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Author: Survivingsin
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The Complete Guide to Monking
Terminology
PS = Protective Spirit
SB = Spirit Bond OR Spell Breaker (In PvP it's more commonly Spirit Bond then Spell Breaker)
RoF = Reversal of Fortune
Orison = Orison of Healing
Spam = Repeated, usually unnessesary, use of skills.
Dismiss = Dismiss Condition
HB = Hero Battles or Healer's Boon
HP = Heal Party
RA = Random Arenas
TA = Team Arenas
HA = Hero's Asent
GvG = Guild vesus Guild battles
Spike = Lots of damage, enough to kill, over a very short period of time (.5-4 seconds usually)
Pressure = Consistant damage over time made to make monks use up their energy. Can be in many forms.
Split = When a team breaks up into 2 groups to do seperate jobs
Infuse = Infuse health or the action of using that skill
Prot = Protection
Hybrid = A build that uses two completely different attributes together. (Ex Healing + Protection, Water + Air, Communing + Restoration)
Frontline = Any melee fighters that go in close to deal damage.
Midline = Anyone who supports the team by either helping on spikes, supporting with healing, or by pressuring/disabling the other team. Does not go into the frontline area or backline. They go in the middle.
Backline = Where the monks go. In back of everyone else safe from the frontline of the other team but still in range of the melee in the frontline.
Big Prot = Spirit bond and Protective spirit. They are called this because they are meant to stop the high damage.
Small Prot = Skills like Shield of Absorption and Guardian which are 5 energy and meant to reduce small damage from things like auto attacks.
Purpose
Heel!
A monk is made to support the team, that is always it's job even if it is in a very minor way (AoE smite builds). They have two main support attributes, Healing Prayers and Protection Prayers.
Strengths
As said before, this class is made to support the team and itself.
They have divine favor which is very helpful, because it makes even skills not made to heal such as protective spirit, give a small bit of health.
They have lots of skills to stop damage, most of which is in Protection Prayers.
They have some of the best healing skills in the game, most found in Healing Prayers.
Weaknesses
Since they have the ability to support an entire team, they have some weaknesses.
1. For one they only have 60 armor, which is the lowest base max armor in the game.
2. They have very few skills that effectively manage energy.
3. As casters, hexes like Migrane can destroy unprepared Monks.
4. Daze.
The Attributes
Healing Prayers
\"No inherent effect. Many Monk skills, especially spells related to healing, become more effective with higher Healing Prayers.\"
Healing Prayers is made to recover the health of your allies, whether it be directly or indirectly. It is very limited as it has very few enchantments and does not have a lot of condition removal and hex removal options as other attributes do. The few that do are Cure hex and the Spotless skills.
Protection Prayers
"No inherent effect. Many monk skills, especially enchantments which prevent damage or provide healing, become more effective with higher Protection Prayers."
Protection Prayers is made to migate the damage done to allies. Protection prayers are more popular because it is more effcient to stop the damage that to continously heal over it. The down side to this attribute is that it has very few skills that recover health. Those that do are conditional or elite.
Note: This is why people use both, to get a balance of recovery skills and protection skills. This is called a hybrid monk.
Smiting Prayers
"No inherent effect. Many Monk skills, especially those related to dealing holy damage, become more effective with higher Smiting Prayers. Holy damage is especially powerful against the undead."
Smiting Prayersis the monks damage attribute. A few of the skills are very one sided, as in they just deal damage to the enemy, nothing else. Others act as a minor support type skill that also deals damage such as Smite Condition which removes a condition and deals damage to all foes near that ally. This attribute is not as popular because it lacks the utility of other attributes givin to monk. Some would also say that it trying to do the job of a damage dealer and a monk at the same time, poorly. Also many of the skills simply punish for attacking your team, but does nothing to recover from that damage they dealt discluding the divine favor bonus. That said there are a few good builds that use the attribute, the invincimonk is a great example.
Divine Favor
"For each rank of Divine Favor, allies are healed for 3.2 whenever you cast Monk spells on them. Several Monk skills, especially spells relating to energy gain and healing, become more effective with a higher Divine Favor."
Divine Favor does not follow a specific pattern. It is more of a utility attribute that buffs the other attributes such as Smiter's Boon for Smiting Prayers and Healer's Boon for Healing Prayers and Blessed Aura for Protection Prayers. It also has some healing skills in it.
Note: All the pictures below the attribute are the casting symbols of that attribute. Every time you cast a spell from that attribute you make that symbol above your head.
PvP
1.Tactics
"A monk's energy is his weapon." In PvP you job will always be to support. So long as you have energy, you can still do your job. Monks have to be extremely aware of what is going on during the battle. They have to be the most vocal people of their current situation as well. Because of these things, monking is one of the harder jobs in PvP.
A.Infusing
Infusing is a concept that is only found in Hero's Asent and GvG. It's when you use the skill Infuse Health to save someone from a spike.
First off, what is a spike? A spike is a way to kill someone in a very short amount of time by an entire team attacking one person at the same time, either with the same skill for everyone on the team (Pure Spike Teams) or a different skills for each person (Balanced Spike). Balanced Spikes have the ability to spike, and have more ulility options than Pure Spike team.
In Spikes, Deep wounds are extremely common and usually are needed. Instead of having to kill a 640 health target you only have to kill a 540 health target which is much easier. Beyond that, infuse health will heal for less.
So spikes to about .5-2 seconds to kill someone. They deal about 800 damage if they are effective and rip off 100 health with a deep wound. How do you stop that? With one major skill, Infuse health.
Why is it the best option? For one you only have about a half second to react and that leaves the person .5 seconds to live if they are good. So the 1/4 cast time is perfect for stopping it.
Secondly, it heals for a lot. Most monks have 600 health or more. So you lose half of that, 300 already. Then if they have about 9 in healing it heals for an additional 66 health. 366 in perfect to catch it, then you can you protection skills to keep the spike from getting through.
This skill is dangerous, even though it saves a life, it puts yours at risk too. Any good team knows that if someone gets infused they have a shot time to find that person who did, so you have a team looking for you. That is why it is extremely important to heal yourself back up with something, even if you're not under attack because chances are you will be.
This skill forces you to be watching the battle, NOT the health bars. This is key for any great monk, or player in general. If you are in a GvG match and you see two warriors converge on one player, he IS the target of the next spike. Try to get any protection you can get on him first, this slows the spike down and protects you from instant spikes. If for some reason your prot wasn't enough, now it is time to infuse. If your prot is too late the ally is nearly dead, infuse quick. This is where reflexes comes in.
Also another thing that most players don't know they are even doing. They sense it coming. They just know that one ally is going to be the target without even thinking about it. This comes with experience. You start to realize who are the main targets and just react.
B. Weapon Swapping
Weapon Swapping is using your weapon sets to maximum effectiveness. Every time you cast a spell discluding a few specific ones, you should switch to what is called a "Casting Set". There is always enough time to switch weapons when you are casting and there is always enough time to switch back. All skills discluding shadow steps have an aftercast. This is the time when you can switch out of your casting set and back to your "Armor Set" or "Health Set".
So why exactly is this good? Well there are multiple reasons. First off, it doesn't use any skill slots, so you have all these strong bonuses without them costing any energy or skill slots. Second, it takes no time to do if you do it right so really there is no reason not to do it. Third it can makes skills like Gift of Health or Word of healing turn into nearly infuse like skills. Fourth, it takes pressure off of your. Why? Because guardian lasting 7 seconds instead of 6 makes you have to spam it less to keep it up. if SB stays up for 10 seconds instead of just 8, that is less energy wasted and you can get more effect out of all your casts. Finally, it hides about 12 energy while in your armor set because your casting sets should have an offhand which fits your attribute amount, so you should have 35 energy in your armor set and 47 energy while casting.
So if I have to click on my weapon set to change and then click on a different one every time I cast, how is that effective? It isn't, so don't click. Set your keys so that all you have to do is hit the right button and you go to that set. Where you put them is all preference, but make it so it is in a very easy to reach place. With practise this should just be a reaction. It will seem a little award at first, that is normal.
To practise this, go to The Isle of the Nameless and just take one healing skill with a 1 second cast time and "Target Ally". Word of healing is a good choice. Just try starting on your armor set and right before you cast, hit the button that makes you go to your casting set and after the cast (During the aftercast) switch back to your armor set. Practise this until it becomes easy for you to do every time.
Now take a few heros and practice choosing an ally to heal and weapon swapping during the cast and going back. Switch between the heros and yourself. If you can, take a protection spell as well, and have two different casting sets at the same time. Try switching allies and spells. Once you have that down, time for them to finally take damage. Go to RA and try to weapon swap as much as you can. Even if you are under pressure, try to do it. Who cares if an RA team dies? It's just practise.
C. Being aware of your Surroundings
Lot's of times I'll be monking with someone new in a GvG match and by VoD I'll hear "I had like 5 skills diverted, I couldn't do anything. As soon as my cast ended, Diversion came up and I couldn't cancel because it was too perfect." Some would say its not his fault, but it is. Diversion has a 3 second cast time and one of the most memorable casting sounds in the entire game. Even if the mesmer had 16 in fast casting, Diversion still has a 1.5 cast time. Most mesmers don't go above 9 fast casting, so it still has a 2 second cast time. If he was watching the mesmer at all he would know diversion was coming and could plan accordingly.
"That spike was perfect, what was I spose to do about that!?" Preprot. Warriors don't just fall out of the sky and spike, they have to run to you and attack. If you see that a warrior is using frenzy it can mean two things; He has no idea how to use frenzy or he is going to spike someone. Well he still has to run to them, and if he isn't running, it's going to be someone near by. If you see that your mesmer is right near them (A HUGE target of the enemy team), then chances are he is the target so put some prot on him to make the spike not go through. If needed, infuse.
Also if you see the warrior had been hacking away for over a minute and never spiked, it's safe to say that he is ready to spike, so have him targeted. Once again, if you see frenzy, get your prot ready to stop it.
If a warrior has been tailing you constantly in the backline, there is a chance you can kill a warrior. Try to "Pull" him way in back of your team. Call that the warrior is way in back and far from their monks and have them kill him. That works anywhere, but make sure that no matter where you are, you tell your team that the warrior is over extending. It allows your team to punish the enemy for a mistake.
D. Managing your energy
Just like the axe is the weapon of the warrior, energy is the weapon of the monk. The better you conserve your energy for only when you need it the better you are using your "weapon". Managing energy doesn't always mean take skills that save your energy, it also it how and when you use your skills.
Maxing Out Health Bars
One major thing to avoid is to have your goal being to have everyones health bar at 100% always. If you spend 5 energy to get someone from about 95% maximum health to 100% health, you just wasted probably 4 energy. For instance:
If you have word of healing which on targets above 50% health will heal for 122 at 14 healing prayers. If someone is at 95%ish health and have 600 maximum health then they will have about 570 health. If you use Word of Healing on some one at above 50% health then for each energy you are healing for 24 health. So if they are 30 health below maximum you just wasted about four energy on someone.
This doesn't just apply to healing spells. With protection spells if you use one of your "big prots", you better be sure that thats the kind of protection needed. For instance: If someone is being auto attacked, and you use spirit bond, but it doesn't activate once, you wasted 10 energy. You could have used guardian or shield of absorption for that situation, and effectively reduce the damage, and only use 5 energy, not waste 10.
Casting Sets
Using casting sets also conserves your energy. If you use guardian normally, without +20% enchantments, it will usually last 6 second, at around 10 attribute. .2% of 6 second is 1.2 second, so with a 20% enchantment mod, it lasts 7 second due to rounding. The difference is, if you want to keep it up indeffinately, it is better with the 20% enchantment mod. This is because in 1.2 seconds, you gain about 1 energy for each three pips, and you should have 4. This means you gain an extra ~1 energy that you wouldn't have if you didn't. Thus, you last longer.
Going along with casting sets, your base high armor/health set should have -5 energy on the spear. This "hides" you energy from energy denial skills. For instance:
Pretend there are two monks facing a team, and the other team has an energy denial mesmers with Energy Surge. The first monk has a staff as the main set, no casting sets, no low set. The first monk has let's say 50 energy. The second monk has a low set and casting sets. The low set has 33 energy, and the casting sets have +17 energy than the low sets, so he has 50 energy on a casting set. If they both spend 30 energy, and the mesmer uses energy surge on both of them, making them both lose 8 energy, the monk with the low set will be better off. This is because when you lose energy, instead of going into negatives, you just hit zero and start going back up. So the second monk really has 33 - 30 -3(from energy surge) = 0 energy left, but has 17 energy on his other set, so really he has 17 energy. The other monk has 50 - 30 = 20 - 8 = 12 energy left. So right there, you have saved 5 energy, which is equal to another spell.
High Energy Sets
A high energy set is vital for all monks to have, however if you don't use it with care it can be a detriment instead of a help. When you go into your high set you have 70 ish maximum energy. Exposing all of this energy is very dangerous since a quick Power Leak or Energy Surge and you are pretty much doomed. So when you are using a high set make sure you switch back to your low set so that doesn't happen. It also allows you to have +4 regen instead of only +2.
Try to avoid using it as much as possible as well. Tell your team when you are low on energy so that you can take a few seconds to regain it instead of roughing it on your high set.
2.Monking in Different Areas
Each area that you monk in has different requirments and level of dificulty. Somewhere lik RA takes very small amounts of skill to win matches, where as in GvG it takes a ton of skill and mastery of the tactics listed above. Below are some short debions of your job as a monk in these different areas.
A.FA
In FA you have a huge job to either side of the battle. As a Kurzick your job is to keep at least one of the gate guards up as many people try to kill it at once. Same goes for the luxons, only they are guarding a much stronger target. It is best to use multiple protection spells in combination such as protective spirit and shield of absorption to reduce all damage to nothing.
Bonding is an extremely common job for monks in FA, it is also rediculously easy. Find any bonding build you like, and go to one of the elementalists (they have blocks in their bar so it's easier to keep them up) and bond him up. So long as that one lives, the other two don't matter. If he does die, the gate opens and the luxons are slower to the top of the base. This is why you job is so important, it essencially locks the luxons out of one gate, and if your team is lucky enough to have more than one bonder, the luxons have no way to get in unless the enchantments are strips/the ele dies.
You can also be an all around healer. What that means is you run amber as well and try to keep the other amber runners alive while they run it to by removing cripples and other snares. Going /A alows you to take Dash and Dark escape for great mobility and self defense.
B.AB
Alliance battles requires that you stick with your team so try to keep them up and stay with them as much as possible. Your main job is to make it so that all of your team stays alive so they can cap faster without dying on harder shrines such as the elementalist shrine. If you do happen to die, try to find your team as quick as possible.
Some highly suggested skills are Spirit bond and Protective spirit for the Elementalist Shrine, Guardian for the Warrior shrines, and a strong heal.
C.RA
In Random arenas, you are the main target. Most melee characters are not good at what they do and will try to rush you straight on, so less battle awareness is needed. Melee is a big threat in this place, so it is best to take something to defend yourself against it. Personally, I recommend shield bash, balanced stance, return, dark escape and guardian as great choices. Since you will probably be the only healer in your group, most people will try to focus all of their damage on you. This makes protection extremely vital.
Here is a video guide to basic RA monking.
D.TA
In the Team Arenas the people you face will range from terrible PUG groups to some of the best players in Guild Wars. Much of the melee knows what they are doing and will try to spike you or pressure you out. Because there is normally only one monk, many players try to design teams to deal lots of pressure damage to make you run out of energy or disable you so they can get kills.
This is where your monking starts to shine in splits. You have to be aware of where the melee and sometimes where interupt rangers are. Just like in GvG, rangers try to camp on you and disable your main skills. Using your surroundings also comes into play here. Most of the same skills that you use in RA can be taken into TA.
HA
HA is completely different from all other forms of PvP for monks for a few reasons:
The First is the use of Channeling. All good monk builds have it there, since there are usually more than two teams so you will get more energy than you spend for most spells if positioned right. This also forces you into the midline of the enemy, so ignore all basic positioning rules you know up till now.
The second is the smallness of the maps. Because they are so small, AoE is extremely powerful so focus on spreading out, and AVOID BRIDGES! Bridges can spell the end of most teams if they ball up under one.
The third is the fact that there is no where to run. You can't gank, you can't split, you have to face them. Because of this pressure builds and especially spike builds are very powerful. This means your infuse health will come into play a lot more.
Fourth, there are a few specific people you have to take care of. They are:
1. Relic runners
2. Ghostly Heros
They, in some matches, are what seperate people from winning and losing. Keep conditions and hexes off the relic runners so they can move freely, and keep the ghostly hero alive to avoid giving the enemy any advantage.
I'm not going through every match type, if you want to learn about that...find some other guide =P.
G.GvG
As a monk, the team pushes and falls back based on your energy. If your energy is low, you should call it and the team should fall back a little bit so that you can regain some energy. If your energy is high you should tell you team (If they haven't already figured out) that they should push harder.
Don't try to impress anyone. If your energy is low, tell them. There is no reason to try to brave through it and inevidably cause the death of a teamate because your energy is low. You also shouldn't call you energy when you are on your high set with 5 energy left. Call it when you are starting to get low, don't take any chances. People won't think you are a bad player if you say you are low on energy. Catching spikes can take up to 20 energy off of even a good monk. Pulling back before all hell breaks lose makes you gain your energy back so you can possibly get a flawless if not just win. They will think you are bad if your team is barely taking damage and you are spamming big prots on people when it is not neccessary to.
Along with calling energy you should tell your team if a mesmer is contantly diversioning you. Then they can have whoever has a counter to the mesmer (Someone with interupts) on him so that your important skills dont get diverted. If a warrior is constantly trying to KD you, tell your team that. They can send the blind bot to blind him or melee to "Lineback" on him. As said in an earlier section, if a warrior is on you, you have a chance to kill him. If you can trick him by "Pulling" him to your backline, thus overextending him, you can send your team to spike him out.
Otherwise, take a look at the beginning of the tactics section. You have to be good at all of the listed concepts to be a good monk here. This is where it all comes together. IS IT IN YOU???
3. Key Skills and usage
Generally, I don't like to mention too many skills in guides, for fear that they will be nerfed. However I feel that these skills are so balanced and so common and important to monking that they have to be mentioned, including all of their strange functionalities and how to use them.
A. Protective Spirit
For 5...19 seconds, target ally cannot lose more than 10% max Health due to damage from a single attack or Spell.
Also Called: Prot Spirit, PS
This says single attack or spell, however that isn't correct. It reduces all damage, not just that from attacks or spells. Damage is a slightly tricky term. Life stealing isn't damage, it's life stealing. Health Loss is health loss, not damage, so something like shadow form will make them lose health no matter what you have on them. Sacrifices are not damage either, they are sacrifices...obviously. Health degeneration is not damage since it doesn't actually show the numbers of damage it is doing. Deep wounds are also not damage. With that in mind, all other things that could possibly bring your health bar down, are damage.
This is considered a big prot. What that means is that it has a big effect for a big cost (for Monks). This has the ability to reduce spike damage by far and also just reduce big damage all on its own. However this spell usually isn't enough to STOP a spike. This can deffinately slow down a spike, but with no healing potential you will need at least one other spell to keep that person alive. Because this cannot stop spikes, only slow them, this is better on an infuser so that way the secondary monk can take Spirit Bond and not have the prot spells overlap. This way both monks have the ability to stop spikes with no overlaps.
This behaves strangely with spirit bond. Because damage reads the enchantments and reduction effects on you from left to right, if you have spirit bond up first and then this spell, and then take over 60 damage, the damage hits Spirit bond first. You gain X..X health. Then it hits Protective Spirit, reducing that damage down to 10% of your health. This works with enchantments like this, however it is very notable that this pair works like this.
Another major note about this skill is that the lower your health is, the more effective this becomes. At 660 health you take 66 damage from all damage. at 60% Dp and 400ish health you only take 40, making spikes harder to get in if you apply more protection skills. This is the basis for the 55 monk, making all damage reduced to 5.
B. Spirit Bond
For 8 seconds, whenever target ally takes more than 60 damage from the next 10 attacks or spells, that ally is healed for 40...88 Health.
Also Called: Bond, SB
Spirit bond has a strange debion because it doesn't say whether or not damage below 60 counts towards the counter. The answer is simply, no. If they take 59 damage, this does NOT activate. So spikes like Shove Spike in TA which does 58 damage with each hit will NOT stop it.
60 is a pretty big number, so make sure whatever you put this on is going to take over 60 damage. If you put it on someone being auto attacked by an assassin, congratz! You've just wasted 10 energy on nothing. Their pressure is now working and you are going to run out even faster than you would have. If a team is going to spike someone, as in you see two melee people converge on one person or a bunch of spell casters all start to turn towards one person, and you put this on them, Congrats! You have used it correctly! In Spikes this truly works to it's full potential. Most great spikes have all the damage over 60 damage, or it's not even worth it to have them in the spike. As long as this isn't shattered, the spike will probably not go through.
There is a bug in this skill that is very important to note: If you have this up on yourself and you take 6 attacks that are over 60 damage and recast this on yourself, this will not reset the counter. It has to end first before you can reapply it or YAY once again you have wasted 10 energy on nothingness.
Another tactic you can use is if this is up first, and then you put another prot spell such as reversal of fortune, then the healing from Spirit bond will activate, then the healing from reversal of fortune will activate, healing you for tons of health.
C. Reversal of Fortune
For 8 seconds, the next time target ally would take damage, that ally gains that amount of Health instead, maximum 15...67.
Also Called: RoF, Reversal
When you use this skill keep this in your head: "They have to do double the damage stated in the debion to even have the health bar go downward." So it is safe to assume that if this is up on someone and they take damage, the will not die, at least in PvP.
This skill is extremely useful after casting a big prot on someone, especially spirit bond. It will make it so they are healed for even more. It can also be good with small prots as well such as guardian. If a warrior is attacking you and you throw up guardian and Reversal of Fortune, and he misses his first 3 attacks, then lands his fourth, how much damage has he done in over 5 seconds? 0.
D. Guardian
For 2...6 seconds, target ally has a 50% chance to block attacks.
Also Called: Nothing Else
This skill really requires that you watch melee, and the better that you do, the slower warriors gain adrenaline, the less attacks and overall damage dervishes do, and the less energy assassins gain for spikes and overall pressure. If they are only hitting 50% of the time, you are managing your energy just by casting it.
4. Build Making
A. Condition Removal
This is vital. If you can't remove a deep wound from someone being spiked, blind from your melee, daze from yourself or others, your team is probably going to lose.
B. Hex Removal
This is also key. Holy Veil 90% of the time is the best option, discluding PvE. Precasting it on warriors to get rid of antimelee hexes and on yourself for anti caster hexes can turn the tide of the battle instantly.
C. Damage Migation
Would you rather spam healing spells on someone constantly until the other team gets bored of wasting your energy or throw up guardian and maybe protective spirit on them and be done with it? The point is a major concept of monking: Protection is more effecient than healing, but both are needed. Casting guardian on someone being spiked will slow or stop the spike, for 5 energy. If you don't the spike keeps going and there is no limit to how much energy you waste.
D. Healing
While protection is more effecient, it isn't possible to only have protection in a team and expect to win unless the other team has no damage in it. Healing is needed to clean up all the damage done to it, so make sure your build has it.
What NOT to do
Do NOT Infuse twice
Do NOT be in the frontline or the enemy backline/midline.
Do NOT heal people unless they are below 70% max health or are taking damage/being spiked.
Do NOT Infuse anything. If it is a spike infuse it but otherwise try to use other skills to stop it, losing 50% of your maximum health is very dangerous.
Do NOT use superiors or majors in PvP or PvE General. You are effective at 14 as you are at 16. Healing for 10 more is not as good as having 75 more health.
Do NOT go into PvP without at least 600 health.
Do NOT panic. Panic makes you make mistakes, use the wrong skill or heal the wrong person, leading to the death of a teamate. Focus.
Do NOT over use draw on people when running an RC monk (You being the other monk). Use it only on the RC monk when he can't use his self condition removal (If applicable).
Do NOT use rebirth mid-battle. Ever.
Do NOT take a resurrection skill in PvP. You need all the skills you can get, and all the time to use them. Three seconds to use Resurretion signet are three second the enemy has to spike you down.
Do NOT only stare at the party panel. Look at the battle. See where the melee is. Keep your eye on the mesmers for hexes like diversion. Watch (on spike teams) for the spike skills skill animation. Keep track of how long its been since a warrior has used its adrenaline and is going to try to spike. Be vigilant.
Do NOT have a monk build with only Protection or only Healing. A good build mixes both healing and protection.
Do NOT have a monk build with out hex removal or Condition removal.
Weapons + armor
Eh, she kinda looks like a +
Armor
Monks are a big target, and when you are open, people will do anything to kill you. This makes it vital that you have very high health. All monks should have over 600 health, even 600 is pushing it too low. It is best to have 1 minor for each attribute that you are using. Majors/Superiors are never good in PvP situations because an extra +7 heal is not worth losing 75 or 35 maximum health.
As for insignias and health/energy runes, take as many health runes as you can. If you can stay above 600 health and use an energy rune, go right ahead and take it. Save one rune slot for a Rune of Restoration (20% less cripple/bleeding) or a Rune of Recovery(20% less Deep Wound/Dazed). In places like RA and TA, Rune of Recovery helps a lot more than restoration. In GvG and HA, Daze isn't as common, so the reduction on cripple can help a lot more.
Weapons
Monks have a lot of weapons sets. Each one serves a different purpose and fit well with certain types of builds. Here's a list of the best ones known:
High armor/High health set
For this set you take a different inbion on the shield depending on the enemy. You place extra shields in you inventory and when you can see the enemy main damage type (Such as if you see a hammer warrior, switch to +10 vs Blunt). With all weapons that require a certain amount in an attribute, if you don't meet the max requirment, you get a faction of the effect. With armor it is 1/2, so vs the right damage type you have 78 armor instead of 60, big difference. If you are not casting a spell, you should be in this set. This set should always be taken.
Normal Set
Your offhand should meet requirements so you have +17 energy and + 60 health and +10 armor vs X damage. This is a mid range between high set and Health Set.
High Set
This has the highest energy out of all your sets, and is only in an emergency. It makes you lose 30 health, but gives you +30 energy. This is a must have, as when you are taking pressure and are out of energy, this is needed. Try to get out of this set by telling your team to pull back in places like Gvg and PvE. Switch back and forth between this and your low set so you can have the full regeneration when not casting.
Cripple Set
This set is good if you have return on your monk bar and is good to keep snares and daze managable. This stacks with the inbion that goes on your armor so it is suggested to take both.
Healing Set
This set is for healing monks. Most healing spells in the game have a 3/4 or 1 second cast time. With this you can cut that down to 1/4 easily.
Protection Set
This set is for protection monks. If you have any protection skills in your build it is a good idea to have this set handy (Discluding Reversal of Fortune). Very good with minor protection skills like guardian and Shield of Absorbtion.
There are a few of these that are needed in every monk build. The high armor set and the high energy set. When you are monking you should be sitting in your high armor set should you suddenly get spiked. When you cast a spell, switch to your set that fits your build (Healing set or Protection set) and then switch back after that cast. To learn more about this, go to the PvP Section labeled "Weapon Swapping".
Conclusion
I can't teach you how to monk. I can tell what you are suppose to do, but even then there are so many different possiblities in PvP that I can't tell you what to do with each situation. All I can do is tell you the most general things, some basics about equipment and some special tactics and tricks. Otherwise it is up to you. Are you making sure that you watch the battle? Are you communicating with your team? Are you being effecient with your spells? Is your build set up right? Have you been working on your reflexes? Do you practice weapon swapping? Do you use negative energy sets? Do you practice at all? Not do you play the game, that much is obvious. I mean do you go to RA/GvG/Whatever and play a match, lose and think about how you could have won that? Hopefully this guide has helped you make your monking even stronger, but in the end, IS IT IN YOU???
Questions? Comments? PM any time as The Gates Assassin or Beatable Monk. None of this information was copied discluding:
The Pictures of the casting symbols of the attributes.
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