User:Hercanic/Team:Nigh-Indestructible Prophecies Threesome/SB Monk

=SB Monk=

Attributes and Skills
[build prof=mo/me divine=12+3+1 prot=6+3 illusion=9 inspiration=7 ][Blessed Signet][Sympathetic Visage][Shielding Hands][Protective Spirit][Spell Breaker][Mantra of Frost][Essence Bond][Blessed Aura][/build]

Equipment

 * Armor
 * Runes: 4 Superiors and 1 Attunement = -300 +2
 * Insignias: 5 Radiant = +8
 * Armor Rating: 45 or lower


 * Weapon
 * Anything with a "20% longer enchantment" mod.

Usage

 * 1) At the start of an area, immediately cast Essence Bond and Blessed Aura on yourself.
 * 2) If you are unfamiliar with the range of spirits, have the Ranger set one down to test. It is important not to overextend yourself while piling up a mob. Do not lead a mob near spirits either, as some will break aggro and kill them.
 * 3) Find a mob and let your teammates know how much room you'll need to pull. Designate a spot where you will lead the mob. Melee and tighly packed ranged mobs are straightforward, but ranged attackers who are spread out will need to be threaded together--when mobs give chase, they tend to converge on each other. Take note of your surroundings. Snagging against an object is a quick way to become body-blocked.
 * 4) Wait for the Ranger to set up his spirits. When they are all up, cast in order: Spell Breaker, Protective Spirit, Mantra of Frost, and Shielding Hands. Damage tends to filter through enchantments from first cast to last, so order is very important. Once up, as long as they are maintained, so will their order.
 * 5) As you are preparing your enchantments, the Necro should inject you with Blood Ritual. Prompt him by holding Ctrl while casting.
 * 6) Cast Sympathetic Visage just before moving into aggro range.
 * 7) Pull your monster train to your team's designated spot. Lead melee attackers back to ranged foes. You want everything taken out in one shot. Also keep in mind Sympathetic Visage only triggers from melee attacks.
 * 8) Corners and walls are ideal to pull a mob along as they will generally prevent a mob from fully encircling you. This will ensure the Necro's Spiteful Spirit will hit all targets. Also try to keep the mob further away from your teammates than yourself. This way the Necro can apply Healing Breeze on you without touching the mob with his own aggro bubble.
 * 9) Maintain Sympathetic Visage, Shielding Hands, Protective Spirit, Spell Breaker, and Mantra of Frost at all times. Energy will be plentiful, even with only a few opponenets.
 * 10) * Only against a single opponent with a slow attack rate will Blessed Signet be required.
 * 11) The skillbar is organized by skill duration for ease of reapplication. Your eyes should be fixated on the expiration bars of your enchantments, and your fingers resting on the number keys. The only skill with any gap from its recharge time is Sympathetic Visage. It will be down for one second, plus another to cast.
 * 12) The mob should soon succumb to the Necro's Spiteful Spirits. After a fight, allow the Necro to top off your energy with Blood Ritual along with Blessed Signet if you need it.
 * 13) Rinse and repeat.

Counters

 * Any enchantment removal or degeneration spells when Spell Breaker is not up.
 * Daze: If enemies can easily inflict Daze, bring a skill to remove it. Otherwise, Sympathetic Visage should preempt most skills that can apply it.
 * Bleeding, Burning, Poison, and Disease causing heavy degeneration: Likely to happen only in the beginning of a fight before Sympathetic Visage has drained everyone. Healing Breeze from the Necro can counteract most of it. Since the Monk has much more health than the typical 55hp monk, there is plenty of time to react. A condition-removal skill, as with Daze, will help.
 * Knockdowns: Queue up your next spell while knocked down, and it should go off before being knocked down again. The Ranger should aim to interrupt such skills, but that is not always practical on some mobs. If KDs are truly a problem, the Eye of the North skill offers protection. However, this being a strictly Prophecies-only team build, pretend it was never suggested...
 * Interrupts: Spell-based interrupts are blocked by Spell Breaker, skill-based interrupts are drained by Sympathetic Visage, and signet-based interrupts are prevented with the Ranger's Primal Echoes. Aside from that, timing is key, and you can coax interrupts from foes by using a fast-casting skill before using a skill with a longer activation time. Just wait a second before casting to allow the AI to finish their interrupt ability.
 * : Stay away from dead bodies. Proper use of Spiteful Spirit by the Necro and stacking by the Monk should ensure all foes die at the same time. However, if they do not and the mob is known to have this skill, run run run. It takes 3 seconds to cast this spell, so there is time to move. Or, if the Ranger is dextrous enough, interrupted.
 * : Due to an update that changed Chilblains from a PBAoE to a targeted spell, it cannot be used against the Monk directly. However, should either the Ranger or Necro get too close, they could be targetted and thus strip the Monk.
 * : This can lock up Spell Breaker, leaving the Monk open to enchantment removal. The Ranger's Primal Echoes combined with the energy drain from the Monk's Sympathetic Visage should shut it down, but that takes time. The Ranger will need to be on his toes ready to interrupt this skill.
 * or : Once a preparation is up, it cannot be removed until it expires. Although Sympathetic Visage can prevent reapplication, once up for the first time the Monk must be careful and pace his casting appropriately between attacks until the preparation ends.
 * : All party members have two available pips of energy regeneration to compensate for precisely this skill. If using a +15 energy inscription which takes 1 pip of energy regen, bring along a second set of weapons to equip while under the effects of this spirit.
 * : The Monk will have 8-9 enchantments on him. More health means Protective Spirit will not prevent as much damage, spilling over past Shielding Hands. Your best hope is simply to kill the spirit.
 * : Similar to Symbiosis, but less severe. Keep Healing Breeze on the Monk until the spirit can be killed.
 * : Kill it, kill it, kill it.
 * : As it will only activate from physical damage, the Ranger's Greater Conflagration prevents its effects.
 * : This is dangerous, but thankfully only removes one enchantment. Use Healing Breeze as a cover enchantment. Drain their energy with Sympathetic Visage and the Ranger's Primal Echoes will prevent them from using this skill again.
 * : As long as Sympathetic Visage is able to drain their energy, no worries. The Necro will need to hold off on Spiteful Spirit until then.
 * : Er...run?

Skill Breakdown and Variants

 * Note: Energy and recharge  numbers denote the effects of Quickening Zephyr on relevant skills.


 * 5
 * The Monk will receive 4 energy per hit, allowing all enchantments to be maintained indefinately against just two foes with an attack rate as low as 2.7 seconds (Hornbow). One foe with an attack rate of 2 seconds cannot be maintained for longer than 60 seconds, though it can be done with a 1.3 second attack rate. Blessed Signet used once every 7 seconds makes a single foe with a 2 second attack rate tankable. However, an attack rate of 2.7 from a single foe, even with Blessed Signet, can only be upheld for just shy of two minutes. Blessed Signet cannot be used if the Ranger has deployed Primal Echoes, however, so communication will be necessary if and when the Monk plans to use it. The necessity of this skill depends entirely on how your team plans to handle singlular opponents.
 * : An alternative way to gain energy, and an interrupt to boot. Like Blessed Signet, it is less worthwhile if Primal Echoes is active. Unfortunately it has a longer recharge, provides less energy return over time, and its value depends entirely on the enemy's actions.
 * : Similar to Leech Signet, but it does not conflict with Primal Echoes and it has a faster recharge. However, it returns slightly less energy and can only interrupt spells (which will generally be unused while Spell Breaker is active).
 * : Heavy degeneration and daze are very dangerous, so it doesn't hurt to have a way to remove them.
 * : Can serve as both a quick escape and a faster means of maneuvering around foes while gathering aggro.
 * : Can serve as both a quick escape and a faster means of maneuvering around foes while gathering aggro.


 * 13 10
 * Key in shutting down a myriad of troublesome skills, but useless without melee attackers. If a mob lacks melee fighters, find another that does and lead them to each other. With a 20% longer enchantment mod, this skill will last 9 seconds, leaving a gap of two seconds. Monsters have five pips of energy regen, meaning in that time they will only recover 3.3 energy. Compound that with the added energy cost from Quickening Zephyr, and monsters shouldn't be able to do much of anything during that downtime. As for adrenaline, rapid attackers may gain enough for a 4-strike ability, but not much else.
 * Key in shutting down a myriad of troublesome skills, but useless without melee attackers. If a mob lacks melee fighters, find another that does and lead them to each other. With a 20% longer enchantment mod, this skill will last 9 seconds, leaving a gap of two seconds. Monsters have five pips of energy regen, meaning in that time they will only recover 3.3 energy. Compound that with the added energy cost from Quickening Zephyr, and monsters shouldn't be able to do much of anything during that downtime. As for adrenaline, rapid attackers may gain enough for a 4-strike ability, but not much else.


 * 7 8
 * This will last 12 seconds with an 8 second recharge, allowing it to be kept up indefinately. Due to all damage being negated, an infinite amount of foes may be tanked. Because the Monk does not rely on health regeneration, he can have upwards of three times the health of a typical 55hp monk.
 * This will last 12 seconds with an 8 second recharge, allowing it to be kept up indefinately. Due to all damage being negated, an infinite amount of foes may be tanked. Because the Monk does not rely on health regeneration, he can have upwards of three times the health of a typical 55hp monk.


 * 13 3
 * One of the most common skills found in farming builds, and with good reason. It is a very robust skill with a long duration, reasonable cost, and fast casting time. Of all enchantments, though, if this is lost the Monk will near-instantly perish.
 * : Due to the Monk taking in 4 energy per hit, this dusty skill could actually be used with 13 in Protection Prayers. Although it will hog 3/4ths of the Monk's energy income, it would allow the monk to have a more 'normal' amount of health by dropping any unused superior runes. The increase in Protection Prayers would raise Shielding Hands to 16 damage reduction, and the Monk would take half damage compared to Protective Spirit. Up to 380hp (428hp with 10% Morale) would be feasible. As it is a maintained enchantment, it would also be one less ability to worry about renewing.
 * : Due to the Monk taking in 4 energy per hit, this dusty skill could actually be used with 13 in Protection Prayers. Although it will hog 3/4ths of the Monk's energy income, it would allow the monk to have a more 'normal' amount of health by dropping any unused superior runes. The increase in Protection Prayers would raise Shielding Hands to 16 damage reduction, and the Monk would take half damage compared to Protective Spirit. Up to 380hp (428hp with 10% Morale) would be feasible. As it is a maintained enchantment, it would also be one less ability to worry about renewing.


 * 20 23 (Capture Location)
 * The surest counter to an Invincimonk is enchantment stripping, and Anet has updated many regions to feature such skills to deter farming. Only the most daring attempt such areas without spell protection. Without it, some locations would be impossible.
 * The surest counter to an Invincimonk is enchantment stripping, and Anet has updated many regions to feature such skills to deter farming. Only the most daring attempt such areas without spell protection. Without it, some locations would be impossible.


 * 13 10
 * The bane of any tank is a lack of energy to maintain their crucial enchantments. Most 55hp monk tanks suffer with too few or too many foes. Shielding Hands eliminates the problem of too many, and the damage reduction of Mantra of Frost helps the Monk keep more health. Too few enemies and a 55hp monk will not make enough energy to afford his enchantments. With the likes of Essense Bond, Balthazar's Spirit from the Necro, and Mantra of Frost, which is always triggered from the Ranger's Greater Conflagration/Winter combo, the Monk will rake in 4 energy from every hit he sustains. More than enough energy to retain all enchantments, even with only two attackers.
 * The bane of any tank is a lack of energy to maintain their crucial enchantments. Most 55hp monk tanks suffer with too few or too many foes. Shielding Hands eliminates the problem of too many, and the damage reduction of Mantra of Frost helps the Monk keep more health. Too few enemies and a 55hp monk will not make enough energy to afford his enchantments. With the likes of Essense Bond, Balthazar's Spirit from the Necro, and Mantra of Frost, which is always triggered from the Ranger's Greater Conflagration/Winter combo, the Monk will rake in 4 energy from every hit he sustains. More than enough energy to retain all enchantments, even with only two attackers.


 * Important in allowing the Monk to tank any number of foes endlessly, as per above.
 * Important in allowing the Monk to tank any number of foes endlessly, as per above.


 * Without it, Spell Breaker could not be used continuously and other monk enchantments would expire faster, demanding energy at a faster rate and reducing the minimum number of foes that can be tanked.
 * Without it, Spell Breaker could not be used continuously and other monk enchantments would expire faster, demanding energy at a faster rate and reducing the minimum number of foes that can be tanked.

=Team Navigation=
 * 1) Overview
 * 2) SB Monk
 * 3) SS Necro
 * 4) GC Ranger
 * 5) Two-Man Variant
 * 6) Guides