Guide to playing as a monk

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Split It has been suggested that this article be split into articles entitled Guide to playing as a monk, Guide to playing as a healer and Guide to secondary self defence. (discuss)

Contents

[edit] Overview

Monks are the healing backbone of a party, keeping the other players alive and healthy. They get the unique Divine Favor bonus and two entire skill lines solely devoted to keeping those health bars up.

[edit] Basic knowledge

A good monk needs to understand the game elements described in these articles:

[edit] Understanding the Profession

[edit] Healing vs preventing

In general, there are two ways of keeping your team mates alive: Heal them if they take damage, or prevent them from taking damage in the first place. In Guild Wars, those two aspects are related to one monk attribute each: You heal with Healing Prayers and you prevent damage with Protection Prayers. Both are entirely viable, yet as a rule of thumb, preventing damage is more useful in later stages of the game and requires more experience than healing.

[edit] Healing

If you decide to use healing prayers, you will focus on watching the party list and using the appropriate skills on those that are low. Your skill bar will include a small number of spammable single target skills, a party heal and a few special purpose skills. In PvP, you should not need to bring party healing unless it is HA, or Divine Healing/Heaven's Delight on a Protection Monk. Do NOT bring a resurrection skill, unless it is PvE. Focus on keeping the rest of the party from dying as your first priority.

[edit] Overhealing

The one big issue that keeps you from being a healing machine is your energy. Almost all of a monk's problems revolve around this. In case of a healing monk, this means first and foremost to avoid overhealing. Do not waste a skill healing for 140 health points on a party member only missing 50 health points to full health. Note that it is your job to keep your party alive, not keeping them at 100% health. It is perfectly fine and in several cases advisable NOT to heal party members who got damaged for a small amount of health. Wait until they are damaged strongly enough that you won't overheal. Knowing how long you can wait without risking a death because of a sudden spike of damage is part of being a good healing monk.

[edit] Spike healing and pressure healing

Sometimes, a party member will get hit by a lot of enemies for a lot of damage in a short time. That is when you need spike heals. Those are the fast single target heals with a big amount of healing output, like Infuse Health. At other times, no one is in immediate danger of dying, but the whole parties loses health over time, for example from health degeneration or area of effect skills. In this case you need pressure health (e.g. Heal Party) that have a good healing/energy used ratio. Spike heals will always be more costly in terms of energy, you pay for their ability to bring that health bonus where you want without delay. To keep your energy bar up, use pressure heals whenever you can, spike heals only when needed.

[edit] Synergies

Many healing skills heal for a basic amount of health, but heal for more if some criteria are met. For example, Dwayna's Kiss profits from hexes and enchantments on the target or Words of Comfort from conditions. There are many other examples with other criteria. If you see a team member is fulfilling one of those criteria and you have the appropriate skill on your bar, use it instead of your normal heal to deliver a much bigger boost (and therefore be more energy efficient).

[edit] Protection

Whereas healing monks can simply rely on the party list, protection monks need to take their surroundings into account as well. Your skills are wasted if you cast them on someone who will not be hit. Of course a first approximation is: If someone just got hit, he will be hit again. In most cases you will fare okay with this, but good protection monks see who is going to be hit and cast their spells even before the first hit lands. Also, protection monks need to assess what kind of damage will land to use the correct countermeasure: Is the attacker an Elementalist boss who will take away hundreds of health points with one skill? Protective Spirit or Spirit Bond is the correct solution. Is it a warrior boss? Use Guardian. Or is a spike coming and you were slow on the uptake? "Small prots" like Reversal of Fortune and Shielding Hands are great stop-gap measures.

[edit] Conditions

Most of the monk condition removing skills are concentrated in the protection line. As such it is usually the protection monks job to keep the party condition free. Take a look at the condition section below for more detail.

[edit] Protection and healing?

The biggest problem for protection monks is: What to do once the bars are down? Whether you protected the wrong person or someone was out of casting range, sooner or later you will be faced with the situation of very low health bars that need to be brought back to full. The easiest solution, is of course to have a healing monk with you. The protection monk protects, the healing monk heals those that the protection monk misses. However there are some other possibilities that a protection monk has:

  • Going dual: Also known as running a "hybrid" bar, this allows the Monk to use both healing and protection skills. This is done by many experienced monks, who usually bring along one skill (sometimes called a "power heal") to heal up (Gift of Health is great for this). The downfall is that by spreading your attributes, your individual skills get weaker.
  • Using Zealous Benediction: Despite being in protection prayers, this skill is in effect a healing one. Add the energy gain and this is a great elite for protection monks who do not want to go dual.
  • Using Divine Favor: Every monk uses divine favor for the divine favor bonus, but the skill list also features some pressure heals, giving those who use neither of the above options at least some ability to heal.

[edit] Tactics

[edit] Surviving

In general, it is more important for monks not to die compared to other classes. A front line character dying hurts the party, but a monk dying can easily lead to a full party wipe. Therefore most of the time monk equipment is centered around defensive runes and insignias. In the beginning however, the only mandatory thing is to get a full max armor (Armor rating 60) as soon as possible.

Monks should avoid using superior runes, as the -75 health is hazardous; Reducing your life can make you die faster and PvE monsters tend to attack the target with the least life. For the same reason getting a rune of Vigor (the higher the better, since these do not have a health reduction) is a high priority for monks.

Try to craft a headpiece with a bonus to the attribute you use the most and put a minor rune of that attribute on it. Avoid Divine Favor headpieces as the bonuses you can get from a headpiece in Protection Prayers or Healing Prayers almost always outweigh the bonuses you can get from a Divine Favor headpiece. You should place a minor divine favor on one part of your armor as it will be useful for all builds.

Many experienced PvPers will advise you to use Disciple's Insignias or Survivor Insignias on your armor for the increase of armor and/or health to be able to counter spikes easier. In both PvE and PvP, armor insignias tend to be superior to survivor's insignias due to the fact that conditions are plentiful in both PvE and PvP(spikes in PvP have Deep Wound 99% of the time anyway) damage prevention is better than having more health, leading to less damage a monk has to heal, and thus saving a lot of energy in the long run. If you are not comfortable with energy management, using Radiant Insignia is a good idea. Many monks in PvP use shields for the armor bonus: Even if you don't meet the requirements you still get half the armor bonus.

[edit] Kiting and positioning

More than any other classes, monks need to kite.

Kiting is the action of running away from the enemy to avoid being hit. Melee attackers often carry Knockdown, and when you are knocked down, you can't cast. During this time, you and your team can be pummeled by the opponents. Also, while kiting, you reduce the pressure on your team as foes are not able to cause damage.

Along with kiting, monks should also try to get to safe positions. The most basic thing is to stay in the backline of the party. Monsters tend to attack characters close to them and will rarely run through the whole group. You can also use walls to avoid projectile spells and attacks. Keep in mind that you need to be in casting range for your teammates to benefit from your positional survival advantage.

[edit] Dealing with conditions

Only a few other professions are able to remove conditions, thus your party will expect you to deal with them. The first goal of a monk is to be able to identify the kind of condition(s) on the target. Disease and Poison color the health bar green, while Bleeding turns it light pink. Deep Wound is recognizable by replacing part of the health bar with a grey block. All other conditions (cripple/blind/dazed/cracked armor and burning), however, show up as a small brown down arrow on the health bar and particular animations on the affected character. Monks need to either look at the actual character model or monitor the skills used by enemies to distinguish these.

In cases of Degeneration (poison/bleeding), and especially the case of Apply Poison, where the target of a condition removal will often have it reapplied within seconds of being cured, it is often more efficient to apply a long term regeneration effect to negate it, rather than having to focus all effort on keeping the one or two conditions off, thus neglecting the rest of the party, and wasting far more energy in the process.

Not all conditions are equally severe, so monks must prioritize which conditions to remove: Blind is very strong on a warrior, yet can be safely ignored on a caster. It is the other way round for Dazed. Deep Wound and Cracked Armor endanger one character under immediate attack, while Disease and Bleeding are more likely to out pressure your energy.

When choosing your condition removal skill especially consider the recharge: Conditions are applied often and quickly, so the condition removal benefits a lot from a small down time. Also keep in mind that it is very useful to be able to remove conditions from yourself if you are the only monk in the party.

See Skills: Restore Condition, Dismiss Condition

[edit] Dealing with hexes

Hexes are harder to remove, harder to identify and usually have stronger effects than conditions. Any hex on a teammate will add a purple down arrow to the health bar, while some health degeneration hexes will additionally color the health bar bright purple. This purple coloration of the bar also hides the green and pink characteristic of poison/disease and bleeding, though the brown arrow on the health bar will still remain.

Since hexes vary widely in their severity, it is even more important than for conditions to know who is suffering from which hex. It might be a good idea to get your team mates to "ping" (control + left click on the hex icon) important hexes and only remove those.

Hex removal skills come in a wide variety. Several good ones are mesmer skills (See: Expel Hexes). Hex heavy regions might need an elite hex removal skill or several normal ones, but you should always have at least one on your skill bar.

Cure Hex is a popular option due to the bonus heal the spell provides. Spotless Mind is also popular due to its ability to remove hexes over time, this benefits teammates who have multiple hexes "stacked" on them.

In PvP situations, the spell Holy Veil is a great option to defend the Monk from hexes such as Diversion and Shame, which are commonly cast on Monks in PvP. Casting Holy Veil in advance (usually before the start of the match) allows the Monk to remove these hexes without casting a spell and triggering the hex's punishment for casting. Veil will be recharged and ready to put on again. Be careful of enchantment removals.

[edit] Resurrecting team members

As a rule of thumb, monks should never resurrect allies during battle. In the time it would take you to resurrect your teammate, someone else might die due to you being busy resurrecting and not healing. In PvE monks need a resurrection skill to bring team members to life after the battle, to preserve the fast working Resurrection Signets for more tense situation. One exception is resurrecting a team member while enchanted with Healer's Boon as the casting time will be half as long. Renew Life works well with this as the cast time would only be 2 seconds. Additionally, any team members within earshot needing healing from this short down time are healed once Renew Life has been cast. And yet another addition is that Healer's Boon increases the healing effect of Renew Life as well.

PvE: In terms of PvE, one skill clearly outshines all others and should not miss on a monk bar: Rebirth lets you resurrect team mates, without aggroing nearby monsters, thus often saves a party from a wipe. Rebirth will remove all of your energy, and should never be cast in the middle of battle, only after when the pressure to heal has diminished and the team is safe. Using Rebirth in a battle will hinder your ability to manage energy and thus can wipe the party. When using Rebirth there is an energy management trick: cast Rebirth with your low energy set or no weapon equipped, then re-equip, you will have enough energy to cast the spell again. If you are a Monk using Glyph of Lesser Energy as an energy management skill, you can use the Glyph before casting Rebirth and have enough energy to cast it again immediately. An alternative to Rebirth is Unyielding Aura, as it functions the same as a Rebirth in the manner of resurrecting, casts much faster, costs less energy, and also adds a healing bonus to your monk skills. Using Unyielding Aura however, means taking up the elite space on your skill bar, and it is a maintained enchantment, and not ideal to be used with high-cost heals. Unyielding Aura is more ideal to be used in combat than Rebirth because of it's low energy cost, fast casting time, and it doesn't cause you to lose all of your energy. Using Glyph of Lesser Energy is also useful for Unyielding Aura builds for better energy management for the -1 pip of energy degeneration from maintaining it.

There is also the mindset that not only do you need every skill you can get your hands on to keep your team alive, you should not resurrect, because even with Healer's Boon, you are spending at least 2 seconds not healing or protecting your party. If someone is dead, the Monk can be seen to have already partially failed in their task, and as such cannot afford to risk other deaths while resurrecting a fallen ally. However many monks do bring resurrection skills, and other players often assume that monks will have them, so if you decide not to bring one, you should generally make sure that another party member has a hard res.

PvP: In PvP resurrection skills are a rarity as most monks prefer to leave the resurrecting to other party members and use that slot for something else. Often Monks in PvP are too busy with kiting, healing/protecting, and overall keeping battlefield awareness to stop to cast a resurrection skill.

[edit] Playing in a party

As healers, monks are usually primary group picks. After all, every group needs a healer or two. However this can backfire upon the monk, as they are usually the first to be blamed if something goes wrong. The chief cause for this is, unlike other classes, monks can never let down their concentration. If a damage class does not attack an enemy for 20 seconds, another player may engage it instead. An easy substitution has been made. But, if the monk stops healing for 20 seconds, the results can be disastrous. A party wipe is common from here, as no one else can easily fulfill a main healing role. Parties expect that you monitor the party health status at all times. Common party builds simply allow for more damage classes then healing, and as such the monk is more vital in their performance. However, even a good monk can sometimes be blamed for a player or a team's mistake. As such, being a good monk requires concentration, and sometimes a thick skin.

One note on using Smiting Prayers: Your party will always expect a healer when they see a monk. If you are playing as a smite monk, advertise that fact well in advance to the other players in your party; don't keep quiet or your party may incorrectly assume they have enough healers.

[edit] What to avoid

Useless maintained enchantments: Monks often believe that through the use of Mending, they can prolong their life, which is false. By choosing to maintain mending, you sacrifice 1 pip of energy regeneration, and most often, bring Blessed Signet instead. Blessed Signet has a slow activation time and yields little benefit, and mending doesn't provide nearly enough regeneration to survive in any place other than Pre-Searing. Similar enchants which provide no true benefits should be avoided unless necessary. Likewise, 55HP Monks are generally useless in a PvE party or in PvP: you will spend too much time focusing on keeping yourself alive and a simple enchantment removal will render you useless to your party. Monks should be used for support characters; the skills they have complement this path far better than other routes.

Another common mistake is use of expensive (in terms of energy to healing ratio) healing or protection spells which yield little benefit. Heal Party is a useful skill, however, it is very expensive and should be used sparingly. There are many healing skills that use 5 energy, but provide maximum results, such as Word of Healing, Dwayna's Kiss, Ethereal Light, Healing Ring, Words of Comfort and Patient Spirit. A good 10 energy skill is Healing Ribbon, which is very useful for healing melee front-line party members.

Avoid resurrecting teammates with skills such as Rebirth and Resurrect during the heat of combat. Rebirth consumes all your energy, and will render you useless to your party for 5-10 seconds as you wait to recharge. Similarly, the party members resurrected with either skill are returned with very low health, energy and disabled skills. Rebirth is useful to pull members back from a party wipe, and Resurrect is useful for after-combat resurrection.

In PvP sometimes you may forget to remove Holy Veil when there are no possible classes that hex. Be sure to check the enemies when you maintain Holy Veil.

[edit] Play styles

[edit] Healer

The standard and defining use of monks. All variants use DF and can then either focus on one attribute or use a hybrid of healing prayers and protection prayers. Even smiting can be used, trading ability as a healer for the additional ability to also deal damage while healing.

As the secondary is not needed for healing, it is used either for self defense or energy management.

[edit] Special case: Bonding

A third, rarer breed of monks specializes in the use of "bonds", protective enchantments, which are kept up on many or even all party members. More than the other two species of monks, bonders are very situational. A skilled bonder might keep 7, up to 9 enchantments active at one time, and still manage to cast aegis every time it recharges, providing immense damage reduction support. At other times, bonding monks are completely useless (Such as when you encounter a great deal of enchantment removal). Only use a bonder if you know what type of enemy you will be facing.So ask first, what you are going to fight, before you use a "bonder" build.

See Skills: Life Bond, Life Barrier, Blessed Signet

[edit] Nuker

With the nerfing of Ray of Judgment smiters have become less desirable nukers in some formats, however they are still effective. Besides the ray, a variety of signets can be used. Mesmer secondary can be used for Arcane Echo to copy Ray of Judgment.

[edit] Farming

Monks have many specialty builds suited for farming, such as the 55 monk, the 600/smite monks and other varieties. Skills from either Smiting Prayers or a secondary profession are used to deal damage.

[edit] Flag runner

Flag running on a monk is a viable idea, considering cheap speed buffs and accessible party heals.

[edit] Choice of secondary professions

Monks are party support characters, rarely ever needing to use damage-dealing skills from other professions. Thus monks mostly use their secondary profession for energy management and self defense.

  • Warrior Warrior Many monks use the warrior profession for self defense.
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