Curse

Scaphism · Aug 25, 2005, 09:20 PM // 21:20

20 posts into the thread and not a single person has mentioned that you run Divine Boon at 16 Divine Favor, not 12. For shame people, for shame.

Run your numbers again buddy then come back and tell me if it's inefficient.
While people are at it, read Ensign's "Cleave/Eviscerate" thread and pay attention to the bits about the value of spiking. The same applies in reverse as well.

The new change to NR hurts Boon more than the old NR, but neither was particularly favorable. At least now you can call for the NR to be taken down quickly, before it drains much.
Break point ~15s of NR running unchecked.

Lazarus · Aug 25, 2005, 11:26 PM // 23:26

Personally, I am a big fan of Divine Boon. Just like any other skill it has it's uses. IMO, the Boon/Prot combo is one of the most well rounded monks I have ever played. Also, if you want to do "spike healing" it is a must. If you cast Aura of Faith on someone for 60 seconds when you cast a spell on that same target you get ([Divine Boon X 2] + [Divine Favor X 2] + [healing of next spell X 2]). Adding Heal Other to this equation gives us an expensive combo, but it is sure to bring the target back from the brink. Are they getting over healed? Ask them after the match...

Divine Boon is one of the few Monk skills that can turn the tide of a battle without the enemy even knowing it's there. Which way it turns the battle depends on the monk using it however. As others have said, energy management is the key to being a good Monk and if you do not plan for it the added costs can kill your whole party.

Lazarus

Neo-LD · Aug 26, 2005, 02:37 PM // 14:37

Though I have often considered moving to 16 DF, I keep DF at 15 and pump blood from 8 to 10.

Kabale · Aug 26, 2005, 03:23 PM // 15:23

Quote:

The problem isnt the fact that you need to recast it, but the fact that it costs 5 energy to recast it. And the fact that you can heal more without it(as i explained above).

Your math is biased........ In your math example, you have healing prayers at a higher level than divine favor. Do your calculations again at the same attribute levels and you'll notice a difference.

Quote:

I am argueing about the use of DB with primary monks(healers and prots).

I don't see what the problem is of using DB with protection monks. The reasoning behind this being that more often than not, you'll be putting a prot.spirit/shielding hands/RoF on someone because they just took some damage. So not only do they get added protection, they get some of the initial damage they took negated by boon+the divine bonus.

Arcador · Aug 26, 2005, 04:27 PM // 16:27

Well if we base all to the math - 60%+ of the skills should be gone. You should base it on the situation. It is "spike healing" - a lot of healing for a little period but draining faster. Spike teams might be gone (full spike teams yes, but not partial), but I am sure in a battle you have found yourself in position when there are 2,3 hexes on you and 2 warriors on your ass AND for the next 3 secons your HP is dropping like 100 per second (you are at point where your self defensive skills are recharging), spike healer can save your butt until (for example on the 4th second or so) someones manages to remove the hexes, blinds the warriors and so on.

Scaphism · Aug 26, 2005, 05:43 PM // 17:43

Quote:

And why would I want divine favor at 16, that boost is hardly worth the attribute points that could potentionally used for energy managment skills(ED, Offereing).

Your final attribute spread will always depend on the peculiarities of your team build, I don't think anyone is prepared to challenge that statement. However, when considering the effectiveness of Divine Boon you have to maximize for the efficiency of boon- and that comes at 16 divine favor.

As for the Premade booner, it's poorly designed, and that's putting it kindly. They managed to leave blood magic at a dead spot, a point where it gains no extra energy over the level before it. It's a really poor example of how to spend your attribute points well, and whomever put it in with that attribute distribution should be embarassed.

Again, while your team build may require you to run something slightly different and spread your attributes around a little, while using boon it's optimal at 16 (or 17 if you have the right staff wrapping/focus). A natural combo for a prot booner is 12+3+1 DF, 10 (energy management) 8+1 Protection. If you need you can even go down to 12+3+1, 11, 6+1 - and you'll have a few extra points to throw around.

Yamat · Aug 26, 2005, 07:59 PM // 19:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scaphism

A natural combo for a prot booner is 12+3+1 DF, 10 (energy management) 8+1 Protection. If you need you can even go down to 12+3+1, 11, 6+1 - and you'll have a few extra points to throw around.

For fear of going off on a massive tangent here... do people think the health loss of running 2 superiors is too great, even considering the benefits?

You could run either:

12+4 Prot, 10 (energy management), 8+3 DF, or
8+3 Prot, 10 (energy management), 12+4 DF

High DF will help with those heals, high Prot will help with skills like Aegis and Prot Spirit durations...

ICURADik · Aug 26, 2005, 08:44 PM // 20:44

I tend to stay away from a hard 12 points into an attribute unless I am playing a warior or a nuker and don't really need points into anythign else. 11/10/10 is pretty standard for a balanced monk with energy gaining abilities. If you going prot/boon then you have 11+4 favor, and 10+1 prot. If you going Healing then you have 11+4 healing and 10+1 favor.