PVE Monk Armour

Keira Darkwind

Keira Darkwind

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: May 2005

UK

Clan Arthur

Mo/Me

I have always used Ascetics armour. Someone told me on another thread that it is the WORST for a monk. I only PVE, I can understand for PVP it would be a bad idea, but I feel the maximum energy you can have is best for PVE.

Just like some opinions on what is the best armour to get for a PVE monk and why?

Arya Nibelrund

Arya Nibelrund

McLovin!!!

Join Date: Aug 2005

Farming Zaishen [keYs]

Mo/

Don't worry, ascetic is a solid choice in pve as you should be out of enemy's range.

Illusions

Illusions

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2006

Me/

I like ascetic, but am starting to enjoy judge armor. I think it's more of a personal opinion on which you perfer. But in my opinion, ascetic is certainly not the worst armor for monks.

Amok Affinity

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2006

[XoO]

E/

i use judge's, hasn't let me down. ascetic's is a fine choice as well. perhaps better. mostly a matter of preference, no worries.

Dark Divinor

Dark Divinor

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2006

England, Stoke on Trent.

New Dragons[NDR]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Keira Darkwind
I have always used Ascetics armour. Someone told me on another thread that it is the WORST for a monk. Hang on, who said that to you? Ascetics is *not* the worst armour for Monks, it's brilliant! The extra energy really helps and, as long as you stay back, wont get hit all too often.

Effigy

Effigy

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2005

Illinois, US

Heroes of Talia [HoT]

Mo/

Aescetic's is only a bad choice in PvP, because there you will be a common target. In PvE, you can avoid taking the heat in most situations.

Rera

Rera

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2006

Particularly for late-game areas, you really want as much health and/or armor as you can get. It will make the difference between dying in 2 hits and dying in 3.

I absolutely hate casters that have 60AL and 4XX HP. Do you know what happens when a lvl28 DoA Abyssal hits you? You take 500 damage and die instantly.

pingu666

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jul 2006

guildhall

[DETH]

eek @ 500damage

Effigy

Effigy

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2005

Illinois, US

Heroes of Talia [HoT]

Mo/

True about low hp and armor, although Protective Spirit helps a lot. I usually run my monk with 600+ hp even in PvE and it does make a difference. The AI seems to target you less with high hp, which is another bonus.

random.name

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2006

South Africa

N/

As my armor I use Full Radiant (aka Ascetic) armor, 1 sup vigor and the rest minor runes. In addition to that I use a shield with 30hp always for my low energy. I rarely find the need to switch to my high energy set (57 energy) in PvE, so Ascetic works perfectly for me. My total health is normally around 550.

I think it comes to personal preference and what you you feel comfortable with. For me personally its about looks though, and up until the release of Factions I refused to wear Ascetic just because it looked so ugly

Nivryx

Nivryx

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2006

Kenya

Mo/

its what 55'ers use, of course its going to be 1337. =D

Rera

Rera

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2006

DoA throws the entire "low health/armor is okay in PvE" argument out the window. Prot Spirit helps to a point - but if every caster in your party has ~500 health, they are all in serious danger of dying in one or two hits from totally random spell damage or ranger spike. You can't prot spirit everyone. And what happens when you get DP'd and your 500 health turns into 400? 300? Then you start dying in one hit from anything.

The extra energy isn't worth it, just like superior runes were never worth it. Your emergency swap should be giving you 72e. If that isn't enough, the extra from Ascetic's armor isn't going to make a damn bit of difference.

More often than not, that extra energy is just a free ticket for you to get hit by another esurge.

NinjaKai

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2006

UK

Duality Of The Dragon

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rera
DoA throws the entire "low health/armor is okay in PvE" argument out the window. Prot Spirit helps to a point - but if every caster in your party has ~500 health, they are all in serious danger of dying in one or two hits from totally random spell damage or ranger spike. You can't prot spirit everyone. And what happens when you get DP'd and your 500 health turns into 400? 300? Then you start dying in one hit from anything.

The extra energy isn't worth it, just like superior runes were never worth it. Your emergency swap should be giving you 72e. If that isn't enough, the extra from Ascetic's armor isn't going to make a damn bit of difference.

More often than not, that extra energy is just a free ticket for you to get hit by another esurge. Doesn't really matter for those of us who don't care about DoA.

Rera

Rera

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2006

Well, consider this: if you wouldn't wear it in DoA, why would you wear it anywhere else? DoA simply illustrates the point that trading health or armor for +7e isn't a favorable trade. With weapon swapping, the size of your energy pool is much less important than the rate at which you regain energy. Having a larger pool just gives the enemy more energy to burn/surge/steal.

B Ephekt

B Ephekt

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2006

Team Crystalline [TC]

Mo/

If you can't manage your energy with 47 energy, you won't be able to manage it with 54+. Ascetics isn't really horrible per se, but it's not exactly great either; I'd generally just go with +armor or +health. Then again, it's pve so pretty much anything will work.

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

When aggro breaks and things do get messy, Radiant immediately becomes one of the worst armor sets in the game. If aggro is controlled nicely and you're not in danger of taking any hits, but you still need the extra energy from Radiant armor, you are very likely terrible at Guild Wars. In that case, I would advise taking Radiant armor so that you can at least survive the most routine of encounters, and I take pity on any group you join. If you have a minimal amount of ability as a Monk, I would advise taking a set of armor that helps you survive when things go wrong, when aggro breaks and there are nukes and rampaging melees in the backline.

The wonderful irony of +energy armor is that it's value is tied directly to how good your team is. The stronger they are, the better at killing things (and keeping aggro in PvE), the better +energy armor is on paper (because shorter fights up the value of max energy). But similarly, the stronger they are, the less energy you expend to keep them alive, and the less you care about routine gameplay because that has been trivialized.

Peace,
-CxE

Thom Bangalter

Thom Bangalter

Grindin'

Join Date: Dec 2005

MO

E/Mo

Always take +armor vs something (physical, elemental, enchanted) depending on what you're most afraid of. +health generally won't help you that much unless you're running around alone a lot, because the extra health generally won't help you as much...especially if you're a monk and can just RoF yourself.

And as others have noted, if you have +energy you probably suck (unless you're a warrior, then you can justify it).

Age

Age

Hall Hero

Join Date: Jul 2005

California Canada/BC

STG Administrator

Mo/

I don't find anything wrong with asthetics in PvE or Monking in RA as I have before and had Warriors on top of me and survived.I was only healing not protect at the time.I don't see why not just watch out for red dots close to your aggro.Btw if the only way to get Gladiator stlye armour in NF is from useing all radiant insignias.

DeathandtheHealing

DeathandtheHealing

Banned

Join Date: Jun 2006

In a PVE GUILD YAY! :P

Me/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Effigy
True about low hp and armor, although Protective Spirit helps a lot. I usually run my monk with 600+ hp even in PvE and it does make a difference. The AI seems to target you less with high hp, which is another bonus. survivor insignas good choice and a 60hp staff?

only bad thing is your the first target for all those damn grenth balance skales >_>

really freaks me out when I am going for top survivor levels lol

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

Gladiator's armor on Warriors is only really worth running when you're running /ele with an exhaustion skill, or if you have some spike combo that chews up more than 20 energy.

Peace,
-CxE

pingu666

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jul 2006

guildhall

[DETH]

+energy is fine for pve, my prefered choice actully, and its often proved useful to have extra energy, yes u can go +al vs physical, ele, while enchanted etc but there not perfect either. the +health works with everything damage wise, which is why some people take it.

personaly i dont take undue ammounts of agro with 530hp, and 59e. sure in pvp everyone goes for the monk then + something else probably works better.

Utaku

Utaku

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2006

Paris, France

We eat pancakes [Yumy]

Me/

I use +10 vs elemental damage, for two reasons.As I usually don't target enemies, elemental damage is harder to anticipate and RoF than physical damage from warriors charging you.
  • Female Wanderer's armor is the armor skin I prefer
  • the_jos

    the_jos

    Forge Runner

    Join Date: Jun 2006

    Hard Mode Legion [HML]

    N/

    I've been using the +energy armor on my monk the most.
    Combined with a sup rune on the headgear.
    Depending on the team, I can survive (know how to kite and avoid damage).
    I've not reached the Desolation yet, so I cannot tell how the armor would perform in high-end Nightfall.

    Ensign

    Ensign

    Just Plain Fluffy

    Join Date: Dec 2004

    Berkeley, CA

    Idiot Savants

    If it's a tossup between elemental armor and physical armor on a caster, I tend to take the elemental armor in PvE. The most dangerous physical damage is melee, and unlike good PvP characters PvE melee is easily kited. Also, the balance of power is different from PvE mobs than in PvP. PvE physicals do not have max weapons, those weapons do not have 15>50 or equivilent mods, and they certainly aren't customized. So just in a vacuum a typical PvE physical enemy deals around a third less damage than an equivilent player of that level would be expected to do. Combined with how random elemental damage is the most likely to hit you in the backlines, and I'm favoring elemental armor in a vacuum these days.

    While elemental damage scales up very quickly with level differences that makes high level caster mobs really dangerous, the critical hit rate of high level physicals also scales up quickly, so it roughly breaks even.

    Peace,
    -CxE