Farmer's Almanac: The Monk

Engines:

Traditional Regen 55
Concept: Reduce the damage to as little as possible, so that regeneration will heal it very quickly. This is done using Protective Spirit, which reduces the damage so that you cannot lose more then ten percent of your health from one hit, and the regeneration heals it quickly. You cannot take on too many enemies at one time though, because they will out damage your regeneration. Effectively, instead of having 55 health, think of it as having 10 hits of health. I think with 10 regeneration, which is the max, you heal 2 hits per second ( I haven’t really given this much thought though, so if anyone has numbers to back this up or correct me, please feel free to do so).
Skills:
[Skill]Prot Spirit[/Skill]: This keeps your health divided into the 10 hits. Non-negotiable.
[Skill]Healing Breeze[/Skill]: This is the main source of your regeneration. It will give you 8 regeneration at 13 healing prayers, and this build should never be run at less.
[Skill]Mending[/Skill]: 4 regeneration at 13 healing prayers.
[Skill]Balthazar’s Spirit/Essence Bond[/Skill]: These give you your energy. I personally prefer to run both, but many builds do fine with one.
Optional:
[Skill]Watchful Spirit[/Skill]: An extra 2 regen that isn’t linked to an attribute, this is very nice to have if you find yourself lacking.
[Skill]Gear[/Skill]: 1 Superior Rune of each type, and 1 extra. Also, the -50 Grim Cesta, and -20 off-hand. Also, an Of Enchanting Weapon is recommended for this build.

Variations:

[Skill]Mo/D Mystic 55[/Skill]
This replaces all of your regeneration skills with Mystic Regeneration, which at 8 Earth Prayers gives you three regeneration for each enchantment you have on you, counting itself. Unless you need your secondary for something else, like Sliver Armor for green farming, or Meteor, Bed of Coals, and Frozen Burst for farming melee monsters.
[Skill]Mystic Regeneration[/Skill]
Shield of Absorption (SoA)55
Concept: This works like a regeneration 55, but instead of healing the damage, you nullify it. Shield of Absorption starts by negating 5 damage, and then another 5 for every time you are hit. Thus, it means that after X number of hits, you become invincible. At 14 Protection, with 12 Divine Favor and Blessed Aura and a 20% Enchanting Mod, this can be maintained permanently.
Skills:
[Skill]Protective Spirit[/Skill]: This effectively lowers your health even more, so that Shield of Absorption will work even more effectively.
[Skill]Shield Of Absorption[/Skill]: This is also key, because it keeps you alive.
[Skill]Blessed Aura[/Skill]: This is one of the skills that allows you to maintain SoA.
[Skill]Balthazar’s Spirit/Essence Bond[/Skill]: These are your energy management, and you can run one or both.
Optional:
[Skill]Mending/Healing Breeze[/Skill]: These are useful if you are farming things which cause degen.

Mo/D Mystic SoAConcept: This is a rather interesting build I found. Basically, this was designed to farm Vermin by using SoA and Mystic Regeneration, but not Protective Spirit, which I believe makes it worthy of mentioning here. I am not very sure about this builds capabilities yet ( I discovered it on Sunday in the Wiki, and I cannot play during the week because of school/parents. Curse them both =P). Because of that, I will list the damage skills I found with it. NOTE: THIS BUILD SHOULD BE RUN WITH AS MUCH HP AS POSSIBLE!
[Skill]SoA[/Skill]: Helps reduce damage so Mystic Regeneration can deal with it better.
[Skill]Mystic Regeneration[/Skill]: Helps keep you alive by healing the damage you take.
[Skill]Balthazar’s Spirit/Essence Bond[/Skill]: Energy Management. Again, one or both.
[Skill]Blessed Aura[/Skill]: This helps to maintain SoA

Damage Skills:
[Skill]Shield of Judgement[/Skill]: Basically, every time the vermin attack you, they take damage and are knocked down, which keeps them in range of Balthazar’s Aura.
[Skill]Balthazar’s Aura[/Skill]: This does loads of damage to the vermin, who are knocked down so they cannot get away.

Utility:
[Skill]Fleeting Stability[/Skill]: This stops the Vermin from knocking you down.


Damage:
[Skill]Shield Of Judgment[/Skill]: This is the basic damage for 55 and SoA monks. It is an enchantment that lasts for 18 or so seconds at 12 smiting, and does 41 damage and knocks monsters down every time they attack you.

Bed of Coals/Meteor Shower/Double Dragon or Rodgort’s Invocation: These are used for farming melee monsters post-nerf. Bed of Coals is used to cause burning on knocked down monsters, which is achieved with Meteor Shower. The last part is used for additional damage. However, you need another snare for this to work, as meteor will not pin them alone.

[Skill]Spiteful Spirit[/Skill]: This is a hex that deals damage every time the hexed monster attacks, so it works very well when farming large groups of monsters that are close together, as the damage is AoE.

[Skill]Spoil Victor[/Skill]: This is one of the most over-powered skills in game at this time. A 25 second duration, 10 second recharge, and the massive damage it deals whenever the hexed monster attacks or casts a spell targeting something with less health. This involves heals as well. Good for boss farming.

[Skill]Sliver Armor[/Skill]: Another insane damage skill, this is not as overpowered because of how it works. Every time something attacks you, an adjacent monster takes 35 damage. This always targets bosses first, and can drop Ghail and the Scar Eater in less then 10 seconds, which is rather ridicoulous. The only reasons this is balanced is because you need enough monsters to deal around 700 damage in 10 seconds.

Utility and Secondary Professions:
[Skill]Dervish[/Skill]: While it does not have many damage skills, it does have many utility skills, such as ones that prevent knock-downs, and speed increases and other things.

[Skill]Assassin[/Skill]: HAHAHAHA! Rofl! NEVER run this secondary unless there is something very specific that you need (seriously, some of my best friends are sins (rofl for clichés!) and I love my PvP sin, but this is not something farming monks need).

[Skill]Elementalist[/Skill]: Nice damage from this secondary.

[Skill]Mesmer[/Skill]: Arcane Echo and anti-interrupts make this a good secondary.

[Skill]Paragon[/Skill]: This doesn’t really bring much to the table. Maybe [Skill]Godspeed[/Skill]

[Skill]Ranger[/Skill]: I feel that this secondary has become outdated with the advent of the Dervish. Even the Troll Unguent Farmer isn’t worth it ( don’t ask. Please =P)

[Skill]Warrior[/Skill]: Again, outdated because of the dervish.

[Skill]Necromancer[/Skill]: Very good for farming both bosses and normal monsters due to SS.

[Skill]Ritualist[/Skill]: Nothing really good here either, I’m afraid.


Rather Ridiculous builds that may work, or may not. I’m just putting them here for fun
Note: None of these are meant to be taken seriously. If you do and you flame me for these, you are a bad, bad person!

The Gladiators Defense 55: Basic 55, but using Live Vicariously, Vigorous Spirit, Counter Blow, Gladiators Defense, and that one shout that recharges all your stances. The sheer craziness of this is mind blowing (the fact that I managed to think this up, I mean!)

Vengeful 105: VwK heals you for 35 health, and it can be maintained by a Ritualist Primary for 75%(15 seconds) of its recharge. So Bring Weapon of Warding or something to take care of the downtime, and your set!

119 views and no comments? how depressing...

your guide is kinda hard to read, maybe some spaces or bold words would help, i gave up reading it after a while

imo - nice info, but lots already know it, but guide is hard to follow

It a stream of conciousness and I'm drowning.

o...U mean u arent all 150 IQ geniuses? rofl kk =P ill fix it. I just thought this would be useful as a reference. and seeing as SoA was nerfed, i thought we would need some new ideas.

For most farmers this information might be known, but I'm sure this will be useful for many others.

Thanks for taking the time!!

For Duo UW build? Shadow Form might be able to replace spell breaker but havent tested it yet. I still need to get factions.

For paragon you could use godspeed for a speed buff cause you are always enchanted or one of the anthems that gives energy back.

wow I had completely forgotten about this =P