PvE Protection Mo/Me. What do you think?

I have been exploring more of my skills lately trying to come up with some new builds for me to run. Since I have finished the last mission and kinda getting bored of the UW & fissure. And am not totally rdy to start learning PvP builds atm. So I am kinda curious what people think and/or if anyone wants to share some of their protection builds. I am playing around with 2 similar setups atm. Tho its really hard to get a true feel for how effective these are because I am trying to use these in PuG's. (those reading this will see later why this can be a very hard build to maintain in a PuG) Which is really not the best type of team to experiment with sometimes (no offense ment to anyone). Because there is always 1 or 2 people that are just not willing/or understand what is going on with my character even after I tell them/ explain. (from the experiances I have had) Yes I have a really good heal loadout thats very effective for any situation. But this is not about healing its about exploring my character and trying to come up with stuff that is not being used by the mainstream of people. (might not be the case after this post tho). So I am gonna post my character stats, skill loadouts and explain my goals and try to explain the thinking process that determines when and where I use what skill. Both setups will use Lifebond as the primary skill. I will be using it with full teams of eight. Since I can not cast it on myself. It is casted on 7 of the 8 people in the team. It gives me a -3 energy regen and anytime my energy hits 0 the last three people I casted this spell loose the enchantment. I know what some of you are thinking but before you judge it from what I have posted above read further and be open minded. please.

Mo/Me
Energy: 43
Hitpoints: 346

Domination Magic: 8
Inspiration Magic: 9
Healing Prayers: 12 (+3)
Protection Prayers: 10 (+2)
Divine Favor: 10 (+3) *************** Edit . sorry I put a +2 down instead of a +3. Fixed. Took me a few minutes to fix bacause its very hard to get a page to load correctly atm.

Armor:
Full Sacred 1.5k set.
Servents Scalp desing( healing prayers +1)
Major Vigor for my 4th rune

Skills: Im gonna post energy cost (EC) and the effects with the stats I currently have.

Energy Tap: EC: 5 ( Steals 12 energy from foe)
Blessed Signet: EC: 0 (gives 3 energy for each enchantment/ maximum 17)
Spirit of Failure: EC: 10 (3 energy for each time that foe fails to hit a target)
Backfire: EC: 15 (10 secs each time foe casts a spell. It causes 91 damage)
Healing Touch EC: 5 (heals 51 point + the double divine favor bonus)
Heal Other: EC: 10 ( heals for 151 points)
Life Bond: EC: 10 (Damage recuced by 21 points)
Rebirth: EC: 10


I have run this build only a few times. (Everything I post is based of those few experiances with PuG's). With that said. If everything goes as planned. Right after I load in to the misson/map. I start casting Lifebond on team members. Once my energy hits the 20's. I cast Blessed Signet then life bond. Rinse and repeat to apply the skill on the rest of the group. When I get it casted on all 7 members. Like I said earlier I have a -3 energy regen, and anythime my energy hits 0 the last 3 people I casted Life Bond on looses the enchantment. So I am always hitting the #2 key as soon as Blessed Signet is recharged.

When the fight starts I cast Energy Tap, Spirit of Failure, and Backfire. With Blessed Signet normally in the mix.(just depends on when it is recharged) Healing touch is for my personal use since I take half the damage that is recieved by the ally. This is where it gets tricky depending on alot of factors.

1. How close the enemy is to me (Since I do not want to die because I am Maintaining enchantments of course). If this is the case I will proceed to move to a safe area where any chance of Aggro is very unlikely if I am able too.

2. If I have the energy I will help out with some healing using heal other if it is needed. I normally won't cast this unless my energy is 20+

3. If there is no extra healing needed. I will start using MY energy gain skills. Energy Tap , Spirit of failure, Blessed Signet (which I am constantly using as soon as its recharged. Rinse and repeat with one backfire being casted after each cycle.

4. If the enemys are hitting the team pretty hard I am noramlly taking damage so I Cast Healing Touch on myself. Again watching my energy trying not to let it get below 20.

5. If the enemy starts stripping enchantments off. I try to figure out who lost the enchantment and re cast it. Communication really helps with this. It can take a pretty long time to figure out who lost the enchantment. When I am trying to also focus on all the other things posted above and maybe a few more that do not come to mind atm. (A.net could help with this by letting us see which enchantments are on which party member when targeted. Unless that option is already available and I am not aware of it.)


Thats pretty much it for the first build. I really need to get a regular group of people to run with or join a very big and very active guild for better results. It really requires you to be aware of your surroundings and always focused. One wrong spell casted and you loose 3 enchantments which can really make things go sour with lvl 24 plus mobs. I have been running this build in Hell's Precipice and UW. And I really like it. But unless you have to have a very organized group for this to work and even then there is alot of room for failure for lack of focus. But I am not trying to find the easiest build to maintain. I have one like that already. I want to really go far out and try to make something off the wall work.

So with that said anyone have any Ideas about this or have a build they would like to share. I just switched to my Mesmer portion so I have a whole lot to explore and understand.

I will post the second one in awhile I have to get my character respeced and SKills set because I never wrote this stuff down. I got the game in the background looking at the stats as I write.

P.S. Sorry for any typo's that slipped passed me.

Safe Journey's.

Two things...

1)Wrong forum for build discussion

2) How the hell did you wind up with so many attribute points?

1. sorry about the wrong forum part.

2. major runes. protection and healing. 1 superior divine favor.

It doesn't look like he's going over the attribute cap. If you think about it, it's really 8, 9, 9, 8, 8... which I think is possible.

Do you really think Backfire is worth it? It costs 15 energy in a build that has -3 energy regeneration. If it were me, I would probably take Signet of Devotion, which will make you a more effective healer, without increasing your energy problems.

You might be on to something.

But I threw in Backfire because I can get in casting range throw it on an enemy. and then get the heck outta there. Its really about timing. I can completly maintain my energy at max with just blessed Signet the other 2 energy steals are just a bonus for when I feel pretty safe to get in range and cast with out risk of causing a team failure. like at the very start of the fight. But like I said heavy Communication helps alot.

If the other monk loads heals then he really does not have a problem with keeping up with the damage from my few experiances. Every team I told them don't worry about me and energy since I have that -3 regen. And when they asked the other monk minus 1 ocasion (when the monk decide he was gonna load protection spells and heal party) they replyed lets roll I am not going thru much energy at all . Thats what got me pretty set on trying to figure out this build that I will be able to use protection and throw out some de buff's /damage.

Energy trap is actually energy tap.

Just thought I'd let you know, totally irrelevant in the end anyway

my mistake. I will fix that right now.

I also just thought of something does Life Bond stack? lets say you have 3 monks in your team. each one casts Life Bond on every person they are able too. which would mean the 3 monks would have 2 Life Bonds and the rest of the team 3. Surely this is not possable is it? Not trying to de rail my own thread but it would surprise the hell outta me if this slipped passed A.net.


I might try and play around with signets. And I am not totally sure yet Life Bond is the right route. I might go for a evade/ chance to miss build instead with some back ups like Healing Seed and healing hands.

interesting thought. Since mes deals a lot with hexes and buffs I had also considered a monk/mesmer for party support.

I'm a Mo/Me myself and so your build caught my interest.

Backfire seems to be an extra skill and I don't see any elite. I was wondering if you thought about maybe:

a) replacing it with Guilt
b) replacing it with Echo (elite)
c) replacing it with Keystone (elite)

The last two basically just to reset your signet.

Guilt seems nicer to me than backfire cause it's the same principle but would supplement your power instead of damaging them physically.

This thread's given me some possibly dangerous notions I'll need to try. The big problem like you said are those area's where enchantments are stripped.

The only Protection Prayer you have in this build is Life Bond. I wouldn't say that makes it a Protection build. I run a Protection build as a Mo/E, and this is what I use:

Divine Favor: 10 + 1 + 3 = 14
Protection Prayers: 10 + 1 = 11
Earth Magic: 11

1) Divine Boon - give my protection spells a nice heal component, also works as a self heal
2) Peace & Harmony (Elite) - recover my lost pip of regen
3) Aegis - nice group dmg mitigation
4) Glyph of Lesser Energy - cast Aegis for free; same recharge
5) Ward Against Melee - melee dmg mitigation
6) Reversal of Fortune - fast cast and recast reversal + heal, my primary heal for others
7) Mend Ailment - another fast cast heal + condition removal
8) Vengeance - Rez; I was using Rebirth, but Vengeance is much better at the moment, except for when multiple people die and I'm the only rezzer

Asdar, I am kinda bored of all the mainstream stuff. On the second version I would put Healing Seed, / healing Hands instead of spirit of failure and healing touch. Seed for the team Hands for me when the damage started pouring over. I am gonna just retire my monk for awhile I think.

Aug, Nice but. I have seen similar builds like that bud. Thats not really a build I think you should compare with mine since its not even a Mo/Me. I was trying to take some skills that you do not normally see grouped together and make them work. Trying to stay away from "mainstream Builds" or "being stupid" which ever you want to call it. My reason with Life Bond is it completely cancels out the first 21 points of damage per hit.

But I have lost interrest after thinkig about it for awhile and gonna play a new character all together.

Your build is ok.

1. The Blessed signet, Life Bond, Healing Touch works good. We have used that successfully.
2. Our monk also smited a little, but I like your Backfire better. Heal other is ok too.
3.You might want to try put in a Warrior shut down skill as well, to take away all their adrenaline. They will find you in the end.
4. Also, get rid of Resurect/rebirth - not your job. W/mo or R/mo will do that. Add something that will further enchance your build.How often do you actually end up ressing in PvP ?
5. Maybe you can add Signet of Devotion instead of Rebirth ?
6. Also maybe swap Heal other for Word of Healing since you dont have an elite ?
7. Or swap Life Bond for Life Barrier, since you dont have an elite ?

Your build has a purpose and I am sure you play it well, but you are a little vulnerable for Spike damage, so do consider Protective Spirit to negate spikes and also consider a anti Warrior skill to take away his Adrenaline. If you can keep a few warriors at bay and still keep your life bonds going, you do well.

I tried using Shield of Regeneration on my monk with mixed results. The good part was that nobody else uses it so it doesnt cancel out healing from the other monks and you can use it on yourself in a bine. It basically is like getting watch yourself and Breeze cast on you at once. The bad part was that I couldnt keep it up all the time and it costs 15 energy.

Your stuff looks alright!

Ratatass

If you're gonna be life bonding, you gotta have balthazar's spirit on yourself, to feed you energy. Either that, or take life barrier and some other skill. I think for PvE, life bond is better due to most enemies using attacks, and due to the energy gain from balthazar's.

I really appriciate everyones thoughts and comments. Thanx

Ratatass I tryed that Signet build on this site and because of casting times with most signets it left a bad Impression on me. So I never really gave signets the time of day after. It seemed like a small amount of healing to get from such a long cast and recharge time. But what you suggest makes alot of since. I will however since rebirth is pretty much a useless skill to me(because it takes away all energy after being casted). I will get rid of it all together and maybe try Vengence instead. I find myself in a position to be able to rez people almost as soon as they go down if my energy is up.

I would not say I play it well since it can be hard atm to determine exactly how effective it is in PuG's. It might look pretty easy on Paper. And I might lay out a good plan. But executing it is a totally different story. lol

Man You know something Red Locust. Because of the difference between Target Ally and Target Other Ally. It never clicked in that I could cast that on myself. That would give me 4 pip's of Degen. But in high damage places I think it might be well worth it. Thanx for pointing that out. It might just be the key to this.

Aug back to you bud, After thinking about what you said to me " about not being a protector and all". I am gonna call this Build (simple enuff) " Mo/Me Life Bonder". hahahahahaha


I will let you all know in a day or 2 what I think after I gather some thoughts on this.

You're probably aware of this already, but anytime anyone with life bond on him gets hit, part of the damage gets transferred to you and triggers balthazar's. So if you're gonna life bond the tanks, anytime anyone of them gets hit, you gain 1 energy. It's quite sweet seeing your energy bar jump up while you have like -2 pips of energy degen.

This is my Mo/Me build...

Inspiration Magic : 11
Protective Prayers : 12 + 1 + 1
Divine Favor : 6 + 1

- Blessed Signet ( with DF at 7 i can get up to 13 Ene... i put Life Bond on 4 players... )
- Reversal of Fortune ( spammable move... if i have too much Ene.. )
- Aegis ( nice move... use it after it recharges.. )
- Life Bond ( put on 4 players... usually the teams Warriors or anyone taking damage )
- Mend Condition ( nice spammable move... get rid of poison or w/e is being used .. also heals )
- Energy Drain {E} ( get some energy off of enemy.. fast cast... good energy return )
- Inspired Hex ( remove a hex and get energy... very nice )
- Mantra of Inscriptions ( makes Blessed Signet recharge 43% faster... very nice )

that's the build i use most of the time... hope it helps...