I've made a build that actually takes advantage of the -health stacking of superior runes. It's a monk build that's supposed to take any amount of damage, problem is that something's missing to really make it work.
Armor:
Whole pattern set for more energy, armor rating means nothing in this build.
On that armor:
Head- +1 Protection, +3 Sup. Protection
Body- +3 Sup. Healing
Pants- +3 Sup. Divine Favor
Hands- +3 Sup. Smiting
Feet- +3 Sup. Smiting (Cheapest to buy from trader)
This equals a -375 health penalty. Dropping your health from 480 (at level 20) to 105.
Base Attributes:
Divine Favor- 10 (Or highest you can make it after spending att. below) (+3)
Healing Prayers- 5 (+3)
Protection Prayers- 12 (+4)
Smiting Prayers- 0 (+3)
Skills:
Blessed Signet
Essence Bond
Mend Ailment
Mending
Balthazar's Spirit
Protective Bond
Hex Breaker
(Empty Slot, thinking Spell Breaker or a spell to help allies/rez)
Note: Sorry, I haven't been updating the original post with my current build. Now it's updated.
Basic Concept:
The idea is to be a build that can take on two roles: The stereotypical Life Barrier build, and a new build I've come up with that should deal with everyone attacking you first.
With your health at 105, Protective Bond on you makes you take a maximum of 6 damage with a two energy penalty for each prevent. With a +3 Mending, 6 damage bursts are healed instantly, making you invulnerable. You use Signet of Devotion to heal others or your signet when another monk dies.
The problem lies in when everyone on the other team attacks you at once. The damage is prevented, but you lose 2 energy each time, and that adds up incredibly fast. And herein is my problem. Could any of you help?
---
Icy Master Healer- Mo/Me
Less Max Health = Good? Please tell me more...
IcyFighter
ElderAtronach
You are screwed once you get hit with rend enchantment. Or nature's renewal. Since you're a monk, you're going to be one of the first targeted, so you WILL be stripped and then you will die in 1-3 hits.
inspyro
This build does not work with PVP and on PVE it works pretty well agianst any enemy that are melee and has no skills that strip enchantment. What I would do is raise your healing a bit so that you can get mending +4, and add balthazar spirit and essence bond so you can always regain that 2 energy lost from protection back.
Monks typically have 4 regen pips, and you will need to have 4 enchantments to fully take advantage of the protection bond....
Balthazar Aura - +1 energy
Essence Bond - +1 energy
(negates the protection bond usuage)
Protection Bond (lvl14 attribute it takes 2 energy)
Mending
From here you can recieve energy back by using blessed signet...+3 or 4 energy depending on your DF, per enchantment..
Good luck on figuring out how to do damage though..
Monks typically have 4 regen pips, and you will need to have 4 enchantments to fully take advantage of the protection bond....
Balthazar Aura - +1 energy
Essence Bond - +1 energy
(negates the protection bond usuage)
Protection Bond (lvl14 attribute it takes 2 energy)
Mending
From here you can recieve energy back by using blessed signet...+3 or 4 energy depending on your DF, per enchantment..
Good luck on figuring out how to do damage though..
mamluk
Interesting idea and I think some people are trying something similar with necros and aura of the lich. The problem with your build is that if you get hit with a few life degen spells- say life transfer and poison, you are going to be screwed. With 10 degen, you would be losing life at a rate of 20 health a second giving you an estimated 5 seconds to stay alive and if one of your spells gets interrupted, ouch!
Your purge conditions has a recharge time of 30 seconds. You might get the first poison shot, but not the second, Maybe mend ailment would be better?
Your purge conditions has a recharge time of 30 seconds. You might get the first poison shot, but not the second, Maybe mend ailment would be better?
ICURADik
Ranger Seconadry or Primary help's a lot. Basically you need level 14 in Wilderness Survival or level 14 protection to make this build work well. Now I'm leaning twords monk based...
What you do is Use Greater Conflagration with Storm Chaser. Storm chaser last 18 seconds and has a 30 second recast time so you need another spirit like quickening zephyr to to reduce the recharge time. What storm chaser does is gives you 5 energy every time you are struck(or 4 if you are monk based).
Using just monk skills(Balthaza/Essence) with Blessed Signet also seems very viable. The key to remember with this build is you have only 180 life(9 damage per attack). So Bleeds/Poisons are very dangerous. Just keep Healing Breeze up and use healing touch for spot heals, along with Zealots fire and you can kill aynthing that doesn't disenchant.
What you do is Use Greater Conflagration with Storm Chaser. Storm chaser last 18 seconds and has a 30 second recast time so you need another spirit like quickening zephyr to to reduce the recharge time. What storm chaser does is gives you 5 energy every time you are struck(or 4 if you are monk based).
Using just monk skills(Balthaza/Essence) with Blessed Signet also seems very viable. The key to remember with this build is you have only 180 life(9 damage per attack). So Bleeds/Poisons are very dangerous. Just keep Healing Breeze up and use healing touch for spot heals, along with Zealots fire and you can kill aynthing that doesn't disenchant.
ICURADik
Quote:
Originally Posted by mamluk
Interesting idea and I think some people are trying something similar with necros and aura of the lich. The problem with your build is that if you get hit with a few life degen spells- say life transfer and poison, you are going to be screwed. With 10 degen, you would be losing life at a rate of 20 health a second giving you an estimated 5 seconds to stay alive and if one of your spells gets interrupted, ouch!
Your purge conditions has a recharge time of 30 seconds. You might get the first poison shot, but not the second, Maybe mend ailment would be better? Does mend ailment/condition work on yourself? I am out of skill points to purchase it. The website states that it only works on "target other ally" but it has been wrong before.
Your purge conditions has a recharge time of 30 seconds. You might get the first poison shot, but not the second, Maybe mend ailment would be better? Does mend ailment/condition work on yourself? I am out of skill points to purchase it. The website states that it only works on "target other ally" but it has been wrong before.
zemelett
Quote:
Originally Posted by IcyFighter
On that armor:
Head- +1 Protection, +3 Sup. Protection
Body- +3 Sup. Healing
Pants- +3 Sup. Divine Favor
Hands- +3 Sup. Smiting
Feet- +3 Sup. Smiting (Cheapest to buy from trader)
This equals a -375 health penalty. Dropping your health from 480 (at level 20) to 105.
Base Attributes:
Divine Favor- 10 (Or highest you can make it after spending att. below) (+3)
Healing Prayers- 5 (+3)
Protection Prayers- 12 (+4)
Smiting Prayers- 0 (+3)
Icy Master Healer- Mo/Me
First of all, why 2 supirior smite runes the attrib points dont stack and therefore your wasting 75 heath. Second of all, you take not a single smite skill, so why use any smiting runes in the first place? thats 150 health you dont need to lose....doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me
Head- +1 Protection, +3 Sup. Protection
Body- +3 Sup. Healing
Pants- +3 Sup. Divine Favor
Hands- +3 Sup. Smiting
Feet- +3 Sup. Smiting (Cheapest to buy from trader)
This equals a -375 health penalty. Dropping your health from 480 (at level 20) to 105.
Base Attributes:
Divine Favor- 10 (Or highest you can make it after spending att. below) (+3)
Healing Prayers- 5 (+3)
Protection Prayers- 12 (+4)
Smiting Prayers- 0 (+3)
Icy Master Healer- Mo/Me
First of all, why 2 supirior smite runes the attrib points dont stack and therefore your wasting 75 heath. Second of all, you take not a single smite skill, so why use any smiting runes in the first place? thats 150 health you dont need to lose....doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me
Epinephrine
Quote:
Originally Posted by zemelett
First of all, why 2 supirior smite runes the attrib points dont stack and therefore your wasting 75 heath. Second of all, you take not a single smite skill, so why use any smiting runes in the first place? thats 150 health you dont need to lose....doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me
I have no idea if the -75 stacks on two smite runes - I know the +3 doesn't.
He wants to lower his health to take advantage of Protective Bond - it allows you to lose at most 5% of your health per hit - if you combine this with good regeneration you can be healing all the damage you take, since the regeneration pips don't scale with your life - 10 pips is +20 health a second, so if he takes 5 damage per attack he can have 4 hits on him per second and remain at full health.
He wants to lower his health to take advantage of Protective Bond - it allows you to lose at most 5% of your health per hit - if you combine this with good regeneration you can be healing all the damage you take, since the regeneration pips don't scale with your life - 10 pips is +20 health a second, so if he takes 5 damage per attack he can have 4 hits on him per second and remain at full health.
Mercury Angel
You can negate the loss of Protective Bond with just Balthazar's Spirit.
You do so by using Protective Bond in conjunction with a +1 to protection prayers item (+X%). Recast protective bond over and over again before getting into a fight until the +1 kicks in, and when it does, that means you hit 17 protection prayers, and THAT means you only lose 1 energy per hit. Tried it successfully before after I noticed the pattern in energy loss amounts. (You can verify this for yourself easily. Take a PvP char, max out protection, and just keep recasting+cancelling the enchantment on yourself until it works.)
You do so by using Protective Bond in conjunction with a +1 to protection prayers item (+X%). Recast protective bond over and over again before getting into a fight until the +1 kicks in, and when it does, that means you hit 17 protection prayers, and THAT means you only lose 1 energy per hit. Tried it successfully before after I noticed the pattern in energy loss amounts. (You can verify this for yourself easily. Take a PvP char, max out protection, and just keep recasting+cancelling the enchantment on yourself until it works.)
UberRusty
Has anyone else tried this to solo mobs? I'm interested in whether it might work well or not, as said above, is it quick enough to counter health degen?
MetalIonicZ
Degen spells would skin you alive. Throughout my entire PvE and PvP experience, I've seen conjure phantasm, poison, bleeding, being used fairly quickly. By the time I remove a condition from myself, I find that it has been recasted on me.
UberRusty
Quote:
IcyFighter, could I have the official word from you whether this build is surivable against degens? I'm looking at this from the solo/pharming side, so you're not going to lose energy due to the Essense + Spirit mentioned. I was thinking of the Divine Boon spammage along with smiting.
IcyFighter
Sorry for a long time. Just wanted to update you guys on this build.
My skill list has changed so:
Signet of Devotion > Balthazar's Aura
Purge Conditions > Mend Ailment (Yes, you can cast it on yourself)
Life Bond > Essence Bond
Divine Spirit > Watchful Spirit
Ressurection Signet > Mark of Protection (To save teammates' lives)
Like what most of you predicted, health degeneration is very dangerous to me. Especially Conjure Phantasm (Which I see alot in the mesmers I meet). What's nice though, is that since I've added Watchful Spirit, my health regen is 5 which lets me cancel out Conjure Phantasm if it happens to me. And since I'm usually expecting a condition to hit me by then, Mend Ailment heals up the damage I lose. It's not so bad anymore.
What I had in mind, was to switch out Mark of Protection for Spell Breaker, and cast it right before they swarm me, so that rends and phantasms are broken. I don't have spell breaker, so I can't test it yet.
Mend Ailment is nice now, and since I have all those enchantments on me, Blessed signet lets me use some spells on my teammates if they need it.
Another fairly rare problem is mesmers who steal energy. It really hurts when I can't come up with the energy to keep my enchants up.
Thanks for the feedback! And just for the record, Icy Master Healer made this build.
(And I've also found out that slapping a Retribution instead of a Watchful Sprit makes a killbot >_>)
My skill list has changed so:
Signet of Devotion > Balthazar's Aura
Purge Conditions > Mend Ailment (Yes, you can cast it on yourself)
Life Bond > Essence Bond
Divine Spirit > Watchful Spirit
Ressurection Signet > Mark of Protection (To save teammates' lives)
Like what most of you predicted, health degeneration is very dangerous to me. Especially Conjure Phantasm (Which I see alot in the mesmers I meet). What's nice though, is that since I've added Watchful Spirit, my health regen is 5 which lets me cancel out Conjure Phantasm if it happens to me. And since I'm usually expecting a condition to hit me by then, Mend Ailment heals up the damage I lose. It's not so bad anymore.
What I had in mind, was to switch out Mark of Protection for Spell Breaker, and cast it right before they swarm me, so that rends and phantasms are broken. I don't have spell breaker, so I can't test it yet.
Mend Ailment is nice now, and since I have all those enchantments on me, Blessed signet lets me use some spells on my teammates if they need it.
Another fairly rare problem is mesmers who steal energy. It really hurts when I can't come up with the energy to keep my enchants up.
Thanks for the feedback! And just for the record, Icy Master Healer made this build.
(And I've also found out that slapping a Retribution instead of a Watchful Sprit makes a killbot >_>)
IcyFighter
Bump I guess. Seems I posted way too early in the morning to get some people to see this.
korytyler21
Wouldnt it have helped to get some runes of vigor instead of the smite (To get some of the health back that u lose from the other runes)? Just an idea
Bry-Guy
once again, hes trying to lose as much health as he can
UberRusty
Quote:
Mo/R9
The main idea for this build is to NOT HAVE HEALTH so that each hit, you can only be hit for 5% of your total HP. If you look at one of the skills being used (can't remember which) you will see what I mean.
DISCLAIMER: I did not design this build and I hereby take no responsibility for any drop in IQ points as a result of reading my post.
DISCLAIMER: I did not design this build and I hereby take no responsibility for any drop in IQ points as a result of reading my post.
Kha
This is an old build idea that monks have been using for a while. It works wonders. Great for soloing.
oNEYUS
see subject
Deathlord
Just need to let you know that even though they do a maximum of 6 damage per hit, your still quite capable of dying. The only difference between a 500 health monk and a 100 health monk that are both using protective bond/spirit is that the 500 health monk would never take more than 50 damage and the 100 health would never take more than 10. The problem now, lies within the fact of how consistant the people manage to do that 10/5% of damage. Anybody can easily do 10 damage constantly to a 100 health monk, therefore you'll almost always die in 10 hits, your survival chances are near the peak-minimum protection.
People rarely do a consistant 50+ damage however, so the monk with more hp could still end up on top. The person would end up living longer than the other monk since maybe only 20% of the damage he takes will be 50, everything else would be around the 20's. He would live nearly 2x longer than the other monk since every hit he takes won't be a near-fatal hit.
Also, i'd suggest not wasting ANY hp at all, it's fine to use two superiors for whatever attributes you use (Prot/Divine or Heal/Divine or even Smite/Divine). But sacrificing past the point of no attributial benefit is just a loss.
As for other questions mentioned in this thread-
Q: Doing Damage
A: You don't, your a tank/healing monk, not a smite monk.
Also, i highly doubt the effectiveness of your build. Your healing powers are weak, I highly doubt in the fact you'll even be capable of keeping yourself alive with only signet of devotion. 3 or even 2 people attacking you could easily make your death inevitable. Even if you manage to keep yourself alive, you still won't be able to even heal for the little 80 hp to your teamates.
People rarely do a consistant 50+ damage however, so the monk with more hp could still end up on top. The person would end up living longer than the other monk since maybe only 20% of the damage he takes will be 50, everything else would be around the 20's. He would live nearly 2x longer than the other monk since every hit he takes won't be a near-fatal hit.
Also, i'd suggest not wasting ANY hp at all, it's fine to use two superiors for whatever attributes you use (Prot/Divine or Heal/Divine or even Smite/Divine). But sacrificing past the point of no attributial benefit is just a loss.
As for other questions mentioned in this thread-
Q: Doing Damage
A: You don't, your a tank/healing monk, not a smite monk.
Also, i highly doubt the effectiveness of your build. Your healing powers are weak, I highly doubt in the fact you'll even be capable of keeping yourself alive with only signet of devotion. 3 or even 2 people attacking you could easily make your death inevitable. Even if you manage to keep yourself alive, you still won't be able to even heal for the little 80 hp to your teamates.
UberRusty
Quote:
Yezah
Health degen anyone? Omg..you're dead in 5 secs...
Nightsky
If you get hit by Shatter Enchantment, you could get insta killed with such low HP.
IcyFighter
Well, the order I cast the enchantments is this:
Protective Bond - Essence Bond - Mending - Balthazar's Aura
Shattering once still triggers the Bond, so I'll be fine.
Recently I've also switched out Divine Spirit for the Hex Breaker stance. It only lasts 60 sec, but it's a good deterrent and it usually saves me from two mesmer hexes (the first one triggered while I still have the stance, then I immediately hit it again).
Also, again, I'm still really considering the Spell Breaker skill. I would just like to know: will the enemy be able to notice that his spell fails? (ie a sound or action or something)
Protective Bond - Essence Bond - Mending - Balthazar's Aura
Shattering once still triggers the Bond, so I'll be fine.
Recently I've also switched out Divine Spirit for the Hex Breaker stance. It only lasts 60 sec, but it's a good deterrent and it usually saves me from two mesmer hexes (the first one triggered while I still have the stance, then I immediately hit it again).
Also, again, I'm still really considering the Spell Breaker skill. I would just like to know: will the enemy be able to notice that his spell fails? (ie a sound or action or something)
tastegw
storm chaser is good to add in that build
that would make you loose no energy if your running atleast 6-8 wilderness survival. but it only lasts a certain amout of time, so ya balh. spirit would be needed also.
and use life bond over barrior, this gives you room for a new elite in the wilderness survival section,
Melandru's Resilience {Elite} - Stance
For 8-18 seconds, you gain health regeneration of 2 and energy regeneration of 1 for each Condition and Hex you are suffering.
so your skill layout could be this.
Blessed Signet
Storm Chaser
Purge Conditions
Mending
Life Bond
Melandru's Resilience {Elite}
Protective Bond
Balthazar's Spirit
do a 12/10/8 build attribute setup. you dont need divine favor for this setup
12 wilderness
10 protection (+3 from rune+1 from head peice) 14 total
8 healing (+3 from rune) 11 total
1 divine favor(+3 from rune) 4 total
but yea, enchant removal would totally rip this build up.
that would make you loose no energy if your running atleast 6-8 wilderness survival. but it only lasts a certain amout of time, so ya balh. spirit would be needed also.
and use life bond over barrior, this gives you room for a new elite in the wilderness survival section,
Melandru's Resilience {Elite} - Stance
For 8-18 seconds, you gain health regeneration of 2 and energy regeneration of 1 for each Condition and Hex you are suffering.
so your skill layout could be this.
Blessed Signet
Storm Chaser
Purge Conditions
Mending
Life Bond
Melandru's Resilience {Elite}
Protective Bond
Balthazar's Spirit
do a 12/10/8 build attribute setup. you dont need divine favor for this setup
12 wilderness
10 protection (+3 from rune+1 from head peice) 14 total
8 healing (+3 from rune) 11 total
1 divine favor(+3 from rune) 4 total
but yea, enchant removal would totally rip this build up.
IcyFighter
Yep, bump.
Ishamael Sedai
Quote:
Originally Posted by zemelett
First of all, why 2 supirior smite runes the attrib points dont stack and therefore your wasting 75 heath. Second of all, you take not a single smite skill, so why use any smiting runes in the first place? thats 150 health you dont need to lose....doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me
not that i agree with the original posters point but you missed his point all together. he was trying to make a build that took advantage of low health. the -75 was what he wanted.
not that i agree with the original posters point but you missed his point all together. he was trying to make a build that took advantage of low health. the -75 was what he wanted.
acidteardrop
This actually sounds pretty solid. Every build has its weaknesses, of course, and this build's weakness would be enchantment shattering and health degeneration. You could avoid having your enchantments shattered with Spell Breaker (or Obsidian Flesh, I suppose, if you wanted the extra armour). That leaves the weakness of health degeneration (poison, bleeding, and the like). Your biggest worry would be bleeding (though if you get a deep wound, all the better for you XP), since your main target would be warriors (Ataxes in the Underworld, I wonder if you could tank them?). Mend Ailment seems to be solid enough for this. Cheap, and can be spammed. I'm not too proficient with monks, but if there's a signet that removes conditions, that'd be even better. Signet of Devotion works nicely to heal up health you've lost due to excessive damage. If you're with a party with another monk, a simple Shield of Regeneration or Healing Breeze clinches this build. Have fun poisoning +13 health regeneration. You'd need to be burning, poisoned, and bleeding to make that a degeneration, and with another monk, heal other would pop you back to full.
Neo-LD
He may be weak to DoT on his own, but lol he would be sooo easy for another monk to keep alive. One dwayna's kiss heals like all his hp.
IcyFighter
The idea is to lure everyone into attacking me since most people think that a monk running to the front line is an idiot who needs to be taken down.
silvertemplar
Btw, check out this video illustrating this type of build's farming abilities...i am impressed. This is indeed a build that should make A.Net very nervous :P
[a Monk using low Hp + protective bond + mending etc]. I think he even got a DP to lower his HP even further [as if runes wasn't enough].
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=31465
[a Monk using low Hp + protective bond + mending etc]. I think he even got a DP to lower his HP even further [as if runes wasn't enough].
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=31465
IcyFighter
Might I add. I love this build because Divine Favor alone heals me a third of my health. Heh.
EmperorTippy
I play a similar build for all my farming needs. (I think I am the one who brought this up recently as it haddent been mentioned for like 2 weeks before I mentioned it last week.) I can solo all of UW except the Coldfires and I can even do them if I get lucky. With a healing monk I am invincible to everything and its great. BTW if you are using this in PvP have another monk bring lots of extra enchants to cover up yours. This is expecially deadle and fun in the random arenas as almost no one brings enchant removals.
stingite
What if the monk carried a second set of armor stocked with vigor runes for when health degen was cast on them? Would some quick armor switching and creative kiting help in this instance?
EmperorTippy
Quote:
Originally Posted by stingite
What if the monk carried a second set of armor stocked with vigor runes for when health degen was cast on them? Would some quick armor switching and creative kiting help in this instance?
Well since vigior doesn't stack... olny 1 peice would be needed and you would olny gain 50 HP with a superior vigior +75 for removing the other superior which is 6-7 extra seconds of life at 10 degen and considering time required to switch it wouldn't work real well. You would be better off just removing your armor.
IcyFighter
And take 2X damage? That's suicide on a monk's max (480 I believe).
EmperorTippy
Quote:
Originally Posted by IcyFighter
And take 2X damage? That's suicide on a monk's max (480 I believe).
Not making much since 
I was talking about in the case of DOT like poision on you.
I was talking about in the case of DOT like poision on you.
IcyFighter
Well, I've got Mend Ailment. It's nicely spammable and get this, I use it as my main heal to myself to gain a quick 30 from DF.
The main problem I have is against Necro curses and Conjure Phantasm (Which I thought sucked in PvP but people still use it). Ones that give me negative pips. I can take up to three pips cause of mending, but any more and my health starts to wear off pretty fast.
Note: I also forgot to add that I use Hex Breaker as well, but from what it looks like, it doesn't get the good hexes I want it to get. It only gets crap like Soul Barbs and Fragility.
The main problem I have is against Necro curses and Conjure Phantasm (Which I thought sucked in PvP but people still use it). Ones that give me negative pips. I can take up to three pips cause of mending, but any more and my health starts to wear off pretty fast.
Note: I also forgot to add that I use Hex Breaker as well, but from what it looks like, it doesn't get the good hexes I want it to get. It only gets crap like Soul Barbs and Fragility.
catharsis
I think a monk I played with in a PUG must have been using something along these lines, because his max health was 215 at Level 20. Thing is, we were doing Sanctum Cay, which has TONS of poisoners/poison water.
He was down to 60% DP within about 10 mins, and kept going down from there.
It's an interesting idea, but I can see way too many things going wrong.
He was down to 60% DP within about 10 mins, and kept going down from there.
It's an interesting idea, but I can see way too many things going wrong.