Curse

NightOwl · Aug 27, 2005, 06:08 AM // 06:08

I'm reasonably new to the game, and mainly I play for the pvp aspect. My current guild isn't providing a whole lot of support (will be changing, in due course), so I'm flying blind.

In pvp I'm usually playing a healing monk in the different arenas, and I'm looking to tune up my build. Here is what I usually run (based off of a generic build to open the elite):

Healing breeze
Orison
Word of Healing (I like the low cost but solid healing this provides when a target is in bad shape)
Healing Touch
Mend Ailment
Smite or Remove Hex (I like the smite cast time, but the hex recast time...I'm torn)
Vigorous Spirit (I enjoy that this lasts 30 seconds, and I can fire and forget on people to deal with incidental damage for low energy cost)
Rez sig

Stats of:
14 healing (12+2, for 9 pip breeze, very helpful when being chased)
4 protection (3+1, leftover points and a minor rune)
13 divine favor (12+1)
1 smite (0+1, just for the heck of it to give a little boost to smite hex)

I find this build to be reasonably solid in general conditions, but it seems...lacking. There is room for improvement here, but I'm not experianced enough in the game to know what I can tinker with to keep the feel of this build but improve upon it.

Please help?

Edit: I use a pvp Insightful staff of Enchanting (20%) to help get more bang for the buck on my enchantments. 2nd set is +15 energy wand and energy ankh, boosting my max into the 70s (at a low 2 pips regen, but it's last ditch kinda thing).

Also, any thoughts or comments on changes to go towards more of a tombs build would be most welcome. I'm in process of unlocking Healing Seed on my pve monk now. I just opened Energy Drain, and plan on going with a mez secondary for that.

Divine Elemental · Aug 27, 2005, 06:24 AM // 06:24

a good healer setup...
and breeze isnt much good :P

Dwaynas kiss
Orison
Sig of Devotion
Ressurection Signet
Heal Area
Healing Seed
Energy Drain / Word of Healing
Channeling

Attributes

12 + 4 = Healing Prayers 16
7 Inspiration
Rest Into Divine Favor

u get good energy management so as a good reserve heal when energy is bad

and u shouldnt use condition removal as prot monks are the ones who do that

Morganas · Aug 27, 2005, 07:09 AM // 07:09

He said he plays in arenas, meaning he'll be the only monk, so yes he should have condition removal. Just put 3 or 4 spare points into prot and bring mend ailment.

Yukito Kunisaki · Aug 27, 2005, 07:36 AM // 07:36

Conditions and especially hexes will be flying more madly now that NR no longer affects hexes. [yay for the return of hydromancing]

I'd say consider Martyr or Convert Hexes depending on your team's needs. Also, you might note that pure classes don't carry the oomph that they should...

I'd say go half of something to augment what you want to do... Heal/protect? There's quite a few things you can combo that with.

anti-conditions:
mo/r Draw Conditions with Melandru's Resiliance {E}. Hot stuff vs. fragility types

anti-warrior:
mo/w with bonetti's defense. it's part of the premade builds but they're good for a reason. just a little tweaking

anti-caster:
mo/me Energy Drain with Hex Breaker. Fun stuff. Keep warriors off yourself though, learn to use the body-block.

heavy energy:
mo/n Offering of Blood keeps your energy high. Though I'm not sure how effective it is vs. Energy Drain as your elite... You can even run Blood Wells like Well of Power. It's probably ONLY effective in KotH maps. Wells restrict movement to a large degree

heavy defensive camper:
mo/e with earth or water magic. Both skill lines carry good utility skills like AoE blind, HEAVY armor, speed buffs, and snares. All depends on you really. A running monk knocking down an annoying warrior with Water Trident is ebil... [I fought one, not fun]

Morganas · Aug 27, 2005, 04:22 PM // 16:22

Mo/w with bonetti's has a very tough time building the adrenaline to use bonetti's. It's also a terrible healer if they choose not to attack monk first. I don't believe warrior has much of anything to offer a healer in pvp.

Energy drain is overkill for energy restoration if you don't use divine boon. Taking monk elites is better, word of healing can save you more energy then energy drain gains you. I find that drain enchant restores the perfect ammount of energy to keep me going forever, inspired hex would be alot stronger if that doesn't work for you. The inspiration line in general has tons of abilities that you can find use for on a monk.

Offering of Blood is FAR better than energy drain, due to cooldown and the fact that it restores full energy. It also casts faster. It can be hard making a build that takes advantage of all that energy, but I really don't think it's worth it to lose hex breaker, and necro doesn't have anything else to offer monk.

Mo/E... energy problems, you won't have access to the good ele energy management spells because they're energy storage. You can't heal and nuke at the same time unless you're ele primary.

Really, I think Mo/Me, or possibly Mo/N, are the only viable (healing or prot) monk options in pvp. That Mo/R described by the last poster sounds cool, but I've never tried it. Think I will tonight though.

Zhou Feng · Aug 28, 2005, 03:10 AM // 03:10

I run a Healer/Smiter Mo/Me build

The core skills are:
Orison of Healing
Healing Breeze (optional core skill)
Balthazar's Aura
Essence Bond
Blessed Signet

Essence Bond and Blessed Signet are there for energy management. Orison and Healing Breeze are very effective to heal allies as Orison is very cost effective and healing breeze works pretty darn well. Balthazar's Aura costs a whopping 25 energy... its not something you throw willy nilly. Its a skill you plan for its use, like when your ally is beating the snot of some fellow cast it on the ally to make the damage pack up.

This leaves three optional slots open which can be used for:

Channeling
Hex Breaker
Isnpired Hex
Mantra of Recall
Word of Healing
Heal Party
Healing Seed
Mending
Zealot's Fire
Balthazar's Spirit
Shield Of Judgement
Smite Hex
Ressurect Signet

Etc

So you could have

Orison of Healing
Healing Breeze
Heal Party
Smite Hex
Balthazar's Aura
Essence Bond
Blessed Signet
Hex Breaker

for example OR

Orison of Healing
Healing Breeze
Heal Party
Healing Seed
Balthazar's Aura
Essence Bond
Blessed Signet
Channeling

OR

Orison of Healing
Healing Breeze
Balthazar's Aura
Essence Bond
Blessed Signet
Hex Breaker
Mantra of Recall
Inspired Hex

It is recommended you have a

Major or Superior Vigor Rune

Scalp +1 to Healing
Minor Healing Rune +1
Minor Smiting Rune +1
Major Divine Favor +2 -50 health

Healing Breeze works well for me. But you can drop in favor of something more effective.
I still need to test it for more efficiency but the core skills work fine in theory.

NightOwl · Aug 28, 2005, 03:10 AM // 03:10

Thank you all very much for your input.

I see a lot of people getting down on Healing Breeze, which I don't understand. What is it about this spell that makes it so unsavory to people? I find it to be quite useful when I need to run from warriors, or get out of range of nukers...just hit the Breeze, and run while my health comes back (with 9 pips of hp regen, it's pretty quick, though I don't know the exact numbers of hp/sec or total). I also find it useful when getting knocked down, as I can fire the breeze to see me through the damage coming in when I'm unable to otherwise heal myself. What makes this bad?

Healing Seed. I have a spot which could be a home for this, currently I have Vigorous Spirit in the spot (at 13hp per attack/spell). Keeping in mind that I use a 20% enchantment duration boost on my staff, it would be 12 seconds of Seed or 36 seconds of Spirit. The Seed can go to waste on a damaged target (or against observant opponents) when people change targets, leaving my team member unhealed. Spirit on the other hand heals them through incidental damage as long as they are active, even if it's just firing off shots from a wand.
Also, Spirit has a 5 energy cost vs. 10 for Seed. I can see Seed being significantly better in a larger fight when it can be slipped in unnoticed, GvG or Tombs or what not, but it seems to me that Spirit deals with the minor healing better in 4v4s. Is swapping this out my cure for Fragility builds (seems like that's all that any Me/* runs these days, dang)?

Energy management. I'll look into Channeling for my 4v4 build (how much range does "nearby foes" cover, anyways). I unlocked Energy Drain while I could more for Tombs than for arenas. Even against energy denial, the number of 5 energy skills I run (which is everything except Breeze) I can generally slip in a heal every few seconds just from regen, even when being hit with the denial. If my team hasn't made it's first kill by the time I'm out of energy and hp, we're in bad shape anyhow.
As for Drain Enchantment, it seems kind of iffy to me. Should my target have no enchantment, I'm out the energy and in bad shape. I suppose that with the NR changes, everyone will have a ton of enchants though, so I think this is definately worth looking into and will go unlock that tomorrow.

Thanks again for the input, I greatly appreciate it.

Nash · Aug 28, 2005, 03:19 AM // 03:19

OK, let's make a good build then...

Elite:
Energy Drain or Offering of Blood, the former being superior

Healing skills you can use:
Divine Boon
Heal Other
Dwayna's Kiss
Orison of Healing
Healing Seed
Signet of Devotion
Healing Breeze
Healing Touch

Removal:
Mend Ailment
Inspired Hex (if running Energy Drain)
Smite Hex

Resurrect:
Hell no, you're a Monk!

Oh, and don't use Majors, they're trash. Use minors/headgear only, or grab a Superior if you want the boost.

White Designs · Aug 28, 2005, 03:31 AM // 03:31

Offering of Blood and Energy Drain are rather close in terms of effectiveness. However, Inspired Hex is amazing, so I recommend a Mesmer secondary.

Nash · Aug 28, 2005, 03:35 AM // 03:35

Offering gives you more energy over time, but you have to sacrifice health. Energy Drain takes energy away from the other team as well as give you it, making the choice a no-brainer.

Darc.Syde · Aug 28, 2005, 03:54 AM // 03:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nash

Offering gives you more energy over time, but you have to sacrifice health. Energy Drain takes energy away from the other team as well as give you it, making the choice a no-brainer.

Energy drain also requiers you to get close to a caster - preferably. which means a break in your position that can be taken advantage of by mesmers and focus fire.

Nash · Aug 28, 2005, 03:59 AM // 03:59

Many good players don't seem to have a problem running Energy Drain. But sure, if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Offering of Blood isn't a bad alternative.

Zhou Feng · Aug 28, 2005, 04:23 AM // 04:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nash

OK, let's make a good build then...

Elite:
Energy Drain or Offering of Blood, the former being superior

Healing skills you can use:
Divine Boon
Heal Other
Dwayna's Kiss
Orison of Healing
Healing Seed
Signet of Devotion
Healing Breeze
Healing Touch

Removal:
Mend Ailment
Inspired Hex (if running Energy Drain)
Smite Hex

Resurrect:
Hell no, you're a Monk!

Oh, and don't use Majors, they're trash. Use minors/headgear only, or grab a Superior if you want the boost.

Yep major are kind of sucky unless you run on a superior vigor and want the extra health. Relying on minor healing, scalp with healing and having healing at least up to 10 will garner a 12 in healing. You could go for Superior Divine Favor for a +3 Divine Boost. Dont use major or superior on anything else. Stick with minor for the rest of stats.

HB is nice provided you use it accurately I havent run in problems using it and it is quite effective. However you may switch HB for Healing Seed instead. Or some other more cost effective healing spell. My build is generally made to switch to whatever I need most. I have used OH and HB quite to well effect. And I tend to pack Heal Party which is great. It all really depends on what your aim is. Mines is healing priority and a second damage dealer using aura and zealot's fire or shield of judgement. I can also bring Balthies spirit for additional energy gain and pump up my team warriors. I picked smiting over protection cause Im not an all out defensive kind of guy. Meh dont know how well it works but its been working nice... provided Im well defended by my team mates, and they in turn are kept alive by me

Zhou Feng · Aug 28, 2005, 04:47 AM // 04:47

Hmm I dont see why Energy Drain is effective as an Elite skill which I could choose to go for Word of Healing or Shield Of Judgement. Could someone please explain how Energy Drain is effective seeing as it steals 8-18 energy from one foe (similar to tap only much faster)...

Mantra Of Recall has been toned down... a lot... whereas before you could get a straight 20-30 mana now its really crappy. Dont know how well MoR is anymore, perhaps Energy Drain is better?

Mustache Mayhem · Aug 28, 2005, 06:32 AM // 06:32

I've done some healing monk in the arenas.. this what finally ended up with after a few thousand faction.. works well for keeping yourself alive and still being an effective healer

14 healing (sup rune + hat)
4 smite
9 protection prayers
13 divine favor

Skills:

Divine Boon
Purge Conditions
Vig Spirit
Healing Breeze
Word of Healing
Reversal of Fortune
Res Signet
Rebirth

think the key is everything is low cost.. reversal is great at keeping yourself alive- better than orison

Morganas · Aug 28, 2005, 08:35 AM // 08:35

You have divine boon without energy management. BIG mistake. Either drop boon, or drop word, I recommend dropping boon, as a healer can make do without it.

Second mistake would be taking rebirth. Using rebirth on someone dooms the rest of your team to die without heals, and dooms your disabled res target to just die a second time. If it's for tombs I'm of the unpopular opinion that you should bring it for reasons that have nothing to do with in battle abilities, but most would disagree, so you really should take it out of your build.

Third mistake is your huge lack of self heals, healing breeze and vigorous spirit with reversal will not ever keep you alive, esp with the fast energy drain. Use healing touch for gods sake. Also, vigorous spirit won't be saving anyones life, and there are better more instantaneous versions of heal breeze out there, like heal other.

Sorry to say it, but that's the worst monk build I've ever seen.

ElderAtronach · Aug 28, 2005, 08:44 AM // 08:44

Purge conditions? Yikes. Mend ailment is exponentially better that purge. FFS, look at the skills available to you when you make builds, people!

Slade xTekno · Aug 28, 2005, 08:53 AM // 08:53

Note that Offering of Blood may be a better choice for the 4v4 arenas, as these provide fewer targets [and thus less energy] for you to steal with Energy Drain.

Mustache Mayhem · Aug 28, 2005, 02:50 PM // 14:50

hey I raked up alot of faction with that build.. I guess I'm just good- made it to drokars team arenas almost every time.. it's simple build cause all you need to keep yourself alive is reversal and only use breeze if have to.. the vig spirit kinda pays off in mana down long run- mainly used on the whole team while running in and as a heal on wars.. yeah right about rebirth- I rarely ever used it but it's there.. It's simple and works.. dunno about you but I actually pvp in the arenas for faction.. the mend ailment I was usin for awhile but switched back to purge- trend was getting loaded down with conditions.. you actually don't even need it in arenas but comes in handy sometimes

Kakumei · Aug 28, 2005, 11:20 PM // 23:20

my usual healing build (tombs, arena, pve, everything)

heal other
heal party
protective spirit
orison of healing
healing touch
healing seed
energy drain
res sig

16 healing prayers (12+1+3)
10 divine favor
8 inspiration
and whatever left into protection

i know a lot of people look down on heal party, but i find it incredibly useful in many, many situations

everything else is pretty self-explanatory

edit: well, in pve i replace res sig with rebirth, but that's about it