Valued Opinions

Hello,

I am fairly new to GW. Have played about 4 months altogether. I play about 3-6hrs of PVP a day in RA and one or 2 matchs in TA from time to time. I wanted to ask you experienced PVP'rs a few questions.
1) I usually die from 1 of 3 things....stupidity (accidently hitting wrong skill in pressure situation), Assasin or Shut down mez draining my mana dry ( O and shatter enchantment builds). What is the best way to combat these 3 different builds. Keep in mind that I am primarily a Prot monk with ZB as elite.
2) I am considering switching to be a Heal Monk. I try to watch an hour or so of guild matchs and I keep track of what the top guilds Monks use for skills, however, I notice that they change their skill lineups quite often. What would you, as the experts, say is the best lineup for healing power takeing into account efficiency and the ability to counter various builds in arenas.

I Like the idea of being a Prot Monk, but the builds that counter Prot monks have really been irritating me lately in Arenas and I don't like to lose (Altho I have come to the realization there is always going to be somthing in GW that will counter anything you come to the table with). Which is what has me thinking of trying out being a Heal prayers Monk.

Thanks In advance,

Brianna

Most good monks run hybrid builds, not just heal or prot. my favorite build is a Blessed light hybrid.
[skill]Signet of devotion[/skill][skill]blessed light[/skill][skill]gift of health[/skill][skill]reversal of fortune[/skill][skill]protective spirit[/skill][skill]holy veil[/skill] and some energy management, or an escape skill.

It's not the fact that they are anti-prot monk, its that they are anti monk period. A healing build will simply get ruined on twice as fast as a prot build. In some ways there only so much you can do as a monk if you team can't kill or mitigate enough damage to secure a win.

1) To counter assassins bring guardian, shielding hands, hex breaker (for mes too), or shield of absorption. Mesmers can be countered with hexbreaker and by preveiling yourself and keeping an eye on their casting. If they are draining your energy, heal on your degen set ~25 Energy so you can do what is known as "hiding" your energy during combat.

2) Don't go heal.

I still use in RA the formerly very popular old school version of the boon prot monk that got nerfed.

Using that build, I don't have problems with assasins.

The vast majority of the time, the only things that can kill me are thumpers or rangers who put dazed on me, or shutdown mesmers (know you wanted help with that but in my view, you can't counter everything and if you try to counter everything then you will be nerfing yourself).

Ie: Veiling yourself and leaving it up for a long time, whilst good at defense vs. mesmers, will at the same time nerf your energy recovery.

i ran a ZB prot in RA, got me 18 consec lsot to a heavy hex team .

ZB
GoH
RoF
SoA ( b4 nerf)
dissmiss condtion
sig of devotion
holy veil
protective spirit

as soo nas we start i pr veil my self, then chek oposing tem for MES/sins, remove veil if there r none, or neros. if there r w8 for first hex then remove, 9/10 times first hex = worse, unless u get a n00b hexer. the protection away. use soA, if ur likly to b gunked liek hell form sins, very quickly becomes 0 dam, and cos there contion based dissmiss will give u a nice heal , with SOA on :P

Thank you all for the wonderful information provided. I did not realize that the energy could be "hidden". Awesome tip there =). Far as Assasins are concerned, thumpers...I found a way to combat them. I equipped Tenais Wind and soon as Thumpers get near me or an Assasin warps to my location i hit Tenai's wind and they are on thier backs for 2 sec and off i go running into the sunset frolicking as I heal my group with little to no pressure. 8 sec recharge timer on Tenai's Wind, so by the time they catch me it has refreshed, I am full health and my group is thriving. They have for the most part become a minor novelty as I enjoy watching them hit the pavement time and again =P.
I have found that using boon at the start of the matchs helps alot to get over the initial spikes. When the match gets a small lull in the action I click it off and only use it again if things heat back up to warrant its use.

Try using Glyph of Lesser Energy in conjunction with your Zealous Benediction (and to a lesser extent, Protective Spirit). The synergy there is amazing. Something like this works well:

[skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill][skill]Zealous Benediction[/skill][skill]Gift of Health[/skill][skill]Reversal of Fortune[/skill][skill]Protective Spirit[/skill][skill]Holy Veil[/skill][skill]Dismiss Condition[/skill]

The eigth skill is an optional slot. You may choose to run Tenai's Wind, or anything else you are comfortable with. I personally fill it with Guardian, Shield of Absorption (I highly recommend this option), or something else along those lines. Resurrection Signet doesn't touch my Arena Monk bars, because the way I see it, if I need to bring somebody back to life, the team is screwed anyway.

Also, if you run Superior Runes, switch to Minors or Majors (I prefer Minors). You'll want all the health you can get in RA/TA.