Need help improving my Monk

[Xeng Le]

I have returned to GW from WOW, and am having some trouble adjusting. I like to play a healer type, but there are so many different powers, I can't eem to figure out what is the best build. I play mostly PVE, but want to dabble in PvP. Not sure what to do, or where I can read up on this type stuff. Can anyone help?

[Ray Of Light]

The Guild Wars wiki has all kinds of information, but this section on builds might be particularly suited to your request : http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Category:Tested_builds

The Monk builds are those that begin " Mo/ " ( hey, I do not know how new to GW you are :D ).

Some general Monk advice would be :
* It is best to concentrate on Divine Favour plus either Healing Prayers or Protection Prayers ( unless you want to remedy and prevent rather than heal ) - you can certainly do all three quite well, but maxing out two will ensure maximum effect for your energy expenditure.
* Divine Favour, the attribute exclusive to Monks, enhances the healing effect of your spells - but more importantly it contains pretty much all of the Monk's energy management spells ( you will need them if you wat to cast spells constantly ).
* Health regeneration spells are very good early on, but they do not scale so well by the end game.
* There are specialised builds for PvP and farming, but these can be quite tedious and not well suited to general PvE play.
* If you just started with Factions ; skills that limit the amount of damage you can take in one hit are a big deal ( supercharged baddies ).
* If you just started with Prophecies ; most of Prophecies is very forgiving, so experiment with skills to optimize efficiency above all else.
* PvE Monks are always in demand - choose parties wisely ( e.g. read the names of all those people inviting you for a clue ) !
* If you are teaming with henchmen, you can send them in ahead of you by targetting an enemy and pressing Ctrl+Shift+Space.

And a little general GW skill selection advice :
* Skill costs do not escalate - if you use a skill with 0 attribute points invested, it costs just as much with only a fraction of the effectiveness as it would at attribute level 16.
* Aside from certain Elites, all of the skills are fairly equally powered - just because you find a skill further in and it has a whole paragraph of text does not make it better than the skills you started with.
* You can only have one Elite in your skill bar, and you really do want to have one as soon as possible - there are stacks of Elites that are simply superior versions of standard skills.

[Xeng Le]

great info, thanks

[Moo Moo]

but maxing out two will ensure maximum effect for your energy expenditure
Actually, no. You will always want about 10 attribute points in inspiration or blood magic. This way you have access to more efficient ways of energy management than the ridiculous monk energy management.

The game does not provide secondary characters just for kicks ya know. The most used monk energy management skills are:

- Mantra of Recall (elite mesmer)
- Energy Drain (elite mesmer - mostly pvp to support energy denial builds)
- Offering of Blood (elite necromancer)
- Inspired Hex (mesmer)
- Drain Enchantment (mesmer)

[Ray Of Light]

Tsk ; not all Monks take Necromancer or Mesmer for secondary. :)

Plus those skills were all the big energy-management ones from Prophecies ; Boon Signet ( Divine Favour ), Healing Light ( Healing Prayers ) and even Air Of Enchantment ( Protection Prayers ) are Factions skills that empower Monks without requiring them to divert attribute points.

Personally - though I have never taken a Monk far enough through to capture it - I regard Boon Signet as the best Monk signet and awesome in any build using Enchantments ( especially blanket ones like Aegis ).

[STINGER]

* It is best to concentrate on Divine Favour plus either Healing Prayers or Protection Prayers ( unless you want to remedy and prevent rather than heal ) - you can certainly do all three quite well, but maxing out two will ensure maximum effect for your energy expenditure.


This is by far one of the most inaccurate things about a monk that soooo many take as gospel. Maximizing your energy can be done by making good use of Prot when prot is needed and Heal when heal is needed and focusing on the 5 Energy skills. One can go thur very long battles as a monk wihtout energy management skills if played properly, but having one helps insure that drains and interrupts dont leave you dead in the water.

FACT is that the Protection line depending on the skills used doesnt need maxed and can be extremely effective in the 9-10 (9+1) range. Skills like RoF (reversal of Fortune), Protective Spirti, Aegis and others can be very good at low specs.

Also, a Healer does not need 16 Heal and 13 Divine to be a good healer.

One of the best build is a simple 12 Heal/9-10 Prot/Rest Divine and NO SUP RUNES especially in PvE, they simply arent needed, and in PvP using Sup runes isnt a must either. Who is one of the most importatn things to kill in the game? Monks!!! How hard is it to kill one with 480 life vs one with 530??? Now add in morale and +life mods.

My standard PvE Monk runs:

Orison/Elite Heal/Rof/Prot Spirit/Mend/Hex Removal/SoC/Rebirth

Now i do adjust it for situations like if there is no capping to do I will take Aegis, or a Big heal like Other. 80%+ of the time I spam Revesal and slap Prot Spirit on those being focused and simply mend and remove hexes as I can.

Another good build is the Boon Proter, now this guy is indeed high Prot/Divine, but he can also be done with Heals, or Heal/Prot, the speed of Prot skills is why most used the Prot/Divine.


If I was to make a "Heal" build I would still want RoF, it is oneof the single most effective skills a monk has to keep him alive. A full Heal monk is dead meat under pressure with intteruption involved, and a small 9 spec in Prot does very little to hurt your healing line.

Same goes with a Prot build, Sig of Devotion is a skill one should always consider so you can heal a little if not yourself than someone. Low att healing is not extremely strong liek the 9 atts like a Prot skills can be, but if you have a "big healer" + Sig Dev you can be abel to heal if the Healer goes down.

Diversity is key in this game.......being 100% of anything in many cases is a perscription for failure!!! With taht said, one must always be aware of making oneslef too diverse and make yourself a jack of all trades master of none unless there is a damn good reason for it.

[STINGER]

As for advice......

Stay away from Bonding......learn it, understand it, but dont stay in the rut it will make you lazy!

Learn all the ways people heal, try full heal, full Prot, Hybrid, Infuse, Boon Proter. Learn the ins and outs of all the enchantments, some of them can be sick in the right build, strat, tactics........

Dont EVER say "This is the build" always look for better and you will become better!

[Grim Daddy]

I couldn’t agree more; both on the constant opportunities to improve builds & your approach for energy management, STINGER. In fact, some of those Chapter 2 elites are having me go back to the drawing board & rethink some of my older builds.

[STINGER]

Some of those Elites look mighty tasty in the right builds. Healing Light seems to be really nice to maybe consdier with Boon if you have a fair amount of Enchants running around, like Ellys, or Aegis, or maybe smite buff or Nerco buff aka Orders..... Boon cost 2 HL gives back 3 +80-90 heal +boon.

Whats that 10 E skill that offers like 100ish heal and removes 1 hex and 1 condition......looks tasty, but costly. Its not one you wnat to use much and its kind of hard to look at an Elites and say its a taker when you know you cant use it alot......one of the things that make HH, SoD, MoP and SB hard takes even though they are godly. Besides, most monks find it really hard to pass up the Me Elite Energy mgt skills.

I really wish ANet could of given healers more 1/4-1/2 cast skills.

I still havent really "studied" all the new skills. My reading and comp has never been strong, I have to read things a couple times for it to really sink in. I have gone thru them twice fast, I really need to sit down and read each and brainstorm on each for some combos/synergys before i will get a real good handle on it all. Top it off, I have never been a Monk player.......

[Protego]

Ye i agree on the fact that u want more elite skills for monks.
Healing light and Blessed light ( the one u were talking bout that removes 1 cond 1 hex) just cant beat WoH if u ask me.
Tho healing light in combination with a tainted rocks.. it still doesnt even come close to the healing WoH gives.
And Blessed light gets owned by WoH + holy veil and inspired hex (in HA)since u have an RC Prot to deal with conditions anyway. Tho against a hex pressure build it might just make the difference.

Anyway i'll stick to the old builds: WoH/HP and SB/infuse cause Anet still hasnt given real good replacements.

[Nelana Sira]

haha. okay i know people comment on me reviving old posts, but every time i mention this, theres a hope that i will see more Mo/R's in RA and TA

Anyway, i just wanted to say that if you dont really care about being considered knubish for brining situational skills, and want not be a cookie cutter, bring mels resistance[ranger] as your elite, if you thrive off of 4v4 pvp like i do, your almost always the target when you monk, and i love turning all those cover conditions(blind, weakness) into health an energy regeneration. Compared to things like mantra of recall and energy drain, i think it is about equal, a bit more situational, but potentially powerful.
And being a stance also helps!


Monk/Rangers ftw!
Reviving old posts ftw!

[STINGER]

Mels Res Monks are not something new or noob and they might become more popular after Nightfall with even more conditions coming.

It isnt easy being a Mels "healer" but a Mels Proter is very solid as long as he has the conditions to feed him.

Drawbacks....Cripple....Its popular and you need a way to clean yourself, or someone needs to be able to clean you when you are in danger. If Crip is 2-4+ conditions deep you cant move. It is also a bit harry standing around wiht Deep Wound on you and covered.

Mels/Draw/Purge is almost a must in order to be able to do your job safely.

Other drawback is if the conditions arent there for you to feed off of. Now in todays game, they are indeed there.....