shield

i have been playing for a very long time and I wouldnt calll myself a noob. I have one question though. Why do some monks wield a shield and axe,wouldnt you want to wiled a staff or wand/focus for energy?

There is a fairly common green axe which gives +5 energy and 20% enchanting, while still leaving one hand free for something else. Also, in PvP, monks tend to carry multiple weapon sets to hide energy from opponents, and give up extra base energy for greater defense.

They use them for added defence and for Energy hiding.

The axe is used to get an unconditionnal +5 energy and as previously said shields are good for hiding energy.

I use two sets when I'm healing in PvE.

For healing:
+5 unconditional energy sword of enchanting (Razajan's Ferver)
+12 energy focus (Stonehart)

For energy hiding:
+15/-5 energy fellblade
Hassin's shell (green shield with no req)

While this works well for PvP, it is also great for PvE. If I need to rebirth in battle, I can swap to energy hiding. Rebirth drops my energy to zero. Then I switch back and voila, I have 22 energy. People are always wondering how I can rebirth two people in a row, or alternatively rebirth and immediately cast WoH. That's how.

Edit: If you are wondering why I would be silly enough to use rebirth instead of chant etc as a healer, it's because I take it in high-risk areas where I might need the range of rebirth.

While this is a decent pve set, its not the best from a pvp perspective. monks in pvp usually run them for the armor bonus you get from the shield and yes to hide energy. you get an unconditional 8 armor from a shield even if you dont meet the requirements. Also most good monks dont run enchanting. most normally run +30 or ar+5 on their +5 and -5 items. i personally run +30 health on all mine. with a different shields for different occasions. i have a ar+10 vs slashing,+30 shield, one for each element, a damage -2 enchanted,+30 shield, a stance,+30 shield, a hexed,+60 shield, and a -5/+30 shield for my monk. my mesmer also has a similar set.

and as a monk, you job isnt to res people in mid battle, your job should be healing during mid battle. let the others res. personally i warn my group that i dont even bring a res into pve. if it comes down to me as a monk having to res my group, we lost anyway, so why bother. personally having another heal or prot is much more useful. its much easier for a warrior to take damage and tank an enemy while using a res sig than a monk.

edit: i have 4 weapon swaps on my monk. i have a 15/-5, hp+30 sword and -5 en,hp+30 offhand in one slot (my 26 energy set). i have a +5/+30 sword and a shield (whichever is most useful at the time) on slot 2 (this set being my main set i run in mostly. 38 energy set) i have a 20 recharge (of most critical for recharge time)/+5>50 wand and a 20 recharge (again whatevers most critical for recharge)/+30hp straw effigy in slot 3 (45-50 energy set depending on armor). and a 15/-1 regen wand and 15/-1, +30hp offhand in slot 4 (74 energy set but only 2 pips recharge) for that extra emergengy energy to force a morale boost or that final push to keep a warrior up to kill the guildlord, etc... Using my +5 sword and shield helps me with energymanagement as i dont always heal you just because you lost 25 hp. mostly i dont heal anything thats over 80% health unless i can see its going to be a opportunity target for a spike, or would need to take damage such as running a flag in burning isle. it can help you manage energy as well as priority healing as well.

Where to start? I guess by admitting that I was trying to give a short answer to a simple question, not write a book on monking.

I have about 4.7 million experience, and 1,000 hours playing my monk, so I would consider myself fairly experienced. And my comments were primarily PvE focused, not PvP, which is different. Aggro management in PvE is wholly different from PvP, so perhaps you and I are comparing apples to oranges.

Why would I use a sword with an enchanting mod? One reason; vigorous spirit. The one enchant I use when healing. It is an absolute must for a Barrage / Pet team in SF. Adds 6 seconds to the duration. Running fortitude with a +30 health mod does me almost no good. Since a good monk almost never attacks in PvE, +30 health is insignificant. If I get attacked I simply kite or run a pick play to break aggro. If I need health, I switch to Brohn's for 60 extra.

Finally, I bring rebirth not to rez during battle (there are much better spells for that), but in case I'm the lone survivor if we over-aggro. I never travel with a group that doesn't bring lots of rebirths in high-danger areas. I'd love to travel with you, find you're the lone survivor after three hours or Urgoz. I do guiltily admit that I sometimes rebirth towards the end of a battle if I know that I won't need to heal for several seconds. I can swap, rebirth, WoH, and still be fine. Yeah, it's not absolutely textbook, and would be suicide in PvP, but in PvE, meh.

So I guess that I do use 3 sets, +5 sword / focus for heal, brohn for health, and -5 / shield for energy hiding during rebirths. All that's really needed for PvE. In PvP I usually panic when being attacked and switch to the wrong set, so I usually run something similar to what I've mentioned above.

Just delete no sense taking few more kilos of space on the hdd.

or letting foosl liek me get 1 extra post, wooops :P

GOGO THREAD SPAM!
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ Oh, duh no phonetic spam T_T