Curse

primitiveworker · Sep 08, 2006, 05:12 PM // 17:12

primitiveworker's Monk Basics - parts 1-4

This series is intended to gently introduce basic Monking skills to
those players who have little or no experience with the Monk profession and
skills.

Most players simply roll a Boon Prot or Blessed Light prebuild and run into
Random Arena for training, but a lot of players find that approach to be
daunting.

In this series you will take henchmen against the Zaishen Challenge teams,
so there is no risk to other players and you can progress at your own pace
and on your own time.

Below are parts 1 through 4 of a series I've designed for my guild mates to
help train new monks.

Comments and criticisms are welcome.

Monk Basics - pt 1 - Fundamentals of BoonProt

Monk/Mesmer
Divine Favor = 11 + 1 + 1
Protection Prayers = 10 + 1
Inspiration = 10
Reversal of Fortune
Mantra of Recall
Divine Boon

Take this build into the Zaishen Challenge and add the Fighter, Archer and
Mage to your team. Select the Illusionary Weaponry team and enter
battle. Keep your team alive using only the above three skills and defeat
the opposing team.

Cast Divine Boon when the map loads. Cast Mantra of Recall just as the
enemies are about to come within range. Use Reversal of Fortune to heal
and protect your party members. Cast Mantra of Recall whenever it ends.

This team will not give you conditions, and they only use one
non-threatening hex.

Extra Credit: only bring Signet of Devotion on your skillbar and
obtain a flawless victory.

Monk Basics - pt 2 - Protective Spirit

Monk/Mesmer
Divine Favor = 11 + 1 + 1
Protection Prayers = 10 + 1
Inspiration = 10
Reversal of Fortune
Mantra of Recall
Divine Boon

Part A: Take this build into the Zaishen Challenge and add the
Fighter, Archer and Mage to your team. Select the Obsidian Spike
team and enter battle. Keep your team alive using only the above three
skills and defeat the opposing team.

Get into the wards and refrain from healing anyone at all. Keep tabbing
around the enemies until you see that they're casting Obsidian Flame. Try
to react quickly enough to heal the spike target using only Reversal of
Fortune. It's possible to get a flawless win this way, but you'll be
dangerously low on energy and if the team had any other tricks up their
sleeves you'd be in trouble.

Monk/Mesmer
Divine Favor = 11 + 1 + 1
Protection Prayers = 10 + 1
Inspiration = 10
Reversal of Fortune
Protective Spirit
Mantra of Recall
Divine Boon

Part B: Take this build into the Zaishen Challenge and add the
Fighter, Archer and Mage to your team. Select the Obsidian Spike
team and enter battle. Keep your team alive using only the above four
skills and defeat the opposing team.

Again, get into the wards and don't do any healing until you see that they
are about to spike. This time, lay Protective Spirit on the spike target
as soon as you see who it is and clean them up with a Reversal of Fortune.
While Protective Spirit has an initial cost of 10 energy, you'll see that
it saves you energy in the long-run by preventing damage.

Monk Basics - pt 3 - Condition Removal and Movement

Divine Favor = 11 + 1 + 1
Protection Prayers = 10 + 1
Inspiration = 10
Mend Ailment
Mend Condition
Mantra of Recall
Divine Boon

Take this build into the Zaishen Challenge and add the Fighter, Archer and
Mage to your team. Select the "Victory is Mine" team and enter
battle. Since the henchmen cannot beat this team, the victory condition for
this lesson is to keep your team alive for 5 minutes using only the
above four skills.

You'll want to save Mend Ailment for yourself, and Mend Condition on
everyone else. You'll also want to be constantly moving throughout this
battle so as not to stand in the traps which do some pretty nasty damage
over time. You'll have to manage your energy wisely as well, taking care
not to over-heal.

You'll notice that Mend Condition heals are quite large as long as the
target is suffering from a condition. You'll also notice that Mend Ailment
heals are HUGE when the healed target has two or more conditions.

Monk Basics - pt 4 - Fundamentals of Bonding

(Bonders typically do not invest points in the healing line. The below
scenario has been artificially constructed as a lesson to illustrate the
mechanics of bonding and should probably not be taking into a match.)

Divine Favor = 11 + 1 + 1
Protection Prayers = 10 + 1
Healing = 10 + 1
Healing Hands
Healing Whisper
Balthazar's Spirit
Life Bond

Take this build into the Zaishen Challenge and add the Fighter, Archer and
Mage to your team. Select the Smiting Monks team and enter battle.
Keep your team alive using only the above four skills and defeat the
opposing team or stay alive for 5 minutes. It can take more than 5 minutes
to kill this team with hench, so don't worry about it. If you've kept
everyone alive for 5 minutes you've understood the lesson.

You'll cast Balthazar's Spirit on yourself, and Life Bond on everyone else
when the map starts. You'll use Healing Whisper to keep your party
healthy, and use Healing Hands on yourself when you're getting low.

You'll be taking damage the whole match because Life Bond is redirecting
damage to you every time your party takes damage. As a consequence,
Balthazar's Spirit will be pumping you full of energy the whole match.
Healing Hands is the only self-heal you need, since you'll zoom straight up
to full health whenever you use it. And you should always be moving to
avoid direct damage from the other team, in this way you'll stay alive
during Healing Hands' recharge time.

Normally when you are bonding you'll need to take along Blessed Signet and
optionally Mantra of Inscriptions. But in this example you're only
maintaining 4 enchantments, which means you're neither regenerating nor
degenerating energy. This means the only way to gain energy is to allow
your team to take damage.

They will cast Scourge Healing on your party and will remove your
enchantments, so be careful to re-apply the ones that drop. You can hover
over your maintained enchantments to see who was stripped if it's not
obvious by looking at the party window.

cerb · Sep 08, 2006, 09:18 PM // 21:18

If you want a tip to add for boonprot:

When you enter a map, put a Divine Favor scalp with a sup DF rune in it (+4), cast Boon, then switch to non-runed scalp. For a level 17 boon, use the +4 DF scalp and a +1 DF (20%) weapon or offhand, keep casting/removing boon until you get a lvl 17 one on you (76 heal), then switch back to normal weapons and armor =)

primitiveworker · Oct 24, 2006, 07:57 PM // 19:57

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I originally posted this thread on 09-08-2006. And this series of very instructive articles by ANet began appearing on 10-20-2006.

Glad you like the concept ANet!