Curse

Snow Bunny · Jul 14, 2008, 06:00 PM // 18:00

Think of it in terms of using a WoH hybrid bar.

I traditionally run:

Cure Hex, WoH, Patient Spirit, Prot Spirit, Dismiss Condition, GoLE (or Aura of Superiority zzzz), Aegis, then the little crutch prot skill.

I use to run guardian, but I've found SoA to be better. However, my guildie (WHO SHALL REMAIN NAMELESS !!!!!) said that he's found SoL to actually work better under pressure.

While they do relatively significantly different things (healing vs. fractioning down damage), they each have their role as a plug to focus-firing on a single target.

What do you roll with, and why - Shield of Absorption vs. Seed of Life

Gift3d · Jul 14, 2008, 06:19 PM // 18:19

...i can't figure out what 'SoL' is.

edit: Oh, should've figured it was some sort of PvE stuff. -.- wiki did me no justice.

Seed of life is pretty godly. Hell yeah, i'll go with that. I mean they're basically doing the same thing, one's reducing damage while the other is just healing it back to them, as well for the entire party too.

JDRyder · Jul 14, 2008, 06:26 PM // 18:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gift3d

...i can't figure out what 'SoL' is.

seed of life

and its phail imo

SoA > SoL

i use [build=OwAT04XCzRjMTEI1jNdN5uCAAA]

i dont use aegis any more cause i find guardian to be more useful, i traded aegis in for Soa long time ago. I love me some Rof as well i tryed the patient spirit thing but i like Rof better didnt find i needed any more healing when i have Woh and if i was going to use patient spirit, Woh was alrdy recharged so there was no point to it rly. Same for cure the team is not going to be saved by it, i find remove hex and veil better

im betting your friend is a HB monk full time w/ no prot skills unlocked :P

Xx Da Best Xx · Jul 14, 2008, 06:28 PM // 18:28

I usually roll with SoL. If one target is taking more dmg than the other party member, all you gotta do is slap that on them, and it'll benefit the whole party.

miskav · Jul 14, 2008, 06:29 PM // 18:29

It's basically /godmode for your whole party for 6 sec if some-one's getting trained on, and that for 5e.

I'd say SoL.

MirkoTeran · Jul 14, 2008, 06:42 PM // 18:42

Probably depends on where are you going and with who. In general I would say SoA > SoL. About the only place I would want to run SoL is on pure healer build (and yes, they suck).

glacialphoenix · Jul 14, 2008, 06:56 PM // 18:56

I say it depends, really. SoL is leet if one target's getting hit all the time - it's a free 5e heal party, without the disadvantages of the latter. (I find heal party is only worth it with HB - otherwise, it's a very clumsy spell - prone to inting if you don't have HB on for whatever reason, slow, and doesn't heal much for the 15e you expend on it.) I know I take SoL if I'm playing with someone who tends to tank, since it can be a lifesaver. It's pretty useless if people kite a lot and damage is spread throughout the party, though.

Syntonic · Jul 14, 2008, 07:43 PM // 19:43

Seed of Life is awesome. You can use it as a form of e-management plus it can save you from party wipes in hard mode. Even after the nerf, this skill is fairly abusable. Running aegis chains in PvE is also awesome if you are in a physical heavy area. Combine the two and you are set to go for easy monking.

Rakim B · Jul 14, 2008, 07:59 PM // 19:59

I use both because they synergize well both together and apart.

Edit: Ok you can't synergize well apart, but shut up you know what I meant

MisterT69 · Jul 14, 2008, 08:49 PM // 20:49

If you got one guy taking 75-90% of the damage and the rest of the team is getting little bits of damage here and there over even massive dmg from AoE or w/e, SoL is your best choice, u can easily get healed 25 health per hit. It's pretty much a partywide version of [healing hands] and it's not even elite. PVE skills ftw.

isamu kurosawa · Jul 14, 2008, 08:52 PM // 20:52

I prefer SoA unless you have a paragon, in which case more damage reduction is redundant.

credit · Jul 14, 2008, 10:16 PM // 22:16

The only time that I use Seed of Life is when I'm monking in Ursan groups that have consumables, other than that you're better off with Shield of Absorption.

Simply because SoA is more versatile, and the recharge and length of SoL isn't worth it in my opinion.

MirkoTeran · Jul 15, 2008, 09:20 AM // 09:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterT69

If you got one guy taking 75-90% of the damage and the rest of the team is getting little bits of damage here and there..

In this case I would use SoA as you more or less migrate all the damage to the 'tank' after few initial hits. And the rest of the damage to the team is easily handled.

Div · Jul 15, 2008, 10:09 AM // 10:09

It'll depend on team build. With imbagon, you can drop PS and take both. I like SoA for real groups because there's generally focused damage. SoL can be good in high pressure areas where your whole team is getting hurt, or when you're H/Hing.

In a non-imbagon setting:

I don't even bother with guardian anymore. It's a relatively slow cast, and there are so many physicals that you simply can't prot everything. Just hope the target that's getting bashed on has a PS. I used to use RoF, but it'll depend on the area. Some areas, patient is better.

The basic build you'll end up with is:
Aegis
RoF/Patient
WoH
(open: cure hex, I am unstoppable, other PvE skill or prot)
Seed of life
Prot spirit
SoA
GoLE

It's more or less like what people have posted, with a few differences. I take aegis over guardian because passive defense is amazing when you fight huge mobs at a time. Wands from level 28 monsters can deal up to 50 damage, and every little bit of block helps. I like cure hex over veil because I don't bother preveiling. I use that skill as another cheap heal when I'm running with RoF. Dismiss is overrated in PvE, at least to me. The condis that you'll want to get rid of are buried so deep that you can't get rid of it, and the ones you remove will be reapplied again (since you're often fighting 4-6 of the same mob). It's a marginal heal depending on the amount of prot you run, but I'm definitely not dropping SoA/SoL for this.

joshuarodger · Jul 16, 2008, 12:37 AM // 00:37

honestly i think it's a question of "are you in an area where there is a lot of party-wide damage or not" if you're in an area with a lot of AoE or AoE degen along with some melee enemies, or if you're running HB, i think SoL is better. if you aren't expecting a lot of party wide damage, then SoA is better at protecting the person getting spiked. i will say that it's a lot of fun seeing about 50 +20's pop up on the screen at the same time and keep popping up for about 5 or 6 seconds.

Grammar · Jul 16, 2008, 07:24 AM // 07:24

The problem with SoL is that the 2 conditions required for it to be a good skill are a little at odds with each other.

Condition #1: A single player is getting focus fired by a mob (at least 2 hits per second).
Condition #2: The entire party, or at least most of it, is in need of a significant amount of healing.

If condition #1 is present, and your aggro management and positioning is proper, then it's unlikely that condition #2 is also present.
And if only condition #1 is present, then SoA is a better option than SoL.

If condition #2 is present, and your aggro management and positioning is proper, then it's unlikely that condition #1 is also present.
And if only condition #2 is present, then WoH and the like are perfectly able to get the job done (or better yet, bring one WoH hybrid and one LoD hybrid).

In short, other than maybe in PUGs or crappy tank-n-spank or UB teams, SoL isn't as useful as SoA.

Age · Jul 16, 2008, 10:39 AM // 10:39

I would go with SoA on the bar you are talking about being WoH hybrid.SoL is more for HB Bar (ursan).

RavagerOfDreams · Jul 16, 2008, 04:30 PM // 16:30

Divine's bar looks pretty good to me

But if you can only take one I'd take SoL as in some situations its sorta like your click here to not fail button...i like those kinds of buttons