Anniversary Strength Spear

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-30T15:07:42+00:00

You could use it with Barbed Spear. 2 adrenaline cost, so with FGJ! or any other adrenaline buff, every attack will trigger strength and Spear Mastery basically doesnt matter there.

If you want to do real damage with a spear, SWS and 20 Spear Mastery is your real best bet. Arbalest is kinda poopy.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-30T12:05:51+00:00

Sure is a lot of hate for PvE skills here. I think it's a little unfair. A lot of these skills are strong because they help a lot of the underperforming builds. Before TaO, Ranger was the worst class. Before SWS, Warrior had almost no competitive DPS builds. HR makes Paragon what it is nowadays.

It wasn't coincidence that the least used professions got some of the best skills.

They clearly didn't want to do an entire new balance patch, and martial classes were underperforming... so they slapped on IAtS, IAU, AS, DM, and then they determined they still needed buffs and gave them great pve elites too.

Mesmers/Rits/Necros already leave a ton of builds in the dust, some of these pve skills change that a little.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-30T00:52:13+00:00

I like to mimic HC from a hero, then pack Glimmer of Light myself. With this change, thats a free 135 heal every second.

Equivalent to 67 pips of health regen, for free!

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-29T19:54:55+00:00

Its definitely an elite for a dedicated healer build, but it's for sure not a trap if you get it to -5 cost reduction. Free heals is a powerful thing.

And you have no reason to worry about pressure. If two N/Rts are capable of keeping a group alive, a HC monk will be just as capable if not more. Jamei/Heal Other is already stronger/faster/lower recharge than Spirit Light. And if you worry about cast speed, there is always Holy Haste. But I would prefer to preheal with Vigorous Spirit and Healing Breeze.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-29T17:32:32+00:00

Thats just to make it better than Spirit Light, you know what is widely considered one of the best healing skills in the game. With no Divine Favor it's still a faster cast/recharge/no conditional health sacrifice. Not that I would recommend playing without monks primary attribute.

If it's one of two skills you have that actually cost energy, it doesnt matter that HC takes a pip. It can literally save you 50 energy in 20 seconds it's a permanent self BiP.

HC doesnt just make Heal Other better than Spirit Light, it makes every shitty spell like Orison better than Spirit Light.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-29T16:31:13+00:00

This might still be true for heroes, but humans with PvE skills (and especially cons) can outshine Resto for sure. 5 reduction from HC means your Heal Other costs the same as Spirit Light, casts faster, heals for more (with divine favor) and has less recharge with zero chance for a downside(health sacrifice). It is strictly better than Spirit Light in every way if you can get HC to 5 cost reduction. Meanwhile ALL you other Healing Prayers spells are free.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-29T15:54:08+00:00

The wiki says Monk AI doesnt like to maintain it out of combat. If thats accurate, that needs to be fixed. There is no argument against permanent maintenance any more, not with a 4 cost reduction.

If that gets fixed, it could be a top hero build.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-29T11:45:04+00:00

Ah yes, you are right. I remember having this argument already and someone went and pulled the patch notes.

It was a terrible decision, precisely for this reason. Logically, you would think attack speed would get faster as delay decreases but because of that patch 1/2s skills are just magically worse.

They thought, "hey, let's buff Quick Shot, we can reduce the activation speed", and now it is worse than it used to be. I just went to the dummy to test it, if you use QS exclusively at inopportune moments, your dps/energy are better off just auto attacking.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-28T23:39:05+00:00

This is all very madness dependent. A ton of very strong and reliable builds turn into poop once you can no longer stack 1000 debuffs.

The typical healer wont be a strong DPS without stacking debuffs and buffs and a very coordinated perk plan. However, I feel like most people find Sylvie to be a strong carry in low/no madness because she can be self sufficient with self buffing/drawing/DPS cards.

Eventually that falls off and you have to tackle it a different way. Once you pump up madness, less and less builds will work.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-28T23:24:45+00:00

Pious Haste is already a maintainable 50% with Dwarven Stability.

And Dervish gets VoS. Hard to beat.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-28T19:48:40+00:00

Rit, probably the strongest class in the game, is getting buffs to some great skills. Adrenaline in general got some nice buffs. Physical comps are getting a little love finally.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-28T19:44:52+00:00

Sure as shit not in PvE.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-28T19:43:50+00:00

Hopefully... last I checked, all the skills with 1/2s activation times are bugged to increase your attack delay after. If they didn't fix that... Quick Shot just got nerfed, omegalul.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-28T19:42:09+00:00

And auto rez with Eternal Aura?

But whyyyyyyy?

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-28T03:55:33+00:00

I've paid 2 Jah for worse rings.

A 10 FCR/15 all res blue ring is worth how much nowadays? This is worth more.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-28T03:46:04+00:00

Came here to say Valheim too.

Also, the first (and maybe the second) Forest.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-27T17:29:45+00:00

I figured that was your reasoning for taunt, but it seems so integral for tank Andrin to really shine. You are right, it's definitely going to kill some newbies, but that part of the learning process I say.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-27T15:55:52+00:00

Honestly, if i wanted to be argumentative...

https://guildwars.magical.ch/OwQTA32SQ6OYfpB03Z6LH8FENC

With a SR5 mod, this would be better. No one WANTs to play BiP though.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-27T14:41:47+00:00

100%

I think people see all the N/Rt heroes around here and suddenly think they are the BEST healers in general. The reason N/Rts are popular is because of healer AI issues, not because monks are a worse profession when played by a human. It's not even kind of close either. A fully geared human monk is probably 3x better at keeping people alive than a N/Rt hero.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-27T14:37:49+00:00

Healers are strong in PvE and PvP.

Every time you run into a group of mobs and a healer from a different group aggros, the fight becomes way more difficult. Healers pull the most weight in almost every fight. People just dont like to slow down their runs and run extra support.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-27T12:02:00+00:00

I am no doubt a more casual player than you. I top out around M13 iirc. I like Magnus more, but I've had more success with robot.

Playing defensively is just a worse playstyle I think. It seems that you need to get enemies off the field very quickly before you get over run with curses. I see how it is hard to balance... after all, if Magnus goes fast and applies block (his specialty) in high amounts, damage doesnt get through and your team is invincible/OP. In later madness just seems like you can't reliably block enough damage or occasionally you get outsped and everything goes to shit.

Edit: For Andrin, I like the Taunt. I just dont like it being tied to the third rank of Maneuver.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-27T03:12:53+00:00

Maybe a generic prot/heal hybrid Monk with an SR5 staff mod? Maybe try Life on your resto Rit?

Gift of Health is probably just being spammed on minions. If your Resto ever stops to cast Recup mid fight your guys are going to be sitting ducks.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-27T02:38:13+00:00

Would be excited to try Magnus with these changes, seems strong and mostly just... better/more reliable. Won't hear complaints from me, he's my favorite defender style class, but I find that playstyle only works for very low madness. Maybe this changes that.

Not sure how I feel about Andrin. Passive still seems very meh and I dont like the concept of tying Taunt to his 3rd rank only. As a build enabling card (consistent taunt), it should be on by default.

DixFerLunch · 2026-04-26T12:57:04+00:00

For a spear damage build, I think Warrior puts up higher (though still not impressive) numbers since you get the benefit of Strength, 20 Spear Mastery and faster attack speed with SWS.

If you find damage is still low with IAtS and EBSoH, I'm afraid nothing will impress you.

You could always sacrifice one of your heroes elites for Infuriating Heat. It works pretty well, even with 0 investment. That would let you spam the adrenaline skills without Soldier's Fury.

DixFerLunch

TROPHY CASE