The Non 55 solo monk...possible?

Me NoFat

Me NoFat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

USA

Crimson Explorers Worldwide {CrEw}; Lifetime graduate of [LBS]

W/

Ok I am stuck at work so I am simply going to ask the pros that frequent this area since I cannot test this. If I did test it I would do it somewhere other than UW (no point in throwing away 1K). This build is not with UW in mind BTW.

My main farmer is a W and I only use a monk for 55 UW 2 man teams so my experiance with a monk farmer is limited.

I am simply wondering if you could out heal the damage recieved by using stances to reduce the amount. This is the build I am thinking of.

Retribution
Holy Wrath
Balths Spirit
Healing Breeze
Glads Def
Bons Def
Riposte
D. Riposte

Energy Management might be a little difficult to get used to. Not sure but probably a Sup Smite and Sup Healing with a 20% enchant mod on a sword for D. Riposte/Riposte. I also am not sure if Holy Wrath or Retribution is considered AoE after the nerf.

Assuming you can keep the stances up you should only take 25% of the normal damage which we might overcome with Healing Breeze. The damage output should be enough to take down some enemies.

I am sure this is a pipe dream but it never hurts to ask those that know more than you when it comes to Monk domination

Seren!ty

Seren!ty

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

[iDum]

R/E

Just tested it and the main problem is: Energy Management... I just cant keep up healing breeze.
2nd problem is: You wont gain enough adrenaline for Bonetti... By the time you have it you're dead
Quote:
I also am not sure if Holy Wrath or Retribution is considered AoE after the nerf. No its not

Levi Garett

Levi Garett

Old School Nub

Join Date: Jun 2005

ABQ, NM

Guildless

Mo/Me

Funny I've been thinking about making a Retribution build that uses non-55hp ideas. I haven't tested Retribution with a 55 build but I'm pretty sure the damage will be 33% of 5hp (per hit) which would be useless....Back in the day right after official release I used to farm with non-55 builds spamming Divine Boon/ROF and it was insanely fast using SOJ+Zealots+Retribution. Then the 55hp builds completely took over-especially with the 1hp Prot Bond builds. Ahh how times have changed. The AoE anit-farm patch and anti-DB spam patches really killed this build idea, but spamming DB could easily be considered an expliot so I guess you can't fault A-Net.

Holy Wrath will kill your energy big time. It's completely useless IMHO costing 10 energy per hit. 4-5 hits and your energy is 0-NOT GOOD.

You'll need big heals to outpace the damage even if you were using all those stances. I would try something like this:

Enchants:
Bath's Spirit
Divine Boon (Can still re-cast it for a heal it just regens now-before it had 0 regen)
Retribution
Life Attunement

Other four skills:
Orison of Healing (Pretty Spammable, or maybe try ROF)
Healing Touch (Not spammable but with DB and Life Attunement it should be a big time heal)
Bonetties Defense (with tactics at 2+)
SOJ could be your elite DMG source

With high smiting prayers+ bath's spirit and a Furious sword/axe you should be able to get enough Adren to use Bonetties to recharge your energy when it gets low. The problem is without all those sup runes you'd use with the 55 build would you be able to have high enough Prot, Healing, Divine, AND Smiting levels...and you'll still need at least three points to put into Tactics. If attribute points aren't working out you might try dropping Life Attunement (and not using ROF) and see if you can still keep yourself alive without it so you don't need the points in protection. Aura of Faith is a nice alternate to Life Attunement but there goes your elite...This build would maybe work with smaller groups but you won't be able to tank 10+ things like you can with the 55 builds.

You also might want to think about working Prot Spirit in there and keeping it up when your in trouble. -50hp is a huge difference over -200hp (say from a Bladed Aattaxe) and your Retribution caps at like -20dmg maximum anyways so you will gain no benefit taking more than say 60 damage anyhow from Retribution. But that will complicate your energy situation.

A Mo/Me might also work with channeling instead of Bonetties. It would be worth a try....

P.S. It's nice to see somebody trying to break out of the mold. I too try various different builds that are not the typical cookie-cutters just to be different and it's quite fun experiementing. Good luck

Me NoFat

Me NoFat

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

USA

Crimson Explorers Worldwide {CrEw}; Lifetime graduate of [LBS]

W/

Thanks for the testing and reply. I will be working on the suggestions some more on my next weekend. If anything usefule actually comes of this I will be sure to post it.