having trouble staying alive

[ares416]

So I've gotten over the fact that in PvP Primary Monk = Primary Target :)

I've had several comments about trying out different tactics that should suppossedly allow me to "not die as quickly". So my role seems to be to just stand there and get hit by as many enemies as possible and survive for as long as possible, which usually ends up being about 30 seconds if I'm lucky! I don't even get much chance to heal anyone because I'm so busy protecting myself. It's ridiculous!!!

I know one problem is my guild is not very organized and we don't have TS or anything - we are all sort of new to this. I do like playing the healer and I'm going to stick with it so I need some help and advice so I can "not die as quickly" in PvP.

I'm a Mo/E and it has to stay that way because I'm using the premade build with "word of healing" which I really like. I have mend ailments and smite hex, rez and a few self healing spells. I tried going the Earth Magic route (Eruption and ward vs melee) and that didn't seem to help much so I tried shielding hands and Mending. Not much improvement either. I guess I can't expect too much if I'm the center of 3 or 4 enemies attacks. It's very frustrating but I want to stick with it.

Any advice???

[Tu Khan]

For a monk to stay alive in a situation like that, Mending is absolutely priceless. Definitely make the investment of raising your healing prayers until Mending does at least +3 health regen rather than +2--trust me, it will make a huge difference. That's what I employ to stay alive, and then keep Healing Breeze to cast on myself if things start getting really dire. Also, just remember regular armor as well.

[Seeker of Something]

You're kidding, right? Mending on a PvP Monk primary? You can outheal Mending with Orison for less energy. And unless your opponents are idiots they'll be dealing damage to you far faster than Mending could repair it. Not to mention that a capable team will trash the enchantments on a monk when they focus (probably dealing damage into the bargain).

Try Healing Touch as your primary self-heal. Ward Against Melee and Armor of Earth do help if warriors are the problem. So do Protective Spirit and Shielding Hands. Against casters, Spell Breaker is much nicer.

But realistically, you can't expect to survive alone. No monk build is going to survive a coordinated assault without support. You should always have another monk backing you up, and three monks are usually better for an eight-man team.

[DurinDalinson]

I've played a primary monk for a while now. Here are a few tips that help me:

- Bring Healing Touch with you. It is one of the best self heals in the game with a high Divine Favour (which every monk helaer should have). Coupled with Orison Of Healing you can heal yourself quite well.

- Have your guildmates bring snares. Snares are spells which slow an enemy - some examples are; Imagined Burden (Mesmer - Illusion Magic), Ice Prison (Elementalist - Water Magic), Pin Down (Ranger - Marksmanship), Hamstring (Warrior - Swordsmanship). There are many more. These spells give you enough time to run away from whoever is chasing you.

- Make sure your team knows when you're being attacked. This is easiest if you have some form of voice comms, but if you don't then be sure to arrange some form of signal for help beforehand (such as repeatedly pinging the map)

- Make use of the collision boxes. In this game it is not possible to run through other players, so make use of this. Have your warriors block the path of people heading towards you, or people chasing you. Using this in conjunction with the snares can help keep people off your back.


To put it bluntly you can't survive alone. It is possible to make builds that can survive a heavy beating, but these builds become nearly useless at the healing that, by your original post, is what you're wanting to do. The best defence that you can have is good teamwork - make sure the rest of your guild know whats happening and how to help. Communication really is the key. Your teammates will be able to do a much better job at keeping you alive than you possibly could yourself - make use of them!

Good luck with your future fights.

Edit: Just read the second post. Don't take mending as a self heal whatever you do. It won't help when you get focused on, not at all, and it takes one pip of energy regen besides. Really, don't bother with it, it's a waste of time. The only time it may possibly be of any use whatsoever is for healing you a little when your running away, but a teammate with healing breeze can do that so much better. Take Healing Touch as a self heal instead, much more effective.

[ares416]

I actually have both mending and healing touch but after reading this and testing in game I'm thinking of getting rid of mending in favor of some Earth magic protection - perhaps ward vs. melee and earth armor. I wasn't sure how good earth armor was but I'll try it out and see.

I'll also have to have a talk with my guild mates since I'm no use to them dead. ;)

Thanks for the replies!