Monk Guide

Basics

A Monk's Place

Monks are the lifeblood of all parties, healing wounds or preventing damage. Monks are primarily support characters, acting to enable the rest of the party. As non-combat casters, monks are usually well away from the thick of battle.

Being a Monk

Playing a monk can be a rewarding experience, or an extremely frustrating trial. Having few direct damage skills, monks are dependent on the rest of the party for damage and defense, but the healing and protection they provide can be the difference between victory and death. Monks however can also play a offensive role which will be noted later in the guide (ie. A smiting monk would be a good example of this).

PvE Monks
In Player versus Environment gameplay, there are very few situations which do not require a Monk. Due to their integral role and high demand, Monks rarely have trouble finding a team. Since having a Monk in your team will attract fellow players, they can easily start their own teams, as well. Most players will consider the advice and demands which a Monk makes before starting the battle. Since they spend most of their time watching the health bars of the team and the progression on the battle field, Monks are in a good position to announce tactical changes, to command moves, and call for retreats by drawing on the mini-map.

PvP Monks
During PvP combat, communication with the rest of the team is vital for a monk's success. Be absolutely sure to effectively communicate what is impeding your intended job ("shutting you down"), any pressures that you may be under, and frequently comment on flaws in team positioning. Teams that talk, win. More specifics on Monks behaving in PvP is discussed below.

Types of Monks

Monks, unlike most other professions, are expected to fit into a narrow set of primary support categories. There are several predominant monk roles:
- Healer
- Prot
- Boon prot
- Bonder
- Smiter

Healing Monk
The Healing Monk combines inexpensive healing spells with high divine favor to provide fast, repetitive heals to the party.

Attributes for Healing Monks
Healing Monks usually focus on two attribute lines: Healing Prayers and Divine Favor. Several Healing Prayer spells provide the basic setup of the Healing Monk, while Divine Favor is mainly chosen for the additional bonus health it gives the character. Some Healing Monks choose a third attribute line, mainly one from a secondary profession that provides skills to regain energy.

Suggested Strategies for Healing Monks
Attempt to keep allies within your casting range, and foes outside your aggro circle - be the backline. Watch the health meters of your party, and cast healing spells when a party members health meter begins to approach 75%. It may be helpful to select party members with the mouse, and queue skills with the keyboard. Another strategy is to assign party members to Function keys for quick selection.
In PvP, the use of Heal Party is ambivalent. Having two seconds of casting time and a quite high energy investment, it should not be used frequently. Use it to counter massive degeneration or to restore minor wounds on the whole team in one shot. If multiple monks are equipped with this skill, only one of them should be casting at a time, so the other one is available to cast more powerful spells on single targets. It is also popular to have an Elementalist/Monk use heal party because of the Elementalist's primary attribute, Energy Storage, which raises the Elementalist's maximum energy and grants exclusive access to some of the best energy management skills in the game.
for dealing with spike damage or for allies with extremely low health. If there is time to use a general heal, it is almost always better to do so. See Infuse Monk for more detailed information.

Protection Monk
The Protection Monk combines protection spells that prevent damage with skills that keep the party free of conditions. Unlike the Healing Monk who is reactive, Protection Monks are pro-active and don't wait until after the damage is done to heal the character - the spells are pre-applied to their teammates to prevent the damage from happening.

Attributes for Protection Monks
Protection Monks will mainly rely on Protection Prayers with some Divine Favor bonus, since protection spells themselves do not offer any healing. As with Healing Monks, a third attribute line might be used for energy reasons.

Suggested Strategies for Protectors
Attempt to keep allies within your casting range, and foes outside your aggro circle. Watch out for party members taking damage and use your protection skills. Unlike the Healing Monk, do not wait until they have taken considerable damage, cast your spells right at the first sign of trouble. Further tactics depend on your choice of skills and whether you play PvE or PvP:

- PvE
* If applicable, rely on your condition removal skills (e.g. Mend Ailment or Restore Condition) to keep the party health high.
* Have an extra eye on the tanks and buff them before they aggro the next group of mobs.

- PvP
*Buff soft targets beforehand. Renew their buffs every once in a while if you can afford the energy costs, even when they are not the target. Most groups switch targets quickly, usually to unleash their adrenaline skills all at once.

Other Monk Roles
- Smiting monks, though rare, can be extremely destructive in areas populated by Undead creatures.

Equipment

Armor & Runes
Monks are, in a sense, the most important part of any team: No other class will contribute as much to the fall of any team by dying as monks do. That means that monks should take the utmost care not to die. Part of that is not using superior and major runes (which carry health penalties) unless really needed. As a rule of thumb, no monk should carry more than one superior rune, and even monks with only minor runes are very common. Of course, runes of vigor are an exception to that rule, since they actually boost health. There is no commonly agreed on "best" monk armor, however most top level PvP monks opt for +10 Vs. Physical Damage armor, to further reduce their damage taken.

Weapons
The choice of weapon is less important for monks, since they are not the main attackers. More important than the actual damage are the upgrades (like additional health, armor and energy, or reduced casting and recharge time of skills). Note that most weapons have a requirement in attributes. High-end unique ("green") weapons come with maximum upgrades (be aware that some unique weapons don't) and are usually cheaper than similar, non-unique weapons.

Combat Tactics

A monk has 2 roles in combat: Staying alive and keeping the team alive. Since the second requires the first, staying alive should be the highest priority.

Positioning and Kiting
The simplest (and at the same time hardest) way to stay alive is by not being hit. Monks don't need to be close to the enemy - they can afford to stay back behind the attackers, just in range for heals, but out of range of enemy attacks. Good attackers will position themselves such that they block the enemy from the monk and keep the aggro on the attacker instead of the monk. In case someone still breaks through, or you get targeted by ranged attacks and spells, don't hesitate to run. You are more valuable to the team running away than dead. Run away from the fight (so as to prevent getting targeted by even more enemies) and try to lose the enemy. If you are a monk with Protection Prayers, you can also try to stay and tank, but that is risky and should only be done if you are sure of surviving. If other players on your team can support your kiting, don't hesitate to ask them for a buff, such as Guardian, Windborne Speed, or Sympathetic Visage.

Specifics: Guild versus Guild
In GvG matches, monks are most often the first targets to be attacked, and the ones who have to deal with the most pressure. Due to the high power of Dervishes and speed of Assassins, monks need to carry skills that will help them survive, in return helping their team survive. Common elite skills used are Blessed Light, Zealous Benediction, Divert Hexes and most commonly Light of Deliverance. Light of Deliverance Monks can also be employed as flag runners to secure morale boosts, using Light of Deliverance to keep their party's health up from afar, but they are most commonly used as main monks partnered with a Restore Condition or Divert Hexes monk.

Hex Removal
Hexes are a special type of spell that affects enemies for a period of time. Some of these are minor annoyances, but some have devastating effects. Since removing hexes is time consuming and hex removing skills can not be spammed, it is important that you learn to tell harmless hexes from bad ones and only remove the latter. Affected persons can help by "calling" (CTRL + left click on the hex icon) bad hexes.

Condition Removal
Conditions are less severe than hexes, (still some are more troublesome than others) but they can be applied to enemies at less cost. It is especially the role of Protection Monks to keep the party free of conditions.

Energy Management
Energy management is crucial to a party's survival as a monk with constant energy problems may as well not be there. Three basic rules exist for managing your energy:

1) Be careful not to "over heal" or "over protect" a teammate. Learn how much your spells heal and how effective your various protection spells are. If a target is only missing 30-40 health, it is a waste of energy to heal them, as half of your spell has no effect. Similarly, putting too much protection on a single target can be overkill. If you just used Shield of Deflection on a party member, Guardian would have little effect on them.

2) Never be at full energy. Being at full energy for 4 seconds means that you didn't use 4 seconds' worth of energy regen, which is roughly equivalent to 5 energy. Put that energy regeneration to good use by spending that 5 energy and keeping yourself just barely under maximum energy. The only time you should be at full energy is right before the beginning of a fight.

3) In PvE try to take breaks between fights to regain your lost energy. Most groups are quite willing to wait for you to regen.

4) Use the right spells for the situation. Healing Breeze is perfect when a party member is dealing with minor damage over time, but it becomes a liability (and waste of energy) if enchantment shatterers are nearby.

Resurrecting
Some very few special cases apart, it is not a reasonable thing for monks to resurrect team mates during battle. Monks should be carrying a resurrection spell for the worst case (PvP is an exception here), but only use it after the battle. If the fight goes really wrong, run away and wait for the enemy to scatter before resurrecting.
Resurrecting takes a long amount of time, so if a monk resurrects during battle, usually other team members die before the spell is finished. However, Healer's Boon and Holy Haste can be used to drastically reduce the casting time of resurrection spells in the healing line, and with a staff, wand, or offhand providing 20% half casting time of healing spells, you can occasionally further reduce the casting time of resurrection spells. Glyph of Sacrifice is another option if you can spare the skill slot and the 5 energy to activate it.