Curse

Unleashed Phoenix · May 30, 2007, 11:28 PM // 23:28

I AM REPOSTING THIS AS A NEW THREAD AS THE THREAD I POSTED IN IS QUITE OLD. . .THANKS!

I have recently joined Guild Wars, coming from playing two types of healers in World of Warcraft. Currently, I have a Monk/Elementalist on GW. Here are the following questions I have. If someone has answered it in any other posts, then just copy and paste, no problem.

1. Currently, I am maxed out on healing prayers and protection prayers with a few in divine. In one party, I had two people feuding over whether I should max out in divine and then choose healing OR protection to put the points in. Another person said that it is fine the way I have it. I want my focus to be on healing, but I know that all of these skills play off each other in some way. Please post what you believe I should do with skill points.

2. On the skill bar, knowing that I have prot and healing prayers maxed out, what would be the best skill set to have going into a team battle? What would be the best set to have going into Alliance Battle?

3. In the past week, I have played with some extraordinary tanks, and I never run out of energy; however, for every good tank, I find 100 other ones who just plain go nuts and yell for heals when I am dead. What are some comments you have to help a monk who is in team with a group that is just rushing around, allowing the monk to get hit from behind and basically getting one-shotted. In WoW I never would make excuses for the tank or offtank dying-my job was to keep him/her up, so I had tricks I could pull out to help alleviate the pressure. What are some tips or tricks here in guild wars?

Thanks for the response(s)--I appreciate it!

swordfisher · May 31, 2007, 12:02 AM // 00:02

#1- it completely depends on what build you're running. Healing Prayers tends to be a loser in PvP, because the only way to keep people alive is to prevent, rather than outheal, damage. Healing Prayers also tend to be much slower casting, and carry less inherent utility (ie, there's no hex or condition removal within Healing Prayers).

#2- PvP monk builds that put points in Healing are either Light of Deliverance, Healer's Boon or Glimmer of Light- or using Gift of Health. Gift of Health is a very efficient pure heal that, because of its drawback, is best as the only Healing Prayers skill on your bar. The Blessed Light Monk is primarily specced into Divine Favor with roughly even points in Prot and Healing.

#3- PvE talk. In general, remember that as a monk it's your job to keep your team -functional- not just alive. Don't make a bar that's loaded up with pure heals, but doesn't have any condition or hex removal. And even though the flow of damage is more predictable in PvE, preventing damage > healing it.

JDRyder · Jun 02, 2007, 05:49 PM // 17:49

#2- PvP monk builds that put points in Healing are either Light of Deliverance, Healer's Boon or Glimmer of Light- or using Gift of Health.

Glimmer of light? <_< wtf m8 where did u see that get used i dont even see pve players with that POS skill

#1 if its 4v4 id say go 14prot 8 healing and 10 DF if its GvG id say go the same if for u the RC Monk if u are the Lod Monk then 14 Healing 8 prot and 10 DF

#2 for AB id go Prot Monk with ur elite as ZB

#3 Skills >_> GW is all about skill if u get kit by a war or AoE just move away from them lol ....you have to look out for mesmers eles wars and so on know the skills of the game know what they use (pre veil til u know what they have) as for keeping the players up lot ok players will say thats the job but if u got a dumb A** that runs way way out and he dies thats call him/her killing him/her self if they yell at you thats called a 12 year old punk

Thomas.knbk · Jun 02, 2007, 06:56 PM // 18:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDRyder

Glimmer of light? <_< wtf m8 where did u see that get used i dont even see pve players with that POS skill

Soul Wedding uses Glimmer of Light

JDRyder · Jun 04, 2007, 05:56 AM // 05:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas.knbk

Soul Wedding uses Glimmer of Light

Soul Wedding is he in WM or evil and plz post that build lol

i take it we are talking about the player

Kaida the Heartless · Jun 04, 2007, 08:19 AM // 08:19

Standard Monk Bar:

1. Power Heal
2. Power Heal
3. Protection
4. Protection
5. Condition Removal
6. Hex Removal
7. Energy Management
8. Energy Management

Granted, the line blurs a bit between some of these lines, but this is the general layout for monk bars. Look at the current LoD/Infuse in GvG:

1. Power Heal (Infuse Health)
2. Power Heal (Reversal of Fortune)
3. Protection (Prot Spirit)
4. Protection (Aegis)
5. Condition Removal (Dismiss Condition)
6. Hex Removal (Holy Veil)
7. Energy Management (GoLE)
8. Energy Management (LoD)

(I know Sig of Rejuv is popular, and that would actually place another slot in there for Energy Management. That skills falls under two disputable categories anyways, but now im going off on a tangent. Just work with me here!)

Hybrid Monk Bars (besides the Healer's Boon perhaps), are absolutely superior to any other bar. The ability to protect against and negate damage is just as important as the ability to heal damage that has already occured. Siding with only one side is a losing battle. You're not going to be able to power-heal through damage and you're not going to be able to heal the damage done with prot alone (ZB being an exception).

In short, hybrid are, 99% of the time, the way to go. Just follow the template above and you should come out with a decent monk build (PvE). Though, I bet someone around here is going to try and wreck it, so just ignore them. :P

moko · Jun 04, 2007, 11:31 AM // 11:31

you put Infuse as powerheal? that's dumb. it's not a powerheal, LoD is. Infuse is for spikes only, nothing else. but yeah, he's pretty much right.

and oh god, not another Soul Wedding joke..

any bar with /E will want Glyph of lesser E, then Protective Spirit or Spirit Bond, possibly Aegis (best if you have more chaining it), then Reversal of Fortune as decent prot & heal at once, condition removal, usually Dismiss Condition, hex removal, Holy Veil, Purge Signet, Deny Hexes (works good if you use Signet of Devotion for energy management).

Div · Jun 04, 2007, 03:03 PM // 15:03

In PvE, I generally ignore the hex removal, as there can be so many hexes that it gets massively covered before removal can be effective.

For heal monks, I run
1. heal
2. heal
3. heal
4. heal
5. prot
6. cond removal
7. emanagement
8. emanagement or rez

For prot monks, I run
1. prot
2. prot
3. prot
4. heal
5. heal
6. cond removal
7. emanagement
8. emanagement or rez

On the prot bar, the "heals" are most likely occupied by RoF+Gift. The "prot" on the heal bar is usually something like prot spirit to save stuff from dying in 1 hit in HM.

Kaida the Heartless · Jun 05, 2007, 05:24 AM // 05:24

Yea, I said some of the skills up there could fall under two groups. Besides, healing someone else for 320+ health is a powerheal in my book, even if it is only used for spikes. I also placed LoD as energy management because it is the single most efficient healing spell in existence (even better than RoF maxed or gift!).

I have only monked for PvP, so my PvE monking experience is limited (Yak's Bend) but I am pretty sure I could tackle it no prob.

The Prot line is still far superior. I am going to go out on a ledge and say that Zealous Benediction, Shield of Regen, and RC are the king PvE elites in Prot, while Healer's Boon could be useful as well as Blessed Light?

Sun Fired Blank · Jun 05, 2007, 09:59 AM // 09:59

swordfisher and Kaida gave amazing responses. However, I wanted to clarify on a handful of points that Kaida put forth. So far as I care, a monk's bar has to cover most of these very nebulous areas:

- focused heal (Gift of Health, Zealous Benediction)*
- general heal (Dwayna's Kiss, Reversal of Fortune)*
- condition removal (Dismiss Condition, Mend Ailment)
- party-wide relief (Light of Deliverance, Aegis)
- spike prevention (Infuse Health, Shield of Absorption)*
- hex removal (Holy Veil, Smite Hex)
- energy management (often drawn from another profession... Glyph of Lesser Energy, Channeling)*
- self-protection (Dark Return, Shield Bash)

As a few examples:

Eden Echoes (PvP: RA / AB)
[skill]Zealous Benediction[/skill][skill]Reversal of Fortune[/skill][skill]Protective Spirit[/skill][skill]Shield of Absorption[/skill][skill]Guardian[/skill][skill]Dismiss Condition[/skill][skill]Holy Veil[/skill][skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill]

A party-wide solution has very limited use in RA / AB, so Guardian or a hard resurrection skill replaces Aegis. I have very few bad experiences to recount for this build. It also performs very nicely in PvE.

Tahlkora (Hero: NM / HM)
[skill]Shield of Regeneration[/skill][skill]Reversal of Fortune[/skill][skill]Gift of Health[/skill][skill]Shield of Absorption[/skill][skill]Aegis[/skill][skill]Dismiss Condition[/skill][skill]Blessed Aura[/skill][skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill]

With Blessed Aura, Shield of Regeneration lasts 22 seconds, Aegis lasts 17 seconds and Shield of Absorption lasts 10 seconds.

In the end, you have a very small number of skills that are useable, and some are far more useable than others. A lot of people are very vocal about certain skills, but I might be wary of their advice.

You quickly realize two facts when you examine the monk skills available:

1) The only decent "heal" spells in the Protection Prayers line are Zealous Benediction (which is a focused heal), and to a more convoluted extent, Reversal of Fortune (which sort of covers everything).
2) Almost everything in the Healing Prayers line makes the "red bar go up," whether it's a quick rise or a steady gain over time... and if the bar isn't red, you have no way to make it normal.
3) Divine Favor is almost empty of useful skills.

This ultimately leaves you with three options:

1) Use Zealous Benediction and ignore Healing Prayers.
2) Use another elite and use Healing Prayers.
3) Don't concern yourself with the color of the bar, whether it's a dark, sickly color (poison) or a tacky purple (hexed) or part of it is gone (deep wound). Just make it go up. Focus on Healing Prayers.

To expand on point #3: the benefit of PvE (normal mode) is that you don't have to be overly concerned about spike prevention or hex removal. Consequently, the option exists for a build that exclusively uses healing prayers. Very few creatures in the game can deal a lethal spike and even fewer use hexes that require urgent removal.

In my experience, a monk's elite drives the rest of his or her skill choices. In a very competitive environment, a grand total of seven options exist:

[skill]Blessed Light[/skill][skill]Light of Deliverance[/skill][skill]Word of Healing[/skill][skill]Divert Hexes[/skill][skill]Restore Condition[/skill][skill]Shield of Regeneration[/skill][skill]Zealous Benediction[/skill]

Light of Deliverance, Divert Hexes and Zealous Benediction are Nightfall skills. Blessed Light is a Factions skill. Restore Condition is a Prophecies skill. Shield of Regeneration and Word of Healing are core skills.

In a more relaxed context, I consider these options to be viable in a PvE context (but somewhat unspectacular as a whole):

[skill]Healer's Boon[/skill][skill]Glimmer of Light[/skill][skill]Healing Light[/skill]

Healer's Boon is by far the strongest option; both it and Glimmer of Light are Nightfall skills. Healing Light is a Factions skill.