Surviving as a Monk

Im currently in PvP a lot of the time. I have picked up a lot of tricks on survival as a Mo/Me Denial Healer. However I could use a few more. Like fore example:

How in blazes do you avoid a hammer warrior when he is knocking you down?

I find this highly irritating (yes I know thats their job but jeez) and I have tried all my tricks but that stupid knockdown is getting me and stopping me from doing my heals. Whats the best course of action against hammer warriors as a pure healer monk?

Hide behind your own warrior?

I'm no expert as I don't PvP, but isn't that the idea of going out as a team?

usually if one warrior comes after me in pvp and i see him early i throw on pacifism and hope he doesn't have a enchant removal. only the smart ones carry it. Then i just ignore him and continue with my healing. That usually really ticks them off cause my teamates are all engaged in combat and killing his teamates while he can't attack and won't get attacked either. Or else you can try running around like crazy, usually they get tired of chasing you cause they are wasting their attack skills running around too much. And try to have some quick casting spells so you can cast and run at the same time.

Ahh, the monk's most underappreciated skill.... running away and hiding behind the warrior or running circles around your warrior.

Since I am usually prot monk, once they figure out I am the prot, they are after me. I run like an mf the whole time. Mostly I am life bonding, so as long as I am alive and the other side isn't stripping the bonds, I am protting in the passive sense. I just stay moving. I stop only to cast blessed or a quick prot spirit or reversal on a fast dropper.

Guardian and Aegis helps against getting knockdown, and Protective Spirit and Shielding Hands helps with the damage...but typically, one of the best things you can do is pre-kite...if you see a guy with a hammer running at your from a distance, it's time to get moving.

That IS the trick I use! :P Thing is their friggin knockdown stops me cold and they dont hit that weak either. So this is my scenario:

Hammer Warrior comes I swerve in circles around group while healing them, knockdown comes, he gets close while I recover swings a couple more times I try to move again around team, I need to heal self, knockdown comes interrupts my healing, and someone probably layed condition on me by the time or hex which by being knocked down I cant deal with... annoying really!

EDIT: The problem is find that to cast a spell you need to stop these several seconds of stopping to heal an ally or yourselve while running like a mofo are deathf or you actually. What is pre kiting? I do know kiting is slowing a person down while shooting them with range and going in circles without letting him get close but how is a monk going to be pre kiting if they are not for slowing anyone at all or much less shoot them?

I cant take pacifism Im a pure healer

You cant expect to survive a focused attack by the other team. Especially if they have good mesmers and a couple wars on you. You are going to die. The best protection against melee is running and stopping to cast reversal of fortune. You deny a hammer warrior adrenaline in this way. It minimizes his KD effect.

Hmmm..I always thought kiting was just running away...anyways my point is this...Identify Hammer Warriors right away (ie W/E is a good candidate, since KD/AS) and once you identify the Hammer Warrior, start running away as he's getting close to your aggro bubble (I do this because some like to use Sprint to close in right away). Hammer Warriors swing slow, so any delayed DPS you can cause him by running away and in circles from them helps. The way I look at it, a Monk can't really counter Hammer Warriors unless you have solid Protection like Aegis and Guardian...so for Healing Monks, I recommend running away right away, and not giving him a chance to close in on you.

Also, you know he'll unload when he's got all his Adrenal Skills charged up, so you best not be close to him.

Disclaimer: this is in context that Zhou Feng is a pure Healing Monk (no Gale, no Balanced Stance, no Soothing Images).

Hmm that explains why I dont have this problem running Prot... bleh I guess the prot monks who I played with suck :P.

Okay this is what I normally do. Before a warrior comes I start running in a circle around members not a full circle just enough to put the group between me and him, if the group is good he normally has to wade from there giving me time to run another circle... the bad part is when the team is not that good... Sometimes I can be healing for quite an amount of time without much hassle.

Another thing I do is hit auto run and run in opposite direction but in a semi circle to stay close to group while targetting with num pad (mouse targetting is slow if you are under stress, it might work when you are stationaty IE PVE but in PVP its best to use num pad targetting) that tends to work. I hate it however when I have to auto run to heal a group member who has strayed to far frommy healing and end up in the loving clutches of a hammer warrior. Or target of the affections of a mesmer.

*sigh* One of the best things your prot monk can do is bring Guardian and apply it religiously to the squishy targets on your side. BTW, a hammer warrior has the loveliest "swishing" sound effect when his swing misses.

Yeah I know. Does Guardian and Aegis stack by the way?

Yea, they do.

But (my thought as I read the post) is to use.. Balanced Stance and go Mo/W so that KD/AS warriors are totally usless....

Just a thought.

No can do I totally love being an Mo/Me Denial Healer so I guess something has to give. And there is no way Im changing to Mo/W although I have played it in PvP... its just not my thing.

I'm not really familiar with mesmers, but here's a few things you could try...
Bring one debuff spell in an attribute you're using anyway that will help you either escape, or prevent damage. Empathy isn't a bad choice. Ethereal Burden (or whatever it is called that slows them) can be very useful, since it lets you run away, and can help your party stop fleeing enemy monks. Soothing images, maybe? Since you're probably using inspiration, what about spirit of failure? Combine that with guardian or aegis, and he might help you regenerate energy. If you don't mind giving up your elite, signet of midnight can keep a single target (as well as yourself, but that doesn't matter) blinded practically indefinitely for no energy cost. No additional attribute points need to be added for that. As a necro, I normally throw a couple points in curses and bring something like enfeeble. I still get knocked down occassionally, but at least he'll only do 5-10 damage when he hits me. Pacifism if you can stand the long casting time.

Rico

Spirit of Failure and Spirit Shackles might work to some degree but their high cost investement as well as time to cast make them hard to pull of unless pre-casted.

Sympathetic Visage however and/or Soothing Images in Illusion might do the trick Id need to thin some points in there though.

I cant give up Energy Drain for Midnight Signet because of energy management issues. As well as denial to enemy casters.

I cast SoJ when I see them running at me and I'm running away a half-second before they get to me

Only problem is most warriors also bring irresistable blow. Thats another KD on top of a already KD intensive build.

the only bad thing about runing is some warrs bring sprint or charge and thats a 25% boost to catch u but running is still one of the better ideas around lol

It was mentioned but I will say it agian if there is a knockdowner in the arenas it is up to your Warrior hopefully an attacker meaning sword to defend you.That is what a sword warrior is for the tanks are axe Warriors.The attacker have the running skills on them.There is not much you can do against a knockdowner though unless you use a mesmer skill.

Reversal of Fortune helps a lot, as it has a fast cast and can be done in between shorter knockdowns. However, the best thing is to pre-kite; that is, see the warrior coming and start running before he gets close to you. If the chase does get close, try your best to run into a group and weave in and out and hope that he gets caught up. Remember, you're a monk, so you can't run the entire time. Throw up Aegis if you're prot. Aegis + guardian on yourself means 75% of his attacks will miss. Bob, weave, and dodge.

How are you running away? Are you turning your back and completely fleeing only to turn and toss the occasional spell?

If you are running all out then that warrior will be hitting you for critical hits EVERY time. If you don't have aegis or guardian, you're really just making yourself die faster by running since more often than not they will have sprint. Strafe around the warrior as to slow their attack somewhat, and still be able to cast spells.

Consider Soothing Images or Sympathetic Visage. Sympathetic Visage drains them nicely if they continue to attacking, and Soothing Images can be kept on providing they don't have hex removal. Which is why I would opt for Sympathetic Visage.

the thing i do as hammer warrior is this. sneak up on the monk, give him a good whallop so he falls down, and start bashing his head in.

i know i should be giving advice to the monks. but u guys are spoiled little brats :P

It is to bad you aren't a Mo/W and you could use balance stance and bonneti"s defence.

Pre-kiting means you're keeping distance between yourself and the warrior all the time. If he has sprint, then it's better to stop, but if you're good, you can catch a warrior asleep and escape through a group. Maybe you'll get caught with one critical hit, but big deal, after that he's gone. It's best not to turn your back and flee. I instead do a sort of side-strafing to start, so as to view the whole battle, then I pick a course and run it, without bothering too much to check my six. Usually the radar is good enough for that.

spoken like a true adolescent wamo

This is where the situation becomes kind of bad:

Running like this makes it harder to heal, stop to heal war catches up.

Guardian and RoF work very well IF Guardian is at least 40% allows you to run a bit better. This has been thouroughly tested in Team Arenas where KDAS are a norm.

Sympathetic Visages works somewhat but its high cost and slow recharge makes it a gamble, specially if it gets rend by much smarter warrior teammates this was also tested. Since Guardian is cheap and lasts a short time and recharges quick it can be spammed easier.

For Inspiration I stick to Ins Hex and E Drain anything else compromises my effectivenes.

If there is a GOOD Prot monk or a GOOD elmo monk with smiting and prot KDAS Warriors are not even a situation to worry much about. Again this was tested in arenas.

Pre-Kiting works well if you are strafing sideways in circle and try to get the warrior within a group. The bad dangerous part is if they have a ranger interrupr or a water elemntalist using snares. I have been using pre kiting inadvertly before I realized the term pre kiting however.

The best thing are definetly Aegis and Guardian and RoF. Its better if they are casted by another prot monk because if you get KD is harder to get this skills in. Having a mesmer, a ranger int and a KDAS War at the same time: YOU WILL only survive if your teammates are GOOD. Being a monk has its limits its only how much you can do.

I get targetted a lot because Im a good pure healer. While Im alive its hard to kill an ally unless they are using focused spike attacks: spike, ranger spike, FOC spikes... hell focused spikes kill before any healing is pulled off usually and therefore thats the realm of prots to deal with so I can heal my target after they survive the spike.

Any other suggestions for a Mo/Me using a pure heal setup are welcomed.

By Denial Healer I mean dwayna/orison/touch/other/seed/sig of dev/ins hex/e drain.

In arena I switch to heal/prot with orison/touch/other/guardian/rof/ins hex/e drain unless I have a GOOD elmo at my side :P