Generic heal monk

this is my build that ive been using for a generic well rounded healing monk. for pve it lacks group/ae heal, so if you have a stupid group, doing stupid things you will notice the lack. it was however, primarily designed with pve in mind, specifically pick up groups at the comp arenas.

it is designed with the ideas of A) being an effective healer B) energy management.

that said, heres the layout.
Monk/Mesmer
Inspiration 10
Healing prayers 10+1 Minor rune
Divine Favor 11+1+2 helm, major rune (can go superior here, i just havent got one yet)

Inspired hex
Healing touch
Energy tap
Divine boon
Mend ailment
Orison of healing
Mantra of recall
Res signet

divine favor will add a raw 42 to all your monk spells. healing touch is awesome with this build, and a really fantastic self heal for when youre taking a pounding, since it lands for 84+67+48. hell, orison lands for 42+67+57. the only thing im really unsure about is "Inspired hex", i just started using it last night, and so far i find it to be very effective.... but the 20 second "recast" is a bit much. having an extra hex at your fingertips is kinda cool, and the fact that you GAIN 11 energy for removing a hex is the main reason that i chose it.

i find this build VERY survivable overall, and dont have much trouble unless i get 3+ people on me (hammer warriors..... *shudder*), but thats true of any monk that isnt relatively heavy on the protection side.

comments? thoughts? suggestions? one of the key points here is energy management. between mantra of recall, energy tap, and inspired hex i rarely have mana problems.

One thing that I notice is that you have 2.5 slots dedicated solely to energy management. I think that's a waste, especially since Inspired Hex and Energy Tap are weak in PvE. I'm a big fan of Offering of Blood, so I'd use that instead of Mantra of Recall, so I can use Remove Hex instead of Inspired Hex (as you probably have found out, Inspired Hex has a huge cooldown, which really hurts against hex spammers) and Vigorous Spirit/Healing Breeze/Heal Other instead of Energy Tap. I'm also a big fan of Signet of Devotion with Divine Boon, so I'd switch out Orison of Healing for that. For PvE, you're using Rebirth, instead of Res Signet, right?

Finally, the most important thing:
You've got 1 Attribute point left! For God's sake man, throw it into Protection Prayers and grab a Minor Protection Prayers rune. That will give you at least an additional 9 points of healing whenever you use Mend Ailment on someone suffering from 2 or more conditions! It's extremely important that you get those 9 points of health, you'll never know when you need it.

energy tap takes to long IMO i perfer channeling ^_^

pve is a very low concern with this build, lol. its functional, but an afterthought at best. yes i would swap out res sig for a res spell for pve.

to address your point, yes i have dumped that point into protection prayers and used a minor rune, lol... just didnt list it.

channeling, for pvp, in the 4v4 arenas, is crap. the return is too small, spread over too much time. energy tap by the way is a great way to throw a wrench into the plans of that smiting w/mo charging you (no balthasars aura for you!) or that w/e trying to spam knockdown/aftershock. a 12 mana drain really hurts the non casters with small energy pool and low regen.

good input though, always good to have things to think about! thanks.

Channeling's not so hot in arena, but energy tap is a bad spell everywhere. 3s is waay too long for a monk to spend casting a spell, when they're already the target of anti casting, it's almost laughable. You're going to get interrupted, knocked down, or someone's going to die because you spend 3s getting, what? 7 net energy? Definitely a poor choice.

Yeah ditch energy tap for channeling. You have no reason not to take channeling, it's one of those no-brainers that every Mo/Me should take. It's good in most cases, and frikking awesome in some (HoH or king of the hill, for example).

And completely useless in other cases. As a Monk, the energy management skills that I'd most take would either be Energy Drain or Offering of Blood. I'd only take channeling for the tombs.

well I see no elite skill listed here. My thoughts would be to use oh say energy drain and get rid of energy tap since its casting time is only 1 and not 3.(oh see the mantra of recall is listed for your elite ditch that heal spells recharge fast enough anyways. You are going to watse an elite for one maybe two skills you are carrying.)
Forget all that non-sense about channeling it has no place in pvp. Most you'll ever get back at any one time is 2 since most HoH teams dont carry more than 2 hammer wars and then you are lucky to get a spell off anyways. Same goes for any 4v4 organised or random, it's all caster heavy.

I'd get rid of Inspired Hex and just bring Remove Hex. but thats just me.

well thats my 2 spits in a bucket on the topic. Have a goodun

I much, much prefer inspired to remove, for two reasons... Obviously, one is that it casts in half the time, but the other is that if you see a hex and you and a partner go to cast on it, if you miss, so to speak, as in, he removed it first, you don't have to wait for inspired to come back. Not to mention you'll occasionally get goodies like lingering, mailaise, wither, panic or the likes... Lingering especially doesn't need any attribute points to make it a game turner, that's suddenly one or two more full enchant strips on target.

matra of recall has nothing to do with recast timers, not sure where you got that idea.

i think to mix things up a little im going to try drain enchantment instead of energy tap. much faster casting with 1 better energy return, 5 second longer recast time.... but it will serve as a dual purpose spell, adding a little more versatility to the build. gonna try running with remove hex, see if i find im using it more often, if it rarely gets cast, then the 20 second "cooldown" on inspire would be moot. but thats more a matter of playstyle than pure build mechanics.

as for channeling, i dont need to forget it, as i never considered it. except as part of a gimick build, its next to useless for general play.

offering of blood.... ive tried it, and its pretty solid... but i prefer the mesmer energy renewal spells... as i can drop in multipurpose spells like drain enchantment and inspired hex to get a little more versatility from the spell. that said.... after i get a bit more solid on the mo/me builds and spells, im planning to tinker with mo/n.

Quote: as for channeling, i dont need to forget it, as i never considered it. except as part of a gimick build, its next to useless for general play. Definitely one of the dumbest things I've read in a while... sorry, but channeling is one of the best spells in the game, perhaps the only areas where it isn't useful is standard PvE and arena, but it has its place in farming, and every mo/me that runs serious PvP should take it. There's no better way to manage energy, it's cheap, it lasts a long time, it has a relatively short recast, it can even provide a good cover enchantment. Most certainly not a gimmick, and general play is probably considered by most to be Tombs, where it's one of the most powerful spells in the game (especially considering how many spirit spammers we see nowadays).

Quote:
as for channeling, i dont need to forget it, as i never considered it. except as part of a gimick build, its next to useless for general play in the environment i currently play in.


fixt for clarity. in the 4v4 team/comp arenas that im currently playing in, it is useless.

and the farming builds youre reffering to are a prime example of what i cinsider "gimmick" builds. as they are only good for one thing, in an EXTREMELY limited environment, and are basically useless outside that.

in the 4v4 arenas channeling is next to useless. i cant speak as to hoh, because i dont go there... yet. thats what im getting prepared for with this tinkering of builds . the input is appreciated, and ill keep it in mind, but for the most part, channeling in the 4v4 team/comp environment is purely useless.