Problem with 55 monk

[sister morphyne]

Maybe someone can help me here. I've got a 55 monk and I have this ongoing problem that regularly surfaces whilst farming hydras outside Augury rock.

My build is standard, I have the -50 offhand and a totem axe with the +20 enchantment.

I can't remember the exact spread of attributes but it's something like this

Divine Favor: 9 (6+3)
Healing Prayers: 12 (9+3)
Smiting Prayers: 15 (12+3)
Protection Prayers: 11 (8+3)

(pretty much the cookie cutter recipe)

and of course the spells:

- Protective Spirit (Protection Prayers)
- Bonetti's Defense (Tactics)
- Shield of Judgment [Elite] (Smiting Prayers)
- Smite (Smiting Prayers)
- Healing Breeze (Healing Prayers)
- Watchful Spirit (Divine Favor)
- Mending (Healing Prayers)
- Balthazar's Spirit (Smiting Prayers)

The problem is that I engage a mob of hydras, all my enchantments are on, I keep up all the necessary stuff like protective spirit, breeze etc, and all is going well, the hydras are dropping then all of a sudden my monk gets taken out in a blink.

I am totally sure that everything that should be active is active and yet she dies?

Anyone else with this problem? Can anyone offer me some advice?

[boxterduke]

Which Hydra's are you talking about?
The Desert ones or the Ring of Fire ones?
If the ones outside of Ember Light camp then there are Phantoms that pop up. They are Mesmers that strip your enchants and kill you in an instant.


On another note change your secondary to Mesmer and try this build, you will be able to kill stuff faster.

- (your choice of skill)
- Protective Spirit
- Healing Breeze
- Arcane Echo
- Shield of Judgment
- Essense Bond
- Mending
- Balthazar's Spirit

[sister morphyne]

Which Hydra's are you talking about?
The Desert ones or the Ring of Fire ones?
If the ones outside of Ember Light camp then there are Phantoms that pop up. They are Mesmers that strip your enchants and kill you in an instant.


On another note change your secondary to Mesmer and try this build, you will be able to kill stuff faster.

- (your choice of skill)
- Protective Spirit
- Healing Breeze
- Arcane Echo
- Shield of Judgment
- Essense Bond
- Mending
- Balthazar's Spirit

Thanks, I'll give it a shot, and the hydras I was referring to are the Augury Rock ones.

[Shrimp]

About your issue: 55 monks can take a certain number of hits each second for each pip of health regen they have. If you agro enough mobs, and I've done this more than once, you can still die even with all the regen available to you.

As for your build, why don't you have smiting maxed? Get the smite headpiece and go with that. You want every point of damage you can get. Also, why is healing prayers at 12? 12 is a useless number for you here, as mending doesn't hit 4 pips until 13 and health regen maxes out at 10 pips anyway. 8 in healing will get you a 3 pip mending and a 6 pip Breeze, which is enough for just about anything. Watchful Spirit is a waste of a skill slot.

Which Hydra's are you talking about?
The Desert ones or the Ring of Fire ones?
If the ones outside of Ember Light camp then there are Phantoms that pop up. They are Mesmers that strip your enchants and kill you in an instant.


On another note change your secondary to Mesmer and try this build, you will be able to kill stuff faster.

- (your choice of skill)
- Protective Spirit
- Healing Breeze
- Arcane Echo
- Shield of Judgment
- Essense Bond
- Mending
- Balthazar's Spirit

Or you can leave out AE and use Blessed Aura, which takes advantage of existing monk attributes, gives a far more reliable source of damage that doesn't have to be protected from interruption twice, and leaves you open to take mantra of resolve or to even use another secondary for adding instant cast damage spells. Finally, Remove the largely useless Essence Bond (Balth Spirit should be enough) and you're doing just fine.

[Corporeal Ghost]

Also, why is healing prayers at 12? 12 is a useless number for you here, as mending doesn't hit 4 pips until 13 and health regen maxes out at 10 pips anyway. 8 in healing will get you a 3 pip mending and a 6 pip Breeze, which is enough for just about anything.

Actually, twelve is the ideal number. You can swap hats to pre-cast Mending for four pips.

Watchful Spirit is a waste of a skill slot.

Agreed. Bonetti's Defense is wasteful against Hydras as well unless you are rounding up the entire map.

If you're randomly dying, there are two things to watch for. One is the obvious life stealing/enchantment stripping. If you're POSITIVE there are no non-hydras, then this isn't your problem.

The other is having enough "spike damage" to kill you all at once. If the hits come close enough together, your regeneration means squat.

--me

[Shrimp]

Actually, twelve is the ideal number. You can swap hats to pre-cast Mending for four pips.

Bah, too much work, and my bags are full enough as it. 2 armor sets + the 55 set + 3 hats, and that doesn't even start into all the odds and ends I have to hang on to because my storage is full of nothing but materials and dyes.

Besides, I stand by my statement that 9 regen is almost always enough. Putting 8 in healing allows points to go elsewhere. Like into a secondary that gives you an active direct damage spell to speed up kills.

[housemuzic]

If your getting killed instantly it sounds like PS is ending. Warriors can farm Hydras alot quicker than a 55 Monk. The risk of knockdowns whilst casting can be annoying. Maybe take Balanced Stance in your build?

[sister morphyne]

Loads of good advice, thanks ppl

[curtisakatoyo]

I used my 55 necro at Augury till I was confident enough to solo UW. My skillbar goes like this....

PS/HB/Guardian/SS/RH/BS/EB/Mending

So as long as you have PS/HB/BS/EB/Mending you should be able to stay alive if you keep PS up at all times when aggrod and HB when your health gets low and mending cant cover it. There are NO strip-enchanting hydras close outside of augury (As in that field of hydras), now there is a Mesmer Boss Hydra that appears pink further out augury.

I am sure you know what to do tho, cast all 3 enchants, let the energy regen, then run up to a set of hydras cast PB right before aggro and then HB possibly if you need it, then since your monk I would guess SOJ after echo if you go Mo/Me then once that runs out cast echo SOJ.

I love the 55 solo N/Mo though because RH makes the enemies attack 25% faster and miss 52% of the time while SS does 37 dmg and lasts 21 seconds, yet it only has a cast recharge of 10 seconds.

Good luck, just make sure you keep those spells up, because if you have no PS=DEATH, sometimes I didnt notice it go out when I started 55ing and I was like #$%&!

[NeVeRLiFt]

I run a W/Mo build to farm the hydra(dont feel no pain's build), but a W/Me or R/Me can do it the best.