After about an hour or so of playing with an non-prot monk, I get this on the chat:
Wa/E: You need to be a better tank. Not hard with that prof.
Wow. Had the fine, sagely, wise veteran of Guild Wars Random Arena not immediately not signed off ... this would have been my response:
ME: NO? REALLY? I JUST SPENT 30 SECS WITH TWO AXE WARRIORS
ME: WHO WERE ... BTFW ... AXING ME! WITH A ---ing AXE!
ME: FOR LIKE HALF A MINUTE
ME: But I'm sure that Monk / Whatever was hard for your skills to kill
ME: Without me, like, saving your ass
ME: Every 5 seconds
ME: Yeah. I count. So ---- you. ----wad.
ME: Next time ... be a prot/boon monk. Because you are ----ing worthless as a Warrior.
ME: Which, BTFW, isn't hard with that prof.
ME: As, you know, a ----ing warrior.
Sorry. It's just that I've played, over the last 48 hours, as a lot of different noob type people. The only time I get flak is when I'm playing a monk in manner someone else doesn't agree with.
tagged: guild wars, gaming
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
It's Hard Out There For A Monk
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7 comments:
Yes, the random arenas are not the friendliest places in the game. :(
Indeed. To be fair, most of last night I was just playing around with different builds to get a feel for what worked and what didn't ... so I wasn't always being the best monk.
But when I get spiked like twice and I spend all my time fending off two warriors ... meanwhile the rest of the party can't manage a single kill ... it's annoying for someone to start tossing blame around. I get this in PvE sometimes too ... it's always the monk's fault that they didn't make everyone invincible.
Second prize goes to the monk who complained that he had to heal me all the time because "I was acting like warrior. Seeing as how I was the only one in the whole party with warrior skills, I'm not real sure what else he expected.
It's not like three monks and a mesmer were going to get far with any strategy.
I am trying to find non-prot/boon monk builds which work well, though, and I think I got a little closer last night. So the late night session wasn't a bust, at least.
I was sucking hard in TA last night, not that it's any consolation. My feeble excuse is that I've been playing offense for the last couple of weeks so my monking instincts weren't up to snuff.
I'm firmly convinced that boonprot is the way to go in random arena (a) because of the number of interrupt rangers (the key boonprot spells are nice and fast) and (b) the build defends itself arguably better than others. Sacrificing a bit of energy efficiency for speed is worth it when, as you point out, there are two warriors setting up camp on your face. For other places, I still like boon prot but builds centred round Restore Conditions or Word of Healing can also be good.
Yeah, a college friend of mine set a prot/boon up for me and I can't quite deny it's effectiveness.
I was trying for a monk that could fight back a little. Idea being more of a direct assist for a warrior or ranger. I maxed out on 5E healing skills, including word of healing, and then balanced it with some sword skills ... including Bonetti's to gain those 5E back. Add in Final Thrust and a Bane Signet, and I could help mop up enemies that were already under 50% (while maintaining a decent amount of healing to go around).
After a lot of tweaking, it worked pretty well provided I avoided that initial spike. I'm considering swapping out the Bane Sig with sprint.
It might work to some extent but it's not going to be optimal. I'd say go smiting but the smiting stuff is a bit nerfed at the moment. If you want to "fight back" as a monk you're better off fighting in the realm of energy, e.g. the following randoms build (and what I'm currently using for RA):
Divine 16,Inspiration 9, rest in Prot
Guardian
Energy Drain
Mend Ailment
Reversal of Fortune
Drain Enchantment
Contemplation of Purity
Divine Boon
Resurrection Signet
Yes, I know, you didn't want a boonprot. What can I say, I like winning. This build does involve a fair amount of scanning opponents which might scratch that must-get-blood itch.... :)
Well, it's not so much of "fight back" now as it's turned into "speedy assist". My original idea was to make a monk that was less tank and more of a trap, but I couldn't find the skills to pull it off.
So later in the night, I accepted running as part of a monk's life ... either to avoid the strkes or to provide finishing kills.
I dunno. I had a similar drag with Diablo ... when the game turned into simply copying a winning strat. I honestly have more fun playing with the builds than I do winning :)
Alright. I'll warn you that it isn't the optimal plan, but... if that's really what you're after (making a tempting trap for bad players) the skill you want to look at is Shield of Judgement. Have fun!
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