Curse

You just got tomahawked · Jan 15, 2007, 07:00 PM // 19:00

I ussualy play a Woh, HB, glimmer monk in HA (healing). I'm very accomplished at it. The only thing I have trouble with is catching a spike. As hard as I try I can never seem to be able to catch a spike. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Lord Mendes · Jan 15, 2007, 07:06 PM // 19:06

http://www.team-iq.net/forums/showthread.php?tid=1742

Lorekeeper · Jan 15, 2007, 07:22 PM // 19:22

the responsibility to stop spikes falls on the whole team. You can split the responsibility between the monks and the rest of the team. Ill deal with the monks first.

Unfortunately you are playing in the 6vs6 HA era. Which i would normally say, would have erased spike builds from the meta. However, this hasnt happened and i have seen a few spikes out there.

problem is.... as a monk there are basically 2 things you can do.

1) preprot allies
2) heal the spiked ally thru the spike

so if you run a prot monk and a healer... the prot monk must analyse the enemy spike and figure out the best way to counter it. He must also be experienced enough to know which ally is likely to be targetted first.
The healers job is to try to catch the spike with a fast heal. The best skill to achieve this is infuse health. However, in the 6vs6 meta... relying on an infuse monk is not a great option.

for the following reasons.

the infuser sacrifices 50% health to catch the spike... and then needs to be healed back to full health. So both he and the prot monk must use more energy not only to heal/prot allies who are being spiked but the heal/prot the infuser everytime he saves a spike. This is a huge drain on energy. It wasnt so energy intensive for the old 3 monk backline, because there was a Word of Healing monk there to support the infuser. Everytime the infuser catches a spike... it was the word of healing monks job to heal the infuser back to full health... in addition to this the word of heal monk had to try to keep the rest of the team at full health to make the infusers job easier. This allowed the infuser a great deal more safety.

what i am trying to say... is that it is very difficult for a 2monk backline to continuously catch a spike.

this leads me on to talk about the responsibility of the rest of the team to disrupt the enemy spikers.

in a 6 man team, i imagine at most 4-5 spikers. And if we look at a balanced spike with a warrior caller, the spike will most certainly rely on a deepwound to kill. Other spikers might consist of an obsflame or lightning orb or shatter enchant orspiritual pain or esurge... and several others.

Spikes with 4 people are incredibly hard to pull off. If you interrupt 1 of the spikers the dmg caused by the remaining 3 spikers should not be enough to inflict an uninfusable spike. The only way a conventional 3 man spike will be able to kill is with follow up damage. If your infuser cannot catch the spike before the follow up damage arrives you need another infuser.

if you dont run infuse in your build, you need to make sure you have enough shutdown to ruin their spike... or bring stuff like incoming or shelter to limit the damage your allies are taking.

Countering spikes is never the sole responsibility of the monks... dont let anyone ever make you think that. Its impossible for an infuser to catch every spike... after all we are only human.

*sigh*

all i can say for monks in the current mess that is HA... GOOD LUCK

lishi · Jan 16, 2007, 02:26 AM // 02:26

shelter isnt really a counter to the spike.
you cant really on that , its more , the enemy stop to spike for 10 second(who isnt really bad btw)

Wilhelm · Jan 16, 2007, 02:51 AM // 02:51

That's a good fine by Mendes, but with the current HA meta being in shambles, there isn't a real big worry if your infusing skills are not up to par.

Just a couple personal tips from myself:
-Place Infuse Health on your bar someplace where your fingers can easily catch it. ex. not as your 5-8th skill slot.
-Keep out of enemy 'bubble" range if possible.
-Conserve energy, as IH is a 10 energy cost, and a self heal is still required after.

Good luck
-wilhelm

Thom · Jan 16, 2007, 08:18 AM // 08:18

Realize you can't save all spikes and focus on saving the ones you can. You really need infuse against a strong spike team, since nothing else has a .25 cast time and 300 health. The only skills you should be casting against pure spike teams are .25 cast time skills. Spirit Bond, RoF and Glimmer are good skills anything with a cast time .75 or longer is a bad skill. I can cast RoF, SB and SoAbsorb in the time it takes you to cast WoH. By the time you're done casting I have almost 90 healing from DF alone.

If you're team doesn't know how to handle spikes, its only time before you break. Don't be to hard on yourself. On a good day, I can catch almost every savable spike, but if I'm starting out slow and playing tired I'll make stupid mistakes. Often however, it is your teams awareness that allows you to make godly saves.

Tiyuri · Jan 16, 2007, 04:03 PM // 16:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thom

I can cast RoF, SB and SoAbsorb in the time it takes you to cast WoH.

Your post is full of rubbish, but this had to be the most amusing rubbish, so I figured I'd quote it.

I still wonder why people go to forums to post completely made up rubbish and mislead new players.

Thomas.knbk · Jan 16, 2007, 04:52 PM // 16:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thom

I can cast RoF, SB and SoAbsorb in the time it takes you to cast WoH. By the time you're done casting I have almost 90 healing from DF alone.

Aftercastgg
and 90 health is not gonna save a spike

auch · Jan 16, 2007, 09:36 PM // 21:36

sleep more drink a cup of coffe and stay active and watch the warriors if they have any.