Why Heal Area?

I'm a bit confused as to the usefullness of this Monk skill. I've read how it can be used in the "mirror" fights but can't get my head around why you would use it otherwise.

Is there some special combo this skill works in?
Does it hurt Undead?

no, no, and IMO its junk cuz it heals anything within its radius...

heal area heals for alot of health, thats why its usful, in pve the only way i found it usful was to heal myself in a tight spot, occasionally someone else. it heals enemies so really not to usfyul

Useful against those deadly packs of ranged attack baddies.

It's good to heal bosses so you can capture their elite skills. Also, sometimes it's better to get off that big heal, even if it heals the some enemies, so that the team survives long enough to kill the mobs. Basically, 140 health to my 5 teammates each is worth more than giving 140 health to 3 mobs.

Still, not always the most useful of skills.

heal area is a very useful spell imo

you can save your whole party from annhialation by running up to the area and healing everything for 70 and it takes only 1 second to cast. it's of more use if you have 2 tanks, but it can be of use to save your entire party as well.

i hit mob
mob attacks my healer, then my mage, then my mesmer
so if i'm doing my job, i'm getting my 2 tanks to pull aggro off my healer/mesmer/mage
than means there's often a thick crowd of mobs and party members
if i see everyone's health plummetting, i run in, spam heal area, and at the cost of 1 second my whole party suddenly has full health again.

in pvp it's probably not as useful

it actual;ly heals for about 140 if ur a higher level. but i used it and its not too ofen that ur entire party is randomly staning 10 feet away from each other in a circle. you might save a teamate or two, but over all healother + divine boon will do the job, in fact you really dont even need heal other as i have found, just cast orison and dwaynas kiss back and forth and you will have a steady healing for a while.

Imo, its only good use is the amount it heals by. however, due to its ability to help enemies, its bad in pvp (unless your fighting ranged units, however, currently, its W/MO madness ^^) the radius is also small.

Correction: If you've got more attribute points in whatever the skill uses. Nothing to do with levels.

you are right...henchment don't 'randomly' stand around but it's very easy to get the entire party or almost the entire party in range as i already explained in the above example.

melee mobs hit monks and casters first
i sic my tanks on the mob hitting my casters
blamo...everyone is within range...happens all day to me

i don't have to deal with the unpredictable behavior of players running all over the place because i only group for pve with henchmen

and like i also already said...it's probably not as much use in pvp when you have real players running all over like headless chickens

another use this has is that if you have tankers up front but have a ranger, healer, mage and mesmer standing back with you getting hit by their rangers and casters you can heal em all almost instantly without healing any enemies.

+140 health to most mobs is hardly noticeable on the monsters HP bar when they have a max hp far above a players max.

- Iczer

I usually put regeneration/protection on the warriors, and then use heal area on all the range party members. It can be hard though as some folks like to move around alot. It's twice as much healing as heal party though and that little bit comes in handy...

Obviously this is in PvE not PvP...

Very useful spell. Especially if you've got 3 people close to death and you only have time for one heal. Saving all 3 of them, plus healing other party members is well worth it even at the expense of healing the other mobs.

Thanks for the advice claundis! I've successfully deployed this skill during my pokemon..er..skill capturing sessions with my Warrior/Monk

As to other situations, you'd think Heal Party would be better.