Assistance with my Bonder

Hey all, I'm wanting to get into doing Sorrows Furnace and Fissure of Woe (never been to either) I have decided to try running a bonder. Now I have searched and have read through a couple builds.

Almost everyone uses something different.. Heh, so here is what I came up with after reading.

Blessed Signet
Mantra of Inscriptions
Mend Condition
Aegis
Life Barrier
Life Bond
Reversal of Fortune
Balthazar's Spirit

Protection – 13 (1+2) 15
Divine Favor – 11 (+1) 12
Inspiration - 6

I could take a point from Protection and make Divine Favor 13, I would like a sup on protection but it would take about half my money..

Hmm.. Well anyway after typing this out I have noticed there is no rez.. Can y'all help me work one in? I need to I dunno, practice with henchmen for awhile so I can practice keeping the enchants up before I try this out in the maw so to speak.

Please give me your input! I shall not fear! Fear is the mind-killer! (Yeah I watched Dune the other day so sue me)

IMHO, if ur gonna bond, go full bonder, wipe out spells like Aegis, mend condition, and Reversal of fortune... i've seen bonders successfully use mantra, but i never have, and its not needed. Blessed sig is more than enough...

i posted a recent thread for a 3 man Sorrows Furnace build here recently, check that out, i give the build, attributes and strategy for the monk... Sup protection rune is not needed either. personally i got a Sup Divine favor one (all casters should have at least one and usually only one, superior rune), so that i wouldnt have to switch armor or spend money on 2 sup runes if i go straight healing or protection, since both use divine favor... but if you INSIST on taking a healer with you, switch out the 3 non enchants for Life Attunement (a MUST for gear/book/keg holders), Vital Blessing and Watchful Spirit.... i supposed u can run more enchants with mantra. i can run 9 enchants w/o it with no problem, and i've really never seen any instances where u'd have to run more than that anyway... a trick is to keep attributes in divine favor in relation to how many enchants u'll be running. i.e. in a hybrid bond/heal build, i only do 11 in DF since i'm usually only holding a max of 6 enchants (times 3 equals 18, the max u get from blessed signet with 11 in DF). when i used to bond big groups for FOW, i cut out heal, and bump DF up to 13 or so, since i'll need a bigger boost from blessed sig, since i'm running more enchants. (but i only go in small groups now there too)... hope that didnt confuse ya, yes, practice with henches. good luck, God bless :-)

Your build is almost there...Drop Ageis and put in either Life Attunement or Watchful spirit. Never take Vital Blessings as an enchant, it is utterly worthless and can do more harm than good.

As a bonder your primary function is dmg control, trust me by adding VB you can only do more harm than good. 1) there health should never dip that low that VB would be needed, 2) if it did dip that low and VB is stripped then they are dead, 3) keeping points in Divine and Prot, you will be able to heal if needed using mend condition (or ailment)/ RoF as needed.

I prefer the Boon Bonder build myself. To accomplish this you would drop mantra of inscriptions and add divine boon, in addition to the above advice.

Alright, I've dropped Aegis and added Watchful Spirit and killed Mantra of Inscriptions for Divine Boon, I'm gonna practice with some henches.

Also, what is the suggested casting order for this stuff?

Life Barrier
Life Bond
Reversal of Fortune
Balthazar's Spirit
Blessed signet
Mend condition/aliment
W/e you want
w/e you want
IMO best setup and helps alot sometimes gives healer some time to recharge.

I ran this build through Dunes and Thirsty last night with good results. No one died aside from me on the last group of Thirsty when 80% of the mobs we where fighting all attacked me.

Blessed Signet
Mantra of Inscriptions
Reversal of Fortune
Mend Condition
Life Barrier
Life Bond
Divine Boon
Balthazar's Spirit

I took out Divine Boon and put in a Rez Sig for Thirsty encase anything went bad. I'm still scared to test it out in Sorrow.

For 5-6 person group bonding, I prefer:

Reversal of Fortune
Mend Condition
Protective Spirit
Blessed Signet
Life Barrier
Life Bond
Balthazar's Spirit
Resurrect/Rebirth

i don't use anything like life attunements/watchful spirit because if the healing monk is worth their salt, i shouldn't need to.

for 8-man bonding:

Reversal of Fortune
Protective Spirit
Mantra of Inscriptions
Blessed Signet
Life Barrier
Life Bond
Balthazar's Spirit
Resurrect/Rebirth

Quote:

I like holy veil, both as cover, and as hex remover.
I also use watchful spirit, for a bit of health regen, and the fact that if it gets stripped, it heals a fair whack too. I also use it as healing when I get bored. but that's not recommended.

For SF, a build I use

blessed sig,
mantra of insc (coz I'm lazy and sometimes 'forget')
Life Barrier
Life Bond
Watchful spirit
Life Attunement
Holy veil
Balth spirit

if you want to max out the bond attributes, and dont feel so lazy,

blessed sig,
signet of devotion / mend ailement
Life Barrier
Life Bond
Watchful spirit
Life Attunement
Holy veil
Balth spirit

for the sorrow furnace, put bonds on the tank in that order.

Also, it's not uncommon for the tank to bring succor and give me an extra energy pip.

for grenth footprint, it's life barrier / bond all round, and a balthazar spirit on myself. For a 5 man farming team, that gives -5 degen, -4 is you have succor on you, or the healer brings peace and harmony (unlikely). 9 bonds are easy to sustain, even between fights, with maxed DF (blessed sign gives back 24 energy points each time). Having good DF attributes if vital, probably more important than having max prot attributes.

If you have a necro along for the ride, blood ritual will be helpful for starting up the bonds. Life barrier costs 15, and it's slow to reload, so starting the bonds in grenth footprint can take a while. BR speed things up a bit, even at low Blood attributes. It can also help if you find yourself in a tight spot, energy wise.

I also recommend others in the team to bring essence bond (for the nuker for example), since you can only put one essence bond on the tank.

for babysitting lower levels through missions, I take

blessed sig,
signet of devotion
rev fortune
restore condition
Balth spirit
Vital Blessing
Life Bond
Holy veil

with maxed out prot and DF attributes (two sup runes + prot / DF head gear).


for condition heavy missions,

blessed sig,
signet of devotion
martyr
purge condition / mend ailment
Balth spirit
Vital Blessing
Life Bond
Holy veil


and yes, I do use vital blessing, I never had any problem with it.

these two builds are also used in PvP (HoH), or so I've been told. Vital blessing apparently is used to assist the infuser against spikes, the bond, for physical damage (Iway, barrage). But I dont do much PvP, so I can't back my claims with hard physical evidence

Of course, whatever the game, bonders have to stay way back, out of the fight. All those bonds make them very soft, and if the bonder dies, it affects the whole team's balance.

Those builds are similar to builds used in the heroes ascent.

The core of a bonder build is,

1. Blessed Signet
2. Balthazars Spirit
3. Life Bond
4. Vital Blessing

The choice between vital blessing and bond is made at the start of the match or during it if possible.

The elite can be one of these three

1. Shield of deflection
2. Martyr
3. Restore condition

Then two other skills are commonly used because of the prevalence of iway and the fact that those skills can be used to cover the bonds.

6. Aegis - yes in HA it is needed
7. Gaurdian - Again same

The last skill is the only one that gets changed about a lot.

Mend ailment, holy veil, even reversal of fortune and a bunch of other things.

Bonders dont stay away from the fight at all, they stay in healing range of the other monks. Bonders that stay away get soloed and when someone gets his life bond drained they have to be able to reapply it.

Vital Blessing is the bond chosen against spikes but not as a response. This is because of Blood Spike and the fact that deep wound is unaffected by it ( the bond)

Sam