Shield of RegenerationFew people play the Monk themselves (if they even choose to bring a Monk along). When building hero gold Monks, players search for skills that don?t require micromanagement. They select skills like Guardian or Shielding Hands that are effective in smaller battles. These skills also counter the physical attackers that dominate the metagame in Hero Battles. Hero Monks commonly carry Shield of Regeneration and other skills with Health regeneration to combat metagame Assassin attack chains and Health degeneration. To compensate for the high Energy cost of Shield of Regeneration, Hero Monks tend to have Elementalist as their secondary for Glyph of Lesser Energy. Of course, Hero Monks are still vulnerable because most builds have limited support for them.

In the current metagame, people often choose to play Assassin themselves because a successful Assassin requires constant micromanagement in terms of target selection and tactical movement. It is simply more efficient for players to directly control an Assassin character than to delegate it to the AI. A player knows exactly when and where to execute single target strikes, whereas the AI may attack the wrong target in the wrong place.

 Siphon SpeedAssassins can quickly unleash tremendous damage on a single target with a well-timed attack chain of skill combos. More and more, these Assassin combos change in response to Monk builds. As the Monks have shifted towards more Enchantment-heavy Skill Bars, Assassins have moved toward skills like Assault Enchantments and Shattering Assault. Typically, Assassins also carry a snare like Siphon Speed to ambush characters en route to another shrine. This Assassin build is a glass cannon, so players keep a Monk or similar support character nearby.

Of course, many players deviate from the typical metagame build. Some drop a Pack Hunter for a second Monk. Although they can?t split as dynamically, they fight better in 4v4 encounters. When splitting the single Pack Hunter, they can stand and fight with the remaining three characters, scoring kills when the opponent tries to disengage and the Assassin player jumps on straggling targets. At the same time a Monk can split off to either assist the pack hunter capture a shrine, or go capture a shrine by itself and leave the Assassin with healing from the other Monk. Players running these builds often go for the shrines that give them an offensive boost, such as the siege cannon on Bombardment, or Warsong?s Shrine on Desert Sands, to make up for having two Monks instead of offense. Another viable change involves dropping the Assassin for a character like a Burning Arrow Ranger or some form of Warrior.