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Author: KingArrowQ
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7 Comments
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Well, this is actually a miniguide, but i feel like its time for another one.
Monk Survival Miniguide
If you monk at all, you notice that you are a target of opportunity. In gladiator arenas, you are a primary target, almost always gonna be chased by a warrior or a thumper. In gvg, you will be targetd whenever you present the opportunity for the enemy to get a clean kil on you. Needless to say, you gettin killed in either situation is bad for your team, and thus you need to know how to keep from getting killed.
Use your defensive skills and use them right
THe primary point about monk skillbars is that they commonly carry self defense skills. You see these pop up in our monk bars alot:
Dark Escape - Stance. for 5...13 Seconds you move 25% faster and take half damage. Ends With an Attack.
Return - Spell. All Adjacent Foes are crippled for 3...7 seconds. Shadowstep to target ally.
Sheild Bash - Skill. For 5...11 Seconds Whiles Wielding A Sheild, the next Attack skill used against you is blocked. if it was a melee skill the foe is knocked down and the skill is disabled for 15 seconds.
Balanced Stance - Stance. For 8-21 seconds you cannot be knocked down and do not suffer extra damage from critical hits.
But once you start using them right, you will see why we put them there. Lets start with DArk escape
Dark Escape
This skill is an all around lifesaver, with the power to block enough damage to save you from a spike, while also providing ou with a speed boost. This boost is great for outrunning thumpers and warriors in arenas, and is also great for getting to that ally who overextended.
The proper use of this skill is "situational". How many times have you been told that cliche when you asked how to use Dark Escape? Situational boils down into a tree of decisions. Heres a basic outline of how you decide to use this skill
You can apply the skill in more ways than this, but usually these will be the reasons you use dark escape, and thus the reasons you save it for. Similar trees can be applied to Balanced Stance, you use it when a thumper is on you to keep from being KD, or when ice trident eles give you trouble.
Return
Monks who carry this enjoy the freedom of being able to jump over walls. During a recent arena battle i was able to keep a thumper away from me for 25 minutes by using this skill along with dark escape. Its a little edgier to use it right as the enemy gets to you, but a little more rewarding due to the cripple. Thats not the real point though. This skill prevents bodyblocking and is a followup to getting out of a spike.
The wall thing is an interesting note, since this tactic can be used whenever there is a large obstruction on the battlefield near the fight. A rough sketch of the second ascalon arena below explains
Thumper chases me up, and i jump to my ally in the last moment.
Shield bash
This skill is interesting. It takes incredible timing to save yourself with though. If you time it right, you can block an assassin's combo from killing you, or stop an adreanaline spike from one warrior. Although this isnt as strong as the assassin's self survival skills, you need to take this when you use balanced stance (no KD is a great thing). One folly you might have is swaping to you negative set when you carry this. You can create another weapon swap with a +5 energy weapon (axe or sword is best since its unconditional) and have a shield on that. You get 35 energy and a shield to bash with. FUN!
Positioning:
This is one of those topics where the cliche "Rule of Thumb" is used WAY too often, particularly when it could be called a "rule of foot", or in our case, a "Rule of RADAR". The circle in the upper right of your screen (by default) is one of your 2 ways of telling whether your positioning is likely to get you killed. A good rule of radar is to keep your enemied near the perimeter of your aggro bubble when possible. Your healing range is slightly larger than this bubble, so take advantage of that.
The other way of telling your position is to look at your playscreen (the big open space to the left of the red bars by default). Its ok to get claustrophobia, because you cannot kite well in tight spaces. You can immediately tell when youre in a bad position based on this idea, and seek an open space. If there is no space available, try to put a large open space somewhere near you, but don't seek it at the cost of healing range or running through enemy lines.
Last note, you might have heard of the term Pre-kiting. This is not some fancy way of seeing an enemy comming from a mile away and running away, it is merely maintaining good positioning.
Communication is key to your survival
In arenas, you dont have this luxury, but in gvg, it is essenital. It is also the key to your team's survival. I'll cover that in a moment. First off, one simple thing about vent:
The only things that are "Vent clutter" are the things that don't spell the impending fate of you or your team. Things like "Who's going on a date" are clutter, while things like "6 is on third weapon swap" are not. In order to help you keep things clear and simple, heres an idea of what you need to tell your team. Your messages fall into 3 categories: Your energy status, your skillbar integrity, and threats to you.
An update on how your energy is doing is essential to your match caller so he knows when to call a retreat. It can be a little excessive to tell every time you cast a spell how much you have left. It can be confusing too.
Two phrases will help you: "Third Swap" and "Last swap". These refer to your third focus swap and your fourth one (45 ish energy and 67-72 ish energy).
Saying "Third Swap" is like the weather service saying "Tornado Watch". You predict that you might have trouble soon and you say that the pressure is getting to you.
Saying "Last Swap" is like saying "Tornado Warning". Your leader must decide what to do, and usually he will choose the correct response.
When you need to swap to either of these weapon swaps, sound the appropriate alarm.
Skillbar integrity goes in hand with threats to you. Mainly, any threat that removes a skill from your bar falls here. Your primary concerns here are your elite spell and your main heal spells. Having your reversal of fortune diversioned is equaly as dangerous as having your restore conditions diversioned. Primary energy management skills are also things to warn about. When any of these skill types is disabled, you should say which one is disabled. You say why inorder to say a threat against you at the same time.
-Example: if i cast a reversal of fortune through diversion, i would say "Reversal Diversioned"
As a corrilary, if youre not a monk, should you manage to disable a main heal skill or an elite skill, let your team know so you can capitalize on it and get a victory.
Threats to you are one of the main things you need to communicate. Its usually straight forward as to saying what the threat is. The hard part here is getting that threat taken care of. There is usually a character on your team who either is designed to deal with threats or has the capability to deal with the threat. Now that multiple targets hold, you can call target the enemy who is giving you trouble, if your match caller allows it, so that your appropriate ally can deal with the threat.
**LEAVING THIS THREAT GO EITHER THROUGH YOUR NOT SAYING IT OR THROUGH YOUR ALLIES NOT DEALING WITH IT IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND PROBABLY A GREAT WAY TO GET YOUR TEAM ROLLED** I can't count the number of times ive had a diversion energy denial mesmer camping me and nothing was done about it. The point here, if you can't heal, your team will suffer for it.
So, unlike real life, monks in guildwars should not take a Vow of Silence, and should make the best effort to use thier skills and communicate well inorder to ensure their survival and that of their teams. If you decide to monk, be ready to be a noizy target.
Hope you Like the Guide....It Took A While...Cred to Tox,Cryo, and Triko for Some Help with Testing
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