Build:Mo/any Spirit Bonder Farmer

The PvXwiki community finds this to be an excellent build. Through the PvX vetting system, it has reached an overall rating in the range from 4.75 to 5.0 and thus qualifies for the highest category of working builds: Great. This build has been designed for the following use: PvE farming

The Spirit Bond Monk is a different spin on the Invincible Monk concept. It can be used to farm any high level foes that do not have strong enchantment removal.

This build is based on the skill Spirit Bond. The skill will heal the target for 70 health each time they receive a single attack that does 50 damage or more. What this build tries to do is lower the Monk's armor so that every hit from any attack will do 50 damage or more. Then, it uses Protective Spirit (which always takes effect after Spirit Bond) so that for every hit you will be healed more than damaged. Since Spirit Bond wears off after 10 hits, Shield of Absorption is used to reduce damage to 0.

This build is commonly called the 600 Monk but, in truth, you don't need to have 600hp. Also in this build you do not even need to be level 20, it will work at level 10 on mountain trolls outside Droknar's Forge in Talus Chute.

The core difference is that Spirit Bond's healing will always keep up with enemy hits, no matter how many hits there are, unlike Healing Breeze in the classic 55 monk build. Also, the absence of any Healing Prayers skills allows more versatility in attribute point distribution.

Attributes and Skills

Monk / No profession 9 + 1 Divine Favor 9 + 1 Protection Prayers 12 + 1 + 1 Smiting Prayers Protective Spirit Core Monk. Protection Prayers 10 Protective Spirit Enchantment Spell For 17 seconds, target ally cannot lose more than 10% max Health due to damage from a single attack or Spell. Target ally gets healed for 32 Health. 5 ¼ 10 Spirit Bond Factions Monk. Protection Prayers 10 Spirit Bond Enchantment Spell For 8 seconds, whenever target ally takes more than 50 damage from the next 10 attacks or Spells, that ally is healed for 70 Health. Target ally gets healed for 32 Health. 2 ¼ 10 Shield of Judgment Prophecies Monk. Smiting Prayers 14 Shield of Judgment Elite Enchantment Spell For 19 seconds, anyone striking target ally with an attack is knocked down and suffers 47 holy damage. Target ally gets healed for 32 Health. 45 1 15 Blessed Signet Core Monk. Divine Favor 10 Blessed Signet Signet For each Enchantment you are maintaining, you gain 3 Energy. You cannot gain more than 17 energy in this way. 10 2 Balthazar's Spirit Prophecies Monk. Smiting Prayers 14 Balthazar's Spirit Enchantment Spell While you maintain this Enchantment, target ally gains adrenaline and Energy after taking damage. (The amount of adrenaline gained increases depending on your rank in Smiting Prayers.) Target ally gets healed for 32 Health. 2 10 -1 Retribution Core Monk. Smiting Prayers 14 Retribution Enchantment Spell While you maintain this Enchantment, whenever target ally takes attack damage, this Spell deals 33% of the damage back to the source (maximum 19 damage). Target ally gets healed for 32 Health. 2 10 -1 Blessed Aura Prophecies Monk. Divine Favor 10 Blessed Aura Enchantment Spell While you maintain this Enchantment, Monk Enchantments you cast last 27% longer. You get healed for 32 Health. 2 2 10 -1 Optional Core No Profession. Unlinked Optional Optional Optional. Template code

Equipment

• The lowest possible armor. The usual source for this are probably the armor crafters in Ascalon City or the Shing Jea Monastery. Your starting armor is perfect for this build.
• Consider just not wearing certain pieces of armor, such as your chest armor. You can wear three runes on your headpiece, feet, and arms/legs (extra pip of regen and they still do enough damage), protecting yourself as little as possible.
• A max Insightful Staff of Enchanting, with 20/20 on Smiting Prayers skills, Nifling's Staff is a Staff which has the required stats for this build. The Staff is dropped from Nifling the Chained.

Usage

• Cast Balthazar's Spirit, Retribution and Blessed Aura at the beginning. Regain energy with Blessed Signet.
• Aggro all the monsters you can find.
• Cast (and maintain) Protective Spirit, Spirit Bond before they start attacking you.
• Retribution will damage foes steadily.
• Cast Shield of Judgment to speed up the kills. Note that for its duration, Shield of Judgment will affect your energy flow as monsters will be hitting you less often due to being knocked down.
• If both Protective Spirit and Spirit Bond enchantments are about to expire and you do not have enough energy to renew both, cast Protective Spirit and run away as soon as possible. Then, end Retribution to regain some energy. As long as Protective Spirit is active, your chance of survival is still high.

Variants

• Fill the optional slot with one of the following monk skills:
  • Essence Bond (in addition to Balthazar's Spirit) for increased energy management. You won't have to worry about energy at all with it. The enemies will gladly take care of your energy pool, so you won't have to.
  • Zealot's Fire for extra damage. However please note that you must space your spells about 3 seconds apart so the enemies don't run away for a few seconds.
  • Vital Blessing for even more health.
  • Reversal of Fortune allows you to regain health if you get low on health while fighting.
• For Warrior Secondaries:
  • Use Frenzy to help trigger Spirit Bond by doubling the damage. You must use Frenzy before Spirit Bond. Frenzy and Spirit Bond are good when used in conjunction correclty as both have a duration of 8 seconds making them a good match.
  • For farming Grawl in Witman's Folly, bring Healing Signet and Balanced Stance. Healing Signet will lower your armor enough so that the Grawl Crones deal enough damage to you, while Balanced Stance will prevent them from knocking you down for long enough to cast Shield of Judgment.
• For Mesmer Secondaries:
  • Use Channeling in the "Optional" skill slot for even better energy gain from enemies. In this way, it is possible to keep a full energy bar even when the enemies are being knocked down due to the effects from Shield of Judgment.
  • Use Elemental Resistance or Physical Resistance with no points in Inspiration Magic to reduce armor towards the damage type you expect to be receiving, Elemental Resistance is especially useful for killing the Grasping Darknesses in the Underworld as they generally do not deal enough damage to trigger Spirit Bond even when wearing no armor.
  • Use Power Drain if you have trouble with Dying Nightmares, simply select the nightmares as they appear, hit Power Drain and then use your staff to kill it.
  • Use Mantra of Resolve if enemies can interrupt you. However, you may wish to substitute Blessed Aura with Essence Bond to make up for lost energy.
  • Use Mantra of Concentration for interrupt protection without energy loss. Good for Troll farming outside of Droknar's Forge.
  • Use Ignorance to disable the signets of any warrior boss you may encounter.
  • Use Arcane Echo with Shield of Judgment to extend coverage when fighting split groups (like Griffons in The Scar) or high-toughness enemy (like Bladed Aatxe in Underworld), who may take longer than SoJ lasts to defeat.
• For Elementalist Secondaries:
  • Try changing Shield of Judgment and Blessed Signet for Shockwave and Crystal Wave, and take Essence Bond as your Optional skill, get 12 points in Earth Magic and you are able to farm Mountain Trolls outside Droknar's Forge and Minotaurs in the Elona Reach Mission pretty fast.
  • Sliver Armor for additional blocking and damage. Note that increased blocking may reduce your energy flow if the group that's attacking you is not large enough.
• For Necromancer Secondaries:
  • Spiteful Spirit for faster damage.

Dual Spirit Bonder Team

It is possible to use two Spirit Bond Monks in the Underworld, for a faster and easier farm - with little chance of being wiped due to death as one monk will carry Rebirth.

The Team:

• Primary: A full Spirit Bond Monk with an additional optional slot due to the removal of Retribution - this build is illustrated above.

• Backup: Carries the following; Protective Spirit, Spirit Bond, Power Return, Shield of Judgment, Retribution, another Smiting Prayers skill of the players choice, and Rebirth.

Strategy:

• The team is able to cast Shield of Judgment more often, and without any worries of interruption. The backup monk casts the first Shield of Judgment, with the primary monk casting dummy spells to cause the interruption skills of any foes to be used - allowing Shield Of Judgment to be cast without fear of being interrupted. The backup monk takes over casting Protective Spirit and Spirit Bond whenever necessary, and once all interrupts are used the tanking monk can cast SoJ and continue with the Spirit Bond Monk routine.

Way 2:

• Another way to run this build, which utilizes Holy Wrath for extra damage, is detailed in this article: [1]

Video Tutorial

• For beginners, check out the Solo Spirit Bonder Demo. This video gives a good idea about the timing, running, mob selecting etc.: (Youtube Stream, 2:04)
• Another tutorial video showing farming of the Mountain Trolls outside of Droknar's Forge: (WMV, 26 MB, 2:50)

Notes

• Please note that Spirit Bond is removed automatically after you take damage 10 times, physical or otherwise.

See also

• Spirit bonding guide