User:Rastamon/buildarchive/Build:Mo/Me Barrier Bond Monk

This is a versatile protection monk build to use if there is another healing monk in the party. It is primarily designed for PvE.

Equipment
Usually, monks should avoid using runes that reduce hit points. It is very important for a monk to have as much health as possible, thus being able to take more hits before going down. However, in most situations, the Life Bond monk does not get involved in combat, as the enchantments can be maintained from a greater distance than is needed to cast them. The bonder will usually stay as far behind the healing monk as the monks and casters stay away from the warriors. Normally a bonder will use one major or superior rune to boost either Protection or Divine Favor.

For elementalist-heavy areas use the chest piece with elemental resistance. For melee-heavy areas use the physical resistance chest piece and pants. Always use tattoos on hands and feet for extra energy.

Good equipment for this build will be anything that increases energy and anything with a +1 divine favor chance of 20%. Use of +1 items will not change the optimal skill allocations in the table below. No other mods available will be of much use to a bonder as all fast cast and recharge items effect spells only and blessed signet is not a spell. Good options include:


 * The Soulstone
 * Noss' Artifact
 * Rual's Focus

The Soulstone and Noss' Artifact also provide extra HP when enchanted. Rual's Focus provides the same amount of health while in a stance, Mantra of Inscriptions being a stance that will almost always be up.


 * Flint's Wand is a good, cheap way to get cold damage and 5 more energy. (Cold damage is useful when in a party with a necro that has Spinal Shivers, e.g. Sorrow's Furnace Farm.)

Kepkhet's Refuge or The Yakslapper are also a fairly good options, providing extra energy. However they do not increase rank in any skill.

Usage

 * Life Barrier + Life Bond are used on the tank(s) in the party to reduce the amount of damage they are taking and allow them to more effectively deal out damage. Life Barrier should be cast first, followed by Life Bond. Also, depending upon proficiency you should also bond the other members of your party with this priority: Non-Tanks taking damage, melee attackers, Monks, others.


 * Balthazar's Spirit and Blessed Signet are for energy management. Balthazar's is to be cast on yourself. Whenever damage is redirected to you from Life Bond, you still get +1 energy from Balthazar's Spirit, even if Life Bond reduces the damage to 0. The energy gained from these skills can often outstrip the energy degeneration from maintaining multiple enchantments. During a large battle, it is possible to maintain 12+ total enchantments, with Life Bond on every character, plus Life Barrier on the tank(s).


 * Mantra of Inscriptions is used to keep your signets recharging quickly.


 * Rebirth is generally the resurrection spell of choice for PvE. Party members often die in dangerous areas and would easily be killed again if resurrected at the place they died.  Rebirth can be used to teleport the body to the caster's safe location. Be warned however that using Rebirth will cause the caster to have 0 energy, which will make any maintained enchantments over the energy regen rate (usually 4) drop. The bonder should only use Rebirth if there is no other way of bringing a party member back up.


 * Ether Signet is a backup plan for when your energy drops under 8 and blessed signet isn't recharged.

Variants
The most commonly used skills are Life Barrier, Life Bond, Mantra of Inscriptions, Balthazar's Spirit, Blessed Signet, and Rebirth. This leaves two open skill slots, shown above as optional to use on utility spells and several options have been listed here:


 * For a more passive monk, use Watchful Spirit for regeneration and spike heals while remaining safely outside of spell range. Note that Watchful Spirit does not require any points in Healing for its Healing over time and makes for a great cover enchantment in areas where the enemies use enchantment removals.
 * Aegis and Guardian are excellent utility skills as well and can also serve as cover enchantments in areas with high enchantment removal. When using Aegis, Blessed Aura can be added to extend the duration of Aegis.  This leaves the bonder without self healing, so do this only if you are confident the healing monk can handle the load.
 * Vital Blessing can be used to great effect in small groups, where maintaining more than three enchantments on each party member is possible. Since Vital Blessing adds its health to the target's current health this can also serve as an emergency heal but if the enchantment is shattered or removed this can result in instant death.
 * Inspired Hex is an excellent utility skill to add to an open slot for this build. Besides the obvious benefits of hex removal it can also return energy.  This is most useful in areas where foes cast Rust or Ignorance so that Blessed Signet can continually be recast.
 * Signet of Devotion is a good direct healing spell which can be used on the bonder themselves or on other casters. Bonders use this skill to cover health lost through Life Bond as well as to help allied necromancers cover life sacrifice costs.  It costs no energy and benefits from Mantra of Inscriptions.
 * Reversal of Fortune can serve as a cover enchantment in areas where enchantment removal is prevalent as well as to provide supplemental healing for the group. When used as a healing skill the energy cost can be quite high because to heal effectively it must be cast several times in a row.  This also requires the bonder to be within spell range of the target being healed.  Despite these drawbacks this skill can be used to great effect in areas where aggro can be drawn to a single character.
 * Mend Condition can be put to good use in this build, especially if you have great Aggro control, resulting in not needing to remove conditions on yourself. Then, you would probably be using Mend Ailment, which has a slightly longer recharge time, and is inconsistent with the healing bonus.
 * Dismiss Condition may also be utilised effectively with almost guarenteed bonus healing due to the fact that it heals extra if the ally has an enchantment on him.
 * Life Attunement can be used to buff the bonders healing skills when no healing monk is available. This is also an excellent enchantment to maintain on tanks to make healing easier.
 * Early Prophecies variations: It's possible to run this build relatively early in the Prophecies campaign. Once Beetletun is reached, Blessed Signet can be captured, Life Barrier is found just outside of Beacon's Perch and Balthazar's Spirit and Life Bond are available from trainers.  Other skills need to be adapted for such an early-game build.  Vital Blessing, Inspired Hex, Guardian, Reversal of Fortune, and Signet of Devotion are all available at this point via quests and/or skill trainers.

Inspiration Magic vs. Divine Favor
Both Inspiration Magic and Divine Favor govern energy gain, and by extension the number of bonds that can be maintained. The trade-off presented here is between energy gain on use of Blessed Signet and the number of times Blessed Signet can be used. Since this is a protection build the table has been limited to high levels of Protection Prayers, it also assumes that a Superior Rune of Divine Favor is used as well. The optimal values are in bold. Simply select a desired level of Protection Prayers and use these values to optimize energy gain from Blessed Signet and Mantra of Inscriptions. Take note that neither type of +1 chance 20% item, Inspiration Magic or Divine Favor, will have an effect on the optimal attribute levels shown here.