prayers, 10+1 Divine favor, 2 wilderness survival

Healing seed is very situational IMO. It's great with henchies or with a team who knows how to capitalize on it, but usually with random PUGs, I dont' even bother because warriors like to do their own thing and a lot of times its just wasted when monsters switch targets and the seeder is off chasing some enemy caster while the melee beats down on our elemenatlist.

I used Divine Boon for a bit and found that although its great for spike heals, the drain on energy was a bit too steep most of the times. You're going to really want to watch your heals to make sure you don't overheal, and turn it off if you drop to 0 mana to allow yourself to regen normally. Once I got Words of Healing I dropped boon =P.

I personally don't like running enchantments in PvE. Too many monsters have some sort of enchantment removal, but its mostly preference whether you can stand it or not.

Something very important: If there's a elementalist/necro/mesmer on your team who always seem to be going into the middle of the enemy groups and casting spells and rely on you to save their butts all the time, give them a warning. Tell them to stay back or you're going to stop healing them. A key step in staying alive is to not rely on the monk too much and try to keep yourself alive first. Casters who think they're tanks are stealing valuable heals away from the other players who need it.

theclam · Jun 20, 2005, 09:47 PM // 21:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoDiamonds

Raise your Healing Prayers up high. Maybe this is obvious, but there it is.

This isn't necessary. I do fine as a primary healer using Divine Boon with Protection Prayers, Blood Magic (Offering of Blood), and Divine Favor.

Quote:

Orison of Healing is carried by nearly any character acting as a primary healer.

This isn't necessary either. Reversal of Fortune works better than Orison in most cirumstances. With Divine Boon, any (5,1,2) spell can work as well or better than Orison of Healing.

Quote:

Don't heal someone who has taken a little damage but doesn't appear to be taking more. It sounds obvious, but at the start of combat you'll often be bored without anything to do and want to heal that scratch someone took. Let them bleed a little. Builds character.

I am almost never sitting around doing nothing. If your mana is full, even if your party is fully healed, then cast a 5-mana spell (something that isn't a direct heal, like Vigorous Spirit). Your mana regen is going regardless of whether you are casting or not. You might as well put it to use. Also, if anyone in the group has taken even 10 damage, I Signet of Devotion them. The only times that I am not constantly using Signet of Devotion is when everyone has 100% life or people are taking damage so fast that it can't keep up. Never just let people sit there taking damage, even minor amounts.

Quote:

If someone looks like they aren't taking more damage (because you see them fleeing past you, for instance), concentrate your healing elsewhere. Get to them when you have time.

One of the most important skills for a Monk to learn is prioritization. Learning who to heal is important.

Quote:

[*]Important: When enemies attack YOU, run away. But don't just run into nowhere; they'll chase you and it will probably be bad. Run towards your other party members, preferably the warriors. If you circle them at a very close distance, you can "drag" the monsters onto other party members. It's your job to keep everyone alive, starting with yourself, and this is the easiest method. (When ranged attackers come after you, just run away and ping your health to let people know they should be getting in the way of the monsters.)

This is also very important. Even if you don't have any tanks around, you can circle around ally casters (if you have Word of Healing, or another "other ally" heal, then it's much more efficient to heal other people than yourself; plus you won't have to waste time running if the mobs are fighting another caster), or even other mobs.

DrSLUGFly · Jun 21, 2005, 04:18 AM // 04:18

a lot of great answers gang,

edit: read the whole thread... some really great advice in here for anyone wishing to take up the robe... thank you all very much

I think that one thing the "monk builds" thread (and maybe other builds threads, don't know) neglects is that noobs can gain almost nothing from the advice given on the thread. The advice given on the builds thread assumes a basic knowledge of the skills and attributes, whereas the answers supplied here (probably by many of the same people who replied to the builds thread) are very noob-friendly and don't assume prior knowledge or experience in... monkery..

Thanks again. I'm about to ascend with my main but now I've got the urge to go back to Pre-Searing and continue along with my monk

Any advice for secondary (I've already taken Mesmer... but I'm not fully confident that it was a good decision).

ManadartheHealer · Jun 21, 2005, 05:43 AM // 05:43

Ranger is a good secondary for monk. They have some pretty good nature rituals, and there was this one monk I played with that used a few rituals + protection very successfully.

Also, using necro as secondary can be good

JoDiamonds · Jun 21, 2005, 12:30 PM // 12:30

You won't usually want to use bows, melee weapons, or shields, because you'll want good focus items and probably even wands or rods to increase your energy.

Padre · Jun 21, 2005, 12:51 PM // 12:51

I have a couple different builds with my protection mo/me. One involves arcane echo to keep aegis going for 22 seconds straight (then an 8 second break before i get another 11... and using spirit of failure/energy tap to regen the total of 45 mana that takes. Usually i take shield of deflection with that build to put on the ally being attacked with the enemy hexed with spirit of failure to make sure i get my mana back. In the grand scheme of things, preventing damage > healing damage, as (especially in UW) things can hit for enough spike damage it's almost impossible to react and heal in time.

Another build i've been experimenting with is half-protection, half-healing using aegis and protective spirit as protection spells and dwana's kiss and heal other as healing spells. For energy management i bring the elite peace and harmony and energy tap, as well as vengence and another rez. The only problem with this build is that it has no self-healing as dwana's kiss and heal other are both target other ally.

If i get the chance to go straight protection (which i usually only do if there are TWO other monks in a party), Aegis, Sheild of deflection, reversal of fortune, protective spirit, mend condition, remove hex, vengance and rebirth is my usual build. For the past week or so i've been doing nothing with this build but going into UW/FoW, helping guildies, or capping skills though so i can't speak to its effectiveness in PvP. I can say that it certainly makes the healing monk's job a lot easier

Qi Ang · Jun 21, 2005, 01:20 PM // 13:20

1-Heal Party: Good for when everyone is taking poison or a AOE hit
2-Heal Other: Brings someone back from near death pretty easily
3-Healing Breeze: Use on ppl only getting hit by 1 or 2 enemies... keeps them up and I don't have to worry about them
4-Signet of Devotion: No energy, enough said
5-Dwayna's Kiss: Great when you got someone with hexes and conditions, otherwise it's a cheap minor heal
6-Healing Seed: Useful if everyone is fighting in close quarters
7-Mending: I put this on one of our tanks and I hardly have to worry about them.
8-Rebirth: res... duh

Aug · Jun 21, 2005, 02:15 PM // 14:15

I'm surprised how many people are using Signet of Devotion. It doesn't gain the benefit of Divine Favor or Divine Boon. And it's a horrendously slow cast. I suppose you have to use it, when I see you're using almost all 10+ en heals; Heal Other, Healing Breeze, Heal Party, and Healing Seed are all energy hogs... I wouldn't ever suggest equipping them all.

arnansnow · Jun 21, 2005, 02:16 PM // 14:16

Signet of Devotion costs nothing, end of story.

Aug · Jun 21, 2005, 02:31 PM // 14:31

Well, with that kind of logic, maybe we should just equip only signets. They all cost nothing, so they must all be spectacular.

Sorry, but there's a lot more to that 'story' than just considering the energy cost. Like the 5s recycle, or the fact that it takes 2s to actually cast the thing. I'd recommend finding some method of energy management (Energy Drain, Channeling, Glyph of Lesser Energy, Offering of Blood... something), and not using slow casting, low heal per second signet. Especially for PvP.

arnansnow · Jun 21, 2005, 02:33 PM // 14:33

I know someone who uses signet of devotion who NEVER runs out of mana, even with being the only monk on an eight person team, he never runs out of mana and he uses signet of devotion.

Aug · Jun 21, 2005, 02:36 PM // 14:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by arnansnow

I know someone who uses signet of devotion who NEVER runs out of mana, even with being the only monk on an eight person team, he never runs out of mana and he uses signet of devotion.

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to prove. You certainly aren't providing a convincing argument about how great Signet of Devotion is with second-hand anecdotes.

Qi Ang · Jun 21, 2005, 02:52 PM // 14:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aug

I'm surprised how many people are using Signet of Devotion. It doesn't gain the benefit of Divine Favor or Divine Boon. And it's a horrendously slow cast. I suppose you have to use it, when I see you're using almost all 10+ en heals; Heal Other, Healing Breeze, Heal Party, and Healing Seed are all energy hogs... I wouldn't ever suggest equipping them all.

Regardless of their energy cost... those spells are pretty much necessary for a healer.

Aug · Jun 21, 2005, 03:39 PM // 15:39

I've played quite a bit in random arenas, team arenas, and ToPK, and have never once used Heal Party or Heal Other (on my Monk). And Healing Breeze is really only worth using if you use other abilities that work off enchantments... like Dwayna's Kiss, or Contemplation of Purity.

Healing Seed is most definitely conditional, and not necessary. I can count on one hand the number of times I've found that skill a 'necessity'.

There are many skill combinations that work well. Signet of Devotion is useful if as an indirect energy management tool, and maybe is one of the better non-elite ones (Energy Drain and Peace & Harmony are both superior, IMO... but they're elites).

JoDiamonds · Jun 21, 2005, 06:40 PM // 18:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aug

There are many skill combinations that work well. Signet of Devotion is useful if as an indirect energy management tool, and maybe is one of the better non-elite ones (Energy Drain and Peace & Harmony are both superior, IMO... but they're elites).

That's exactly it. Signet of Devotion is useful as part of an energy management scheme.

It's quite obvious that Signet doesn't heal as well as most spells. Also, not everyone is talking about PvP, and certainly not everyone is talking about maximum level characters. More meaningfully, this thread was asking about how to play a monk in PvE for someone who hasn't at all, so I assume tips and tricks for low level PvE monks are good to point out here. Not much point in telling someone how great Elite skills are; by the time the reader gets to them, they can probably figure it out for themselves.

For what it's worth, I like having Signet around on monk primary healers in general. It's slow, but a good heal near the start of PvE combat (when someone is slightly hurt, but you don't want to blow your mana too fast). You never worry about "wasting" it, and it's good to use when emergency healing doesn't seem needed right now. Sure, it's a slow two second heal, but most heals are one second, so it's not terriblyslow.

Also, there are plenty of times that I've run out of energy for one reason or another (usually due to mesmer interference, including in PvE), and it's nice to have SOMETHING useful to do while energy recharges.

Sure, once you have Elite monk skills, it's quite possible that Signet will get crowded right off the skill bar by more powerful options, but for a long time it's a fine choice in PvE.

Also, many of the more expensive skills (Seed, Breeze, Heal Other, etc.) are excellent for non-dedicated healers. No matter what your primary is, having a decent level of Healing Prayers can make having some of those powerful but expensive spells on the skill bar useful. You don't want to necessarily waste slots on cheap spammy spells, but if you want to help out with healing when time's are tough it can be useful to have one or expensive, two powerful spells on the bar. (I do this often with my Elmo in PvE, combination blaster / healer. Not much point in having the spammy spells when you aren't a monk primary, which makes the expensive spells seem that much better.)

Eclair · Jun 21, 2005, 07:11 PM // 19:11

Oh yeah, forgot to add, you should always take a condition remover, especially in PvP. Take a hex remover too if you have room. Hexes and conditions can screw over certain professions far more than straight up damage can. For example, if your warriors are blinded or weakened, they're not going to be doing damage. If your casters are backfired, remove hex will save you a lot of healing (especially if they're the ones that keep casting while backfired, ugh, had my share of those)

Heal Party is good, if only it didn't have the 2 second casting time. Not to mention its very rare for people to all get damaged around the same. Generally casters drop a lot faster than warriors, and a faster heal well help a lot more than heal party.

Sticking to 5 mana heals (orison, touch, words of healing, dwanna's, etc) allows you to not need any energy management spells if you plan your heals out, and leaves room for other spells that can probably go a lot more than more healing can.

theclam · Jun 21, 2005, 07:19 PM // 19:19

Signet of Devotion is great. Much of the time, you don't need a quick heal. If your team is taking light to moderate amounts of damage, then you don't put your group in any danger by using Signet of Devotion, but you also don't use any energy. In most of my builds, it heals for 100, which is about the same as Orison of Healing.

If I use it, say, 4 times during a fight, I save 20 mana. That another Aegis, or Healing Seed, or 2 Protective Spirits, or 2 Heal Others, etc.

uigrad · Jun 21, 2005, 07:29 PM // 19:29

Hey, I'm sorry to hijack the thread, but which Elemental skills should a primary monk bring? I've been dissappointed with me Mo/R, so I just recently switched to Mo/E, and feel rather lost about which E skills complement the healing spells I have with my monk.

If you do choose to be Mo/R, then using F1-F2-F3 to switch weapons is fundamental. One needs to be a short bow (or equivilant), one needs to be a Long/Flat Bow, and the last needs to be your Wand/Rod/Staff/Energy supply weapon. If you use rebirth, make sure to switch to a bow before it drains your energy, then switch back to rod to get a quick energy boost to heal the rezzed player.

Going back to my question:
I've only been buying earth and water skills. Ward against Melee seemed like it would be the perfect choice, but I haven't found it to be as useful, since I'm never close enough to my melee party members. Aug has suggested "Glyph of Lesser Energy", but that seems to be a gimped skill, because it is only useful with healing seed. Using 2 skill slots to make a energy-efficient healing seed just doesn't seem worthwhile. Any more ideas?

Eclair · Jun 21, 2005, 07:36 PM // 19:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by uigrad

Hey, I'm sorry to hijack the thread, but which Elemental skills should a primary monk bring? I've been dissappointed with me Mo/R, so I just recently switched to Mo/E, and feel rather lost about which E skills complement the healing spells I have with my monk.

If you do choose to be Mo/R, then using F1-F2-F3 to switch weapons is fundamental. One needs to be a short bow (or equivilant), one needs to be a Long/Flat Bow, and the last needs to be your Wand/Rod/Staff/Energy supply weapon. If you use rebirth, make sure to switch to a bow before it drains your energy, then switch back to rod to get a quick energy boost to heal the rezzed player.

Going back to my question:
I've only been buying earth and water skills. Ward against Melee seemed like it would be the perfect choice, but I haven't found it to be as useful, since I'm never close enough to my melee party members. Aug has suggested "Glyph of Lesser Energy", but that seems to be a gimped skill, because it is only useful with healing seed. Using 2 skill slots to make a energy-efficient healing seed just doesn't seem worthwhile. Any more ideas?

Ward against melee, Ward against elemental, Ward against Harm (elite, highly recommended for Ring of Fire missions), and armor of Earth are all good spells to pack.

For the wards, you could try running close to the battle, dropping the ward, and running away. Or you stay close to the casters on your team and drop them.

Armor of Earth is good because it allows you to not waste energy healing yourself.

Aug · Jun 21, 2005, 07:48 PM // 19:48

There are more 15 energy cost skills than just Healing Seed. I usually used Glyph of Lesser Energy to activate Aegis. They both had roughly the same recycle. Saving 10 energy every 30s can be pretty useful.

Ward Against Melee is also spectacular. You just need to run up to near the melee, as Eclair suggested.

For PvE, I don't recommend any of the self-targetting armors. If you're getting beat on as a Monk, run some picks against the Warriors or Rangers, so they pick up the aggro, or just keep falling back if it's a ranged mob, they'll eventually retarget and you can come back into healing range.