Are you tired of gettin sacked by a boa sin every time you monk? or how about just not being able to keep up with pressure?
This build will make your team Invincible to all but heavy degen, mass enchantment removal, and probably interrupt spams against the monk. If you get another monk with this, your almost garaunteed to go 10+ flawless. No joke. Tips for using this monk to maximize effectiveness
* at the start use your glyph of lesser energy to put your bonds up fast.
*once the battle starts, there will almost always be a warrior or assassin comming at you. Use glyph of lesser energy with shield of regeneration and shielding hands to make the guy useless.
*Dependant on team makeup you could be getting alot of energy from your bonds or a little energy. Regardless of the case, use your glyph with shield as much as you can, but dont wait for it. Try to use only shield when glyph is up for maximum energy endurance, and blessed signet to further increase energy endurance .
*you will become a prime target, and this is a good thing (unless theres degen). Just rotate your Shield of regen with Shielding hands and Shield of absorption to keep the damage out. Kite away when you have Dazed to refresh your SoR and SH. DOnt try to remove the daze, just let it last its duration.
*when the damage moves off you to your allies, they will take even less damage then you would when you cover them as you would yourself.
*Mass degen and mesmers will be the death of you, be careful when these are around.
ALL you monks out there, spread the word and end the hyper damage craze (and make people take enchantment removal to RA again)!!!
Shield of Regeneration Bonder
lioka pelenoria
Age
I sure hope you have the energy to maintian those bonds and use SoR at the same time and I would replace mending touch with dismiss conditions.I use BL on my bonder.
Ki Chimera
what do you do when you run into a group with nearly or all spell casters, no hex removal or high dmg mitigation (other than life bond)?
if SP/BoA sins are really giving you a hard time, run /w for [skill]Shield Bash[/skill] and [skill]Disciplined Stance[/skill] or [skill]Balanced Stance[/skill]. I prefer disciplined b/c thumpers really aren't that much of a problem now.
[skill]Reversal of Fortune[/skill][skill]Zealous Benediction[/skill][skill]Gift of Health[/skill][skill]Shield of Absorption[/skill][skill]Dismiss Condition[/skill][skill]Holy Veil[/skill][skill]Disciplined Stance[/skill][skill]Shield Bash[/skill]
(option: [skill]Shielding Hands[/skill] instead of [skill]Shield of Absorption[/skill], depending on how i feel that day)
that's what I prefer to run in RA (since that seems to be what this is for) The only real problems occur when you are shutdown and a sin spikes someone, but that's always a problem, or if 2 sins go for 2 different targets (neither being the monk).
So, there are certainly other ways to keep up with pressure and sins besides a one-dimensional build. Life-bonding does work well in RA though, given the high number of assassins running around =\
to Age: its easy to maintain it with just Balthazar's alone, and there's blessed sig to fall back on if the energy doesn't come quick enough. the down fall of the build is that the larger the damage packets, the less effective it becomes. It works decently with boon and rof/guardian spam too without much energy problems, but boon got nerfed and not too many elites have great synergy with that build
I certainly wouldn't spread this build around, its much better to learn to deal with spikes using versatile builds, not a build designed entirely around stopping them.
if SP/BoA sins are really giving you a hard time, run /w for [skill]Shield Bash[/skill] and [skill]Disciplined Stance[/skill] or [skill]Balanced Stance[/skill]. I prefer disciplined b/c thumpers really aren't that much of a problem now.
[skill]Reversal of Fortune[/skill][skill]Zealous Benediction[/skill][skill]Gift of Health[/skill][skill]Shield of Absorption[/skill][skill]Dismiss Condition[/skill][skill]Holy Veil[/skill][skill]Disciplined Stance[/skill][skill]Shield Bash[/skill]
(option: [skill]Shielding Hands[/skill] instead of [skill]Shield of Absorption[/skill], depending on how i feel that day)
that's what I prefer to run in RA (since that seems to be what this is for) The only real problems occur when you are shutdown and a sin spikes someone, but that's always a problem, or if 2 sins go for 2 different targets (neither being the monk).
So, there are certainly other ways to keep up with pressure and sins besides a one-dimensional build. Life-bonding does work well in RA though, given the high number of assassins running around =\
to Age: its easy to maintain it with just Balthazar's alone, and there's blessed sig to fall back on if the energy doesn't come quick enough. the down fall of the build is that the larger the damage packets, the less effective it becomes. It works decently with boon and rof/guardian spam too without much energy problems, but boon got nerfed and not too many elites have great synergy with that build
I certainly wouldn't spread this build around, its much better to learn to deal with spikes using versatile builds, not a build designed entirely around stopping them.
Effigy
Personally, I like running 2 condition removals in RA: Mend Condition for others (more spammable and a guaranteed heal, compared to Dismiss) and Mending Touch for myself. Conditions are such a big part of the RA meta that MT is too good to pass up. I've gotten a lot more use from it than any other self defense skill I've run.
lightblade
Quote:
Originally Posted by Age
I sure hope you have the energy to maintian those bonds and use SoR at the same time and I would replace mending touch with dismiss conditions.I use BL on my bonder.
Glyph of Lesser Energy = 25 energy equivilent
Burst Cancel
This build has a number of critical weaknesses:
- Blessed Signet is dshot fodder. It is highly visible, extremely slow, and critical to a bonder's energy.
- No cover enchantment for Balt's Spirit, no reliable covers for bonds.
- As a corollary to above, build fails even against light enchantment removal.
- Bonds are only effective against attack damage, and bond+spirit only returns energy against attack damage.
- As a corollary to above, build is over-reliant on particular skill combos for both protting and emgt. The problem is made worse by the fact that most of those skills are easy to interrupt.
- Low overall healing strength.
- Blessed Signet is dshot fodder. It is highly visible, extremely slow, and critical to a bonder's energy.
- No cover enchantment for Balt's Spirit, no reliable covers for bonds.
- As a corollary to above, build fails even against light enchantment removal.
- Bonds are only effective against attack damage, and bond+spirit only returns energy against attack damage.
- As a corollary to above, build is over-reliant on particular skill combos for both protting and emgt. The problem is made worse by the fact that most of those skills are easy to interrupt.
- Low overall healing strength.
Dr Dem
Interesting, could be good, really good against the right teams.
I'd swap mending touch with dismiss conidition, since you will be healing them if they have Life bond on them.
Perhaps swap out Shielding hands for Aegis, used with GoLE, provides nice protection and a cover enchanment for initial enchant removes.
Id maybe swap out Sheild of Regen for Zealous Benediction, mainly with Life Bond > Sheild of Absorbtion > Dismiss conidition to top up health, and use ZB when their health slowly droops below 50%
Also using ZB with GoLE provides a free cast, and +10 energy if they are under 50%, which provides even more essential energy for a bonder.
Blessed sig is an easy interrupt as mentioned, which could possibly be fatal... But hopefully you shouldn't have to use it too much when your in battle, if your team's getting pounded enough, so not all's bad.
I might try something along the lines of this, I've always been a bit skepical about being a bonder in a 1 monk team though ^_^
I'd swap mending touch with dismiss conidition, since you will be healing them if they have Life bond on them.
Perhaps swap out Shielding hands for Aegis, used with GoLE, provides nice protection and a cover enchanment for initial enchant removes.
Id maybe swap out Sheild of Regen for Zealous Benediction, mainly with Life Bond > Sheild of Absorbtion > Dismiss conidition to top up health, and use ZB when their health slowly droops below 50%
Also using ZB with GoLE provides a free cast, and +10 energy if they are under 50%, which provides even more essential energy for a bonder.
Blessed sig is an easy interrupt as mentioned, which could possibly be fatal... But hopefully you shouldn't have to use it too much when your in battle, if your team's getting pounded enough, so not all's bad.
I might try something along the lines of this, I've always been a bit skepical about being a bonder in a 1 monk team though ^_^
African War Lord
I tried this last night and I'm quite impressed. I've never tried a bonder before this but once I got the hang of it, the build felt quite unstoppable. We got 19 consecs on the second team I tried it with.
You can keep even the most mediocre of players alive. I had this N/R with a bow on my team who for whatever reason, receiving superior heals and taking hardly any damage, insisted on casting only troll unguent the whole match. And the warrior with his constant heal sig.. After about a minute of this and seeing no damage on the other side I left. But you get even a half decent team and your goin places.
I got many comments like: damn monk!! and why can't I hit for more than 10!! it was pretty fun lol. I did use dismiss condition instead of mending touch. It's a solid build good work!!!!@$!
You can keep even the most mediocre of players alive. I had this N/R with a bow on my team who for whatever reason, receiving superior heals and taking hardly any damage, insisted on casting only troll unguent the whole match. And the warrior with his constant heal sig.. After about a minute of this and seeing no damage on the other side I left. But you get even a half decent team and your goin places.
I got many comments like: damn monk!! and why can't I hit for more than 10!! it was pretty fun lol. I did use dismiss condition instead of mending touch. It's a solid build good work!!!!@$!
moko
probably nice for ra, definately a no for ta.
Quote:
- Blessed Signet is dshot fodder. It is highly visible, extremely slow, and critical to a bonder's energy.Quote:
- No cover enchantment for Balt's Spirit, no reliable covers for bonds.
- As a corollary to above, build fails even against light enchantment removal.
- Bonds are only effective against attack damage, and bond+spirit only returns energy against attack damage.
- As a corollary to above, build is over-reliant on particular skill combos for both protting and emgt. The problem is made worse by the fact that most of those skills are easy to interrupt.
- Low overall healing strength.
i think bonding, especially in ra, is one dedicated build to keeping melee damage down, but when it comes to hexes and degen, you will get owned badly. with other builds, you have a lot more options to counter these - with bonds your already wasting 3 skills.
ah well, just my bonder hate.
<3 [skill]Nature's Renewal[/skill]
oh btw, why arent you using 14 prot 13 divine?:|
Quote:
If you get another monk with this, your almost garaunteed to go 10+ flawless. No joke. Tips for using this monk to maximize effectiveness
i lol'd on a sidenote. if you cant solo monk a 4 man team, the build is a failure. hoping for a second monk is pretty..weak. 
Burst Cancel
Quote:
Originally Posted by African War Lord
I tried this last night and I'm quite impressed. I've never tried a bonder before this but once I got the hang of it, the build felt quite unstoppable. We got 19 consecs on the second team I tried it with.
You can keep even the most mediocre of players alive. I had this N/R with a bow on my team who for whatever reason, receiving superior heals and taking hardly any damage, insisted on casting only troll unguent the whole match. And the warrior with his constant heal sig.. After about a minute of this and seeing no damage on the other side I left. But you get even a half decent team and your goin places. I got many comments like: damn monk!! and why can't I hit for more than 10!! it was pretty fun lol. I did use dismiss condition instead of mending touch. It's a solid build good work!!!!@$! It's a bad idea to judge a build's effectiveness based on its performance against morons. Clearly, nobody on the opposing team actually knew how to play GW. There is really nothing unstoppable about this build. Any kind of enchantment removal, degen/hex pressure, or interrupts will crush you like an egg in a trash compactor.
African War Lord
Quote:
Originally Posted by Burst Cancel
It's a bad idea to judge a build's effectiveness based on its performance against morons. Clearly, nobody on the opposing team actually knew how to play GW.
There is really nothing unstoppable about this build. Any kind of enchantment removal, degen/hex pressure, or interrupts will crush you like an egg in a trash compactor. It's also stupid to think everyone in RA and TA are morons. Give me some credit geeze. You act like all I faced was teams of wammo's. We survived some scary teams in TA. Duo necro's with reapers and spoil, that wasn't fun. A grenth derv who stripped all my bonds. I still don't know how we won that one. Anyways, like I said I never bonded before and still managed 19 wins losing only to an overpowered rit spike team on voice chat. Imagine what a good monk could have done.
Burst Cancel
My judgment of your opposition is based on the fact that they couldn't beat you while you were running this monk bar. I've already listed all the ways in which it can fail - the weaknesses are non-trivial and easily exploitable.
19 wins doesn't mean anything. There are any number of factors that contribute to a RA/TA win streak that don't have anything to do with the monk. As many people will tell you, it's not uncommon to get win streaks even without a monk on the team. My point being "look, it worked for me" is not a good argument for the effectiveness of any build, especially when your testbed is RA/TA.
African War Lord
for me RA/TA is where it's at. I like the arena's so if a build is effective in there I'm happy. I don't care if it would suck in gvg. Anyways I'm off the whole monk thing now, tried it for a couple days, was fun.. moving on.
FoxBat
Enchant removal is fairly rare in the crowded skill-bars of RA, you'll only see mesmers packing shatter enchant and that's about it.
I don't particularly see the point of bonding everyone else, monk is often high-priority target, and shield of regen is enough to counter the generally mediocre damage rate of unfocused (all RA, not just idiots) teams. I'll go divine aura just to make those shield of regens and SoA last that much longer. Dismiss condition then makes a good direct heal because your targets will almost always be under enchants (and the condition removal part is handy as well either.) Hexes and edenial are a pain but something based on SoR+divine+enchant mod will generally do better than ZB if minimal enchant removal (RA), you only need to get 5E to get glyph off for 400+ health and armor on two targets (conveniently regening to counter degen.), wheras waiting for everyone to hit the 50% ZB mark at once from dispersed hex pressure may get some people killed. There's enough reasons to run something more traditional like ZB, but I've found SoR to be a very solid choice against the RA meta, due to rarity of enchantment hate. Bonding just seems overkill though. Flashy
U never faced Oink into TA do you?
They run a 5x KD build with Gaze of Contempt  Something a bonder can't do anything against  Against BoA Sins... Veil only will already work
Age
Quote:
Originally Posted by lightblade
Glyph of Lesser Energy = 25 energy equivilent
I know but we are not talking about a Mo/E although it could be.But around Sins and such I would use
[skill]Bonetti's Defense[/skill] or [skill]Shield Bash[/skill] along with [skill]Balanced Stance[/skill]
Evilsod
Wouldn't runing Wary Stance be better? It would completely tear an assassins combo apart, works without a shield and more importantly... returns energy. Even Shield Bash can be uneffective since some BoA sins bring along 2 vs hexed foes attacks which would both act as leads.
The problem still remains that you have 0 hex removal and no actual healing. You could be killed with heavy degen easily and some necro builds focus on over degen. If you got a team with a healer though you'd probably be on track for a glad point.
eggs0wn
Holy SHIT! I just tested it. This build was awesome. I started in RA. Won 10 consecutive flawless. Went to TA. Won 3 then lost on fourth. All 3 of those were flawless. We had 13 straight flawless victories. One of em was at the map where you keep score, we won 14-0.
My group had: -two BoA sins -Warrior w/ Pious Sig+Vital Boon -Me SOR Bonder I reccomend this. EDIT: Oh, I brought Mend Ailment because I don't have the other skill unlocked(Skill #2 on the Op's post) Arrows[PURE]
@EvilSod, I also thought wary stance would be better, iv got enough in tactics for it to last 3 seconds which is enough since BoA assa combo is done in that time and so yes, i think it is better than shield stance because for me, i have to use my pve monk and dont really want to buy a shield for him. There's a 7 second gap in which I cant use it, but i normally only use on demand, it also means i can block 2 BoA sins at once, not just stop 1.
And to the build: Spoil victor/backfire/any other hexes will pwn you
Effendi Westland
Some assassins actually use cover hexes o0
This is my favorite in RA: [skill]Expose Defenses[/skill] Bring me more non-kiting stance using monks ^^
Effendi Westland
EDIT: double post, database acting up
Effigy
Mending Touch alone will stop most assassins. If you combine it with Shielding Hands and/or any type of blocking, they are no real threat by themselves. The only real problem when you are already under considerable pressure from other enemies and an assassin jumps you while you're at half health or something along those lines.
lioka pelenoria
I should have mentioned that the build was intended for use in Random Arenas and maybe Team ARenas, where the obvious counters to it are far and few to come by (shatter enchants, Natures renewal (which btw totally wrecks this if someone happens to bring it, but then again it wrecks every bonder)). The non obvious counters, such as thumper+pet daze or heavy degen are maybe a 20% chance of getting, particuarly in random arenas, so (and I know you notice this trend) you usually get warriors, assassins, dervishes, elementalists, rangers, and paragons in random arenas. They may be capable of condition degen, but thats what mending touch is for. Usually they do direct damage, which this build blocks.
The point of bonding your team is that once the warrior/assassin/whatever realizes he cant kill YOU, he usually goes after another teammate. Your teammates will be even tougher to kill than you will with the bonds. I admit that im having near similar success with a RC prot monk with purge signet, but when i get fed up with shadow prison every step i take, I bring this out.
Dark Interception
I ran into this build in ra few days ago playing as my zb .. it was a 10+ min match wich I lost at the end, according to others in my team they couldnt touch the opposing team
Brianna Tiggerbad
I agree that bonding in RA has its advantages. I've used it a few times and as a result gotten a glad all but maybe one time. But in response to the anal retentive posts, its obvious that there is no build that has an answer for everything. Every build a Monk can come up with has a weakness. It just so happens that in RA bonding works well and usually has long win streaks attached to using that lineup or one similar.
Here is a challenge for the overly critical posters, how about you post a build that does well in any particular situation. It's easy to critisize but its tougher to be helpful? Try it sometime. And I won't mention names...*cough Burst Cancel*
DvM
I like the build, but I found it to be cpable of doing a lot more if you take out glyph and shield of regen, and take in mend ailment and Zealous benediciton.
they dont die fast, so IF they ever get under 50% health, ZB is a free heal, also good for your energy in that case. Mending touch as a good self heal. its an ok RA build.. Patrick Smit
ZB is an elite, one inspiration mesmer using sig of humility and you are lost if u dont have gift of health or sig of devotion. With bonders its very simple, it becomes monk stomp, or u have armor ignoring damage or enchant removal. I prefer non-bonders, them being more versatile.
Burst Cancel
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brianna Tiggerbad
I agree that bonding in RA has its advantages. I've used it a few times and as a result gotten a glad all but maybe one time. But in response to the anal retentive posts, its obvious that there is no build that has an answer for everything. Every build a Monk can come up with has a weakness. It just so happens that in RA bonding works well and usually has long win streaks attached to using that lineup or one similar.
Here is a challenge for the overly critical posters, how about you post a build that does well in any particular situation. It's easy to critisize but its tougher to be helpful? Try it sometime. And I won't mention names...*cough Burst Cancel*
Don't play cute, it's not endearing or clever."Every build has a weakness" is an obvious fact and a completely useless statement. Are you trying to imply that, because all builds have weaknesses, all builds are therefore equal and we should stop thinking about them or criticizing them? If so, you lack understanding of basic game mechanics and any relevant discussion is meaningless. If not, what are you trying to say? Build-making is about minimizing weaknesses. Ideally, we would like to eliminate weaknesses altogether, but the mechanics of GW should make this ideal theoretically unreachable (which is why game balance can exist). My previous posts simply outlined why this build did not represent a minimization of said risks: the risks are a) highly visible, b) easily exploitable, and c) critical. Read my list of weaknesses and see if you disagree. If you do, post your reasoning, and we can continue from there. Posting nebulous statements about ubiquitous weakness and anal retention is wholly useless. I would post standard monk builds, but you could look in any number of other posts for them. One reason why Guildwars Guru has become such an enormous cesspool of stupidity is because most of the people who post here are not only colossal morons, but can't even be bothered to look in existing posts for ideas. Here's a hint: try a ZB-prot.
Effigy
ZB hybrid is absolute ownage in RA/TA. If you have Mending Touch and decent prot skills, you don't even need defensive skills from your secondary. Toss in GoLE and go to town.
ArKaiN
pay no attention to the critics. I`ve played many prot/bonder builds, and this is so far the best. The hability to spam SoR is what makes it shine.
It does NOT play like a regular bonder build people. Try it, you might like it.
lioka pelenoria
Im not paying attention to them, because the build works. If there weren't so many f'in snakes in the f'in arena ("boa" sins), i would totally knock this for being so weak against enchantment removal. And im seeing the change happening now, one of my guildies said that the build is useless due to an upsurge of mesmers in RA, which is *what i intended to happen by releasing this build to the public*. More mesmers = fewer assassins = a random arena where i can finally practice builds for gvg in.
I defeat lack of skill with lack of skill so that skill prevails. Thats what the shield of regen bonder is about. Its defeatable, but you need skill to do it.
lioka pelenoria
Im not paying attention to them, because the build works. If there weren't so many f'in snakes in the f'in arena ("boa" sins), i would totally knock this for being so weak against enchantment removal. And im seeing the change happening now, one of my guildies said that the build is useless due to an upsurge of mesmers in RA, which is *what i intended to happen by releasing this build to the public*. More mesmers = fewer assassins = a random arena where i can finally practice builds for gvg in.
I defeat lack of skill with lack of skill so that skill prevails. Thats what the shield of regen bonder is about. Its defeatable, but you need skill to do it. ArKaiN
Couldn't agree more. Its just so much fun watching the sin run up ahead, shadow prison to you then deal 0 damage several times (then dying, of course).
Btw, this is being widely used. I've seen about 5/6 people use it yesterday, and destroyed some random using it (by distracting shot SoR, when the lesser energy glyph advertised it was coming xD). But yeah, it took skill.
Effigy
Most assassins will try to kill the monk and bonding won't help you against that. Neither will SoRegen, sinc the majority of assassin damage is armor-ignoring. What really stops them is SoA and Shielding Hands, which you can use on any prot build.
Again, assassins shouldn't be that big of a problem. What you need: 1. 600+ hp (usually 630-650) 2. Mending Touch (heals you for ~140hp plus 100hp from removing deep wound) 3. SoA, Shielding Hands, Guardian, block stance, whatever If you bring these things, assassins are worthless. They can still kill you, sure, but only if they are opportunists. By extension, a warrior or anything else could kill you just as easily. The build isn't terrible, but it is inflexible. I'm sure it works just fine in RA, but you have to ask yourself if something else wouldn't work better.
urania
add a shield with +10 vs pierce and they'll cry.
even more if you meet the shield's req, ie. if you're mo/w. ;D
mighty xxl
This build may be good for RA, because there if you have a monk it's more likely you will win.
But in TA, this build is crap. A good TA (not RA) team will tear you apart.
The Last Cruzader
Eh I usually run SoR,RoF,Dismiss Condition, Guardian, Shielding Hands, Holy Viel, Glyph of Lesser Energy, and Gift of Health. IMO I think this set up is much better, all you need to do is Glyph once you see the other team and wait to cast SoR on your weaker armored teammates, and your set to go. Usually once a BoA SP sins shadowsteps to me the SP would be removed already, But what this bonding build really lacks as said by some ppl above is that it does not have a hex removal and a heal that could at least heal the points lost from degen. (Reapers Necros are starting to show up more in RA now.)
XvArchonvX
I love running into these Blessed Signet wielding bonder monks in arenas, it lets me put distracting shot to good use. ^_^
Patrick Smit
I used corrupt enchant yesterday, and it can turn a nice and expensive +10 regen with 40 armor into a nasty -8 degen. With 40% on skill recharge that can be a quite nasty elite. Works also nice on preveiled characters before you add other hexes. I still believe that Besides the usual protects 2 or so healing skills are wise. 1 if non elite maybe be good as well if you run draw/MT for yourself.
Div
With this build, the opponent doesn't even need mass enchantment removal. All they need is 1-2, and you're pretty much screwed as your energy is sucking with no balth spirit and you're struggling to recast balths/bonds while your team is getting wiped by the other 2-3 attackers on the other team.
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