Monk/Mesmer - which way to go

I have a level 16 Monk/Mesmer and have been through most of my existance a pure healer. As I get closer to the desert I am wondering exactly where I should place my remaining points (away from the healing, divine favor)? Should I stick with the monk skills and go with smiting to do a little damage myself? Should I go with the protection skills; all the better to protect myself and my charges? Should I try & utilize some of the totally unused mesmer skills I have sitting in my skill storage? Or should I switch my secondary and become an earth elementalist and boost my armor to make myself harder to kill?

These are all questions I have been asking myself and am unsure which might be the best way to go. I don't mind the healer position as an integral part of the party process but what should I do with the rest of my points? I can either make myself less vulnerable in a couple of the ways I mentioned. Or I can add to my independence by going with smiting and really help party mates killing the undead in particular.

How have you guys done it?

Thanks for your replies.

I'm working on a Mo/E with healing and earth magic to protect myself... but due to the difficulty of grouping, I often have to put my points in smiting and Air/Fire so I can actually do damage with henchies... just something to think about... soloing as just a pure healer would be tricky...

Energy stealing mesmer skills are always helpful to a healing monk. It's hard to go wrong with protection, too. I guess it depends on if you'll be doing a lot of PvP (you will almost always be the first target there) so protecting yourself in some way will be much more important than doing some damage.

I use protection & divine/heal favor skills when I'm in a party.
I change to smite & divine/heal for farming.

In a party the only time I might use my mesmer skills is for Energy Tap to keep the energy up - I'll allocate about 6-7 levels to my Inspiration attribute then.

With 2 Sup monk runes, a Sup Vigor and some Health wrapping on the staff you ought to be ok.

I always have my healing prayers at 16 and my divine favor at 11. I can increase any one of my other attributes to level 8 with the points left over.

I switch that third attribute depending on the needs of the party. Lately, I have been using inspiration magic and power drain to interrupt casters and steal energy. Sometimes, i'll shift it over to domination because I love arcane thievery. Nothing better then stealing meteor from hydras and bombing them with it.

channeling is a good skill to use since you steal energy from nearby enemies everytime you cast a spell.

look at this build:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...alot+channeler