Guild Wars: PvE Monk Builds

I've been playing around with my poor little match girl, my long neglected Monk, who's been relegated to mule status for most of her existence. Freed by the increase in storage, I embarked on a whirlwind level spree and a brief tour of the Northern Shiverpeaks with her. Lately, I've been trying to fill out her skill bar which is really lacking at the moment by marching her through the various campaigns. And I thought I'd share a few of the builds I've been using to do so.

Mo/E SoR Prot
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Protection Prayers 12+2
Divine Favor 12+1

• Dismiss Condition
• Shield of Regeneration {E}
• Aegis
• Reversal of Fortune
• Resurrection / Signet of Capture
• Glyph of Lesser Energy
• Blessed Aura
• Shield of Absorption / Protective Spirit

Basically lifted this one from obs mode. Modified slightly for PvE play - mostly by taking out Remove Hex in favor of a rez (Yes, I use Resurrection. Yes, it's the only rez I have with my Monk. Yes, I need to get better.). Pretty basic. GLE is there to power out the SoR and Aegis while RoF and the prot of choice are there to deal with everything else. Blessed Aura maximizes the effectiveness of SoR and others but it can lead to some energy crunches.

This build sees heavy rotation on my Monk Heroes when I think I need an upgrade to the backline over Lina or whatever short bus all-star has signed up to hench for me. Not because they're particularly good with it but because this would be the pre-protter Protection based Monk that gets paired with the infuser Healing based Monk that I normally play. And the AI runs a protter better than it does power healing. the AI might apply SoR for a boo-boo but at least that way it won't stop pumping out the LoD to self-heal a scratch while the entire team is degened to death. Have better gear and skills on my Monk for a healer anyway. But, I've used this one a bit and it's pretty awesome. Shield of Regen has long been one of those skills I've liked, I remember when it was godly back in the test, and the casting time reduction has made it playable again. Whenever I need some protting, this is the build I turn to these days. I flip back and forth between Shield of Abs and Prot Spirit depending on the area and what the other Monk has. PS is more expensive but in some places it's just too critical to do without.

Mo/Me Fast LoD Healer
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Healing Prayers 12+2
Protection Prayers 8+1
Divine Favor 10+1

• Etherial Light
• Dwayna's Kiss
• Signet of Rejuvenation
• Light of Deliverance {E}
• Resurrection / Signet of Capture
• Dismiss Condition
• Holy Haste / Protective Spirit
• Remove Hex

This has been the build I've tooled around with most. I mostly pieced it together because LoD was my only halfway decent elite at the time, but it's proven consistent and reliable. It's for spamming out the high-powered heals and keeping those red bars up. Works great when paired alongside the above SoR Prot Monk. Those enchantments fuel the go-to heal, Dwaynas, and while the protter concentrates on blunting the flow of damage, I can concentrate on acting as the safety net when the prot fails. It's got removal covered with the excellent Dismiss for conditions and Remove for hexes (I'm as surprised as anyone that they actually made it playable. I never thought I'd actually slot that on a Monk's bar. too slow, too lengthy a recharge and I never expected to see them get sensible with it. Hexes must be really, really bad.) LoD is, of course, super-sexy. Fast, cheap, and can single-handedly save your party. Holy Haste is optional. It's my favorite new toy since I'm addicted to Healer's Boon but it really helps those last minute spike heals land before someone pops. It keeps me from using enchantments, though, so sometimes I slot PS insead if I think I need the extra help. I've been fiddling with that third slot, at the moment it's JuvieSig but although that's a nice little heal, I'm not completely sold. Idealy, I'd want it to be PS but that can't happen, so I rotate through a bunch of things.

Yes, that does leave me with only Etherial Light for a self heal at times. That's because I actually do a little something known as "kiting". Actually, it's more like I do a little something known as "stand just out of aggro range while the AI soaks up the punishment" but that doesn't sound as nice. LoD works as an emergency heal, too, if I'm catching some damage but the best form of damage mitigation is not getting hit in the first place.

Mo/E HB/HP Healer
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Healing Prayers 12+2
Protection Prayers 8+1
Divine Favor 10+1

• Dwayna's Kiss
• Shield of Absorption / Protective Spirit
• Deny Hexes
• Heal Party
• Resurrection / Signet of Capture
• Glyph of Lesser Energy
• Divine Spirit
• Healer's Boon {E}

This one's a bit of a work in progress. I mostly wanted to try out the Divine Spirit+Deny combo. I mean, I get that it's great for pumping out hex removal but Divine Spirit just seems like a bit of a waste with all its downtime. It's an energy hog, especially when running Prot Spirit. But between that other and GLE, one of them is always up to help out. The idea here is big, fat massive heals pumped up by Boon. Dwayna's can hit 200+ easily and an amped up Party wide heal is a beautiful thing.

It's a bit more fiddly than the LoD build, though. You power so much raw healing out that overheals are a rela issue and if you're not careful you wind up blasting 50 damage into oblivion only to get stuck in recharge hell while someone gets chopped down. It's a big change from the LoD build where you can twich out anything until your energy runs out. Needs a much better sense of timing, an awareness of what's killing you and when. And there's very little in the way of self-healing here, too. You really have to rely on your other Monk while you concentrate on the actual nick of time saves. I, of course, love it.

Those are what I've been using lately. I gather the hot new trick making the rounds is using Glyph of Renewal to supercharge Divine Spirit. Puts it on a 15 second recharge and with high enough stats and a 20% enchantment mod you can get the duration to match, giving you an endless up time. That lets you spam out 1 energy heals until the cows come home. I'm not sure I see the point, really, because there's other ways of making sure you have enough energy. Ways that don't require two slots and your elite to make a mediocre skill shine. But I think I'll give it a whirl anyways, once I get Divine Spirit.