Maxiemonster's -HUGE- Boon Prot guide!

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do you need only 1 piece of Acolyte armor to get armor+10?

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its always nice to have alot of energy I agree but I personally prefer the full acoloytes set although a very logical choice to go ascetics legs and arm losing the 10 armour for those pieces doesn't really justify for the +2 energy, its not really that much of a difference, although it is nice to have 49 energy but with proper MoR management (or ED if thats your preferance) there shouldnt really be any major energy problems... that is unless your getting heavy aggro from your enemies, in which case i tend to put myself first :P

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Ive seen monks in high end GvG like Irresistable blokes using Distortion. What are peoples thoughts on this and for what skill would you remove to take it out of :Boon/Rof/guardian/MoR/Ihex/CoP/Mend/Sig devotion or prot spirit

^^
It's likely swapped for CoP since it's GvG and you can rely on your fellow monks. The only problem I see with it is that without any pts in illusion you lost 6-8 energy per swing if you evade. The good thing about it though is that if a bunnythumper or shock warrior sees you use Guardian, they're immediately going to hit their Irresistable Blow button to KD you. It's becoming popular now though to run 3 different monk builds, WoH, SB/Infuse (well, that was always there), RC Prot. Are you sure that it was a boon/prot build running Distortion in the first place? It could easily have been a modified WoH or SB/Infuse that was designed to be better able to evade without need for Aegis or Guardian from an ally. I could especially understand this in an RC Prot build where energy is (at least in my experience) a rather abundant commodity.

I really wouldn't run distortion though unless I had to to combat a new FotM build or something...even then, I might not. I just don't feel it would be worth the energy waste on a boon/prot build.

I think this discussion should be geared towards one PvP format. The build and weapon sets can vary depending on GvG, HoH, RA, TA or anything else. GvG seems to be the most common and would appeal to the most people in my opinion.

Also wondoring if the basic gear is the following

Weapon 1: Main casting
Weapon 2: Kiting gear/Inspiration fast cast/recharge
Weapon 3: Energy reserve 15/-1 wand and 15/-1 offhand
Weapon 4: Anti energy denial

Divine favor scalp w/ minor rune (superior for boon re/cast)
All +10 armor while enchanted armor

Then +hp armor for switch vs armor ignoring spikes

Then must have skills

Reversal of Fortune
Divine Boon
Energy Manangement {E} Mantra of Recall/Drain Energy
Condition Removal Mend Condition/Draw Conditions
Hex Removal Inspired Hex/Holy Veil

Optional skills include: Contemplation of Purity, Guardian, Signet of Devotion, Protective Spirit, Gift of Health, and others

Seems like the essentials to a good boon prot build for GvG

Is it confirmed that a green shield will only give 4 armor?

lol im suprised i took so long to respond in this. :P

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3070751

read my post on the bottom of first page and u have my thoughts and strats on boon prot.

Quick comments on your thoughts/strategies...(preface this is for PvP)

-lose the superior rune. Buff yourself up as much as possible since you will be targeted first (in RA/TA). Some ppl who bring PvE chars into PvP will use a sup rune swap to enhance their divine.
-my stats as some others seem to agree with: 13 divine | 11 prot | 10 insp
-this may be a personal taste, but I think MoR works better than EDrain here. 1)It acts as a cover chant 2) will certainly add healing power/hex stripping, when you activate CoP 3)You don't need to split your focus and target an enemy to EDrain, 4) You don't have to worry about the enemies energy level.
-Your Weapon sets looked decent, I personally like +7AL weapon mod as opposed to your +30 health.
-Signet of Devotion is something you should consider for your skill bar. Maybe drop Prot Spirit since you have Gaurdian + RoF combo.
-I like IH, but for this scenario, i think Holy Veil will benefit you more. Quicker recharge, and you can preveil, which seems to be a must nowadays.

Overall your strategies and thought are right on IMO.

-thats why i suggested the sup rune only for applying divine boon. it shoudl be removed immediately afterwards for a minor rune. if boon gets shattered, just reapply boon with minor rune until clear to reapply with sup rune.

-MoR can work as a cover enchant, but edrain personalyl i have more control over than MoR. i have used both and both do very well, but i feel that with the faster recharge times from garbocks/straw effigy in inspiration that i have more control over edrain and i can usually use it at a faster rate than MoR in order to keep my energy up. Having to swap is as simple as pressing "C" and edrain (7 on my bar) then click on a red bar again. it literally takes like a second so have never found it to be a deal where casting edrain actually took me away from my duties.

-i personalyl use a hp+30 as having a warrior spike trying to split you in two, it can be nice to have as much health as possible for the other monk to be able to react to it. i also have in inventory the sword maximonster is talking about from presearing. it has +5 armor while enchanted and i added another ar+5 pommel on it. i have a shield also for my monk thats a gold tower shield thats hp+30, -2dmg while enchanted i can swap too if i notice that there is a lot of physical dmg aka warrior spike.

-after personal use of sig of devo, its garbage. 2 second cast ftl. it will never replace prot spirit on my bar. prot spirit has saved my teams ass when warriors are pushing in for bodygaurds to counter the mass dmg from th elemental attacks now, but as i said use it sparingly. its not as spammable as reversal and will work well against some spikes such as fc air, or the old school obsidian flame spike. its just a damn good skill to have around.

-veil is good, but since they increased the recharge time, i like having inspired for a second energy management. also i have had cases where veil was thrown on a target and instantly shattered, and thus not removing the hex. another reason that i like inspired. when in VoD and both teams goign for one another full out, it can be very energy draining and its good to have a secondary energy management to give you that little bit of extra energy inbetween edrain/MoR

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I've been trying to learn boon/proting and veil confuses me. Am I casting it to right away double click to remove it, or do you ever leave it on a target to slow down the hexing?

(and thanks for all the other information, its been great!)

If you know you're going up against a hex heavy team, then you cast veil on the most likely candidates for hexing before the battle starts. Then, once you see a hex that should be removed, you double click veil and remove it from that member. If there's hexing during the battle, then you just cast and remove right away.

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gj on the guide and to everyone on the responses. A ton of important topics have been addressed, but there are a few I would like to throw in:

Inspired Hex: I view the most important reason for bringing it on any monk is to counter diversion (hex breaker works just as well, but it is all preference). I am glad to see that was addressed.

Gaurdian: RoF is a great reactionary spell and is perfect for catching most spikes, but it is significantly lacking in countering adrenaline spikes. Adrenal spikes are the easiest to see in advance (normally you will be facing a 2 warrior party, look for when they converge on a target, often led by frenzy) and a precast Gaurdian will bring the target to full health and completely counter the spike. If there is any enchant removal, because of the off timing of adren spikes compared to other spikes, it will likely not have an effect.

Kiting w/ Gaurdian: Running in circles is fine, but in the end is not enough. Some maps force different kiting patterns or give certain advantages to none circle kiting. Whenever you take a sharp turn in your kiting, cast Gaurdian. Stopping completely can even completely neutralize a warrior (example ice maps in RA/TA/GvG -> run past the ice and stop immediately on the shore, the warrior will stop in the ice and be slowed, then you can run off). Whenever you stop, cast Gaurdian. Kiting mitigates damage, but knowing how to correctly stop and heal (may it be Gaurdian, RoF, or CoP) gives you longevity. RA/TA is the best way to learn how to do this. Another excellent and fun way for PvEers is running the second half of Copper to Iron. Gaurdian is also the best way to counter being knocked down, but this is much more difficult to master and is very situational in how to do so.

ESurge Mezmers: This is the biggest problems for all monks in PvP, but is especially hard on boon prots. Whenever you are not healing, or even when you are midcast, you should be watching your opponents actions. The end product is watching for visual signs, sounds, radar, and directly by selecting an enemy. Do not try to do all of these at once :P You will get confused and end up tripping over yourself. Rather start off slow. The easiest way is to work on directly selecting an enemy and watching their spells. I would strongly recommend a 4v4 setting because their are simply less enemies running around. For ESurge specifically, I would suggest playing a lot of RA international because their is a significant amount there compared to american. If you are receiving significant pressure and it is to hard to watch the opposing mezmer, there is nothing wrong with remaining in a negative energy set and switching back as necessary...which brings me to the next thing.

Making the -2 not count: Use your three energy sets (normal, +, -) so that you have 5 energy as much as possible. If you cast a spell, the -2 will not effect you, but you still get the boon healing. This can be hard to get used to, but saves a large amount of energy in the long haul.

Double recharge: Yep Sno was right, you get 36% half, 4% fourth. I was bored one night and tested it...but with the new update recharge is capped at 50% so no more fourth recharge :/

Aggressive Monking/Positioning: This is the BIG one that I am warry to even mention because so much goes into it especially in GvG. Be aware of enemy positioning (especially mezmers), but do not be afraid to push up. There is a reason people like boon prots, they are so freakin hard to kill. I often try to stagger a two monk backline, with one on either side, one in the backline and the other in the midline. By staggering, you can make your build tremendously more offensive. At the expense of making the forward monk susceptible to mezmers, you allow your warriors to freely overextend. Furthermore, your boon prot can use spells more effectively than if he were in the backline. A great combo that I like to run if I am the forward monk is Energy Drain (even though I love MoR) and Drain Enchantment. Drain Enchantment is a great energy source (especially with 20/20 recharge), but if used effectively you can completely cripple the opposing offense. For example, if there is a smiter, he should be within casting range at all times. Watch him. The second he casts Zealots, strip him and he is gone for 30 secs. By then your Drain Ench is already ready for another round. This is an extremely easy way to completely remove an opposing character from the game. Since smite just got nerfed, I will throw out another common one. Just strip the eles prodigy. Sure he gets it back in 5 secs, but there goes 10 exhaustion. Keep it up or help out your mezmer in stripping him and you can completely take out the ele whom often plays a critical role in most builds. EDrain is ideal for adding pressure to opposing monks or messing with a warrior, your target is completely dependant on the other teams build. The one thing that is universal is whenever a monk goes down and is rezed, drain him immediately. He will likely have no energy then and can quickly led to a party wipe.

That was a lot of stuff so I think I will end it there. This may be same old same old, but there are a ton of little tricks to monking that can drastically help your team. If ya need any help on boon proting or any other type of monking (my fav builds though will always be infuse/woh cause of their difficulty/effectiveness) just drop me a pm.

You need to update your description of Weapon Set 1. John Verado has a +15 energy/regeneration -1/health +30 icon. You made me waste 30 minutes farming Topaz Crests :P

Good guide though, helped me a lot. Thanks

I'm starting to think Judge's armor is better than Acolyte's because likely you're going to get stripped during/before a spike. Then again, another monk may cast protective spirit or spirit bond on you which would put Acolyte's back on top. Though, I'm not very experienced in GvG so maybe another opinion could chime in.

I'd just like to make a point here.

I've been doing some testing, and I find that if you take a hex removal spell and make one of the choices shown in this guide on the final slot, the combination is best as either of the two:

Holy Veil + Signet of Devotion
... the hex removal here has no energy management but of course can be used more often, and Signet of Devotion certainly saves some energy.

OR

Inspired Hex + Protective Spirit
... this combination gives some energy management with the hex removal, leaving some room for Protective Spirit. This spell can make up for the slow hex removal recharge by countering deadly hexes like Backfire, and stopping spikes.

If you're less likely to be facing spikes but want to remove hexes rather than cope with them, go for combination 1, whereas if you'd like something else to get your energy up and need to counter spikes, take combination 2.

Once again, great guide, I wouldn't be making these observations without having taken the mentioned skills, armor and weapons etc.

First of all , thanks for producing this guide, its been a great help to me starting off with my 1st pve monk. Im only monking in pve at the moment and wondered what people think of the shield guardian spell as an alternative to protective spirit(Bearing in mind prot spirit not so useful on high armoured allies) At 11 prot Recipient has 75% chance to block attacks for 10 secs,63 hp heal on next block to target and nearby allies.Obviously prot spirit is a better skill to have on your bar when u know your going to encounter a boss who deals large spike damage.
Interested to know peoples opinion as i havnt seen this skill mentioned .

Really it's just an expensive reversal of fortune with AOE heal.

Reversal essentially has a 100% chance of blocking the next attack and gives a conditional heal of around 30-40 usually.

Shield guardian ends after a successful block (so the same as ROF so far) and would heal for about 70 odd. Yes, it does heal nearby allies as well but it's quite a small heal essentially, and it's expensive for what it is really.

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