Some questions for Boon/Prot ppl

I still like OoB. The 20% sac is only a problem if you aren't aware of your surroundings and sac 20% life when you have an arseload of enemies beating the crap out of you.

Suggestion if you must go mes:

{MoR
RoF
Guardian
Divine Boon
Rebirth
Power Drain} <--skills you'd selected already
{Inspired Hex
Mend Ailment/Mend Condition} <--my suggestions for your last 2 slots

Is this PvP or PvE?
Because Rebirth does not work in PvP

Quote:

Thanks for all the helpful posts, i decided on Power drain, mend condition, and remove hex, because i find nobody in PvE has hex removal, and i find hexes hurt my allies more than conditions do

So, my last question:
Where are boon/prot monks needed?

Quote:

*slightly* off topic

Why do boon/prots often use sig of devotion? it is only a heal of 106 right? no divine bonus? and on a 2 sec cast with 5 sec recharge...

Is the only reason that it heals about the same as a random RoF or Mend and saves you 7 energy?

I am sure I am missing something but I have had much better success jsut putting a RoF or Mend condition on someone if they need a heal. I just hate waiting around for 2 seconds for something that is only saving me 7 energy. It has been my experience that if I can't spare teh 7 energy then something bad is happening with my energy and if I can wait 2 seconds to save 7e then natural regen is about as efficient (because when I can wait that long there is no one around to hurt us...)

sorry if it totally obvious

The reason that you use Signet of Devotion is because Energy Denial is SO popular that you can count on most teams to have 1-2 Edenial mesmers who are going to be focusing on the monks hardcore. It's a heal that you can use on your negative energy set, as well as when you're on your main set with zero energy naturally. It's also very good versus pressure/degen teams, where they try to overwhelm your energy by making the pressure too much to handle. Signet of Devotion helps you bypass that by giving you a free ~100 HP heal every 7 seconds.

^ That's for PvP

The reasoning for using it in PvE would be the fact that against certain situations, you will have problems with energy due to the sheer amount of enemies you face, and a zero energy ~100 pt heal is worth it. YMMV depending on the type of mobs you'll be facing, though.

The difference between PvE and PvP is that in PvE you can rest up between mobs most of the time, and in PvP you may have 20 minute long engagements with mesmers giving you a hard time. Energy management is therefore *less* of an issue in PvE. Call me a noob, but before I started PvPing I monked in all the PvE missions with a pure healing/divine favour monk using spammable 5 em heals and no energy management skill.

Signet of Devotion comes in handy especially with maxed out divine favour. You can use it as top-up healing in low pressure situations and this saves your energy for when you really need it. Depending on the PvE area you may encounter mesmer mobs with enchantment removal which will make a boon prot less viable.

I use Contemplation of Purity - it gives me emergency energy from Mantra of Recall which is particluarly good when my Mantra recharges quickly. Try using Garbok's Cane and the divine symbol from the droks crafter (or the soulstone).

First about the CoP usage in combo with MoR: In PvE this is an excellent combo because you can rest after using the emergency. In PvP this isnt the case: when you used CoP on MoR you dont have time to recover and you will be without e-management for a long time.

OoB got a serious blow with the update due to the large sacrifise, but in PvP it isnt useless at all. Several of the top-guilds still use one mo/n with OoB and a second boon-prot with MoR. OoB has a major advantage that its hardly uninteruptable, which isnt the case with MoR.

OoB divides the energy boost in smaller pieces, with a faster recharge and is therefore better for emergency situations. The boon-prot using OoB should carefully watch his health and when heavilly pressured sometimes its better to kite away first.

Personally i use mostly OoB unless some other inspiration skills are required. Interupts are your primary enemy in PvP and MoR or inspired hex arent good enough to get through when facing a dedicated mesmer. Also the widely used E-surge is less effective with the usages of OoB: When a surger sees MoR being cast it uses a enchant removal directly followed by its surge: removing MoR deliveres enough energy to do massive damage and waste the e-management...

As mentioned before: In pve you dont need such e-management: I played through the game without e-management besides using low cost heals. of course you cannot use boon in such case... If you want to use boon: Always take management

Quote:

Ive been bringing MoR and power drain into PvE battles, the problem i find is drain is somewhat useless, the only chance i get to use it is when i'm not targeting an ally, so i have to use drain during a long casting spell, while i'm NOT helping out another ally, and in some places like SF i rarely am in a fight and NOT targetting an ally

Quote:

Yeah, I tried pdrain + ihex + word in SF, and basically the only times I managed to get drain off in midfight was if I knew there was a well coming up. Still, I never ran out of energy down there. Henchway ftw.
Knowing how and when pve monsters cast makes powerdrain awesome. Just that SF was a bit fast for me on a heal build and with henchies.

Not to de-rail this thread too much (still on boon/prot), but how would I boon/prot for THK?

Currently trying:

RoF
Guardian
Mend Condition
MoR
Inspired Hex
Divine Boon
Restore Life
Aegis

I just like Aegis for some reason (it kinda helps me with keeping everyone alive since they don't get hit)...

What I'm thinking of trying:

RoF
Guardian
Mend Condition
MoR
Inspired Hex
Sig of Devotion
Rebirth
Divine Boon

I need help getting boon/prot to work in THK (with another monk I've made it to the second or third boss in the part where you have to hold the keep).

Would I be better off with a faster/cheaper hex removal like Holy Veil or Remove Hex? I find that Inspired Hex helps a lot with energy management because that's another 2 RoFs or Guardians that I can put out along with a "free" hex removal.

Any ideas on what I should do?

EDIT: CoP is my new favorite pvp skill.

bloodied,

here are my suggestions:

IMO, you shouldn't take rebirth to thk, restore is much better. if you dump all your energy on someone while holding the keep, you might as well just run out into a mob and stand there...BUT everyone who is not a monk should bring a res signet

other than that, either build should work fine, but you will need a team that is willing to work together. They should be able to work together at least as much as henchies (sad but true that most teams at THK cannot achieve this).

Almost any strategy that keeps you team inside the keep will work, as long as your whole team follows the strategy. It has been my experience that teams that are only margiannly following the same plan are better off to gaurd the top of the stairs vs trying to do a crappy job of splitting up (usually one or two people don't know where to go and end up crippling the team by wandering around with their heads up their butts).

IMO you should go for the bonus (but most people don't want to) because it makes the first few fights pretty easy when all the baddies fight amoungst themselves.

You could also try it as a pure bonder, it works well even with all the shatters...

if you are having a really hard time, take the henchies. At the very least you won't have to constantly worry about them running outside the keep for loot.

I still think OoB is usable in PvP since a Boon Prot using OoB should usually be casting Reversal of Fortune on himself or Guardian. This would heal some of the damage off OoB.

MoR+CoP is vulnerable when the person doesnt realise how to Pre Cast MoR and manage it. Id still prefer Energy Drain though because it can be affected by Dual Recharge skills.

Quote: