Effective monk guide

Note: This article is intended to provide guidance for experienced characters playing new monks or experience monks looking for additional options. If this is your first time playing Guild Wars, please see Getting started in Guild Wars Prophecies/Getting started in Guild Wars Factions.

A Monk's Place

Monks are the lifeblood of all parties, healing wounds or preventing damage. Monks are primarily support characters, acting to enable the rest of the party. As non-combat casters, monks are usually well away from the thick of battle.

Being a Monk

Playing a monk can be a rewarding experience, or an extremely frustrating trial. Having few direct damage skills, monks are dependent on the rest of the party for damage and defense, but the healing and protection they provide can provide the sliver of difference between victory and death.

PvE Monks

In Player versus Environment gameplay, there are very few situations which do not require a Monk. Due to their integral role and high demand, Monks rarely have trouble finding a team. Since having a Monk in your team will attract fellow players, they can easily start their own teams, as well. Most players will consider the advice and demands which a Monk makes before starting the battle. Because they spend most of their time watching the health bars of the team and the progression on the battle field, Monks are in a good position to announce tactical changes, to command moves, and call for retreats by drawing on the mini-map.

PvP Monks

In competitive mode, monks should not occupy themselves with tactical announcements other than requesting retreat. Stay in the back and leave the leadership role to Mesmers or Rangers. These classes cycle the enemy team very often in searching a target and usually have a good overview on the situation. For more guidance concerning general PvP gameplay, see this guide. More specifics on Monks behaving in PvP is discussed below.

Types of Monks

Monks, unlike most other professions, are expected to fit into a narrow set of primary support categories. There are four predominate monk roles: Healer, Protector, Boonprot and Bonder.

Healing Monk

The Healing Monk combines inexpensive healing spells with high divine favor to provide fast, repetitive heals to the party.

Attributes for Healing Monks

Healing Monks usually focus on two attribute lines: Healing Prayers and Divine Favor. Several Healing Prayer spells provide the basic setup of the Healing Monk, while Divine Favor is mainly chosen for the additional bonus health it gives the character. Some Healing Monks choose a third attribute line, mainly one from a secondary profession that provides skills to regain energy.

Suggested Strategies for Healing Monks

Attempt to keep allies within your casting range, and foes outside your aggro circle - be the backline. Watch the health meters of your party, and cast healing spells when a party members health meter begins to approach 75%. It may be helpful to select party members with the mouse, and queue skills with the keyboard. Another strategy is to assign party members to Function keys for quick selection.

Style of playing: Signets

To deal continuous heals at low cost, you can use Signets. This might come in handy, especially when you are new to monking and you find yourself out of energy all the time. Alternate with Signet of Rejuvenation or Signet of Devotion, e.g.

• Word of Healing
• Signet of Rejuvenation
• Orison of Healing
• Signet of Devotion

This helps a lot with keeping your energy up, and it makes sure you are always casting something. While you aren't casting you might feel like you should be and waste your energy!

Style of playing: Heal Party

Many groups are quite large and a challenge to be tended properly. Heal Party is a popular spell that heals each party member for up to 84 points, making that well over 600 points altogether. As a healer in PvE, Heal Party should be your first choice when encountering mobs or area effects which cause widespread amounts of health drain, such as the poisoning spiders in Maguuma Jungle or the Domain of Health Draining in the Dragon's Lair. Mo/Es may try combining Heal Party with Glyph of Lesser Energy, reducing the cost to 5 Energy in 30 seconds.

In PvP, the use of Heal Party is ambivalent. Having two seconds of casting time and a quite high energy investment, it should not be used frequently. Use it to counter massive degeneration or to restore minor wounds on the whole team in one shot. If multiple monks are equipped with this skill, only one of them should be casting at a time, so the other one is available to cast more powerful spells on single targets. It is also popular to have an Elementalist/Monk use heal party because of the Elementalist's primary attribute, Energy Storage, which raises the Elementalist's maximum energy and grants exclusive access to some of the best energy management skills in the game.

Style of playing: Dwayna's Kiss

Dwayna's Kiss is one of the more powerful healing spells around. Its extended healing power relies on the target being buffed. It is best used to heal attuned Elementalists, Mending Paladins and other Monks. To increase overall effectiveness, have a Protector bring Aegis or party with a Bonder.

Special case: Infuser

Infuse Health is by far the most powerful healing spell in Guild Wars. Paired with Divine Boon, it can heal over 400 points if the caster is well-equipped. However, this healing comes only with a sacrifice of 50% of the monk's current health. Because of this, Infuse Health is most often followed with Healing Touch as a self-heal. Infuse Health can be used either as a backup skill in special situations or as a monk's main healing spell.

Strategy:

• You are the one who is responsible for countering spikes and great health losses of your team mates. This requires you to be extra alert. You probably have a bunch of other healing spells on your bar, but don't use them if your other monk team mates can keep up the healing on their own.
• Kite and run around. Try not to be an easy target, but have your team mates within reach all the time!
• Don't occupy yourself with casting too much. While this seems stupid for a monk, it will make sure you are ready when your infuse is needed.
• Always have 10 Energy minimum.

Equipment:

• When primarily using this skill, you have to maintain a high health pool. Do not bring a superior healing rune as it will decrease overall effectiveness.
• Carry a weapon with health bonus such as a +45hp (while enchanted) focus or a +60hp staff.
• Wearing Shepherd's Armor is not really necessary. Having a higher armor level or energy pool is more useful.

Special case: Boon Healer

Boon healers are no longer common in PvP, but they are occasionally found in PvE. They rely on Divine Boon to increase the effectiveness of their healing spells at the expense of Energy. They require either a Necro battery or energy management skills to work well. Divine Boon is a maintained enchantment which increases the healing power of all your healing spells. It only applies to spells which target a single ally. Upon casting a healing spell, Divine Boon will drain you of 2 Energy, but it will not make your Energy become "negative" like focus swapping does.

Skill set:

• Divine Boon of course, Contemplation of Purity as multi-purpose skill and a few minor heals like Dwayna's Kiss or Healing Whisper.
• High-cost spells like Heal Other are usually not necessary, but can be used for effective spike healing.
• Offering of Blood, Mantra of Recall, Energy Drain or just a necromancer in your team with Blood Ritual.

Equipment:

• Ascetic's Armor and Weapons with Energy bonuses. Do not use a +15 Energy/-1 Energy Regeneration focus.

Strategy:

• Behave like a usual healing monk. Try not to aggro monsters.
• Try to find out how much health your spells restore. Most targets should be fine when you start casting at 60%.
• Try not to spam your heals. You'll get dry quickly even when healing at highest efficiency.

Protection Monk

The Protection Monk combines protection spells that prevent damage with skills that keep the party free of conditions. Unlike the Healing Monk, Protection Monks don't wait until after the damage is done to heal the character - instead, the spells are pre-applied to their teammates to prevent the damage from happening.

Attributes for Protection Monks

Protection Monks will mainly rely on Protection Prayers with some Divine Favor bonus, since protection spells themselves do not offer any healing. As with Healing Monks, a third attribute line might be used for energy reasons.

Suggested Strategies for Protectors

Attempt to keep allies within your casting range, and foes outside your aggro circle. Watch out for party members taking damage and use your protection skills. Unlike the Healing Monk, do not wait till they have taken considerable damage, cast your spells right at the first sign of trouble. Further tactics depend on your choice of skills and whether you play PvE or PvP:

• PvE
  • If applicable, rely on your condition removal skills (e.g. Mend Ailment or Restore Condition) to keep the party health high.
  • Have an extra eye on the tanks and buff them before they aggro the next group of mobs.
• PvP
  • Buff soft targets beforehand. Renew their buffs every once in a while if you can afford the energy costs, even when they are not the target. Most groups switch targets quickly, usually to unleash their adrenaline skills all at once.

Boon Prot Monk

Boon Prot (Protection) Monks combine the preventive power of protection spells with the huge healing bonus of Divine Boon, essentially filling both the role of a traditional Healing Monk and Protection Monk at once. That power comes at a price, though - Boon Prot Monks run out of energy very fast.

Attributes for Boon Prot Monks

Boon Prot Monks use Protection Prayers in combination with high Divine Favor. A third attribute line (usually Inspiration Magic) for energy management is much more important than for other forms of monks and almost never ommitted. Most builds suggest 8-10 ranks in your secondary, 10 in Protection Prayers and the rest in Divine Favor.

Suggested Strategies for Boon Prot Monks

• Like all monks, Boon Prot Monks should try to stay in the backline and avoid getting targeted as much as possible.
• Unlike other monks, the Boon Prot must be very conservative with the use of spells. Team members should not be healed at the first notch in their health bar. Wait for the bar to drop quite a good bit before giving it a big boost with your Boon-enhanced protection spells.
• Use whatever energy management skills you have often, to be able to keep up casting.
• Consider switching off Divine Boon when buffing your party in advance.

Team Arena specifics

When using a Boonprot in the Team Arena, follow the following scheme:

1. Before the battle starts, buff your team mates with Holy Veil to be able to quickly remove lethal hexes before they get covered.
2. Activate Divine Boon.
3. Scan the enemy team for Necromancers and Mesmer/Necromancers. If negative, drop the Veils, else keep the veils until removal or you are down to 50% of your energy.

• If the enemy team has Elementalists or Fast Casting Elementalists, maintain Protective Spirit on yourself and - if you have the energy - on your soft team mates.
• Use Guardian when under fire from Rangers or when you see Warriors closing up on you.
• If needing to remove multiple hexes from yourself, cast Holy Veil and remove it with Contemplation of Purity. Doing so will purge three hexes.

Guild vs. Guild specifics

Playing a Boon Prot in GvGs is not too different from playing them in 4v4 arenas, however, there is still a difference.

• Things to do before a battle starts:
  1. Switch to your superior rune of Divine Favor and cast Divine Boon, then switch back to your minor rune (if you are playing a PvE character). If you have a 20% Chance of +1 to Divine Favor wand and focus, then cast Divine Boon until you get an 18/17 attribute level Divine Boon. The long wait before the battle actually happens allows for this.
  2. If you have Holy Veil, precast it on yourself and maybe one other warrior. If no hexers are found (mainly Mesmers and Necromancers), immediately cancel Holy Veil.
• Something to remember about playing in an 8v8 setting is that there will almost always be a partner monk. When monking in GvGs, it is important to be able to work with your partner monk in order to be most effective - such as knowing who the other monk will heal, so that over-healing doesn't occur. This takes time and practice, so don't be worried if it doesn't happen as soon as you enter your first match.
• Most of the time, you want to stay in the backline, though those who use Energy Drain, Power Drain, or Drain Enchantment may find it better for their energy management to hover around in the midlines.
• Make sure that you are in range of all your teammates - you don't want to let someone die because they were out of your spell casting range. However, part of this responsibility lies on the other players as well.

Bonder Monk

The passive protection monk, or "Bonder Monk", uses maintained enchantments to provide continual protection. A speciality, the Bonder Monk does not actually cast spells during combat. Instead, Bonders cast maintained protection enchantment on party members before the battle starts and concentrate on keeping those enchantments up.

Attributes for Bonder monks

All Bonding Monks use a fairly standard set of skills from the Protection Prayers line, combined with the skill Balthazar's Spirit (but without any attribute points in Smiting Prayers) and the skill Blessed Signet from Divine Favor. Additional attribute points are used for secondary profession line Inspiration Magic, which provides a few skills that help to speed up Blessed Signet, such as Mantra of Inscriptions.

Suggested Strategies for Bonder Monks

Cast your chosen bonds and stay well clear of combat. Use Blessed Signet as often as possible to prevent your energy from reaching zero. Watch your maintained bonds and the party status window for stripped enchantments and replace them as soon as possible. When you are getting a lot of additional energy through Balthazar's Spirit, cast non-maintained protection spells to help your healer.

Other monk roles

• Smiting monks, though rare, can be extremely destructive in areas populated by Undead creatures.
• Invincimonks, or 55 tank monks, use protective spirit, low health, and powerful regeneration spells.

Equipment

Armor & Runes

Monks are, in a sense, the most important part of any team: No other class will contribute as much to the fall of any team by dying as monks do. That means that monks should take the utmost care not to die. Part of that is not using superior and major runes (which carry health penalties) unless really needed. As a rule of thumb, no monk should carry more than one superior rune, and even monks with only minor runes are very common. Of course, runes of vigor are an exception to that rule, since they actually boost health. There is no commonly agreed on "best" monk armor, however most opt for armor that adds energy, which monks are always in need of.

Weapons

The choice of weapon is less important for monks, since they are not the main attackers. More important than the actual damage are the upgrades (like additional health, armor and energy, or reduced casting and recharge time of skills). Note that most weapons have a requirement in attributes. High-end unique ("green") weapons come with maximum upgrades (be aware that some unique weapons don't) and are usually cheaper than similar, non-unique weapons.

Combat Tactics

A monk has 2 roles in combat: Staying alive and keeping the team alive. Since the second requires the first, staying alive should be the highest priority.

Positioning and Kiting

The easiest (and at the same time hardest) way to stay alive is by not being hit. Monks don't need to be close to the enemy - they can afford to stay back behind the attackers, just in range for heals, but out of range of enemy attacks. Good attackers will position themselves such that they block the enemy from the monk and keep the aggro on the attacker instead of the monk. In case someone still breaks through, or you get targeted by ranged attacks and spells, don't hesitate to run. You are more valuable to the team running away than dead. Run away from the fight (so as to prevent getting targeted by even more enemies) and try to lose the enemy. If you are a monk with Protection Prayers, you can also try to stay and tank, but that is risky and should only be done if you are sure of surviving. If other players on your team can support your kiting, don't hesitate to ask them for a buff, such as Guardian, Windborne Speed, or Sympathetic Visage.

Specifics: Team and Random Arena

Since your team is pretty small and there won't actually be a main front but more a melange of your fighters and enemy fighters, you'll have a hard time figuring out a good position. You get the best results by circling the spot where the fight takes place. Try keeping your allies within casting range all the time.

Specifics: Global Tournament

In most cases, just behave like in Team Arena. Everything else depends on the map you are playing. Especially on relic runs, keeping a good distance to your own members will be very difficult. If possible, split up the monk team so each of you covers a part of the map. The most simple modus to kite on is probably in King of the hill. The main fighting area will usually be in the middle of the map so your path will be a perfect circle. Just watch out for smart Warriors and Elementalists to block your way.

Specifics: Guild versus Guild

Insert specifics here later.

Hex removal

Hexes are a special type of spell that affects enemies for a period of time. Some of these are minor annoyances, but some have devastating effects. Since removing hexes is time consuming and hex removing skills can not be spammed, it is important that you learn to tell harmless hexes from bad ones and only remove the latter. Affected persons can help by "calling" (CTRL + left click on the hex icon) bad hexes.

Since there are quite a number of hex removal skills and most of them behave very differently, they need to be discussed by type.

• Contemplation of Purity

  Since this removal skill only works on yourself, it is not suitable for helping the team. But it does an outstanding job helping you to stay alive. Since you usually are enchanted, CoP will grant you a great amount of healing while purging an indefinite amount of hexes. But be careful: The activation is cheap and quick, but restoring your enchantments can be quite consuming.

• Holy Veil

  This skill is very delicate in application. It is a maintained enchantment removing one hex upon termination. If you simply need the removal, terminate the Veil right after casting. However, it can be very useful if being maintained on the target, making hexes less efficient and creating opportunities for your interrupting Rangers and Mesmers.

• Blessed Light and Remove Hex

  These are of the type "fire and forget". If you have the energy at hand, just remove any hex that comes up. The low recharge time enables you to remove up to three times the amount of hexes compared to other skills in the same time span.

• Inspired Hex and Revealed Hex

  These popular removal skills from Inspiration Magic have one big advantage: they are really energy friendly. On low skill levels, they cost no energy if a hex is removed, and on high levels even yield energy. Another advantage is that redundant removal attempts will not cause this skill to be recharged, so if your team mate was faster in removing than you, you merely sacrificed 5 Energy while other skills would be blacked out for some time. The downside is the long recharge time upon successful removal. Have other characters bring additional removal skills if you use these.

• Other Hex removal skills

  There are plenty of other skills out there, which can remove hexes. In most cases however, none of them is recommended to usual Monks. Most of them make a good choice for other classes or in specific situations like Smiting Monks.

Condition removal

Conditions are less severe than hexes (still some are more troublesome than others), but they can be applied to enemies at less cost. It is especially the role of Protection Monks to keep the party free of conditions.

Energy management

Energy management is crucial to a party's survival as a monk with constant energy problems may as well not be there. Three basic rules exist for managing your energy:

1) Never be at full energy. Being at full energy for 4 seconds means that you didn't use 4 seconds' worth of energy regen, which is roughly equivalent to 5 energy. Put that energy regeneration to good use by spending that 5 energy and keeping yourself just barely under maximum energy. The only time you should be at full energy is right before the beginning of a fight.

2) Take breaks between fights to regain your lost energy. Most groups are quite willing to wait for you to regen.

3) Use the right spells for the situation. Healing Breeze is perfect when a party member is dealing with minor damage over time, but it becomes a liability (and waste of energy) if enchantment shatterers are nearby.

Bonding monks have a very unique energy management situation as they are constantly losing energy to support their many maintained enchantments. Close attention will have to be paid towards the recharge cycle of Blessed Signet and the limited energy that can be spent on other spells such as condition removers.

Resurrecting

Some very few special cases apart, it is not a reasonable thing for monks to resurrect team mates during battle. Monks should be carrying a resurrection spell for the worst case (PvP is an exception here), but only use it after the battle. If the fight goes really wrong, run away and wait for the enemy to scatter before ressing. Resurrecting takes a long amount of time, so if a monk resurrects during battle, usually other team members die before the spell is finished.

Secondary Profession Options

For an extended comparison when choosing a secondary profession, see Secondary professions for a Monk.

Warrior

Warrior has limited use for a monk. Bonetti's Defense and Auspicious Parry are great in random arenas, but elsewhere, a poor choice. "Watch Yourself!" and "Shields Up!" are useful in PvE.

Ranger

Ranger, being another non-caster profession, doesn't have a lot to offer, either. Melandru's Resilience and Draw Conditions can provide a gimmicky setup, or Greater Conflagration and Storm Chaser. Neither of the aformentioned should be used for serious work.

Necromancer

Offering of Blood is a great energy management skill, however the 20% health sacrifice can mean it is impossible to use when under pressure. Recommended only for PvE when proper tanking is happening.

Mesmer

Mesmer's Inspiration Magic contains a wealth of energy management skills which will ensure you have plenty of energy.

Elementalist

Glyph of Lesser Energy helps out when using Aegis or Heal Party.

Glyph of Renewal and Divine Spirit can provide near-continuous reduction of monk spell costs. With a weapon of Enchanting (20% recommended) and 13 ranks in Divine Favor, Divine Spirit lasts 14.4 seconds, nearly the recharge time of the Glyph. This strategy is vulnerable to enchantment removal, however.

Assassin

The Shadow Arts of the Assassin can provide the monk extra kiting abilities. The cost of these is the lack of energy management from your secondary profession.

Team Tactics

Three monk backline

Insert stuff about common three monk backlines such as bonder/sb-infuse/woh and woh/rc-prot/sb-infuse. Address both playing styles in GvG and Global Tournament.

Two monk backline

Insert stuff about Boonprot/Boonprot and other two monk backlines. Address split builds, spike counter and secondary healers such as Heal Party Elementalists.

See also

• Heal efficiency — A collection of efficiency calculations.