Curse

Fluffy Butt · Mar 01, 2007, 04:13 AM // 04:13

Ok, first, this part of forum don't support AB builds, however, there isn't a part for AB builds so I'm posting it here.

Req. - Max armor + Max weapon

Divine Favor 10+2
Protection Prayers 10+4
Inspiration Magic 11

Skillz
[card]Blessed Signet[/card][card]Protective Bond[/card][card]Life Bond[/card][card]Balthazar's Spirit[/card][card]Zealous Benediction[/card][card]Shield of Absorption[/card][card]Reversal of Fortune[/card][card]Mantra of Inscriptions[/card]

What to do:
Cast Mantra of Inscriptions first (you heard me) then cast Protective Bond and Life Bond (not sure the order matters) and keep a constant energy with Blessed Signet (for those who don't know). Keep an eye on your energy and Mantra. Recharging Blessed by almost 50% is very helpful in bad situations. If ZB can't keep a constant healing, use Sheild of Absorption and Reveral of Forture. Thats the build, hope you try it. By the way at 10 + 4 Protective Bond has 3 energy lost, not 4.

This build could be used in AB and RA/TA. I don't use monks in RA/TA because of this... "event." So I tested it in AB. I would have pictures, but paint somehow got deleted. Once I figure out how to get it back. I'll send lots of pictures.

Fat Kids Attack · Mar 01, 2007, 04:22 AM // 04:22

TBH bonders arent the BEST in AB because groups dont stick together all the time, therefore its hard to keep up all the enchantments.

Plus since its AB you can get EASILY mobbed and killed. And if that happneds its a long tedious quest to meet up with all your teammates and recast everything nad get yourself all prepped WITHOUT getting screwed over.

Dark Interception · Mar 01, 2007, 03:22 PM // 15:22

Yes you easily get seperated from your team in ab and they will be all over the place, so not really a good idea imo.

Syntonic · Mar 02, 2007, 07:39 AM // 07:39

I'll bite. I actually run a monk bond build in some AB games and yes, it does work. As people said, you need your team to stick together. However, that's what they are supposed to do in the first place. If your group members just like doing their own thing, I'd highly suggest joining another party afterwards. This goes for any profession though as well as any monk build. You can't cast protective spirit on someone who is halfway across the map anyway nor can you heal them. Bonds have a range as well but they are also proactive and can last a much longer time. On the flipside, it's an enchantment and dervishes on your side like to eat up enchantments and there are shatter enchantments etc. etc. etc. that people like to use. Well, some people at least - people have very wacky builds in AB.

If you get mobbed and killed, that probably means your whole party wiped also - though, it might take them some time to kill every party member depending on the skill levels of the players vs the mob. Regardless, a monk of any build needs to be with people to keep them going.

If your group doesn't stick together in the game, bond with people not on your team. You should have enough MP (and keep it up with signet) to bond with people not on your team as well as your whole team if you lose protective bond. You have to be careful not to overextend yourself but once you get used to it - you should be able to help out other teams regardless of the fact that you can't see their health bars in the party screen (which I really hate.) Regardless, protective spirit is far better than bond in this case and life bond helps cover spikes anyway. Problems: The 10 energy for protective spirit is very costly for a bonder when you are running at negative energy regeneration. Protective bond is even worse with negative regen as well as costing 10 energy. This can be partially countered with a necro battery but you can't always find one and a battery may not always be best for your party.

My build does not include protective bond but rather Guardian. With nearly 50% block, you might be able to disrupt some Sin combos by blocking it once they start gunning for you (and they will.) You might end up with several melee people on you depending on how annoying you are at stopping your teammates from dying.

I also at times bring shielding hands instead of SoA which is more or less used exclusively on yourself to mitigate damage when people start attacking you. I also didn't include Mantra of Inscriptions since I rarely run into energy problems unless we are up against a mob and even then, balth's aura might be able to get you going (depends on the mob though and whether or not you need to spam skills like crazy to keep your team alive.) Because you are stacking other enchantments on top of your bond, normally they won't be able to remove life bond. Heck, some people don't even bring mending touch or some other way to get rid of conditions (like a monk) much less enchantments on other people in AB. Speaking of which, Dismiss conditions is also a great spell since it's a heal for your party (everyone is enchanted with bonds) plus it's a condition remover.

In any case, AB is a fast paced and chaotic so there might be times in battle that you can't reasonably use your blessed signet (2 second casting time). You can always choose channeling as well if you like to be in the thick of things.

There are some huge counters to a bonder build - such as hexes. Backfire or diversion may shut you down for awhile but at the same time, it affects many other casters as well (not just you.) Hex breaker can be used but in AB game but realize that you can ride most of the time out usually since people and npcs use backfire and diversion at the start of the battle when everyone is at full health anyway. Holy veil or convert hex also work but it really doesn't compare to Blessed Light if they like to hex stack (nothing really does compare but if you take blessed light, you run into e-management problems and a smaller heal than ZB which is extremely bad.) Hardly anything Of course, everything works best if your team builds complement each other.

I'd have to disagree on the usage of RoF and ZB. RoF is actually an 8 second enchantment and a cheap one at that. Use it to help mitigate spikes from seizing elemental shrines or against air spikers (or any spikers for that matter.) I agree that it is better to let one of your group members health fall under the 50% mark sometimes so you can use ZB as additional energy management but not all the time. With it's 4 second recharge time, you better be reasonably sure you won't need it in the next 4 seconds. My build is a full monk build so you can max divine favour and max protection prayers. Add in some runes and you are good to go.

I've yet to try to run a bond build in GvG (actually haven't tried it as my guild doesn't do GvG.) I doubt it would be accepted well regardless unless it was for fun.

Nalia Grimm · Mar 19, 2007, 07:11 AM // 07:11

For starters, let me say that I'm a horrible bonder in any situation. However, whenever I run AB as a melee, I run with a bonder. He's very good at staying alive and it's not uncommon for us to sit there, tanking a whole mob for two or three minutes before they get the picture that there's a monk in the way back.

Bonders are fabulous in AB, because they're so unexpected. However, coordination is key. Whenever I do bonding-melee combo, I like to be on Vent, so I can say where I'm going and what I need from the monk, and he can tell me if he's losing energy or if he's being mobbed.

ZB is great for spike heals, but depending on what you're bonding, it could be unnecesarry. I am a huge fan of Divert Hexes, since conditions and heavy hexes are really common in AB, and a bonder will waste all their precious energy removing conditions and hexes, just to see them reapplied. But taking 3-3 off at a time is beautiful and makes for much easier ABing. And if you use Essence Bond - Balth Spirit - Life Bond, you shouldn't really necessarily NEED Blessed Signet unless you're on the move. The bonds should keep someone alive in the midst of madness and feed your energy while they're at it.

Also, for those nasty Ele shrines that are the bane of any melee, I'd suggest Prot Spirit in there somewhere. It's cheap and effective, and that's what a bonder needs.

That's just my 2 cents though.

`Nalia

clawofcrimson · Mar 19, 2007, 02:19 PM // 14:19

if you have a decent team you can do very well with it... if not.. well