Setting both monks up to Boon Prot works
phenomenally well.
...I'm not kidding. I geared them up, filled the party and went for a walk around the Keys. Even with intentional over-aggroing (for testing purposes), I would've cleaned the map without a single character dying if that third mob I triggered hadn't contained a boss!
(even then, I was at no risk at all of a wipe. One monk went down, someone burnt a res sig, and we walked right over the mob)
I kept the full-control window open at all times (to monitor their energy usage) then just C-spaced my way through. They coped exceptionally well with pressure (the
Ward Against Melee henchie helped, mind) and their survivability was heaps better than any healing build I tested.
I ran a pretty standard GvG build fuelled by
Energy Drain (I assumed they wouldn't be smart enough to use
Mantra of Recall efficiently). No energy problems at all, and they kept Boon up pretty much continuously:
{e} Energy Drain
Reversal of Fortune
Guardian
Protective Spirit
Mend Ailment
Inspired Hex
Divine Boon
Resurrect
...
Contemplation of Purity became a hard res partly out of my PvE-player superstition, but mainly because I suspected they'd be a bit too trigger-happy with it and debuff themselves unnecessarily.
[edit: I tested at levels 12 to 14, which worked fine. I doubt you could go much lower and keep a decent attribute spread, though. Certainly L10 at the absolute lowest]
Other zany adventures in Hero testing:
Koss:
Not much to add here.
Shock worked well, but exhaustion became a problem with the lowbie energy pool. I stuck in
Bonnetti's Defense just because it's made of PvE awesome, and that let him cast
Shields Up! pretty much on recharge to frustrate enemy Paragons. Really, give him a defensive stance, an attack speed stance and a deep wound and you can't go wrong.
Oh, one extra piece of technology: With the new hero AI the gap between the frontline henchies and the casters is now significantly greater. Since that means your frontlines are more distinct and protectable, I found that
None May Pass! on the warrior worked very well to prevent breaches.
Monks and Inspiration:
"Self," I said to myself, "henchies are perfect at interrupting. So why not equip the monks with
Power Drain and
Leech Signet for free energy and timely interrupts?"
...I'll tell you (me?) why not - because they burn it on the first skill any enemy uses, no matter what it is or how full their bars are. An interrupter hero may yet be a good idea (I've got some
Psychic Distraction AI theories I want to test), but as a way of getting energy for your monks, it's hopeless.
Blood is Power:
...Yeah, I went there.
OK, there's no necro hero available, so I tried it out on a monk. And even then I've been too scared to have a field test, so I did some dry runs instead.
Doing my best to empty my energy bar at all times (under no aggro), I've found that you can get a BiP hero to reduce themselves to around 1/6 remaining health, but they'll
never kill themselves outright. If you don't count going down to 1/6 health while under fire as "killing themselves", of course!
Basically, they're still willing to cast BiP if their health is as low as 2/5, but no lower. You can still consider them a viable option in a low-risk set build (following a monk in a b/p team, say), but otherwise they're not worth taking unless your environment is
very controlled.
Still on the testing table:
Ether Prodigy E/Mos, automated minion bombers, and ritualists!
