Curse

angmar_nite · Nov 03, 2007, 10:15 PM // 22:15

Hi,

I'm about to create the first monk I've ever made and am looking for general hints and tips.

I have played ele's wars for 2 and a half years and almost every other class since, but there is something appealing about a monks versatility. (heal, farm, run, AND smite, not to mention elite missions [although I'll prob stick to my ele and war for those])

I heard people say look for the direction an enemy is facing or see where the enemy is running on the map AND pay attention to the party health bar. Are there any tricks for this? Seems like a lot to focus on.

Lastly, is it harder to heal in elite missions than it is to say tank or nuke?

Burst Cancel · Nov 03, 2007, 11:20 PM // 23:20

Versatility isn't really a monk's great strength. Yeah, they can run and farm, but most other classes can too. In actual team play monks are pretty much confined to the backline; rarely will you ever get to do anything else with any effectiveness (the one exception is smiting in undead-heavy areas). In this way, they're not really much more versatile than warriors, who can run and farm and are pretty much stuck in the frontline.

Anyway, in terms of actually playing monk, you're going to want to split your attention between the field, the minimap, and the party window. In PvE, the split will be in pretty much even portions in most cases; in PvP (or fights with fewer enemies in PvE), your attention will mostly be on the field and minimap.

One trick is to rearrange your interface to be able to see all of your relevant menus and indicators without moving your eyes or head. Also, the more you can do with the keyboard, the better (up to a point - you only have five fingers per hand, after all). Moving the mouse is almost always slower than hitting a key, so, for instance, weapon-swapping and skill usage should always be done via keyboard. People are divided on mouse-move vs. WASD, but that's a pro/con issue that would probably take too long to discuss here.

Oh, and healing isn't hard; protting is.

terminus123 · Nov 04, 2007, 12:32 AM // 00:32

...you will be looking at that party bar....a lot.

Winterclaw · Nov 04, 2007, 01:28 AM // 01:28

Smiting is a little too weak IMO for a monk to be considered versitile.

Your best option is to diversify and go healing/prot/DF. If you have NF, LoD helps. Healing is okay, but it really helps to have some prot skills on your bar.

nebuchanezzar · Nov 04, 2007, 01:36 AM // 01:36

Protection is more effective than healing in most cases but is harder than just watching the party bar and making red bars go up.
The first thing I would say is to echo Burst Cancer's suggestion to perhaps modify your GUI. First of all make your mini-map radar larger so you can see the individual dots better. After that little things will occur to you as you play. You may even start to modify the hotkeys to your own needs.
The most important part and perhaps hardest is watching the playing screen and "pre-protting". In pve its a bit easier as usually you can pre-prot the tank and he rushes in first but, after mobs break off a Protective Spirit of Spirit Bond is much more effective if you can land it just before your ally gets hit and prevent most of the damage. A lot of it just comes with time/practice.
GL and HF.

angmar_nite · Nov 04, 2007, 02:03 AM // 02:03

Yeah protect I mean. I already have most of the skills and even elite unlocked for my ele's skill capturing, so skills like LoD or RC shouldn't be hard to get my hands on.

Btw, is Urgoz or the deep hard for a monk? I mean my ele can basically waltz around in both missions throwing an sf around here and there even in hm. What about monks?

horseradish · Nov 04, 2007, 02:14 AM // 02:14

Listen to Burst Cancel. (/bows to Burst Cancel) :P

Protection Prayers > Healing Prayers

but

Hybrid monking > proto monking

Depends who you're PUGing with i guess, but it is NOT you're job to keep everyone alive. Survival is the responsibility of each player. You are just there to help....alot.

I, personally, like smiting.

.... well the Dual Booning build....not much else you can do that will be overtly helpful unless you're fighting undead. Pugs won't let you smite anyways...unless you don't ping ur build :P

DokkyDok · Nov 04, 2007, 05:29 AM // 05:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burst Cancel

Oh, and healing isn't hard; protting is.

I had a more difficult time with healing, except in hybrid bars, and found protection much easier...Maybe it's just Reversal and that god-awesome cast time.

Omniclasm · Nov 04, 2007, 05:44 AM // 05:44

Always remember, when you forget to pre-prot, the pull out method works too.

RhanoctJocosa · Nov 04, 2007, 06:07 AM // 06:07

If you're aspiring to be a semi-decent monk you'll probably want to totally re-vamp your settings; 1-8 for party members, skills are up to you. Get used to watching what's going on rather than your party window and learn to weapon swap.

As for healing vs. protting, in the context of PvP, I'd say healing is 'harder'.

Omniclasm · Nov 04, 2007, 06:10 AM // 06:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by RhanoctJocosa

If you're aspiring to be a semi-decent monk you'll probably want to totally re-vamp your settings; 1-8 for party members, skills are up to you. Get used to watching what's going on rather than your party window and learn to weapon swap.

As for healing vs. protting, in the context of PvP, I'd say healing is 'harder'.

Healing is harder because 9 times out of 10 it is horribly inefficient compared to protection.

carbajac · Nov 04, 2007, 06:42 AM // 06:42

Yep, I'd have to say that you'll want to be watching the map and minimap to know where your teammates and enemies are in relation to where you are. Always keep an eye on the red bars, but if you can see where people are, it makes it much easier to keep people up and watching for spikes. If your ele is sitting on the way-side of the group, you might want to toss a prot spirit on him since he's probably about to get spiked something fierce in a few seconds.

If you're used to pugging, monking in elite missions can get tough because you must rely on your team more to know what to do and what not to do because there will be times that no matter what you try to do, you can't keep someone up if they're not even trying to avoid or defend themselves.

Burst Cancel · Nov 04, 2007, 12:53 PM // 12:53

Thanks horseradish :P

Re DokkyDok et al.: Healing is only harder in the sense that, under real pressure, everyone is going to die and you pretty much can't do anything about it. Prot is what makes the difference between no DP and party wiping.

If cast time is making a significant difference for protting, it's a good sign you're not protting correctly. RoF, when used like Orison, tends to be worse than Orison. It's a prot, not a heal. The target needs to be hit with non-trivial damage to get any efficiency out of RoF; if your target is just being wanded for 15 damage, RoF is a waste of energy.

Bigger prots like PS and SB need to go down before the target is hit. If you're using the party window and putting PS on someone who suddenly takes a lot of damage, PS isn't doing its job (incidentally, this is why hench prot monks suck, because that's exactly what they do).

The only way you can prot someone before they actually get hit is to watch the field. Watching casters can be difficult, especially in big PvE mobs, but watching warriors is trivial and an excellent place to start learning field awareness. You see that boss hammer warrior? Watch which ally he runs at, and put prot spirit on that ally before he flattens them with a 200-damage Backbreaker.

If you play a perfect prot game (which we all aspire too, but alas, rarely accomplish), the only healing you'll ever have to do is a cast of LoD every once in a while. If you ever see someone in your party lose a ton of health, you ****ed up.

Age · Nov 04, 2007, 10:53 PM // 22:53

It is easier said than done all here can tell you how to do it but it comes with practice and learning it as your own pace.You might want to develop your own style as well.Do some research as well.

jason34743 · Nov 07, 2007, 08:42 PM // 20:42

Another thing to keep an eye out on is the other monk in your party, it will take team work between the 2 of you to keep the team up and moving esp in HM. As mentioned above pre-protting helps a lot but usually does not take place till after someone has taken a few good hits, a simple WoH build will get them back to full health and hopefully if they are still taking hits the prt monk has them covered, if not you have to try to "out heal" the damage. I have been mostly heal for well over 2yrs now, with the help of my speed pad and a the standard WoH build I have had lots of sucess and fun monking.

Spazzer · Nov 07, 2007, 10:32 PM // 22:32

My advice:

Pre-kite often.

Since it was brought up earlier, I'm going to take a stab at mouse-movement. Always use this. Mouse-movement responds twice as fast as keyboard movement, which is very important when you want to get out of a situation.

There is no way you will be able to monk with just your keyboard. Other classes can get away with playing one-handed, but you're going to be forced to use a mix. Tailor your controls to what you think will be efficient and then learn to use it.

Watch the other monk in the party. It's easier for you to save him than for him to save himself, and vice versa. Usually, kiting is your best self-protection.

Your reaction time and ability to switch strategies is key. Make sure you have Cancel Action (default ESC) somewhere where you can reach it easilly. It won't do you any good to be caught in the middle of casting Aegis when a spike goes down.

The guy who overextends is the guy who dies. Don't go chasing after lost causes. It's called Back Line for a reason.

Zev · Nov 08, 2007, 04:29 PM // 16:29

I am in much the same situation as the OP. I have played GW for a very long time but have steered away from playing as the monk. I have a monk, he is even a year old, but I have played him very little.

Does anyone have any tips on how to learn to be aware of so much at once. Offensive play allows for tunnel vision on the enemy and their actions and trying to kill the enemy as efficiently as possible. Just look forward and move forward.

Playing monk needs me to watch, well everything. I need to look at my party members not only in the red bars but somehow watch the action and see them running around and doing there thing. I need to be aware of their movements, the enemy's movements and the actions of all of them.

I would end up not being able to follow everything at once, trying to see who the enemy warrior was chasing to toss a guardian, find out who was being nuked to use prot spirit, who to use Reversal on etc. Maybe all I needed was practice, I know what a monk should do it's just that I have no experience in actually doing it.Trying to watch everything at once seems pretty complicated.

any tips? ;p lol

(p.s. I've already organized my UI to be as clear as possibly for my preference. I've got my skills, party bar, target bar, target skills, effects, maintained enchants etc, all located on the bottom to mid right side of my screen so i can see it all at once. It also cleared up the middle of my screen for better viewing and lets me use a larger compass.)

cheers

furanshisuko · Nov 08, 2007, 10:35 PM // 22:35

you know healing is not that hard if you have good skillz if you are a fast clicker :P click on your party members and heal i recomend using skill whit low energy glimmer of light,Signet of Rejuvenation, Words of Comfort,Orison of Healing,Ethereal Light,Dwayna's Kiss this way you can heal very fast recomend secondry mes inspiration to gain some energy

Mr Pink57 · Nov 09, 2007, 01:11 AM // 01:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zev

Does anyone have any tips on how to learn to be aware of so much at once. Offensive play allows for tunnel vision on the enemy and their actions and trying to kill the enemy as efficiently as possible. Just look forward and move forward.

That tunnel vision can somewhat help you actually. If you think about it what are you trying to do with protection? Protect the allie from the enemy, well if you are watching the enemy you can see or a rough idea on who they are going to strike or are planning on striking. So with that in mind you can protect the ally with pre protection.

Also you are just going to run into bad players in pugs I mean real bad. I mainly just FoW/UW monk (Monk Pink) and you really meet some morons there. I have 3 eles standing on the hill getting slammed with barrage and I gotta heal all these guys or protect them just short of taking a seceret service bullet. With these people you run into just explain that kiting is an option and should be used often. Also most pugs what a bonder (LAME) and a full healer which does not fly with me cause if that whining bonder drops because he did not get enough BR love I got a ton of just straight healers (I typically go ZB with GoH there or LoD with Kiss).

pink