Curse

phillydilly · Nov 15, 2006, 06:59 PM // 18:59

This is the first time I've attempted a build, and to be honest it is conceptual and totally untested, but give me your thoughts.

Also, I just joined up, but have been lurking for a while, and if this is imposing on someone else's build, my apologies.

Alright, I wanted to come up with a solo monk build that would do a couple things:
1. avoid interupts
2. significantly lengthen the time between recasting spells.
3. not as important, but I'd like to use a solo mesmer

The biggest problem with a mesmer is the ability to deal significant damage to multiple enemies.
I settled on illusionary weapon and a scythe to hit multiple enemies.
With a scythe however, I can not use the -50 offhand.
Since a shield of absorbtion build was just posted, I didn't want to use that, plus it didn't meet criteria 2.
So i settled on a protective bond 105 monk. Obviously, energy management is a problem. But I think I found a way around that using mesmer mantras.

Build
Mo/Me Illusionary Solo
illusion 12
inspiration 3
divine favor 6+3
healing 6+3
protrotection 9+3+1
smite +3

Skills
Protective Bond
Balthazar's Spirit
Essence Bond
Mending
Heal Breeze
Mantra of frost/earth/flame/lightning*
Illusionary Weapon
Blessed Sig

*whatever type of enemy you are farming, more on this later

Weapon
Scythe - Preferrably lengthen enchanting, +energy
Armor
+energy, with 1 superior rune each

Usage:
Pre Battle:
Balthazars Spirit, Essence Bond, Protective Spirit, Mending
Battle:
Use Mantra & healing breeze, use blessed sig whenever it is recharged, use illusionary weapon, and go to work.

how it works -
the 4 upkeep enchants eliminate your energy regen
at level 13 protection, protective bond uses 3 energy each time it reduces damage to 5%, with essence bond, balthazars spirit, and mantra you will gain 4 energy each hit you take, for a net gain of 1 energy everytime you get hit

While this is less energy gain than a normal 55 monk. You dont have to recast spells nearly as often.
Illusionary weapon needs to be cast every 35 seconds
Mantras need to be cast every 40 seconds
Healing Breeze is the only thing that needs to be recast often at 10 sec.

Pros:
You dont need to worry about recasting a bunch of different spells every 10-15 seconds. Healing Breeze needs to be recast, but everything else has a long duration
If you get in a jam, you can swap out the scythe for the -50 grim cesta, this reduces the damage you take to 3pts.
Great interrupt protection. Everything you need is maintained or casts very fast - the mantra stances have no cast time. Healing brz can be interupted rarely. If this happens, swap to the -50 cesta, as described above, and mending can usually keep you going until heal breeze is recharged.

Negatives:
Energy management can be tight, but I think it works
The Mantras - This is the big negative. Your enemies have to deal a certain elemental damage with their attacks. There are mantras for cold, fire, earth, etc. so just about all kinds of elemental are covered, but it must be one of these kinds. If you are farming specific enemies, the build is strong enough so you can run past others to get to the ones you want to farm. But having to go against specific enemies is a limitation.

As a caveat - this build could be paired with a winter ranger to make all damage cold. i haven't thought about other advantages of pairing with a ranger, but i'm sure there are some good ones.

darrengordon · Nov 16, 2006, 09:51 AM // 09:51

nice idea mate, i have tried tonnes of diff builds now all protect spirit based and i have to say the easiest is still the shield of absorsb all you do is set up your energy enchants and essesnce bond (the one that lengthens enchants) and you cast ps every 30 secs or so and sheild every 10 secs its so damm easy its stupid and you never run out of energy even if just taking down one as the regen covers the spell cast for ps and with one ps and the odd sheild will give u enough heal / protect
With regard to damage i still cant find anything that does more damage than SOJ mind you in havnt tried a sythe and IW yet so dont know but i would imagine they would be close as IW does less damage but SOJ knocks em down so slower hit but then SOJ hits all at once where as sythe is limited to those u r attacking and sythe attack rate is slower hmmmm i dont know.
I just find it bloody annoying that my monk can outdage all of my mellee chars!
Have fun mate

Why_Me · Nov 16, 2006, 10:27 PM // 22:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhillyDilly

As a caveat - this build could be paired with a winter ranger to make all damage cold. i haven't thought about other advantages of pairing with a ranger, but i'm sure there are some good ones.

Thats a really good idea. Combining it with greater conflag would mean all non armor ignoring dmg is cold. The other option is stone sheath instead of greater conflag.

I think you're better off going shield of absorbtion, it needs to be recast less than HB, and the 1/4 makes it so you can cast quickly when you're in trouble and get to full.

Snoes · Nov 17, 2006, 07:40 PM // 19:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by phillydilly

Skills
Protective Bond
Balthazar's Spirit
Essence Bond
Mending
Heal Breeze
Mantra of frost/earth/flame/lightning*
Illusionary Weapon
Blessed Sig

Mantra of earth ?

Koning · Nov 18, 2006, 09:48 AM // 09:48

This is working quite good, i brought my hero with greater conflacation and winter and i had mantra of frost. I got 1 nrg back each time i got hit with mantra of frost, essence and balthazar's up. I only needed to cast IW and HB so i also didn't need that much nrg, with sv up you don't get interrupted anyway.
Only make sure your spirits don't die, that's why i died