Curse

Renegade ++RIP++ · Jun 27, 2006, 07:29 PM // 19:29

My build is quite unorthodox in comparison, but it has served me well even against well users (even though mostly due to luck

)

divine boon
dwaynas kiss
healing light/blessed light
prot spirit
blessed sig
life atunement
life bond
essence bond

you start by casting divine boon on yourself before start. then you run to the orange gate and cast in succession essence bond and life atunement followed up with a blessed sig and a prot spirit. Agaisnt that time the first enemies will have come and you have had time to regenerate sufficient energy to cast healing light if needed (for 4 energy around a 300 heal) or apply life bond. You follow up again with a prot spirit and make yourself rdy for a simple run back to safety to be able to safely use blessed sig.

Just make sure that life attunement doesn't get broken since it fully heals a protected person if using dwaynas kiss (maxheal i gotten was around 400 - 500).

And then you hope that one of your buddy rangers was smart enough to bring symbiosis AND fertile seasons since the combination of both is THE way to counter mass strips, degen and even wells in correlation with a rit with vital weapon. But if all this is lacking the above skills will help already a lot in keeping that ele alive (and yourself by applying a simple life atunement on yourself and the occasional use of healing light which in conjunction with divine boon becomes an easy 200 - 250 heal for 4 energy).

The only thing that i find to bad is that there isn't a weaponspell that limits dmg to 10%, now that would be awesome

Paperfly · Jun 28, 2006, 02:40 AM // 02:40

@Astrea: Thanks! The aproval of my peers is like sweet oils dripping down Aaron's beard.

...Er, to steal a metaphor.

AW Lore is of course right about the Essence Bond. Now, how well do you find Life Sheath working for you? I'd instinctively have preferred Spell Breaker (assuming you can't cap Life Barrier without too much hassle - the boss is right outside of Beacon's Perch), since they're both anti-spike panic buttons and your elementalist is already protected against fighter spikes by his Ward Against Melee.

I've been meaning to test a Factions-only build for the benefit of peeps without Prophecies - any quick suggestions?

@ Renegade: That's a very cool build, and a great way to abuse ranger spirits. Can you see yourself dropping one spell and changing to a ranger secondary to run Symbiosis yourself? How well do you cope without support (since you can't count on it)?

Weapon spell that limits damage to 10%? My friend, you're ignoring possibly the best Ritualist skill in the game: Shelter.

Heh, I'll see if I can get around to testing that (along with the Factions-only list) sometime in the next two days.

AW Lore · Jun 28, 2006, 03:57 AM // 03:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paperfly

AW Lore is of course right about the Essence Bond. Now, how well do you find Life Sheath working for you? I'd instinctively have preferred Spell Breaker (assuming you can't cap Life Barrier without too much hassle - the boss is right outside of Beacon's Perch), since they're both anti-spike panic buttons and your elementalist is already protected against fighter spikes by his Ward Against Melee.

i find life sheath working fine for me, though i get killed myself by mass degen, life sheat works wonders for me, if the friendly wammo lerooys the luxon warrior npcs towards the gate, not even the ele ward can save him from the spikes of the gank squad.

life sheath+prot spirit allows me to see three +1 energy to pop up withouth the ele losing life.

unless things get too intense, i just do prot spirit+life sheath, using dwayna kiss for whenever its life falls to the 3/4.

i dont use much guardian, and im thinking of changing it, any idea/suggestion?
either divine/prot/healing skill

Astraea Zopyros · Jun 28, 2006, 05:59 AM // 05:59

Same as AW.

Life Sheath's benefit is that it is relatively spammable (5 energy, I forget cast time, 7 recharge), and will prevent (at 12 protection) 126 damage. The spell lasts for 20 seconds, plus I get a small DF boost. Also, if some of the amber runners run by at low HP, no enchants, I can easily give them that little bit more protection to make it back to the gatekeepers. Another benefit is it is castable on myself--if, by some means, I end up running from the not-so-friendly warrior, assassin, elementalist, ranger, etc., I can prevent 126 damage to myself while waiting for my other skills to recharge. Overall, it seems to be the best elite I've tried for Aspenwood (though I haven't tried many, admittedly).
I haven't tried Life Barrier yet, though it's on my agenda to capture.
Especially when Gunther's getting his little blue booty kicked, if I die, I can run down, Life Sheath, Dwayna's Kiss (which will benefit from the quick enchant of Life Sheath) and usually save his rear.

Once again, same as AW. Degen is my worst enemy. Dwayna's Kiss and the little bit I get from spamming Life Sheath and Protective Spirit are about all I can do to heal the Ele, and when he has Poison/Conjure Bad Things on him, he's experiencing a good million+1 pips of degen, plus being beaten up by meanie meleer's, which only Dwayna's Kiss (limited mostly by recharge time, here) and DF bonus from Prot. Spirit and Life Sheath can help. Usually it's just spam for the sake of my--er, his--life.
Prot. Spirit -> Life Sheath -> Dwayna's Kiss -> Life Sheath -> Dwayna's Kiss -> Blessed Signet -> Rinse, repeat.

Guardian, in my opinion, would just be another spammable skill for DF bonus. I used it when I was trying out a Boon Bonder build. Since my main enemy is degen and enchantment stripping, Guardian won't help too much. I can easily fend off any meleer's attacking the ele, so I don't see it as quite necessary. I, personally, would take Mend Condition before I take Guardian. However, as I made room for Soul Feast (to get rid of those corpses before mean ol' necros come and make Wells of the Profane...), I sacrificed Sig. of Devotion/Mend Condition.

The Boon Bonder skill set I used was:
Life Bond
Life Sheath {E}
Reversal of Fortune
Divine Boon
Blessed Signet
Mend Condition
Protective Spirit
Balthazar's Spirit (Essence Bond could be used)

In this build, I sacrificed Dwayna's Kiss (no points in Healing) for the ability to remove conditions with Mend Condition. Overall, I found this build much easier for preventing damage to myself, and I can't quite remember why I left this build. I have tried a lot of builds over the past few days.

Hope this makes sense--I'm really sleepy! :P

Amadei · Jun 28, 2006, 07:46 AM // 07:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astraea Zopyros

I've recently begun actively playing Fort Aspenwood on my preferred character, my monk (Astraea Boitheia).

:O I know you! You did a fantastic job bonding a few days ago... Not entirely sure when it was. You said it was your first time bonding and I mentioned I was impressed (which I was -- I think we spent the last tweny percent of the match with only the green gate up, though I may be mixing up my matches. I do FA a little more than is possibly healthy >_>). I was the mesmer hiding in the green room with you, clutching some amber in case the gate went down.

To the OP: I love the guide. Read it this morning and I'm bookmarking it for future reference. I have a monk at FA as well, and I've run a healing and a protecting build, both with "meh" results. I'll be sure to give this a whirl; thanks very much

Astraea Zopyros · Jun 28, 2006, 03:09 PM // 15:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amadei

I was the mesmer hiding in the green room with you, clutching some amber in case the gate went down.

:O I remember you too!

Thank you very much for the compliment. I remember you mesmerized a few enemies too, an elementalist if I remember right (he'd been hitting me with Meteor back on the other gates). It was a pleasure playing with you!

AW Lore · Jun 28, 2006, 04:17 PM // 16:17

we fall prey to mass degen, wich tends to be either as degen from necros or mesmers, whats a way to counter it? heal breeze, this is by no means the best choice, but it is a decent way to counter the degen.

tonight ill be testing the effectiviness of heal breeze, its not cheap, but should do a decent job.

btw, AW is not my name, its my clan tag, so the name is just Lore

Yakumo · Jun 28, 2006, 04:22 PM // 16:22

Well, inspired by this thread, I decided to give bonding a shot at Fort Aspenwood.

Even with the help of this guide, it was surprisingly difficult... well, only when the Luxons knew what they were doing.

The first few times went horribly wrong, the enchantments were stripped so fast that I was left wondering whether I did actually bonded the ele or not... not a very nice introduction to bonding!

I dusted myself off and tried again. We won a good number of games, even those that looked really bleak. I think I got much better as I got insulted by a Luxon while holding the Green gate. Seeing as they couldn't take down the ele, he decided that a verbal exchange would be the ultimate gamebreaking move. A variation of the 'f' word and 'monk' in the same sentence was hurled at us, and being the only monk, I guess it was directed at me.

Encountering Well of the Profane on my first attempt was quite an experience. Unable to cast enchantments, I decided that non-enchantments was the way to go, to out heal the damage until I can start using enchantments again, and thus ended up with this build:

Life Barrier {E}
Life Bond
Essence Bond
Blessed Signet
Protective Spirit
Dwayna's Kiss
Orison of Healing
Divine Boon

The healing spells were chosen for their spammability, as well as Orison for self healing, and Dwayna's for bonus healing on enchanted allies.

The boon healing has been useful to the party when performing ad-hoc heals, not as good as a fully fledged boon healer, but it's nice to pull off a big heal when they're close to death's door. No doubt, my build will change as I get more experience in this challenging yet highly fun role!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paperfly

@ others: (To keep it in the context of this thread) I'm still thinking through how a warrior should support a team that contains a bonder. You're right in saying their job becomes holding Purple, but I'm not 100% sure what the most efficient way to help with that as a warrior is.

I'm 100% sure that standing around to cheer or watch in awe as the bonder is desparately trying to stop the Green gate from falling is NOT the most efficient way to help! Yes, I'm speaking from experience. I had the pleasure of the same warrior in three matches who did just that. Having fallen back to Green, I was holding back the Luxon horde from storming through, and this warrior just stood there, as if waiting for the gate to fall. Every now and then, he'll buff up ready for a fight of his life. Yet, the gate stood. I was mashing away at my keys, and he was standing there, waiting... For Leeroy's sake, go out there and aggro someone! Be a rabid dog and go chase those people away from the gate... Hell, go pick a fight! Go 1v1! Go do something to take pressure of me!

No matter how much pinging I did on the mini map or arrow drawing to the teleporter I did, did he get the message (I opt'ed out from typing a message because I'm a slow typer, and the ele would probably have been dead by the time I typed out his name). Alas, I can't complain too much... at least he didn't open the gate to have a quick peek outside...

Renegade ++RIP++ · Jun 28, 2006, 04:43 PM // 16:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paperfly

@Astrea: Thanks! The aproval of my peers is like sweet oils dripping down Aaron's beard.

...Er, to steal a metaphor.

AW Lore is of course right about the Essence Bond. Now, how well do you find Life Sheath working for you? I'd instinctively have preferred Spell Breaker (assuming you can't cap Life Barrier without too much hassle - the boss is right outside of Beacon's Perch), since they're both anti-spike panic buttons and your elementalist is already protected against fighter spikes by his Ward Against Melee.

I've been meaning to test a Factions-only build for the benefit of peeps without Prophecies - any quick suggestions?

@ Renegade: That's a very cool build, and a great way to abuse ranger spirits. Can you see yourself dropping one spell and changing to a ranger secondary to run Symbiosis yourself? How well do you cope without support (since you can't count on it)?

Weapon spell that limits damage to 10%? My friend, you're ignoring possibly the best Ritualist skill in the game: Shelter.

Heh, I'll see if I can get around to testing that (along with the Factions-only list) sometime in the next two days.

shelter has the problem to not being focussed on 1 person, making it possible that it runs out before the abillity to be respawned. Which is the reason why i was acking for a weapon version and which is the strong point of prot spirit, ergo it can be reaplied practically immediately.

I do however have to say that i wished that some of the necros brought br along, it would help out any monk defensivewise a lot. Although i'm starting to more and more think about an ele/mo set up as bonder in conjunction with ether prodigy and essence bond for energymanagement. Might even be manageable to use protective bond in stead of prot spirit. (tried it on my monk, was a tad to hard to do and keep on healing and reapplying prot spirit/dwaynas kiss,...)

in any case i would not run symbiosis myself, i would thn prefer to take fertile seasons since it has a rechage of 30 secs. Only problem is that it takes to high of an investment in beastmaster skills for a monk to still be worth it. Not to mention that its hard for a monk who is focussed on healing people to recast a spirit constantly.

Astraea Zopyros · Jun 28, 2006, 06:50 PM // 18:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by AW Lore

we fall prey to mass degen, wich tends to be either as degen from necros or mesmers, whats a way to counter it? heal breeze, this is by no means the best choice, but it is a decent way to counter the degen.

tonight ill be testing the effectiviness of heal breeze, its not cheap, but should do a decent job.

btw, AW is not my name, its my clan tag, so the name is just Lore

Sorry Lore! :P

For myself, instead of Healing Breeze I took condition and hex removal--mainly in the form of Mend Condition and Holy Veil. Viel is good in that it can be pre-cast, but it severely limited by the fact that it only removes one hex and has a longer recharge. Maybe if you went with the Mesmer route and took Inspired Hex or one of those--perhaps could even help with e-management (never really explored these options--any input?).
EDIT: Or Spellbreaker?

Also, Shelter is insanely useful with Soul-Twisting and Signet of Creation. Just a thought.

Aart Snikkelbaard · Jun 28, 2006, 11:38 PM // 23:38

My build:

Life Barrier {E}
Life Bond
Vital Blessing
Balthasar's Spirit
Watchful Spirit
Blessed Signet
RoF
Signet of devotion

I find that reaplying Watchful Spirit works fine enough in combination with RoF.

MelechRic · Jun 29, 2006, 12:44 AM // 00:44

A Fast Casting Me/Ne w/ Well of Profane hurts the Soul Feast in the original build. However, you don't see too many of these running around in Aspenwood.

As a Luxon Necro I'm fond of the bonder challenge. Fortunately the Luxon Warrior NPC corpses seem to accumulate around a bonded NPC and I've yet to have a Soul Feasting bonder beat me to all of them.

I will say (having played on Kurzick teams) that I have the utmost respect for Kurzick players in general and bonding monks in specific. The Kurzicks have a very uphill fight for the entire game with more and more pressure being applied as time marches on. Victory as a Kurzick is much sweeter for me than as a Luxon.

If I didn't love my guild (which is Luxon) I'd consider going Kurzick just for the added challenge.

OP, thanks for the nice guide. When I get my monk down to Aspenwood I'll bring her through the Kurzick side so I can play at bonding gates.

Shadowfox1125 · Jun 29, 2006, 04:33 AM // 04:33

Excellent guide; good job.

This is exactly why I pack either Gaze of Contempt or Well of Profane on my W/N.. Although it's strange when I shout "I'm using ______ on ______," it's possible with a totem axe. 32 Energy. =P
I've played against an E/Mo that bonded the Purple Gate. We couldn't get through but we broke through the Orange Gate and proceeded to end the game.
I think I'll try this with my monk--she needs her 1.5k Kurz.

Astraea Zopyros · Jun 29, 2006, 06:29 AM // 06:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by MelechRic

A Fast Casting Me/Ne w/ Well of Profane hurts the Soul Feast in the original build. However, you don't see too many of these running around in Aspenwood.

As a Luxon Necro I'm fond of the bonder challenge. Fortunately the Luxon Warrior NPC corpses seem to accumulate around a bonded NPC and I've yet to have a Soul Feasting bonder beat me to all of them.

Well, I probably couldn't beat you, but if the bodies are just sitting there, waiting for someone to come make a well, I might as well consume them. I've seen many necros sitting outside, waiting for just one body within range. While I might not be able to beat them all the time, I'm really just stalling for time. If I lose one gate, I can always fall back. Lol, and honestly, a mesmer hurts just about any time! :P

EDIT: Sticky, please? I think this is a very good guide, more than deserving of a sticky! (Whether here or in the monk forum)

Caged Fury · Jun 29, 2006, 11:42 AM // 11:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by MelechRic

As a Luxon Necro I'm fond of the bonder challenge.....I have the utmost respect for Kurzick players in general and bonding monks in specific.

That's nice to hear.

It's a pity that not everyone share those thoughts.

'To heal and to protect', that's what my monk does. I am not going to stand toe-to-toe and try to wand a warrior, or anyone else, to death. Depending on the situation, I may be bonding and healing a gate guard, a gatekeeper, Gunther, or team mates. Since I'm soft and squishy, then I will do my job from behind the safety of the gates if I can, it's what they're there for - to provide defence from attacks. And when I do this, I get called a 'n00b' and a 'cheat'.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadowfox1125

I've played against an E/Mo that bonded the Purple Gate. We couldn't get through but we broke through the Orange Gate and proceeded to end the game.

That's something that I've rarely seen. Most of the time, I've been the only monk in the team. And when I bond one gate, the Luxon team just spend alot of their time trying to break through my gate. When they realise that they're not going to get through, they rather ragequit instead of stopping and trying the other gate.

Having Bonders/monks certainly help, but they don't guarantee victory for the Kurzicks. I've been in a few battles where the Luxon team really knew what they were doing, despite bonding gates they were able to break through with good teamwork and co-ordinated attacks. If they didn't win the battle, then they put alot of pressure on us and we would only just manage to win.

Paperfly · Jun 29, 2006, 12:04 PM // 12:04

I've played a few games using Renegade's build - I'd call it "testing", but no-one's been online, games have been infrequent and I haven't been up against a full range of competent opponents!

Obviously I'm not a master with it yet (I lost a bondee once to the new annoying "...is x% complete" message - I needed to click on him in a hurry and tapped the message instead!), but my preliminary conclusion is that the build needs to cast a lot more often than mine does, which increases your vulnerability to casters trying to kill you through the gate (i.e. when you dart in close enough to cast). Also, you have to deal with the bondee's health swinging to near-zero more often, and I just don't have the nerve to cope with that.

I also tried Renegade's build plus Symbiosis (I dropped Divine Boon), and actually preferred it slightly. The Prot Spirit thing wasn't a problem, funnily enough, and Dwayna's was easily healing enough to compensate... The only real issue I had was the reduction of my other attributes in order to pump Symb up enough to matter! (I went with 9 Beast Mastery, for the record)

I also tested Symb with my original build... Funnily enough, I barely noticed it was there - even though the Elementalist should've theoretically had 300+ more HP at all times! In the end I decided that (a) it wasn't worth the attribute points, (b) it wasn't worth the loss of Soul Feast, and (c) it wasn't worth having to change secondaries every time I wanted to use the monk for something else!

On the Luxon side, I noticed one bright spark running Wither - though to be honest one may as well run an Inspiration mesmer and be more efficient at the e-denial role. I couldn't gauge how well his elite really worked, though, as the rest of my team sucked and lost the Green gate in two minutes flat!

Oh, and after fighting Flesh Golems in the Fire Islands I'm considering capping Lingering Curse with my necro and trying it out over Order. Has anybody had any experience for or against it?

@ MelechRic, Shadowfox: Obviously I'm starting out on the back foot if I'm up against a Well necro. As long as the turtle isn't attacked, though, those hammer warriors will never dismount at the outer gates, so all I have to do is eat the other ele's corpse (though idiot 'sins often do attack the turtles). You can also sometimes get a few teammates to walk up and die, but in my experience it's rare to find a team that willing to co-operate!

Even with casual corpse consumption, as I said, I'll need a fair bit of luck to survive a stripper who knows his job. But hey, it's a fun match when that happens!

@ Aart and others: The real problem with the Boon-Bonder hybrid builds is that you have zero chance against a resolved Well of the Profane. Additionally, while RoF is a fine spell, it's sub-par if the main threats you're facing are degen-based (and you should be able to deal with melee damage just fine with any bonding build). Guardian's similarly ineffective - if your bondee is being melee'd or shot you're getting a boatload of energy from Essence Bond, why try to stop them from landing the ineffective hits?

You could run Boon-Bonder with honest-to-goodness direct heals, but then you're splitting your attributes too many ways for the Boon to be fully effective.

@ Yakumo: Ethereal Light beats the pants off Orison. You can't take projectile damage anyway, so the drawback isn't an issue until the Green gate goes down (and even then it's a better heal on the Gatekeepers).

@ the degen counters: As I mentioned in the article, I'm happiest with direct healing as a degen counter - Dwayna's Kiss and Ethereal Light work for me. If you want removal, take only Mend Ailment for conditions - none of the anti-hex measures are worth it, as they all have horriffic regen times, take two seconds to cast, or are elites (or all three!).
Incidentally, I noticed some of your builds didn't have an elite... Why not run Word of Healing or Blessed Light as your panic buttons?

I'm not a fan of Healing Breeze, btw - it's inefficient on a monk primary, and it's another enchant that can be Profaned.

Finally, of course, if ten casters are out to get you you won't be able to stay alive forever... That's when you have to call for help. A friendly caster is a better auxiliary than any one bandaid skill slot.

While I'd be flattered to have this stickied, it's probably better suited to the Community Works forum if y'all judge that it's polished enough.

Shadowfox1125 · Jun 29, 2006, 04:04 PM // 16:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paperfly

@ MelechRic, Shadowfox: Obviously I'm starting out on the back foot if I'm up against a Well necro. As long as the turtle isn't attacked, though, those hammer warriors will never dismount at the outer gates, so all I have to do is eat the other ele's corpse (though idiot 'sins often do attack the turtles). You can also sometimes get a few teammates to walk up and die, but in my experience it's rare to find a team that willing to co-operate!

You're correct; it is extremely rare to find someone willing to die for your Well. I've only been able to pull it off once. I had died and I sprinted back into action. A fellow warrior had just died and I used his corpse to make the Well.. I don't think the Well really helped (both Orange and Purple squads were attacking him and it must have been just a matter of time).

Yesterday I played a game where I ran Plague Touch (I know, I know, but it's such a fun skill) and the architect was the only NPC left. A ranger(that should have known that I had Plague Touch because I crippled and poisoned him back earlier in the game) poisoned me and I fed the architect who went down with the poison.
But bonders do help--I remember a Kurzick game I played where we had 2 afkers o_O but 2 monks. We nearly won because both of them were bonders. I'd have more faction if those 2 afkers would just wake up.. >_>

I'm gonna try your build as soon as I get my monk there.. She needs her 1.5k Kurz.. don't tell anyone in my guild -- I haven't bought a set of Luxon armor, but plan on getting another set of Kurz armor.. Heh.

MelechRic · Jun 29, 2006, 06:41 PM // 18:41

Hmm... I can almost always get an fellow caster or assassin to die for next to the bonded NPC for a well. However, I almost never see a warrior do it. (I think it's mentally impossible for a warrior to let himself die... so much conditioning to survive.)

Renegade ++RIP++ · Jun 29, 2006, 07:07 PM // 19:07

@paper:

mine does need to cast more often, but in most cases that ain't a problem with the selfheals (life atunement, divine boon and healing light and the occasional prot spirit you can easilly outheal the dmg they put out). I just prefer it because it is a tad more robust and less expesnive (used watchfull spirit in stead of healing light light at start for the occasional spikeheal without having to come in view).

I however prefer it above the elite life barrier because of enchantment strips (wells, disecnhantment, aposthosy, etc...), so it being more versatile.

And yes symbiosis is great, but if you liked symbiosis you will like fertile seasons way way more seeing that it is non breakable 300 healthincrease for everybody (you as well).

But if you don't encounter enchantstrippers then life barrier is a better elite. I just didn't want to take that risk and therefore be a bit broader. I ran this build at start:

blessed sig
prot bond
life atunement
life barrier (E)
life bond
life essence
divine boon
watchfull spirit.

It could keep up forever untill it encountered well of the profane, which was the reason why i kicked out life barrier (to expesnive and ends when you hit <50%) and watchfull spirit (to expesnive even though ideal anti strip skill). And in the case of 3 nukers on ht eluxon side i would run to fast out of energy due to prot bond

(preferred it at start so i had a visual of it being active).

Yakumo · Jul 07, 2006, 12:36 PM // 12:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paperfly

@ Yakumo: Ethereal Light beats the pants off Orison. You can't take projectile damage anyway, so the drawback isn't an issue until the Green gate goes down (and even then it's a better heal on the Gatekeepers).

Tried it and afraid to say that it's not really my thing. You're right, it is a much better heal and the drawback isn't an issue behind the safety of a gate... However, I'm not always behind a gate.

Unable to heal under fire affects my gameplay and removes a flexibility that I like to have for situations when bonding a gate isn't necessary.

If there's already a bonder at a gate, then I take the role of a healer (and maybe bond those under heavy attack until the threat has gone).

If the gate I'm bonding is all too quiet, then I'll leave it, and go healing (especially if the Luxons have made it into the inner area). I don't always automatically go and bond Orange. If I believe we can push them out, then I'll stay and heal, rather than remove myself out of play by bonding a gate that isn't going to be attacked at time soon.

In those situations, I'm usually under attack (not sure why, I'm just a lil Monk), and with Ethereal Light, I find that I'm not as effective as its a heal that I cannot pull off when I get hit. It's just the way I play.... heal and run, heal and run, whilst being chased by a wammo.

Maybe with more practice in kiting, I can avoid being interrupted when using Ethereal Light, but then most of the time, I never really know whose got their eyes on me, until I get hit.

For degen, I agree that direct healing to be better than removal or an attempt to negate it with Healing Breeze. Removing something like poison doesn't seem worth it as it can be quickly reapplied. The drawbacks of hex removal has already been mentioned, so I'll not cover that.

Healing Breeze... Well, we all know degen is capped at 10 pips. You can have more than 10 pips of degen, such as 15, but only 10 will affect your health, the remaining 5 are hidden. Put on a Healing Breeze with 5 pips of regen and you've negated 5 degen, however you will only have negated 5 of the 15 degen. You will still be suffering from the max degen of 10. In this example, at a cost of 10 energy, Healing Breeze has done nothing, other than provide some healing from the Divine Favor bonus. Not worth the energy, might as well leave the degen at 10 (with 5 hidden) and use the energy for direct healing.