Guild Wars

[DrSpike]

Madness.

[Jamski]

Hold on... why would anyone NOT want a connection at home?

On the subject of monks (again)...

I've found a way to have unlimited energy, allowing me to continually spam Heal Party. Totally weak in PvP if the other team know what's going on, but pretty good in that I can stay right back out of sight of my party and the fight

On the main tank cast Essence Bond and Life Bond. On yourself cast Balthazar's Blessing. Every time that main tank gets hit, half the damage is transfered to you, with a substantial reduction (with good enough Protection Prayers you normally take 0 damage. Lots and lots of 0's) and you gain 2 energy.

Of course, you lose 3 pips of energy regen if you keep these enchantments up, but that tank always takes at least 3 hits/sec as a min - that's 6 energy/sec, plus you still have 1 regen = 7 energy/sec. Heal Party takes 2 secs to cast, and has the usual short delay after casting while the animation fires (0.75 secs?) so you can spam it continuously (since it recharges instantly) so long as the tank is getting hit. If energy does run low, then the 5th slot on the bar is for Blessed Signet, which gives 3 energy for every enchantment you're running (=9) and recharges in a very reasonable 10 seconds. That leaves 3 slots free for whatever I want. Mend Ailment is nice, I guess some kind of Res skill just in case, and a spammable attack spell or a spammable heal.

I did a test on Gypsy Ettins using poor old Stefan the Henchman and me. I was able to cast continously for ~10 minutes before I realised that Stephan and I would never do enough damage to kill even one of them.

Now, this build is pretty useless against PvP, because if people don't attack the tank, I hardly have any regen. And if people attack me, all I can do is run. But for PvE... could be great. I need to find a warrior who can be trusted to draw ALL the aggro, and then I need a nuker to kill the baddies while they beat on the tank.

I'm off to refine the build now Doesn't even use a single elite skill yet.

[child of Thor]

So how does this rate in comparison to other MORPGs people have played? from an outsiders perspective it sound very very good, maybe the best yet? How would a Ranger/Monk char fare?(as this would be the kind of char i like to role-play)

Oh and reference not wanting net at home - i get it all day at work, so i need some respite

[Barinthus]

I'd gladly volunteer to be your tank, Jamski, but I'm sure by the time I finally play the game you'll be too far ahead for me.

I have the game in my hands but I'm too busy today and am flying out to my parents' for two weeks... and they don't have a PC So I will have to wait until July. sigh.

[SirOsis]

Well the game plays great on dialup so you could get that and not have a 'true' internet connection.

Yeah, how is a Ranger/Monk? I'm still deciding on my secondary. I was going Ranger/Necro but my friend is going with that primary. So what should it be? Never really gave secondary monk a thought. I need to find the monk trainer to get a taste.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Jamski
Hold on... why would anyone NOT want a connection at home?

On the subject of monks (again)...

I've found a way to have unlimited energy, allowing me to continually spam Heal Party. Totally weak in PvP if the other team know what's going on, but pretty good in that I can stay right back out of sight of my party and the fight

On the main tank cast Essence Bond and Life Bond. On yourself cast Balthazar's Blessing. Every time that main tank gets hit, half the damage is transfered to you, with a substantial reduction (with good enough Protection Prayers you normally take 0 damage. Lots and lots of 0's) and you gain 2 energy.

Of course, you lose 3 pips of energy regen if you keep these enchantments up, but that tank always takes at least 3 hits/sec as a min - that's 6 energy/sec, plus you still have 1 regen = 7 energy/sec. Heal Party takes 2 secs to cast, and has the usual short delay after casting while the animation fires (0.75 secs?) so you can spam it continuously (since it recharges instantly) so long as the tank is getting hit. If energy does run low, then the 5th slot on the bar is for Blessed Signet, which gives 3 energy for every enchantment you're running (=9) and recharges in a very reasonable 10 seconds. That leaves 3 slots free for whatever I want. Mend Ailment is nice, I guess some kind of Res skill just in case, and a spammable attack spell or a spammable heal.

I did a test on Gypsy Ettins using poor old Stefan the Henchman and me. I was able to cast continously for ~10 minutes before I realised that Stephan and I would never do enough damage to kill even one of them.

Now, this build is pretty useless against PvP, because if people don't attack the tank, I hardly have any regen. And if people attack me, all I can do is run. But for PvE... could be great. I need to find a warrior who can be trusted to draw ALL the aggro, and then I need a nuker to kill the baddies while they beat on the tank.

I'm off to refine the build now Doesn't even use a single elite skill yet.

Me likey muchly.

Plus, I've been working on the ubertank build. We would make a great team, but you never seem to be on at reasonable times.

Levels now?

[Jamski]

19 and a half now I've got my protecting monk able to run NINE enchantments at once. And keep them up for the whole Galraith map. Bloody hell that was a concentration exercise. Can't even blink or the party dies (no healer)



I found time for a picture though. Thank JEBUS for Blessed Signet abuse. I was hitting 8 every 10 seconds for 45 minutes for 20+ energy a time.

I have to say that in the long fight protection beats healing every time. Better they don't take the damage than have to heal it back constantly. Of course, vs damage spikes on 1 character I can spam at most 2-3 Orisions before I need to hit the signet again, so those tanks need to be alert.

We have to get together for action soon

-Jam

[Jon Miller]

10.5 now

JM

[DrSpike]

What level is your alt Jam? Only thing left to do on my main is Underworld/FoW runs. Happy to wait and do those with you, as it will reduce asshat potential by one. Not sure what is there though - if it is

Spoiler:

Muursat

you'll need infused armour, which is quite late in the game. Where are you now?

Alternatively we could meet for some nice duo farming when you get Droknar's armour. Anet have nerfed every single farming spot they can find (though my W/Mo found a beaut yesterday - have to get some time in on it before they nerf that) but duo might work well.

Or my alt is level 9 and needs help all the time, as I'm basically rushing her through the game (just over 6 hours yesterday for level 9, not bad huh?) until Lion's Arch.

[DrSpike]

Btw why all this effort for energy? Don't monks have enough?

/me chuckles with his elementalist who never runs out of energy evar!

[Jamski]

Happy to help your alt anytime. I've got a level 8ish E/Me in Ascalon and a 15ish W/R in Lions Arch. My main monk is up to Riverside, but don't worry about my armour. I very rarely take any hits.

Ok, monks and energy... assuming this is a serious question.

Elementalists, Mesmers, Necros and Monks all have the same rate of energy regen. Elementalists just have a higher maximum. Lots of Elementalist spells have a casting time of more than a second, and an Elementalist can pause from casting a moment at anytime to allow regen. A healing Monk however is constantly casting little instant cast spells - or should be anyway. If someone's hurt or poisoned you can't wait for energy to regen - you need to heal them right away. Poison in particular needs to be caught immediately, as left unchecked it will cost more energy in the long run to heal the damage. A healing Monk is always running to catch up, and once the energy is gone the panic starts. Will a player live long enough for you to save 10 energy for a big heal, or will you have to cycle the last 5 energy round and round on him with little heals, 2 second waits, and little heals? Most of the time the party have no idea how intense it is behind the lines

But the energy thing I'm on about here is the trouble of maintaining 5 more enchantments than should be possible. Just look at the arrows on the energy bar in the picture above. Fancy sustaining that all quest long?

And if your elementalist never runs out of energy ever they're not casting enough spells I rely on elementalists to kill the baddies before I run out of energy to heal the warriors. That means a good elementalist is one who can do the maximum damage in the shortest time. Blow through 80 energy in 15 seconds and leave no one standing

[DrSpike]

I do.

I'm sure I'll run out of energy more when I get other nice aoe spells. At present I just have lava and fire storm, but they are awesome enough.

What secondary did you decide in the end on your monk?

[Jamski]

Mesmer, but its not like I ever have a moment to use any Mesmer skills. Abusing Energy Tap was great, but it absolutely relys on having enemies about.

[DrSpike]

Mesmer secondary is so sweet with E or Mo.

[Jamski]

Its a dead class to me. I didn't put any points into the Mesmer Attributes, and I don't really intend to.