Monk / ** ??

I have used monk as a secondary for my elem and this works great to keep me alive while dealing out massive damage. But now I want to keep other members alive so I want to go Monk primary (or secondary and play off my secondary).

(I have noticed not to many healer/support monks so far. everyone is bent on doing damage and not about keeping the party alive.)

I was thinking mesmer since they have some incredibly degenerative skills(phantasm, backfire, empathy, etc). This way I can chip in the fight if everyone is ok.

But then again, I could use Monk secondary and elem or mesm or necro primary for the energy management factor (elem=big storage vs mesm=fast casting vs necro=energy gain per death), and still use my monk skills to heal. The problem with that is that as Monk primary I have the bonus to healing skills.

What to do, what to do....

Jael

I feel your pain. I have been having the same problem. I cant help but think going monk secondary would not be as affective because of the heal bonus. Currently I am leaning toward mo/me, but give me five minutes and Im sure to change my mind. Does anyone have any insight on a good secondary for a prime healer?

If you want to play as a healer, I strongly recommend you go as monk primary. Divine Favour is very nice to have, as it increases your healing per second a lot.

It's quite common to play as a pure monk, where no attribute points or skill slots are given to the monk's secondary profession at all. Also, a lot of monks choose mesmer as their secondary profession, not for degenerative skills, but for help with energy management with skills such as Channeling, as energy is tight. A few other secondaries are listed in the Monk Basics thread.

I play a Monk/Mesmer and I have found out that if you really wanna be a good healer you need to concentrate fully at just healing. A lot of people try to do some sort of mix with draining spells on foes and a few healing spells. This wont work later on in the game. I dont have one single offensive spell in my skillbar. I just focus on my job. Healing. The rest i rely on my party to do. Some good mix can of course be done but its hard to make them work early in the game when you dont have so many skills.
Keep your friends in a good mood... and alive of course.

You E/M is actually a good healer combo. You don't quite make up for divine with energy storage, but it is close. You can definately cast more spells in a battle than a monk and when running restoration, you have a nice built in self heal. Throw in the glyph of sac and you have one more insta res on your bar. Plus throwing phoenix on your bar can make warriors think twice standing in on you.

I won't argue that a M/E is a better healer overall, but if you practice healing and get good at it (I find player skill most important for healers) your E/M will be a great healer with a bit more diversity than a M/E.

As a side note, I was wondering how good a Mes/M would do. The ability to cast faster and control fights, might be a great "healer" build. Anyway, don't necessarily get stuck in the "monk main is better support" thought process. Monk main is good no doubt, but other builds with monk secondary has advantages too.

moved to campfire

I prefer Monk/Elementalist or Monk/Mesmer for pure healing type.

Channeling is very nice as is energy tap. But channeling can be stripped and energy tap is a slower cast. Glyph of lesser energy is very nice but it's highly situational to cast a 15 energy spell. It all depends, really. A lot of monks just don't even bother putting points into their secondaries, in which case I suggest elementalist secondary for the glyphs, which are unlinked to any attribute.

you guys are great.

This is the first forum that actually gave GOOD advice. (I've been around since the WPE and all the BWE's so I've seen my share ...)

I think I am down to 2 choices.

1. Keep my Elem/Monk for reasons of self-defence and large energy storage.

2. Create a Monk/Mesmer for reasons of energy sapping and degenerative spells.

What do you all think? Keep in mind I'm trying to make a usefull healer. (i guess primary monk or secondary monk doesnt matter if i get good at monk-ing).

Jael

if your aim is to keep party members alive, have you checked out wards? they're elementalist spells that give protective from certain things while in the radius of the spell. there're 4 wards, including 1 elite:

Ward Against Harm
Description: Create a ward against harm here. For 8-18 seconds, nearby allies have 12-50 armor against fire damage and 12-22 armor against other damage. This is an elite skill.

Ward Against Elements
Description: For 8-18 seconds, nearby allies gain +24 armor against elemental damage.

Ward Against Foes
Description: You create a ward against foes at your current location. For 8-18 seconds, foes in this area move 50% slower.

Ward Against Melee
Description: You create a ward against melee at your current location. For 8-18 seconds, allies in this area have a 50% chance to evade melee attacks.

there're also a lot of earth element spells that increases defense or dodge rate of caster. might wanna consider those to keep yourself alive at times.

I play a Mo/Me. When I'm with a group I'm a pure healer, I don't do any damage at all. I use inspiration for energy gain. There are some great skills later in the game that let you do other useful things while you gain energy like:

Drain Enchantment - Spell
Remove an "Enchantment" from target foe. If an Enchantment is removed, you gain 10-20 Energy.

Inspired Hex - Spell
Remove a Hex from target ally and gain 3-13 Energy. For 20 seconds, Inspired Hex is replaced by the Hex that was removed.

Spirit of Failure - Hex Spell
For 30 seconds, target foe has a 25% chance to miss with attacks. You gain 1-4 Energy for each miss.

Just to name of few.

I also like to use Imagined Burden.

You can also do a fun solo PvE build using smiting, domination, and healing prayers.

That's great. I think I will go for a Mo/Me this time around. With my bwe character (elem/monk) I used the wards quite a bit. it surprised my team that they didnt die as often (hehe). But since trying a me/ra the past few days, i have grown accustomed to the mesmer class. A really cool class that requires lots of fast thinking .. non of this "blast em all to hell with aoe" stuff (although I will miss pheonix, metoer shower, firestorm and the other meteor skills).

so thats it then. Monk/Mesmer. if you see a guy running around called Jael something-or-other, that's me. feel free to talk to me, since I usually help out noobs with extra items (when possible at very fair if not free price tags) or if you need a monk.

later