Curse

chronozon · Sep 08, 2006, 04:40 PM // 16:40

This is my first time writing a guide, feel free to ask any questions if the wordings here aren't clear, and I apologize ahead for any such ambiguities.

Disclaimer:
This build wasn't originally my idea but rather from a concept a friend of mine once showed me, if anything he deserves all the credits for this.

Facts:
The so-called "600 Monk" is sort of a variation of the popular "55 Monk" with the exception of using the skill Spirit Bond in conjunction with Protective Spirit, one would think that it need to have over 610 health point to make it work, but this is in fact incorrect, the amount of health one has does not really matter for this build or any other "600 Monk" builds(I will explain this later), however the more health you have the less likely you'll die in case something goes wrong, such as getting spells interrupted by a foe.

Usage of this build:
This is mostly a quick-money-making build, its creation was originally intended to make quick runs through FoW and UW, clearing the foes that are easy to kill with this build and farm for Shards, Ectos and other droppings to sell for gold. One CAN do quests in those areas with this build but it would take longer and more coordination between the team members, thus missing the point of making the most money in a short time period.

The build:
Ideally this build would include 3 people, 2 monks and 1 necromancer, the first monk is the tank(Commonly a Mo/Me, but there are other variation I'll explain later), the second one a bonder and the necromancer is preferred to be an echo SS with Spinal Shiver. For UW the necromancer isn't really necessary as a 2 monk team would suffice, but the addition of the necromancer would make things a bit easier in UW.

Skills needed:
The Tank monk would need to have Factions, and need to have all 8 slots filled, the skills are:
1. Protective Spirit (Monk)
2. Spirit Bond (Monk, Factions)
3. Blessed Signet (Monk)
4. Spell Breaker (Elite Monk)
5. Mantra of ressolve (Mesmer)
6. Blessed Aura (Monk)
7. Life Attunement (Monk)
8. Essence Bond (Monk)

The Bonder monk would need to have 7 skills, last spot is optional:
1. Vital Blessing (Monk)
2. Balthazar's Spirit (Monk)
3. Retribution (Monk)
4. Holy Wrath (Monk)
5. Purge Signet (Monk)
6. Rebirth (Monk)
7. Blessed Signet (Monk)

The SS Necromancer would only need to have 4 skills, the other 4 spots are optional:
1. Spiteful Spirit (Elite Necromancer)
2. Spinal Shivers (Necromancer)
3. Arcane Echo (Mesmer)
4. Ressurection Signet
*Note: it can be very useful for the necromancer to bring few skills that rid corpses to go to FoW, prevent the Shadow Beasts from using Consume Corpses.

Attribute Points:
Tank monk:
Max out Protection Prayers and Divine Favor, the last 6 points go into Inspiration Magic.

Bonder monk:
Max out Protection Prayers and Smite, the last 6 points go into Divine Favor.

SS necromancer:
Max out Curse and Soul Reaping, the last 6 points doesn't matter where they go.

Armor/Weapons:
Tank monk:
Ideally for this build the tank monk's weapon needs the following attributes (in order of importance): Cold damage, + energy (unconditional or while enchanted), enchantment last x% longer, and + health. With all that said the Rajazan's Fervor is the preferred weapon for it. The offhand can vary, any of the above mentioned mods for the weapon can apply here, and/or with faster recharge of skills (or Protection Prayer skills in specific), I like to use Byzzr's Benediction for the extra 30 life and 10% fast recharge of all spells.
For armor the tank monk would need to have the LOWEST possible armor level items. Ideally the best armors here are the starter's leggings, starter's shoes, a dragon mask(or any novelty items that has 0 armor but can put a rune on). However not many people keep their starter's armors or have a dragon mask, thus their lowest possible armors(armor lvl 15) can be obtained from Ascalon City or Shing Jea Monastery, the tank monk would ONLY need to have the leggings(minor divine favor rune) and shoes(superior vigor rune) for the +1 energy regeneration, and a helmet(minor protection prayer rune).

Bonder monk and SS necromancer:
The weapons for these two are simple, a wand or staff that does cold damage. Any other mods are optional, the amoutn of damage for the weapons do not matter, they are used only to complement Spinal Shivers and not for killing.
It's best for the bonder to have two helmets, first is +1 Prot with a superior Prot rune on it, and second is +1 Smite with a superior Smite rune on it. The rest of the armors for these two do not matter.

How the build works:
Generally, this build just requires the tank to aggro a group of foes, stand there taking hits while having them reflected back on the foes through Retribution and Holy Wrath, and the tank heal itself through the usage of Spirit Bond. When the team arrives at FoW or UW, the tank monk enchants itself with Essence Bond, Life Attunement and Blessed Aura, then the Bonder would enchant the tank with Vital Blessing, Balthazar's Aura, Retribution and Holy Wrath. The order of enchants here doesn't really matter, but I prefer the Bonder to put Holy Wrath on the tank last, solely because if something does shatter enchantment on the tank monk while Spell Breaker ran out, that would be the first one goes, thus rid of the -10 energy per hit penalty on the Bonder, the Bonder can then cast Blessed Signet on himself and recast Holy Wrath on the tank fast. After all the enchantments are on, it's time to make some money. The only time the Necromancer need to do anything is when facing a Shadow Monk in FoW or the Coldfires in UW, the only time the Bonder need to do anything after casting the enchantments on the Tank is to use Purge Signet on the tank to rid of hex/conditions. It is also important for the Bonder and the Necromancer to stay alive, as they are the only two with ressurection skills.
Regarding the earlier comment I made on this build doesn't require the tank monk to have at least 610 life points, one would think with Protective Spirit limiting the damage to 10% of your total health, the tank wound need to have greater than 610 health in order to trigger Spirit Bond's healing property, that isn't how the game works. The damage taken into consideration by Spirit Bond is the actual damage done by a foe BEFORE Protective Spirit limits it to 10%, and with the low armor the tank is wearing the foes are most definitely going to do more than 60 damages per hit, thus the Spirit Bond will be triggered regardlessly. So do not worry if you died a couple of times and the DP lowered your total life down to below 610, this build would still work.

FoW:
In this place start out with the group to the left of Rastigan, after all the enchantments are on, the order of which I operate is put on Protective Sprit first, then cast Blessed Signet, put on Spell Breaker and run towards the Shadow Monk, cast Spirit Bond on myself at the moment of aggro, and after I have all the foes pulled to me, I put on Mantra of Ressolve and call out the Shadow Monk as the target, at that point the Necromancer would come in and cast SS and Spinal Shivers on the monk, then all 3 of us would hit the monk with our cold damage weapons, this prevents the monk from casting heals on others because with Spinal Shivers and cold damage weapons every hit on the monk is a potential interrupt, and the monk would just kill itself casting while having SS on itself, during all this the tank would have to recast Spirit Bond and Protective Spirit as they run out. After the death of the monk one can just wait for the rest of the foes to die, or if possible the necromancer can cast SS and Shivers on the Shadow Beast to prevent it from using Consume Corpse and die faster. After the first group I usually go back to the right side of Rastigan and take out that group of Shadow Mesmer/Elementalist/Warrior/Beast, this time the other two members of the team can just stand back and watch. After this group I go back to the left side, up the hill to kill the group of 4 Shadows and 1 Beast pop up while avoid the two groups of Shadow Monk/Beast(as a practice in FoW one should always avoid groups with Shadow Monks, the only times one would absolutely need to kill a Shadow Monk is at the beginning of the run and near the hill down to the area where the Skeletons spawn). After the group of 4 Shadows on the hill, go around the Tower and clear all the Abyssals and Shadow Rangers, when facing the Abyssals make sure to time your castings of Spirit Bond and Protective Spirit well, even with Mantra of Ressolve on one can still be interrupts if knocked down by the Abyssals. After all the Rangers and Abyssals go down, head SE and take out the group with the Shadow Monk, and head down to the area where Skeletons spawn. The rest of the trip is pretty much a breeze, the tank need to make sure to have Spell Breaker on before aggroing a group with Icehands in them, as they would strip your enchantments FAST, it's also good to know where all the Impaler pop ups are, and after killing the Impalers, the tank would go to the droppings and set off the traps, and the Bonder needs to come in immediately and rids of the conditions on the tank using Purge Signet. Avoid the group of Shadow Warriors and Abyssals standing in front of the Forge, because once they die a group of Shadow Beasts will spawn nearby and they are a pain to kill, also avoid aggroing the Lich, it can strip all your enchantments in a second even with Spell Breaker on. After all the Skeletons are cleared, I would usually go to where the 3 ghosts are standing (with one that gives you the Forgemaster quest) and kill the group of Shadow Monk/Rangers nearby, be sure to draw out the 2 Impalers and 1 Shadow Beast pop up before having the necromancer casting SS/Shiver on the monk. After this last group all 3 team member's inventory should be full with droppings, I usually end the run and come back in again for another sweep. If one must they can go inside the Forge and do the quests, but those would take longer as there are 5 groups of 2 Shadow Monks together, they are tougher to kill and take more time and better coordination between the team members, it's recommanded having TS or Vent for that.

UW:
This place is very straight forward, I usually ONLY do runs in this place with the 2 monks, the Necromancer in this run is optional, with the Necromancer in the team it would be easier to take out the Coldfires near the Smite Crawlers, with a 2 monks only team the Coldfires would have to be avoided at all costs, as they do not do enough damage and have 0 chance of dropping Ectos. Two things to watch out for in UW, first is the pop ups of them dreadful Dying Nightmares, they only have about 50 life point but they use Rend Enchantments, which would strip off EVERY enchantments on the tank monk, as soon as you see/hear a Nightmare pop up, slap Spell Breaker on yourself, they will die just with a couple of hits but if they used Rend on the tank it's a certain death by the Blades; second up are the Grasping Darknesses, they are the squid looking things that moves at 300% of your running speed, the hard part is that they don't do enough damage to trigger the healings from Spirit Bond, so usually I'll clear all the Blades and Nightmares in the immediate area after arriving in UW, then the tank would run up the stairs on the left side of the starting point and go all the way to the end where the Grasping Darkness would spawn, then at that point the Bonder monk would take the quest from the Soul and run back to the platform, so as soon as the Darknesses spawn they will start attacking the Tank. A useful strategy here is to have the tank remove its helmet and wearing only leggings and shoes to maximize the possibily to have the Darknesses do more damage, and once the Darknesses spawn, spam Protective Spirit and Spirit Bond even if you have just casted them, with maxed out Divine Favor on the Tank casting those two spells can also be used for healing purposes, one last thing to remember is not using Mantra of Ressolve here, as the Darknesses would already drain your energy, there is no need to finding more ways of losing it. After all 3 groups of Darknesses go down, proceed to the Smites and take them out, as stated before avoid the Coldfires if in a 2 men group, else the necromancer can take out the Coldfires easily with SS, do remember there are possible Nightmare pop ups in the Smite area, so have Spell Breaker recharged before aggroing. After the Smites I usually end the run and start over again to maximize the ecto drops and money making.

Other variation of the Tank Build:
If one is confident with their timing of casting spells to avoid interruptions, the tank monk can switch to a Mo/W build, replacing the Mantra of Ressolve with Healing Signet. The purpose of this is not to use the signet to heal but rather using the -40 armor while casting property to further reduce your armor level, it is particular useful when facing foes such as Shadow Beasts in FoW and Grasping Darknesses in UW.

Some FAQs I've heard while running this build with others:
1. Can the Mo/Me tank build use Arcane Echo in place of Mantra of Ressolve, so the tank can have longer protection with Spell Breaker?
It's not really necessary IMO to have echo, with lvl 13 Divine Favor (12 + 1) the Spell Breaker would last 17 seconds, most of the foes whom Spell Breaker are needed for would die before those 17 seconds expire, and not having to worry about being interrupted on Spirit Bond and Protective Spirit (they are 1/4 second casts, but trust me, they can be interrupted) is better off.

2. With a Mo/W tank build, can Frenzy be used in place of Healing Signet?
Yes but Healing Signet is way better. When I use the Mo/W build I never intend to actually get healed by Healing Signet, rather right before casting I'll hit "s" a couple times and stop myself from casting it, thus the signet is instantly recharge and I will then start casting again. In other words Healing Signet is much more spammable than Frenzy.

3. Would Elemental Resistance help with the Mo/Me tank build?
Yes and no, it would help against foes such as Shadow Warriors and Abyssal, but against Shadow Elementalists and any other foes that don't do physical damages it's useless.

4. What other areas can this build be used?
Pretty much anywhere the foes do massive damage and there aren't anyone who can easily strip off enchantments. I also use this build in the Grawl village directly east of Camp Rankor from time to time, farming for Ice Breakers and Frozen Fans, in fact that can be a good place to practice this build instead of risking losing 1k gold per trip to FoW or UW.

Conclusion:
This is a pretty simple build, the tank monk would do 90% of all the works while the other two members of the team just sit around and watch the foes die, it would take a while for one to master the tank, but once comfortable with it this build can make tons of money, it has been a LONG time since I last ran FoW or UW with a standard group of 8, or a group of 5, as this build can achieve the same goals a LOT faster and easier. For I'm new to this site/forum so I won't leave my IGN or anything on this post, feel free to PM me though if you have any questions, and feel free to post any comments and/or suggestions, peace.

MelechRic · Sep 08, 2006, 04:45 PM // 16:45

Nice guide. I think you might want to ask a forum admin to move it to the farming section.

chronozon · Sep 08, 2006, 05:10 PM // 17:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by MelechRic

Nice guide. I think you might want to ask a forum admin to move it to the farming section.

Well I thought about that but the first intention for this build was to survive FoW and UW with a minimum number of people in the team and it turned into a money-making build later on, I thought this would be a good spot for it, again I'm new to this forum so if any admins feel necessary please move this thread.

Tsunami Rain · Sep 09, 2006, 12:51 AM // 00:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by chronozon

Well I thought about that but the first intention for this build was to survive FoW and UW with a minimum number of people in the team and it turned into a money-making build later on, I thought this would be a good spot for it, again I'm new to this forum so if any admins feel necessary please move this thread.

making money can be considered farming. All farming threads go in the farming section.

moved.

My personal apocalypse · Sep 11, 2006, 02:19 AM // 02:19

you can also make the SS necro a N/mo and bring a long dwanays kiss, rebirth and other useful monk skills.

With another interupter (power block mesmer/BH arrow ranger) this build can run forgemaster in about an hour with some changes

chronozon · Sep 11, 2006, 04:28 AM // 04:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by My personal apocalypse

you can also make the SS necro a N/mo and bring a long dwanays kiss, rebirth and other useful monk skills.

With another interupter (power block mesmer/BH arrow ranger) this build can run forgemaster in about an hour with some changes

There are many ways to shape the SS build for this and I only listed the essential ones to make FoW and UW work, there are other skills the SS can take along to make things easier, such as Sympathetic/Ancestor's Visage. I agree it's not hard to run Forgemaster with this build, last night I did a 5 men group with a Barrage ranger and a second SS (didn't need the extra SS, he was a guildie that wanted to tag along) and we cleared about 70% of FoW in less than 3 hours, didn't get to the hydras, drakes and spirit shepherds 'cause it was pushing 3AM by then. With only 3 men the Forge can still be cleared, just require more effort and better communication, I'd rather just make the easy money and start over.

chronozon · Sep 11, 2006, 03:21 PM // 15:21

One thing I forgot to mention is this 3 men build can also be used for Queen farming outside Augury Rock in the Crystal Desert, the only thing to watch out here are the Wells of Profane created by the Marrow Scarabs. On the way to the Queen there will be about 8-10 Marrow Scarabs, they are melee foes and the Wells of Profane they make will strip off all enchantments the tank has on. The strategy here is to have the other two members of the team be at a distance from the tank while it takes out all the Marrow Scarabs, and as soon as the tank sees a corpse drop nearby, run back a little to put some distance between itself and the corpse. Well of Profane takes 2 seconds to cast and if the tank is sharp at realizing the nearby corpse there is plenty of time to get to a safe distance from it. Once all the Marrow Scarabs are out of the way(including the 9 or so pop up near the Queen) the tank can just go straight up to Kepkhet, the necromancer then follows the same strategy as dealing with a Shadow Monk, put on SS and Shivers on Kepkhet then all 3 members of the team hit her with cold weapons, she will die in less than 30 seconds.

Anarion Silverhand · Sep 11, 2006, 06:07 PM // 18:07

The Queen and all of the scarabs outside Augury Rock can be done solo with a Spirit Bond Monk. No need to 3-man it.

osk · Sep 13, 2006, 03:20 PM // 15:20

for UW farming, the tank can bring elemental resistance instead of Mantra of Ressolve so Grasping Darkness would do enough dmg to trigger spirit bond.

Spectar · Sep 14, 2006, 04:35 AM // 04:35

same build I use in uw almost minus the necro...but why not put attunement on the bonder and let tank use his own balthazars spirit?
Oh also for the problem with the graspings not doing enough dmg...take the first quest at the beginning and fight blades and graspings at same time, the blades will make up for the graspings lack of muscle.

Something else I forgot to mention, I tried using frenzy at the beginning doing graspings by themselves...well not sure exactly what happened but frenzy and spirit bond don't seem to work well together as I died so fast I couldn't see what was really killing me. Didn't have a screen capture at the time to review what was happening with the combo.

achilles ankle · Sep 16, 2006, 04:35 PM // 16:35

Just ran a variation of this build the other night. We had the ss the tank monk the bonder monk and i was a kinda support monk. I took along Dwanas Kiss(which can heal the tank monk upwards of 500hp if he gets in trouble) Heal Breeze, Shield of Judgment(wipes out the skeleton army in a flash) Rebirth, Scourge Healing, Smite Hex, and 2 additional smites, i took bane sig and banish. We also had along a ranger who need fow armor and we got that for him in just about 2hours, not too bad for 5 people and having along me and the bonder who have nvr done it before. it didnt even take as long as a balanced group to get to the forgemaster and we had less ppl.
hope this helps with the guide

imsystem · Sep 16, 2006, 11:02 PM // 23:02

instead of ss bring a famine ranger it will go much faster

blakecraw · Sep 22, 2006, 03:45 AM // 03:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spectar

Something else I forgot to mention, I tried using frenzy at the beginning doing graspings by themselves...well not sure exactly what happened but frenzy and spirit bond don't seem to work well together as I died so fast I couldn't see what was really killing me. Didn't have a screen capture at the time to review what was happening with the combo.

I had the same problem tryin to solo uw (which hasn't worked for me yet). I thought frenzy would work, tried it.. got owned. I think maybe the graspings do less than 30 dmg so when it's doubled they do 50 somethin and still don't set off spirit bond, just kill u faster. Or maybe the skills just don't trigger together.

Luciora · Sep 22, 2006, 07:24 AM // 07:24

Blakecraw, make sure you are casting frenzy before spirit bond. Frenzy does not work the other way around

legacyofkain85 · Sep 26, 2006, 11:23 AM // 11:23

nice build kinda thought of this mi self i just neded a form of staying alive while fighting grasping darkness and mantra of resolve its a great skill because spirit bond and protective spirit do get interupted it did hapened to me .For uw i think the 2 monks are enough ,used frenzy to but i realy got to give a try to healing signet -40armor could do the job,but that means no mantra of resolve

NeoDAV · Sep 26, 2006, 11:06 PM // 23:06

Quote:

Skills needed:
The Tank monk would need to have Factions, and need to have all 8 slots filled, the skills are:
1. Protective Spirit (Monk)
2. Spirit Bond (Monk, Factions)
3. Blessed Signet (Monk)
4. Spell Breaker (Elite Monk)
5. Mantra of ressolve (Mesmer)
6. Blessed Aura (Monk)
7. Life Attunement (Monk)
8. Essence Bond (Monk)

5. Watchful Spirit
7. Balthazar's Spirit
Divine 14, Prot 13

Quote:

The Bonder monk would need to have 7 skills, last spot is optional:
1. Vital Blessing (Monk)
2. Balthazar's Spirit (Monk)
3. Retribution (Monk)
4. Holy Wrath (Monk)
5. Purge Signet (Monk)
6. Rebirth (Monk)
7. Blessed Signet (Monk)

2.Bane Signet
5.Life Attunement
7.Signet of judgment
add 8. Signet of Rage
Smiter 16, Prot 15
Nec.......up
my love build

For FoW

Studio Ghibli · Sep 30, 2006, 02:40 PM // 14:40

I've seen people say this build is great for grawl farming--but doesn't recasting the enchantments become an annoying bother?

Am I missing something?

I Brother Bloood I · Sep 30, 2006, 02:57 PM // 14:57

This is not worth 3 people when u can already do it with 2 people + u dont need vital blessing for a 600hp monk or as it should be called a spirit bond monk. If i wanted to make money id do uw solo. Or ss/55 fow.

Studio Ghibli · Sep 30, 2006, 03:13 PM // 15:13

.. no, it's not worth three people.

My girlfriend and I ran two modified 600s-

We both had SoJ, I was using Retribution, and also had two interrupts on my bar.

We were able to clear the smite area, including the Coldfire Nights. Simply alternate SoJs, heal what you can through Divine Favor, and interrupt Maelstrom (as that's the one that heals the most).

fenix · Sep 30, 2006, 03:27 PM // 15:27

Frenzy = Double damage
Healing Signet = -40 AL (which is double damage)

Difference being that Frenzy stays on you, so you can cast other things. Therefore Frenzy > Healing Signet, as you can have it doubling your damage for much longer.