Curse

Kabale · Oct 13, 2005, 10:10 AM // 10:10

The key to this build is,

Melandru's Resilience {Elite} - Stance
For 8-18 seconds, you gain health regeneration of 2 and energy regeneration of 1 for each "Condition" and "Hex" you are suffering.

Recharge: 25 sec, cost 5, casting time 0 (stance)

I'm thinking this could be best used on a protection monk, maybe even better suited for the prot/heal hybrid running boon. I'm thinking this build could work because of the amount of hexes and conditions flying around in Tombs at the moment.

Build:

Prot. Spirit
RoF
Aegis
Draw Conditions
Guardian
Melandru's Resilience
Divine Boon
Res Sig/Shielding Hands

Basically, keeping conditions on you as much as possible is key in this build, and will work a charm against ranger-trapping groups and hex heavy ones to an extent. A heal/prot hybrid monk can easily keep himself alive with conditions on him with the heal from Melandru's countering degens, and the other prot skills making you less worried about getting a deep wound. There should be enough energy coming in also, but as I'm at work I haven't really tested it yet.

Has anyone tried using Melandru's Resilience as an energy management tool?

John Bloodstone · Oct 13, 2005, 10:15 AM // 10:15

Wow, that is a very nice idea. Take the negative effects thrown at you as a monk and actually make them work for you. Of course, if the enemy aren't using many conditions then you will find yourself a little dry, but this could work quite nicely indeed...

Kabale · Oct 13, 2005, 10:22 AM // 10:22

Yeah that's true. Forgot to mention though, with having attribute points in Wilderness Survival to get a decent time of resilience, you'll also have a good amount of time for a Storm Chaser for added energy in case you're up against elemental attacks. Maybe replacing the Res Sig with Storm Chaser could help out with the energy too. If you find that there aren't many conditions/hexes/elemental dmg flying around you can always switch off the Divine Boon as well.

Yukito Kunisaki · Oct 13, 2005, 03:17 PM // 15:17

Monks shouldn't carry reses at all. If they carry one, they have no confidence in their monk ability and are forever noobed... If your teammate dies, you screwed up somewhere [or your teammate did]...

I think it'd work. Being an elite, you can REALLY couple it well using Draw Conditions. If you're fighting a team that doesn't use hexes/conditions and yours does, it won't matter that your Elite is useless, the whole enemy team is useless already LOL...

On a prot monk, this build would rock, the problem being dazed. Even with this skill you do NOT WANT to be dazed... Ever...

Purge Signet/Conditions can help you if you're dazed. Especially Signet. Aside from Dazed, the build seems solid.

I'd vouch for a little smiting if possible but on the whole, quite a good battle system...

Kabale · Oct 13, 2005, 04:21 PM // 16:21

Yeah good point, but how much dazed is being thrown around these days? I haven't seen many rangers using concussion shot or any other skill that causes dazed (skullcrack is very rare on warriors).

I suppose none of the other monks would be bringing condition removal as you'd be more than happy to draw everything (apart from dazed) so if you do get dazed, you'd need something to quickly get rid of it.

I'm going home in 10 min (wohooo) to cap the elite and try it out. It probably won't be all that useful in arenas though, as there are generally less conditions flying around... unless someone decides to virulence

Yamat · Oct 13, 2005, 07:29 PM // 19:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kabale

Prot. Spirit
RoF
Aegis
Draw Conditions
Guardian
Melandru's Resilience
Divine Boon
Res Sig/Shielding Hands

My concern with this build is still energy management, even with Melandru's. You're at -1 with DB already, and will eat through your energy at a faster rate (drop Aegis?). Because the use of Melandru's is a lot more situational than say OoB/MoR/ED/etc, it leaves you vulnerable.

Still, it looks interesting, and I'd like to hear some testing feedback.

I hate using my elite for energy management... sometimes you just gotta, I know, but that doesn't stop me hating it!

jesh · Oct 13, 2005, 07:45 PM // 19:45

Kabale, your avatar scares me.

AtomicMew · Oct 13, 2005, 08:33 PM // 20:33

Interesting build. I could see mobility and downtime being a problem though. Cripple and 9 seconds of 10 degen could hurt. Then again, maybe not. Definitely will try this out.

lynxxClan · Oct 13, 2005, 08:55 PM // 20:55

Martyr Prot with Mend Ailment, youll average 4-5 conditions every 10 seconds and lower the cost to strip everyone in your group by 30energy every 10 sec revolution, mend ailment spammable will give Divine Favor + 70 hp for each remainign condition, easily covering any condition damage you may recieve. The reason this works is because its the cheapest way to keep conditions off of your party, and its the cheapest way to keeo the prot monk alive.

Remember however to distance yourself as teh prot monk from the group, things like disease require youto be a good wards distance away from the group at all times, creatign a distance will also help you in later rounds of tombs against ranger psike with Mark, since your not grouped you wont be targeted.

Kabale · Oct 14, 2005, 09:12 AM // 09:12

Well, I tried it out in arenas and then moved on to Tombs. In arena's, it worked perfectly (I won't bother saying how many wins cos it all depends on the team anyway). I was drawing conditions and hexes like a magnet and melandru's most of the time gave me about 7 energy regen, and barely took any damage from the conditions. I swapped out the Res Sig with mend ailment for when melandru's would run out (didn't take purge cond. because I still wanted conditions on me until the next time I could put up melandru's), one or two mend ailments would put me back at full health.

It felt like having a constant BR on me, even sometimes BoP.

Of course it is a very conditional build, which might not be the best, as a prot monk (or any other monk for that matter) needs to be able to survive against any type of foe using whatever build. But since there seems to be a substantial amount of conditions flying around, I was pretty happy to come across a trapper team in Tombs and have max energy constantly, while just drawing conditions to myself

I'd say it's a viable build for the current metagame, just like the ViM build (although with that build you don't have to rely on the other team bringing conditions).

Was a lot of fun too, getting stacked with soul barbs and countless hexes... just gave me so much energy. Still have to see virulence being used on me, that would be nice :P

jon__ · Oct 14, 2005, 11:50 AM // 11:50

Wait, so Draw Conditions pulls hexes too?

Kabale · Oct 14, 2005, 12:31 PM // 12:31

No, but you should be the target of hexes anyway, so you pull the conditions with draw and get hexes put on you by mesmers thinking that you'll have no defense against it. But, every hex means more energy and health regen for me :P

Backfire and a cover hex like phantasm? Only -1 health regen and +2 energy regen. Not bad huh.

jon__ · Oct 14, 2005, 08:24 PM // 20:24

I was just confused at this: "I was drawing conditions and hexes like a magnet..."