Curse

Relyk · Jun 14, 2011, 08:23 AM // 08:23

1. Introduction

Note: This was originally written in terms of playing on Kurzick side, I've tried to change it to ambiguous terms whenever possible.

1.1 Purpose and Reason
The purpose of this guide as implied in the title is how to use a Mo/P RoJ Monk. I will explain techniques and strategies in using the build for various tasks in Jade Quarry. The hope is to alleviate the stereotype of Jade Quarry being a joke, a reputation it has acquired over the years. The reason I chose the RoJ Monk should be obvious as you read through the guide. I love how many different ways the skills can be used to accomplish a task, many unexpected. The number of actions you can accomplish as a RoJ Monk makes other builds in JQ look insignificant and boring. I think using Reversal of Damage to both hinder and kill carriers is one of the most ingenious uses of a skill in the game.

1.2 Disclosure Notice
This guide does not tell you how to play Jade Quarry. I am not trying to push my opinion on what build you should run. I respect people have different preferences when it comes to gameplay. I also understand people play for fun and enjoyment as much as for faction. I assume that people have the ability to choose builds appropriate for use in Jade Quarry. However, none of this is an excuse to bring builds unsuited for play in JQ or builds inferior to more effective builds available. I treat Jade Quarry as a serious match type rather than a place to joke around and have fun with whatever build you feel like running. If you care more about having fun with your build than the ecstasy of a well-deserved win, I'd suggest you go play in RA or PvE where it doesn't impact the rest of your team.

2. Overview

Jade Quarry pits Kurzicks and Luxons against each other to collect Jade Quarry for some obscure purpose.The teams are created by selecting 8 random players for each side. It's essentially an 8 man Random Arena with objectives. Your team scores a point for each piece of jade delivered to your base. The first team to reach 10 points wins the match. Each match lasts 15 minutes, in the event neither team reaches 10 points, the team with the most points wins. If both teams have the same number of points, the match is considered a tie and both teams lose.

Shrines hold Rangers atop ledges that take out carriers as they walk by. Since the Ranger NPCs are elevated, they hit quite hard. Players must take out these shrines or the carriers will be killed. Quarries are protected by a group of NPCs that must be taken out to claim the quarry. Players may take out each other's carriers, thereby preventing the opposing team from scoring.

In other words, it's a few good players carrying the rest of the team to victory. That's half of what makes JQ so fun. There are four tasks in Jade Quarry (order of importance top->bottom):

Capping Shrines
Guarding Shrines
Running Carriers
Killing Opposing Carriers

2.1 Quarries
There are three quarries on the map. Each quarry holds 2 Elementalists, 2 Mesmers, and 1 Ranger. The first time a quarry is taken, it will spawn a carrier with a piece of jade. This includes taking the enemy's quarry for the first time. From then on The Elementalists spam Lightning Hammer and Lightning Surge, which does massive damage and spikes down players. The Mesmers will spam Clumsiness if no spells or enchantments are used. They will remove enchantments with Shatter Enchantment and interrupt casters with Power Spike; they hurt.

Purple Quarry - Kurzick Quarry
Green Quarry - Luxon Quarry
Yellow Quarry - Neutral Quarry

2.2 Shrines
There are three shrines on each side of the map:

K1 - Left shrine of Yellow Quarry
K2 - Center shrine going to Green Quarry
K3 - Right shrine of Purple Quarry
L1 - Right shrine of Yellow Quarry
L2 - Center shrine going to Purple Quarry
L3 - Left shrine of Green Quarry

2.3 Kurzick vs Luxon
With the newest update introducing Imperial Faction instead of Kurzick/Luxon faction, Kurzicks now have a predisposed advantage. The K1 is bugged so that the Luxon Rangers are placed too far away from the edge and won't attack the Juggernaut. L1 is placed correctly and the Ranger shrine will kill the carrier if it's not taken down or diverted. This saves you a lot of time at the start of the match. The Kurzick portal is closer to Yellow Quarry than the Luxon portal. The difference is about .5-1 seconds, a significant amount that means Kurzick are 80% likely to grab the quarry. If you're using a 33% IMS, you will get the quarry close to 90% of the time unless the game lags. Luxons also have a harder time capping K3 in comparison to L3, you may need to move back closer to the base to get wall block. The same goes for K2 from Kurzick base side, you may need to move back a little into the wall to avoid getting hit.

2.4 Glitches
If you play a few matches, you will eventually participate in a match where a carrier will refuse to move from the base even if the quarry has been captured. As long as you hold the shrine, the carrier won't move and and you won't gain any points. The only way to "unglitch" these carriers is to have the opposing team capture the shrine and then recapture it. This can greatly impede your team if the the Purple or Green Carrier glitches for the respective sides since these are more likely to be defended by your side. These glitches can be gamebreaking in a match.

Both turtles and juggernauts will glitch, sometimes multiple carriers each match. From personal experience, turtles seem to glitch more than juggernauts, there is bias in anecdotal evidence since you only notice when the opposite team's carriers glitch when they scream and yell in exasperation.

3. Build

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3.1 Skill Notes

Castigation Signet - Gives you much needed energy to spam Reversal of damage as well as finish off enemies that RoJ misses.
Ray of Judgment - Kills any NPC in one cast and your primary capping skill. It also will kill carriers quickly and dissuade rangers trying to take down quarries.
Reversal of Damage - Your primary healing skill and pretty strong at that. You will use it to nuke shrines, guard shrines, guard carriers, keep yourself from dieing, and even kill . This skill lets you survive almost any conflict.
Smite Condition - Removes Cripple from Rangers, Burning from RoJ Monks, and general condition removal for running juggers. It can also be used to nuke Ranger shrines and quarries faster.
Smite Hex - Usually used to remove Lightning Surge at quarries. It lets you keep the jugger clean and deal with Mesmers and Necros.
Bane Signet - Lets you finish off enemies RoJ misses and your defense against melee. This combined with "Fall Back!" allows you to get away from melee pretty easily.
Make Haste - Main skill for running Juggernaut. Also useful at the start for any guy with Dash since it guarantees capture of Yellow Quarry.

3.2 Equipment

Full Survivor Insignias
40/40 Smiting Prayers weapon set
Spear of Defense (+5 energy)
Command Shield of Fortitude with +10ar vs. piercing
Command Shield of Fortitude with +10ar vs. lightning
Command Shield of Fortitude with +10ar vs. slashing/fire

4. The Start

One key event that decides the momentum of the match is the beginning. Always start at Yellow portal, there's no point in going to the opposing team's quarry unless you are sure your team will get Yellow (doubtful at best) and your own quarry is a waste of time, you're a capper after all. Remember to go to your quarry if everyone else ignores it or tell someone else to do so.

Kurzick

Stand at the back of the circle of the portal.
At one second, do not hold but press forward, this prevents you from lagging and you get out of the portal faster.
Use Fall Back right after going through the portal.
It takes around 9 seconds to get to the shrine, 8 of the second are under Fall Back.
Aim toward the yellow marker name, there is a certain window that will capture the shrine. You will notice this if you try to capture the shrine on the left side and the Luxons capture even though you were closer.
You will win the race about 90% of the time if done right. Otherwise you have a Monk using Fall Back on their side with a bomber with Dash who got out fast. The second reason you might not cap is when the game lags or doesn't register that you're there, in which case, you scream and throw your keyboard at the wall.
Use Make Haste on the jugger as soon as he stops being invulnerable while you use Fall Back and head to L2. Don't worry about it being killed, K1 is glitched so the Rangers won't attack the Juggernaut. However, they will if it is recapped by the Luxons, so check whether an idiot Kurzick has capped it or not to see if you will have to recap it soon.
Cap L2 if the Luxons bothered to cap it and continue to L1.
Use Fall Back after a couple seconds moving toward L1 otherwise it will end before you get to the corner and you take additional damage.
Nuke L1 and head toward Green quarry. Take out the Green quarry.
After nuking Green quarry, your Juggernaut carrier will spawn. Run your Juggernaut back since you will most likely need to take out L2.
At this point, decide if you need to defend Yellow or Purple, or you're able to go harass Green quarry.

Luxon

Stand at the back of the circle of the portal.
At one second, do not hold but press forward, this prevents you from lagging and you get out of the portal faster.
Use Fall Back right after going through the portal.
It takes around ~10 seconds to get to the shrine, 8 of the second are under Fall Back.
Aim toward the yellow marker name, there is a certain window that will capture the shrine. You will notice this if you try to capture the shrine on the left side and the Kurzicks capture even though you were closer.
You will most likely not win this race. If you can tell you won't make it, stop just outside the NPC spawn range and get ready to nuke.
Capture the shrine and turn around to capture L1 if your teammates haven't already.
Use Make Haste on the jugger as soon as he stops being invulnerable while you use Fall Back and head to K2.
Cap K2 if the Kurzicks bothered to cap it and continue to K1.
Use Fall Back after a couple seconds moving toward K1 and get into position to nuke.
Nuke K1 and head toward Purple quarry. Take out the Purple quarry.
After nuking Purple quarry, your turtle carrier will spawn. Run your /Turtle back since you will most likely need to take out L2.
At this point, decide if you need to defend Yellow or Green, or you're able to go harass Purple quarry.

5. Capping

All NPCs have 330 health on the map. Ray of Judgment does 339 damage. Ray of Judgment hits all adjacent foes, which takes out all the NPCs at once. Realize that normally if you use a skill out of range, your character will move within aggro range before casting the skill. Your casting range is slightly larger than aggro range, so back the aggro bubble a little bit from the red dot and you will find you can still cast skills. This is useful in preventing aggro of NPCs while you cast (especially if there's lag) and aggro control after casting.

The adjacent range is a problem if the group scatters, either from idiotic nukers or players running away from shrines, pulling the NPCs with them. To reset the NPCs, you need to reaggro the group and then break aggro so they run back. This can be as simple as using a signet and running back or aggroing the whole shrine and breaking with "Fall Back!" Either way, it's a major inconvenience to deal with. From time to time, NPCs won't die from a cast of Ray of Judgement. This usually happens when there's lag and the NPCs start regening health a split second before they're suppose to die. Make sure that you don't have Weakness on you, as this will leave the NPCs with a sliver of health left even if Weakness is applied on the last couple pulses.

5.1 Ranger Shrines
Each shrine has three Rangers that spam bow attacks and Pin Down. For K3 and L3, the shrines have 4 rangers and will only spawn 2 rangers for the opposing team when capped. Equip your Piercing shield before taking out a shrine. There are two way to take out any of these shrines:

The first is casting RoJ and then dodging the ensuing arrows. Just cast and click in a tight circle to dodge all the arrows. This takes effort and should all be done if you're in a hurry.
The second way is standing against a wall so the arrows miss. This is what you will be doing most of the time. The safe spots are touchier for Kurzick shrines compared to Luxon shrines.

While one will survive sometimes, two is pretty rare, and three is very unlucky. You can take out up to two with your signets but need to use RoD if three survive. If you have any conditions or hexes courtesy of Luxons, you can use those to finish off the shrines and thank your Luxons friends for their assistance.

We'll talk about the scattering from the AI that occurs. When the AI reach a certain point, they will scatter, this occurs at the end of the fourth pulse of Ray of Judgment. When they scatter, they will move ''away'' from the foe casting. If they have room to move, the original foe targeted by RoJ will move a split second sooner than the NPCs next to him. Thus you are left with the Ranger your targeted when casting RoJ alive while the other two die (usually). The key is to cast RoJ at an angle where the Rangers will run into a wall and get hit by the last pulse. There are certain spots on each Ranger shrine this can be done.

K1- Run up anywhere against the cliff after aggroing. Move left so they run into the back of the shrine instead of the open area.
K2 - From center Kurzick portal, the easiest way is to just nuke them and use Reversal of Damage to kill the last NPC since they are out of distance of signets. From Yellow Quarry, you can't cast immediately from a safe spot, cast from behind the little hill sticking out and move back a little into the wall.
K3 - Stand against the sloped wall and move back around the curve so the arrows don't arc over and hit you. There is no safe spot from Purple Quarry.
L1- Run up anywhere against the cliff after aggroing. Move left so they run into the back of the shrine instead of the open area. You have an option of running behind a hill close to the edge of the map for a safe spot if a Mesmer or Ranger is camping near Yellow Quarry.
L2 - Anywhere against the cliff is a safe spot except the very corner directly below the NPCs.
L3 - Don't use the wall near the gate, the second wall next to the shrine works just as well. There's no safe spot coming from Green Quarry.

5.2 Quarries
The quarries take a different approach. Ray of Judgment must hit the central NPC, which happens to be a Mesmer. You'll know you've picked the center one rather than the one next to him if you look at the compass and the dot is at the center of the arch. Hide behind a rock if you can, this typically only happens at the Yellow quarry though. Use Reversal of Damage while the Mesmers use Clumsiness or they'll shatter it before the eles hit you first. If you time it correctly the Mesmers will use Shatter Enchantment right when the Elementalists hit you with Lightning Hammer, wasting it. Finish off strays with signets. About 95% of the time, the Luxon Elementalist will cast Lightning Surge on you just as the group dies, so pre-prot and use Smite Hex on your shield set.

Scattering works differently at quarries since you don't have a blocking angle and there's casters. Since they don't have bows or up on a ledge, they don't immediately wand you and catch aggro. This means on the fourth pulse, none of the casters will scatter, although the Ranger may scatter from time to time. The best solution is to tank it out; as long as they're attacking and hitting you, they are less likely to break aggro. I have found this is a very reliable way to kill a quarry before NPCs scatter. A more advanced technique is to cast RoJ and run around in a circle just within aggro range. This will keep aggro of the NPCs so they don't move and you take little to no damage. If you run too far away, you'll break aggro; it's a fine line. This is much easier to do with "Fall Back!" up.

6. Guarding Shrines

First of all, RoJ monks aren't really suited to guard shrines but keeping a shrine up from a couple enemies gives invaluable time. The three main threats are Necro Bombers, RoJ Monks, and PI Mesmers. In all situations, you'll need to be proficient with your casting. Your goal is to keep up the Kurzick Mesmers, then the Kurzick Elementalists, then the Kurzick Ranger. The Kurzick Ranger as priority for Fire Nukers however. Note that the goal of keeping the shrine up is to buy enough time for your Juggernaut to get to the shrine before it is capped. You can let it get capped afterward and re-cap it. An excellent technique to thwart cappers is to let them kill the center three NPCs. This prevent Ray of Judgment, Chaos Storm, Barrage, and Necro Bombers from hitting the other NPC since the AoE is adjacent. It means you only have to keep one NPC up at a time.

Take the time to guard Ranger shrines if you're passing by. It's easy to prevent the bomber or RoJ from getting a kill where they have to spend the extra time to finish the shrine. You may wish to let them be capped so you can farm for faction however.

Splinter Barrage Ranger
Barrage Rangers are an obvious choice for Rangers who want capture shrines.. Rangers simply spam Barrage from a ledge so NPCs stand there and die. With Splinter Weapon, they die pretty fast. The key is letting the center and an adjacent NPC die to prevent Barrage from hitting them all. It's extremely easy to keep one NPC alive since Barrage is terrible damage on its own, just spam Reversal of Damage. Use Bane Signet to interrupt Barrage and spam Reversal of Damage some more. If you're defending the shrine, use Ray of Judgment to force the Ranger to move and buy some time. Make sure you don't get interrupted when recapping the shrine, you do have walls after all.

Necro Bombers
Decent bombers can take a shrine down in two seconds flat, so you have to be ready. Pre-cast Reversal of Damage on one of the edge NPCs. When the Necro use Putrid Bile and shadowsteps in, starting casting Smite Condition to remove bleeding from Signet of Agony. Quickly follow it with Reversal of Damage to counter Death Nova. Even if you miss Death Nova, the NPC always has a sliver of health left so there's a little room to breath most of the time.

RoJ Monks
There's a reason you're using a RoJ Monk, which is why other people will be using it too. Pre-prot in order of importance. Cycle through RoD->Smite Condition->Smite Hex on each guy to prevent them from dieing. If a Monk uses Arcane Echo, focus on keeping a single Mesmer alive. Use "Fall Back!" on the shrine so the NPCs can kite out of RoJ and the heal will substitute keeping them alive from RoJ. This is a useful technique for any profession bringing "Fall Back!"

Pscyhic Instability Mesmers
Psychic Instability Mesmers use Pychic Instability to interrupt Clumsiness from the center Mesmer after casting Chaos Storm, cast Wastrel's Worry and Wastrel's Demise or Mistrust, and following up with Cry of Frustration on Echo or Clumsiness. This wipes shrines about as fast as a RoJ Monk if done correctly. Reversal of Damage is enough to keep an NPC alive and "Fall Back!" to scatter them out of Chaos Storm quickly. Use Smite Hex on the center Mesmer to remove hexes.

Elementalist Nukers
the most common nukers are Searing Flames Elementalists, and they're more of an annoyance than a threat. The nukers can be a pain in the ass the first time, but Meteor Shower has a nice long recharge that makes them inferior to other nukers. Spam RoD, Smite Condition, and Smite Hex on the Ranger, abuse his extra armor. Don't hope you'll keep one of your squishies casters alive. Just keep spamming your skills to keep the Ranger alive. This should give you enough time for the Juggernaut to get there. Remember to use "Fall Back!" so the NPCs kite out of AoE.

7. Running Carriers

First of all, running carriers should only be done while you defend a shrine or when the carrier is under threat of attack. You do not need to run a carrier moving away from a shrine. As soon as the carrier gets the quarry, you no longer have use for the quarry for the next 30 seconds the carrier takes to get back to base. Your time is better spent capping. Running carriers include keeping them alive. While you're not full specced into healing, you can keep up a carrier reasonable well. Remove any snares that get applied with your hex and condition removal and spam RoD and Fall Back to get the carrier safely past a Ranger shrine or into the base. You have to pay attention the messages when carriers die so you'll know if they're being camped or not by a ranger, mesmer, or elementalist and your team is so bad that they can't defend the carrier. Ignore Green juggernaut since he tends to die in any case unless it happens repeatedly and Kurzicks hold the shrine.

Do not heal carriers that are not holding jade, especially ones moving back to base because the quarry was captured by the other team. They will spawn after awhile with a piece of jade if you hold the shrine, and immediately if the quarry is re-captured. This saves about a 30 seconds of walking.

Ranger Shrines
While you can keep a carrier alive from a couple enemies, Ranger shrines will tear your carriers apart. Try to aggro the Ranger shrine before they aggro the carrier while you keep the carrier alive from the enemies. This isn't too hard since you have Fall Back to get to the wall which also is healing and boosting the Juggernaut. If you're running Green since you just capped the quarry, you can kill K2 while you wait. If you're fast, you could feasible take down K2 and the L2, just don't boost the carrier. If your carrier is about to be hit by a shrine, you can nuke it and then spam RoD and remove Cripple on the carrier. It's much easier than trying to keep the carrier alive the whole time.

Pscyhic Instability Mesmers
Psychic Instability Mesmers with both Wastrel's have become as popular and as common as RoJ Monks and Necro Bombers. They can nuke a shrine as fast as a RoJ Monk if done correctly. They can also interrupt RoJ Monks with PI and any other interrupts. At 16 Domination Magic, it takes two casts of Wastrel's Worry and Wastrel's Demise to kill a carrier. A RoJ Monk '''cannot''' outheal a Mesmer spamming Wastrel's Worry and Wastrel's Demise without assistance. This makes them a nightmare for RoJ Monks and any other profession. Players may wish to bring Restful Breeze to help keep carriers alive especially against these guys.

MS/BA Ranger
Melandru's Shot Rangers can be a pain. You have no hope of removing Crippled when it's covered by Bleeding and Poison, so simply spam RoD and use Fall Back. Interrupt the Ranger with Bane Signet if you can. Rangers don't deal a lot of damage so it should be pretty easy to keep the carrier alive, you'll just have to wait for it to get to safety.

Burning Arrow Rangers pose a greater threat. A smart Ranger will degen you and the carrier to death. You can't remove Crippled from yourself or the carrier and Burning Arrow hits hard. At the top of Yellow Quarry, it can hit 112 on your caster set. You use the same technique as the Melandru's Shot Ranger and hope the carrier makes it.

Seeping Wound Sins
They used to be the biggest threat since they can take out juggers in around 5 seconds. With the nerf to Seeping Wound, popularity will die down but it's seen on occasion. Remove Deep Wound with Smite Condition before you remove Seeping Wound. Make sure you Haste the jugger as soon as possible. Use Bane Signet to interrupt the chain if the sin starts repeating it again. Usually you can save a carrier if you remove Seeping Wound soon enough and spam RoD, using Smite Condition if he uses Twisting Fangs.

WK Necros
The Weaken Knees Necro has fallen out of use and aren't common because Necro Bombers are popular. While you will almost never see this played, it's effective for killing juggers since it's a fire and forget method that doesn't give much time to respond. Remove Deep Wound from Augury as soon as possible or the jugger will die. Spam Reversal of Damage and Smite Hex and the jugger will stay up. Fall Back also works very well for getting the jugger away from the caster and countering pulse damage. There are so many times where a jugger can be saved just by removing Weaken Knees and Enduring Toxin. These have pretty much faded out due to how effective Mesmers are at it.

Water Eles
Can be more effective than other killers in most cases. Usually these are Shatterstone or MoI Eles. One of the key skill being Winter's Embrace of course. If they bring IoP, you are in a world of trouble. They can both stack snares and kill the carrier and you pretty fast. Teinai's Prison is usually used as a very long snare covered with damage. Try to remove IoP if they use it and RoD against Shatterstone. The ele will be spamming snares, so there is really no point in removing them. Spam Fall Back and Make Haste to try and get the jugger away.

8. Killing Carriers

Only shrines with 3 Rangers can kill a carrier by themselves, which would be K1/K2 and L1/L2. You can take down a shrine right before a carrier crosses so the Rangers will kill it and continue on your merry way. This will only work if there aren't any healers and the rangers are given enough time to pewpew the carrier to death.

Monks have these fantastic armor-ignoring skills that aren't very effective against carriers unless done correctly. To elaborate, the other way to kill the carrier is to spam your skills until it dies. Stand in front of the carrier and spam Reversal of Damage; it will use Carrier Defense and teleport you away and take 80 damage while you take 20. Fortunately, you can still move will KDed so move back in front and repeat. You can usually get hit by the time RoD recharges if you move quickly. The problem with using Ray of Judgment is the carrier will usually only get hit 1-2 times before moving out. Fortunately the carrier stands still for a second after using Carrier Defense. Pre-prot with Reversal of Damage and time Ray of Judgment to hit right before the carrier uses Carrier Defense and it will pause under RoJ and literally explode. It's better to time Ray of Judgment late rather than early. Continue to RoD spam the carrier to death and use your signets if it is near death but close to the base. You can hit a carrier once with RoJ while it moves at normal speed.

As you would guess, the best technique for killing a carrier is combining the two. Nuke a shrine as the carrier passes by and spam RoD in front of it until it dies. Being snared and constantly using Carrier Defense means it won't get away from the shrine any time soon. Having a carrier getting pewpewed by Rangers and snared with Pin Down gives you breathing room to set up a RoJ spike and keep it in RoJ for the duration. Unless the monk is attentive, the carrier will die in about 4-5 seconds. Many times monks won't be able to heal the turtle fast enough, at which point you can taunt how terrible they are as healers.

Yellow carrier
While the players love to camp Yellow Quarry to pick off the other side charging in, they don't pay much attention to what's behind them. This makes it pretty easy to gank the Yellow carrier. You usually won't have time to cap the Ranger shrine in advance, so you will have to spam RoD until RoJ recharges.

Green carrier
You will need L1 and to spam Reversal of Damage for the carrier to die, as it's difficult without the rangers and the rangers won't kill it by themselves. Luxon monks tend to pay attention since they camp Green Quarry, but sometimes you can squeak in a kill if it's timed well. At the worst, you've caused it to take 15 seconds longer to get to the base, distracted the monk, or bought yourself time to capture Green Quarry while the monk is distracted.

On Luxon side, this Juggernaut is killed by K2 as long as no one heals it. You also have the most time to kill it with or without the shrine. Just RoJ spike it and spam RoD until it dies.

Purple carrier
You will need K1 and to spam Reversal of Damage for the carrier to die, as it's difficult without the rangers and the rangers won't kill it by themselves. Kurzick monks tend to pay attention since they camp Purple Quarry, but sometimes you can squeak in a kill if it's timed well. At the worst, you've caused it to take 15 seconds longer to get to the base, distracted the monk, or bought yourself time to capture Purple Quarry while the monk is distracted.

On Kurzick side, this Turtle is killed by L2 as long as no one heals it. You also have the most time to kill it with or without the shrine. Just RoJ spike it and spam RoD until it dies.

9. General Tactics

Playing a RoJ Monk is not so black-and-white as "Go here, cast RoJ, go next shrine". Most people may not bother to get beyond bringing RoJ and a bunch of damage skills like Banish or Spear of Light (zzz). They will probably bring a bunch of healing skills such as Healing Breeze and Patient Spirit simply because you have no redbarring power. Of course, they don't even use the skills to heal NPCs, just themselves.

9.1 Survival
You'll constantly be under threat from other players as much as shrines, but a RoJ Monk proves to be quite versatile and sturdy. Make good use of your shield sets. A fire shield with Reversal of Damage will reduce Rodgort's Invocation to 0 compared to ~24 with a normal shield and 47 on a caster set. The only time you should be on your caster set is nuking when you aren't being attacked, under threat of interruption, or powerhealing NPCs. Be proactive with hex and condition removal. Mesmers will often cover Crippling Anguish or Illusion of Pain with a cover hex, so time Smite Hex to remove it immediately. Remove Cripple from Crippling Sweep or Palm Strike so you can kite away. Bane Signet works wonders in thwarting melee players and provides fodder for WW and WD. If a Mesmer casts Backfire, pre-cast RoD and use Smite Hex, taking minimal damage. Waste Diversion on "Make Haste!" or a signet. It's not hard to keep yourself clean from a couple players as you run around the map. Use Reversal of Damage gratuitously against Fire eles and melee, they will die from recoil long before you do. Remember to save "Fall Back!" when near Eles so you can kite Meteor and counter degen from Burning as well as outrun the Ele training you.

You get the idea. Use everything at your disposal to stay alive long enough to nuke that next shrine.

9.2 Interruption
You will soon notice interruption is a pain in the ass. The easiest solution is to go a different profession and bring anti-interruption; alternative builds are provided below. For people who want to learn how to play, you have canceling. Canceling consists of moving or pressing Esc to cancel your action, specifically casting RoJ. The idea is to trick the other player into wasting interrupts. Count how many interrupts your foes have. Rangers almost always bring Distracting Shot and Savage Shot. Cast as soon as the Ranger wastes both, Savage Shot has a very short recharge. Mesmers tend to carry up to 3. Count on them having two interrupts when casting, they interrupt your third one keep that in mind next time. At some point, you won't be able to cancel your way out of getting a RoJ off. In that case, just ignore the shrine and gank a different shrine. A high energy set is useful for canceling RoJ multiple times.

Quarry Guardians
A common and effective tactic is to have a healer sit at a quarry and run the carrier. Most of the time you won't be able to overpower the healer on the single NPC they leave alive after using RoJ. So you need to distract the healer. What better way than to threaten the carrier. Capture the adjacent shrine and take out the quarry while the healer is busy with the carrier. What if you get an actual healer that keeps both the shrine and quarry alive? Take both out at once. Spam Ray of Judgment and signets on the quarry while using Reversal of Damage to slowly kill the Ranger at the shrine. This conundrum will trump almost any monk, especially if you combine it with taking out the carrier at the same time (usually with signets). If the monk still doesn't buckle, ignore it and go cap the other shrines.

Ganking
Enemies like to mob on Yellow Shrine, near the center, and near their own shrine. You'll likely be interrupted or die while trying to capture the shrine or the shrine is guarded by a healer. Simple solution: go around the back. Players do not expect players to start capping behind them. You can easily score some carrier kills this way. Killing the opposing team's base quarry can be considered ganking as well. Ranger shrines can easily overpower any healers while you delay the carrier with RoD spam. You aren't using snares on the carrier, so healers can't do anything to stop you from delaying the carrier.

Death
Dying can be advantageous at times. You will usually want to die if you're at Green or Yellow Quarry and Purple Quarry or K3 have been capped. It's much faster than running all the way back only to have the shrines you were capping or guarding taken back. The same goes to Yellow Quarry if you're at Green or Purple Quarry. Know when you can't push a shrine and sacrifice yourself on capping a Ranger shrine or Quarry to buy yourself time to go gank a different quarry. The other advantage of dieing is enemies won't scatter from the AoE if the caster is dead. This means there's no chance of scatter if you get Ray of Judgment off at the last second and hence no chance of failure. You'll be surprised how often you can get RoJ off on a shrine within an inch of death. The best part is you were planning to die anyways. Use the Base Defense to your advantage as well, it's a quick way to kill yourself if there are no enemies or shrines around to cap.

Note: You do not get faction from any kills while you're dead. That means bombers get less faction compared to RoJ Monks. Try to stay alive long enough for the NPCs to die if possible.

Losing Team
Even with you taking out 15 shrines, killing a few turtles make last second saves on carriers and barely guarding shrines, your still have to rely on your team. So what to do when it's painfully obvious you're on a losing team? Farm the shit out of Ranger shrines. Hover around the opposing base's Ranger shrines, the other team while more than likely cap these on their way past. Farm the base shrines with 4 Ranger NPCs, it will quickly be recapped soon enough. Capture unprotected quarries as well and hope you get a few more points before losing.

10. Alternative Builds

Sometimes you feel like you need utility not provided by a Mo/P, in which case there's a few other setups you can use with RoJ. You might also get bored of using Mo/P and wish to change it up a bit. I'd advise not using other builds until you've familiarized yourself with the mechanics of using a Mo/P. Relying on anti-interrupts can make you get lazy.

Mo/E

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Glyph of Concentration prevents any and all interrupts, so is quite useful when facing multiple interrupts. The other two advantages of uses Ele is obvious. Gale allows you to interrupt other nukers and push npc kills when Monks are present. It's difficult to interrupt with Gale, so some timing is necessary. Airborne Speed gives you a full boost that can be maintained in comparison to FB. Unfortunately, you can't use to kite from melee very good or at quarries since Mesmers use Shatter Enchantment. It allows you to run carriers as well, which fills another role. Having a permanent 33% IMS is very good for getting around the map. This gives you everything you want and more except for a Command shield.

Mo/D

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Pious Concentration is expensive to use, but you can prevent two interrupts with Featherfoot Grace. Featherfoot Grace has a short cast time. You would think it would be useful against cripple, but most of the time you're better off using Smite Condition. Bringing a Restoration rune and anti-cripple shield is a very viable option though. Pious Restoration gives you some much needed redbarring power. This is useful if there's Necromancers or Mesmers stacking hexes on you. This is more streamlined for moving around.

Mo/Me

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Using a Mesmer secondary gives you anti-interrupt, an IMS, an interrupt, and more carrier-killing ability. Mantra of Concentration is cheap to use, but most people will prefer Mantra of Resolve since it can prevent multiple interrupts. Power Return is awesome compared to other interrupts, you can interrupt multiple casts such as those from nukers or multiple nukers at once. Illusion of Pain lets you finished of carriers faster and if they are too close to the base. Illusion of Haste removes Crippled from you instead of using Smite Condition, an advantage at Ranger shrines. It also let's you cap Ranger shrines faster with Smite Condition!

11. Videos
http://www.xfire.com/video/47fe24/ - General gameplay video, picked a game at random to record.

12. Closing Statement

I hope that this guide inspires people to think of Jade Quarry as more of a viable PvP game type rather than PvE. I also hope that people won't think of the RoJ Monk of a simple cookie cutter build for farming shrines. People don't give builds in Jade Quarry enough credit, especially when they are only playing one aspect of the game. Many of the strategies in this guide can be applied to other builds. It's the player's choice on how specialized in each task they want their build to be. The RoJ monk offers the most overall in it's ability to accomplish these tasks and I consider it the most powerful and flexible build available in Jade Quarry.

MidnightOokami · Jun 14, 2011, 09:06 AM // 09:06

I was laughing when I clicked this post seeing that Ray of Judgment monks take almost no skill to play, but it was actually nice reading through and seeing all of the different tactics and what not. I mean it's actually a lot of help even outside of the Monk class with all of the tips and pointers, I always run forward whenever the match starts and I always wondered why I was always ahead of everyone. Thank you for posting this guide, it was a very good read, and I'm glad to find people who still love Jade Quarry as much as I do haha. There might be quite a handful of people who will probably not appreciate how much time was put into this ... but thank you for helping out the new people in Jade Quarry.

cheape arie · Jun 14, 2011, 09:19 AM // 09:19

It's a nice detailed guide, but really... it IS kind of pointless..
You could basicly summarize it in 5 simple steps:

1: run to the shrine
2: target the npc in the middle of the shrine
3: cast roj
4: be happy that you capped a shrine
5: if step 3 failed, either die and repeat or use your brain for a few seconds to avoid dead and try again

Sun Fired Blank · Jun 14, 2011, 10:21 AM // 10:21

Honestly, the fact anyone bothers to write something like this now should be a blessing. If you have nothing to contribute or you don't intend to contribute, then you really should just thank him for the post and / or move on without saying anything.

Random Namos · Jun 14, 2011, 10:57 AM // 10:57

Nice Guide!
It should help lot of people new to RoJ

*lemming* · Jun 14, 2011, 11:12 AM // 11:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sun Fired Blank

Honestly, the fact anyone bothers to write something like this now should be a blessing. If you have nothing to contribute or you don't intend to contribute, then you really should just thank him for the post and / or move on without saying anything.

I'm going with this.

urania · Jun 14, 2011, 11:40 AM // 11:40

Sticky maybe?

To credit the effort (which even I cannot understand), if nothing else.

Danax · Jun 14, 2011, 12:44 PM // 12:44

People can be so rude behind their PCs. This obviously took a lot of time and effort to write, so thank you.

Mike Jack · Jun 14, 2011, 01:36 PM // 13:36

Hey you copied this off of PvX!

Windbow · Jun 14, 2011, 02:14 PM // 14:14

No, he is the same guy from pvx.

Mike Jack · Jun 14, 2011, 02:24 PM // 14:24

I'm very bad with sarcasm

.

Jaigoda · Jun 14, 2011, 02:35 PM // 14:35

Clarification: Relyk copied his guide that he wrote over at PvX, extended it, and posted it here.

To me this guide at least has some usefulness, since JQ is one of the best ways to farm balthazar faction, and thus ZKeys, and it's also probably the best way of getting kurz/lux faction outside of PvE faction farms (MQSC, MTSC). That alone could make it worthwhile to actually try at the game rather than just mash the Jesus Beam button.

Anyway, lolJQ.

Pugs Not Drugs · Jun 14, 2011, 02:37 PM // 14:37

the roj guide itself may be kinda pointless, but he gave a lot of technical info behind jq. i always thought when i played jq as a luxon that the kurzicks had an advantage over me at the yellow quarry, and now i know i wasnt imagining it. plus, that tip about using roj to kill carriers along with rod is really cool, i never thought of that. all in all, it was a really informative guide that could really help those who are new to jq, so theres no need to flame him.

Imevil · Jun 14, 2011, 02:39 PM // 14:39

Amazing guide, you really put an effort into this...although I've been playing JQ for more than a year, I didn't know about the Yellow name marker thing
Thank you for writing this.

Toraen · Jun 14, 2011, 03:01 PM // 15:01

The guide should probably mention PD/PB mesmers, since their interrupts go through anti-interrupt by disabling the skill outright. You also can't really cancel-cast versus PD (unless you get lucky with 40/40) since it recharges as fast as RoJ's cast time. I have seen Glyph of Essence/Sacrifice used on Mo/E to get around them though.

Xsiriss · Jun 14, 2011, 05:25 PM // 17:25

Pro tip,don't use smite hex/condition. Instead take restful breeze. Infact you shouldn't me doing Mo/P as a RoJ,it's for healers and support. You should stick to one role. You have damagers (N/A sacers, Invoke/Nuke eles and dedicated RoJ monks) then support (Mo/P healers, shutdown mesmers/whatever). Go Mo/Me for useful things like mantra of concentration and web of disruption to counter other RoJ's.

Multitasking is mediocre. I much prefer playing an invoke ele these days, they provide great damage against anything including players and slap windborne speed in there for support buffs.

Jk Arrow · Jun 14, 2011, 06:14 PM // 18:14

Nice guide and a helpful hint about using RoD offensively against carriers. Hadn't tried that before.

As a side, I played a few rounds over my lunch hour and to my surprise I had 2 out of 3 games with 0 RoJ monks. Mesmers seem to be gaining momentum due to the ability to cap, kill carriers, kill players, and prevent re caps.

Elysea · Jun 14, 2011, 07:30 PM // 19:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toraen

The guide should probably mention PD/PB mesmers, since their interrupts go through anti-interrupt by disabling the skill outright. You also can't really cancel-cast versus PD (unless you get lucky with 40/40) since it recharges as fast as RoJ's cast time. I have seen Glyph of Essence/Sacrifice used on Mo/E to get around them though.

This. PD is an RoJ Monk's worst nightmare in some ways. The fast recharge of PD is what's killer. I've rarely seen the GoE/GoS builds, but distracting the PD (have another RoJ Monk, a PI/WW/WD Mes, a Necrobomber), will increase your likelihood of capping, if you don't want to run Glyph of Essence/Sacrifice. I tend to run a PD Mes in JQ. A lone RoJ Monk isn't a problem for me, but pair that with a Mesmer trying to Divert me or a Necrobomber Dashing past me, the RoJ Monk can easily recap the shrine while I'm busy trying to rend the Bomber or not get my interrupts Diverted.

Honestly, the RoJ Monk is one of those builds where if you have a great team and/or a lousy opposing team, it takes no skill to play and becomes faceroll-y, but if you're new to the build, or are facing a team that can counter it, this guide is a real help.

Relyk · Jun 15, 2011, 12:49 AM // 00:49

Quote:

Hey you copied this off of PvX!

Lies, no one takes time to read random stuff posted on PvX.

I bunched up PB/PD with PI since they all use the same build with a different elite and the tactics are the same. PB/PD aren't suited for capping compared to say PI, Panic, or VoR so they aren't very popular or seen often. The best way to counter them is to simply ignore them.

Mesmers are completely oped in JQ and a lot of fun to play as well. They can completely outplay a RoJ Monk.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xsiriss

Pro tip,don't use smite hex/condition. Instead take restful breeze. Infact you shouldn't me doing Mo/P as a RoJ,it's for healers and support. You should stick to one role. You have damagers (N/A sacers, Invoke/Nuke eles and dedicated RoJ monks) then support (Mo/P healers, shutdown mesmers/whatever). Go Mo/Me for useful things like mantra of concentration and web of disruption to counter other RoJ's.

Multitasking is mediocre. I much prefer playing an invoke ele these days, they provide great damage against anything including players and slap windborne speed in there for support buffs.

I'm guessing you didn't get down to variants where Mo/Me is listed. I did mention restful breeze briefly too. Not multitasking just means you're being lazy. It all depends on your play style.

Mourne · Jun 15, 2011, 05:09 AM // 05:09

Personally I switch out "Fall Back" and Smite Hex for Cure Hex and Patient Spirit. Makes the build much more versatile, especially when it comes to escorting.