Curse

B Ephekt · Nov 24, 2006, 05:38 PM // 17:38

SoA can generally take the place of guardian now, especially with so many thumpers around.

Prot Spirit is good for pre-protting - personally, I stick to the classics here.

Gift should be on EVERY non-bonder prot monk's bar from here forward.

Mo/A is infinitely more useful in arenas and GvG than /me; energy management comes in the form of not overhealing and kiting. Tombs and pve are really the only places left where /me is useful.

I usually run something like this for ZB:

15 prot
10 heal
10 divine
3 shadow

Gift of Health
Reversal / Dark Escape / Dash
Shield of Absorption
Zealous Benediction
Prot Spirit
Dismiss Condition
Holy Veil
Return

Queto · Nov 25, 2006, 09:32 AM // 09:32

Yay for me, capped ZB yesterday!

Now I run less DF and more Shadow Arts. I take both Return and Dark Escape (together with RoF) but don't have SoA on my bar. Might want to try that though.

Flashy · Nov 27, 2006, 10:57 AM // 10:57

You are to obsessed with Mo/A only because the top guilds run it? That doesn't mean its the best Monk... it means they can play it

and that doesn't make the Mo/A the best...

I played RA exsessive over the past couple of days as Mo/Me and yeah I kinda hold out for ages against all sort of parties...

and uhm... Mo/Me got killed faster then Mo/A I agree but still I srvived as Mo/Me... I gave up RA eventually cause I had 3 parties in a row that had a leaver in it... But I played some rows... Till we got to the good teams the TA teams with 2 Mo/A (we still killed 1 with 1 Dervish - 1 thumper - 1 Axe Shocker and me)

No monk is the best to play, the best monk to play is the monk YOU can play

Dr Strangelove · Nov 27, 2006, 11:15 AM // 11:15

Here's the current incarnation of this build for me:

Zealous Benediction [E]
Gift of Health
Reversal of Fortune
Protective Spirit/Spirit Bond
Dismiss Condition
Purge Signet
Riposte/Shield Bash
Deadly Riposte

The ripostes are invaluable for fending off the shadow prison gankasins that seem to be everywhere in RA now.

olly123 · Nov 28, 2006, 09:04 PM // 21:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Strangelove

Here's the current incarnation of this build for me:

Zealous Benediction [E]
Gift of Health
Reversal of Fortune
Protective Spirit/Spirit Bond
Dismiss Condition
Purge Signet
Riposte/Shield Bash
Deadly Riposte

The ripostes are invaluable for fending off the shadow prison gankasins that seem to be everywhere in RA now.

ok, i dont PVP much, but why on earth do urun riposte and shild bash? do thay deflect damage?

Simath · Nov 29, 2006, 03:36 AM // 03:36

For awhile I was running the following:

Zealous Benediction
Spirit Bond
Shield of Absorption
Mend Condition
Gift of Health
Reversal of Fortune
Signet of Devotion

The last spot is up to you.

Sakki · Nov 29, 2006, 04:48 AM // 04:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by olly123

ok, i dont PVP much, but why on earth do urun riposte and shild bash? do thay deflect damage?

yes they do, the skills stop the next attack or attack skill used against you.

Jessyi · Nov 30, 2006, 08:24 PM // 20:24

The Mo/W I've been running in RA looks like:

13 Prot
13 DF
9 Tactics

RoF, Mend Condition, Zealous Benediction, SoD, Veil, CoP, Deadly Riposte, Shield Bash

I carry a shield all the time; the tactics make me a hard target. Veil + CoP works well for self hex removal, of course Veil doubles as hex removal for other characters. Yes, RoF is the only other enchant but against simple caster hexers you can usually get RoF up before CoP as well and the combination is usually more than enough to keep me clean. Deadly Riposte and Shield Bash ruin assassins and warriors easily and do a lot to keep Thumpers away from you if you're careful with your timing. If mend condition wasn't so damn useful keeping other party members free of conditions and healed up as well I'd switch it to Dismiss condition, but I haven't had significant problems with conditions on myself. The only condition even remotely threatening is Dazed which means you have to be smart about your Veil and CoP, but a riposte + Dismiss Condition would work just as well if you wanted that instead.

Mo/Me is oldskool and Mo/A is nice and works well with an organized (read: TA) team, but /A doesn't actually discourage things from attacking you (at least in RA). Dark Escape doesn't prevent an assassin from finishing his chain - damage isn't my problem, conditions are. Return is great, but against other teleporting characters it's quite possible for an enemy to teleport up on you before the recharge on Dark Escape is finished. And of course, Return is a spell meaning that if your enemy is a timing expert (or lucky), you could end up KD'd or interrupted when you go to use it anyways (if it hadn't happened before I wouldn't be mentioning it).

I built this planning to be a completely autonomous unit, and it works great for that. As an RA build at least, it works out way better than Mo/A ever has for me.

-Jessyi

Effigy · Nov 30, 2006, 08:41 PM // 20:41

Seems like a pretty solid setup. The real weakness, like you said, seems to be a lack of self-removal for conditions. You could conceivably use HV+CoP, but that's not terribly efficient.

I'll have to give it a try next time I do some RA.

Jessyi · Nov 30, 2006, 10:38 PM // 22:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Effigy

Seems like a pretty solid setup. The real weakness, like you said, seems to be a lack of self-removal for conditions. You could conceivably use HV+CoP, but that's not terribly efficient.

I'll have to give it a try next time I do some RA.

HV+CoP isn't efficient for condition removal, and combining it with RoF (which works well against hexers) isn't great in conjunction with CoP for condition removal simply because most conditions get on you from attacks, which of course will remove your RoF.

Not-so-ironically, the reason that RoF and CoP isn't good for removing conditions is the same reason I don't worry about self condition removal that much, and the keyword is "attacks". Shield bashing an assassin's lead attack, or a crushing blow or an eviscerate (or riposting for that matter) means conditions that never happen in the first place. Beast masters and Broadhead arrow rangers are more fearsome. As to bleeding, poison and disease...lol, I have ZB. You're going to need more than some degen to get me down.

The build doesn't protect against everything of course, but no single build ever would. One of the early decisions I made was to remove the PS or Spirit Bond skill slot. With my warrior skills, I'm not overly concerned with warriors. Against sins of course, those skills have never been great. Dervishes? Meh, they're like warriors that spam skills. Riposte and Shield bash eat them alive. Eles? lol, r u jokin'? Ele damage = I RoF, they cast, I RoF, they cast, etc. I've got high prot anyways for ZB so I figured that against high damage I'd get a high yeild out of RoF. I haven't missed PS or Spirit Bond yet.

Bottom line is: melee attackers are responsible for the vast majority of all conditions that fall on a monk. Time your riposte and bashes well and you'll never miss self-condition removal. Except of course, against those DASTARDLY broadhead arrows...

edit: Be prepared for those people who see you as a Mo/W with a sword and shield and automatically assume the worst. It does look a little goofy, and you ARE in RA after all...
After you get the glad point for them, we'll see what they say.

-Jessyi

Effigy · Dec 01, 2006, 06:37 AM // 06:37

Good point about the tactics skills. I'll give it a shot when I get some free time.

Etrik · Dec 01, 2006, 11:00 AM // 11:00

Why doesn't anyone else run a Mo/D with Vital Boon and CoP? 200-pt heal in 1.25 secs is nice, imho. Did I mention Cond/Hex removal?

Edit: If you're not running Sig of Dev/CoP, take DF down to 8-9 [runes included] and use the points in shadow/prot/heal. Less chance of ZB not giving you E back..

Edit: I'm gonna have to try the /w variant.

Effigy · Dec 01, 2006, 01:15 PM // 13:15

That's another interesting idea. It's kind of nice that NF has created some new, viable options for monking.

XvArchonvX · Dec 01, 2006, 04:01 PM // 16:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Etrik

Why doesn't anyone else run a Mo/D with Vital Boon and CoP? 200-pt heal in 1.25 secs is nice, imho. Did I mention Cond/Hex removal?

Because it doesn't have the ability to break an assasin/warrior/thumper's skill chain when they gang up on you. /A can't do this either, but it can get you out of harm's way before they get a chance to drop anything on you if you are careful.

Generally, /A and /W are the two main options that most monks go with (although there might be some other /D combo that works too and I haven't seen yet). While both work, I prefer the /A myself. Many offhands now have he same defensive mods that shields do in addition to the additional energy, so I can't help but feel a bit hindered when I run with a shield (or at least am dependant on it for my defense). I understand that /W arguably has a greater ability to prevent melee enemies from reaching their full strength when hitting you, but I still prefer the versatility that comes with the /A combo.

holden · Dec 01, 2006, 09:19 PM // 21:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jessyi

The Mo/W I've been running in RA looks like:

13 Prot
13 DF
9 Tactics

RoF, Mend Condition, Zealous Benediction, SoD, Veil, CoP, Deadly Riposte, Shield Bash

I carry a shield all the time; the tactics make me a hard target. Veil + CoP works well for self hex removal, of course Veil doubles as hex removal for other characters. Yes, RoF is the only other enchant but against simple caster hexers you can usually get RoF up before CoP as well and the combination is usually more than enough to keep me clean. Deadly Riposte and Shield Bash ruin assassins and warriors easily and do a lot to keep Thumpers away from you if you're careful with your timing. If mend condition wasn't so damn useful keeping other party members free of conditions and healed up as well I'd switch it to Dismiss condition, but I haven't had significant problems with conditions on myself. The only condition even remotely threatening is Dazed which means you have to be smart about your Veil and CoP, but a riposte + Dismiss Condition would work just as well if you wanted that instead.

Mo/Me is oldskool and Mo/A is nice and works well with an organized (read: TA) team, but /A doesn't actually discourage things from attacking you (at least in RA). Dark Escape doesn't prevent an assassin from finishing his chain - damage isn't my problem, conditions are. Return is great, but against other teleporting characters it's quite possible for an enemy to teleport up on you before the recharge on Dark Escape is finished. And of course, Return is a spell meaning that if your enemy is a timing expert (or lucky), you could end up KD'd or interrupted when you go to use it anyways (if it hadn't happened before I wouldn't be mentioning it).

I built this planning to be a completely autonomous unit, and it works great for that. As an RA build at least, it works out way better than Mo/A ever has for me.

-Jessyi

i like shield bash but by giving up your offhand you lose 12 energy. you can try and make up for it with insignias but you'll only end up with 36 or so. something you can get used to but it gets tight. and you have to always have 10 energy in the bank for Zealot's to be of use to you.

gift of health at 9 healing is a better option than sig of devotion with 13 divine. and dismiss can be used on yourself as well as others. even if you say you don't worry about conditions on yourself, you have no backup. dazed and cripple suck. deep wound is a killer.

but im not bashing your build. i've used balanced stance/shield bash in RA for kicks, but with blessed light. i was durable even with the lower energy bank.