Curse

dr love · Mar 02, 2009, 11:31 PM // 23:31

just wondering, do the better prot monks out there still watch the field

or just redbar on 3way king of the hill and cap points?

all i do is spam prots on the infuse and the ghostly and try to remove conditions whenever i see them, but i'm just redbarring 90% of the time

zling · Mar 03, 2009, 12:23 AM // 00:23

pros always watch the field instead of red bars. doesnt matter where...

once you get used to monking properly, aka watching the field instead of red bars than you'll do it everywhere, even in PvE...

Sun Fired Blank · Mar 03, 2009, 12:39 AM // 00:39

Tracking up to four frontlines and having some perception of four midliners gets rough. If it helps, you can sometimes determine which team doesn't suck and is more responsible for you dying, and just watch them. Your entire team should have thrown themselves into survival mode, so if you gloss over some of this information, you should be fine. If one or both teams are some kind of dedicated spike, it gets a bit easier in terms of tracking damage, but they can still drop your ghostly pretty fast, so you should probably make sure that warding and some kind of soft prot is on him constantly (mostly so that you can see the rend / rigor).

If things become too hectic you have two choices; the first is try to "reset" your memory, blank on everything, and then start from scratch before you all die horrific deaths. The second is to track damage by proximity on critical targets: your warding, your monks, your ghost, and pretty much anything I might have neglected that's really important for the "not dying and winning" process.

It'll be really important to channeltank if you can, but remember that doing so inherently compromises your positioning, so don't die stupid deaths to it. If necessary, prevent extensive red damage bar with rof-spam, or even treat it as a red bar pusher. Well-laced, more efficient duration prots will still mitigate a lot more damage in the long run, but if it comes down to dying or not dying, and you have channeling to return that energy, then it's a practical investment (but not a generally good rule of thumb).

If all that's just way too much for you, it's pretty much a given you'll need to perma-SoA on your ghost, perma-aura on your infuser, perma-aura on your ghost while he caps, perma-guardian your warding, and pre-guardian yourself when something gets close to you. You can prevent a fair number of deaths by simply defaulting to these responses.

Reverend Dr · Mar 03, 2009, 01:19 AM // 01:19

Good prots never stopped watching the field.

But with a 3 monk + 1 tease backline, one can normally keep their team up just fine by redbarring.

ac1inferno · Mar 03, 2009, 02:12 AM // 02:12

You can get by with Red Barring, but watching the field will always be better.

Example:
Guy takes damage. Both monks see and react to it. Guy gets protted and healed. Energy wasted.

or

Prot watches field. See damage about to go on someone. Preprot the damage before it happens. Less energy wasted on healing.

Arya Nibelrund · Mar 03, 2009, 10:35 AM // 10:35

Let's be more realistic. There's absolutely no way you can keep track of 4 melees, hexes, aoe damage and sometimes minions crowding the scene. Just look at party window, it's the most efficient way. Remember your priorities: ghostly must always be protted (I think chaining SoA is the best way to prot him). Keep aura on your 8 unless you're trying to cap, guardian on yourself, Sbond when you notice a lot of damage in a short time. If you can try to keep up your PnH monk in a 3 monk backline or your weapon of warding guy. When ghostly dies, make sure your mesmer doesnt die so he can interrupt others. Watching the field is doable only in 1vs1 tbh. I've played so much HA and seen so many prot monks that I can assure you noone prots well by watching field only in 3 way maps. Oh, a little tip: if you play against a leechway, stay close to your ghost. You can see the black shadow coming from Deathly Swarm much easier.

Reverend Dr · Mar 03, 2009, 11:55 AM // 11:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arya Nibelrund

Let's be more realistic.

Okay lets. Against IWAY (the only time you'll see 4 melee) often spamming prot on multiple targets will work just fine. Otherwise you won't even be facing that many melee. Minions aren't really worth considering, well except against lichspike in which you guardian anyone with a bunch of minions around (fyi, they should be complaining about the body block on vent) and SBing whomever has the Deathly Swarm animation should be a given.

These are still no excuse for a prot to stop watching the field and to start redbarring. If you start taking deaths, then you should reevaluate what you are doing; this starts by getting a better look at the field.

Arya Nibelrund · Mar 03, 2009, 01:49 PM // 13:49

I see you didn't read the thread.
He's asking about 3 ways maps. This means 2 melee on each team=4 melee, that's the current meta. Don't need to comment about Iway.
In 1vs1 you must watch the field if you prot, and I know 95% of prot monks don't do that anyway. In 3vs3 it's much harder to do and not worth it. Just keep chaining prots on ghostly+monks+wow guy, who cares if your frontliners die, map objective is different. Enemies will go for those targets anyway.

LifesRestorer · Mar 03, 2009, 01:52 PM // 13:52

yup. reverend read it as how to prot in 3 monk teams

dr love · Mar 03, 2009, 02:41 PM // 14:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sun Fired Blank

make sure that warding and some kind of soft prot is on him constantly (mostly so that you can see the rend / rigor).

true thats a good idea!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sun Fired Blank

If all that's just way too much for you, it's pretty much a given you'll need to perma-SoA on your ghost, perma-aura on your infuser, perma-aura on your ghost while he caps, perma-guardian your warding, and pre-guardian yourself when something gets close to you. You can prevent a fair number of deaths by simply defaulting to these responses.

hehe that sounds like my style

against IWAY i totally redbar. i just spam guardian and LS.

some great comments in here by the way

Reverend Dr · Mar 04, 2009, 05:34 AM // 05:34

You are correct I misread that as prot monking in a 3 monk backline. But my point still stands, infact on a three way map watching the field is even more important. Prot is your first line of defense against damage and with up to twice the normal amount of damage being thrown at your team efficient protting is more important than ever.

RC and SB are about the only things that can push up red bars, though SB has to be done pre-prot. If you are going to play a prot monk like a redbar monk, then just run a redbar monk.

Sun Fired Blank · Mar 04, 2009, 07:30 AM // 07:30

A good prot monk's accurate tracking limit under ideal circumstances is probably either two frontliners and awareness of a key midliner, or three frontliners and zero awareness of the midline. There are some very exceptional prot monks who have okay field perception on three-way, but I haven't met any monks in at least two years that can manage it perfectly, and I frankly don't expect anyone to manage it perfectly either.