Invincible Monk

An Invincible Monk, often shortened to "invincimonk," "solo monk," or "55 monk" is a family of monk builds designed primarily for farming, although it can be useful in parties under some circumstances. The term is much more general now than it was before Factions came out, much less with the arrival of Nightfall.

By using Protective Spirit and by equipping five Superior Runes and a unique Grim Cesta, a Monk will only take a maximum of 5.5 damage (though the game seems to round the exact amount) per hit. Obtaining "Invincibility" can be done in a multitude of ways, the most popular being regeneration and/or by use of Shield of Absorption.

All these builds are difficult to implement at first. There are often videos that can be found online to help the player figure out timing and priorities. It may be worth noting that once the player learns how to play a build correctly it is very easy to use.

Types of invincimonk
The main goal of every invincimonk is essentially the same: do not die. Some invincimonks add on to this with such goals as "kill all who attack me" or "kill all in this radius", but in the end, every invincimonk must stay alive. There are currently three known ways to do this:

Health regeneration
This is the standard, or "classic", invincimonk. It takes advantage of having extraordinary health regeneration (sometimes +12 or more). It is the oldest invincimonk (though perhaps not the most common anymore), and the one of which there is the most known information.

To see how this works, consider two monks:
 * A regular monk (no runes) under Protective Spirit, with +5 health regeneration.
 * An invincimonk (with five Superior runes and with the Cities of Ascalon -50HP Grim Cesta) under Protective Spirit, with +5 health regeneration.

The first monk will have 480 HP and attacks against him will do at most 48 damage (10% of his maximum health). He regenerates health at a rate of 10 HP per second (each pip is 2 HP per second), so it takes him a little less than 5 seconds to regenerate the damage from an attack reaching the 10% maximum health.

The invincimonk will have 55 HP, so each single attack against him will do only 5 HP of damage (the game apparently rounds down decimal values of .50 and less [don't quote us on this, though], so 55/10 = 5) if the damage normally would exceed the 5 HP. He still regenerates health at a rate of 10 HP per second, hence each single damage of 5 HP takes just one half of a second to regenerate. As a result, the invincimonk can tank quite a number of creatures doing physical, elemental or magical damage without them overwhelming his health regeneration.

Note: The only situation where this might happen, is when there are twelve damage sources, all doing 5 damage (near-)simultaneously. The health regeneration of Mending and Healing Breeze can't keep up with that much damage in a very short period of time, thus resulting in the death of the invincimonk.

When it comes to skills:
 * Mending is popular for situations where the skill bar is not taxed by the necessity of having many specialized skills.
 * Watchful Spirit is another skill sometimes used for this purpose. It provides +2 regeneration without any requirement for attribute points. However, it cannot provide more than +2 regeneration, and thus is a less popular choice.
 * Healing Breeze is often essential for additional regeneration while under attack by many enemies. When farming areas with high monster density, attacks (even with reduced damage) can come fast and furious, and can overwhelm Mending's regeneration. Supplementing this with Healing Breeze in those cases is important. Additionally, some popular farming areas contain enemies that cause Bleeding, which can entirely negate (or even overwhelm) Mending's regeneration.
 * Mystic Regeneration can provide more regeneration for a much longer time with an almost instant casting time, but requires a Dervish secondary and some points in Earth Prayers.

Restful Breeze is generally not used, as the invincimonk must constantly be using skills.

When running Mending and Healing Breeze, the decision to make is how many attribute points to put into Healing Prayers. For Mending, 8 Healing Prayers is +3 regeneration, while 13 Healing Prayers is +4 regeneration. For Healing Breeze, 9 Healing Prayers is +7 regeneration, while 12 is +8, and 14 is +9. Generally, health regeneration of at least +8 is desired. Depending on the number and capability of the enemies of the invincimonk, regeneration of +10 (to tank as many enemies as possible) to +13 (to tank as many enemies as possible and negate minor to moderate health degeneration) may be desired and achieved (and +16 desired but generally not achieved from these skills). Also, at least +2 regeneration should be from a source that cannot be interrupted in the middle of battle, leaving the invincimonk partially naked. (He should, after all, still have Protective Spirit to cover him.) Mending and Watchful Spirit are the usual choices for this.

Mystic Regeneration can provide a large amount of health regeneration at very little cost. Firstly, its longer duration can make it much more useful than Healing Breeze. Secondly, because it provides regeneration based on the number of enchantments on the caster, an invincimonk can easily gain health regeneration of +14 from this skill alone with Earth Prayers at 3 and seven enchantments on his skill bar (four of which are maintained enchantments and the eighth being reserved for Blessed Signet). However, this forces the monk's secondary profession to be the Dervish, making many other skills unusable.

Combined with the skills mentioned above, Earth Prayers boosted to 8 and Healing Prayers at 14, Mystic Regeneration can make health regeneration of +46 conceivable (+21 from Mystic Regeneration, +9 from Healing Breeze, +4 from Mending, +10 from Restful Breeze, and +2 from Watchful Spirit). Note that the attribute point allocation will not allow for the invincimonk to do much other than tank many enemies while withstanding an enormous amount of health degeneration. Also note that it is uncommon for PvE enemies to inflict a combined amount of health degeneration greater than -8, nor for PvP enemies to inflict a combined amount of health degeneration greater than approximately -22. Finally, this strategy means that five of the eight skill slots are predetermined, not allowing much room for variation. The above strategy providing 14 health regeneration is recommended instead.

Another additional source of health 'regen' is the Divine Favor healing bonus which occurs when casting a spell. Frequently if the invincimonk's health is starting to slip from overwhelming attacks, simply casting Protective Spirit will give a health boost of about 25-35 points, healing the monk back (or at least close) to his maximum health of 55 HP.

Another thing to note is that 19 is the optimal operating health for this type of invincimonk. This is because the character will only take 1 damage per attack and thus must take 15 (near-)simultaneous attacks to die. 15 hp is very difficult to attain, however. An easier choice is to run with 13 hp by dying once and equipping any -20 hp offhand (such as the one obtained from the Poor Tenant quest in pre-searing Ascalon). 15 health is obtainable by having 24% DP and a -20 health focus equipped. 13 health is obtainable by having 15% DP (just one death) and a -20 health focus equipped and 5 sup runes.

Instant healing
These invincimonks center their skills on immediately healing any and all damage they take. Currently, there are no builds known to utilize this theory of invincimonking.

The first (and so far only) skill capable of doing this is Spirit Bond. However, it was nerfed in the update of October 25, 2006 and is now all but incapable of fulfilling its former role. The build focused around the use of this skill has fallen into disuse.

The Spirit Bond monk was often called a "600 monk" due to an early misconception that Spirit Bond would only activate if the damage taken after Protective Spirit were 60 or greater, thus requiring a minimum of 600 hp; later tests proved this incorrect (characters below level fifteen would use the build with near-perfect results), but the name stuck. This granted the 600 monk another unique quality; to date, it is the only known invincimonk that could operate with any amount of health.

The Instant Healing invincimonk was the ultimate in invincible monks; with the ability to keep its maximum health very high combined with its near-complete damage reduction, it could ignore many of the counters to invincimonks. While the GuildWiki community (and indeed, the Guild Wars community in general) is looking for a replacement to this type of ultimate take, the odds of ArenaNet allowing such an overpowered build to slip into the game again are extremely slim.

Complete damage reduction
Complete damage reduction (or prevention) monks attempt to stop all damage before it hits their health bars. These invincimonks are centered around using skills that reduce damage dealt to them to zero. This is currently by using seemingly weak Protection Prayers skills in conjunction with Protective Spirit to require damage to be reduced by low amounts.

With the release of Nightfall, the enchantment Shield of Absorption came into play. This skill is currently ideal for an invincimonk; 55 hp character with Protective Spirit will take zero damage from all damage sources (but see the Drawbacks section). Therefore, he/she only need worry about health degeneration, which can be countered by Mending and/or Watchful Spirit.

Several builds have already sprung up around this skill, utilizing a max of Enchanting weapon in addition to an extremely high Divine Favor attribute (values of 15 and higher are not uncommon) to fuel the skill Blessed Aura to make Shield of Absorption last as long as possible - generally around 10.5-11 seconds.

Shield of Absorption can also prevent damage if the character has more than 55 hp. By utilizing a combination of Protective Spirit, Shield of Absorption, and Spirit Bond, this monk maintains a high amount of maximum health. This makes them ideal to have Retribution and Holy Wrath cast upon them in order to damage and unless healed, kill most enemies. The monk will cast Shield of Absorption whenever it is near to running out, and use Spirit Bond to heal the damage taken whilst SoA 'charges up' (to negating all the damage). The damage from Retribution and Holy Wrath is calculated before Shield of Absorption reduces the damage to the Monk, so enemies will take the full damage whether they hit the Monk for 50 or for 0.

Stoneflesh Aura, utilizing the Earth Magic line from the Elementalist, applied after Protective Spirit can be used to negate 21 damage and thus, you can have 210 health. This will also allow you to survive against moderate Life stealing effects. Use a max of Enchanting weapon to extend Stoneflesh Aura long enough to cover its own recharge time. This fares better against life-stealing, as there is only one known skill that could be able to steal more than 200 HP, which is Meditation of the Reaper, which only Shiro uses.

The Build
Within these three broad categories of invincimonks there are many different variations on each build; not only do different players have different preferences, but different farming situations require different skill changes. Additionally, changes in the game have caused a move away from AoE smiting damage dealing because of enemies' tendencies to flee.

Every invincimonk must solve the following problems with his skills:

Damage reduction

 * Protective Spirit is the usual choice here.
 * Protective Bond is seldom used any more, as the energy cost, even with very high Protection Prayers skills, is prohibitive and non-compensatable with other skills.

Additionally, some other skills that are sometimes employed actually serve as damage reduction. Bonetti's Defense, while primarily an energy management skill, additionally serves to slow down the rate at which damage is done. This is likewise for Shield of Judgment, which knocks many types of enemies down (preventing them from attacking and thus reducing their attack rate).

Reducing health
The health reduction is accomplished as follows. A level 20 monk with no runes has 480 health. Adding five Superior runes, one for each monk attribute and one duplicate (the duplicate is not effective toward the attribute [runes do not stack] but the -75 hp is in effect), reduces the 480 HP by 375 HP (75 HP times five superior runes), leaving a total health of 105 HP. Additionally, the invincimonk uses the Cities of Ascalon quest reward Grim Cesta, which has a -50 HP modification on it to reduce his health to 55 HP.

Ascetic's Armor is recommended, as the nature of this build requires energy and the Armor rating of the armor is irrelevant; taking a hit outside of Protective Spirit is generally instant death.

Energy management
This build requires a lot of energy, at least two and sometimes up to four or five maintained enchantments will be used. The build must also be able to cast Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze every ten to fifteen seconds, and cast damage-dealing Spells. As a result, base energy regeneration is not nearly enough.

There are two enchantments and one stance which provide energy on being attacked:
 * Balthazar's Spirit is the better of the two for this purpose, it provides one Energy on taking any kind of damage and also provides adrenaline (needed for Bonetti's Defense).
 * Essence Bond is the other, which provides 1 energy on taking physical or elemental damage only.


 * Bonetti's Defense is an excellent energy management skill which requires a Warrior secondary profession. This short-lasting stance provides 5 energy per melee attack blocked and also provides defense against arrows (75% chance of blocking for both) but does not gain energy from arrows. This skill is especially useful when fighting smaller groups of enemies, if the monk does not take enough damage from multiple sources to gain Energy from his maintained enchantments. Additionally, as noted earlier, Bonetti's reduces the total amount of damage dealt by reducing the number of hits from melee and arrows taken.

Damage dealing
Smiting Prayers is the usual mode of damage dealing for the invincimonk.
 * . Keeping with this build's expectation that enemies will continue to hit it, Shield of Judgment is the most popular and powerful damage spell invincimonks commonly use. This elite skill causes 53 damage per hit (at 16 Smiting Prayers) and also causes knockdown. Note that enemies immune to the knockdown effect considers this AoE damage, and may flee from it.
 * is not used as often in solo-farmbuilds, because of the AoE damage update. If the player times his usage of spells every three seconds then enemies won't detect AoE damage and will stay put.
 * is a low-cost spell that is weakened by the fact that enemies flee its effect; however, often before the enemies will actually flee, three of the five seconds worth of damage has been done.
 * was once a staple of the invincimonk build; this spell has fallen into disuse because of its high cost and reduced effectiveness.
 * is a good smiting spell alternative to Balthazar's Aura or Symbol of Wrath. Its low cost, quick casting speed, and decent recharge make it a deadly spell. Although it attacks only a single enemy, when timed right using Shield of Judgment, it does double damage.
 * is a good choice for doing slow but constant damage without using other skills while maintaining Healing Breeze and Protective Spirit, but it is a maintained enchantment (meaning you may not be able to bring another helpful maintained enchantment, such as Blessed Aura (see below). Note that unless Protective Spirit is not on you, it will do only one damage per attack.

Other secondary professions offer even more skills to deal damage. Examples of skills used include the following.


 * can be useful due to the abundance of energy an invincimonk has, the AoE damage, and the fast recharge.
 * gains power as the number of enemies attacking the enchanted character increases. Because the mobs around bosses usually have more members than your average mob, this skill is also very good for boss killing.
 * will deal a large amount of damage to a foe so long as that foe has more health than the invincimonk. Since the invincimonk commonly has only 55 hp, this often means "until the foe is dead." Because of its effectiveness on single targets, it is often used on bosses to farm for greens.
 * was previous a viable 55 Monk and Necromancer hex, but has fallen into disuse after the Nightfall update.
 * is very uncommon for Monk primaries, but can be used to eliminate a single target in green farming. Using a Scythe turns this into a powerful AoE making small mobs farmable for "105 monks" and "600 monks".

Weapon choice
As mentioned above, the invincimonk build requires the Grim Cesta from the Cities of Ascalon quest. Therefore, the monk is constrained to using a one-handed weapon. Helpful modifications include lengthening enchantment duration and extra energy.

Smiting skills are the most damaging spells available to a monk, but they have the longest recharge time. However, there is a great one-handed weapon you could acquire quite easily to negate this. In Droknar's Forge, there is a collector by the name of Ornhelm Brightaxe that will trade you a smiting rod (max damage, halves recharge rate of smiting prayer skills 20% of the time) for 5 Stone Summit Badges. Another choice is to use the fire wand you can obtain from Wain Hughes outside Nolani Academy to have 5 more energy. In addition, a Totem Axe or a Rajazan's Fervor would help increase the time Protective Spirit is active.

However, by far the most useful invincimonk weapon is the Fiery Flame Spitter. This weapon has a 10% chance on halved recharge on all spells, and is also modifiable with a Furious Mod (10% Chance on double adrenaline per hit (for Bonetti's Defense) and an Axe Grip of Enchanting (maximum of 20% longer enchantments).

Note that the Cities of Ascalon Grim Cesta requires Blood Magic of 5. Thus, if one of your classes is not Necromancer, you will have 3 less energy. (Much of the time, skills such as Bonetti's Defense or any of the utility skills listed below make up for this loss.)

Utility skills
Additionally, a number of skills can be used in particular situations or to enhance the ability of the build to function in a certain area.


 * is important for farming areas where enemies will knock you down, such as Hydras in Skyward Reach and Tundra Giants in the Southern Shiverpeaks.
 * can sometimes be used if you know you no longer will be moving around pulling aggro (for instance the Mursaat in the Ring of Fire mission) but being a Strength attribute skill, its duration will be limited to 8 seconds for primary monks.
 * can be invaluable against enemies who shatter or rend enchantments, such as Dying Nightmares in the Underworld. Note that using Spell Breaker precludes using Shield of Judgment, as both are elite skills.
 * can aid against enemies who interrupt spells, such as Mountain Trolls, Bladed Aatxes and Avicara Braves.
 * (or its Factions counterpart, ) quickly drains groups of melee-attacking monsters of adrenaline and energy, shutting down their skills (such as a Hydra's Meteor or a Smite Crawler's Shield of Judgment).
 * can add to the duration of all cast enchantments, sometimes killing a group with one Shield of Judgment instead of two.

Attribute allocations
One excellent feature of the invincimonk is that because of all the superior runes, his attributes are quite high. No other character type can boast such high values in such a broad range of skills. Allocating attributes is often a matter of personal preference and depends on the area to be farmed. However, each skill affects the build in different ways.


 * Healing Prayers affects the pips of regeneration from Mending or Healing Breeze.
 * Protection Prayers affects the duration of Protective Spirit.
 * Smiting Prayers affects the amount of damage done by Shield of Judgment (and also the amount of adrenaline gained from Balthazar's Spirit, which is normally used to charge Bonetti's Defense)
 * Divine Favor affects the duration of Spell Breaker, the effect of Blessed Aura, and the amount of healing gained from casting normal spells.
 * Tactics affects the duration of Balanced Stance, Bonetti's Defense, and other defensive skills of the Warrior profession.

Use
Invincimonks used to be primarily useful against melee attackers, however, since the AI update, melee monsters will now flee from AoE damage, so the more common choice is ranged attackers such as Tusked Howlers and Tusked Hunters like the ones in Arkjok Ward. Any ranged attacker that hits hard and fast can be farmed. As the build relies on enemies that hit it, both for energy management and damage dealing, it is primarily successful against Paragon or Ranger type monsters with minimal healing capabilities. The build is also an excellent tank against more powerful creatures. One popular two-person build in The Underworld pairs an invincimonk (who acts as a tank) and a damage-dealing caster. A popular choice for a partner in the Underworld is the Necromancer with the skill Spiteful Spirit.

A fragile existence
The Invincimonk's existence is completely dependent on maintaining his/her enchantments up throughout a fight. Therefore, they are extremely susceptible to enchantment removal, health degeneration, and to a lesser extent, interrupts. Thus Invincible Monk builds are primarily used in areas that lack Mesmers and/or Necromancers.

The monk can protect him/herself against some enchantment removal skills such as Strip Enchantment and Drain Enchantment by covering the important enchantments with a less important one, as the game mechanics dictate that the first enchantment removed will be the one most recently applied. The most deadly forms for an Invincimonk to face are Shatter Enchantment and Rend Enchantments. Shatter will deal armor ignoring damage (generally enough to instantly kill anyone with 55 hp) and Rend will remove as many as eight enchantments, so covering enchantments is virtually impossible. As a way to "shield enchantments", put up enchantments and keep spells that do not reduce damage last in order to shield the enchantments. Additionally, the elite enchantment spell Spell Breaker can be used to protect the caster. Spells such as Shatter Enchantment or Rend Enchantments are rendered useless. This spell is widely used in the Fissure of Woe farming runs to protect frequent enchantment removals, and also against elemental damage. Note that spells such as Well of the Profane will still have their full (and deadly) effect.

Slowly fading away
The monk's protections are aimed at direct damage hits and do not counter health degeneration very well. A Mesmer casting Conjure Phantasm, a Necromancer with multiple degeneration spells or a foe with attacks that cause burning, poison, or bleeding can greatly reduce the effectiveness of Healing Breeze and Mending in keeping the monk alive. With the introduction of the dervish, Mystic Regeneration can counter even the high degen caused by burning. With at least 3 enchantments to manage energy to and to extend enchantments AND with Protective Spirit and Mystic Regeneration itself, you can achive 15 health regen. Not including Shield Of Judgement or Zealot's Fire.

Life stealing
Life stealing skills at high ranks of Blood Magic are the absolute bane of 55 monks, because they go right through the damage reduction protections since they aren't classified as damage in the usual sense. Vampiric Touch can easily steal 60+ health, which means instant death to 55 monks regardless of their health regeneration capabilities, and its short activation and recharge times (not to mention its copy, Vampiric Bite) means a 105 monk won't be able to sustain two hits either.

Health change
Certain areas can have AoE effects which increase or decrease max health, an obvious example being the spirit Symbiosis, which can easily raise a 55's hp to above 150.

Designed for a specific setup
It is very important for 55 monks to recognize that their build is completely built on facing direct damage dealers who attack fairly frequently. This is why this build is highly successful in areas where there are predominantly melee attackers.

Using this build in a party is normally not encouraged because most missions and quests contain a mixture of creatures which will make it hard for the monk to stay alive. It is also important to note that a 55 monk has very little to offer a party in terms of actual help. Healing a party with just Healing Breeze and Mending is unacceptable to most parties.

Casters
Groups of enemy casters in general pose a problem for 55 monks. This is because they do not attack as often as groups of melee attackers or rangers. Instead, they cast, make a few attacks, cast again, and so forth. This usually has the unfortunate side effect of making the monk low on energy. Enemy elementalists and necromancers are particularly troublesome in this regard. Adding to the trouble is that most invincimonk builds focus on dealing damage to those rapidly attacking or using skills. Because casters take longer to kill than attackers, the fight will be longer and more energy problems will bother the monk.

When facing casters (especially slow ones), it is usually best to try to find nearby attackers, aggro them, and then use their attacks to fuel the energy of the monk while taking out the casters.

Death penalty
After a 55 Monk has died, resurrecting them with Resurrect, Rebirth and most other resurrection spells is impossible. The reason being that Death Penalty applies to a character's full health, not their health after applying runes. Therefore, a level 20 character who dies for one time will receive a death penalty of 15% which is 72 hit points (0.15 x 480). No character is allowed to have less than 1 hit point. A 55 monk upon dying will have exactly 1 hit point. Common resurrection spells attempt to raise the player at less than 50% or less health, which for a 1 HP character is zero. The monk will rise and drop dead immediately, before they can do anything. Using Rebirth will still teleport the body to the casters feet, which might be useful if the monk has died in a large group of monsters, as you can then safely resurrect them at the spot they were teleported to. With a proper amount of luck and timing, it is now impossible to quickly remove a piece of armor (usually by double clicking) in the split-second the monk will be alive, even when setting up weapon slots you will never be able to remove the grim cesta or armor the only way out of this is to salvage the runes off of your armor which often result in it's destruction.

Working means of resurrection are
 * Resurrection Shrine
 * Resurrection Signet
 * Sunspear Rebirth Signet
 * Vengeance
 * Unyielding Aura
 * Flesh of My Flesh
 * Death Pact Signet
 * Resurrection Chant
 * Restore Life at high (11+) Healing Prayers
 * Renew Life
 * Any resurrection skill combined with moderate "We Shall Return!"

After being resurrected, the player can swap out their -50 health focus (to perhaps the -20 health Earth Scroll from the Cities of Ascalon quest) or swap out a rune. (If they were revived by vengeance they will then need to wait the 30s and be resurrected again, this time permanently.) This will bring the player below 55, but above 1 health, and because of the reduced health the player takes less damage and can tank more enemies. However, as you work off the Death Penalty, don't forget to swap your focus/runes back.

The counters of the counters

 * Spell Breaker can serve as a blanket cover against all spells that cause enchantment removal or health degeneration, but even if replicated with Arcane Echo and various enchantment prolongment, the gap in coverage of Spell Breaker is still dangerously long. It is important for players to remember that Spell breaker only stops spells and not all skills. Therefore, touch skills like Vampiric Touch, Shock or the monster stance Fingers of Chaos will go through.
 * Holy Veil is also a good way to protect enchantments. As an added bonus, it removes a hex from you when stripped.
 * Power Drain is very useful for Mo/Me 55 monks in the Underworld. It will enable them to interrupt the Dying Nightmares without expending 15 energy in Spell Breaker and provide them with energy. It is also based Inspiration Magic, like Mantra of Resolve. It is perfect for countering a single pop-up of a Dying Nightmare. However, if more than one shows up, Spell Breaker becomes the only option.

Alternatives
Any character with monk as a secondary profession can use the 55 build by equipping five Superior Runes of the primary class and the Cities of Ascalon quest rewarded Grim Cesta and using Protective Spirit, Healing Breeze, Mending, Balthazar's Spirit and four other skills to taste. In this way a player can create a character with the advantages of the invincimonk's damage reduction and with higher-level skills from the primary character class.

Related articles

 * Watch 55 monk VideoClip
 * Comprehensive Guide to the Solo Monk on GW Guru