PvP: Life Bond Monk

Martyr is so much more effecient for bonders, restore takes too long against heavy condition teams.

Also id take out balth spirit in tombs or guardian in gvg for mantra of inscriptions

u need balt spirit is ur main way to gain energy from enemies atking the ones u bonded. but mantra would be more helpful to spam blessed signet.

aye. balth spirit definitely needs to stay on the skill bar when playing bonder. however, ive never found a practical use for guardian as it only works on one player for 5 seconds and in order to spam it, you need to have lots of energy, which a bonder doesnt really have. and i agree that restore should be switched out for martyr, and that holy veil be switched out for mend conditions. holy veil can be useful, but conditions are more prevolent in tombs, i've found, than hexes. the healers can handle hex removal w/ either remove hex or inspired hex.

~lothar

Keep in mind this is for Tombs, and guardian is a must-have for protecting the Ghostly when he caps (unless someone else has a Shielf of Deflection).

The Martyr/Restore debate is tricky... but I prefer Restore by far. With the vast majority of conditions coming from trappers, and balthazar's spirit triggering from the trap damage, I've got plenty of energy to be getting rid of conditions with Restore. Not only that, but the heals I do are very nice. Someone with 3 conditions on will be healed for around 180~, for just 5 energy. This puts a lot of pressure off the monks. Also, the nature of traps is that they get reapplied if removed too soon with a martyr and the recharge on that is a killer.
Restore is a beauty against IWAY too, especially when they're trying to take down a ghostly hero. Traps+warrior conditions can heal the ghostly for around 250~ and getting rid of a deep wound. With martyr, there's no heals and you're left with all that crap on yourself. Bear in mind also, that you're the prime target when it comes to HoH, and you don't want to be crippled as you'll want to kite around all over the place.

I usually play this build with a ranger spike team. Even though they are 4 rangers who would be useless if blind, Restore does the job anyway between spikes. When we were holding yesterday, we came across a team with 2 copies of Blinding Flash which was easily Restored in time. If I had Martyr, at least one of our spikers would pretty much have been useless every 10 seconds if they knew how to time their blinds.

I guess it's a matter of preference, but I really can't see what's so great about Martyr.

Holy Veil is a godsend. When I see 2 or 3 mesmers on an enemy team, I immediately put up veils on monks and any other important spellcasters. As hexes are covered, I can remove a hex once I see it land on someone, and then just reapply it and not have to worry about the cover.

Maybe you want to use Mantra of Inscriptions, or Divine Boon to get some poweful heals out of your spells.

I'm with Kabale on the Martyr vs Restore debate... if you really want it in your team put it on a -/Mo. Putting it on a Mo/- means some other monk in the party needs to bring Restore, or you need to make room for Mend Ailment. Having to spam Mend on yourself all day long is gonna kill energy...

Not so sure about bringing both Aegis and Guardian. I tried this for a while and found energy to be a real problem, resulting in me really only getting use out of Aegis at the start of the battle, or late in the fight when we had them on the ropes (in which case it didn't really matter and was more of a "yaa-boo-sucks-to-be-you!").

I play a bonder in Tombs. Prot (both active and passive) is how I earned the majority of my fame (1730 at the moment). My typical bonding skill bar looks like this:

Mo/Me
15 Prot
13 Divine
Rest in Inspiration

Aegis
Guardian
Martyr/Restore Condition (I take what the team prefers for their build.)
Mend Ailment
Life Bond
Balthazar's Spirit
Blessed Signet
Mantra of Inscriptions

Using that setup, I have easily maintained bonds (and the balth's for myself) on all 7 players, the ghost and the priest when there is one. I only guardian the hero while he's trying to cap. Most of my time is spent maintaining bonds, which is what a bonder should do.

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Purge has a heinous recharge time.

isnt ur ener -3 if u maintain it on 7 people not including ghost and preist, :/ u do blessed everytime when ug et the chance?

RS
life bond
vital blessing
mantra of inscriptions
aegis
balthazar spirt
guardan
ROF

what i use

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I definitely would suggest using a secondary because pure builds [except the damn ranger...] aren't ever as efficient as could be... I don't run into trapper teams that much [that and my team has a tendency of waiting vs. fighting them] so I'm definitely more for the draw conditions plague touch combo... [good thing you heal yourself for a chunk each time you draw... ^_^

Can i just ask: balth's spirit is mentioned, but without any points in smiting prayers. Is that right? Does it give you enough energy even without?

Balthazar's Spirit is link to smiting, but even a 0 points, you get 1 energy per damage. Extra points in smiting only increase the amount of adrenaline you get, which is useless to a non-warrior.

Am I right in guessing that lifebond monks don't work in arena because they can't heal themselves very well? I'm trying it in CA and I realized theres only mend ailment to heal myself

I think this build is more suited for 8 man PvP teams when you can be the protector while you have one or two other healers.
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