Divine Favor



Divine Favor is the Monk primary attribute, meaning that only a character with Monk as their primary class can put points into this attribute.

Guild Wars Description
"For each rank of Divine Favor, allies are healed for 3 [actually 3.2] (0...38) whenever you cast Monk spells on them. Several Monk skills, especially spells relating to energy gain and healing, become more effective with a higher Divine Favor."

General Description
Divine Favor is a well-liked attribute for healing or protection monks. This is because of the inherent effect of putting points into this attribute. With 12 points in Divine Favor, your allies will be healed 38 health each time you cast any spell on them (including healing spells). This means that the seemingly weak Orison of Healing will heal for a massive 98 health with 12 Healing Prayers&mdash;for 5 energy. The effect is different for protection monks. Often, it is the only way that a protection monk can heal their target&mdash;directly that is. With a high Divine Favor, a protection monk can simply cast a mass of protection spells on their target, confident they are being healed at no extra cost.

Divine Favor would most likely still be used if there were no skills linked to it at all. However, there are, providing yet another reason to put ranks into Divine Favor. The skills linked to Divine Favor are a mixed lot, but all are focused in their general purpose of making it easier for a monk to heal or protect. This attribute possesses only 2 direct healing skills, Divine Healing and Signet of Devotion. All the other skills provide a myriad of beneficial effects. For example, the skills Aura of Faith, Blessed Aura, and Divine Spirit help your other skills last longer, do more, and cost less.

Some Divine Favor skills are strange twists on other spells. Watchful Spirit acts like Mending until it is removed, at which point your target is healed for an amount similiar to Heal Other. Unyielding Aura acts like a resurrection spell that costs only 5 energy, but can be removed, causing the ally to die again. The favourite skill Divine Boon acts like a strange twist of the Divine Favor attribute itself, healing for a large amount of health whenever you cast a spell on the enchanted ally. With this enchantment on, the aforementioned Orison of Healing will heal 159 health for only 7 energy.

All-in-all, the Divine Favor attribute is almost a must-have for any healing or protection monk, even if you don't wish to use any of its linked skills. The effect is lessened if you wish to use Smiting Prayers, but even then you may find that Divine Favor is one of the few essential attributes in the game.

Tips:

 * Divine Favor is most helpful to the caster when using many quick, cheap spells with short recharge, as Divine Favor is applied to each spell. Monks who use more costly and slower recharging skills will benefit much less from Divine Favor.
 * Divine Favor skills are most effective at around either 13 or 8 Divine Favor, due to rounding. A common strategy is to use 13 Divine Favor with Spell Breaker and Signet of Devotion, or use 8 or 9 Divine Favor with Divine Spirit / Divine Boon.
 * Divine Favor is a very important attribute in a build that relies on Blessed Signet for energy, such as a bonder monk. A common strategy is to take Divine Favor to 16 and use an item with +1 Divine Favor (Chance: 20%) such as The Soulstone so that one in five signets activate for 27 energy instead of the normal 25 energy.