Curse

Sli Ander · Nov 08, 2006, 11:43 PM // 23:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pebbles

I'm actually quite self centered as far as my monking gose, I won't put on major attribute runes I only ever put on minors, and my condition removal HAS to be usable on myself because I go in alot of PUGs I work on the assumption that there idiots until they proove me otherwise and I don't trust the other monk to remove conditions or heal me. Eliteist I might be but meh where are you gonna get another half decent healing monk who will monk for a PUG.

lol. That's about my attitude on what healing skills to bring. I've never used heal other for the simple reason that I can't use it on myself. I don't even like bringing WoH, but its a nice elite so I work around it. I try and balance it so most of my skills can be used on myself. If worst comes to worst I refuse being anything other than last man standing.

For Attributes I stick with majors and minors, with the exception that I didn't feel like paying for a major prot when I had a sup in storage.
PuG monking is always about expecting the worst, or at least the unexpected.

But that's just my two cents

NinjaKai · Nov 09, 2006, 12:11 AM // 00:11

My thinking is in the same line as yours. Its the reason why I use spells like aegis and wards. I assume the PUGs i'm with will be idiots that take lots of damage. So I do it in order to try and prevent damage making less problems for me.

Vahn Roi · Nov 09, 2006, 12:58 AM // 00:58

I've been playing Boonprot a lot lately, in fact I played it for most of Nightfall when I was getting through it. I have found that the reason I like it is due to the short cast times of the spells.

Jetai12 · Nov 09, 2006, 01:47 AM // 01:47

I love Blessed Light, but some of these other new Nightfall builds look good.....

Talin_The_Medic · Nov 09, 2006, 02:08 AM // 02:08

Healer's boon.... try it... love it...

The only bad thing about it is it's a maintained enchant

But really, it does rock, at least give it a test. I still love my WoH build, tuned a little with a nightfall skill or two, and glimmer is pretty cool if you use it right....

I don't like any prot really. I mean none. At all. Besides RC <.<

I like healing.. it's just what I do lol

Yarrick · Nov 09, 2006, 11:01 AM // 11:01

WoH, Bonder, 55, Boon Prot

Effigy · Nov 09, 2006, 01:22 PM // 13:22

The probkem with pure healing is it has zero utility. No condition removal, no mitigation. Healing has its place, but going pure healing is pretty limiting. This is why I like hybrids.

Boon prot and BL heal/prot are both great. I'm playing a new monk in PvE right now and I only have healing skills unlocked...boy, do I feel useless....and slow.

XvArchonvX · Nov 09, 2006, 03:31 PM // 15:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Effigy

The probkem with pure healing is it has zero utility. No condition removal, no mitigation. Healing has its place, but going pure healing is pretty limiting. This is why I like hybrids.

Boon prot and BL heal/prot are both great. I'm playing a new monk in PvE right now and I only have healing skills unlocked...boy, do I feel useless....and slow.

I personally tend to go straight spike heal since I hate relying on enchants personally. I always have a condition and hex removal skill on my bar and consider myself a straight healer even if the condition and hex removal skill come from other attributes. Condition removal skills may be mainly prot attribute skills, but you don't need any attributes in prot for them to be useful. The bonus heal that comes from them may be nice, but really means little in the long run imho. I agree that damage reduction is very important, especially in later parts of the game, but an effective defense requires not only damage reduction, but damage relief as well. A prot monk means nothing if it only slows down the process of teammates dying and a heal monk means nothing if their teammates are spiked before a spell can be cast. I simply prefer playing the latter of the two roles, though I do enjoy both. Smiting never really appealed to me as it never seemed to be as effective as other professions that focus on damage dealing and doesn't really take advantage of Divine Favor in most instances.

Btw, if you are bothered by the relatively slow speed of heal spells, put Holy Haste in your skill bar.

Cebe · Nov 09, 2006, 04:01 PM // 16:01

I started a monk in Nightfall...I waited for the release before I did. I find PuGs to be of such poor quality now that 90% of the time I have opted to go with Heroes and Hench. Due to this I use smiting.. When I go with a human group I tend to use my brother's healing build which consists of pretty much all straight healing, condition removal and resurrection chant. I just try to heal whoever had the lowest health at the time. When I go healing I don't take smiting (although sometimes I would like to just to wind people up!) because it seems that you need as many points as you can get in Healing Prayers and Divine Favour to make the spells "good"... There is definitely an art to playing a healing monk and I hope to learn much from my brother who has played a monk for a very long time. Currently working my way down the factions storyline to try to cap Blessed Light as it comes highly reccommended. One thing I have noticed is that compared with all the Ritualist heals (by which I mean Mend Body and Soul, Soothing Memories etc..) the Healing Prayers heals seem to...lack. I also play a Restoration Ritualist and find using that as a straight heal easier than monk. Perhaps I will try some protection soon...I also liked the idea of going Mo/E and using Earth Wards.

the_jos · Nov 09, 2006, 04:18 PM // 16:18

First of all, I only PvE.
Played WoH and OoB Boon prot a lot.
Did not like the Mesmer alternatives for OoB.
When I am henching, I smite.

Always start out with 16 in the main line (scalp + sup rune).
When DP gets high, I switch back to a scalp + minor.
DF is almost always on 13 (base + rune on armor)

When I run healing/prot build, my skillbar is almost allways 5e spells (except Prot Spirit on Boon Prot).
I still have to try the two Nightfall elites I capped so far, so have no build around those yet (Glimmer of Light and Light of Deliverance).

I take a condition remover with me, most of the time I just leave the hex remover out. If you don't like the hexes in a mission, bring your own remover.
Or invite a mesmer in the party.
Condition remover is the non-self from the prot line (mend condition).
This heals only 22 with leftover att point (3+1), but is very spammable.
And it does what it's suppost to do, remove conditions.
When I get a condition, the only really annoying is Daze and you won't be able to get it of with the self-remover when someone targets you.

I really have to try Dwayna's Kiss on a Dervish with full enchantments

Rera · Nov 09, 2006, 04:32 PM // 16:32

RCprot for condition-heavy areas, DHprot for hex-heavy areas, Blight for everything else.

I've never understood why anyone would go pure heal. You need two or three skills to make red bars go up, everything else should be prot/utility.

XvArchonvX · Nov 09, 2006, 05:01 PM // 17:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rera

RCprot for condition-heavy areas, DHprot for hex-heavy areas, Blight for everything else.

I've never understood why anyone would go pure heal. You need two or three skills to make red bars go up, everything else should be prot/utility.

Who says a pure healer can't bring a condition and hex removal skill? I really don't understand why so many people have this view that to be a pure healer you have to only fill your bar with skills from Healing Prayers. It is entirely possible to fulfill the role of a condition/hex remover without spending a single attribute point.

Rera · Nov 09, 2006, 05:12 PM // 17:12

I'm not concerned about the condition and hex removal part. It's the lack of prot skills that bothers me. A healing bar with a res, a condition removal, a hex removal, and 5 healing skills still sounds like a waste of time to me.

XvArchonvX · Nov 09, 2006, 06:01 PM // 18:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rera

I'm not concerned about the condition and hex removal part. It's the lack of prot skills that bothers me. A healing bar with a res, a condition removal, a hex removal, and 5 healing skills still sounds like a waste of time to me.

Why would you want a healer to have prot skills? The purpose of a prot monk is to reduce damage and give a certain amount back, but a healer monk is really the most efficient choice in actual healing.

Effigy · Nov 09, 2006, 06:17 PM // 18:17

What we're saying is you don't have to be a "healing monk" or a "prot monk." You can very easily fit both in the same build. This is why every monk I make wears a DF scalp. Rather than cranking either Healing or Protection to get better healing from their respective skills, I crank DF and get better healing on all my skills, while also freeing up attribute points to diversify. Most prot skills don't need a huge attribute investment to be effective anyway, and if you use high-powered healing spells like Gift, Glimmer, Whisper, etc, you can get a lot of mileage from them with only 9-10 Healing.

Most of the time, 16 Healing and 13 DF is just going to overheal the target unless you're waiting for them to get really low on health. The great thing about prot is you don't need to wait that long because you aren't applying a big heal after the fact, but rather defusing the damage before it happens, while also supplying a more moderate heal. You can bring 1-2 straight heals for those situations where a spike heal is necessary. Having your entire bar filled with spike heals seems redundant since they all do basically the same thing.

Sli Ander · Nov 09, 2006, 07:09 PM // 19:09

This is what I refer to as my 'healing build'
rebirth(though I'm fiddling with res chant at moment)
heal party
Divine spirit(for en management, only started using it recently and I like it)
WoH
Orison of healing
Condition remover
Reversal of Fortune
Dwayna's Kiss

I think thats what I usually use, I've been experimenting a lot lately so it all runs together in my mind. If its a hex heavy area I bring a hex remover and let a henchie or another person deal with conditions. I used to bring HB to counter whichever (hex/condition) I didn't bring, but I've been fiddling with better energy management.
The only difference between this and my old 'prot' build was I used Mark of protection instead of WoH. I think what most people think of as healing is actually a hybrid, because it is frankly the best way to use monk skills (imo). A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and you're ready for all situations. I've frankly found it difficult to go full prot, for the same reason as full heal.

Quote:

I agree that damage reduction is very important, especially in later parts of the game, but an effective defense requires not only damage reduction, but damage relief as well.

Archon put it best I think. Whether you focus more on prot, or on healing like I do, a little bit from both lines never hurt.

But that's just my two cents

arcady · Nov 09, 2006, 09:19 PM // 21:19

I'll do healer if monk is my secondary class, such as with my ritualist and my mesmer. I've just started my first primary monk, and I'm preferring protection for that. All my protection spells heal anyway from divine favor, so I can get a double impact in.

Smite is for the elementist, ritualist, or necromancer. If you want massive ranged damage - get a profession that does it better. My opinion at least. And if your going for some kind of melee damage, you're asking for it on a monk.

I've given secondary monk or ritualist to a number of heroes also - and in that I do it for a mass heal (like heal party) and rez better than a signet.

Samuel Dravis · Nov 09, 2006, 09:29 PM // 21:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sli Ander

Archon put it best I think. Whether you focus more on prot, or on healing like I do, a little bit from both lines never hurt.

Yeah, I agree. In PvE PUGs I can literally never rely on another monk having appropriate skills, so I almost always bring Protective Spirit and most of the time Reversal of Fortune as well. PS is especially useful, as it allows damage to be controlled into something I can actually heal. Even with 4 direct heals, sometimes there's just too much damage and PS controls that very well. Reversal is good because the cast time is so low... The benefit of both of these skills is that you can preprot the aggro warrior. Usually mobs use a unholy load of high damage skills on him when he first goes in range, and stopping that is nice.