11 replies to this topic

[Stc95]

I'd like to ask the questions again, what happened to the monks from GW1 to GW2 (or even the novels since those don't have any monks either). This is a thread on these forums asking the same question, but from 2010 when we knew much less about GW2. In that thread the prevailing thought was "monks are still in GW2 lore, they just aren't playable characters. IE. There can still be Monk NPCs we will run into, we just can't play them."  Now that we have actually seen GW2, we know there aren't any monks whatsoever, unless I haven't found the one Monk NPC. So do we know any more on how Monks got phased out, lore wise?

[Konig Des Todes]

Actually, I think there were monks NPCs - other than the Ascalonian ghosts. Not 100% sure though.

But the Monks had teachings mixed with paragons to make guardians, that's known. Whether there are pure monks around is that... and the BWE isn't the whole of GW2 so don't go counting eggs before they hatch (and again, I think I recall a mention of a "monk" - though the question could be whether it meant the profession or a religious figure... or both).

But we have gained 0 new lore on them outside of GW2, so if there's nothing on them in the game, then we got nothing at all other than "guardian utilizes monk skills"

[Lutinz]

Monks did seem to evolve into Guardians which in a combat scenario kind of makes sense.  We have preists among the humans and I could see them having Monk like abilities but its likely that the Monk class split into Guardians for combat situation or priest/healers for more noncombat roles.

Thats speculation of course based on what Ive seen so far in game.  The actual 'Monk' class was a human one so Im looking at it from a human perspective.

[Konig Des Todes]

Thing is, monks in GW1 were, quite literally, priests of the day. So those priests and priestesses in GW2 are just non-combat monks (if they aren't other professions, like necromancers or mesmers, of course).

Doesn't the Priestess of Dwayna heal human characters after the tutorial? Not as effective as the monks' gw1 skills, but still healing abilities, no? They're also doing the same to NPCs during and after the tutorial.

[draxynnic]

It's probably a case that 'monks' (and other magical medics) have a tendency to be, essentially, noncombatant guardians. They're probably more skilled in healing because they've been concentrating on that rather than diversifying into protective and offensive magics (not to mention weapon and armour training) but they're probably not much more powerful than a guardian that has maxed out Honor and Virtues.

[AlexthePrecise]

Monks mainly drew their healing magic from the human gods. With the gods withdrawing their presence in Tyria, the strength of the magic was lost. This caused the situation for where a monk to be viable on the battle field, they needed to be able to do more than use healing spells. They went on to mix Paragon teachings into their training and focus more into protection magic which must require less influence from the gods as it is just magical shielding instead of healing. There are still monks that heal but they are delegated to hospitals and such where they can preform long slow acting healing spells and traditional medicine. The humans still retain some contact as their racial heal is a prayer to the goddess Dwayna. This heal is weaker than conventional heals as the power of the gods has waned in Tyria.

[draxynnic]

While that's based off the official explanation, there's still a flaw in it - you can use monk-style magic in GW1 without being a follower of the Six (ex charr shamans, White Mantle priests). Chances are, it was still powered by faith, like guardian magic is now - but it doesn't need to be faith in the gods.

It does seem that healing magic is quite a bit weaker than it used to be, though.

[Red J]

There is monastery dedicated to Kormir in human starting area. The people there could be classified as "monks", though I didn't see them use any magic at all.

[Stc95]

Like Draxynnic said, Monks aren't tied to humans only. Charr, Grawl, Mursaat, Elementals all had monks among them. While humans may have channeled their monk abilities through Dwayna, the others had some other way to do that (another lore question).

[4arsie4]

55 Monk got nerfed sometime between GW1 and 2. Or there was a such a population drop in the 250 years that the farmers left. Or they got mass banned from Bergen Botspring. Sorry, couldn't help myself.

One way to look at non-human monks is that they are only considered monks from a human perspective, they may not have derived their powers from the 5/6 gods like the human monks did. Of course, the gods leaving can be said to have led to the disappearance of monks. A scepter focus Guardian is a monk in almost every way but the lore.

Spoiler

Then there is the case of the Balthazar worshiping Grawl, which might prove that the 5/6 gods may reach beyond the humans. The humans may have just personified them.

I personally consider all magic in GW2 to be identical, it is just how the caster has learned to harness it and as a result, how the magic manifests itself, that sets the professions apart.

[Konig Des Todes]

4arsie4, on 09 August 2012 - 01:06 AM, said:

I personally consider all magic in GW2 to be identical, it is just how the caster has learned to harness it and as a result, how the magic manifests itself, that sets the professions apart.

It's not, there's still the four schools of magic - though it seems at least one of them is weakening (preservation).

[draxynnic]

I'd say changing, myself. There is less of a focus on healing, but protective and offensive aspects seem to have grown quite a bit stronger.

4arsie4: As Konig said, the schools of magic are defined by lore - the Bloodstones ensure that no one person can use all four. And the gods definitely aren't restricted to humankind - humans are just the most visible and only playable aong their worshippers. (In the case of the grawl, though, it's questionable whether it's Balthazar they're worshipping or the statue of Balthazar.)