Well I have re-rolled my PVP Monk to a Monk/Necro for the energy boost from Offering of Blood and was wondering if anyone has any helpful suggestions. The monk would be used in 3 monk 8 person PVP builds. Can't remember the attribute layout exactly but was around 13 healing, 11 divine, 9 blood as I recall.

This is the skill line-up I have been testing in the team arena:

Offering of Blood (Elite)
Orison of Healing
Healing Touch
Heal Party
Healing Breeze
Divine Boon
Mend Ailment
Rez Signet


Seems to work pretty well so far. I particularly like hitting OOB and getting that energy boost and then casting one of the higher energy skills. I was thinking that another benefit is that if the team is lacking a necro, I can always drop in putrid for corpse denial even with 0 points in death.

This is very interesting. You're bringing lots of spells that I normally avoid like the plague due to their energy costs. Specifically, I cringe every time I see someone use Healing Breeze and Heal Party (unless there is a necro in the party that is constantly saccing and needs a constant breeze at all times). Offering of Blood may offset that, though. I am working on a partial monk guide (I have a blind spot in the field of smiting) to discuss these skills in more detail.

I have been pretty successful with this Mo/Me healing build lately (in both PvE and PvP):

Healing Touch
Dwayna's Kiss
Vigorous Spirit
Healing Seed
Mend Ailment
Healing Hands (Elite)
Inspired Hex
Rez Signet

Attribute layout: 16 Healing Prayers, 13 Divine Favor, 3 Inspiration

This is particularly successful in the four-man arena. You can pretty much keep a vigorous spirit on the entire party there (including yourself) the entire time. That has to be one of the most underrated skills in the game. With the divine favor boost, it's like using Orison of Healing, except that it continues to heal for 30 seconds every time the target casts a spell or attacks. That's a lot of healing out of a five point spell. In addition, it's a cheap enchantment you can throw on someone to boost Dwayna's Kiss in the event that you should have to use it.

What I like about Healing Hands is:
1) You can cast it on yourself
2) It's cheap
3) It has a really fast cast time, so it's hard to interrupt

Inspired Hex has grown on me because with only 3 points in inspiration it provides hex removal at a net energy cost of 0. In fact, since my prot build doesn't rely as heavily on Divine Favor and requires better energy management, I add a few more points to Inspiration so I actually get a net energy gain when I remove hexes. The only disadvantage is that you're stuck with no hex removal for 20 seconds, but it is fun sometimes to remove a Spiteful Spirit and recast it on their warrior just for the hell of it (I usually have the energy to spare because this build is very economical). It doesn't do much since I have no curses, but it's just fun to watch the reactions :)

I love Divine Boon, but the energy degen is just too much for me to take in PvP. The build I'm using right now lets me keep going indefinitely (especially if there's a bonder in the party... Vigorous Spirit + Life Bond + Dwayna's Kiss = Mega Healing).

Thanks for those great comments and the Mo/Me build you presented. Some good food for thought and further experimenting. I have noticed that with OOB it does tend to significantly expand the energy management potential of my monk. I may have pushed it too far, though, with divine boon. I do try to avoid enchantments while monking in PVP other than Breeze which is one of the other differences I noticed in the two builds with yours including three enchantment based spells. However, I haven't really looked at vigorous spirit and that one looks like it might be a great swap with divine boon putting the build in a better overall energy management position requiring fewer OOB castings. Thanks again.

Did some more testing last night with your suggestions and am now quite the fan of Vigorous Spirit - thanks. Also swapped out a few others like Heal Party which is just too slow to be useful, I think.

Here is the revised build:

Mo/N

Blood 10
Healing 14
Divine Favor 12

Offering of Blood (Elite)
Healing Touch (edit:put back in)
Healing Breeze
Heal Other
Vigorous Spirit
Mend Ailment
Dwayna's Kiss or Putrid Explosion
Rez Signet

You took out Healing Touch... you are a brave man :) Does Putrid Explosion do much damage without anything invested in Death? If I were you and I wanted to take a damage-dealing necro skill, I would take advantage of all those points in Blood. Given that you've removed your emergency self-heal (Healing Touch), you may wish to consider Vampiric Gaze or forego the damage and bring Well of Blood (which also acts as a corpse denial mechanism). Personally, I would have kept Divine Boon and given up Healing Breeze, but I'm just biased against that skill. You might need to keep it on yourself to offset the OOB health loss.

What led me down the Mo/N path originally was us always being short a monk for our three monk build and me having to switch from my necro over to a monk character which then usually left us with no necro on the team and, therefore, no corpse denial. This can be a real weakness against some teams that are using wells or minions. I then noticed in observer mode the large number of Mo/N's using OOB and that clinched my decision to give it a try. I would only put Putrid in if we had no other necros on the team and would be using it not so much for damage as for preventing the enemy from using the corpse so no points need to be in Death magic to get the result I want. The other skill I considered was Consume Corpse but I don't want to necessarily be transported into the thick of battle. Well of Blood is nice but it is 2 seconds instead of 1 second in cast time which could be a bit too slow to beat the enemy for the corpse.

Putrid is good for corpse denial, but it has a slow recharge time. You might also want to pick up Soul Feast. You don't get the energy boost that Consume Corpse gives you, but you do get a nice health boost and a quick casting time without having to teleport to the corpse.

Excellent suggestion as the 5 second recharge on Putrid has been a bit of a hindrance at times. For some reason I had focused on Consume Corpse as the primary 1 second cast time alternative and had not given Soul Feast much thought (even though I carry it on my Necro - lol.) With Soul Feast I will get corpse denial and a little healing with a 1 second cast time and instant recharge - sounds like the winner to me :). Looking forward to testing it out.

Im not a huge fan of straight Boon healing. IMO it tends to over heal, which is a waste of energy. I still prefer the good ole Prot Boon build to mix the healing of Boon with protection effects. Sure it's not the most original build, but it's efficient.

True, but with good timing, Divine Boon + Healing Touch makes you almost unkillable!

I think with Alliance Battles, there will be a greater emphasis on raw healing... ESPECIALLY HEAL PARTY. All I did was hide behind a hill and spammed Heal Party.

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