Name: Spirit Bonder ("600hp monk")
Type: PvE
Category: Solo farming/power leveling/chest running (Nahpui Quarter [Mission])
Attributes:
Smiting Prayers 12 + 3 + 1 (I use Dragon Mask usually for looks, so it's 12 + 3. But it works just fine =p)
Protection Prayers 9 + 3
Divine Favor 9 + 3
Skills Set:
Shield of Judgment {Elite} (Smiting Prayers)
Protective Spirit (Protection Prayers)
Spirit Bond (Protection Prayers)
Blessed Signet (Divine Favor)
Spirit of Balthazar (Smiting Prayers) or Essence Bond (Unlinked)
Retribution (Smiting Prayers)
Blessed Aura (Divine Favor)
8th skill varies, but generally for me Elemental Resistance (Inspiration)
Summary: I'm sure someone has posted this somewhere, but I've not seen it. And every time someone posts something about it, it seems to confuse the hell out of everyone on how it works. Basically, you get the lowest AL armor you can. My preference is Ascetics' Canthan set from Shing Jea, due to the fact that I'm an energy nut and I don't want to look like every other monk. If you have your starter armor or collector armor from Pre-Searing, then you're going to melt faces. Ok, how it works is the insane interaction of Spirit Bond and Protective Spirit. Spirit Bond (from now on, SB) heals you for a certain amount (88 at 12 Protection Prayers) every time you take more than 60 damage from a single spell or attack. Protective Spirit (from now on, PS) stops you from losing more than 10% maximum health. But here's the deal, SB works on the damage taken before PS caps it off. Thus, you shall gain more health than you ever lose from damage so long as you take enough of it. In theory, you could tank an infinite amount of monsters this way. For equipment, you have a few options. An insightful staff of enchanting, such as Kepkhet's Refuge will suffice. I use Rajazan's Fervor (Totem Axe will work, too) and Shen's Censure(+12e +1 smite 20% 20%HRT). There are two collector Hallowed Icons that have comparable mods, but +30 HP instead of the halves recharge. With enchanting and Blessed Aura, your enchantments will last 50% longer. Now, how to do it. When you start off, begin moving towards what you intend to farm and cast your enchantments. Doing it this way, as opposed to casting them all at once and then going, will make the wait for your energy to cap up much shorter. For this example, I'll run through the Talus Chute farm of trolls then tundra giants. If there are Avicara Brave and Fierce in your path, you can take them out or restart. To take them out, simply cast PS and SB, get near to aggro, then cast SoJ and use Elemental Resistance. Do not wait until the Brave are attacking to use SoJ, as savage slash will make you hate birds. If there are any trolls nearby, round them up as well and have a party with them all. One use of SoJ should either wipe them out or nearly wipe them out. If not, Retribution should finish the job in short order. Keep PS and SB up by recasting when they flash. The same with Elemental Resistance. I’m not sure which, but either the rangers or warriors cannot hit hard enough to trigger SB, so ER fixes this. When approaching only trolls, cast PS, run and round them up, cast SB then SoJ. You must cast SoJ soon before they use Battle Rage and get Disrupting Chop powered up. You can use BS (Blessed Sig) when you first cast SoJ or when they are all about to connect, as they will be knocked down and unable to interrupt. One use of SoJ and they're so much dead troll. Head towards the south exit of the cave, kill the trolls with the boss using the same tactics. If it's Whuup Buumble, just run away afterwards. If it's Krogg Smuush, you can kill him by waiting until he uses Battle Rage, then casting SoJ and BS. You can use BS when he is about to be knocked down. Otherwise, it will be interrupted. I sometimes just run, due to the fact that I feel like I'm wasting too much time playing with him. Now comes tundra giants. Make sure you have full energy, cast PS, SB, and SoJ and run in to aggro. Get as many as you can and activate ER very fast. Knockdowns won’t be too much of a problem, as PS and SB are fast casting. Make sure you keep the ER stance up, or the ranged attacks wont do enough damage to keep you alive (the reasoning there sounds backwards, and with any other build it is). If SoJ does not kill them off before it wears off, they will soon die from Retribution. It is possible to recast it while under attack, but not as easy due to KDs from Giant Stomp and the ranged attacks. Usually trolls will be mixed in and wont die as fast due to the fact that Giant Stomp knocks them down, too, so just hack/wand away at them. They'll die soon enough. You can clear out most of the tundra giants. The ones mixed in with Avicara are riskier, but possible. Degen and enchant removal are a pain, but if you watch closely, you can put SB back up as soon as it is removed.
Notes & Concerns:
Notes: This can also be used to power level people on trolls. Just do the main group of trolls, then maybe Krogg. From what my customers have told me, this kills a lot faster than the typical 55 monk power leveler. And from experience, I know it kills a hell of a lot faster than a W/Mo troll farmer. Chest runs in Nahpui Quarter Mission are supposed to be easy with this build, although I have yet to try it. I don't know whether you would want to use Spell Breaker (Divine Favor) or SoJ for that, or if you would need to go Mo/W and use Frenzy (Unlinked) to boost the damage due to the fact that some of the mobs use elemental damage (particularly lighting from channeling magic). My health running this build is 255, meaning I take 25 dmg and am healed for 88. That’s more than 3 times more healing than damage, which helps with any damage that does not trigger SB. I plan on playing with this, seeing what maintained enchants I can drop, what I can switch up, to make it the Spell Breaker tank for dual UW runs. Someone else might have done this, but I plan on figuring it out myself.
Concerns: Enchantment removal is no big issue, as the only two important enchantments are fast casting and relatively short in recharge. As with all builds, life stealing in great amounts is absolutely lethal. Heavy degen would probably be another issue. I'm not sure how well the healing could keep up with it. Mild degen coupled with low damage is another thing destined to ruin your day. Also, beware that if you power level someone, they may become obsessed with you due to the efficiency, speed, and ease this build has with clearing the troll cave.
Credit: Whoever the genius was that found out this formula; PS + SB = Melted Face(translation: whoever figured this interaction out). Also, whoever found out that you do NOT need 600hp for this to work. Myself for deciding that I don't care what people say, you don’t have to use minor runes for this build. My lady friend, for forcing me to take the money to get all the stuff I needed to make this. And the trolls and tundra giants, for being so stupid.
Feel free to make comments, ask questions, share your experience, or try to shoot me down. You can contact me in game if you wish to see me do a run with this build, to decide whether or not it is as fast as another, whether or not you want to make one, or just for the hell of it. IGN == Vau Rapuung.
ENJOY
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Additions: Not that these ideas are totally original, but they get the job done.
Sympathetic/Ancestor's Visage (Illusion Magic)
This is nice for doing trolls if you dont want to worry about them taking time to activate attacks, or to prevent disrupting chop from charging. Take 2 points from DF and Protection and put them into Illusion. It may make you use up more energy when fighting Krogg, but it does look pretty when you're tanking every troll in the cave minus the groups with the bosses. You also might need to drop other skills to use it. I tried it and didn't care much for it, but if it works for you, have at it.
Physical Resistance (Inspiration Magic)
I'm thinking of this for UW tanking, having this and ER with no points in Inspiration for the different mobs that just arent powerful enough. It depends on wether the Coldfires and their little counterparts attack physically or with ranged elemental attacks when not casting. I normally do trap teams in UW, so I'm usually never close enough to find out. Any information on that would be appreciated.
Might add more later.
