User talk:GW-Dragonrider

This is my discussion page. If for some reason you wish to contact me, please leave a note. GW-Dragonrider 00:32, 14 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I would like to change my username (& user talk) back to Dragonrider. It seems everyone else does'nt have the GW- before their name, I wonder how I do this ? GW-Dragonrider 19:19, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Hey DR, if you want your user name changed back, you can post here and put in a request for them to be merged. Good luck, and see ya in-game. - Bekkr 02:11, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I checked that page. There were no more requests taken after several weeks after the merge, so I guess I am stuck with the GW prefix, thx anyway Bekkr.GW-Dragonrider 08:35, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Your builds
...are those serious? (T/C) 00:59, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
 * a bit of sarcasm detected there Entropy, please expand on that, & thx for dropping me a line. GW-Dragonrider 01:17, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

This is a bad build for a number of reasons. Firstly, you have three skills which all do the exact same thing, though Dismiss is the best one. If you need that much condition removal, it would be much better idea to take Restore Condition. Secondly, Glimmer is a bad elite when you have Word of Healing available, or Unyielding Aura / Healer's Boon. Thirdly, you are running a split Monk between Prot and Healing, yet you neglect most of the useful skills in both attributes. A split Monk should take things like Aegis, Guardian, Reversal of Fortune, Shield of Absorption, Dwayna's Kiss, etc. (Protection Prayers is preferable over straight Healing Prayers most times, even in PvE). Finally, Rebirth is not viable as an in-battle res for obvious reasons, though you can sometimes get away with it in PvE... still it's better to put Rebirth on a non-Monk and have the Monk take Resurrection Chant, Restore Life, etc. Even in the case where you run out of res sigs and the Monk has the only resurrect, Rebirth is terribly slow and inefficient.

However you get props for taking Signet of Devotion and Signet of Rejuvenation. Remove Hex is decent, but you may want to replace it with Deny Hexes since you have Signet of Devotion. I also see no Mesmer skills, thus no reason for Mesmer secondary.


 * I will justify this build for you:
 * The reason I have 3 nearly identical skills is due to recharge time. If the team I am healing gets a condition, it seems all get it at once. I haven't got time for the recharge of just one condition remover. My job is to keep 'em alive. Glimmer restores health v effectively, so apart from hexes which dont last too long, whats left is removing conditions as fast as possible.
 * I use all your suggested elites often, + prefer glimmer here.
 * Actually, this is NOT a split build at all. I use NO points in protection. Condition removers need no points, neither does rebirth as I use it.
 * This is pure healing. Remaining points thrown into divine.
 * Finally, I have not got rebirth there for in-battle use. I find in-battle rezzes not much use as they are too slow & take my efforts away from healing, (I know about faster rezzes). Rebirth is there (zero points in protect) only as a retrievel device post-battle. Handy at times.
 * IMO rezzing in-battle is not a monks responsibility.
 * The 2 healing sigs are only for strange situations where all energy is drained. They are not used normally, too slow.
 * & of course, the reason it is 2ndary mesmer is 'cos u gotta be something, anything really !
 * I think you need to understand the reasoning behind my choice of skills here. I find it very effective in PVE. I appreciate your input here Entropy very much, thx. GW-Dragonrider 02:40, 7 October 2008 (UTC)


 * If mediocrity works for you then I guess that's OK. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 03:32, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Experience confirms this build is far from mediocre. I placed it on my user-page for good reason. Try it, before you condemn it.GW-Dragonrider 03:54, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Nearly anything works in PvE. I used to think that Inspired Smiters were far from mediocre, because "experience confirmed it". I was wrong. If 2 seconds recharge is too slow for you, as well as removing every condition instead of just one, plus a huge heal...well. Very few conditions in the game are worth the time and energy you'd waste removing them with such a build as this - only Blind, Daze, and maybe Deep Wound. But if you are really having condition problems across the party, the obvious answer(s) are Extinguish (on an ele), Breath of the Great Dwarf (on ele), Cautery Signet, Martyr, "It's just a flesh wound."...even having Necro spam Foul Feast is superior. I could prove it to you with statistics why this is inferior, and try to explain why you are failing both at healing and condition removal in terms of efficiency, etc. but I don't think you would care anyway. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 04:03, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Oh btw, where are you testing this anyway? I'm guessing EotN since that campaign is only one where you get mass conditions almost everywhere. In other words what achievements have you made with this build? (Other team members can cover for anything but I want to know anyway) [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 04:05, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Honestly? Completing all 3 campaigns NM, protector Prophesies NM, all HM attempted so far, joining any page in the GWEN handbook (except Destroyer on last page) & jumping into vanquishing & dungeon teams, with glowing comments from team mates.
 * I am interested in your comments Entropy, but I think we have taken this as far as it will go now. GW-Dragonrider 04:59, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
 * You are the best and/or luckiest Monk that I have ever met, in that case. I tip my hat to you. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 07:16, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Pain Inverter is good. Res sig is standard. Empathy is good. But the rest...

You are using an IAS with a very long recharge, and no attack skills. Energy Surge and Energy Burn are bad skills for PvE. Shadow Refuge is meh, if you need healing it would be better to take Ether Feast, especially since you get more usage out of Inspiration Magic than Shadow Arts (as a Mesmer). Also, you don't take any interrupts or anti-caster skills, which is kind of the only reason you should ever take a Mesmer in PvE except for two notable builds (see below). Finally, Wastrel's Worry is...questionable. In Prophecies and against certain other bosses, you can spam it for high damage, but against most foes it will be useless or at best a very expensive and ineffective means of doing damage.

No Ritualist skills so you don't need Rit secondary.

Cryway (taking a bunch of Me/* and/or */Me and spamming Cry of Pain plus some other cheap hexes for huge AoE armor-ignoring damage) is a gimmick build that works well in many places of PvE. However this build has...other stuff...that makes it not so good. Dash isn't a good skill unless you need to get to melee range, and if you are looking for a skill to get out of harm, Return is much better. Snow Storm is a decent damage skill but doesn't synergize with the rest of this bar at all, it is just a random skill thrown in. Asuran Scan only affects your character's [[Attack]s and so it is doing you no good whatsoever. Finally, this is a Mesmer, and again you're mostly taking vanilla stuff that anyone can use, not skills which the Mesmer excels in (eg. interrupts, anti-caster).


 * Yes, basicly cryway to start with, with excellent self heal added, twice. Twice for double healing if required, which happens. Dash isn't there for running in, but running out, fast. Yes, Asuran scan only affects attacks, but that is enough, teamed in-between the remorse attacks. & yes, a lot of vanilla stuff here, but together it synergizes well. Try it. GW-Dragonrider 09:49, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

(T/C) 01:37, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

This thread made a little bit of me die inside. Noble attempt, Entropy, but some people will never improve. That's why pvx has a rating system to weed out the builds that authors won't change because they're too stubborn/unable to listen to solid advice to make their build suck less. - Auron 08:48, 8 October 2008 (UTC)


 * No, you are way off the mark there, Auron.
 * I am open to any suggestion that will improve these builds. I appreciate all correspondence, too. Point is, Entropy mostly just doesn't get the reasoning behind the selection of my skills. eg: Dash is for fast escapes, not attacking.
 * These builds are displayed here because they work very well, to start with. If a better idea works, I will certainly change a build.
 * I listen, I seriously consider. Just not yet convinced. GW-Dragonrider 09:49, 8 October 2008 (UTC)


 * You say up there that "Glimmer restores health v effectively". At 14 healing prayers, Glimmer, for 5 energy, restores 108 health + divine favor healing. Word of Healing, on the other hand, restores 122 health + divine favor, and if the person you're healing was below 50%, it heals for an additional 94 health. It casts a little slower, but interrupts aren't that common in PvE and monsters aren't smart enough to make the monk a primary target for them. The extra one-second of recharge time isn't a big deal either, especially when you consider how much extra healing you get.
 * As for the condition removal skills, bringing three of them is a big waste of skills. You only get to bring eight skills - you shouldn't have over a third of your bar used only for condition removal. At most, you could get away with two condition removals - mend condition and Mending Touch, maybe. But you don't need to get conditions off of party members instantly - it's often more efficient to just let them wear off. If you find yourself sitting there doing nothing but spamming condition removals, something is wrong - it's pretty energy inefficient, especially when you barely get any healing off it since you don't have points in protection prayers. And you say recharge is an issue? Mend condition has a 2-second recharge. It's one of the fastest-recharging skills in the game. And when all someone has on them is a condition like bleeding? That's a whopping three health degeneration - it's not exactly life-threatening. You don't have to remove it ASAP.  &not; Wizårdbõÿ777  ( talk ) 14:46, 8 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I thankyou v much for your contribution Wizardboy. With due respect to you tho, this is a good example of my point above, that I will check-out every suggested improvement, & adjust a build if I am convinced the idea holds merit.
 * I disagree with all your sugestions, here's why:
 * I fire glimmer off like a machine gun, that extra second makes all the difference, even without the extra healing. Glimmer therefore, for me, spreads the butter more evenly & faster as needed.
 * Actually, monsters in PVE do seem to target the monk, from my experience.
 * As I said above, aswell as healing the team, my only other role in life is removing hexes & conditions. I put a lot of emphasis on cleaning away conditions, they have a big impact on success. I don't want to just "get away" with condition removal, I want to excel at it.
 * With Mending Touch, I keep well away from this type. Even if they are powerful. I dont want to be distracted in my long range healing by suddenly finding myself in the middle of it all, panicking.
 * Finally, as stated above, I am not there to wait for a 2 second condition removal re-charge when a condition hits the whole 8 of us at once.
 * I thankyou for your input Wizardboy, I am always looking for ideas that improve my builds. GW-Dragonrider 15:51, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Where's your e-man? Like, firing off all those glimmers and no-heal condition removals has gotta be hard on your energy. --JonTheMon 15:57, 8 October 2008 (UTC)


 * If you're that super concerned about conditions and you're bad enough that you can't simply outheal them until mend condition recharges, take Extinguish or Restore Condition. Also, I would lol if I saw you monking for me in a place with Diversion or dshot or something of that nature.
 * Also, mtouch your backline or midline instead of your frontline (would have thought that'd be obvious, but as you seem to find yourself in the middle of things when you use mtouch...) and you're trying to excel at something relatively unimportant (condition and hex removal) compared to the things that will actually keep your team alive (healing and protting). 75.182.89.73 16:38, 8 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Thx to JontheMon & User:Vanquishinger for your help.
 * In response, plz note that altho Extinguish condition removes the whole team, it is a protection skill & this is a healing build. This is a pure healing build, as in no att points are used in protect even tho I use 3 condition removers. So, I am saying that this build is not looked on as even a split build. The skills i use just happen to be listed in another attribute, does that make sense, I hope so. ALSO, it costs 15 energy, removes only one condition, & takes 12 secs to recharge ! Point made there ?
 * Trying to outheal the conditions is a thought, I originally tried that. skills such as heal other/healing breeze combo, a heal party wth strong energy refill, etc, but in practise I saw this was no good, even with a v good protect monk alongside.
 * Eventually I grew to see that removing the source, in conjunction (or not, this is for PUG's) with a protection monk, was more efficient. It works.
 * Energy, good question (my ears pick-up). Under normal situ, energy is no drama. Glimmer is only 5 energy for 122 health (if using superior healing rune under your hat). Perhaps the machine-gun analogy is only for very desperate times when the entire team is under pressure. The other unusual situation is an energy drain case, so I retreat & re-charge (eg: ring of fire) or use the healing signets until I recover, that's why they are there.
 * This build works very well for me. It is designed for dropping in on random groups with instant mission/quest start, when you don't have time to finely adjust the build for specific areas. If that's your style too, try this build. Thx for the ideas, guys. GW-Dragonrider 22:35, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Do you use full radiant insignias? [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 22:45, 8 October 2008 (UTC)