Forum Link Code:[url=]Mo-Me Boon Prot[/url]
Commonly referred to as a "boon/prot" this build is commonly
seen in Guild vs Guild and the
Team Arena. This
build and its many variants became popular after changes to the
skill Offering of Blood.
Attributes and Skills
Equipment
Weapons
Generally, any set that meets your requirements (Protection
Prayers and/or Divine Favor req) can be used with this build,
providing that it doesn't penalize you in any way. A setup for more
advanced PvP is listed below.
Standard Set
- +5 Energy Axe/Sword of Fortitude and 20% recharge/+30 Health
Prot Offhand
- +5 Energy Axe/Sword of Fortitude and 20% recharge/+30 Health
Insp Offhand
Low Energy Set (when facing energy denial)
- -5 Energy Axe/Sword of Fortitude and Candy Cane Shield or
+30/-5 Shield or -2 Energy Offhand from Cities of
Ascalon
High Energy Set
- +5 Energy Axe/Sword of Fortitude and +15/-1 +30 Health
Offhand
- +15/-1 20% recharge Inspiration or Prot Wand and +15/-1 +30
Health Offhand
Defense Set (switchable in-fight)
- +5 armor Sword of Defense (total of +10 armor) and Candy Cane
Shield or +30/-5 Shield or -2 enchanted/-2 enchanted Shield
E-Drain Set
- 20% recharge/? Inspiration Wand and 20% recharge/+30 Health
Offhand
GvG Set
- Focus and Wand with +1 DF (20%) (For precasting Boon)
Note: Do not use items that increase enchantment duration
(Unless using Energy Drain) - doing so will increase the
amount of time that must pass before the energy bonus of Mantra of
Recall takes effect without increasing the amount of energy
awarded.
Armor
Any armor set works with this build, but here are some
suggestions:
- Shepherd's Armor is recommended for this
build due to increased health.
- Acolyte's Armor is also a good choice because
of the constant enchant of divine boon giving you an armor level of
70. However, if you are forced to use Contemplation of Purity at any time
you will be left without the armor bonus for a short time. Also,
many teams use enchantment removal in conjunction with knockdowns
or Blackout with
their spikes, making you lose your armor bonus for the duration of
the spike.
Usage
Skills
- Make sure Divine Boon is up at all times.
- Cycle Mantra of Recall every time it is available,
making sure that it is not already active before casting.
- Use Reversal of Fortune for general-purpose
healing, as this has the dual benefit of delivering the healing
from Divine
Favor on a target as well as negating the next hit on that
target. Note that using this damage negation pre-emptively is a
waste of energy and healing power; it is better to cover the target
with a skill that reduces damage taken instead, such as Guardian or Protective
Spirit.
- Cast Guardian on
an ally that is the target of heavy physical attacks, such as those
from Warriors, Rangers and Assassins.
- Cast Mend
Condition to heal conditions on allies.
- Cast Protective Spirit to counter concentrated
spike damage or catapults.
- Use Contemplation of Purity to counter
dangerous hexes (e.g. Shame, Backfire, Arcane Conundrum, Migraine, Shadow Shroud, etc) and conditions (e.g. Deep Wound, Cripple, Dazed, etc).
Play
- It is inadvisable to use Contemplation of Purity to sacrifice
Mantra of Recall and replenish energy; rather, Mantra of Recall
should be allowed to recycle normally. A Monk in need of emergency
energy is much better served by temporarily swapping to high-energy
weapons.
- In Guild vs Guild most guilds prefer not to use the superior
divine rune, favoring the extra 75 health. High total health gives
a player an edge against spike teams. In addition, when that player
starts accumulating death penalty, the extra health plays a larger
factor. A last factor is that once Victory or Death comes around,
the 75 health can make an extremely large difference.
**NOTE**
If you are in dire need of energy, it's useful to cast Contemplation of Purity for a quick
energy boost, with the added effect of healing and hex/condition
removal. Do not use it too much though, because there is a net gain
of 5 energy for every Contemplation of Purity, and
you will soon wear that out, esp. because of Mantra of
Recall's long recharge time.
Counters
- Remove Divine
Boon with an enchantment removal
skill. Even though Divine Boon can be cast quickly again, it causes
the Monk to waste valuable time and energy. It is likely that removing Divine Boon may be
difficult, as BP Monks almost exclusively use enchantments; as a
result, it may be "buried" beneath other enchantments.
- Energy denial is very effective, as BP Monks require quite a
bit of energy to operate. The sheer popularity of BP Monks in Guild vs Guild has caused a
corresponding increase in the popularity of energy denial
Mesmers. To counter energy loss, Monks should make use of weapon
swapping to temporarily boost or lower their energy.
- While Contemplation of Purity is an
effective condition removal skill, its effectiveness against
multiple reoccuring conditions - such as bleeds and poisons
inflicted by Assassins - is diminished. This is mainly due to the
10 second recharge of Contemplation and the need to sacrifice
enchantments to generate healing power.
- Signet of Humility can be used to disable
Mantra of
Recall, followed by energy denial: Ether Lord, Panic, Malaise, Arcane Echo, and Energy Tap.
- Due to the predictability of the build, Gaze of
Contempt followed immediately by Shame will reliably counter Divine Boon. With a high enough Fast Casting skill,
Shame can be used with Arcane Echo to
take out both Divine Boon and Mantra of Recall as BP Monks often
have both of these enchantments up at all times.
- As the BP build heavily relies on a small number of spammable
enchantments to heal allies, Diversion can devastate a Monk if used properly.
Combined with enchantment removal
skills, Divine
Boon can also be disabled, severely crippling the Monk.
- A counter growing in popularity is the use of the Assassin hex
Shadow
Shroud. A victim with this hex on cannot be the target of
enchantments, rendering a huge majority of a BP Monk's healing
power useless on that individual.
Variants
While the above is considered to be the standard skillset, many
variants exist.
- Often Energy
Drain is used instead of Mantra of Recall. There are, however,
many downfalls to this swap. Energy Drain transfers energy from a
target foe to the Monk, but to get the full effect, it is necessary
for that foe to have the amount of energy transferred by Energy
Drain. Also, at 10 Inspiration, Energy Drain has a net energy gain
of 0.42 points of energy per second, while Mantra of Recall has a
net gain of 0.62 points of energy per second. Furthermore, Energy
Drain does not have the synergy with Contemplation of Purity that Mantra
of Recall does. However, Energy Drain can be used with weapons or
offhands that provide a chance of faster inspiration spell recharge
and can be used with 20% enchanting mods. Also, monks usually stay
in the backline, but in order to use Energy Drain, the monk to is
required to get close to the opponent, thus making himself a viable
target.
- Holy Veil may
be used instead of Inspired Hex, but beware of the lessened energy management options
the build has.
- Mend
Ailment may be used instead of Mend Condition, but in many cases Mend
Condition is more reliable in its healing power and has a lower
recast time.
- Dismiss Condition may be used instead of Mend
Condition, allowing you to remove conditions from yourself
without using Contemplation of Purity. However, the
extra healing with this spell relies on enchantments, so it is best
if you cast another enchant on the target ally before Dismiss
Condition to allow for greater healing.
- One of the first four listed skills can be dropped in favor of
Signet of Devotion for healing that
requires no energy.
- One of the first four listed skills can also be dropped for Drain
Enchantment or Power Drain for more energy management.
- One of the first four listed skills can also be dropped for Distortion or Hex Breaker.
- If you are using two boonprots in GvG, one should take
Protective Spirit and the other should take Spirit Bond.
- With the new popularity of Shadow Shroud some boon prots prefer to replace
one of the first four skills with Gift of Health. If this variant is used
the attribute distribution changes, typically high divine favor
with an even split among the other attributes.
Factions Boon Prot
Using the skills listed in variation, it is possible to create a
Boon Prot using only core and factions skills, which is almost
equivalent to the prophecies one, but lacks the interaction of
Mantra of Recall with Contemplation of Purity. Simply switch:
- Mantra of Recall for Energy Drain
- Inspired Hex for Revealed Hex
- Contemplation of Purity for Signet of Devotion
Notes
If you decide to play this in PvE, ask a Necromancer in your
group to bring Blood Ritual.
Related Builds
Template
Monk / Mesmer 
