User:Mgrinshpon/Spirit bonding guide

This guide is aimed at giving both a basic picture of what Spirit Bonding is as well as an in-depth look into all variations and techniques used in this tanking/farming build.

What is Spirit Bonding?
Spirit Bonding is based on three concepts:
 * The skill Spirit Bond heals its target for a large amount, but only if that target was about to take more than 60 damage. Note that the skill heals even if that damage was reduced before it actually hits the target. So, if a Fireball was about to its target for 119 damage, and that target had a protective enchantment that limited the damage to, say, 50 hit points, Spirit Bond's healing will still take effect, because the original damage was higher than 60.
 * The skill Protective Spirit is used to cap the actual damage taken so that it never exceeds the amount that the target is healed for.
 * The lowest possible armor is worn to make as many hits as possible trigger Spirit Bond's effect.

What are the Advantages of Spirit Bonding?
There are several major advantages to Spirit Bonding, especially when compared with the classic Invincible Monk (or any other 55 build):
 * As long as there are enough foes that hit hard enough, the Spirit Bonder can take on any number of foes. A 55 monk is the opposite; after a certain number of foes (as low as 9 or as high as 15), his health regeneration will not be able to keep up. A Spirit Bonder is healed per hit for more than the amount he/she was hit for, therefore, theoretically, can take on a near infinite number of attackers.
 * The required armor and equipment for making a Spirit Bonder are very cheap.
 * Spirit Bonding can be done entirely with just 10 or so attribute ranks in Protection Prayers. This leaves a lot of attribute points for doing other things than just staying alive.
 * The life-line of the build, the skill Spirit Bond, casts in 1/4 of a second, and is thus virtually uninterruptible. This is in contrast to Healing Breeze, the main healing skill for a 55 monk, which casts in 1 second.
 * A Spirit Bonder usually does his job at regular health or more. This actually has three positive side effects:
 * There is more room for error. A 55 monk who lets Protective Spirit wear off almost always dies; a Spirit Bonder with either Protective Spirit or Spirit Bond worn off has a larger window of opportunity to recast them.
 * The average or higher than average health allows the Spirit Bonder to use Smiting Prayers like Retribution to dish out damage. This leads to much faster killing of foes.
 * A Spirit Bonder can be resurrected via a regular resurrection skill. Death Penalty does not hinder their ability to tank.

What are the Disadvantages?

 * Like 55 monks, heavy enchantment removal is the bane of Spirit Bond monks.
 * Also like their 55 brethren, their energy depends on being hit. If there are too few enemies, the Spirit Bonder will run into major energy issues of keeping Protective Spirit and Spirit Bond up.
 * Unlike their 55 brethren, their healing also relies on being hit. This leaves them very vulnerable if aggro is broken up for any reason as they usually do not rely on health regeneration like 55 monks.
 * Certain areas pose more of a challenge for Spirit Bonders because there might be too many foes who use wands and staves. Such foes damage the Spirit Bonder, but do not trigger Spirit Bond at times. See the usage tips below on how to increase damage received so that Spirit Bond can kick in. Also, see Build:Me/Mo 55 IW Solo Mesmer and the Build:Mo/E Sliver 55 for builds that use both 55 health and Spirit Bond to overcome this limitation.

Counters to the Build

 * Anything that can take away a Spirit Bonder's enchantments will quickly eliminate him/her. Spell Breaker or similar may help against this.
 * Life stealing and massive health degeneration as well as Healing reduction effects can cause problems in terms of the Spirit Bonder's ability to heal up as fast as he is taking damage.

It is for these reasons that a Spirit Bonder is not suited to PvP, but a powerful build in PvE, especially when taking on large quantities of melee foes.

Skill Selection
The basic skill bar is simple:

The rest of the skills are up to you! Let's examine the skills that can be placed in all those skill slots below.

The Basics

 * The very lifeblood of the Spirit Bonder is the skill it's named after: Spirit Bond.


 * Either of these two skills will do, but Protective Spirit is by far the more popular choice, due to energy concerns. Unless there's some very good reason for bringing Protective Bond, try not to. If you do, consider combining it with Bonetti's Defense (below).

Energy Gain Skills

 * These skills are essential. Each time you get hit, which will be often, they give you energy. Consider bringing both, but at least one is needed without question. Balthazar's Spirit is superior to Essence Bond because it triggers on any damage, not certain types of damage.


 * When you have 3-4 maintained enchantments on you, Blessed Signet is there to help you get energy to start up Protective Spirit and Spirit Bond. Usually, after casting several pre-battle enchantments, you'll have very little energy. This is very useful for getting your feet off the ground, unless partied with a Necro using Blood Ritual or even Blood is Power.


 * Consider bringing this skill for some extreme energy gain. This isn't nearly as useful on a Spirit Bonder as on a 55, because a Spirit Bonder doesn't need the damage mitigation this skill provides. Also, when under heavy degen, a Spirit Bonder needs to be taking enough damage to heal themselves. Essence Bond and Balthazar's Spirit are generally superior choices.



Damage-Dealing Skills

 * The staple damage dealer of Invincible Monks is still the same. Powerful and effective. A solid choice for solo farming everywhere.


 * While once the staples of dealing damage, these are no longer recommended. Both of these spells cause continuous Area of Effect Damage. Since an update towards the end of 2005, enemies will now flee when faced with repeated Area of Effect damage.


 * Since Spirit Bonders tend to have high health and get hit for high damage, Retribution can dish out some serious damage over time. Holy Wrath, while dealing more damage, is generally unsustainable because of the huge energy loss. Either calculates damage after Protective Spirit, meaning Retribution does 33% of 10% of your health, while Holy Wrath deals 66% of 10% of your health. This is 3.33...% and 6.66...%, respectively, and the primary reason to push your health as high as possible.


 * Spiteful Spirit takes a while to cast, but over time or against extremely durable enemies, Spiteful Spirit is very potent. Consider using it if you do not expect interrupts.


 * The bigger the aggro gathered around the Spirit Bonder the more destructive this skill will become. It's only problem is the short duration and the fact that its damage is affected by the armor of the foes.


 * Every time you reapply a skill, which will be fairly often, it deals damage to all surrounding enemies. If using this skill, be sure to time your skills in 3 seconds intervals or more, or enemies will flee from you.


 * These 3 skills can easily replace Shield of Judgment, Retribution, and Blessed Signet (with only 2 maintained enchantments, Blessed Signet is not worthwile anymore) in a standard solo farming Spirit Bonder build. This skill set is extremely powerful in an area with exceptional amounts of melee attackers, like the Minotaurs in Elona Reach or the Mountain Trolls outside Droknar's Forge in Talus Chute. For more potency, consider using this as an E/Mo instead of Mo/E.


 * This nature ritual can be very useful using undirected Smiting Prayers, like Retribution. The hard hitting melee foes will drop first, while the passive reflected damage back to the others (casters or rangers) will ensure that this spirit reaps them all. Make sure to set it down before the fight in range of where the enemies will be and sufficiently far away from them so they don't destroy it. Keep in mind, that you must get all enemies to at least 90% health before Edge of Extinction triggers on them.

Damage Vulnerability Skills

 * Any of these 3 stances can be used to make sure that your enemies do enough damage to trigger Spirit Bond. The general utility stance is Frenzy, as no matter the foe you are facing, it works, provided you cast Spirit Bond after activating it. The other two are for more specialised purposes. For example, in the Underworld, Grasping Darknesses do only 40 damage to you even when not wearing any armor. All their attacks are physical, so Elemental Resistance give you a low enough armor class to actually kick Spirit Bond into effect.


 * While using Healing Signet, your armor is lowered by 40, definitely low enough so that all enemies in high level areas will do enough damage to trigger Spirit Bond. The downside is that it has a recharge, and may thus force you to rely on Healing Prayers during the recharge, making the your attribute layout less flexible.



Enchantment Removal Protection Skills

 * Spell Breaker stops enchantment stripping spells just like Spell Shield. In an Underworld or Fissure of Woe farming team, losing your Protective Spirit and Spirit Bond means certain death. Since you just have to tank the mobs while the other player deals the damage, spending your elite slot on a relatively care-free way to prevent enchantment removal is a good deal.


 * Possibly one of the most overpowered anti-spell enchantments in the Guild Wars arsenal, it also stops attacks against you. Non-spell skills that can strip your enchantments still do so, but those are far and few in between. This is even more powerful than Spell Breaker, but a Spirit Bonder requires being attacked to heal, and when Shadow Form ends, you lose a lot of health. As soon as creatures hit you again, however, you should be back up to full in no time.


 * This will protect you from spells while you are casting yourself. Since it can be kept up indefinitely with a high enough level in Divine Favor and a weapon of enchanting, it might be a viable choice when paired with a slow-casting skill used like an interrupt.


 * Needed when solo farming and Spell Breaker isn't viable because you need the damage from a different elite, or when faced with enchantment removal by non-spell skills. Interrupt the stripping skill, and you'll live. Criteria to judge them include:
 * Energy cost, an interrupt is no good if you can't use it when you need it. Signets work well here.
 * Ability to interrupt non-spell skills, if necessary.
 * Recharge.
 * A complete list of all possible interrupts can be found here, but the usual choices are placed above, already.

Misc Skills

 * Retribution can do lots of damage, and if using superior runes to bolster the capability of your other skills, Vital Blessing can help you get the most out of Retribution.


 * Consider adding one or both of these to deny the mobs you farm the use of energy and adrenaline skills.


 * Does Spirit Bond expire too fast? Maybe your Shield of Judgment dissolves before everything is dead, or Spell Breaker dies before those enchantment strippers do. Blessed Aura and Arcane Echo are here to help. Make those enchantments last longer using Blessed Aura, or use Arcane Echo to get an extra copy of your favorite spell.


 * There are mobs with interrupts you need to counter. Both stances provide 75% evade and are hence great against attack interrupts, but you can't have a damage-increasing stance active simultaneously. The glyph may work as a cover skill to draw the monster's interrupts, or will make your next spell uninterruptible if itself completes.


 * This skill will increase the life gain from Spirit Bond significantly with decent attributes. This will help you survive in places where the usual Spirit Bond healing is not enough.

Armor
Your armor MUST be armor level 15 or below. Shing Jea Level Ascetic Armor, available from Kambei, Moon Ahn, or Nu Leng is good, if you still have the level 5 Starter Armor, that's even better. Try wearing as few pieces of armor as possible if you need to further increase the damage you take. Leg and feet armor provide additional energy regeneration, so are probably not expendable, but the energy bonus on hands and especially the chest piece (with its high probably of getting hit) might not be worth it. If you don't need the +1 bonus from a normal headgear, use a special event headpiece, which will have 0 armor and allow you to fit a rune in.

Runes
You will want the best Vigor Rune possible, and whatever you need to boost your skills. Keep in mind that the higher your health, the higher the damage from Retribution and the more room to recover from the occasional hits that do less than the required 60 damage.

Weapons
Your staff or wand and offhand can be anything, as long as it does not increase armor. That said, an enchanting weapon is tremendously useful, required even; any additional health is welcome, too.

For solo farming, a cheap, starter's combination would be the Totem Axe and Wenslauss' Chalice. These increase enchantment length by 20%, give +45 to your health and a total of +17 energy (if you have at least 9 Divine Favor). The best offhand is Shen's Censure, which is smiting prayers-based and can give you a more powerful smiting spells with +1 20% to Smiting, as well as possibly halve the skill recharge of Shield of Judgment.

As for 2 man farming, the Kaolin Protection Staff and Kepkhet's Refuge are excellent choices for 2 man farming where you are the tank. An excellent offhand to use, if staves are not wanted, is The Soulstone with it's +1 to divine favor, making Spell Breaker last a second more, giving you that cruicial edge, plus 20% chance for HSR for Divine Favor, making Spell Breaker recharge twice as quickly.

However, clearly the best weapon is the Flame Spitter, which will reduce your armor by 10 while attacking, grant a 10% chance of half skill recharge, can be fitted with an axe grip of enchanting, and still leaves you space for an offhand, like Shen's Censure or Wenslauss' Chalice.

Usage
Now that you have all the skills and equipment, it's time to use them.

First, cast all maintained enchantments. Then use Blessed Signet to regain your energy back to maximum (or just wait, if you have energy regeneration left). Get near some monsters, cast Protective Spirit, activate your damage increasing stance, then cast Spirit Bond. Be absolutely sure to not cast Spirit Bond before the stance, otherwise the damage increase will come into effect after the Spirit Bond check and hence do nothing useful at all.

Congratulations, you are now invincible. Cast Signet of Judgment or a similar skill if you are afraid it would get interrupted later, then run ahead and make all those foes hit you. Recast Protective Spirit, the damage-increasing skill and Spirit Bond before they run out, apply whatever damage-dealing skills you have chosen, and make sure you're always fighting several monsters (otherwise you are likely to run into energy problems).

Example Builds
These builds are made to work, out of the box. They've been tested, used, and abused by the author. Each is ready to rock. Just pop the skills in and set the attributes, and you're ready to make money!

Troll Farming
This is for farming Mountain Trolls in the troll cave outside Droknar's Forge in Talus Chute. The trolls themselves don't need Frenzy, but the Avicara do. These guys may even interrupt your shield of judgment making retribution do the damage dealing for quite a while. Afterwards, move up into the cave and aggro all the trolls. Then, activate Shield of Judgment when they are all attacking you and watch them fall to the ground. Then, go up and get the Tundra Giants if desired. When fighting them, be sure to activate Shield of Judgment before aggroing them. They will knock you down randomly, but don't get knocked down themselves, so they attack more often and get the damage from Shield of Judgment more often.

Underworld Spirit Bonding
Like the Avicara outside Droknar's Forge, Grasping Darknesses will refuse to deal enough damage. Use Elemental Resistance to make Spirit Bond trigger. Otherwise, the rules are the same as. Consider replacing Elemental Resistance with Frenzy using the same attribute point spread. The advantages include greater chance to activate spirit bond damage, but a much shorter duration.

Fissure of Woe Spirit Bonding
is almost identical to this build, except the build in this guide uses Spirit Bonding for a more powerful, secure tank. An advantage of Spirit Bonding in the fissure is the resistance to enchantment removal that Spirit Bonding allows. Spell Breaker (without Arcane Echo) is necessary for the few scenarios where there is more than one mesmer. However, in most cases, Spirit Bond can cover Protective Spirit and be recast immediately if removed.