Curse

BDZeres · Apr 20, 2007, 04:34 PM // 16:34

I am curious to see how all you good monks out there have adapted to the challenges of HM. Please post the builds you have had SUCCESS with. Note that this is not meant for builds you have on heroes, but that you use as a monk primary. Also, this is not meant for farming builds but Mission completion/ Area clear builds.

Please Include:

Area tested in
Skill listing
What the other support characters were running (the other monks or rits on the team, if any)
Did you ask offensive characters to bring self healing?
How much caster/melee shutdown did your build have: a) none b) some c)lots {you can specify if you want to}
Ease of monking in the area with the build you have posted: rate from one to five, I know you're all pro but be honest

__________________________________________________ ____________

I'll edit this post with my stuff once I get back from college. I did not get to play much last night but in general there seems to be a lot of pressure as opposed to spike where I played (ascalon, kryta w/ heroes). Curious if monsters further down the road are more likely to spike targets.

achilleus · Apr 20, 2007, 04:49 PM // 16:49

Life Bond and Life barrier shut down Hard mode extremely well. Bring a blood rit on one of the other chars and your good to go even if you run up against dom mesmers with shatters.

Mantra of Inscriptions
Blessed Sig
Life Barrier
Prot Spirit
Dismiss Condi
Gift of Health
Shield of Absorp
Deny Hexes

-or-

Blessed Sig
Healing Light/Divert/ZB/LoD/SoD...any elite you want really
Dismiss
P Spirit
Shield Absorp
Life Bond
Balth Spirit
Mantra of Inscriptions

Both work great. Just bring whichever suits the area better.

Tab · Apr 20, 2007, 06:31 PM // 18:31

Gift of Health
Divert Hexes
Reversal of Fortune
Signet of Devotion
Dismiss Condition
Guardian
Protective Spirit
Glyph of Lesser Energy

Has worked well for me in the Ascalon missions where theres alot of hexes and only room for one Monk.

creelie · Apr 20, 2007, 08:15 PM // 20:15

12+1+1 prot, 9+1 divine, 9+1 heal, 3 smite

-Reversal of Fortune
-Shield of Absorption
-Gift of Health
-Zealous Benediction
-Dismiss Condition
-Smite Hex
-Glyph of Lesser Energy
-Rebirth

I've used this for the first 5 HM missions in Prophecies, which are dominated by rangers, warriors, and necromancers - the majority of the hits are too small for Protective Spirit. The hex removal isn't really sufficient in some spots, but the better hex removals are all elite, and too conditional to justify replacing ZB.

I expect as things go on there will be enough room for a dedicated healer, at which point I will start putting in more protective enchantments. I may even swap out ZB for something else.

ender6 · Apr 21, 2007, 10:06 PM // 22:06

Nothing new here:

-Healer's Boon
-Dwanya's Kiss
-Ethereal Light
-Heal Other
-Holy Veil
-GoLE
-Heal Party
-Rebirth

Used this build for the first 4 missions (Prophecies) on HM. Heros were
-SS/or SV necro
-Minnion Master
-Either Tank/ or interrupt Ranger

When my Party size shifts to 8 (Harder missions) I plan on turning my build to a prot monk build. A variation ZB Prot or something to that effect. I never trust hero's with prot monking. But for the first 4 missions, since the party size is limited to 4, I found it necessary to run healer boon monk build to keep my hero's alive. *no one had BR, and i never had energy issues. Smoothe sailing.

moko · Apr 22, 2007, 08:57 AM // 08:57

LOD/Infuse -- can't believe things started spiking fairly well, pressure
Light of deliverance, Infuse, Rof, Words, Prot Spirit, Dismiss/Veil, Aegis, Gole

Divert Hexes Prot -- hex heavy areas, must have
Divert Hexes, Rof, Gift, Spirit Bond, Dismiss, Shielding/Soa, Aegis, Gole

RC -- condition heavy areas, must have
Restore Conditions, Rof, Gift, Spirit Bond, Dismiss, Veil, Aegis, Gole

ZB -- plain heavy damage
Zealous Benediction, Rof, Gift, Prot Spirit, Dismiss, Veil, Aegis, Gole

Sod -- nice for melee heavy areas
Shield of Deflection, Rof, Gift, Prot Spirit, Dismiss, Veil, Gole, Shield of Absorption

aegis chains pwn hardmode for most parts. =P

ender: LOL, HP with a 4 man party, gg.

i cba listing the areas, just go to an area, see what's there and pick your builds. >_>

Iron Monkey · Apr 22, 2007, 04:01 PM // 16:01

Early Prophecies are hex heavy, remove enchantments a lot, and the nasty Linguering curse. As well as spikes.

so, for 4 man parties, that worked really well for me.

- watchful healing (gets stripped pretty much all the time, and counter degen).
- dwayna kiss
- Deny Hexes
- Blessed Light
- jamei gaze
- heal touch
- GolE
- rebirth

for 6/8 man parties, pretty much business as usual. Two monks, one support (condition / hex stripper, bit like the build above), and I go full heal Healer's Boon.

Iron Monkey · Apr 22, 2007, 04:01 PM // 16:01

Early Prophecies are hex heavy, remove enchantments a lot, and the nasty Linguering curse. As well as spikes.

so, for 4 man parties, that worked really well for me.

- watchful healing (gets stripped pretty much all the time, and counter degen).
- dwayna kiss
- Deny Hexes
- Blessed Light
- jamei gaze
- heal touch
- GolE
- rebirth

for 6/8 man parties, pretty much business as usual. Two monks, one support (condition / hex stripper, bit like the build above), and I go full heal Healer's Boon.

ender6 · Apr 23, 2007, 05:09 PM // 17:09

[QUOTE=Mokone] LOD/Infuse -- can't believe things started spiking fairly well, pressure
ender: LOL, HP with a 4 man party, gg.
[\QUOTE]

It was actually quite effective when used. Now that I have moved into the 6 party missions, Frostgate, Gate of Kyrta, etc, it is very useful. But as I said smoothe sailing and no enegy problems.

Problem is Hero's tend to ball up and take AoE dmg on a norm. Hell you apparently found use for LoD, what do you think HP + GoLE with HB on does...I just can't spam it. Nor should I.

I will take your gg comment in stride...

Effigy · Apr 23, 2007, 06:17 PM // 18:17

Hard mode is more challenging than traditional PvE, so the monk builds that work tend to be more like the ones used in PvP. The ones Monoke listed are all used in PvP to varying degrees.

Basically, the backline should try to keep the bases covered, i.e. hex removal, condi removal, anti-melee, anti-spike, anti-pressure. Having some disruption skills on your other team members will help a lot as well. The main difference between HM and PvP is that in the former, you know what your enemies will be using and thus you can build to counter it. If you're going into a mission with a lot of hexes, bring Divert. If you're going into a mission with scads of melee mobs, bring SoD or SoR, or both. Generally speaking, you want to have one monk with solid heals (LoD, HBoon, ZB, etc) to make red bars go up. Two prot monks should work fine if one is ZB.

ump · Apr 23, 2007, 07:28 PM // 19:28

I've only tried and completed Northern Wall so far. It was with the following build.

Reversal of Fortune, Shielding Hands, Gift of Health, Shield of Absorption, Mend Condition, Holy Veil, Glyph of Lesser Energy, Shield of Regeneration.

I used heroes - around level 18 MM Olias, level 12 Koss with Triple Chop, level 10 Jin with Burning Arrow (sorry I didn't get too far in Nightfall with this character). Definitely not the most efficient of heroes or skills, but it got the job done. For me, it's a nice way to level up these heroes as they gained a few levels along the way in only a few attempts.

moko · Apr 23, 2007, 08:40 PM // 20:40

[QUOTE=ender6]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mokone

LOD/Infuse -- can't believe things started spiking fairly well, pressure
ender: LOL, HP with a 4 man party, gg.
[\QUOTE]

It was actually quite effective when used. Now that I have moved into the 6 party missions, Frostgate, Gate of Kyrta, etc, it is very useful. But as I said smoothe sailing and no enegy problems.

Problem is Hero's tend to ball up and take AoE dmg on a norm. Hell you apparently found use for LoD, what do you think HP + GoLE with HB on does...I just can't spam it. Nor should I.

I will take your gg comment in stride...

i figured anyone with a brain would think it's obvious that spells that affect all of the party aren't used in 4 man teams..

ender6 · Apr 23, 2007, 10:20 PM // 22:20

4 * 120 for 5e. x2 is quite efficient...

2 * you have been insulting, for no apparent reason...

gg

FoxBat · Apr 23, 2007, 10:25 PM // 22:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Effigy

Hard mode is more challenging than traditional PvE, so the monk builds that work tend to be more like the ones used in PvP. The ones Monoke listed are all used in PvP to varying degrees.

One difference is that while self healing/defense is worth considering, it's not as essential as it typically is in PvP, so you can use GoLE 24/7.

XvArchonvX · Apr 23, 2007, 10:26 PM // 22:26

Prot is king in hard mode. Prot Spirit/Spirit Bond and RoF are your friends.

Effigy · Apr 23, 2007, 11:57 PM // 23:57

Your backline definitely needs Prot Spirit. Having Spirit Bond as well is even better, but it has be to used more judiciously. Of course, RoF is always a good idea. Aegis might be a good idea, but it really depends on what kind of aggro control you have. If your team mates know how to kite and avoid aggro, you can probably get by with single-target anti-melee, which frees up skill slot and energy on your backline. Aegis is a good fallback if you can't really trust the other players though.

BDZeres · Apr 25, 2007, 06:49 AM // 06:49

Ok, this is really late, promised I'd post my findings earlier. Anyway, here goes.

XvArchonvX: Prot is King in Hard Mode.
100% agree with you on this one. Shielding Hands and SoA are your friends, I take at least one of them everywhere with me. Because of the 50% IAS melee monsters can be brutal to out heal without these two skills. Out of the Prot skills ZB or Divert hexes (in tyria) is best early on. SoD is too specialist to be of much use except in a three monks backline or if you know that there will be extremely heavy melee pressure. Havent liked HB so far, found LoD or WoH much better choices because they allow you to spec heal low and prot higher.
One thing i have noticed is do not take res skills on your monk hero, they usually res in battle rather than keep healing.

I have not yet tried blessed light, has anyone else yet?
Something else to try out on your monk hero: The Zaishen Healer Build (I know i said no hero builds, but give it a try! I was pleasantly surprised)

RoF
Mend Ailment
Dwaynas Kiss
Healing Touch
Prot Spirit
Divine Intervention
Word Of Healing
Holy Veil (My addition, Zaishen use remove hex if i remeber correctly - been a while ^_^ )

Zookie · Apr 27, 2007, 06:13 PM // 18:13

Blessed light has made a comeback for me. I know it's kind of a mediocre heal, say compared to ZB, but it is quite versatile.

I've been running something like this:

[blessed light][reversal of fortune][gift of health][protective spirit][signet of devotion][deny hexes]or[dismiss condition][shield of absorption][rebirth]

If I'm running with a PuG, I'll adjust my bar to suit what the other monk is running. I've used this on the early missions in Tyria (northern wall thru frost gate) and abaddons mouth. I went with a LoD build on ring of fire, the other monk was running a divert hexes/prot bar.

[light of deliverance][dwaynas kiss][ethereal light][protective spirit][healing touch][dismiss condition][heal other][rebirth]

The only reason I'd run a heal bar is for light of deliverance.

Iron Monkey · Apr 27, 2007, 07:36 PM // 19:36

Oh yeah, try this one for smiting fun in D'alessio. I was smiting, and had a fast casting mesmer with a similar build.

[skill]Mantra Of Inscriptions[/skill][skill]Signet Of Judgment[/skill][skill]Bane Signet[/skill][skill]Spear Of Light[/skill][skill]Smite Hex[/skill][skill]Reversal Of Damage[/skill][skill]Kirin's Wrath[/skill][skill]Judge's insight[/skill]

In fact, bring a team of monks

bonder
[skill]Mantra Of Inscriptions[/skill][skill]Blessed Signet[/skill][skill]Signet Of Devotion[/skill][skill]Ether Signet[/skill][skill]Vital Blessing[/skill][skill]Life Barrier[/skill][skill]Life Bond[/skill][skill]Balthazar's Spirit[/skill]

hero / second monk
[skill]Gift Of health[/skill][skill]Reversal Of Fortune[/skill][skill]Restore Condition[/skill][skill]Signet of Devotion[/skill][skill]Mending Touch[/skill][skill]Deny Hexes[/skill][skill]Watchful Healing[/skill][skill]Resurrect[/skill]

maybe a necro with BR for the bonder. Fun mission to do. Not sure if this build would work for vanquish title and clearing the tyria areas. There is no enchantment removal during the mission, but I suspect it would be otherwise exploring.