Healing Vs. Prot

I know this has been discussed before, but I really want to know what you think is better in PVE ONLY. We all know that in PvP, other than LoD, healing sucks (and even LoD sucks in arenas). No, I want to know what you think is better, from a PvE perspective. Also, I'm not talking about UW Aatxes, or other stuff that's dealing 300+ damage per hit, I'm more talking about the regular stuff throughout the game, maybe use the Southern Shiverpeaks as an example (ThK if you want a specific area). As has been discussed, Prot works best with bigger packets of damage (excluding a few skills like SoA or SH), while healing is less conditional. Also, other than Aegis (which, in my opinion, is not worth it since with GoLE it takes up two slots to be up for a third of the time), there are no party-based heals, so if multiple players are being attacked, it's more difficult to keep them all alive. So basically, I'm asking whether in general, mid-end PvE, healing or prot is better.

Please, please, PLEASE, no flame wars (or bait), and also, if you're mainly a PvP based player, or if you say that if it works in GvG it works anywhere, please do me a favor and don't post. And again, remember the first rule if you're gonna quote me on something. If someone doesn't obay these rules, I would like the moderator to kindly close this forum so it doesn't turn into an 11-page GvG-based flame war.

I usually just 'hybrid' in PvE, and it works fine. LoD does party wide health management, while prots reduce most of the damage.

[card]Light of Deliverance[/card][card]Reversal of Fortune[/card][card]Shield of Absorption[/card][card]Dwayna's Kiss[/card][card]protective spirit[/card][card]guardian[/card][card]dismiss condition[/card][card]Remove Hex[/card] Or Cure Hex.

1. Like everything else in the game, it depends on the area.

2. This topic is just begging to degenerate into a flamefest.

Honestly Prot doesn't have the same value in most of PvE that it does in PvP; there are more threats and they don't switch targets as often. Shield of Absorption is still amazing on a focused target, and Protective Spirit is pretty much required to deal with many boss encounters outside of Prophecies, but otherwise Prot really isn't too essential outside of Hard Mode.

What's really at a high value in PvE is cleaning; there's usually a lot of hexes or a lot of conditions flying around in a fight, sometimes both. Cure Hex and Mend / Dismiss Condition are some of the best skills in PvE, combining removal with a decent heal.

Through most of PvE you'll get away with red-barring just fine, though you should be moving bars up and taking away the little down arrows as well. You don't need very many skills on your bar to do that job effectively - LoD and 2 spot heals is common and more that sufficient. The rest can go into cleaning, and a bit of prot if you're so inclined.

I prefer prot, even in PvE.

My usual build begins with:

[card]Zealous Benediction[/card][card]Reversal of Fortune[/card][card]Shield of Absorption[/card][card]protective spirit[/card][card]guardian[/card][card]draw conditions[/card][card]Aegis[/card][card]Rebirth[/card]

Though I often swap in [card]Remove Hex[/card].


[card]Zealous Benediction[/card] is the only 'heal' I need, I can find it on the Protection line. Before I capped it I used [card]Life Sheath[/card] and before that [card]Divine Boon[/card]. In low end PvE (before you reach elites) [card]Divine Boon[/card] is more than enough.

Even now, half the time, I don't need [card]Zealous Benediction[/card] because my prots are good enough to cover ahead of time. To be honest, in PvE, I'm still not convinced Zealous Benediction is better than Life Sheath. Numbers notwithstanding, Life Sheath seemed to work better when I was using it. Zealous Benediction performs more like a patch for when my usual tactics are failing. But then, it is always wise to be prepared beyond expectations - which is why I'm carrying Rebirth.

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who cares when you just take LoD with ursanway? =P

for NM, a hybrid lod can probably solo monk most areas, in HM add another hybrid prot, or a third.

pure healing is just less effective. just use aegis (you don't even need gole, sup with the OP?), mobs die, you win. that's usually the case for NM.

The thing to realize when making a 'healer' is that you don't need 8 slots worth of heals to be an effective healer. A character with LoD and 2 spot heals (Dwayna's Kiss plus your choice of Healing Whisper, Ethereal Light, Signet of Rejuvenation, or Reversal of Fortune for harder content) is going to do 95% of what a pure healer can do. Speccing 10 into Protection Prayers for a good condition removal and SoA only costs you 3 points of Divine Favor, which translates into just 10 health per heal.

With the notable exception of Healer's Boon, there's really no reason not to take advantage of the 3rd attribute. It's not like an extra 10 health on another redundant spot heal is going to make the least bit of difference.

I use a BL hybrid prot a lot, since that one covers most of the conditions encountered.
Since most teams run two monks in 8-man area's, I'd go with one healer and one protection (or two hybrids).

Looking at what will be hitting the team in areas like THK, I know two healers will also do.
However, that's Prophecies and some foes in Factions and Nightfall hit a lot harder than those in Prophecies.
Healers only might not be sufficient for the average team in those chapters.

You need to keep the red bars in the safe zone (prot) and when they go down too much you need to get them up again (heal).
That's either hybrid or a healer/prot combo.
There are exceptions where pure protection (life bond+SoR) works great, but that depends on the number of enchantment removers.
And is overkill in the average Normal Mode mission.

I often use a Full prot monk with ZB for main heal. Though having a high Divine (12+), any spammable skill can heal nicely. Especially RoF. It heals 45ish because of Divine and then heals more if the target gets hit. And it reduces 1 attack to 0. Also Mend Condition is a good 'healing' skill, if you remove a condition, the target gets healed for 75 + 45.

If you are going full Healing, it is recommended to take some 'protection' skills from the Healing Prayers. I mean skills like the two Spotlesses, Healing Seed, Healing Breeze, in general the enchantments. Combining these with Dwayna's Kiss does nice cheap healing.

This way you can give a Pure Prot some 'healing' skills and a Pure Healer some 'prot' skills.

Prot or Healing better? It all depends on the situation I guess. If you have a capable team that can spread out good to avoid AoE dmg, you can do without a Healer with Heal Party and LoD. But some areas do too massive AoE dmg, that Heal Party is definately needed.
If you are going into an area in which the foes do 1337 dmg, you really need that Protective Spirit.

I used healing, and I still do if someone wants. But I usually just go ZB build with.. the healing skill which siables other Healing Prayers skills.. d'oh forgot the name

Hybrid Builds.. ftw?

prot and heal is what i am usually using <_<

like zb and goh or lod prot spirit and soa

My problem with ZB is that in areas when u take a second monk as a healer if he beats you to the heal you waste 10e.

So I usually go full prot with dismiss condition and SoR at the moment for "healing" ,GolE or in areas with known partywide degen/damage i take LoD and go hybrid.

For PvE I'm just as likely to go heal/offense as I am heal/prot. Even if it's something as simple as a DF staff that does fire damage and conjure flames I find that in some situations it's good to help deal more damage than you could normally when you don't need to heal.

Great job on the discussion guys, this is the stuff I was hoping for. Basically, I was just trying to make a thread showing that pure prot isn't as godly as it's cracked up to be, and that healing is a viable choice (this is all PvE, of course). And while I admit that hybrids are most likely the way to go (though I prefer ZB with GoH, instead of LoD with prot), prot isn't the be-all, end-all attribute that a lot of people say it is. I'm not saying it's crap, either, but I'm just trying to show that in regular areas (later Ring of Fire Islands and pretty much all HM are excluded), healing can compete with, or possibly even exceed, the power of prot.

Thank you all for posting, everyone, keep it up!

Honestly, for most of Prophecies pushing LoD on recharge is more than sufficient.

I'd only seriously consider going pure prot, with Zealous Benediction and Dismiss for heals, if I was monking solo. Otherwise I'd take Gift of Health with some other Prot elite, no question.

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