Curse

karunpav · Jun 22, 2007, 03:49 AM // 03:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsai

Its possible to do with a hero, i was using dunkoro

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuildWiki

This skill can only be used in PvE, and is unusable by heroes.

...?

Anyway, on a bonder in HM, this + [skill]Blessed Aura[/skill] + Totem Axe = happygasm.

Melody Cross · Jun 23, 2007, 01:14 AM // 01:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by KamikazeChicken

Honestly, I don't see the point. If you actually have a tank holding aggro, the extra healing to the rest of the team is useless. I'm glad people enjoy seeing blue numbers flash across the screen, but the majority of those numbers from Seed of Life aren't doing jack. The best use for this skill I've seen is actually to help heal minions, since they count as their own party.

In HM, it is often not easy for one person to hold all the agro. Good tanks can hold it for a while, but something always gets away or decides to beat on someone else. Since this heals the entire party, as long as the tank is receiving damage, they are also healing the team. Since--unless its stripped--this is always up, then the tank--as long as he has agro--is always healing the team and himself for a very high amount over time.

Also, there are times when casters need to push up past a bodyblocked mob frontline to hit something (a monk, a shutdown character, a nuker, etc). Pushing up like that exposes the party castors to damage as well, as HM mobs tend to go after them once they start getting damage. the casters get nuked many times in situations like this. But because the tank has agro or is holding the melee monsters back, that nuke damage is quickly healed by a skill combo that would usually be keeping just him healthy.

And if you put it on the bonder it works the same way pretty much. this kind of team healing makes being a monk much much easier in areas where it is much much harder to keep your team alive.

Even with the best warrior out there, things will get loose and hit your team. They'll take some damage before they kill everything. everyone will. This can heal that damage.

I can't really think of a better way to say that. Hope this helps you.

On another topic: The Echo argument is now pretty much dead for me. Glyph of Renewal removes cast time from Seed of Life, so you can--if you really need to--prot it on another player at any time during the 15 seconds it is down. Thats 2 seeds going at the same time without the extra recharge for echo. Its really nice and I've been in a few situations where it was a good idea to change off the tank or the bonder so it is a good thing to use. But I still like chaining it on one target whenever i can. that usually means that the tank is doing his job.

I've taken out Gift of Health a few times too for extra prot. An LoD with some single target spike heals+this build works very well at total team healing. So do HBoons or other prot monks. Its surprising how versatile the build is really. But it also gets a little boring over time (its too easy to play after a while) so I'm letting other people run it when I duo with them, or at least asking if they want to.

GGs

Darkpower Alchemist · Jun 23, 2007, 07:23 PM // 19:23

Why use the elite skill when PvE now has Eternal aura on the dervish line? Why one skill when all of them can be reset all at once?

Just my 2 cents

phool · Jun 23, 2007, 10:41 PM // 22:41

Eternal Aura only recharges dervish skills. It pretty much has 'use me for a perma form' written all over it.

Darkpower Alchemist · Jun 24, 2007, 12:36 AM // 00:36

It's only for derv skills? Hmm, I don't remember that in the description, but I could be wrong. I'll read it again.

Edit: Read it, it's for derv skills...aw well. It is what it is.

Melody Cross · Jun 24, 2007, 12:56 AM // 00:56

Eternal Aura:

"All nearby foes take 40...88 holy damage. For 10 seconds, nothing happens. When this Enchantment ends, all other Dervish skills are recharged."

It was a very good idea though.

GGs

MrSlayer · Jun 24, 2007, 01:59 PM // 13:59

Ok I played a Bonder and went for a 5 man run in the UW, normal mode. I played an "active bonder". Basically, I took 3 bonds, and Blessed Signet, Res and some other monk skills. I bonded JUST the tank, and with careful aggro management, he had FULL aggro 90% of the time. We went to the mesmers, and we made a very nice discovery. With 9 Mesmers melee-pounding on him, and me taking a mad amount of 0 damages, the Monk cast Seed on me as a test.

Within the first second, the group had been healed for almost an entire hp bar of health (we found this since the AI went all "wtf" and acted HMish, so the Monk couldnt get close enough to directly heal the tank).

THis could probably be put to good use in HM. Probably common, but none of us in the group had done it before.

drupal · Jun 25, 2007, 09:27 AM // 09:27

I think this skill will be a nice addition in Bonders Skillbar but I don't think it will be as effective in normal groups. I won't waste my elite slot for the glyph but nice idea though.

Melody Cross · Jul 04, 2007, 03:39 PM // 15:39

I hopped back into HMing this week and did some solo vanquishing. Since the heroes can’t take seed, I ran a 3-monk and 2-monk backline with paragon support—just me and the henchies.

I ran:
Seed of Life
Glyph of Renewal
Healing Seed
Mend C/Dismiss C
Holy Veil
Prot Spirit
Aegis
Rebirth

Same Att rank numbers as original build. This offered the best enchanted pre-protting I’ve ever seen in HM. In situations where I needed a good tank, Glyph+SoL provided excellent healing. In caster heavy groups (bringing Devona or a hench warrior) the ability to spread them 3-ways proved more effective, but without the extra cool down that Echo requires. Boss fights were a bit of a problem, but its HM and I was a lighter backline than a human team would supply.

I ran a curse necro as my anti-melee. Price and SoF work to turn Aegis into an offensive spell (almost) and SS is still a solid hex. Enfeeble and Epedimic are a spam on recycle skill for my curse necro. It really cuts down the physical damage per hit, which makes Seed of Life’s heal all the more powerful. This is THE hero to bring with you, imo. As much as the build I post works well, he really does a number on mob DPS.

Against better judgment, I ran Olias as a minion bomber several times but to great effect. I usually do and I love to take him with me when I solo. The monsters tend to attack minions the same way they attack pets in Hero Battles. They try to kill the minions first, and the minions blow up early, make more corpses quick and one character has taken care of half your fighting. While this does not sync well with seed of life, it does give Devona time to get up front for some decent tanking (or you can use it as a spot heal/prot when something breaks loose). The wall tends to protect your casters from melee mobs too so, when they decide to kill things other than exploding minions, it winds up being Devona most of the time. It’s an effective team combo for H/H. Probably not the best, but I like it.

Mesmers and enchant stripping necros are the biggest annoyance to this heavy enchant build, so I brought Norgu to counter. Target lock him to the naughty one and setting everyone else on the monks works well for a stable (safe) fight. All on the monk works okay if you’re lazy with micromanaging heroes, but you’ll end up doing more work in the long run with reports and stuff. More important, if you’re running a 2-monk and your duo is a hench, you’re leaving all the team healing to her if your enchants get stripped a lot. Best to shut the anti-monk mobs down imo. I ran Powerblock on him with heavy interrupts and GoLE from the ele line for some more energy over time. Norgu makes things much easier.

In areas where there are Ele bosses (particularly nasty Rit bosses out there now too), I might swap out Olias for Razah and run Shelter with a heavy Spirit build. It will die quick, I know, but it’s better than trusting only to PS to keep the nukes at bay. Some of these guys have 1-spell spike capability when you wear a superior rune. Be careful with them.

DO NOT EVER EVER EVER BRING THE DERVISH HENCHMAN. They will rip off seed as fuel for that silly signet and get you into trouble. And we used to think Stefan was bad…

Beat most areas in about an hour. A little more if I wiped. I’ll keep playing with this when I H/H, and I hope others have used it by now as well and found it to be an easy and solid prot build.

GGs

PS @ the skeptics: there have been more than a few people telling me the GoR is a wasted elite and I need to run a bunch of other stuff or they'll spend all the mission covering for me. In my guild, in game and here. If you're not convinced, you haven't run this yet or run it with a good tank (or a lousy one! I'm running this H/H with devona half the time and it still owns). I am not exaggerating when I say that I have had duo monks COMPLAIN in vent that they have "nothing to do" during fights. Please do try it. You'll be glad you did

Arrows[PURE] · Jul 10, 2007, 12:40 AM // 00:40

@ drupal -No point in a bonder bringing this skill - they cant use on themselves

Why not use Healing seed with GoR, if all the aggro is on the tank, only the tank will need healing. 1 Place i have found where it is nice, is in the deep when you are completig the 1st rooms as the neigbouring rooms get the healing as well. I doubt ill ever try this, vanq a waste of time imo, but it does look good, I think it would be best used in a 2 monk bonder duo

Melody Cross · Sep 03, 2007, 12:31 AM // 00:31

Its been so long since i bothered playing with this, that i forgot about it. As a utility build in a 3 monk backline (HMing and some of the tougher areas in GW:EN) I've been seeing near the same results as with SoL before the nerf. Glyph of Renewal got a small, quiet buff a while back, bringing its recycle to 10. At r9 sunspear (I know, I've been lazy and haven't farmed the r10 yet) with Blessed Aura, you can keep this up on the tank for about 75% of the time. If you prefer to run hero/hench builds, you can drop BA and just use it as anti-pressure where mobs focus on something in your team.

Its not as stable as the original concept, and you'll feel the downtime when you run a 2 monk line instead of a 3 monk line, but for support and some kicks, you can still use SoL to effect.

GGs

MrSlayer · Sep 03, 2007, 01:12 AM // 01:12

The only issue is; is it really worth losing the advantage of a nice Monk elite, LoD, ZB, RC, hell even WoH, for being able to keep Seed of Life up all the time? Alot of times, the tank will un-intentionally lose aggro and then Seed of life is pretty useless and you don't have the means to easily heal the entire party.