Old Player, New Questions

Hi there!

I'm an old player of Gw and I'm back after two years of inactivity.
Now I'm a little bit confused and bewildered: I want to play with my first char, a Monk, but I need some help.

Can you suggest me what is the best wand for PvE (gold stuff, i suppose)?
And best armor? Equipped with which runes?

Thank you

Monks generally run a spear + shield weapon set, in order to get +5 energy from the spear (without any requerments) and the extra armor from the shield along with the +30 hp mod from both spear and shield. And a high energy set (+15 energy from both wand and focus).

As for armor, go with the survivor insignias. The best vigor rune you can aford.
A minor rune in your main attribute (normally healing, put it on your head armor pice so you easily can swapp).
As for the rest of the runes, pick whatever you like, another minor rune or more health.

I'm not an expert on PvE monks, but I think what I've listed is enough to get through most of the game with no problem. In NM there will be no problem, you can make your way through NM without any runes at all.

Weapons:
1-Prot staff 20% enchanting, HCT 20% prot, HCT 20% prot
2-Healing Wand HCT/HSR 20% healing, Healing focus HCT/HSR 20% healing
3 & 4: what Kendil said
other weapon sets if you run particular builds (40/40 prot if ZB for example)

Armor:
You can run full survivor or full blessed (AR+10 while enchanted) as you like..(we can go on for years trying to decide which is better..). Runes of vigor/vitae, minor healing, minor protection, minor divine favor (assuming you are running a hybrid build of some kind, which are the best imho).

you can change this setting to fit your gamestyle though, in PvE (expecially NM) you don't need to be the most efficient in order to win.

read the sticky in the Monk's subforum for more informations

You should also join a guild, so that you can get some ingame help as you relearn the game. Check out the Guild section for guilds looking for members or post your own thread.

Ummm, do u want to heal or do dmg? O_o This post probably belongs more in the Monk section.

After having monked as both a healing and/or protection monk in PvE for quite some time and through all 3 games + the EoTN expansion successfully, I beg to differ on this assessment.

Basic Equipment: a good "E+15/+20 & H+30" staff and a good "40/40" wand/focus set will get you through anything. I will never again use a high energy set (+15 E on both wand and focus) because of the lessening of the energy regeneration. It is horrible when the energy is used up and your team is still fighting. People will die even if you switch off to a regular weapon to get the proper regeneration because you are at a hidden negative energy amount totaling the difference between the regular and the high energy set and it takes a quite a few seconds to get above "0" energy...

The great variety of healing and protecting spells that only cost 5 energy, along with great energy management enables a good monk to take care of any job without a "high-energy" set ever being used.

I carry a good divine favor E+20 staff (most have a Recharge of 20% on ALL attribute spells) like the Staff of the Forgotten, a 40/40 healing set, a 40/40 Protection set, a 40/40 Smite set, a longbow for pulling and a brain for reminding me to not stand still and engage foes in battle.

The use of swords/spears and shields are probably great for those needing added armor, but healing/protection monks are normally on the backline and sometimes midline...not frontline. Your teammates should protect you anyway...just as they target the opposing monk, the enemy melee will come toward your backline also. As the monk goes, so goes the team.

There is no "best", there's only "max". Get whatever weapon and armor that floats your boat.
What is "best" varies depending upon your build, your playstyle and where/what you're doing. But, even then you very rarely need the "best" in order to succeed in PvE.
For example, someone might say "you need a shield with +10a vs fire for such-and-such mob" - no, not really. If you happen to have that shield, you may take a bit less damage, but you (or your heroes/hench) will still kill them anyway, and survive.

That is, of course, if you are actually intending to play GW, as opposed to rushing through it ASAP.

Thank you for your replies