Standard E/Mo vs Mo/X question

Ive been reading up on which is preferred and most people seem to say Mo/X is better, but based on the numbers I dont see it.

Monk advantage:
Divine Favor (40 more hp per heal aprox)
Divine Favor skills including Signet of Devotion, Divine Boon (which I think is overrated).
Ability to choose a subclass
Ability to choose any of the great mnk elite skills

Ele advantage:
Massive manapool nearly double
Already subclassed to use some of the best defensive spells in the game (earth,water)
Less choice of elite skill, but one of the best skills in the game in E prodigy.


Over the short term a monk is going to do better, healing for more then anyone else in the game. This can be pretty important for keeping someone alive, but an Ele can heal for 75% as much and can heal forever without ever stopping. I can see signet of devotion and using ultra efficient healing skills like Word of Healing can help extend the monks mana bar, but its impossible to match the ele ability to heal forever with 2x mana pool and 2x regen. Im wondering why there are all these mnk primary fans? Also what build have you guys used well where mana wasnt much of an issue?

Silly goose. You seem to have forgotten the use of Runes . Monks will be running around with 3-4 more points into healing prayers than an Ele will.. So its more like a 50-70 healing bonus over an Ele.

Plus- ele's don't look cool when casting spells.

I've played both classes and have also gone through the comparison as well.

I started out thinking the E/Mo was the superior healer because of the above stated reasons. However, I had an oportunity to watch a friend's video as he played a Mo/* and was amazed at a few little things, and tried out a similar build myself for a few weeks and now I am convinced that the Monk primary makes a better healer.

The two small points that swayed the bargain were those quick low cost (or free) heals with the divine favor bonus, and the extra points to spec up protection as well.

First off, most of the healing oriented monks I play with have signet of devotion racked up as well as orison of healing and, most likely, word of healing as their primary heals. With just these 3 spells, most Monk primaries can do beyond their share of healing on a focus fired target. As an E/Mo, I was forced to throw in Heal Other to keep up with the rate at which the natural monks were healing group members, and of course, did not have access to the signet of devotion for the freebie heal, which meant over time I was expending at least twice the mana for roughly the same healing as a monk primary, which pretty much negated the primary 'mana bonus' of an E/Mo, and the same amount of healing had to be done with more spells on average, which meant over more time...which some times was not as fast as the damage was coming in.

Secondly, with points invested in Energy Storage, Healing, and at least one other Elementalist line, I was skimping on the protection line on most of my builds. Against some of the better teams out there, I've been relying on various spells out of the protection line to keep either myself or the focus fire'd target alive and now will not roll w/o protection backup.

I suppose you could create an E/Mo specc'd out in Energy Storage, Healing as well as Protection, but then you're really just _almost_ equalling a primary monk specc'd in Divine, Healing and Protection. I will say one tends to not get targetted as much as an E/Mo however, and can be a good backup healer with a monk primary or two thrown into the equation, and accepting the role of a secondary healer does allow you to move a few points into that damage/utillity line so you can bring more versatillity to the table, and that is where the E/Mo really shines I believe.

I've never played as a Monk-type, but isn't putting all your eggs into Energy Storage just begging to be hit by energy denial? Look at me, mum! I have 60 maximum energy! I'm a real healer! Then, bamf, a Mesmer's just rendered your primary attribute damp arse. Given how healers are always a Mesmer's first target, and how Inspiration seems to be on every Mesmer build that ever was, I can't see Elementalist/Monks being all too hot. Has anyone ever tried Ranger/Monk? If you're going to be on perma-low energy as a main healer, why not try playing the class who works best on low energy anyway? Expertise will knock down healing spell costs by a small margin, but a margin nonetheless, and Rangers are notoriously hard to kill. Certainly, I can see a Ranger's armour and stances/skills helping more than Elementalist defense lines, should you get ganged up on.

Ranger main healer... hah, I just might try that when my Thief hits Ascension.

Who cares about defence lines? It's those other monks job to keep youalive. With primary monk you can concentrate on two attributes alone, healing and divine, making you're healing power probably almost double that of an ele having to go into a third line too.

I don't think Expertise affects spells, only attack skills, preparations, and traps.

IMO, it's best to have one of each; the Mo/* is better equipped to deal with focus fire, while the E/Mo is better equipped to deal with slower damage over an entire match. (Actually, IMHO, it's best to have 3/8 members be healers, with the third being a support Mo/N, but that's just me talking. )

Arses, you're right. Don't mind me, then.

Wrong board? What about the build-boards?

I'd use Mo/E, because it has higher heal per second potential. Being able to heal a lot fast, IMO, is the healing monk's most important job.

Energy Storage is horribly front loaded. When it runs out it's pretty pointless, unless you devote your Elite to energy regen. If you do, you lose Word, and Word is 200 heal for 5 energy with DF... While your E/Mo will be spamming 60 heal Orisons at the same cost. And since you'll be casting more, it'll take longer to heal. Thus your target may well die while you're spending valuable time casting.

Mo > E/Mo

If your going to choose one or the other mo/x might be better, but together e/mo and mo/x make a pretty good healing team.

Agreed. Mo/X works great for the main healer in a team, while E/Mo works as the backup/protection healer. At least this is how most of the structured (not just randomly grouped and go into fight) teams I have been in for PvP set it up.

mo/x is a much better healer obviously.

At the moment i'm kinda biased towards mo/r with melandru's resilience & draw conditions

Even with efficient healing I still see a monk having major mana problems. How do you keep going in drawn out fights?

I guess if your building your character around 7 other people you can make up for the weaknesses in the build.

The build I went with last beta was as follows:

E/Mo
12 heal
10 ES
10 (I think) Earth

Healing Breeze
Heal Other
Healing Seed
Orison of Healing or Heal Area (for monk stacking)
Remove Hex
Armor of Earth
Ward against Melee or Elements
Ether Prodigy

Im not sure how this would holdup in gvg battles, but it was pretty effective in standard fights. Your getting about 70% efficiency with Heal other as a monk gets out of Orison. 10 mana for 150 healed vs 5 mana for near 100 healed. Your very difficult to kill with wards/armor, and you have unlimited mana with Ether Prodigy.

Like Ensign said, for PvP a primary monk is the better healer because of how fast you can heal. For PvE, it does not really matter.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=1453

Exactly, I like E/Mo for protection healers, seeing as a lot of the spells are expensive, or -regen, and an elementalist can handle that for a BIT longer.

i dont think an ele/monk can keep up with spike damage compared to a monk primary.

Bring it on :-p

I prefer E/Mo... all that healing power isn't any good if you're dead or out of energy... but with high energy storage, aura of restoration, ether renewal and an armor spell, you're one hard to kill self-recharging battery of healing. your rate of healing may not be that good but your chances of survival are that much higher and you can go on and on...

of course i'm not saying that e/mos are better than pri monks.. its just the way i like playing..

well, if an ele shot it's energy to hell, then it's no better. it's healing output would be less for the same amount of energy.