Hero Monk Weapon Set-up

I've been stuck on what weapons I should give my hero Monks. I currently have 4 hero monks (3 Heroes, 1 Mercenary). My mercenary uses Healing Prayers, Talkora uses protection, Dunkuro uses Smiting and Odgen has no build yet.


I wanna know, what weapons should I give my monks. I gave both healing and protection monks a charr axe (Energy +5, Armor +5) and a respective focus (energy +12, Halve recharge and casting time of attribute: 20%)

I only keep those monks on avoid battle. I want to be able to make my monks be able to use mesmer skills on foes for energy management without having to go melee. My question is, should I use spears or staves?

The spears will be just like the axes, the staves I had on the other hand will be like my smiter's staff (halve recharge of spells 20%, halve casting time of item attribute 20%, energy +5 and armor +5.

The staves work well on my smite monk, which is why I want to mimic it. What you guys think I should do?

Spears if they can benefit from the 20% enchant. Staves otherwise.

EDIT: Given the price of caster spears and the offhand 20% inscription, just use staves anyway.

Give them any unused greens that you are not using and get collector weapons.I gave my Talk the protection offhand from North Kryta although that collector has been removed since the battle with the White Mantle.

Since hero monks kinda suck at e-management (even with a few Mes skills on their bars they're dodgy), I usually give mine +20en staves. Something like the Traveler's Bo Staff or Staff of the Forgotten.

I'm not entirely sure, but I'm thinking that they won't use Mes interrupts while set to "avoid battle" regardless of which type of weapon they're using. Even "Waste Not, Want Not" is a targeted spell, so they likely won't use it even though it doesn't have an affect on an enemy. I could be wrong though.

Edit:
Ah, I think I misunderstood. You want to switch them to "guard", right? So yeah, ignore the above paragraph.

Using martial weapons (axe, spear...) on any hero will arrange them in the front when you take a full party of heroes.

Front line weapons = front line placement...

This may put them closer to danger, and make them a more frequently attacked target. So beware! (And if they are running for their lives, they aren't healing!)

If you party up with another human, you can designate one person to start engagements and do the pulling. This player should get the warriors, dervishes, and paragons. And the minion master, if you run one. The "back line" player should take the monks, mesmers, and elementalists.

If you play solo, I'd recommend that you give your monks caster weapons, and keep them on "avoid combat."

In addition to what has been stated, consider a few things:

- Wielding a martial weapon will make the AI consider them a martial character. They will be priority targets for things like splinter weapon (bad, you want it on other characters).

- Wielding a caster weapon will make the AI consider them a caster character. This means they are more likely to get anti-caster spells cast on them by enemies (e.g. backfire).

Also, consider trying to reduce their energy needs. One way to do that is to use some Signets and skills such as Healer's Boon.

I use 2 Monk heroes. One (Mercenary) is an HB build using a staff with +5e, +30h, and HCT Healing Prayers (and one Signet). The other (Tahlkora) is a Mo/Rt using a high energy staff (and some spirits). I don't notice them having any particular energy problems (unless, of course, I've managed to agro too much, or otherwise messed up).
Of course, it's a combination of the size of their initial energy pool, the energy usage rate, the interaction between the 2 monks (the Mo/Rt is not good by herself), and the time it takes for the group to kill a mob, etc.