Ultimate Monk Gladiator - Revision history

Onderduiker at 22:45, 15 May 2011

2011-05-15T22:45:04Z

Read: /* Fast Cast Weapon Set */

2006-12-15T09:18:22Z

Fast Cast Weapon Set

Read: /* Degeneration Mesmers and Necromancers */

2006-12-13T12:38:33Z

Degeneration Mesmers and Necromancers

Read: /* Max Life Weapon Set */

2006-12-13T12:28:51Z

Max Life Weapon Set

Read: /* Interrupting */

2006-12-07T08:58:51Z

Interrupting

Ceolstan at 13:59, 6 December 2006

2006-12-06T13:59:42Z

Read: /* Degeneration Mesmers and Necromancers */

2006-12-04T08:30:40Z

Degeneration Mesmers and Necromancers

Read: /* Energy Management */

2006-12-01T09:36:29Z

Energy Management

Read: /* Obsidian Flame Elementalists */

2006-11-30T18:49:00Z

Obsidian Flame Elementalists

Read: /* Resurrection */

2006-11-30T09:14:40Z

Resurrection

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:45, 15 May 2011
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−	~~''(This article is a stub. You can help The Basin Wiki by expanding it.)''~~
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	'''Ultimate Monk Gladiator (UMG)''' — a monk designed to participate in Random Arena (RA) battles with maximum possible effectiveness. Because of great balance of Guild Wars there is no such thing as perfect character for any in-game task. So in particular there is no perfect RA monk and cannot be. However there are basic concepts of what can increase your effectiveness there and what can lower it. The goal of this guide is to enlighten everything or near everything related to RA monks.		'''Ultimate Monk Gladiator (UMG)''' — a monk designed to participate in Random Arena (RA) battles with maximum possible effectiveness. Because of great balance of Guild Wars there is no such thing as perfect character for any in-game task. So in particular there is no perfect RA monk and cannot be. However there are basic concepts of what can increase your effectiveness there and what can lower it. The goal of this guide is to enlighten everything or near everything related to RA monks.

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	=== Illusionary Weaponry Mesmers ===		=== Illusionary Weaponry Mesmers ===
		+
		+
		+	[[Category:Guild Wars]]

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	=== Fast Cast Weapon Set ===		=== Fast Cast Weapon Set ===
		+	Guild Wars is action game, based on "those laugh well who shoots first" concept. When you enter an arena and the action begins it ends only after a win of one of two sides. Usually you have only very limited time before someone in your team will be killed. Your team must be first who kill all who oppose, and as a monk you are always response for too fast death of your allies. Guild Wars is a race where start is beginning of match and finish is killing all others. The first who has reached the finish wins the match and takes prizes.
		+
		+	The job of monks in this race is keeping opposite team at the start of the race, the imaginary state where your team is at full health.
		+
		+	There are two important kinds of speed in a race: average speed and momentary speed.
		+
		+	At the end of a track, near finish, a runner must use a second breeze to do a spurt: increasing his momentary speed as much as possible. When his teammate is about to be killed in the next few seconds Ultimate Monk Gladiator casts healing or protection spells as soon as possible. He knows that at the same time his enemy is trying to finish the teammate before he will be healed back to full life. That one who is faster wins this little competition. In this case it is a battle between activation time of monk spells and time that opposite team needs to finish its job.
		+
		+	All other time the runner in the track is working on constant keeping as big average speed as he is able to keep for the whole match. Ultimate Monk Gladiator has hit the balance between using his skills as often as possible and saving breath for the final spurt.
		+
		+	Momentary fast casting needs only skills with as short activation time as possible. Average fast casting needs both short activation and recharge time.
		+
		+	Except obvious choosing skill with short activation times all you can do to reduce it is:
		+	* Weapons, reducing activation time of spells. The most effective, easy and popular way to fast casting. Typical example is "Halves casting time of Healing Prayers spells (Chance: 20%)", usually referred as "HCT Healing (20)".
		+	* Glyph of Sacrifice and Glyph of Essence. Make next spell instant. Because all glyphs have 1 second activation time, they have very limited uses for monks, usually for instant resurrection.
		+	* Choosing mesmer as a primary profession and monk as secondary. Mesmers are unique casters because of there fast casting attributes and sometimes make better healers than monks.
		+
		+	Increasing average casting speed usually is a bit more complicated task. In basic frequency of recasting a spell is limited only by its activating and recharge time. However in long run it is also affected by not so obvious things: energy management, running and defending.
		+
		+	Here are all ways to reduce recharge time of skills:
		+	* Weapons, reducing recharge time of spells. E.c. "Halves skill recharge of Healing Prayers spells (Chance: 20%)", referred as "HRT Healing (20)", or "20/20 healing" if it has reduction of activation as well.
		+	* Recharge time reduction skills like Glyph of Renewal, Mantra of Recovery, Serpent's Quickness and others.
		+	* Duplicating skills with Echo and Arcane Echo.
		+	* Morale boost. Recharges all skills instantly. (Unfortunately doesn’t occur in random arenas).
		+
		+	The bottom line is that the best way to increase your casting speed using equipment is using 20/20 wand with 20/20 off-hand weapon.

	=== Max Life Set ===		=== Max Life Set ===

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 === Smiting Monks ===
 === Trappers ===
-=== Degeneration Mesmers and Necromancers ===
+=== Degeneration Builds ===
 === Obsidian Flame Elementalists ===

@@ Line 301: / Line 301: @@
 === Fast Cast Weapon Set ===
-=== Max Life Weapon Set ===
+=== Max Life Set ===
 == '''Prestige''' ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:58, 7 December 2006
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	=== Interrupting ===		=== Interrupting ===
		+	If you ask any arena monk what he hates the most, probably you will get one of the following answers:
		+	* Melee attack (warriors, dervishes, assassins).
		+	* Interruption (mesmers, rangers, warriors)
		+	* Mass degeneration (mesmers, necromancers).
		+	All these threats are bane for each monk, however nothing else can disable an unprepared monk better than constant skill interruption.
		+
		+	As its name says interruption cancels skills if it is implemented right in time of their activation. Not all skills have activation time, but those that have all are potential targets for interruption.
		+
		+	From victim's point of view interrupting looks like this. You start casting a long activating spell, say Remove Hex with its 2 seconds. This is displayed as a progress bar in your interface, allowing you to see how well you are doing. Then suddenly the progress bar becomes purple, you finish the casting, the skill starts recharging, however its effect doesn’t occur. You are interrupted.
		+
		+	You are able to cancel using a skill during its activating by pressing Escape button, or running away, however in this case the skill will be recharged unlike when you are interrupted.
		+
		+	From point of view of those who interrupt, it looks like this. Say, a mesmer, looks who is in opposite team pressing Tab and looking at class abbreviations. He stops when he finds a monk and usually casts a degeneration hex with a cover hex. Usually after this the monk is starting to cast a hex removal or healing spell with big activation time (usually 1 second or more is enough). Then as soon as possible the mesmer casts an interruption spell, when he sees the skill activation progress under victim's life bar, causing the monk to stop his casting, usually attempting to cast another spell. The task of such mesmer is to prevent all casting of the monk, making him useless in the battle.
		+
		+	Another good way to interrupt you is knockdown, widely using by many close combat characters and elementalists.
		+
		+	There are two ways to deal with interruption:
		+	# Skills with short activation time
		+	# Skills that prevents interruption
		+
		+	Also you may just run out of enemy casting range, however this is not always possible. Usually it is a matter of adapting to arena configuration and a situation on the battlefield.
		+
		+	Choosing skills for your next arena battle, pay special attention to their activation time. It is impossible to interrupt instant skill or even a skill with 1/4s activation time. Unfortunately monks have only few such skills. Here is the list of the most useful ones during being attacked by a shutdown character:
		+	* Contemplation of Purity (1/4s)
		+	* Glimmer of Light (1/4s, elite)
		+	* Infuse Health (1/4s)
		+	* Protective Spirit (1/4s)
		+	* Reversal of Fortune (1/4s)
		+	* Shield of Absorption (1/4s)
		+	* Shielding Hands (1/4s)
		+	* Purge Conditions (1/4s)
		+
		+	When playing a protection monk keep in mind that you may freely spam 1/4s protection spells to heal yourself and your allies through divine favor.
		+
		+	If you have 40% chance to half the casting times, then many your 1s or 3/4s spells will be almost instant as well.
		+
		+	Many interruption skills affects only spell, so sometimes while being attacked by shutdown mesmer you may use all signets without any problems, laughing at his face when he loses energy for the interruption.
		+
		+	Some actions don’t have fast alternatives. Good example is resurrection. In this case you may use special interruption preventing skills like Glyph of Concentration, Mantra of Concentration or others. E.c. casting Glyph of Sacrifice with Restore Life on just killed ally could be very depressing act for enemies. Note that such skills can prevent interruption, however they do nothing to knockdowns.
		+
		+	Preventing knockdowns are rare on arenas, this is probably why the knockdown tactic are so effective against casters. However still there are several ways to protect yourself from it. Common ones are Ward of Stability and Balanced Stance.
		+
		+	Another thing to watch for is Dazed condition, which causes you to be interrupted every time when you are attacked at time of spell casting.
		+
		+	By taking a right secondary profession you may interrupt others as well, however keep in mind that this will be hard, because as a monk you usually need your allies to be selected, and to interrupt you need to select a foe.

	=== Running ===		=== Running ===

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 Please note that you never know what you will face after you start a new battle session, so you will never know what part of your build is the most important. Materials here are given without particular order.
-Another important thing to turn your attention on is that there is no objective definition of "good game". Win is all everyone want, but you may lose but still have a good game, or you may win but have a poor game. The difference between good game and bad game lies within your heart and nowhere else.
+Another important thing to turn your attention on is that there is no objective definition of "good game". Winning is what everyone wants, but you may lose yet still have a good game, or you may win but have a poor game. The difference between a good game and a bad game lies within your heart and nowhere else.
 The point of the guild is to light most of monk's abilities, needed for good game.
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 ''Then, by accepting help from God and God’s Signs, he allows his Personal Legend to guide him towards the duties his life has reserved for him.''
 ''Some nights he has nowhere to sleep, on others he suffers from insomnia. He discovers the suffering of certain lost illusions, and the despair of bestowing too much expectation on important moments.''
-''"Such is the Way," thinks the warrior. "It was I decided to take this route."''
+''"Such is the Way," thinks the warrior. "It was I who decided to take this route."''
 ''All his power lies in this phrase. He chose the path along which he walks, and must not complain."''
 == '''Getting Started''' ==
-You don’t need much to become Ultimate Monk Gladiator. Only one thing required, a battle spirit. Whether you have it or not you will be told by your heart and nothing else. That who is not a gladiator within leaves the arena immediately. That who cares about rewards of battle more than the battle itself leaves the arena soon after getting needed or getting bored.
+You don’t need much to become Ultimate Monk Gladiator. Only one thing is required: a battle spirit. Whether you have it or not you will be told by your heart and nothing else. The player who is not a gladiator within leaves the arena immediately. Those who care about the rewards of battle more than the battle itself leave the arena soon after getting what they needed or getting bored.
-True gladiators come to arena to take a look at it but fall in love at once. They fight because nothing is better that good fight for them. Everything that they want is eternal perfection of themselves in battles. Matching another gladiator in arena in a good fight is only thing that makes them happy.
+True gladiators come to arena to take a look at it but fall in love at once. They fight because nothing is better that a good fight for them. Everything that they want lies in the eternal perfection of themselves in battles. Matching themselves against another gladiator in the arena in a good fight is only thing that makes them happy.
-Gladiator is the one with an unique state of a soul no matter how experienced he is. However the state of an Ultimate Gladiator is almost unreachable state of a warrior who hit the perfection in fight. Hundreds and thousands of hours in training lie between them.
+A gladiator is someone with the above unique state of soul--no matter how experienced he is. However the state of an Ultimate Gladiator is the almost unreachable state of a warrior who achieves perfection in fight. Hundreds and thousands of hours in training lie between these two.
-Thus, so if you willing to be an Ultimate Monk Gladiator, go create a new PvP monk take three henchman with you and visit Isle of the Nameless that is right at the north form Balthazar's Temple. Be patient there, learn all what trainers want to teach you there. Then defeat all masters that are offensive there to learn their techniques of fighting.
+Thus, so if you willing to be an Ultimate Monk Gladiator, go create a new PvP monk, take three henchman with you and visit the Isle of the Nameless, which is north from Balthazar's Temple. Be patient there, learn all what trainers want to teach you there. Then defeat all masters that are offensive there to learn their techniques of fighting.
-These basics are enough to start Random Arena. However for advanced practice visit Training Arena fallowed by Zaishen Challenge and Zaishen Elite. Knowledge there is invaluable.
+These basics are enough to start Random Arena. However for advanced practice visit Training Arena followed by Zaishen Challenge and Zaishen Elite. Knowledge there is invaluable.
 == '''PvP versus PvE''' ==
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 The title of this chapter should be read as "Player versus Player versus Player versus Environment". :)
-PvE character has access to anything but must spend time and energy interacting the world to get what he needs. PvP character has most that is needed for battle to start right here and right now. The speed comes at price of freedom. PvP character is less customizable.
+The PvE character has access to anything but must spend time and energy interacting with the world to get what he needs in order to succeed in battle. The PvP character has most of what is needed to start battle immediately, without interacting with the world. This speed comes at price of freedom. The PvP character is less customizable.
 The best advice is to use a PvE character as a main UMG and many PvP characters for training.
 == '''Heal, Protect and Smite!''' ==
-These are the purposes of monks in a battle field. This role means support and usually it is very important support. Having no monk in a ream is a serious handicap. To be effective one should know his place in the team and to know it well. Of cause you may place an accent on your secondary profession, however being primary monk means having monk runes and divine favor, which are intended to support a team.
+These are the purposes of monks in a battle field. The monk role means support and usually it is very important support. Having no monk in a ream is a serious handicap. To be effective one should know his place in the team and to know it well. Of cause you may place an accent on your secondary profession, however being primary monk means having monk runes and divine favor, which are intended to support a team.
-Healer. This role is most popular among monks not only because they like it but also because it is highly demanded by other players. Whole half of monk's skill and attribute lines provide healing: healing prays and divine favor. Usually healers are very weak and are primary targets of all spike classes that deal lots of damage in short time (more about spikes later). Perfect example of healing monk is Master of Healing on Isle of Nameless.
+Healer. This role is most popular among monks not only because they like it but also because it is highly demanded by other players. A full half of the monk's skills and attribute lines provide healing: healing prays and divine favor. However, healers are usually very weak and are thus primary targets of all spike classes, i.e. classes capable of dealing a very high amount of damage in a single attack (more about spikes later). A perfect example of the healing monk is the Master of Healing on the Isle of the Nameless.
-Protector. Since this role is usually combined with some healing it is popular too. Protection monk really shines when combined with healing monk, since this combination is hardly being able to be beaten. His skill and attribute line is Protection Prays. One should be aware that there is no better target for shutdown mesmers than monk, especially if he is specialized on protection. Perfect example of healing monk is Master of Enchanting on Isle of Nameless.
+Protector. Since this role is usually combined with some healing it is popular too. The protection monk really shines when combined with healing monk, since this combination is extremely difficult to defeat. His skill and attribute line is Protection Prays. One should be aware that there is no better target for shutdown mesmers than monk, especially if he specializes in protection. A perfect example of the protector monk is the Master of Enchanting on Isle of Nameless.
-Smiter. Such monk is based on smiting prays line and utilizes the fact that holy damage ignores armor. Smiters are not so popular in random arenas because of relatively small team size, however when implemented right he still can make a viable part of a team. Moreover, since most enemies expect a weak harmless monk off you, dealing lots of irresistible damage to them could be a big surprise. This role is well represented by Smiting Monks team in Zaishen Challenge.
+Smiter. Such monks are based on the smiting prays line and utilize the fact that holy damage ignores armor. Smiters are not so popular in random arenas because of the relatively small team size; however when implemented correctly, the smiter can still be a viable part of a team. Moreover, since most enemies expect you to be a weak, harmless monk, that you can deal lots of armor-ignoring damage to them could be a big surprise. This role is well represented by Smiting Monks team in Zaishen Challenge.
 === Suggested Build for Starting Healer ===

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	=== Energy Management ===		=== Energy Management ===
		+	All normal monks in normal state have 20 energy to spend on their tasks, usually with additional 20 on staff and armor. The cheapest spells cost 5 energy, the most expensive - 25, and some spells can take all your remaining energy. If needed you may increase your energy pool significantly by proper equipment, however many arena fighters prefer to tune their equipment for more important things: defense, life and fast casting.
		+
		+	In neutral situation most monks have 4 points of energy regeneration, represented by right arrows at energy indicator, usually called "pips". Each pip of energy regeneration means one point of energy regenerated in 3 seconds. Therefore, average monk has 40 energy to spend, regenerated in 30 seconds.
		+
		+	Most monks skills cost more energy than is regenerated during there skill-cast end skill-regeneration time. For example please look at typical healing skill, Orison of Healing. It costs 5 points of energy, activates in 1 second and recharges in 2 seconds. If you cast it as frequently as possible, then every 3 seconds you lose 5 points of energy and regenerate 4 of them back, resulting the lose of 1 point total. More expensive skill takes even more energy when used consequently. Moreover if you count only activation time of any eight healing spells, then you will find that casting all of them leaves monk with empty energy pool unable to do anything, save for running away from enemies crying "I have 0 energy of 40".
		+
		+	To handle this situation without a panic you should cast your spells with enough pauses to regenerate all energy back (for example Orison of Healing can be safely cast once for each 4 seconds).
		+
		+	However Ultimate Monk Gladiator usually uses one or several energy management techniques, allowing him to cast all needed spells forever without regeneration breaks even with maximum fast cast equipment. Here is most frequently used of them.
		+
		+	'''Glyph of Lesser Energy'''. Unlinked elementalist skill, reducing the cost of two next spells by 15 points each. It works the best when followed by two expensive spells, however even you cast only 5 energy spell it still saves 5 points of energy for you.
		+
		+	'''Glyph of Energy'''. Unlinked elite elementalist skill that is more powerful version of Glyph of Lesser Energy, however working with only one next spell, but recharging twice as fast.
		+
		+	'''Divine Spirit'''. Divine favor enchantment, reducing the cost of all monk spells by 5 points for short period of time. Unfortunately it has 60 seconds recharge time, but you may handle it with Glyph of Recharge or Echo.
		+
		+	'''Air of Enchantment'''. Works almost like Divine Spirit but recharge in 8 seconds and affects only enchant spells.
		+
		+	'''Offering of Blood'''. Necromancer elite spell. Instantly gives you from 8 to 18 energy for 20% of your health. If you have 500 total health, it takes 100 points of it, which can be easily healed, for example by Signet of Devotion or another monk. As result you have nice backup battery, recharging every 15 seconds.
		+
		+	'''Peace and Harmony'''. Elite divine favor spell. Gives +1 energy regeneration for moderate period of time, restoring 1 more point of energy each 3 seconds.
		+
		+	'''Channeling'''. Inspiration magic enchantment. Gives you 1 energy for each enemy "in the area" every time you cast a spell. Channeling may be a bit tricky to use, but works well when is used properly. "In the area" is a zone about half of your aggro circle. This enchantment in random arena works with the most effectiveness when opposite team is completely alive and is fighting rather closer to you. As result it gives you back some of energy lost for casting spells.
		+
		+	'''Power Drain'''. Inspiration magic spell. It has two important uses that make it very popular: it interrupts an enemy spell casting, and it gives you from 1 to 25 energy if the interruption is successfully done.
		+
		+	'''Mantra of Recall'''. Elite Inspiration magic enchantment. Another very popular and very effective energy management spell, favored among monks. It gives you from 10 to 22 energy when it ends, normally after 20 seconds.
		+
		+	'''Boon Signet'''. Elite divine favor signet. Recharges every 5 seconds and when used, gives you 2 points of energy for each enchantment of targeted ally, no more then 6 points. Very popular among protection monks.
		+
		+	'''Blessed Signet'''. Divine favor signet. Gives you 3 energy for each maintained enchantment. For example if you use one instance of Mending, it reduces you energy regeneration by 1, causing 1 energy "loss" for each 3 seconds. Blessed Signet's casting + recharge time is 12 seconds, so during this time you will "lose" 4 energy from Mending but get 3 from the signet. Usually all monks, utilizing maintained enchantments fix energy loss with Blessed Signet.
		+
		+	'''Signet of Devotion and Signet of Rejuvenation'''. Divine favor and healing preyers respectively. This signet does not cost you any energy, but heals as well as spells. For example at level 13 divine favor and level 14 healing prays, using both on active ally restores 216 health and you regenerate 4 points of energy during 3 seconds of casting time. It actually equals to casting Orison of Healing two times in 11 seconds time range.
		+
		+	'''Ether Signet'''. Inspiration magic signet. Instantly gives you from 10 to 18 energy if your current energy level is below 5...9. Very good energy management skill, unfortunately recharging in whole 60 seconds. It can be fixed with mantra of signets, mantra of inscriptions and some other recharge skills.
		+
		+	Another energy management technique is built around energy hiding and maximum energy equipment. Read respective chapters for all details.

	=== Interrupting ===		=== Interrupting ===

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	=== Resurrection ===		=== Resurrection ===
		+	Among those who play in arenas for a while there is an agreement that some kind of resurrection skill is a must have for every serious fighter. You may customize your character as much as you want but once you have any resurrection skill equipped you already are a valuable team member.
		+
		+	There are many resurrection skills differ by cost, activation time and power. The most effective and most popular of them, Resurrection Signet, has the shortest activation time in the game and restores 100% health and 25% energy. The only problem with it is that you may use it only once in arena battle. To be able to resurrect unlimited amount of times monks have a nice list of restore life skills.
		+
		+	Unfortunately since resurrection are usually expected from you as a monk when someone in your team is killed all enemies who can will look for you to interrupt your easily to interrupt long casting time resurrection skill. If you don’t have any way to deal with the interruptions better take the Resurrection Signet or may be even don’t take any rebirth at all, because monks have many other skills that could be more important.
		+
		+	Perfect example of one of the most effective resurrect combos in arenas is Glyph of Concentration + Restore Life. It can only be interrupted at the start, and onece you have finished, your teammate is brought back with almost full energy and health. Another such example is Glyph of Sacrifice + Restore Life. However, this one adds 30 seconds to resurrection skill's recharge time.
		+
		+	If you have good equipment with fast cast of all spells, you may try to use Resurrect spell, followed by healing, as more simply alternative, useful when there is no interrupters around.

	=== Energy Management ===		=== Energy Management ===