MONK or RT for healing ?

ruibullseye

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jan 2011

Hi everyone i want to start playing Gw again with a couple of friends.
I was wondering what class plays the healer role better?
Me and my friend are aiming for complete all the 3 campaigns, and Hard Mode aswell.

i was reading some topics, and couldnt get if Rt or monk do the job better, either healing in missions NM or HM, or pve NM or HM.

So i was seeking some information about this =)

Sankt Hallvard

Guest

Join Date: Dec 2006

Human: Monk
Hero: Rit

ZephyLynx

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jan 2006

Mo/

Agreed with Sankt Hallvard, monk if a human is playing and rit if a hero is playing. Note that if you play a monk, you should mostly be spamming prots, a spot heal/removal here and there, and watching the field, leave the mindless redbarring up to hero ai.

LifeInfusion

LifeInfusion

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

in the midline

E/Mo

Seed of life = pure blue number joy. If you are any good at protting, Prot Spirit + Aegis + SoA are nice too. With Unyielding Aura up, Divine Healing and Heaven's Delight (DH+HD) are basically AoE heals that are 89-103 depending on if you run 14 or 16 DF headgear when you cast UA. The only comparable thing that you can do on a rit is Protective was Kaolai and Life + Spirit to Flesh (used with Destruction or whatever other spirit).

The other highlight to monks is Healing Burst ([email protected]+DF and a small heal for everyone to counter pressure and autoattack damage), UA (+51-63% more HP healed depending on if 12 to 16 DF), Word of Healing (120ish to 240ish depending on DF and if <50%HP). Healer's Boon is lauded, but it is only decent in places where there is Migraine spam, compared to UA.

Ritualists are only good at spamming soul twisting prots and spirits in general. The only reason why I would bother with a human Ritualist is Summon spirits.

For a Rit you can use Spirit light (150-180 depending on restor spec) which is a stronger heal than most 5 energy monk nonelites (Orison, Ethereal Light, Healing Whisper). You figure a monk puts 14 heal, 9-13 df so that's ~110-120 base heal. Mend Body & Soul is a better condition removal provided you have spirits. Dismiss condition heals for ~100 after DF, whereas Mend Body and Soul is always that amount. Spirit Transfer is like Infuse Health but with the requirement of a Spirit.

Wielder's Boon is a situational 1/4 cast heal (+120 or so if condition is met), Soothing memories is best with Protective was Kaolai and Attuned was Songkai. Ghostmirror light doesn't heal much and neither does Mending grip.

EDIT: N/Rt is a better only-Restor-healer than Rt/ generally (due to signet of lost souls + Soul reaping).

EDIT2: see http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/h...t10462826.html

Thrilla Killa

Thrilla Killa

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2006

Florida

W/A

PvE: Necro or Rit or ER ele
PvP: Monk

Wenspire

Wenspire

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Mar 2008

USA - W.Coast

HiME

Mo/

If you are running a Minion Master in your party, either will work fine. If no MM, then I would go with a Monk over a Rit-based healing. For Protect, I would suggest a Rit only if they are running ST-ShelterUnionDisp.

Asia Skyly

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

California, USA

Mo/

Hexes are very common in PvE (I have little experience in PvP) and monks are well suited to deal with them. The good Restoration Rits can heal very well, but are handicapped at removing hexes. Now, you can out heal a hex, so in some regards this could be a mute point (certainly on normal mode).

Another point to consider is the classes primary attributes (Divine Favor vs. Spawning Power). A lot of the monks skills (healing, protection and smiting skills) benefit greatly from the monk's unique attribute of Divine favor. In contrast the Ritualist healing does not benefit as greatly from Spawning power (advantage Monk/Rt).

You could always consider going Rit/Mo or Mo/Rt and have the best of both worlds.

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

The question is not that simple.

Healing is not a unitary function. At the very least, healing consists of three more-or-less distinct subfunctions - single-target spot healing, AoE spot healing, and bar-topping (plus resurrection, which is really just a weird sort of redbarup when you think about it). There may be more if you think about it some more.

Which healing subfunction(s) you need to cover is going to depend on (1) the local monsters' capabilities, (2) what sort of mitigation your party has, and (3) what your team is already doing on for healing.

If you need single-target spot healing without regard for anything else, then ER ele is unquestionably best.

If you really need AoE spot healing, then HB monk is pretty much the only option. (Though, if you're in that situation, what you really need more than that is better mitigation.)

If you need bar-topping to the exclusion of all else (ie, your mitigation is pretty much prefect), then a passive resto RitLord is the strongest option.

Usually, though, you need to cover two or three of those jobs. That's where things like HBurst monks and N/Rt healers become worth considering.

---

The other major consideration left out of your question is non-healing jobs you might want to perform: removal and mitigation.

Rit has stronger condition removal (as does necro). Monk has stronger hex removal.

Monk's great advantage over Rit is that PS can co-exist with heals, but Shelter really can't. (Although ER eles do an even better job of combining prot and heal.)

bj91x

bj91x

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Dec 2005

I'm personally not a fan of Restoration on heroes.

One major problem with Restoration is its inability to spam healing spells. I test my healing builds in an area with very heavy incoming damage and Restoration just cannot keep up against the heavy incoming damage. Due to the long recharge of Restoration's main healing spells, targets usually die while spells are recharging. Granted, this test I use is more strenuous than most actual gameplay situations but I prefer that my healers be able to handle more extreme situations.

If your team has a lot of other defensive skills to help cover the downtime, I'd say Restoration healing is fine. Otherwise, I'd say stick with Healing Prayers and Protection Prayers. As for the professions to use for healing... Monks give you the best variety and options. Elementalists give you very little options but with infinite energy. Necromancers are in between those.

LifeInfusion

LifeInfusion

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

in the midline

E/Mo

You can slot Prots on your MM or bring prots somewhere else. The OP asked about healing, not hybrid bars or protting.

Also Ritualists have better energy management than monks do (unless you drop attribute levels for leech sig +power drain). They just don't have powerful party heals. Life needs to be popped for the +120-140 (every 20seconds), PwK heals for 60-80ish on 25 recharge.

If you need more than one power heal every 4 seconds and one spot heal every 3 seconds then likely you need more damage mitigation. You could slot Spirit Transfer but 10 energy is hefty and it doesn't give much more health than Spirit Light.

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by LifeInfusion View Post
You can slot Prots on your MM or bring prots somewhere else. One day Sab will have to answer to Grenth for introducing this idea... On a 4-man team (which is what sabway originally was), sometimes prot ends up on the MM because there's nowhere else to go, NOT because it's a good idea. The MM has tons of energy, but very little free cast time. He is frequently going to be right in the middle of a 3sec animate spell or a 2sec death nova when the need to prot someone arises, and the hero AI is not not going to cancel to get the prot off in a timely fashion. Sticking prot on a MM in an 8-man team should never be the go-to solution.