Curse

Age · Sep 28, 2008, 09:37 PM // 21:37

There has been quite a bit of discussion on what good Monk elites are.What are The Good,Bad and Ugly (after one of my favourite Clint Eastwood movies)

Good

Word of Healing,Shield of Deflection,Restore Condtions,Divert Hexes,Spell Breaker,Shield of Judgement.

Decent

Zealouse Bendiction.Light of Deliverance,Blessed Light,Healers Boon and Glimmer of Light,Signet of Judgement,Word of Censure.Balthazar's Pendulum(sp), Healing Light and Life Barrier.

Bad and Ugly.

Shield of Regeneration,Ray of Judgement,Martyer(sp),Healing Hands,Boon Signet,Withdraw Hexes.Air Enchantment and a list of the rest and most of all Mark of Protection.

Tyla · Sep 28, 2008, 09:48 PM // 21:48

Air of Enchantment is pro. Honestly, pop it on your melee and spam the Reversals with Zealots Fire and it's pretty hawt.

I wouldn't call Zealous Benediction and Light of Deliverance bad. They do have their uses, for example in four man areas, and saying SB and SoJ are good at the same time is pretty dumb. Those skills are mostly limited to farming. On my Smiters, Empathic Removal is a far stronger skill than SoJ.

Aura of Faith also deserves a spot in the good skills, and Guardian should be in place of SoD because you could just as easily spend your elite on something stronger.

Age · Sep 28, 2008, 10:03 PM // 22:03

What I meant by Bad is So So that they aren't Ugly alteast.When it come to ZB and LoD they don't get much game play or see it.I put in SB and SoJ as for Monks they do use them on daily basics(sp).

I will have to give that Air Enchantment suggestion a try but you can come up with your own list.I just started it.

Tyla · Sep 28, 2008, 10:11 PM // 22:11

Don't let the popularity of something drive your opinion on something.

SoJ and SB are pretty bad due to their recharges. The only use they get out of solo farming is bad builds.

I guess I'll place my own list though.

Significant

Word of Healing
Restore Condition
Divert Hexes
Aura of Faith

Decent

Empathic Removal
Signet of Removal
Light of Deliverance
Shield of Deflection
Blessed Light
Zealous Benediction

Sub-bar or incredibly inferior

I think you can guess this.

WoH is the king of healing.
Divert is the king of hex removal.
RC is the king of condition removal.
AoF is the king of damage mitigation with increased healpower mixed in.

Keep in mind AoF not only increases normal heals, but also your Divine Favour bonus, also turning Dismiss Condition into a ~200 point heal including DF bonus.

Teutonic Paladin · Sep 28, 2008, 10:29 PM // 22:29

I'd move AoE to the subpar list, it does low damage even with Zealot's Fire spam and is really crappy for trying to keep your team up. I'd also add Shield of Regeneration to Decent.

Tyla · Sep 28, 2008, 10:40 PM // 22:40

SoR is meh.

The regeneration on it isn't much, and it costs 15 energy. 15 energy is alot of energy for a Monk, and SoD barely makes the list because of Guardian, and we all know how bad at interrupting enemies in PvE are.

Comparing SoD to SoR...

SoD also blocks while offering 10 less armour. The blocking is far more valuable than health regeneration, and it's cheaper to boot.

You have a fair point on AoE, though. Although it is incredibly fun to toy with.

Arlan · Sep 29, 2008, 12:30 AM // 00:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyla

SoR is meh.

SoD also blocks while offering 10 less armour. The blocking is far more valuable than health regeneration, and it's cheaper to boot.

This is another thread that could run and run with what skills monks prefer. Ther has been too many of them imo. Play what you find effective and what you like!!!!

Some are good for a laugh and break the monotony of builds you usually play.

@Tyla - you mentioned before your preferance for SoD over SoR. Is this PvP based? If so I can't comment.
If PvE then I disagree: Having 25% (at best) of attacks get through - with a lower armour bonus cant be better than having a guarenteed 9/10 pips with a higher armour bonus. There are some hard hitting bosses out there as you know.
SoR lasts longer and repairs all types of damage. Getting hit with degen or life steal when you have SoD on hurts. With SoR it does'nt (so much).

Or maybe i just like seeing the pips!! p

But like i said - any experienced monk should be able to play most bars effectivly.

Someone else starting this thread would have placed a few in the same catagories - and had some in different - and others not mentioned at all in the good,bad and ugly.

Sorry - not going to join in the 'this is a good skill/bad skill' threads too much - too much like a "you should play this or you're a bad monk" theme.

(i even like HB: - sometimes) :-)

Tyla · Sep 29, 2008, 12:36 AM // 00:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arlan

@Tyla - you mentioned before your preferance for SoD over SoR. Is this PvP based? If so I can't comment.

PvX.

Quote:

If PvE then I disagree: Having 25% (at best) of attacks get through - with a lower armour bonus cant be better than having a guarenteed 9/10 pips with a higher armour bonus. There are some hard hitting bosses out there as you know.

The last thing you would want is a hard hitting boss to actually hit you. If his attacks get through you'll have slightly less mitigation than SoR, but 3/4 of his attacks won't pass at all.

Quote:

SoR lasts longer and repairs all types of damage. Getting hit with degen or life steal when you have SoD on hurts. With SoR it does'nt (so much).

If you're under degeneration, the last thing you want to do is spend 15 energy build around negating that. Life steal is another thing, but if it's as bad as you say what's 18 health per second going to do?

Either you let it build up and heal through it, or you just heal through it.

Quote:

Sorry - not going to join in the 'this is a good skill/bad skill' threads too much - too much like a "you should play this or you're a bad monk" theme.

Well in terms of efficiency you want to take the best you can unless you don't feel like running the efficient bar.

Heck, I still run OoB Boon Prots, Blight and all the other oldschool stuff.

Rakim B · Sep 29, 2008, 01:57 AM // 01:57

Since this is the pve forum I'm going to assume that is how you are classifying the skills. Blessed Light and LoD rock so hard. That is all

cataphract · Sep 29, 2008, 07:01 AM // 07:01

Worst monk elite ever: Peace and Harmony. I mean, WTH?

Chucky333 · Sep 29, 2008, 12:10 PM // 12:10

Actually most monk elites are useless.
It's just that out of all the proffesions in GW, monk probably has the most skills (not just elites) that absolutely never see and probably will never see any use anywhere.
Good elites are probably:
WoH
RC
SoD
ZB
DH
Empathic removal can be nice on some bars.

Others like LoD, Blessed light, Aura of faith, SoJ are decent.
That leaves us with tons of terrible skills like healing light, glimmer, peace and harmony, healing hands (outside of some farming\running builds), healing burst, amity (lolwtf?), and more.
I wont say HB because it can still keep a group alive even in high end pve, but theres always better options unless its a 3 monk backline or something like that in which case HB would be good for powerheals.

neo the tyrant · Sep 29, 2008, 12:49 PM // 12:49

Ummmm UA is still semi decent....maybe.

I also think that Divert Hexes is top tier.

It's amazing.

Productivity · Sep 29, 2008, 03:43 PM // 15:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arlan

@Tyla - you mentioned before your preferance for SoD over SoR. Is this PvP based? If so I can't comment.
If PvE then I disagree: Having 25% (at best) of attacks get through - with a lower armour bonus cant be better than having a guarenteed 9/10 pips with a higher armour bonus. There are some hard hitting bosses out there as you know.
SoR lasts longer and repairs all types of damage. Getting hit with degen or life steal when you have SoD on hurts. With SoR it does'nt (so much).

Or maybe i just like seeing the pips!! p

Regen is completely rubbish. Either something needs healing and you somehow get a power heal onto it because it needs healing now in which case you'd still have to throw the heal at it even with +9 regen or it doesn't need healing now and any high end regen you throw at it is going to overheal and thus be a waste because your party healing has come along and mopped up the damage.

Where regen is strong is as a partywide buffer to mop up incidental damage which is where recuperation and mending refrain shine.

Compare this to near invulnerability to physical attackers.

glacialphoenix · Sep 29, 2008, 05:26 PM // 17:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chucky333

It's just that out of all the proffesions in GW, monk probably has the most skills (not just elites) that absolutely never see and probably will never see any use anywhere.

I agree. Besides the ones you already listed... Glimmer is amusing to toy with (I use it when I'm helping friends through low-level areas), but that's about it.

Now, Peace and Harmony is a joke.

gerg-nad · Sep 29, 2008, 05:48 PM // 17:48

There are some Elites that are just not very useful in just about every situation, such as P&H. There are other elites that have very specific build uses, Divert Hex, and then there are many similar elites and they compete against each other.

Age · Sep 30, 2008, 01:27 AM // 01:27

I made this up so that other can make thier own list up.

Burst Cancel · Sep 30, 2008, 03:30 AM // 03:30

Divert isn't that strong for PvE, because there aren't that many areas that benefit more from consistent, strong hex removal in lieu of the healing efficiency of WoH. RC is in a similar situation; I pretty much never bring it in PvE because I'd rather put Foul Feast on one of my necros or just mash on Dismiss than waste a monk elite on condition removal. We've already been over AoF in PvE; definitely doesn't belong in the upper tier there. Ridiculously good anti-spiking tool, but PvE isn't nearly spiky enough to take AoF when you've got PS for bosses.

The reality is that the vast majority of the time there is pretty much no reason not to play WoH in PvE. Most of the other elites fill specific roles and can therefore be perfect choices for a small set of special cases, but simply aren't going to see widespread play.

bhavv · Oct 23, 2008, 03:29 PM // 15:29

Doesnt anyone else like life sheath?

Well, not on human monks, but I like it on my heroes with a modified Seaguard Gita build:

RC
GoH
Life Sheath
Dismiss Condition
Remove Hex
Gole
Prot Spirit
Aegis

It synergises nicely with a WoH / D Kiss monk, and makes a handy pre prot as well. I dont like wasting my elite on RC in PVE because two Dismiss Conditions are plenty enough, or if I really need it, I would take a support paragon with Empathic Removal or Cautery Signet instead (Or just Sogolon in NF). I like using post buff Empathic Removal on my support paragon, prior to that I liked using Signet of Removal.

Winterclaw · Oct 23, 2008, 05:38 PM // 17:38

Monk Elite to use by default:
Word of Healing

Good:
Restore Condition (just remember to bring self condition removal with this one)
Divert Hexes
Shield of Deflection

Oddly Arousing:
Aura of Faith
Zealous Benediction
Light of Dwayna (in pve)

bhavv · Oct 26, 2008, 01:21 AM // 01:21

I used to enjoy running SoR with Blessed Aura and Gole back when it had a 5s recharge. It wasnt the regen that makes it a good skill, but the +40 armor. Combine it with shielding hands and go go bullet proof invincible monkie. The only probem is the energy cost, without Gole it is horrible on your energy. But it can work, I used to play with a top HA guild that took an SoR / Shielding Hands monk, LOD hybrid and SB / Infuse prior to the nerfs. It provides protection against spells as well as melee which is its advantage, but the energy cost was a drawback and they normally asked the monk to choose between SoD or SoR.