Curse

Faer · Oct 09, 2006, 07:50 AM // 07:50

I generally play Boon-Prot, but the idea for this build struck me a few days ago. I was sick and tired of being stuck as the only Monk in a group because the leader was too stubborn to take a henchman Monk, the party had far too much confidence in me, the party didn't know the limitations of Boon-Prot in PvE, or I was too damn tired to grab a full henchman team and trudge through an area. So, I thought I might want to find a way to do some massive spike healing (spike heals in PvE omgwtflol?), as well as be able to handle the Condition and Hex removal by myself (because nobody, or at least not me, trusts a Wammo with Mend Ailment). I figured that between Divine Boon and Word of Healing, I could throw out some pretty large heals for a very low cost without too much hassle. I decided to trudge my way through the urban wasteland of Cantha to cap WoH so that I could actually test the idea (and besides, BP is getting old; I needed to broaden my horizons!

)... Once I threw this baby together, I fell in love. I know it isn't perfect yet, and it's going to inspire a few "WTF?!" moments, but I'm new to this side of the Monk world, so just bear with me for a bit.

The Profession:
Monk/Mesmer

The Equipment:
Hale Holy Staff of Fortitude (Energy +10, Health +60. 20/20 Healing Prayers)
Full Judge's Armor (Major or Superior Vigor Rune in Vestments)
Servant's Scalp Design of Superior Healing
Prophet's Scalp Design of Superior Divine Favor

The Attributes:
Healing Prayers 12+1+3
Divine Favor 9+1+3 (only when casting Boon; otherwise attribute is 9)
Protection Prayers 3
Inspiration Magic 9

The Skills:
Orison of Healing
Word of Healing {E}
Healing Breeze*
Heal Party
Mend Condition
Inspired Hex
Divine Boon
<Energy management skill of your choice here>

Now of course, as soon as you load into an area, you will want to equip your Divine Favor Scalp Design to pre-cast Divine Boon. Once that is done, you can equip your Healing Prayers Scalp Design and forget that Divine one even exists (unless of course Boon gets stripped, but you really shouldn't have that happen too often if you aren't trying to tank). Orison of Healing will be your most often used spell (as is often the case). Word of Healing can be used if you need to quickly heal multiple individuals, or if you need that extra heal bonus from your target being below 50% health (which obviously happens far too often if you are the only Monk in the group). Healing Breeze is used only to help heal yourself if you are taking damage, through degen or direct, and need to focus on healing the rest of the team. Heal Party, another situational heal, is to be used only when it would be energy efficient (which I believe is when it would save three or more party members, though my math and memory may be off). Of course you have Mend Condition and Inspired Hex to clear up those nasty effects that your party will be plagued by throughout your journeys. As for choosing your energy management skill, it is pretty much up to the individual, however I found this thread to be extremely informative.

The above paragraph is pretty much common sense to veteran Monks (some of which wouldn't hesitate to flame the hell out of me), but I felt the need to explain anyway, just to keep anyone from asking what each skill is used for, or why I use it...

Now keep in mind, I don't have very much Monking experience outside of Boon-Prot (and farming, but that doesn't really count). I expect a lot of criticism about this build, but please, keep it constructive. I want to improve not only the build, but also myself, as a Healing Prayers user. I know this build won't work everywhere, but so far I've tested it out in various areas of the urban wastes of Cantha, the Echovald Forest (Arborstone (Mission), Arborstone (Explorable), and Ferndale, to be specific), and even in the Alliance Battles... It did quite well in each PvE area of testing, and excelled in the Alliance Battle testing phases (far outmatched my Boon-Prot build when it came to keeping my fellow Kurzicks alive).

Let the discussion commence.

*Yes, I am aware that Healing Breeze is a very much disregarded skill that is commonly scoffed at. So sue me...

Sab · Oct 09, 2006, 08:38 AM // 08:38

What does this have over a Boon Prot?

The advantages of Boon Prot:
- Versatile main heal (Reversal), 1/4 sec cast, usable on yourself, fast recharge.
- Damage mitigation (Guardian, Prot Spirit, Spirit Bond).
- Anti-Spike, 1/4 sec cast spells.
- Elite energy management, self explanatory.
- Self defence (CoP)

Boon Prots have enough pure healing already, and makes up for the rest by stopping the damage from happening in the first place. Personally, I'd never give up the utility of the Prot line (listed above) for straight healing in a Boon build.

That's not to mention a Booned Word is likely to overheal (wasting energy) and Healing Breeze is garbage...

Scourgey · Oct 09, 2006, 08:41 AM // 08:41

For PvE, you can predict when WoH is needed (and in PvP as well). I don't really see why you need divine boon at all. Another thing to consider, is rather than healing raw damage, find ways to perform damage reduction, e.g. protective spirit or blocking enchants.

I find for PvE, WoH, healing seed & dwyana's kiss to be more than sufficient. In fact healing seed is pretty essential to most healing build.

Healing breeze is not recommended for PvE, especially with divine boon, it's main use is to counter degen (even then it's not that great).

If you don't take divine boon, you won't need inspired hex, so take holy veil instead as it is imo a better hex removal.

An example of what I would bring is:

WoH, dwyana's kiss, healing seed, mend condition, holy veil, heal party, Protective spirit, rebirth.

Providing the tank does his job, this is all you really need in most pve situations, another monk is kinda needed, but not essential if you position yourself carefully and if ppl don't rush off. In fact sometimes, I replace WoH with Spell breaker in teams that know how to tank.

Faer · Oct 09, 2006, 08:51 AM // 08:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuxA

What does this have over a Boon Prot?

The advantages of Boon Prot:
- Versatile main heal (Reversal), 1/4 sec cast, usable on yourself, fast recharge.
- Damage mitigation (Guardian, Prot Spirit, Spirit Bond).
- Anti-Spike, 1/4 sec cast spells.
- Elite energy management, self explanatory.
- Self defence (CoP)

Boon Prots have enough pure healing already, and makes up for the rest by stopping the damage from happening in the first place. Personally, I'd never give up the utility of the Prot line (listed above) for straight healing in a Boon build.

That's not to mention a Booned Word is likely to overheal (wasting energy) and Healing Breeze is garbage...

All very valid points.

At the moment, the only things I can see that this build has over Boon-Prot are:

I seem to be running out of energy less often.
I get an interesting rush when I see overkill heals pop.

However, as I have a few good months of Boon-Prot under my belt and only a few hours of using this build (and those that I made before it... WoH Boon Infuser, that was a fun one), I can't really say exactly what this build is better for. I get the feeling it's useful for something, which is why I bothered to post it in the first place; just can't put my finger on what yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scourgey

For PvE, you can predict when WoH is needed (and in PvP as well). I don't really see why you need divine boon at all. Another thing to consider, is rather than healing raw damage, find ways to perform damage reduction, e.g. protective spirit or blocking enchants.

I find for PvE, WoH, healing seed & dwyana's kiss to be more than sufficient. In fact healing seed is pretty essential to most healing build.

Healing breeze is not recommended for PvE, especially with divine boon, it's main use is to counter degen (even then it's not that great).

If you don't take divine boon, you won't need inspired hex, so take holy veil instead as it is imo a better hex removal.

An example of what I would bring is:

WoH, dwyana's kiss, healing seed, mend condition, holy veil, heal party, Protective spirit, rebirth.

Providing the tank does his job, this is all you really need in most pve situations, another monk is kinda needed, but not essential if you position yourself carefully and if ppl don't rush off. In fact sometimes, I replace WoH with Spell breaker in teams that know how to tank.

Again, very valid points, and I appreciate the advice.

I guess, overall, this build is just for a change of pace (until I can find that elusive reason why I feel it'll be important to take along one day). Boon-Prot has served me well 99% of the time I've been Monking, but as I said in my original post, I need to move away from it and start working on other lines. Perhaps I should have posted this in Riverside, just for kicks...

cerb · Oct 09, 2006, 02:03 PM // 14:03

What Scourgey said, except I'd ditch PS for orison

With your original build, you would run out of energy sooooooo fast.

You'd need extremely good energy management as well as Power Drain and Inspired Hex you would put to good use... anyways, like it's been said, boon prot already heals for enough, and is a good all-around character: reversal of fortune is much better than a heal (not talking about WoH, but more like orison/dwaynas), you have Mend Condition that heals for a lot, guardian to help, prot spirit or sb in case someone starts taking too much damage...

Katari · Oct 09, 2006, 02:53 PM // 14:53

The thing is, WoH alone is really plenty in PvE situations. Boon, like the name of the build suggests, is overkill. Overhealing isn't something to shoot for. When WoH alone would have been enough, that -2e/-1r from boon is wasted. Wasting energy is a bad plan. Orision is nice because you sometimes want a cheap, smaller heal. With Boon up, you can't do that, all of your heals are big heals, with big heal prices.

*lemming* · Oct 09, 2006, 05:56 PM // 17:56

How exactly do you run out of energy faster with a boonprot build over this?

Skuld · Oct 09, 2006, 07:32 PM // 19:32

Its pointless. Take heal party and/or prot spirit on your WoH. Boon heal is exactly that, overkill to no real effect! Considered Restore Condition?

SnipiousMax · Oct 09, 2006, 07:37 PM // 19:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuxA

That's not to mention a Booned Word is likely to overheal (wasting energy) and Healing Breeze is garbage...

QFT

I've very rarely ever had to stop my group to regen energy when I play a boon prot in PvE. My group has to stop after every mob when we picked up a monk that constantly spammed Heal breeze. I imagine the effect would be amplified with Divine Boon in place. FTL

Effigy · Oct 10, 2006, 03:33 PM // 15:33

Somewhat off topic, but why do people think Healing Breeze is good for countering degen? Unlike a normal heal, Breeze actually has its effectiveness reduced if the target has more than 10 pips of degen. If they don't have 10+ pips, then there's no reason to devote a whole skill slot to countering degen. If the degen is spread throughout the group, then Breeze is highly inefficient. Degen does not require a specific counter apart from Heal Party for widespread degen; otherwise, just heal through it or remove the cause.

As to boon healing, I agree with the others. It may be good for a laugh, but other than that it won't provide anything that a straight healing or boon prot build doesn't offer.

Zeph · Oct 10, 2006, 03:56 PM // 15:56

Gah, whats the deal with the tiny font, are you trying to make your posts hard to read?

I gave up reading after a few lines, the text is readable but annoying to read.

Faer · Oct 10, 2006, 06:07 PM // 18:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeph

Gah, whats the deal with the tiny font, are you trying to make your posts hard to read?

I gave up reading after a few lines, the text is readable but annoying to read.

I like Times New Roman...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Effigy

As to boon healing, I agree with the others. It may be good for a laugh, but other than that it won't provide anything that a straight healing or boon prot build doesn't offer.

It's good for quite a few laughs, indeed.

Ismoke · Oct 10, 2006, 06:54 PM // 18:54

Hybrid monk builds are way more fun!

Effigy · Oct 10, 2006, 09:12 PM // 21:12

Well, nothing wrong with having some fun. It's just important to notice the distinction between "fun" builds and "ideal" builds, especially when posting on a forum frequented by many impressionable young monks.

If you really want to play a boon healer though, I'd suggest staying away from WoH. Unless your target already has one foot in the grave and the other is soon to follow, a booned WoH is guaranteed to overheal by quite a lot. You'd probably be better off playing it similar to a boon prot, with elite energy management and using cheap spam spells. In PvE you can generally afford to let someone get fairly low before healing, so it would probably work fine if you went this route.

Age · Oct 10, 2006, 11:15 PM // 23:15

You don't need boon in a Word of Healing build it is over kill.

Faer · Oct 10, 2006, 11:40 PM // 23:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Effigy

In PvE you can generally afford to let someone get fairly low before healing, so it would probably work fine if you went this route.

Well technically it could be argued that you don't need Monks at all in PvE, but...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Age

You don't need boon in a Word of Healing build it is over kill.

Hence the name of the build...

ShaneOfMach · Oct 11, 2006, 04:00 AM // 04:00

Overkill for a monk = not good (ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE

so basically, you'll probably last like 20 seconds before you run out of energy and every just dies from lack of heals

Faer · Oct 11, 2006, 05:00 AM // 05:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShaneOfMach

so basically, you'll probably last like 20 seconds before you run out of energy and every just dies from lack of heals

Erm... I never seem to have that problem with this build, even though it is really overkill on both the heal amounts and the energy it uses.