Curse

papaschtroumpf · Sep 09, 2009, 02:24 PM // 14:24

I'm relatively new to the game although I've finished both Prophecies and EoTN on a couple of characters.
I finally made a Monk (in Factions) and I'm really struggling keeping anything alive: I am way too slow identifying which teammate is in trouble, selecting him/her (by clicking on their name in the team list) then pulling off my healing skills.

Is there a trick to quickly targeting a teammate? any other trick of the trade I'm missing?

Covah · Sep 09, 2009, 02:30 PM // 14:30

If you are using the party list window there isn't alot more you can do other then speed up. For healing in pve you mainly just red bar (look at party bar and keep the red at max). If you are protting its nice to look at the field to see who is going to get hurt the most and prot them before they take damage (pre protting).

Also don't aggro everything. Kill things in small groups if you are having trouble.

Elephantaliste · Sep 09, 2009, 02:47 PM // 14:47

use keyboard to use your skills

Tommy's · Sep 09, 2009, 02:47 PM // 14:47

You can give thinks hotkeys by changing the settings (F11 I believe it is)
You can either use your skills 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and use those buttons (which is quicker then moving your mouse from the party channel to your skill bar and back all the time) or the other way around;
Number players 1-8 (or 12 for urgoz

) and use those while your mousebutton stays at your skillbar.

And then it's just a bit of practice.
Might be interesting btw, you let us know your build aswell.

Ccat · Sep 09, 2009, 02:54 PM // 14:54

Protective Spirit is the most important skill ever in PvE, moreso in HM. The skill will usually stop things from dying too quickly before you can reach them, if not that's because you aren't using blocking/weakness/anything else that instantly stuffs melee.

I don't know about NM (haven't played it seriously in a long time) but in HM I use Aegis, Guardian, Weapon of Warding, Displacement, Protective Spirit, Enfeebling Blood and Shadow of Fear to completely eradicate melee units. I do this so that there's only one source left to worry about which is Elementalists, Necromancers, and other types of much slower damage. Doesn't leave much to Shield of Absorption and Shielding Hands, but meh.

This way stuff is much easier to heal. You won't need to overdo it to the extent I do but you will certainly need Protective Spirit\Shelter in every case you can think of in PvE.

i farm baddies · Sep 09, 2009, 05:07 PM // 17:07

if your having trouble monking in pve, its probly not for you

to get better you need to:
1. get a decent bar
2. memorize the skills and DO NOT CLICK TO ACTIVATE use the keyboard
3. click the allies on the field, this makes you a better player all around so you do not create tunnel vision
4. get the right equipment 5 disciple insignias will negate tons of damage in pve
4a shield set is win and so is a prot staff for your prots and a 40/40 healing set for your healing spells.

monking is very fun and i hope you catch on pm me in game at evan has the goods if you have more questions or want some advice

Marverick · Sep 09, 2009, 07:16 PM // 19:16

Turn on the option to show nearby names.

Assign qwerasdf to party members 1-8.

You can redbar quicker that way, and also protting is easier since you can see on screen which number is being attacked and just hit his key instead of trying to click on his name. And since you then won't need your mouse for anything, just use it to move.

Age · Sep 10, 2009, 10:02 PM // 22:02

Where and what lvl are you?What build are you using or skill bar?

maxxfury · Sep 11, 2009, 01:39 AM // 01:39

Its a shame you DONT get the numbers next to your name in PVE. Would be nice.

Its always best to NOT click skills with your mouse, use keys!
Selecting the person to heal tho can be awkward, you can either:
>select them on the party box (kinda slow in general)
>select them with a keystoke (can be awkward in pve with no ~numbers if you dont know ppl and ppl are placed craply in the party par)
>select them in the field with a mouse click. (usually fastest and gives you a better view of the fight..also teaches you to not-REDBAR. and to watch whats happening)

Its all about getting to know what your doin, when to cast what spell, and what to do in any given situation...and how fast u can react to it all. There is NO magic to been a good monk, other than experience and speed. Any idiot can redbar on the party box, dont be any idiot and dont stare at it 24/7. WATCH the field! and glance at the bars!

Sly Mutha · Sep 11, 2009, 01:43 AM // 01:43

practice is the best advice. also healing pug's in Tyria is a great start, as the foes there are easiest. when i started monking, i went from Great Northern Wall to Hell's Precipice, thus healing all of Tyria. by the end, i was a strong monk.

also, keep your left hand on keys for moving and pushing skills 1,2,3,4, and use the mouse for redbar/selecting names and 5-8.

when you're redbarring heals, bring the party box closer to the skillbar...even that extra inch is more time you're moving the mouse back and forth. in GW, some times .25 seconds is life and death.

also, try to keep competent players in your aggro bubble, but stay clear of foes as much as possible. but if someone runs off...don't let them kite you to your own death.

last thing, you have a name. don't let them call you "monk".

papaschtroumpf · Sep 11, 2009, 03:00 AM // 03:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sly Mutha

last thing, you have a name. don't let them call you "monk".

hehe, I'll remember that: it's Mister Monk to you or no healing

For what it's worth, my current skill bar, rememebr I'm in factions and only lvl15
[pre][build=OwYUkmG+OIGlCZBselsig8jA][/pre]

the_jos · Sep 14, 2009, 04:25 PM // 16:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by papaschtroumpf

... and I'm really struggling keeping anything alive: I am way too slow identifying which teammate is in trouble, selecting him/her (by clicking on their name in the team list) then pulling off my healing skills.

Is there a trick to quickly targeting a teammate? any other trick of the trade I'm missing?

There are several things to do.
First, I think you are at Zen Daijun mission or just before that considering your level.
There are some somewhat hard optional quests just before that, just skip them for now.
Then there is the afflicted. They might be your main source of problem.
Why? When they explode they deal quite a number of damage to characters standing around them.
The mission is swarmed with them, they might be outside the mission but I don't recall.

If this is the part you are struggling with there are some indicators to look for.
The warrior or assassin afflicted will run into your group. This means when they explode they will hurt all that are around them (armor ignoring I think). Put protective spirit on the caster with lowest health to prevent death.
Learn how much damage foes do and try to prot only those who are below this level or red-bar them above.

Just keep in mind that awareness of where players and opponents are is key to monking (together with managing energy). When I get in a close situation in PvE I know who's in the danger zone and who's most likely going to get hit (it's mainly based on armor, health and aggro).

When playing with humans ask them to make sure only one or two players take aggro and not everyone. This makes it easier to focus healing.
Ask others to kite when afflicted are near so they ain't hit by the explosion.
Henchies are a bit tricky but as long as you don't overaggro you should be fine when you pick the right ones (the bosses near the end of the mission might be annoying to kill though with henchies).

Then we have this other thing. It's called armor. If you play with humans and they die fast, check if they have somewhat decent armor. Starter armor isn't the way to go at level 15

Henchies have the armor needed for the task.
If you are playing with humans past Zen mission (that means, past Kaineng) they should have max armor. Death on one hit is most likely an armor problem if Death Penalty isn't too high or second a Death Penalty problem.
There are few bosses who can do a one-hit kill on a team with decent armor and no DP.

Last some advice on your build.
I would replace armor of earth with a healing skill. It slows you down, meaning you will be even later with you healing skills when you are out of range. And it's 10 energy...
I would not use Aegis at your level, some straight heal or prot (reversal of fortune) is probably better.
I don't know which skills are available to you (unlocked and on trainers) but I suggest looking at some 1 second or less heals or prots that give some healing.

Axel Zinfandel · Sep 14, 2009, 10:03 PM // 22:03

I highly suggest actually taking another healing monk hero or hench when you first start monking, and wean yourself from it as you get better at it. Healing and prot builds (that aren't an ele running Ether Renewal) are one of the most active and demanding way to play. It can also be one of the most fun and rewarding as well.

papaschtroumpf · Sep 15, 2009, 03:49 AM // 03:49

Thanks all, some good advice. I finally settled on clicking the player's name in the party list, which I moved next to my skill bar from its default position.
Using 1,2,3,4 to active my most commonly used skills, but still using the mouse for 5-8, I'm a poor typist and keep messing up if I try to type one of those without looking.

Now lvl 20 (played a lot this weekend) and I have a better feel for things. Still working on my build. I cap'd a few elites but nothing that gets me too excited so far. The good ones are in regions I don;t have access to yet, and I don't like getting runs, still new enough to the game to enjoy the journey

The staples for my build are the two Prot party heals (Heaven Delight and Divine Healing), which also solve a lot of the targeting issues. I added Aegis and Prot Siprit, a resurrection skill and been playing with the other slots (condition dismissal and hex dismissal are what's currently on, but my Necro MM Hero can do a good job at taking care of conditions when I run with heroes)

I no longer use Armor of Earth but is was very useful to me until I got my AL60 armor (I ran with AL15 until then) and I think would do it again. In fact when I play with heroes/henchmen, it's often easiest to jump in thethick of things 1st and take alpha for them.

the_jos · Sep 15, 2009, 11:12 AM // 11:12

Quote:

I no longer use Armor of Earth but is was very useful to me until I got my AL60 armor (I ran with AL15 until then) and I think would do it again. In fact when I play with heroes/henchmen, it's often easiest to jump in thethick of things 1st and take alpha for them.

I understand this but I suggest you don't get a habbit of playing this way.
It makes things harder later in the game or playing solo in Hard Mode.

When you get somewhat further in the game you will meet this thing called Enchantment Removers. And if you don't cover Armor of Earth with another enchantment it will be taken away leaving you with your 60AL armor and aggro on you.

When you play solo with henchies/heroes a longbow or flatbow is your best friend. If you use heroes and have a higher AL amongst them flag this hero in front of the others so you pull the group on him/her with your bow. You can do the same if you use a minion master hero.
If your higher AL are henchies I would pull the foes just into the group while you run through them (use flag to keep hench/heroes at their place).
The foes will have you as their initial target and will not switch target right away. Meaning your team will hit them before they hit your team.

I need to admit that I hardly ever play healing/prot monk when playing H&H anymore. It's sometimes difficult to control all things including calling targets while also keeping an eye on the team. When playing with another human player (2 human, 6 heroes) I do heal/prot and have him/her handle aggro and calling. H&H is a great way to learn playing monk but try to focus at one thing at the time and don't try to learn everything at the same time.
This will come with time.

Fleeting · Sep 15, 2009, 12:13 PM // 12:13

After hero/henching quite literally every campaign in the game, I can comfortably say that you'll be ok as long as you have Prot Spirit on your bar. Remember to ping targets so that your heroes / henchmen focus fire (helps when there's a monk or high-damage melee that needs to die), and always have either a flatbow or a longbow to initiate combat.

You really don't want to go initiate combat by running in with Armor of Earth only to find out that something in the mob can remove enchantments.

papaschtroumpf · Sep 16, 2009, 04:05 AM // 04:05

As I said Armor of Earth was handy in the beginning but I no longer use it.
Now that I have heroes, I can also flag one to get alpha aggro without taking it myself.
I will get a bow though, thanks for that advice.

Chocobo1 · Sep 16, 2009, 04:39 AM // 04:39

Just looked at your bar, and theres not enough straight healing. Heal Party eats energy, use it with Glyph of Lesser Energy though (An ele skill). You also would want an elite, I'd suggest Word of Healing.

An ideal build would be this:

OwAT04XCTSjYjYT7uqeY67FUmA

Ignore Selfless Spirit if you don't have it, I don't think you will.

Also, people say use 1-8 for skills and don't click but I also do the same thing as you. Vital skills I put 1-4 because I can press them, 5-8 I generally click. It hasn't really handicapped me in any way, so It's all good.

Kotoso · Sep 17, 2009, 03:37 PM // 15:37

A lot of people in this thread still click their skills. I suggest something like 1-5 (you really should be able to hit 5) R, F, Shift. You can also move around other shortcut keys to the right side of the keyboard and add hero hotkeys at zxcv, tgb, yhn.

I don't find the turn keys too useful, I just use mouse movement (hold right click for camera control, hold left click as well to move in camera's direction) and w,s, a, d (a and d are assigned to strafing).

paranon · Sep 17, 2009, 03:41 PM // 15:41

I use:
skills 1-4: QWER
Skills 5-8: ASDF
Allies 1-8: 12345tgb
Weapon set 1 (healing 40/40): Mouse 4
Weapon set 2 (Prot Staff): Mouse 5
Weapon Set 3 (Shield/spear): V
Autorun : Z
Click/autorun to move.

I find the mouse way too slow to do anything that requires speed.