User:Tycn/General monk guide

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 * Monk skills list

Introduction
Monks are a vital addition to most balanced teams in both PvP and PvE. They are often played as a pure support character, using efficient heals and damage mitigation to ensure that your team can focus on fulfilling their roles, as well as in some cases using Smiting Prayers to boost the damage of allies. Most monks can be split into three groups:

Protection monks
Protection monks typically use damage mitigation, condition removal and flat-out healing to keep a team healthy. They tend to be more versatile than healing monks, and can deal with a wider variety of threats.

Common skills used by Protection Monks include: 
 * [[reversal of fortune] is a staple for almost all monks that have a reasonable investment in Protection Prayers. It quickly and efficiently heals an ally, as well as negating the next hit. It loses much of its efficiency against multiple packets of small damage, such as Conjures.
 * [[shielding hands] and [[shield of absorption] however work much better against small packets of damage. Shielding Hands has a quick cast and is extremely efficient in countering enemies using skills such as Kindle Arrows and Conjures, but Shield of Absorption will be quickly charged up on an ally under pressure, often reducing all damage taken to zero.
 * [[spirit bond] and [[protective spirit] are the main skills used to counter spike damage. Spirit Bond has a shorter recharge and duration, and its healing effects often almost cancels out a spike completely. However, it loses effectiveness against extremely hard-hitting monsters in PvE, and moderate damage in PvP. Protective Spirit lasts much longer, and stacks well with other damage mitigation skills such as Shield of Absorbtion. It can slow down spike damage in PvP enough for an infuse monk to react and infuse the ally, but often won't save an ally on its own. However, it is much more effective against massive damagers in PvE, such as Elementalist and Ritualist bosses.
 * [[dismiss condition], [[mend condition], [[mend ailment], [[draw conditions] and [[mending touch] are the most common condition removal skills for protection monks. Dismiss Condition is often the best choice, bearing a short recharge time and the possibility of healing. Mend Condition has a shorter recharge, but requires some sort of self condition removal, and is often paired with Mending Touch. Draw Conditions is useful for quickly getting rid of condition stacks or conditions such as Blind on warriors, and is often accompanied by Mending Touch, Purge Conditions, or another monk with Restore Condition
 * [[gift of health] is widely used by protection monks. Normally with an investment of around 8 Healing Prayers, having GoH as your only Healing Prayers spell lets you use it without being affected by its downside. Similarly, [[signet of devotion] is often used to heal teammates on prot monks.
 * [[Holy Veil], [[Smite Hex] and [[Deny Hexes] are often the most viable hex removal skills for monks. Holy Veil allows you to remove hexes like Backfire without casting a spell, but is affected by skills such as Nature's Renewal and requires an awkward double-click to remove a hex. Smite Hex is simpler to use, and can deal a small amount of damage. Deny Hexes can remove a large stack of hexes with a few recharging Divine Favour skills, but don't bring unnecessary skills just for that reason. Remove Hex is extremely risky with it's 2 second cast time, and should only be used if you're going into an area with no interrupts.
 * [[aegis] is also extremely common on protection monks, especially in teams of 8 or more, where its efficiency is greatly increased. However, it is supceptable to interruption and enchant removal, particularly Mirror of Disenchantment. It is most useful for teams that have many spellcasters or semicasters, where it is often chained for more coverage. Its energy cost can be mitigated with Glyph of Lesser Energy or Auspicious Incantation.

Protection monks also have access to a wide range of elites that fulfill a wider range of roles compared to healing monks. Generally, a protection monk will take the elite which fits into their team most. A team of warriors would be easily shut down by blind/weakness or anti-melee hexes, so Restore Condition or Divert Hexes might be an option. However, for general PvE, a more versatile elite that has unconditional healing such as Blessed Light or Shield of Regeneration might be more suitable.
 * [[zealous benediction] offers a large heal that is extremely efficient if its condition is met. However, it alone cannot deal with heavy pressure, especially if it affects many teammates at once. It is most efficient in areas with teams of 4, such as the Arenas.
 * [[restore condition] is perhaps one of the most common protection elite in PvP, allowing a monk to quickly remove a large condition stack as well as heal for a large amount. It also negates the need for other condition removal skills in your team, except for maybe Mending Touch on the Restore Condition monk or Draw Conditions on another caster.
 * [[shield of regeneration] is also relatively common, especially in the lower forms of PvP. It heals allies passively, letting you deal with another threat. However, heavy enchant removal means you're elite won't be of much use most of the time, and it loses a lot of its efficiency if it's cast on someone near full health. It's energy cost is also hard to manage if not mitigated with skills such as Glyph of Lesser Energy.
 * [[divert hexes] is useful for areas with multiple hexes in PvE, or when hex pressure is commonplace in the metagame in PvP. It offers condition removal, hex removal, and healing all in one package, but it is useless if the enemy team has no hexes, which isn't very rare in organized PvP.
 * [[shield of deflection] is also widely used to counter melee spikes, due to its quick cast time and recharge. However, it is often too narrow focused for use in PvE or the Arenas.
 * [[life sheath] is an efficient damage mitigation elite, however its recharge time and cast time can be prohibitive when facing heavy pressure.

Healing monks
Healing monks typically respond to damage, rather than prevent it.

Common skills for Healer Monks are: Common Elite Skills are:
 * [[Orison of Healing] is the most basic healing spell. A cheap, quick heal, that mainly utilizes the Divine Favor bonus to provide health. However, efficiency is traded off for a fast recharge time of 2 seconds.
 * [[Dwayna's Kiss] and [[Words of Comfort] are the conditional non-elite heals. They are often used as an efficient replacement for Orison of Healing, since they heal for slightly less when their conditions aren't met, but are much more efficient when they are.
 * [[Heal Party] is a party wide heal, which can be efficient if the damage being taken by the party is very spread out. Skills like [[Glyph of Lesser Energy] should be utilised to mitigate the high energy cost. Beware of the long casting time in PvP or in areas with frequent interruptions.
 * [[Ethereal Light] is similar to [[Orison of Healing], but it heals for more, with the drawback of being easily interrupted. With skill's such as [[Healer's Boon] and [[Holy Haste], this drawback can be nearly nullified.
 * [[Healing Seed] is a non-elite alternative to [[Healing Hands], and is extremely useful for allies taking damage from multiple sources at one time. Especially in teams with multiple frontliners, the AoE heal may affect more one ally. Healing Seed is less useful in PvP, where human enemies would quickly switch targets.
 * [[healing breeze] provides health regeneration, however its effiency is subpar compared to most other healing skills. It has the minor benefit of being just as powerful without an investment in Divine Favour.
 * [[mending] is a commonly used maintained enchantment, providing constant minor health regeneration in exchange for a pip of energy regeneration. However, its efficiency is inferior to other healing skills in most cases, and usually isn't the best choice for self healing.
 * [[Word of Healing] provides a massive heal to allies below 50% health, for a very small cost. However, when up against party-wide pressure, skills like [[light of deliverance] offer much higher efficiency.
 * [[Light of Deliverance] is basically [[Heal Party], but to allies with <80% health. It is incredibly efficient, and can heal an 8 player party for 680 health for 5 energy. It is one of the most efficient heals in the Healing Prayers line, and can be used to great effectiveness in both PvE and PvP.
 * [[Healer's Boon] reduces the cast time of spells, and increases the healing amount by 50%. It makes [[Heal Party] a very good heal, healing the whole party for over 100 health. It costs a pip of energy regen however, so be aware. It also synergises well with unconditional heals such as [[orison of healing] and [[heal other].
 * [[healing hands], the elite version of [[healing seed], provides an effect like protection spells that can be useful for defending an ally being attacked by multiple enemies. However, its low duration and long recharge means that other alternatives such as [[shield of absorption] are usually a better choice.



Smiting Monks
Smiting Monks as a part of balanced builds are more prevalent in PvP, where they often use enchantments to create AoE damage centred on a teammate, or indirectly increase the DPS of allies. Some smiting monks use more direct damage skills, but these are usually inferior to the damage skills of other caster professions, such as Elementalists.
 * [[zealot's fire] is a common skill for smiters, which is often combined with [[air of enchantment] as well as spammable enchantments such as [[reversal of fortune] to create constant AoE damage centered on a teammate.
 * [[judge's insight] is also widely used, especially to increase the damage of heavy hitters such as Warriors and Dervishes. Beware of the long cast time, however.
 * [[strength of honor] has set boost in damage, making it more useful for quick attackers such as Assassins. [[blessed signet] is recommended when bonding several allies at once.
 * [[balthazar's aura] is also a very powerful skill, creating an armour-ignoring AoE effect in an ally. Best used on allies with speed boosts and preferably knockdowns, such as Hammer Warriors. Skills like [[auspicious incantation] are often used to mitigate the high energy cost.



Other Elites
The Monk profession offers many Divine Favour and Unlinked elites, which can often be used effectively by almost any type of monk.
 * [[blessed light] can be used effectively on just about any monk to offer an efficient and versatile elite, especially when combined with Deny Hexes to counter large hex stacks. Signet of Devotion from the same attribute would also serve as energy management.
 * [[signet of removal] is an efficient way to remove hexes and conditions, but the requirement means it works best on teams with bonders. It can be used effectively on a Smiter, due to its synergy with [[zealot's fire], allowing them to assist in relieving pressure.
 * [[empathic removal] also provides cheap hex and condition removal, extremely efficient if it helps a teammate as well. However, it can often be used more effectively on a secondary Monk, as primary Monks already have excellent options for hex and condition removal.
 * [[aura of faith] is a less commonly seen elite, and is usually used in specialised PvE builds where a 'tank' would be recieving most of the damage, allowing the monks in the team to heal much more efficiently.

A secondary profession
The secondary profession of a monk is normally used for either energy managment or survival skills. In PvE, the latter is often unneccessary because mobs don't have the intelligence to all go for the monk first. Energy managment, however, is still important, especially when dealing with the heavy party-wide damage that large mobs can inflict.

Mesmer Elementalist Ritualist Assassin Dervish Ranger Warrior
 * Mesmers offer several energy management skills. One of the most common is [[Channeling] because of it's massive energy return especially in PvP where there may be many enemies attacking the monk at once. Its effectiveness is diminished in PvE where enemies may just go for the first person they see. For PvE, many monks resort to using [[inspired hex] and [[revealed hex] for hex removal and minor energy management. [[auspicious incantation] can also be combined with expensive skills like [[aegis] for a free cast. [[hex breaker] can defend monks from Hexes like [[Shame].
 * Elementalists have the popular skill, [[GoLE]. It reduces the cost of your next 2 skills by 10 energy. It is often paired with [[aegis] for Protection Monks, or [[heal party] for Healing Monks, reducing the energy cost to only 5 for each cast.
 * Ritualist's spirits and some of their spells offer great party support, but they don't synergise very well with a Monk primary, since Divine Favour only works on monk spells.
 * Assassin's offer some good survival skills, such as [[Return]. It cripples nearby enemies, while also jumping you to safety, invaluable for when you're being spiked by melee enemies. It also has a very short recharge. For PvE, however, the Assassin secondary profession has little to offer a Monk.
 * Dervish enchantments can also contribute to survivability. [[Conviction] can be used to boost the Monk's fragile armour level, when combined with long lasting enchantments such as [[vital boon].
 * Some monks use [[melandru's resilience] to combat hexes and conditions as well as serve as energy managment. However, this is extremely conditional and is easily removable through skills like [[wild throw].
 * The Warrior secondary has a wide range of defensive skills to aid a PvP monk. [[shield bash] serves as a cheap defensive skill against warriors and assassins. [[disciplined stance] serves the same purpose, sacrificing a knockdown for a longer duration. [[balanced stance] helps counter knockdowns, the bane of most monks. [[frenzied defense] can offer solid defense against attackers when paired with [[protective spirit], as long as there is no enchant removal in the area.

Paragon Necromancer
 * The Paragon secondary has little to offer a monk, however in some cases [[leader's zeal] can be used for effective energy management.
 * While a rare secondary, Necromancer skills such as [[Consume Corpse] can be used for corpse denial if no other party members can carry it. [[offering of blood] was widely used as energy management, but this became rarer with the release of Nightfall and elites such as [[zealous benediction].

Sample builds
Protection Builds [build prof=mo/any prot=12+1+1 healing=8+1 divine=10+1][reversal of fortune][gift of health][optional] [shield of absorption][spirit bond][dismiss condition][holy veil][optional][/build] This is a basic protection bar, which can be used effectively in almost all forms of PvP. [[reversal of fortune] serves as a quick heal, while [[gift of health] serves as an unconditional one. [[shield of absorption] helps mitigate multiple packets of damage, such as that from Conjure warriors, and [[spirit bond] lets you quickly mitigate spike damage. [[dismiss condition] allows you to remove conditions with a fast recharge, and [[holy veil] can be maintained to quickly remove hexes like [[migraine]. Protection builds tend to be very flexible, and the current bar is just an example. [[deny hexes] is a good replacement for [[holy veil] if you use a Divine Favor skill such as [[signet of devotion]. [[shield of absorption] can be replaced by [[shielding hands] for a faster cast. [[dismiss condition] can be replaced by [[mend ailment] to counter condition stacks, or [[mend condition] if your build already has adequate self conditino removal, such as [[mending touch]. The elite is open, and most protection monks in areas such as Arenas, Competitive Missions and Alliance Battles will opt for an elite with healing potential, such as [[shield of regeneration], [[blessed light] and [[zealous benediction]. These work well in those areas because of the versatility required, and the good chance that there won't be a second monk. For other forms of PvP such as Guild Battles, you will know what your team setup is like, so you can choose an elite that fits into your team. The second optional slot is usually used for a skill from your secondary profession. Depending on your secondary, you may choose a skill for energy management, or one to boost your survivability. Like your elite, these skills should considered in the context of your team. [[Return] for example, may not be necessary if your team already has a [[shield of deflection] monk.