User:Rising Dusk/MonkRoleBox

 = The Role of a Monk= The Monk is the quintessential support class that supplies ample blue numbers to allies in order to keep them from dying. One might call this class the "healer" of Guild Wars. That said, the monk isn't completely one-dimensional, and can do its job in many different and interesting ways. I feel that with recent skill updates, certain skills have been hurt or boosted in PvE at the expense of others. I think that ultimately, all skills (especially Elite Skills) should be equally useful. I'm going to discuss further below how one might go about making the lesser-valuable skills on par with others.

The Monk is based upon a few key components:
 * Healing (Healing Prayers / Divine Favor)

First and foremost, the Monk directly heals his allies and himself. Healing Prayers is the direct way of doing that, although some Divine Favor skills do it as well. Basically, this is what most people expect when they get a Monk on their team: they expect him to heal everyone and keep them alive directly.
 * Protection (Protection Prayers)

This is an idea that is relatively unique to Guild Wars. Basically, the Monk will prevent damage done to allies rather than simply healing off whatever damage is taken. This can create the net result of the Monk doing less work to counteract the same amount of damage, which can be very advantageous in conserving the Monk's energy while still achieving the desired goal of saving lives.
 * Holy Damage (Smiting Prayers)

In order to keep the Monk from being completely one-dimensional in saving allies, the Monk also has access to an attribute that focuses on dishing out damage in the form of holy damage. As most non-standard damaging attributes usually have a special feature about them, it's important to consider how much of this damage is done. In many cases, Smiting Prayers support the team, but forfeit any healing for damage, such as in Smite Condition, Smite Hex, Judge's Intervention, Reversal of Damage, and others. However, the Smiting Prayers line does have direct damaging skills as well, such as Banish and Ray of Judgment. Lastly, many of the skills in Smiting Prayers are enchantments, rather than direct effects. Some examples of those enchantments are Holy Wrath and Balthazar's Aura. All of these aspects of Smiting are important for consistency and the feel that Smiting Prayers have. In my below suggestions, I will strive to maintain these trends.