Question About Hero Combat Modes

I have a healing/protecting monk hero, Ogden Stonehealer. He deals holy damage and he has no offensive skills. In general PvE, should I put him on avoid combat or guard? Thanks in advance.

I typically like him on avoid that way they don't trigger any hexes that trigger on hit (insidious parasite, empathy, etc).

Would a hero monk stop attacking when he's under those type of hexes? Or is he too stupid to understand and will keep attacking?

They're too stupid. If a monster would attack through those hexes, a hero would too.

So I guess I'm going with avoid combat then.

Avoid also helps them when dealing with damage. If they are on Guard, they will stand and wand (even when hexed with Empathy, etc.). This means they don't kite. On Avoid, they will kite when being attacked, making it harder for the monsters to deal damage to them.

The only reason I see to put a healer/protector on Guard is if it has an energy management skill like Power Drain.

If he has no offensive skills (skills that need to be used on a foe) then put him on avoid combat. He'll hang around at the back of the group only getting as close as he needs to cast healing/prot spells, he won't chase after a called target/any target and he'll kite damage better. It's very important that your healers/protters stay up. On avoid combat he will also be ready to deal with spikes better because he will be concentrating solely on looking after your party and not trying to wand that lvl30 warrior to death.

Also, to help him avoid damage it's best to have his HP higher than anyone else in the party. The way the enemy AI works is they will go for the target with the lowest HP/armour first, given the choice. If his HP is higher than that of other party members then he'll be less likely to be targeted. Minor runes FTW!

My only complaint with hero monks/healers on avoid is that, they will kite and kite and never heal if a monster is attacking them. atleast that is what happens to me, so all of mine are set to guard.

Really? Are you sure?

Hasn't happened to me. They are slower to cast, as they have to stop running to cast the spell, but it still gets cast when needed. I actually have the opposite problem. When I flag heroes to move out of AoE, the Monks will often stop to use a heal while still in the AoE.