25 Mar 2005 at 04:57 - 13
I've played a monk since the first BWE, and as a monk looking to explore in PVE and do missions, you won't have any problems finding a party. In fact you'll be swamped with requests to join parties, constantly asking even if you reject them.
Then you'll have to deal with idiotic party members running out of range of your heals, aggroing 12 monsters and once and then running back towards you with a monster train. Or stupid necros killing themselves with health sacrifice skills then blaming you for not healing them. Or pet lovers who get really heartbroken when you don't heal their kitty.
If you're still excited about being a monk after all that, then welcome! Monk is one of the most exciting PVP characters to play, but in PVE if you're competant it's a bit dull.
Ensign put a pretty decent generic skillbar.
Good PVE monk skills:
Orison of Healing
Healing Breeze
Restore Life OR Rebirth
Healing Seed
Word of Healing {E}
Channeling (Mesmer Inspiration Skill)
Protection Skills:
Shielding Hands
Reversal of Fortune (comparable to Orison when you have good Divine Favor)
Mark of Protection {E}
the rest are basically up to you.
Final notes:
You can pretty much forget about doing damage as a pure healing monk.
You can also forget about doing anything solo- you just wont have the firepower to kill anything. You'll be hard to kill, but it just takes 1 mesmer or a bunch of monsters using Mark of Subversion to shut you down.
Solo PVE exploration is basically "sprint, healing breeze, occasional heal, hope for the best."
Remove Hex and Mend Condition/Ailment are largely forgettable in PVE, but are very necessary in PVP. It wouldn't be bad to have either of them.
If you really want to play a PVE character that can heal others and actually have some offensive firepower, play an Elementalist Monk.
They're not ideal characters for PVP anymore, but they really wont be at any kind of disadvantage in PVE.
Pick an attribute, take energy storage, and take healing prayers.
11/10/10 attribute layout.
In PVE fire is nice because monsters are dumb. They will stand in your firestorms and lava fonts, and you can drop fireballs on them from far away.
I can't recommend a fire/energy storage/healing character for PVP though.