Curse

Tsunami Rain · Mar 20, 2006, 07:14 AM // 07:14

[NOTE: I'm trying my best to give credit where its due but if I so happen to miss something, please tell me.]

Now I know that there is a VERY nice Comprehensive Solo-Monk Guide out already, However, I feel that there is a need to update solo (invinci) monking.

As many of you have heard, ArenaNet placed scarabs outside prophet's path where many monks once farmed. I shall repeat for THE LAST TIME: ANet Did NOT "NERF 55 MONKS" or "NERF FARMING".
/rant

After ArenaNet's decision, many 55 monks were forced into playing UW or finding other areas to farm. This guide will be for those that are intrested in starting a 55 monk, have a 55 monk but arn't very sure of their abilities, or are skeptical about the 55 farming monk (I believe open dicussion is a good thing).

Before I start this guide, I would like to thank cerb, sno, and many others for answering my 55 monk questions over the past months. I shall be using parts of cerb's guide (builds, strategies and what not) as it would be much easier to build upon.

I hope that this guide will inspire you to build your own 55 monk! -Tsunami

Table of Contents:

I. What IS a 55 monk? - Questions and Answers
II. Starting a 55 monk - For the rich and the poor!
III. Turn Back or Forever Hold Your Peace - Not for weaksauce players
IV. The Basics - What a good monk needs to know
V. Starting Out - Practice makes perfect!
VI. One Giant Step - The Under World
VII. Exploring New Grounds - Life After Griffon Farming
VIII. Bored Yet? - Other uses for your monk
IX. Conclusion - The bottom line

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I. What IS a 55 monk? - Questions and Answers

Q: What is a 55 monk?
A: A smiting monk that has dropped his/her life down to 55 hp via 5 superior runes and a -50 offhand.

Q: 5 superior runes?? Isn't that expensive?
A: Yes, making a 55 monk requires a large cash fund but can be easily made back within a few hours (not counting practice of course).

Q: What do you do with a 55 monk?
A: The most popular answers would be: Farming and Running.

Q: What is this -50 offhand you speak of?
A:

Found in the Cities of Ascalon Quest

Q: I can't find the person who gives you the Cities of Ascalon quest.
A: Symon the Scribe can be found in Ascalon City and will give you the quest after you have completed the missions: The Great Northern Wall and Counting the Fallen.

Q: I've seen you in game before Tsunami. Why does every other 55 monk but you wear tattoos?
A: .....no comment. Tat's give you more energy....leave my judgement alone

Q: Wait... There are only 4 Superior Runes for the monk. Wheres the 5th that you speak of?
A: For your 5th rune, you just use any superior monk rune that is available (the -75 hp stacks but the +skills don't. therefore, just get the cheapest).

Q: Why do you use divine healing scalp
A: It's personal preference. And on a side note, I may use my divine healing scalp but I also use my Smiting Prayers scalp if I really need it. For those new to 55ing, I suggest that you buy the Smiting prayers scalp.

Q: Where do I get my set of tat armor?
A: Some may say Lions Arch others may say Droks...I say Droks.

Q: What weapon do you use for your 55 monk?
A: Some may say HoD (which is very expensive). Most people now agree that the Fiery Flame Spitter of Enchanting is the monk weapon of choice (which I agree with).

Q: Where do I get a -20 Ankh?
A: Talk to Namar in Ascalon City (presear) then go to where Devona is in the town of Ashford. Before you reach Devona you will come across Miller Upton. He will say the bee's are a distraction and will not talk to you untill you take the bees across the bridge. Pick up the honeycomb, gather the three groups of bees and bring it across the bridge then go talk to Miller Upton again.

[NOTE: I will periodically update this section as needed. Feel free to ask questions by posting in this thread.]

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II. Starting a 55 monk - For the rich and the poor!

[NOTE: By typing this I assume that the monk that you are working on is at level 20, has ascended, has access to Drok's Forge, and has ALL skill points]

So you have finally decided that you want to make one of the most popular character builds in the game? Well, let me remind you that 55 monking isn't a walk in the park. Before deciding to commit yourself to 55 monking, I suggest that you play through the game with your monk instead of having it power leveled and ran through the game.

Why should I listen to you Tsunami? You're not the boss of me!..Well I'm just warning you; 55 monking will be difficult unless you are EXTREMELY used to healing/protection monks.

To correctly follow through with my guide you will need:

5 Superior Monk Runes (1 of each + 1 extra...no vigor runes)
1 -50 health Grim Cesta (see Q and A if you can't find it)
1 -20 health Ankh (*optional* will reduce your life to 13..I'll explain later)
1 Set of Monk Tattoo's (Droks>Lions Arch in my opinion)
1 Set of Normal Monk Armor (*optional* Drok armor that is non-tattoo)
5 Runes of Your Choice (*optional* for your normal non-55 monk armor)
1 Customized max damage rod of your choice (*optional* to kill nightmares)

Once you have these items you are set to go.

--Those that can buy all of the above with no problem can skip this part--

For those of you who are too poor to afford all of these expensive items, I suggest that you do one of the following (or all):

1. Get a good healing build going and start farming in a party (bonder for Sorrows Furnace or boon healer for Fissure of Woe, or if you are REALLY pressed on money...boon healer for hydra farming) [NOTE: all of these are party builds. NOT solo builds].

2. Run. Thats right, run. 55 monks can run. I'm sure I don't have to explain it to you (but in case I do, read on because I will talk about this a bit later).

3. Borrow Money. If you have a nice friend or guild, they might let you borrow or even give you money to fund your 55 monk.

4. You can buy cheap armor and 5 major runes. Put the major runes on your cheap armor and bring all of the nessesary 55 spells. Die a couple times until your health is low then continue to farm as you would if you were a 55 monk. This works, however, you have to keep an eye on your DP so it doesn't go too low (if it does you have to die again).

--End poor man's beginnings--

Congrats! You should have your brand new 55 monk!

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III. Turn Back or Forever Hold Your Peace - Not for weaksauce players

Again I would like to say that 55 farming is not for the weak. If you are not devoted to farming on Guild Wars I suggest you stop while you're ahead. I would again like to announce that you should Play Through The Game With Your Monk So That You Will Be Used To Monking Before You Play With A 55 Monk.

With that over, lets begin shall we?

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IV. The Basics - What a good monk needs to know

There are many cookie-cutter 55 builds as they are called, but every build is based upon these skills:

Protective Spirit
Enchantment. For (Min: 5 - Max: 23) seconds, target ally cannot lose more than 10% max Health due to damage from a single attack or Spell.

Healing Breeze
Enchantment. For 10 seconds, target ally gains +(Min: 3 - Max: 9) Health regeneration.

Mending
Enchantment. While you maintain this Enchantment, target ally gains Health regeneration of +(Min: 1 - Max: 4).

These skills are CRITICAL for the 55 monk build.

Protective Spirit - Since you have 55 hp, if you use this skill monsters will do about 5 damage to you per hit.

Healing Breeze - If you are tanking a lot of enemies and they are starting to spike, use healing breeze as it will regenerate life WAY faster than the monsters will be hitting you

Mending - If you always keep this on, you always have life regeneration meaning that you dont have to rely solely on breeze.

ENERGY MANAGEMENT. I couldn't emphesize enough. If you run out of energy then you will surely die with the 55 build. Therefore, bringing energy management skills with you is also key to the 55 monk build.

For this I would suggest any of the following:

Balthazar's Spirit
Enchantment. While you maintain this Enchantment, target ally gains adrenaline and Energy after taking damage. (The amount of adrenaline gained increases depending on your rank in Smiting Prayers.)

Essence Bond
Enchantment. While you maintain this Enchantment, whenever target ally takes physical damage, you gain 1 Energy.

Blessed Signet
Signet. For each Enchantment you are maintaining, you gain 3 Energy, maximum (Min: 3 - Max: 24).

Bonetti's Defense
Stance. For (Min: 5 - Max: 11) seconds, you have a 75% chance to "block" incoming melee attacks and arrows. You gain 5 Energy for each successful melee attack blocked. Bonetti's Defense ends if you use a skill.

I would suggest that you use either essence bond OR balthazar's spirit and (for those new to 55 monking) bring along either bonetti's defense OR blessed signet.

As for dealing damage:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cerb

Shield of Judgment (Elite)
Elite Enchantment. For (Min: 8 - Max: 20) seconds, anyone striking target ally with an attack is knocked down and suffers (Min: 5 - Max: 50) damage.

Spiteful Spirit (Elite)
Elite Hex. For (Min: 8 - Max: 20) seconds, whenever target foe attacks or uses a skill, Spiteful Spirit deals (Min: 5 - Max: 35) shadow damage to that foe and all adjacent allies of that foes.

Some of you might think Balthazar’s Aura is a good idea, but it’s not. After the November 10 th, 2005 game update, monsters will flee from similar Area of Effect (AoE) spells, therefore making it a useless farming skill.

Thursday, November 10 th, 2005 – Game Update

Improved the character name and guild name entry dialogs.

Improved AI so that henchmen and monsters can now detect and flee from area-effect damage spells.

Improved AI so that monsters will eventually stop chasing fleeing players.

Slightly reduced the power of the Doppelganger creature.

Fixed a bug which could cause certain animated ground cover to not be animated.

Fixed a bug which could cause two copies of Gwen to appear in pre-searing Ascalon.

Fixed a bug with certain enemies not attacking players in the Gates of Kryta mission.

Fixed an exploit which could allow players to create PvP characters with invalid armor. Thanks to Derek Ravenclaw for reporting this.

If you are using Shield of Judgement, you may also consider Zealot’s Fire, since both skills are from the same attribute. The latter deals AoE damage and is triggered every time you cast a spell on an ally (you) once activated. If you trigger it too quickly (for instance, casting using two skills in a row, without delay), it will cause the monsters to flee for a few seconds. You can prevent this from taking your time, and giving yourself at least a two seconds delay after casting a skill before casting another.

Zealot's Fire
Enchantment. For 60 seconds, whenever you use a skill on an ally, all foes adjacent to your target are struck for (Min: 5 - Max: 35) fire damage.

Basicly what Cerb was saying is that you can pick between Shield of Judgement OR Spiteful Spirit (if you are necro secondary). For some builds and areas that you farm in it would also be a good idea to bring Zealot's Fire with you (I tend to bring this all over the place as it helps me kill faster).

There are other skills that you can take because you might have slots open depending on what you are farming and what builds you will run. Here are some of Cerb's suggestions:

Now you should be taking 6 to 8 skill slots, depending whether you are taking 3 skills for energy management or 2, and whether or not you are taking Zealot’s Fire. Here are a few skill suggestions you could fill your remaining slots with:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cerb

Elementalist

Aftershock
Spell. Adjacent foes are struck for (Min: 26 - Max: 100) damage. Knocked down foes are struck for (Min: 10 - Max: 68) additional damage.

Crystal Wave
Spell. Foes adjacent to you are struck for (Min: 10 - Max: 100) damage, but are cured of any negative "Conditions." This Spell ignores armor and magic resistance.

Mesmer

Power Drain
Spell. If target foe is casting a Spell, the Spell is interrupted and you gain (Min: 1 - Max: 31) Energy.

Mantra of Resolve
Stance. For (Min: 30 - Max: 90) seconds, You cannot be interrupted, but each time you would have been interrupted, you lose (Min: 7 - Max: 2) Energy or Mantra of Resolve ends.

Soothing Images
Hex. For (Min: 8 - Max: 20) seconds, target foe and all adjacent foes cannot gain Adrenaline.

Arcane Echo
Enchantment. If you cast a Spell in the next 20 seconds, Arcane Echo is replaced with that Spell for 20 seconds. Arcane Echo ends prematurely if you use a non-Spell skill.

Monk

Blessed Aura
Enchantment. While you maintain this Enchantment, Monk Enchantments you cast last (Min: 10% - Max: 35%) longer than normal.

Watchful Spirit
Enchantment. While you maintain this Enchantment, target ally gains +2 Health regeneration. That ally is healed for (Min: 30 - Max: 180) points when Watchful Spirit ends.

Guardian
Enchantment. For 5 seconds, target ally has a (Min: 20 - Max: 50)% chance to "block" attacks.

Mend Ailment
Spell. Remove one Condition (Poison, Disease, Blindness, Dazed, Bleeding, Crippled, or Deep Wound) from target ally. That ally is healed for (Min: 5 - Max: 70) points for each remaining Condition.

Smite Hex
Spell. Remove a Hex from target ally. If a Hex is removed, foes in the area suffer (Min: 10 - Max: 85) damage.

Necromancer

Awaken the Blood
Enchantment. For (Min: 20 - Max: 44) seconds, you gain +2 Blood Magic and +2 Curses, but whenever you sacrifice Health, you sacrifice 50% more than the normal amount.

Desecrate Enchantments
Spell. Target foe and all nearby foes take (Min: 6 - Max: 60) shadow damage and (Min: 4 - Max: 20) shadow damage for each "Enchantment" on them.

Suffering
Hex. For (Min: 6 - Max: 30) seconds, target foe and all nearby foes suffer Health degeneration of 2.

Ranger

Serpent's Quickness
Stance. For (Min: 15 - Max: 30) seconds, recharge times for your skills are reduced by 33%. Serpent's Quickness ends if your Health drops below 50%.

Edge of Extinction
Nature Ritual. Create a level (Min: 1 - Max: 10) Spirit. For creatures within its range, whenever any creature dies, Edge of Extinction deals (Min: 14 - Max: 50) damage to all nearby creatures of the same type. This Spirit dies after (Min: 30 - Max: 150) seconds.

Warrior

"For Great Justice!"
Shout. For 20 seconds, your adrenal skills charge twice as fast.

I highly suggest blessed aura, mantra of resolve, arcane echo, serpants quickness, after shock.

In addition to cerb's skills I would like to add: Ballanced Stance. With ballanced stance, you wont get knocked down.

Now that you know the basic's, lets move onto some live-fire exercises.

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V. Starting Out - Practice makes perfect!

As the title says...Practice makes perfect. I assume that you have taken my advise and have played with your monk for awhile. You should now be ready to take on a simple foe with your new armor and skills!

Here goes nothing!:

Talus Chute Ice Troll Farming! (Droks Farming)

This assumes that you have ascended and you already have access to Droknors Forge.

This is the path that you will be taking (kinda short...I know).

Here is my skill setup for this run:
Protective Spirit, Shield of Judgement, Healing Breeze, Zealot's Fire, Bonetti's Defense, Balthazar's Spirit, Mending, Blessed Aura.

Healing Prayers: 9
Smiting Prayers: 15
Protection Prayers: 10
Divine Prayers: 13
Tactics: 3
[NOTE: I use divine scalp...you can use smite if you want]

In the early parts of this run you will encounter avicara and possibly some dwarves. When you start to get near them:

1. Throw up Protective Spirit
2. Throw up Healing Breeze (if nessessary)

Then keep running towards your destination (eventually they will stop their aggro spree).

When you see this cave, the aggro will start to subside and you should recast protective spirit before entering.

Run past the first group of trolls (make sure you dont get trapped!) and you will see ahead of you 2-3 more trolls. Agrro that then STOP.

Now two things can happen here:

1. You decide to die (or you die anyway) and are ressurected outside droks with 1 hp
2. You successfully kill all of the trolls, pick up your items, and repeat.

I will now show you why I told you that the -20 ankh was optional.

When you have 1 hp, switch out your -50 grim cesta for your -20 ankh and you will notice that you have 13 hp. With 13 hp instead of taking 5 damage you will now take 1 damage per hit. This is now MUCH easier than when you used your -50 grim cesta! You shouldn't die again. Now repeaet your run up to where you died.

Make sure to ALWAYS keep protective spirit up and healing breeze up (since this is a large group of monsters and you only have 13 hp..did i mention always use breeze with 13 hp?).

Toss on Zealot's Fire then use Bonetti's defense to get your energy back up.
When you have max energy, use SoJ (before bonetti's wares out) and you will notice that every troll around you will suffer 20 damage (dont over use skills or they might run away from you since they think Zealot's Fire is an AoE skill).

Continue keeping breeze and PS up untill the trolls are killed. Once they are dead, collect your items, open your map, go back to droks, and repeat!

For those of you too lazy to read, watch this:
http://s29.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2...707LCFH2ICYC2K
[Note: temp link untill filefront decides it will let me make an account]

Yes I finally figured out how to work gamecam and my first video (many to come) is up. Enjoy.

Do this run about 15-20 times without dieing and you should be ready to go onto the next segment of my guide.

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VI. One Giant Step - The Under World

The dreaded underworld...what can I say? This, my friends, is what makes or breaks a good 55 monk. In this segment I will go over two ways to farm in the underworld: Solo and Dual-farming with an SS/SV.

What is an SS/SV you may ask? Well usually it is a Necro/Mesmer that carries these three major skills: Spiteful Spirit, Arcane Echo, and Sympathetic Visage. They will carry SS to deal damage and will use arcane echo to echo or repeat their SS. They will also use SV on you when you tell them that you need it (its basicly energy management).

Whats so different about the UW from regular farming runs? A LOT. First off, for people just getting into 55 monking, I would suggest you find a SS/SV Necro partner (that wouldn't mind you being new and all) and practice two man farming before going solo (which is slower...which is why i still prefer two-man farming over solo). Next, you will act as a TANK and only a TANK. That is your job to TANK...not to attack..but to TANK.

Now that I have that out of the way lets go on. You will be taking these skills:

For Monk/Warrior:

PS, Spell Breaker, Breeze, Blessed Signet, Bonetti's, Balthazar's Spirit, Mending, Blessed Aura

Healing Prayers: 13
Smiting Prayers: 4 (this is why I have a +1 divine prayers scalp)
Protection Prayers: 11
Divine Prayers: 16 (max)
Tactics: 2

For Monk/Mesmer:

PS, Spell Breaker, Blessed Signet, Mantra of Resolve, Balthazar's Spirit, Mending, Blessed Aura

Healing Prayers: 13
Smiting Prayers: 4
Protection Prayers: 11
Divine Prayers: 16 (max)
Inspiration Magic: 2

Most SS/SV necros would probably tell you, "OMG UR N00B Lawl. Warrior Secondary roflcopter". Ignore them because bonetti's is really great for energy management plus dodging attacks in desperate times. If you choose to go Monk/Mesmer, Mantra of Resolve will solve all of your interrupt needs.

Now that we have our build selected, lets examine the Underworld. To start, please read Cerb's guide to the Under World here: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...onk-id1626.php

For those of you too lazy to click heres a brief overview:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cerb

Cast Spellbreaker before aggroing Aatxes, if a Dying Nightmare pops up, switch to your second weapon set (smiting rod), and kill it; it should die from 2 or 3 hits. Watch out for those, they strip all your enchantments!

Aatxes and Grasping Darknesses can interrupt your skills (Grasping Darknesses especially), don’t be scared to re-cast Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze even when their respective icons aren’t blinking.

Ask your necromancer partner to use Sympathic Visage when you’re against a bunch of Grasping Darknesses if he doesn’t think about it, otherwise they can make you lose all your mana, preventing you from casting.

Spiteful Spirit is triggered upon attacking, therefore using Bonetti’s Defense will not slow the damage down, unlike with Shield of Judgement. (However, it does slow down Sympathic Visage, if it’s on you)

If you’ve got Aatxes or Grasping Darknesses hitting you, try to stand still and not to move towards unexplored grounds too much; it might trigger the apparition of a Dying Nightmare, and the chances you will succeed casting Spellbreaker against those beasts is very low (unless they’re out of energy)

You do not have to cast Spellbreaker before aggroing a mob of Smite Crawlers; they cannot interrupt you, therefore if a Dying Nightmare was to pop up, it would be safe to use your elite skill, before finishing it off with your rod.

Try not to use Bonetti’s Defense against small groups of Smite Crawlers (5 and below), it affects Sympathic Visage and doesn’t make it any effective.

For your first runs, do not aggro too many Smite Crawlers, 8+ can easily kill you even if you have Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze on.

To survive large groups of Smite Crawlers (9+), use Bonetti’s Defense as soon as it’s ready, and when it’s recharging, spam Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze everytime you can. A not-too-effective Sympathic Visage is much less trouble than a dead monk.

Coldfire Nights are easy to kill; try to keep Spellbreaker on though. They will tend to spread out, making Spiteful Spirit half as effective, but if you stand still as soon as they’ve entered your aggro bubble, they shouldn’t move too much.

Another thing I’ve noticed but cannot confirm yet : it appears that if you move a lot, under the Coldfire Nights’s aggro, they will cast Maelstrom (if they do, move out of it, else you might as well be dead); whereas they wouldn’t if you stood still.

Tip from Mr Jerrypants: Communication between the players is the key to successful/fast runs. You can use a voice-chatting program like Ventrilo or Teamspeak, normal chat or even the in-game radar, but you’ll have to communicate with your partner. Explaining your aggroing patterns is very important too.

If you have read, you will notice that dieing nightmares pose a big problem for the 55 monk. Even though the SS/SV Necro should take care of these nightmares, I suggest that you keep a wand with you all the time for backup. A few hits and the nightmare will die. If you arn't careful and don't have spell breaker up when the nightmare appears, it will strip away all of your important enchants leaving you vulnerable.

Please note that I don't use wroth's but rather a rare max damage smiting rod with +energy (while enchanted). I then customized it so it does 20% extra damage. Since my rod is smiting and I don't meet the requirements for max damage, the 20% extra damage helps out a bit. About 4-5 hits with this rod will bring a nightmare down.

A video clip of cerb farming the UnderWorld can be found here: http://rapidshare.de/files/15990551/Smite_Run.wmv.html

As seen in cerb's guide, Smite Crawlers and Aataxe's are what drop ecto.

What is Ecto? Ecto is used to craft armor...VERY EXPENSIVE ARMOR. For some reason people like trading ecto and thats always a good thing. Your SS/SV Necro buddy might ask you before the run to split the ecto drops 50/50 therefore if there is an odd number, one person sells the odd ecto and splits that money. Simple.

Lets talk about communications for a second (or a few minutes). When I farm Under World with my buddies we all get on vent so that we can communicate a lot faster without having to remove our hands from our keyboard. So if you want things to go smoothly, I would suggest getting vent and a headset (aka. headphones+mic). Besides, that headset and vent will also come in handy if you GvG or PvP.

If you still have a hard time farming in the UnderWorld, you may want to check out Sno's Academy here: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=99701

I won't trouble all of you a lot about the Under World. After playing 2-3 runs you will understand the fundementals of it and catch on easily. Lets move on to a more brain-popping subject (I love that word...brain-popping).

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VII. Exploring New Grounds - Life After Griffon Farming

Under World not challenging enough for you? Well, you've come to the right place. This is the section in my guide where I will tell you to....GET OFF YOUR ARSE AND GO FARM DIFFERENT PLACES.

sorry *cough* um...yes

For starters, you might want to check my "Life after griffon farming" post here: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...d.php?t=130889

My post should start you off. Once you get the idea, formulate your own cookie-cutter 55 monk builds in your head and go off into the vast land that is Guild Wars and farm to your heart's content. ... ok that sounded a bit cheezy. To make up for it I will hint at another good thread to find other farming locations at: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...d.php?t=126474

There are so many farmable places on Guild Wars. Go exploring and find some for yourself! Maybe you'll become famous for it

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VIII. Bored Yet? - Other uses for your monk

What...Farming....Boring?...Impossible...ok lets face reality. To some farming may become boring after awhile. What else is your 55 good for? A lot of things! Here are some suggestions:

55 Monk Running - As seen on the "55 monk running challenge" thread it is possible to run from Becons->Droks. It is also to run all of southern shiverpeaks with a 55! With so much potential, 55 running is a whole nother way to earn money as a 55 monk (although I must admit that it takes a lot of practice running with a 55 monk and I wouldn't suggest running before learning how to farm with a 55 monk).

55 Monk Power Leveling - I don't really like to power level nor power level people. However, when you get better at those trolls outside of Droks, you could advertise powerleveling people (client buys scrolls to powerlevel with...make sure he doesnt die...when he levels...you get gold!).

Remember when I told you that buying yourself a second set of armor for normal usage along with a normal set of runes was optional? Well, if you followed my optional advise and bought your second set of armor, here are some other things you can do with your monk:

Monk Runner - Same as a 55 but it can only run easy missions. I used this to earn money early in the game. I would run people from Frontier Gate to Ruins of Surmia for tips (you wouldn't believe how many people actually want a run for that short a distance).

Monk Healer/Bonder/Protector - The normal monk stuff (incase you want to help guildies or friends or maybe you're just plain bored and want to do some missions).

PvP - After you ascend, you can play PvP with your PvE monk. Having a second set of armor for your 55 monk would come in handy if you want to play PvP.

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IX. Conclusion - The bottom line

The bottom line is that having a 55 monk can be very beneficial to PvE players. 55 monks can do MORE than just farm. I would also like to add that it is very difficult to use a 55 monk. Also, the complexety of the build shows how much effort was put into comming up with the origonal build. 55 Monking is more than just "another bot build", it is a complex PvE player's build.

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to all of the thoughts that have influenced my brain throughout the time that I was writing this. I would like to thank Cerb for making such an excellent guide that I could build off of and Kaze for his productivity in making the "Important Posts" thread. I would also like to thank everyone who has ever helped answer my newbish questions since joining Guild Wars Guru. And last but not least, thank you God for not letting my brain fry by making a 14 page long guide (thats how long it is on word).

Good Luck and Best Wishes,
-Tsunami Rain

--edit--
Thanks to Across The Battle for catching a mistake

Thanks to cerb for his UW video and mentioning Sno's Academy

Opeth11 · Mar 20, 2006, 08:01 AM // 08:01

My god, you never do stop working, do you Tsunami?
Very helpful screenshots posted, and will most likely keep all the 'wuts a 55 munk' questions out of this area.

edit : HA, I just found one of those 'wuts a 55 munk' questions earlier today in the Questiion and Answers section.

Tsunami Rain · Mar 20, 2006, 09:33 AM // 09:33

No Opeth, I don't

I would also like to add that Questions, Comments, and Feedback is appreciated.

You can also contact me in game: Tsunami Rain

However, please don't ask me for gold/items.

cerb · Mar 20, 2006, 12:14 PM // 12:14

Grats, I'm gonna try and post a video of me doing a UW run tonight

Lourens · Mar 20, 2006, 03:05 PM // 15:05

Where do I get a -20 Ankh ?

Another Question, does it matter which armor you take for 55 hp..
Cause the DMG you take will always be the same.

60 armor / 30 armor, doesn't matter right ?
Except when Protective Spirit fails / wears off..

Thanks

TheArrow · Mar 20, 2006, 03:20 PM // 15:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lourens

Where do I get a -20 Ankh ?

Another Question, does it matter which armor you take for 55 hp..
Cause the DMG you take will always be the same.

60 armor / 30 armor, doesn't matter right ?
Except when Protective Spirit fails / wears off..

Thanks

While in 55 mode it doesn't matter. I prefer to have a set of Lion's Arch tats just for farming and then a set of Droknar's Forge tats for other monking tasks.

EDIT: As for the -20hp ankh, there are 2 places to acquire it. The quest that Namar gives in presearing rewards you with a -20hp ankh. The quest Cities of Ascalon gives a -20hp focus with a 50% chance. (It's either the -20hp focus or the -2e focus; the -50hp focus is a given.)

cerb · Mar 20, 2006, 05:29 PM // 17:29

UW 2-Man run video: http://rapidshare.de/files/15990551/Smite_Run.wmv.html
If you wanna learn how to do this, I highly recommand Faithful Sno's academy which you can find in the Services forum.

akitas371 · Mar 20, 2006, 06:45 PM // 18:45

I actually prefer using Retribution instead of blessed aura for the extra damage output..even if its only like 5dmg it still counts

Tsunami Rain · Mar 20, 2006, 09:20 PM // 21:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by cerb

UW 2-Man run video: http://rapidshare.de/files/15990551/Smite_Run.wmv.html
If you wanna learn how to do this, I highly recommand Faithful Sno's academy which you can find in the Services forum.

lol. I was trying to work your gamecam program that you used for your running thread but it wouldnt load for me

thanks for the post

Quote:

Originally Posted by akitas371

I actually prefer using Retribution instead of blessed aura for the extra damage output..even if its only like 5dmg it still counts

To many retribution might seem like a good idea, but for me, I always like to have at least one positive pip of energy going so I don't have to heavily rely on my energy management skills.

Rogier · Mar 20, 2006, 09:38 PM // 21:38

gj, you combined it nicely into 1 post, really nice for the people who don't have an idea where to start!

Tsunami Rain · Mar 20, 2006, 09:52 PM // 21:52

I just finished watching your video cerb and all I have to say is....what was that music in the beginning?...that was...weird. rofl. Nice job (nice credits lol).

.killjoy · Mar 21, 2006, 03:48 AM // 03:48

Holy bible of soloing for 55! cheers man i remeber when i didint know what a 55 was and i thought it was really invinci to all gw monsters!

Tsunami Rain · Mar 21, 2006, 05:30 AM // 05:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by .killjoy

Holy bible of soloing for 55! cheers man i remeber when i didint know what a 55 was and i thought it was really invinci to all gw monsters!

Yeah..I thought so too untill I came across those evil mesmer monsters.

stoelen · Mar 21, 2006, 03:09 PM // 15:09

i got a question, what skills do the coldfire/crapsings/smite crawlers use?

Tsunami Rain · Mar 21, 2006, 09:04 PM // 21:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoelen

i got a question, what skills do the coldfire/crapsings/smite crawlers use?

http://www.guildwiki.org/wiki/Coldfire_Night
http://www.guildwiki.org/wiki/Grasping_Darkness
http://www.guildwiki.org/wiki/Smite_Crawler

stoelen · Mar 22, 2006, 11:28 AM // 11:28

thanks alot

Tsunami Rain · Mar 22, 2006, 06:16 PM // 18:16

no problem

glad I could help.

Tsunami Rain · Mar 26, 2006, 08:41 AM // 08:41

--edit--
Expect to see videos flying at you in the upcomming days.
Also expect my guide to grow significantly as I will be adding a few more sections to include (among other things) factions info.

--edit--
Expect a video in about 15 minutes.

Tsunami Rain · Mar 26, 2006, 10:14 AM // 10:14

UPDATED!

Added My Droks Run 101 Video:
http://rapidshare.de/files/16451881/...rming.wmv.html

Comments are always appreciated

--edit--
opeth I know what you're gonna say

*starts reading your mind*

Blomman · Mar 30, 2006, 08:24 PM // 20:24

i realy like this Guide!

A++