Curse

candyman_sb · Oct 14, 2007, 01:48 PM // 13:48

In PvE damage is usually spread betwen 2 or more party members and with the cd nerf on these skills I can't prot more targets like before, though the duration has been buffed a little. What are ur thoughts on this.

And now if I go full prot the only viable elites are ZB and RC?

moko · Oct 14, 2007, 01:50 PM // 13:50

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10170209

see the bottom (worse).

Tarzanboy · Oct 14, 2007, 07:57 PM // 19:57

Worse.

If you went with a bonding build, you could go with Life Barrier, but I'd agree, the choices in elites in Protection Prayers is becoming more and more limited.

Cheers,
TB

candyman_sb · Oct 14, 2007, 08:11 PM // 20:11

What do u guys think about life sheath? Doesn't offer a lot of protection compared to SoD and SoR but it can be precasted before battle, has a lower recharge and is cheaper.

Age · Oct 14, 2007, 08:33 PM // 20:33

Life Sheath needs a buff it wasn't like it was in WPE of Factions iirc.It is just not strong enough your best elite is RC or Divert Hexes as your non elites are far better to negate damage.

Tarzanboy · Oct 14, 2007, 09:07 PM // 21:07

When I've used Life Sheath, I've noticed that I need to precast Protective Spirit onto the character prior to casting Life Sheath to get the most use out of it.

Scenario:
You have 16 Prot Prayers.
The target to be protected is a 400 hp char with AL 60 armor.
The enemy threat is Mobrin, Lord of the Marsh, the nasty warrior boss from Sparkfly (not using the nasty "twisted jaws" skill in this example):

LS with PS preset:
Hit #1, Crippling strike hits for 160, reduced to 40 damage by PS. Life Sheath negates the damage down to 0 and subtracts it from 158. Target takes 0 damage but is bleeding and crippled.
Hit #2, Gash hits for 320, reduced to 40 damage by PS. Life Sheath negates the damage down to 0 and subtracts it from 118. Target takes 0 damage but has a deep wound (-80 hp).
Hit #3 is reduced to 32 damage by PS. Life Sheath negates the damage down to 0 and subtracts it from 78.
Hit #4 is reduced to 32 damage by PS. Life Sheath negates the damage down to 0 and subtracts it from 46.
Hit #5 is reduced to 32 damage by PS. Life Sheath negates 14 points of damage and ends. Target takes 18 damage.
Hit #6, the target takes 32 damage.
Mobrin probably gets bored and moves on.

LS preset to PS:
Crippling strike hits for 160. Life sheath ends. Target takes 2 damage and is bleeding and crippled.
Gash hits, target takes 40 damage and sets deep wound (-80hp).
Subsequent attacks yield 32 damage.

LS without PS:
Crippling strike hits for 160. Life sheath ends. Target takes 2 damage and is bleeding and crippled.
Gash hits for 320 and sets deep wound (-80hp). Target dies.

Cheers,
TB

Dean Harper · Oct 15, 2007, 05:04 AM // 05:04

yeah, the update kinda hurt both skills, and i hope anet changes em back, but its not likely...

noocoo · Oct 15, 2007, 01:14 PM // 13:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by candyman_sb

What do u guys think about life sheath? Doesn't offer a lot of protection compared to SoD and SoR but it can be precasted before battle, has a lower recharge and is cheaper.

The weakness of Life Sheath is 1 sec cast.
That's why rof is much better.

candyman_sb · Oct 15, 2007, 03:56 PM // 15:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by noocoo

The weakness of Life Sheath is 1 sec cast.
That's why rof is much better.

Um...they are diferent skills. RoF negates dmg for 1 hit and LS negates next x dmg even for multiple hits (corect me if I'm wrong) and has a longer duration. I don't think it's fair do compare them.
Anyway ZB>LS and all the other prot elites for a GoH prot monk in PVE.

moko · Oct 15, 2007, 04:07 PM // 16:07

Life Sheath is pretty much an awful elite (wouldn't even use it if it was non-elite).

so much worse than SoA, Spirit Bond or Shielding Hands, Aegis, RoF, Guardian, Protective Spirit...not to mention the elites.

Omniclasm · Oct 16, 2007, 03:28 AM // 03:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mokone

Life Sheath is pretty much an awful elite (wouldn't even use it if it was non-elite).

so much worse than SoA, Spirit Bond or Shielding Hands, Aegis, RoF, Guardian, Protective Spirit...not to mention the elites.

Depends on how you look at it...
On heroes, LS>ZB.

LS negates 150ish
ZB heals for 180ish

LS costs 5 energy.
ZB costs 10 energy. (heroes don't use it right)

The extra 30 is not worth 5 energy IMO.

Divert Hexes is only useful if its a somewhat hex heavy area.
Restore Condition is only useful in places with mass conditions. (Mandragors

)
Life Barrier is obviously limited in it's use, specially for heroes.
Shield of Regeneration costs too much energy for heroes to use well.
Shield of Deflection, same as SoR, costs too much for them to use.

If you are running a 3-way split with healing and protection then LoD is probably your best bet.

Turbobusa · Oct 16, 2007, 09:16 AM // 09:16

Life sheath is ok on heroes as you can't really screw up with it. On a real player ZB takes the cake.
The change to SoD is theorically good for heroes bars, longer recharge = less spam. I haven't tested though. For players, it's worse.

Sakura Az · Oct 16, 2007, 09:29 AM // 09:29

SoR used to be my fave monk elite.. now its been removed from my bar in place for ZB. I think the changes to SoR and SoD made them less desirable over other prot elites like ZB and RC.. if LS got a cast time buff and mabe some more prevention power i might use it, tho.. it sounds perfect for a hero prot monk to use.

Melody Cross · Oct 16, 2007, 09:38 AM // 09:38

Outside a 3-monk (without a lot of deaths and consumables), most backlines just can't handle the pressure that teams and mobs can supply anymore. They need off-monk heals to compensate. Damage keeps going up, prot and healing remains stagnant or gets nerfed.

SoR was a little overpowered before the update for flaggers. Now its garbage. SoD was exceptional before the update. Now its horribad. We're basically down to three builds again: ZBs in 4v4, LoDs in 8v8, with RCs supporting them. Anet will, as usual, adopt a wait and see mentality toward their balance...and by the time they figure out just how big this mistake is, they'll have nerfed monk backlines. I wonder if that was their intent. N/Rts with a spirit spammer are supplying better (not equal, better) HOT than monks can...and prot is being chipped away at one skill at a time.

And no, Life Sheath is not an exceptable alternative to anything. 4 hits @16 with prot spirit to skew the numbers doesn't show how good it is; it shows how good PS is. In the same four hits with SoA you can drop that damage to 20, and with under pressure targets SoA only gets better. Without PS, your test character blows up in 2 hits. With enchant strips all over the game now, expect both to get ripped off.

Sorry if I sound a little down and gloomy doomy in this post. I just don't understand why Anet is doing this. Its not that these skills were overpowered (SoR was some, but SoD was one spam skill out of ten in blockway) its that we dont have ANY OTHER TOOLS WORTH USING! The only reason BLight sees play in PvE is because the other two monks are typically packing so much healing that its heal effect is a joke! We take it for the recycle; end of story.

3 elites. A class--their GORAM FLAGSHIP BACKLINE CLASS--has three elites to play with for every arena of play, and one other that is only viable when the other monks cover for it. AGAIN! Its twice they've done this. Its disgusting.

GGs

Div · Oct 16, 2007, 10:14 AM // 10:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mokone

Life Sheath is pretty much an awful elite (wouldn't even use it if it was non-elite).

so much worse than SoA, Spirit Bond or Shielding Hands, Aegis, RoF, Guardian, Protective Spirit...not to mention the elites.

On a side note, I'd like to see Life Sheath playable again. Maybe something like 1/4 cast, 5 recharge, 3...10 duration.

On topic: SoR is definitely worse. SoD is arguably better in PvE for tanking, but I'd say in general worse.

Sakura Az · Oct 17, 2007, 08:45 AM // 08:45

Anet changed SoR back to 8 sec rechage today. but since useing ZB the last few days i've fallen in love with ZB and i don't know if SoR would provide as much power as ZB does.

Chthon · Oct 17, 2007, 03:13 PM // 15:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbobusa

Life sheath is ok on heroes as you can't really screw up with it.

They'll cast it on a minion master and it will expire without doing anything at all because the MM is saccing life instead of taking damage. Occasionally they'll stick it on a degening minion too. There's nothing that the hench AI can't screw up if they try hard enough.

Thom Bangalter · Oct 17, 2007, 03:27 PM // 15:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by holymasamune

On a side note, I'd like to see Life Sheath playable again. Maybe something like 1/4 cast, 5 recharge, 3...10 duration.

On topic: SoR is definitely worse. SoD is arguably better in PvE for tanking, but I'd say in general worse.

Life sheath will never be playable until it stacks with other prots. Until then it's garbage.

Turbobusa · Oct 17, 2007, 04:08 PM // 16:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chthon

They'll cast it on a minion master and it will expire without doing anything at all because the MM is saccing life instead of taking damage. Occasionally they'll stick it on a degening minion too.

Wasting energy out of battle isn't really screw up, its just stupid behavior. In battle the MM should be busy doing something else than spamming botm, so the Hero monks don't cast it on him. And if the minion is taking damage well, that's stupid to try to save it but it's not totally wasted either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chthon

There's nothing that the hench AI can't screw up if they try hard enough.

I agree lol

I'd really like to see a buff to life sheath. Add a "takes half damage" or + armor bonus? 'cause I don't see a buff on damage negation.

Coloneh · Oct 17, 2007, 09:11 PM // 21:11

I would like to see a buffed up version of RoF, that dosnt end after one hit, but ends when damage limit has been reached.