HM Monking Builds

Having completed Legendary Guardian and Vanquishiner on my monk i thought it might be useful to share the builds I used. I played both a protection and a healing monk during the process and tended to take the opposite as a hero. 1 Protection and one Healer work very well together.

If I play another character then I set my monks up in a similar fashion. The only really useful skill not available to a hero monk is Seed of Life. These builds got me through 90%+ of the game. In some areas, e.g. the Abaddons Mouth mission in or Vanquishing Majesty's rest they won't work as you need something niche, but for the majority they are successfull.
Secondly they are tried and tested. Some people might think.. hey, why isn't XXXX in there. The answer is probably because heroes don't use it that well. A good example would be vigorous spirit. Used correctly on an assassin or warrior it can be a very effective heal. However heroes use it as a direct heal, in which case it causes more harm than help.

I tend to take one protection monk and one healing monk

14 in Heal or Protection
13 in Divine Favour
3 in Somewhere else useful

My monks have blessed armour. Given that I take a prot monk, the time that they are most likely to need the armour, is when they are enchanted with a protection. Survivor armour is an alternative, although much more expensive.
Minor Prot or heal runes are placed in the head piece
Minor divine somewhere else on the body
3 runes of attunement give my heroes a good energy boost.
Generally my heroes have a collectors staves with +5e enchanted or +5e ^50, options, with a +5e head. Prot has a+20% enchant and heal a +30hp.
I have 10 characters, all 10 are equiped, mainly in this way, one or two have a green or gold drop here or there.

My monks are effective, but also cheap


Both monks are set up as Mo/E to take advantge of Glyph of Lesser Energy. Mo/Me is possible but tends to reduce healing or protection power through lower skill levels or lack of skills in the bar due to 2 energy skills.

Bascially the skills bars are similar no matter the area, but one or two are swapped out/changed depending on what you are facing.

Generally you tend to face;
Single target Direct damage, more dervishes, paragons and warrior types and elementalist to some degree. Note that in hard mode, these tend to be spike types.

AoE Direct damage: Dervishes, Elementalists

Degen: Necros and Mesmer types and rangers to some degree

Hex: Necro and Mesmer types.

Knowing what you are going to face allows you to swap a few skills out accordingly, and i've tried to indicate them with the organisation of the image below.


Hope it helps.


Ela