Monk Guide

Basic guide for Monk


Introduction:

I'm gonna try to mention some important aspects for a player that plays the role of a monk on a team.
As everybody knows the Monks purpose on the battle field is to heal his party members, but a good monk isn't just the one that doens't let ppl die but the one that also helps them to attack efficiently (removing conditions,hexes,...).
The Monk is the char that has a smaller chance of making mistakes because 99% of the mistakes always result in Dead.
He's also the char that needs to have the better knowledge of the game, skills and all the game mechanic!


Positioning:

Monks have to be the on the back in a battle, that position difficults the opponents action and will force them to overextend (leaving the monks effect area) making them easy to kill for your team and making the opponents monks to move forward.
Usually on the battle field Monks are the primary target of the other team because if a monk dies that's the first step for having the rest of the team killed.
When your party is backing off, the MOnk position is very important because he has to be one of the first to go back and still keep himself in range of his partymembers to remove slows the opponent team may cast and also try to never be caught by those slows.
One of the most common errors in a monk is when he dies cause he was trying to save a teammate, and that's wrong because the Monks main objective is his own survival:


Teamspeak:

Ts is very important in a Team.All party members have to warn the Monk whenever they've dangerous conditions or hexes on them.Monks must warn the rest of the party about the troubles they're facing (Mesmers, warriors, assassins, too much pressure, ...) and also warn when they're low on energy so that the team fallback a bit on those times.


Conditions:

Conditions removal is very important so that the party can still attack at 100%.
The're two kinds od conditions: The ones that cause Degen and the ones that disadvantage a players performance (this ones must be removed straight away).
There's a way to identify the kinf of the conditions that a player has on him:

-When a players Health Bar has a brown arrow turned down but the colour of the bar is still red, that's a condition that has to be removed.For example:Blind, crippled, deep wound, dazed.

-When a players Health Bar turns brown that means that the player has a degen condition.

-When a player has several conditions on him his Health Bar turns brown and it's impossible to distinguish what conditions have to be removed straight away.In this case communication trough TS is very important.


Hexes:

What was said about the condiions is also apliable to hexes altough Health Bar colour with hexes turns pink.
When a player has several Conditions and Hexes on him it's impossible for a Monk to identify it so it has to be the player to warn what hexes and conditions he has on him.
Hexes that need to be removed straight away: Spitefull spirit, Backfire, Diversion, Shame, Arcane langbour, Emphaty, Deep Freeze and other slows, ...


Builds:

When you're making a Monk build think about these topics:

-Enough abillity to Heal;
-Fast skills as for cast as for recharge (for a better response to spike teams);
-The Energy cost of the skill (more then 10 energy is too much);
-Self Defence (ex: Guardian, Contemplation of Purity) ;
-Hexes and Conditions removal (ex: mend condition, inpired hex,...);
-Mana management (Ex: Offering of Blood, Energy drain, Mantra of Recall, Drain Enchantment).

Most common Monk Elite Skills used: Zealous Benediction, Light of Deliverance, Divert Hexes


Armor and Weapons:

The most used armors are Acolytes and those that give more Health Power (It depends on the kind of the Monk that you're playing).
It's not usual to use Major or Superior Runes (Except Superior Vigor ).
On the head you should use the piece that suits better the build you're playing.
As for the weapons you must have two weapons sets in case that you find Drainer Mesmers and you need to "hide" your energy:

-Less energy set, with an Axe or a Sword with -5energy and an offhand without any energy bonus;

-Normal set, with weapons that give you energy bonus (and skill recharge and cast time decrease too ).

Whevever you're energy is drained by a mesmer you should use the less energy set so that you have a backup energy to heal if a partymember is in grave danger.



Analysing the opponent team:

Upon entering the battle field you should always press TAB several times to see what kind of players the other team has.
Important aspects: If they've Mesmers (if they've you'll have to use the 2 weapons sets), if they have assassins, if it's a Spike build, a pressure build, a degen build, ...


Playing against a Pressure build:

Against this kind of builds it's very important to have a good energy management.The purpose of the builds is to make so much pressure that the monks ran out of energy and so the rest of the team dies!
You should always try to stay inside Wards (if you team build has them) and warn you teammates everytime you're under too much pressure or you're running out of energy.


Playing against a Spike build:

The purpose of these kind of builds is to cause a large ammount of damage at the same time on a single target, making it hard for the opposing monk to heal that player.
There're several kinds of Spikes (rainbow, necro, ranger, smite, elementalist,...).
Altough a perfect spike is impossible to know when it's gonna hit, a good advice is to make target at one of the spikers and check the skills he's using trying that way to preddict when is the spike gonna happen.
You should always use the less casting time skills against the spike (Ex:Protective Spirit, Spirit Bond, Reversal of fortune, Infuse Health).
It's against this kind of teams that your reflexes are putten to action.


I hope this ideas help you and i'm open to critics and sugestions!