The following text is not aimed at PvP monks, PvP monks are totally different in build creation and many other areas to a PvE monk.
The following text may contain spoilers to the Guild Wars storyline, caveat lector.


Guide to playing monk - PvE

This guide is aimed a new players willing to learn. Whilst I'm not the best monk in the alliance, I reckon I'm up there amongst the top few, when you narrow down those people with too much time to spend writing this; I'm your guy. Playing monk for over a year now, I can safely say it's the most fun on Guild Wars I have. Unfortunately, fun does not come easily, to have fun you need to be able to relax, to be able to relax, you gotta be good.

Levels 1-20

Between no experience and a lot of fun stands levelling up, levelling up is long and tedious but gives you a great excuse to experiment and get a real feel for your character and where you want it to go and grow. However, when someone asks you to alter your build you have to think - Are they giving advice on how to help me improve as a player, or are they making me a one-trick pony? There's a vast gap between a willing to learn and being told to play builds. Someone with no builds but a great ability to adapt can out-monk a Generic Healer Monk. If you've ever thought "That hero's AI needs a buff" or "Stupid henchman, heal me, not the minions!" you'll know that even a thousand attribute points in Healing Prayers is nothing without knowing where to apply it. So I guess the first rule of monking is,

Set healing and protection priorities, know what to heal and when.

Over the course of levelling up, you will uncover new skills (It's hard not to, there's no avoiding it). At the lower levels (1-14) you could probably allow yourself to have a Smiting Skill, a Protection Prayer, a Healing Spell and a pair of skills from your secondary profession. During this time, you have to decide what you think is most effecient. If you think being a monk is all about the smite, seeing your foes cry as holy damage reigns down on them,next time you're in game, press F12, then C, then C again, the left arrow, enter, pick a campaign and make an Elementalist, no party will ever actively seek a smiter. When they see a monk, they expect a healer or a protection monk, a Smiter has no place in any PUG (Pick up group, a group of people who have never met but all have the same goal). Fact. A protection monk has to live with his or her eyes closed, rarely knowing how they're helping because they're not recovering allies, they're preventing the damage to them. This is the harder of the two mainstream monking focuses. A healer on the other hand, gets to see exactly what they're doing and everyone else can see what they're not doing, within a PUG, the healer monk is more likely to get flamed if there's a party wipe then a Protection monk. Choose which of the two monk specialties suits you, then read on.



Building your build

Building a set of skills and attributes you can be proud of is almost as hard as monking itself. If you know what's coming, what hexes you need to counter, what spikes to dodge and which conditions to lift, both Protecting and Healing is simple. But say this is your first time at a mission, or you've never done it before, you need to be able to adapt and learn. Staying flexible with a build is a great goal to set for new regions, especially with Henchmen. Even after a year, I still can't remember all the monk henchmen elites and who has them, so staying fluid is a must when making a build.

Firstly, what is your energy pool? How far can you make every spell stretch and how many tiny points of energy does it take to counter a huge surge of party-wide damage?

If your energy is below 30, you will find it incredibly hard to monk, both as a Protector and a Healer, get a staff and some runes and get it up to 45+. If all your spells cost Ten energy each, bring a signet or two (Look into Signet of Devotion for prot monks and Signet of Rejuvenation for healers) and some energy management, Glyph of Lesser Energy (Requires Elementalist secondary profession) is the universally accepted Energy Management skill, lowering the next two spells by ten energy, enough for Aegis, Healing Breeze, Healing Ribbon, Protective Spirit and some other heftily priced spells. If your build requires more energy management -

For players with the Prophecies Campaign, acquire Divine Spirit for up to 12 seconds of energy freedom.

For players with the Factions Campaign, the Luxon/Kurzick skill Selfless Spirit is a longer version of Divine Spirit (Dependant on Luxon rank) with the drawback of you cannot use party-wide spells or spells on yourself.

For players with the Nightfall Campaign, Lightbringer's Signet is a great energy spike in end-game NF.

Players with Eye of the North can also pick from - Air of Superiority and Smooth Criminal for additional energy management.....with some perks added..

Secondly, what do you want your secondary profession to be and what skills do you require from it? (If any)

Certain skills from your Secondary Profession can be incredibly helpful, Glyph of Lesser Energy (Elementalist) for energy management, Mystic Regeneration (Dervish) for farming, Inspired/Revealed Hex (Mesmer) for foes with tricky Monster-only hexes (Skills players can never aquire, unique to monsters) such as Glint (Mid-story Prophecies) and Varesh (End-game Nightfall). Although it is possible to alter your secondary after completing certain missions or quests, choosing a good profession early on for your character will allow them access to free skills that belong to your secondary given at the beginning of the game. Each profession has its advantages, be it for farming, defence, energy management or otherwise.


Thirdly, which elite skill will you be utilizing?

Whilst an elite skill is not required in early sections of Guild Wars, some partys may become aggravated if you don't possess one.

For healer monks, an elite skill is relatively simple, pick an elite that heals the way you like - Personally, I like spamming low cost, mid-heals to help counter small AoE spikes and to mop up bits of health lost. For this I use Glimmer of Light but other equally effective skills are Word of Healing, Healing Light and Healing Burst. Others may prefer increased adaptablility, Unyeilding Aura, Healers Covenant and Healer's Boon all boost the effeciency of ALL your skills but there's no truely outstanding skill on your bar. No one can clearly see that Orison of Healing heals for 100 health when combined with Unyeilding Aura, everyone else sees an average 67.

For Protection monks, the elite skill becomes infinately tougher to pick, you need to know what's coming, whether the foes rely on hexes or conditions to kill or whether they're 100% melee. Some protection monks avoid that issue altogether by using a Healing skill from the protection prayers line, for example, Mark of Protection, Zealous Benediction and Shield of Regeneration. If prot-oreintated, choose one of those three skills when venturing into the unknown. If, however, the unknown is what you know (or you rely on Guild Wars Wiki too much...) then choose an elite to counter the foes. Earlier today, I vanquished (A vanquish is a hard mode objective, you must kill all foes in an explorable area) Sunward Marches knowing the region would be hex heavy, naturally, I took Deny Hexes. In Curse of the Nornbear, both hexes and conditions are prevelant so Empathic Removal or Signet of Removal can help immensely and in Plains of Jarin on Hard Mode, a lot of the foes are melee, so Shield of Deflection and Life Sheath are very powerful tools to have.

For either protection or healer monks, Blessed Light, Empathic Removal, Signet of Removal and Martyr are all viable choices.

Consequently, what will your attributes be?

A healer monk should have 12 in Healing Prayers and 12 in Divine Favour.
A protection monk should have 12 in Protection Prayers and 12 in Divine Favour.In rare cases, you'll have skills from your secondary profession or from the other attribute line, put your last few points into there. An example is a Healer monk taking Dismiss Condition not for the healing but the cheap, unconditional, fast-recharging Condtion removal, a few points in prot prayers takes the heal from 15 to 27, 12 more healing for nothing!

Lastly, is your party balanced?

If your party is melee heavy, you will be the single greatest AI Target, (Artificial Intelligence, a term used to define how Non-player characters behave in certain circumstances), all foes will target you because the Melee professions have a max armour of between 70-80 (Not including additional boosts from skills, armour bonuses and shields) and a monk will have a max of 60, they'll pick on the little guy so take skills that are geared towards self healing or increasing your maximum health to reduce your priority. If, however, your party is reliant on casters, prepare to counter heavy damage as Casters (Elementalists, Necromancers, Monks, Ritualists, Mesmers) have the lowest armour rating.

Set your reflexes

After you've made a build, you should've encountered a few thoughts like "Yeah, but what if the foes have....?" or "But if they...?" so you should know now that no build can hold up against everything regardless of its flexibility (Spammers think about Diversion mesmers, party healers think about Scourge Healing, Protectors think about enchantment removal). Therefore, you will have to change your build every now and then, but your reflexes don't have to reset IF you follow these steps :

1. Keep your condition removal skill in the same slot (I keep mine in the first slot)
2. Keep your hex removal in the same slot (I keep mine in the sixth)
3, Keep your elite skill in the same slot (I keep mine in the second)
4. Resurrect skills should (If on your skill bar) be out of sight
5. General rule of thumb, your most used skills should be on the left end and least used on the right
6. Use your fingers (Left hand) to press the number keys to activate skills and use your right hand for clicking Party members/allies names on the Party Window tab
7. Read your skills.

Seven tips to keep you on that ball, my suggestions keep me balanced, I'd fall off without them, get your skills sorted quickly before you slip (Three cheers for killing a metaphor!)



Skills that a Protection monk needs to at least own.

Protective Spirit - This is the basis for nearly all monk farming builds and great for when your party's at high Death Penalty

Shield of Absorption - Another crucial farming element, whilst at first appearing a weaker counterpart of Shielding Hands, the bonus to Shield of Absorption is it reduces the first damage taken whilst under the effects of it by 5, 10 for the second, 15 for the third time you take damage, 20 the fourth and it just doesn't stop until it runs out.

Guardian - THE non-elite counter melee skill for protection monks, a 50% Block rate for 7 seconds with only a 5 energy cost, this has been nerfed for its brilliance in the past, don't underestimate it.

Aegis - An earshot version of Guardian, if your party's in close quarters, you wait ten seconds and melee damage gets halved.

Spirit Bond - Great for allies who aren't Party members with low armour. My proudest moment was in Fort Aspenwood as a Kurzick, Gunther was so close to dying and *Poof* full health. Also great for farming.

Rebirth - Used by Warriors, Assassins, Monks effectively (Other professions have better alternatives or have too much to lose due to the small print), teleport a dead foe to your location, resurrect them at 25%, their skills get locked for a few seconds and you lose all energy. You must not use this mid-fight, you and the resurrected party member will be disabled either through total energy deficit or skill lockdown.

Skills that a Healer monk must at least own.

Signet of Rejuvenation - 141 healing with a one-second cast time if correctly used, however, is limited to healers due to it's attribute line.

Cure/Remove Hex - Whilst it is generally the protection monk's job to lift conditions and hexes, the theme of this guide is to advise you how to play in every situation, having one of these on your bar will, if nothing else, aid the prot monk.

Healing Touch - A poor self heal with low Divine Favour but you should be fine with your 12 in Divine Favour

[couleur=#0000f0]Dwayna's Kiss[/couleur] - Earlier today, when vanquishing, I used Aura of Faith on an ally, my monk partner already had Healer's Boon active, when he used Dwayna's Kiss the healing totalled to 1,000. No typo, One thousand. It multiplies its healing by the number of enchantments and hexes, tough situations just got so much easier.


Your Armour and Weapons

As a monk with the lowest maximum armour, you are a high priority in the enemies eyes, set your armour to raise your max health to about 520, try get some monk insignia's on there, (about 100 gold each..won't break the bank) then focus on high energy and minor runes - Divine Favour could be a major but aside from the cost of Superior Runes, the health loss just isn't worth it. Minor Runes and some energy upgrades and you'll be a sturdy lil' monk (Or big monk if you're male...they have weight issues).

Monks never did get along with damage, a bit hypocritical so holding an Axe and a Shield that has better stats then a wand and focus is perfectly acceptable. Just don't use it! Abuse it for its stats, use it for nothing! A monk should be after more energy and enchantment extension. You can combine them too, a Totem Axe and a Divine Favour Straw Effigy are great for both prot monks and healers.


Glossary

PvE = Player vs Environment, when the foes you fight are NOT real.
PvP =  Player vs Player, when the foes are other people.
HB = [couleur=#0000c6]Healer's Boon[/couleur]
RC = [couleur=#0000c6]Restore Condition[/couleur]
WoH = [couleur=#0000c6]Word of Healing[/couleur]
U iz t3h suxxorz = You're not so good at monking dear chum.
omg u iz 1337 = Hmm, pretty decent monk, good job.
NF = Nightfall





This Guide is free to copy, reproduce and was created with good intentions.
Created by Alex Eternal, a late Tuesday afternoon on a rainy day.  

--Last edited by Alex Eternal on 2008-08-19 19:16:01 --