Curse

BaconSoda · Apr 24, 2007, 10:03 PM // 22:03

After surfing around this monk forum, I have seen many Protector's saying how Healing is the most useless unreliable attribute line in the game (I beg to differ, there is no bad attribute line in the right hands). My questions is, why is this so? Are both not important parts of the metagame as they always have been before, and probraly always will be? Many Prot monks boast about RoF, which is apparently greater than any healing skill ever, but does it not rely on the same condition as Healing Prayers, the ability of the other team to deal damage?

I know a protector is more efficient at preventing damage, but damage will be done. I know a healer is better at repairing damage, but there is a limit to their reparations.

By this, aren't both essential to the Metagame?

Dr Strangelove · Apr 24, 2007, 11:08 PM // 23:08

Most prot monks bring along some sort of cheap heal - like gift of health or signet of devotion. Reversal of fortune also makes red bars go up in a pinch.
A full out healer generally lacks efficient condition and hex removal, and has to power through the full DPS of an enemy. This leads to spamming heal spells, like orison. You generally can't keep up with the damage, and run out of energy pretty quickly.

Protectors can mitigate much larger amounts of damage with much smaller amounts of energy, such as with spirit bond. It's much less spammy and requires a little more forethought than karate chopping your keyboard, but it's a lot more effective.

Burst Cancel · Apr 25, 2007, 12:09 AM // 00:09

The short answer is that damage prevention is typically faster and more efficient than healing the damage after the fact. There are certainly healing spells in wide use (e.g., LoD, Infuse, Gift, etc.), but the skill line as a whole consists almost entirely of slow, inefficient spells that do nothing but make red bars go up.

Iron Monkey · Apr 25, 2007, 10:35 AM // 10:35

in PvE, imo, one heal + one prot monk > 2 heal&prot monks > 2 prot monks.

Iron Monkey · Apr 25, 2007, 11:11 AM // 11:11

with one monk only, I think it depends on the context. If hexes and conditions aren't that bad, I take my [skill]Healer's Boon[/skill] monk. If It needs work on hexes and conds, definitely a prot heavy build ([skill]Zealous Benediction[/skill], or [skill]Divert Hexes[/skill], or [skill]Blessed Light[/skill]+[skill]Deny Hexes[/skill]+[skill]Signet Of Devotion[/skill]).

with HB, I did Nahpui Quarters Hard Mode in about 12 minutes iirc without breaking a sweat (one death, we had a tanking ele

), and being the sole monk in the team. The big party heal is really a plus that a prot build cannot match.

Ishtar Serket · Apr 25, 2007, 12:22 PM // 12:22

Towards the end of campaigns, having two monks (one going prot and one healer) goes a long way to survival. Having the prot monk put up several enchants when you know you're about to be spiked helps save the healer monk energy so they can easily handle the general damage the party is going to take. Having two healer monks works as well but there's less efficiency then as you have both healing the same target and it leaves members vulnerable to spike damage as your heals are recharging.

Div · Apr 25, 2007, 01:30 PM // 13:30

Healer's boon is ownage in pve. Both heal and prot are needed in pvp.

creelie · Apr 25, 2007, 05:29 PM // 17:29

A lot of monks start out in healing because it's straightforward - red bar goes down, red bar goes up. I played through 3 campaigns that way, before being convinced to try prot. Preventing damage is harder than repairing it, but it's more powerful and efficient. With a good prot monk the team still needs healing, but way less of it.

olly123 · Apr 25, 2007, 05:31 PM // 17:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by BaconSoda

After surfing around this monk forum, I have seen many Protector's saying how Healing is the most useless unreliable attribute line in the game (I beg to differ, there is no bad attribute line in the right hands). My questions is, why is this so? Are both not important parts of the metagame as they always have been before, and probraly always will be? Many Prot monks boast about RoF, which is apparently greater than any healing skill ever, but does it not rely on the same condition as Healing Prayers, the ability of the other team to deal damage?

I know a protector is more efficient at preventing damage, but damage will be done. I know a healer is better at repairing damage, but there is a limit to their reparations.

By this, aren't both essential to the Metagame?

really healing is not crap, but when u compare it to protection it can look crap. why cure when u can prevent.

monks bost about RoF cos it has the abliaty to stop up to 80 damage and heal for 80hp for 5energy, on a 1/4 cast and only 5 energy. very nice. but like they u said it depends on if the foes can deal damage, so uve got to look about.

healing isnt rubish it never was it never will b, tho its over rated. it is needed in the meta cos protection monks cant negotate all the damage and have to rely on some healing to get thoes little red bars up to 80%-100% again.

Ensign · Apr 25, 2007, 07:20 PM // 19:20

In Prophecies alone, healing was weak. Boonprots were where it was at, pretty much period.

Factions introduced Gift of Health. That skill got Monks to start speccing into Healing again, on largely Prot/Divine bars.

Nightfall introduced Light of Deliverance, which gave Monks a usable party heal. That also pushed Monks to spec into Healing, but LoD largely precludes the use of Gift on the same bar. That gave you two distinct archtypes, Gift Monks and LoD Monks.

Prot is a Monk's backbone. The effects are stronger, more flexible, and more efficient. But bars do need to be pushed back up somehow, and without Boon you're going to need a bit of healing to make that happen.

At this point virtually every Monk is a hybrid, with a couple notable exceptions (Zealous Benediction, Healer's Boon). You simply get more robust backlines that way.

Peace,
-CxE

Raven Nebula · Apr 25, 2007, 07:25 PM // 19:25

Spirit Bond ftw

NinjaKai · Apr 25, 2007, 07:51 PM // 19:51

Remember a golden rule of monking. Don't follow the Leeroy.

As a protection monk I always bring some sort of heal. ZB is a personal favourite. I some times use a hybrid build when I just don't feel like using attribute points in something more useful than divine favor and use a combo of healing prayers and protection.

the_jos · Apr 25, 2007, 08:10 PM // 20:10

The Prot > Heal comes mainly from PvP experience.
But also from PvE area's where heavy pressure/damage is too be expected.
When you face enemies that can do over 200 damage / attack, you better protect, since you can never outheal that.
Both healing and prot have their place in GW, depending on the environment and team build.

Age · Apr 25, 2007, 09:47 PM // 21:47

There really isn't nothing wrong with a full healing bar as long as you got a condition and hex remover.I played mostly healing in Proph. in Factions I protected and in NF I played both heal and protect.

XvArchonvX · Apr 25, 2007, 10:02 PM // 22:02

I think Ensign hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that healing is needed to a certain degree to make bars go back up (without Boon of course). Many monks that start out in PvE tend to spec largely into healing and shy away from prot (aside from condition removal skills). This is mainly because the healing line consists of using simple spells to make bars go up when they go down and rarely requires any more strategy than that beyond energy management of course. Using prot requires the monk to observe a battle more closely to see if they need to cast a spell for spike prevention (prot spirit/spirit bond), single target pressure reduction (shielding hands, shield of absorbtion), party pressure reduction (aegis), or as a quick save (reversal of fortune).