Curse

Grammar · Sep 29, 2007, 12:54 AM // 00:54

Recently, I've seen quite a few LoD monks running Guardian, due to the hard hitting melee mobs in Eye of the North.
I recently started tinkering with the skill in my LoD build and it's sort of growing on me.

Here's what I've been running the last couple days:
-LoD
-Sig of Rejuv
-RoF
-Guardian
-Dismiss
-Cure Hex
-Prot Spirit
-Rebirth

Guardian over SoA or Aegis? Does that sound crazy?
Maybe, but I'm starting to sour on SoA in PvE, and the ~20 seconds of downtime with Aegis seems like an eternity. Guardian has the same duration as SoA, and you can cast it on more than 1 guy in a 10 second span. On top of that, PvE just seems more like a LoD/Heal Party type affair these days rather than a focus-fire-prevention affair. It's to the point where I'd rather cast Guardian on 2 guys than SoA on 1 guy. It costs more energy doing that, but it stops more total damage a vast majority of the time.

Eh, just throwing a couple pennies out there to be taken or thrown back. Feel free to do either.

caeleth · Oct 11, 2007, 02:39 PM // 14:39

Personally, I bring both guardian and soa. But then I'm one of those (very few) people who aren't so fond of rof. Guardian is great in gwen, and every time I think of swopping it out for rof I really miss it. Not being hit > being hit with rof on you. The short duration is actually quite fine since the little red dots will likely start bashing another target before its done anyway. Soa is for those cases where they actually focus on someone (normally poor gwen or me) -tbh sometimes i prefer getting agro and keeping soa on myself just to keep em from running from one hero to another. So in my book its either rof or guardian.

I don't think I've ever used Aegis regularly in PvE... I just cannot be bothered.

These days I run one of two builds in gwen.

ZBprot hybrid (sig dev, dismiss cond, guardian, soa, ZB, GoH, SB, GoLE) with Dunk as LoD heal (drain & leech sig for energy, orison, ethreal, heal other, LoD, PS, res)

LoD + HB (sig rej, guardian, soa, LoD, infuse, PS, arcane mimicry - res or e-management) with Dunk as HB heal (2 x energy mes skills, dismiss cond, dwayna, orison, ethreal, HB, res)

The LoD + HB is a lot of fun! It can get rather energy intensive tho... But I've gotten a bit bored of the ZB build so I've just been playing around with

Keekles · Oct 11, 2007, 05:42 PM // 17:42

Guardian/Shield of Deflection does pretty much nothing vs the melee destroyers. So I stopped bothering with them. I still run an SoD or LoD-Hybrid in Eye of the North.

Against other stuff, I have have aegis and Shield of Deflection or Guardian. I like bringing both. Aegis is a good "Oh crap the mob's gone nuts!" skill, while guardian is nice if they're focusing on one to two characters. If I'm running SoD, I usually SoD one, and prot-spirit rof the other.

Grammar · Oct 11, 2007, 07:45 PM // 19:45

Since I made this thread, I've really started warming up to Aegis chaining.

I'm not a huge fan of Aegis by itself, but I love in chains.
In fact, just for fun, sometimes I set up my monk hero like this:

-Glyph of Renewal (red barred)
-Aegis (red barred)
-Shield of Absorption (red barred)
-Sig of Devotion
-Gift of Health
-Mend Condition
-Remove Hex
-Rez of some kind (red barred)

This bar gives him a perpetual Aegis Chain, which I control of course. Every 10 seconds or so I just have him cast Glyph of Renewal --> Aegis.
SoA is great to have red barred on a monk hero because it's rarely needed enough in PvE encounters to have it on my own bar, but when you do need it, boy do you need it! On the rare occasions when all the monsters go to town on a single guy (like when an ele overextends to cast a k1||3r nuk3!!1! or something), SoA is a life saver. So until such a situation occurs, it just sits there red barred on my hero monk's bar for my use in case of emergency.
Other than that, he just spams the 4 skills that aren't red barred, which is pretty much what I want him to do anyway, especially Mend Condition).

Obviously this only works in areas where Aegis actually makes a big different, which is many but not all areas. In areas without heavy physical damage, I usually switch him to LoD (keeping SoA of course).

The only time I bring SoA on my bar in PvE is if I'm teamed in a party with a second human monk who doesn't have it. Then I'm pretty much forced to bring it for the above-mentioned emergency situations. But I'd much prefer to stash it on a hero's bar if possible.

Age · Oct 11, 2007, 10:17 PM // 22:17

I am playing strickly protect when it comes to EoTN as I have been since Factions although I do have a few hybrid templates.I don't use guardian or soa mostly just rof.