User:Grendal/Guide: Basic Monk

The follow is a article written by an old guildy of mine that i think is quite useful.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTENT IS OUTDATE AND CURRENTLY BEING CORRECTED
So you're a monk... then you are our God on the battlefield.. a very squishy God that we will scream at once in awhile! BUT, don't take it to heart...afterall, if it wasn't for your efforts we wouldn't stand a chance!

Energy Management Part 1
The most important aspect of monking and the most difficult. Heal us.. but heal wisely. Try and gauge the damage we're taking and what heal would be most efficient. For example: the whole team is taking on damage... instead of spamming orison on all of us heal party might be more suitable. If possible practice in great temple of balthazar to gauge exactly how much you heal people for. Overhealing is a pure waste of energy. There's a big difference between healing someone w/ a loss of 1/4 health to 1/3rd health... it really helps to be able to identify a health bar and know exactly when it's the ideal time to heal them.

Save Yourself!
Your health and the other monks health is first in line. Everyone else takes a number. Keeping yourself alive is an important strat.. it give us time to do our thing and at the same time keeps their dmg dealers at bay. In a sense you're distracting the other team.

Energy Management - Part 2
You should have some sort of NRG buff .. duh! There is no such thing as too much energy! Keep your buffs up even when you have a good amount. If you're low on energy and you have to choose between healing/prot someone or waiting a little to buff your nrg pool.. WAIT IT OUT! If you go down that one person who you had to let go will quickly turn into 2, 3, 4 people you lose.

There's a Bullseye on your forehead!
You will be targeted.. it's a given you know this... but you can do things to make yourself less of a target. Move around.. kite... strafe.. got a warrior on you try to run towards our other casters and see if you can force a body block using them... hey better them than you! Kiting will allow you to evade physical attacks.. and it also buys you time to do your magic. Now I know when things get hectic it's natural to want to retreat back to mommy or in this case the guild lord but.. you are part of the backline.. please do not go to far away from the rest of the casters. Run around in circles if need be but don't run away from us completely. MOST IMPORTANTLY: DON'T STAND IN ONE SPOT THE WHOLE TIME CASTING.. YOU WILL DIE!

Line of Sight and Avoiding the Enemy!
Use the map to your advantage when you can! In our guild hall map we have big boulders that can give you cover. There's walls, burms, NPC's use whatever you can as cover.. if they can't see you or get to you all the better.

Speak Up!
If you're in trouble we need to know pronto. We may not be able to save you.. but it will change the strategy of our game in efforts to save you from less harm in the future. Energy troubles let us know asap.. so we know to watch ourselves better. Mesmer on your ass.. let us know so we can change priority targets. Grendal may make the decisions on the battlefield but your input weighs extremely heavy in the choices he makes.

I can't keep up with conditions/hexes
I know we ask alot from you guys.. but we're trying to alleviate your work load w/ new team builds. Believe it or not it's not necessary to remove every condition/hex as they will eventually expire. Stuff that do need to be removed pronto are things that lower our ability to fulfill our roles.. ie. blind on warriors... divert hexes on our casters.. and of course stuff that mean certifiable death.

Equipment Check!
Monks need to have good equipment.. and when i mean good i mean best stats possible. Sure that ghostly staff is purty.. but please use a 20/20 item. Desert collector weapons have perfect stats just like PVP built chars.. so if ya need one let us know. Also, ascetics nrg armor is nice.. but please wear at least one piece of improved chest armor... there's a 39% chance you will get hit in the chest so cover it w/ censors or something w/ a bonus.

Skill Benefits and Spending Attributes Wisely!
So you got mend condition on your bar but you're a healer and you're not getting the most out of it. Even if it heals for 1pt. it don't matter... what matters is that it removes the conditions fast! Don't worry about dumping points into prot if it's your ownly prot spell.. dump pts where it matters inspiration, divine, etc.

Don't Take Things to Heart!
Seriously we know your job is tough. It's not your fault if we lose. Don't get down on yourself if you failed to heal when someone went out of range. If we yell at ya.. it's cuz we love you.. well that's what my mom always told me.