mo/n or mo/e?

monks dont damage. they heal. they heal so others can damage.Mo/e gives you glyph of lesser emrgy for e-managment. actually it depends on your build . ..

Smiting monks deal damage, Healing monks heal, and Protection monks prevent damage.

actually it depends on your build . ..

Smiting monks deal damage, Healing monks heal, and Protection monks prevent damage. ....well, if you plan to play with other people, (outside of guildies perhaps) smiting wont really be an option. If you advertise as a smiter, no one will take you or join your group because its generally accepted that smiting is inferior to ele or necro damage (mostly since a lot of it is single target dmg, even if it does ignore armor). If you try to sneak into a group as a healer/prot monk to unveil your smiting/dmg build later, that will evoke rather strong emotions from the rest of your team as they realize that they are down one healer.

For most of PvE it doesn't matter too much what 2ndary you have, and by the time it does you can change it easily. Right now, since Necro and Mesmer e-management is nerfed, the buffed Glyph of Lesser energy is a good option for getting off those expensive spells. Mostly it comes down to smart choice and usage of skills for the given environment.

If you want to play by yourself with a support + Damage build (ele primaries would be best) Mo/E would be better than Mo/P or Mo/N, tho Monks dont have enough energy regen to power the ele dmg spells and I think most Necro bars are just too involved in one thing to have healing/prot utility.
just my opinion

If you try to sneak into a group as a healer/prot monk to unveil your smiting/dmg build later, that will evoke rather strong emotions from the rest of your team as they realize that they are down one healer. good point and thank lord for the ability to ping skills

....well, if you plan to play with other people, (outside of guildies perhaps) smiting wont really be an option. If you advertise as a smiter, no one will take you or join your group Who cares what pugs think when heroes are better than any pug hands down?

Mo/E > Mo/N in any situation I can think of

The only good smiting bar has an ele primary anyway. According to a lot of people ANY monk bar has an ele primary. I'm sick of that attitude. It's just as bad as saying "O well an E/Mo with Heal Party is better than a healing monk". Ugh.

As for the debate on smiting monks...it's true that people generally don't accept you in a group if you're smiting (unless you don't tell them...personally I don't do that but I've seen A LOT who do) but Smiting DOES come in useful when you're with heroes/hench. That way you can attack and call who you're attacking without having to pay attention also to the health of your heroes.

Now I only go Mo/E when I use Protection Prayers to help with the energy cost of Aegis...but would Mo/N not be good to use with Consume Corpse as some form of personal health/energy management? Also from a "protection" point of view it stops enemy necromancers from exploiting the corpses as well... Not tried it personally - the only time I went Mo/N was so my Doppleganger could strip all my monk enchantments with Rend Enchantments. GG Doppleganger, GG

monks dont damage. they heal. they heal so others can damage.Mo/e gives you glyph of lesser emrgy for e-managment. What a constrained view of GW professions. I was in RA with my restore Rt and was hooked up with a smiter prot monk and two others. We did very nicely and choosing who to take down, the rt or the monk, makes up for most of the wins, while both are dealing damage as well. (smite or vengefull-remedy). Broaden your view by using others people imagination.

What Thom is refering to is a Master of Magic E/Mo smiter, which is a solid PvP build but not as well suited to PvE due to mob scatter. I've had a lot of success with a modified version of it. ZF isn't incredible in higher end PvE, though. I wish it was armor ignoring holy damage. Psh.. yeah right. Like they'd buff smiting.