New Monk Build - Covenant Healer

Ok none of my friends in game are experienced at monking.

At all....

So here's a build I came up with, using the nightfall elite, Healer's Covenant. I haven't tested it yet since I'm on a buddy key.. so.. here it is.

Profession: Mo/Me

1- Heal Other
2- Jamei's Gaze
3- Healer's Covenant
4- Dwayna's Kiss/Heal of your choice
5- Healing Touch
6- Inspired Hex
7- Revealed Hex
8- Rez of your choice

Attributes:

Healing Prayers - 16
Divine Favor - 8
Inspiration - 10

Opinions anyone?

I'd be interested to see someone do the math, to see how effective HC is, some equation balancing the 25% less healing and the -3 energy

It's Heal Party on steroids.

If someone is above 80% health, they aren't really high priority when it comes to healing :P

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i'm curious, does this spell affect the DF healing??

if not, you could just pump divine favor hugely and party it up.

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Ok... you want math? I'll give you math... at least a little.

At 16 healing prayers heal other/jamei's gaze would heal for 143 + divine favor (near 24) for 7 energy. Kiss would heal for a varied amount... an average or 100 or so is what I usually find, for 2 energy. Insp hex would give 3 energy (8 from spell, minus the cost of 5), and my monk currently has 56 energy. Like I said, I'll test this more as soon as I can find Healer's covenant and cap it... I can't wait to try it out.

Or I might use my current WoH build and throw in glimmer of light (which isn't too bad even though it is nerfed, 40% halve recharge time FTW!!)

here is some more math for you to chew on...

*Assumes divine favor @8 (is that 26 health bonus?) and Healing at 16 (I would suggest a higher DF but that is the level that the op suggested)
*Does not figure in how much energy you are not gaining because you would be at 3 pips e-regen
*Figures were calculated using {(Heal Amount + DF Bonus) -[(Heal amount + DF bonus)*.25]}/Cost of the spell <---this may not be correct...does it calculate 25% of the total heal (DF bonus included) or not?

Heal Other/Jamei's Gaze
Health per energy is 21.6 without HC, but 23.14286 with HC

Dwayna's Kiss (with 1 enchant)
25.2 without HC, but 47.25 with HC

Healing Touch
23 without HC, but 57.5 with HC

Orison
19.8 without HC, but 37.125 with HC

Does anyone know how it interacts with Vig Spirit? Does VS give 25% less health per action if you cast it while under HC?

My thoughts are that Healer's Covenant is not really worth it on the 10e spells, but if you concentrate on 5 e heals you could easily continually cast without ever running out of energy. If you cast, on average, a 5 energy spell every 2 seconds you would exactly breakeven on energy regen so you would have more than enough to use on whatever else you want to use. I would say that a Pure healer would never need any more energy management than this spell.

Now an interesting use might be to use both HC and Divine Boon so that all your 5 energy spells cost 4 energy (you will need something for e-mgmt obviously), and depending on how the DF bonus interacts with the healing reduction of HC...it may be another option to look into

So, what we need to know is this: Is the 25% reduction in healing taken from the total heal (Divine Favor and/or Divine Boon bonus included) or is it a 25% reduction of the power of the spell with the Divine Favor (and/or Divine Boon) bonus added on top and not getting reduced. Also, does the healing power of Divine Boon get reduced by 25% even though it is not a healing prayer (probably not I would think).

The 25% reduction affects only the healing spell, not the Divine Favor bonus.

I tested it in Isle of the Nameless and it certainly seemed efficient. I tried it with high Healing Prayers and high Divine Favor, and naturally the high DF seemed better, because every spell cost 2 energy and healed for over 50, then the Healing Prayers spell on top, which for an Orison would normally be 70ish, so was more like 50ish.

I stood there spamming various heals on the Master of Combat for ages, and my energy was staying very close to max - mostly due to cast time and aftercast. Each heal was healing for around 90-100 health.

To compare with and without Healer's Covenant:

Without - each Orison healed for 114 and cost 5 energy
With - each Orison healed for 98 and cost 2 energy

Without - 22.8 health per point of energy
With - 49 health per point of energy

Without - 4 energy regen = 1.33 energy per second
With - 3 energy regen = 1 energy per second

You decide if it's worth it. With the right build, I think it will be. I wouldn't run my attributes that high in reality because I usually need a 3rd attribute line like Inspiration Magic or Shadow Arts.

This is indeed interesting...energy management is always an issue when I'm monking (and many 'good' management measures are far too time consuming in RA/TA).

Am I right in saying the -3 energy just applys to spells in Healing Prayers, Protection prayers would not receive this bonus? (on the same note, only healing spells lose 25% healing, not protection?)

How would you deal with conditions/hexs on the party whilst not using too many 5 energy condition removals with only 3 pips of regen?

I currently use Peace and Harmony with 16 Divine Favour and a +20% enchantment mod weapon which allows the 5 energy elite to last nearly 2 minutes before needing to be cast again to give 5 pips of regen. Would Healer's Covenant be more efficient than using Peace and Harmony with condition/hex removal in the equation?

You are right, the -3 only applies to healing prayers. As far as a comparison to P&H - P&H gives you 1 pip for 112 seconds (about 38 energy spread out over 2 minutes minus your original 5e, so about 33 e or .29e/sec) where you would be spending the same 38 over 112 seconds to maintain HC but get -3 on every healing spell (potential savings of 30 more energy than P&H if you cast approximately once every 5 seconds, which could be used on non-healing prayers hex removal).

My thought is that you could easily run at 16 in DF and 15 in healing if you wanted to and you wouldn't run into much (if any problems). You could easiely forego the usual inspired/revealed hex and replace it with holy veil/remove hex .You probably don't need the extra energy from insp/rev and could easily use either holy veil or remove to get about the same hex removal as taking both insp and revealed (2 @ 20second recharge or 1 @ 7or12).

I am thinking that Heal Party might be a bad addition to this biuld (takes the cost down to 12 but also reduces healing to 60 per person @ 15 Healing), but some other high cost spells in other areas might be great since you should have a ton of essentially wasted energy. It might be a good combo with a bonder set up, something like:

Heal-13
Prot-13
DF-15
(I like running 3 sup runes but do whatever)

Dwayna's Kiss
Healing Touch
Healer's Covenant
LV/Vig Spirit
Blessed Signet
Life Bond
Balth's Spirit
Res (I prefer it just in case)

Did anyone check how the D's Kiss bonus figures in with the 25% reduction?

It isn't limited to Healing Prayers spells, it's limited to healing spells, which is something completly different. Reversal of Fortune, Mend Condition and Mend Ailment are all effected. I haven't tested any others, but I'm fairly sure there are much more spells that are effected.

EDIT: Dwayna's Kiss and Words of Comfort their bonuses are both reduced by 25%. Also, keep in mind that you only need 12 Healing Prayers for a maxed out Healer's Covenent, making this a nice way to use Gift of Health combined with Protection Prayers skills, altough using this with Divine Boon isn't all that great (even though it's nice that only 2 energy has to recharge in order to heal when you're at 0 energy).

Also, I think Holy Haste is a very nice addition to many of these builds. It serves as a cover enchantment (even though it's 10 energy, which is quite high), and last up to 64 seconds (at 16 Divine Favor). You can't however, use other enchantments such as Reversal of Fortune, Guardian, Protective Spirit and Vigorous Spirit.

I've been using this build myself:
- 16 Divine Favor (12+3+1)
- 12 Healing Prayers (11+1)
- 7 Protection Prayers (6+1)
- 2 Inspiration Magic

1. Orison of Healing
2. Dwayna's Kiss
3. Healing Touch
4. Mend Condition
5. Inspired Hex
6. Contemplation of Purity
7. Holy Haste
8. Healer's Covenent [Elite]

It works quite well. The problem is definitly not the energy, because the health per energy is extremly high, but it just takes too much time to heal someone in many situations. Healing Touch heals for 140 points with these attributes, which is great, though, Orison of Healing (95) and Dwayna's Kiss (89+) are alot less effective. Contemplation of Purity works well with these two enchantments, even though your energy it costs to get both enchantments back up afterwards, your energy will rise later. Inspired Hex is free now (5 energy cost, 5 energy gain). Since none of the monk hex removers are effected by HC, and Holy Veil removes Holy Haste, this seems best.

Pros:
- Alot less vurnarable against energy draining then most builds (even when you reach 0 energy, you can still continue healing decently).
- No energy problems in harder situations.
- Fast casts while Holy Haste is on.
- Can carry items when needed (this builds doesn't really need it's weapons).
- Cheap condition removal.
- Contemplation of Purity gives alot of flexability against particular builds.

Cons:
- Not alot of flexability when it comes to skills (lack of skill slots).
- More vurnarable against Blackout (no Guardian, Protective spirit or Spirit Bond to help you out then alot of other builds.
- Very enchantment depended. Although you can recast HC every 5 seconds and you have all the energy you need.

It looks good on paper, but.. I dunno, I tried it and I didn't find it as effective as other builds.

You are right, the problem was not the energy, I had plenty of it, the problem is healing power. If you had a build that made every spell heal for only 20 health, but cost no energy, it wouldn't be worth it.

if you are going to carry healing touch you would be better off taking infuse instead of orision. if you want to carry orision i would advise taking heal other or something else over healing touch.

if energy isnt an issue, kick Dwayna's for a 10e spell?>_>

Yep, I haven't tested alot with this build, but switching something out for a higher energy spike heal is smart. But first, it's time to cap this for my PvE monk I'll test some more when I get it.

EDIT: I got to the place I can cap it, but it's so hard to cap... Did anyone else succeed? :/

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Trivial, I think. Correct me if I am wrong.
It might be a good build for a secondary/utility healer supporting monks and tanks.
It is probably not a good build for spike healing, party or AoE healing.

First we know that divine favor only affects targeted ally, which means if you use party and area heal and multiple healing target, it won't get the divine favor benefit and greatly reduced the healing amount, but if healing amount over time(HPS?) is the primary concern, the 25% reduction in healing power really does not inspire much confidence, yet again, usually we use prot skills to contain the dmg inflicted upon ally, and HC only utilize healing skills energy management and not prot skills, which makes it kinda weird to use.

But I am just thinking on blank paper here, I really like to hear some feedback on someone who actually played it in pvp.

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I've played it in Random Arenas, and I guess it's fine (especially seeing alot of monk build have become weaker). I'm not sure you should be running this as a solo healer, but I can see it working nicely next to a Blessed Light build.

And thanks Irina, I'll try it out

One of the problems with Healer's Covenant is that I believe it really needs Holy Haste in order to make the healing spells fast enough to be viable. That makes it extremely fragile to enchantment removal to the point where it just might be unfeasible. However, assuming you can live with that possibility (maybe in PvE or RA), then I'd probably add Etheral Light as a better heal when it's helped by Holy Haste to make it less likely to be interrupted. Plus, the typical monk secondaries can be used for damage mitigation. Of course, you lose out on hex removal, but what monk builds are not already extremely vulnerable to hexes?

1) Etheral Light
2) Dwayna's Kiss
3) Heal Other/Infuse Health/etc.
4) Dismiss Condition/Mend Condition/Mend Ailment
5) Contemplation of Purity
6) Holy Haste
7) Healer's Covenant
8) Dark Escape/Distortion/Conviction

i agree with ump, without holy hast HC can only make up as back up healer, in PvP most damage comes at faster than normal healing spell can catch, although it cost less energy per health, you give up health per second, it would be a good idea to decrease the casting time as short as possible. BTW, I tried out with a guild in TA, where I took HC, he took Healer's boon and we arcane mimcryed each other and guess what, it was brutal infinate heal. Lol even with 2 pipe of e regen you can spell 2 energy spell indefintely, not mention with a bless sig you can gain 6 if not under heavy pressure.

I'm surprised nobody has posted anything like this. Here's a build I'v been playing with.

16 healing
13 divine favor
4 prot

I use something along the lines of..

Divine Boon
Healer's Convenant
Holy Haste
Mend Condition
XX
XX
XX
XX

Energy doesn't seem to be an issue, and the heals are high. You're going to need some hex removal, holy veil won't work because of holy haste, so maybe going mo/me with the inspired/revealed hex spells would be necessary.. unless there's another alternative. But the build seems nice.. I'll be testing it more very soon.

Uh....isn't that -2 energy regen right there? Are you using Mend Condidtion to heal exclusively? Your aware thats a prot spell right? Healers Covenant does nothing for it....neither does Holy Haste.

I would at least have supposed orison....You wouldn't want to be healing much with not even 1 energy gain per second. Boon prots could run out of energy at 3 pips and an elite for energy management....that just...wow.

You intend to use Mend Condition and hex removal...which benefit not at all from HC and HH....and all on 2 pips of energy?

Explain how it works please.

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I simply don't see any point in Healer's Covenant in general. Even if it can save you a little energy, you will have to do a lot more casting to make up for the lack in healing power. Having the energy to cast a healing spell means nothing if you are too busy casting spells on one ally to heal another in need.

So, Nightfall has been out for a while. I am curious, has anyone found a use for Healer's Covenant? I recently went around capping all the NF monk elites, and this one was the hardest of all to capture. I really think Arenanet intended it to be an important elite, but it was too powerful so got nerfed before anyone even used it.

I WANT to use it, but I just can't see it being worth it. Yes using it with 5 energy spells basically means you have no energy problems, but what does it matter when my heals are so small? The damage comes hard and fast even in PvE, which is why something like WoH works so well there. 5 energy heal for nearly 200 every 4 seconds. If people are dropping below 50% health often, WoH shines. So does Zealous Benediction. Is everyone is dropping below 50% health and you have Healer's Covenant, people will die. You will have 50 energy left but unable to keep people alive because the damage comes faster than your heals can keep up with.

Does anyone use HC? Anyone got a tried and tested build? Seems like in any situation where you use it, Healer's Boon would be better. I think 50% more healing is better than 25% less healing for a cheaper price. And faster cast too.

Holy Haste is definately a must, so you can speed up your casting. Even though you can cast 2 5-e skills for nearly the cost of one, it takes you twice as long. Not with Haste on!

My 2 plat.

Healer's Bond has Holy Haste build in. One more reason to use it.

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Yeah, I meant Healer's Boon.

Like you said, I think Healer's Covenant would work best on a hight-DF hybrid if you were going to use it at all. I'm not as sure about some of your skill choices though. Orison and Heal Other are generally just bad skills; I wouldn't take them apart from a total lack of viable alternatives. Gift of Health would be a good option, but that basically excludes the use of other Healing Prayers. Ethereal Light, Healing Whisper, and Dwayna's Kiss are all decent heals, although they each have specific drawbacks as well.

I'm just not sold on Covenant in general. I'm sure it would work, but I doubt if it's the best option.

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double post. my bad.

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So does Healer's Covenant + Mend Condition cost 5 energy or 2 energy?

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Wow, that's really lame. No way I'd use Covenant unless that gets changed.