The psychology of monking

Reading and replying to some of the recent monk threads got me wondering how many other monks out there actively use psychological tricks while monking? Even something as basic as positive/negative reinforcement.

* just to clarify: these are tactics i use after the tried and true teamchat and repeated suggestions and warnings about standing in aoe, pulling aggro, etc. and no, i don't think i'm any better than any other player just because i'm a monk, i've met some amazing players pugging, but i've also many more mixed groups w/ some excellent + some downright abysmal. as a monk i deal w/ human players every day (henchies are boring unless you're just interseted in getting a task done).. but when i play a necro, all I really have to deal w/ is the enemy AI. *

At its most primative level, this would be - misbehaved player = fewer heals & well behaved teamplayer = more heals.

The reason for it would basically be training your pug group to manage aggro if they keep messing it up. Take the example of an ele that is constantly getting too close, sitting in maelstrom or tanking enemy warriors. For eles who repeatedly stand in maelstrom I will simply let their hp drop much much more before I heal them, just keeping them on the verge of death (maybe put PS over them to keep them from sudden death) even though I may be perfectly free to heal them to 100%. The goal of course would be to get that ele to move out of maelstrom so s/he can actually cast something and not take constant damage. Reinforce this a few times as it happens, and you hope that the ele will learn "I'm going to die if I don't move out of maelstrom next time" or "I have a high chance of dying if I keep rushing in too soon". Of course there's always the possibility they will think "Damn, our monk sucks balls, why can't he keep me healed?!"
But generally they would be less likely to think that if everyone is always above 75% hp and only they are always on the verge of death.


While not healing someone at all and letting them die (and I HATE letting anyone die on my watch) is pretty obvious, something a bit more subtle is to not fully heal casters who tend to rush in, tank mobs, or have high dp. These are the party members you least want the mobs focusing on, so keeping them at less than fully healed, or just to heal them a bit slower often discourages such behavior.

Other examples I've come across have been second monks in a group that don't kite or run when mobs focus fire on them, over-zealous battery necros, eles who pull, assasins who don't move out after their inital attacks and start taking immense damage.

Then there are the tanks who run behind the monks to use their healing sig, or the ones who back up after initial aggro, then run in after the mobs have started targeting the squishies.
These tanks take a bit more verbal coaching, but often you have to buff them up psychologically by keeping their health at 90% and above so they don't break and run. Once you gain their trust that you're not going to let them die, you can more easily modify their behavior to be your parties point man, and intercept any incoming enemies.

While there are practical reasons such as conserving energy, not letting the rest of the party die at the expense of one player, I was curious how many other monks out there leverage the this type of psychological pressure on their team to push their behavior towards optimum teamwork.

On the other hand, as a warrior, rit or any other class, have you ever been aware of your party's monk exerting any slient psychological pressure? When I played as a fire ele I generally had no idea what the monks were up. Spike heals happen so fast you sometimes don't notice your hp was down unless you see the +hp floating above your head. I've found when you're tanking regardless of class you get even greater tunnel vision.

Or is what I've said here such basic monking skill, that it all goes without saying? Just curious.

And as a note, I never voluntarily let anyone in my party die on my watch (unless they're a 55 leach), I never refuse to res anyone except in the most extreme griefer cases, and I will not let you die if I can help it. And that is my monk's hippocrates oath =)

uh...not a good idea...when they do die...you'll be the one that's getting blamed.

when I monk, theres nothing psychological about it...If the warrior(or anyone else) overextends and I have to run to heal it often puts the whole party at risk. A risk that I won't make, I'll heal as best I can, but I won't put the party in a worse hole by leeroying just like the idiot who overextended. I am in groups to win a mission, not to have control. I've heard of people using things like this, but its just downright unprofessional! Additionally its self defeating, since these tactics of psycho-warfare are like as not going to cause more trouble than they're worth.

edit: oh yeah, additionally: if you get a whack job like that, /resign and grab a healer hench, pve is not that hard to win with henches.

I usually try using the power of comincation, you know words n stuff in text in team chat. for example "Please Mr Warrior Don't agro everything" "Mrs Ele Please try to avoid tanking, it makes my life hard" "My Energy is 0 of 52!" etc etc

heh, but the thing is I already play this way.
And this is generally only necessary in mediocre pugs or if you have a few less experienced players, or poor players. Often in pugs people will not listen, so that's when I usually apply this type of pressure.

The thing is I don't let them die.. I won't let them if they're in real danger. But if they're causing problems for the party w/ their behavior, they are not going to get much support monk-wise for it.

And when they do die, I've never been blamed, as it's usually after an extremely intense fight, and if 7/8 of the party pulled through fine.. there's no basis for them to blame you unless you really didn't heal them at all.

so is this being an evil manipulative monk? or is it part of energy maangement and party/aggro management?


Hmm, good idea =) Good thing that's what I'm constantly telling my party, but often in the midst of battle you barely have time to be typing something other than "<name> plz get back/move out of mael". And as always there are the ones that simply don't listen, ignore you for trying to tell them what to do no matter how suggestively you phrase it, or just don't care.

I just love when I ping my energy and immediately receive a reponse from all the warriors who ping their energy back. Or when I accidentally hold down the Ctrl key while switching weapons and people start pinging all their greens in their inventory.

And it's not some sort of psychological war or anything, it's not as if I stop healing them. It's more applying pressure to get them to move or hold back a little/not rush in when you're busy managing the health of 7 other people in the party.

I don't play as a Monk but I am creating one tomorrow, not because of this thread, simply because I don't have one!

I will definitely take this thread into account when healing.

The problem is that it only works over a fairly decent amount of time. I dont bother with keeping heals from peeps I just let them now they are displeasing me, the monk, in a vocal way.

ps there is also a very similar thing used to train animals to do tricks, where if they do what they tell you they get a treat, but if they disobey they get nothing :P

I thought this would be a useful thread about psychology (like how they're targetted first and are constantly targetted), not some PVE care bear thread about teaching noobs how to play correctly. :/

Passive-aggressive tactics ftl. Just be upfront with your teammates about your concerns.

I'm not subtle with PUGs, because subtlety requires some level of intelligence to appreciate, and most PUGs aren't at that level. I give them one warning, after which I stop healing them whenever they do anything stupid. As I've said elsewhere, I'm a big fan of Unyielding Aura for PUGs, because it allows you to keep extremely tight control of any headaches. I can't think of any better solution to leeroys than to kill the guy off with a simple double-click.

Unlike some monk players, I don't have any moral objections to having people die on me. I keep people alive because it helps the team accomplish whatever goal we have. If a player is no longer contributing (or worse, is actually detrimental), there's no reason for me to care about their welfare.

I so totally use the same tricks as the OP, tends to work well in RA and AB as well as PvE.

What makes you think monks are any less retarded than your average mending-frenzy wammo?

Honestly, just because you're a monk doesn't make you mentally superiour... the very suggestion is really making me want to flame you.

Ever consider that maybe when a pve team does poorly it's a possability thatthe monk is just lazy/detatched/slow/careless with energy?

Everyone has a role to do. When you've got a good warrior on your team, you'll notice quickly how nice it is not to have to be running around for your life while some big NPC whails on you.

When you have a good ele you'll notice how nice it is to watch scores of monsters burn.

When you have a good monk you'll notice how nice it is not to have to actually ASK for heals...

So how about you worry about monking and step off that pedestal you've erected for yourself?

My tactics when I monk revolve around this. People who don't learn, won't learn. One casual comment is what they get; I don't flame them or try to boss. I tell them they're eating my energy up with their playstyle.

Then they get to die. It sounds harsh, I know. I'm not doing it to be mean to them. I'm doing it for my team.

I don't look at it as 'my fault' when someone dies anymore. I know I was doing the best I could. A mana-sink (someone who uses all my energy to keep them alive) is only 1 in a team. If I'm at 0 juice and all skills recharging--mentally drained from one desperate spam after another--what do I have left for the other 7 members who AREN'T messing up?

Frankly, they're expendable if I have to divote my time and energy to keeping them alive. So when one player with no armor of evasion buffs decides that he is going to tank 3 or more enemies every time--because his spells are SO important--I stop casting and let my little blue bar recharge. No one dies on my watch unless they're spiked or trying to.

Newbs listen to advice. They know they have something to learn and want to be taught. These people take constructive criticizm well, adapt their style to help the team, and become better.

DP is my instructor for noobs. If I know they're going to die and they don't want to change, I let them. If the team wipes because we were 1 player short due to his constant dying and high DP, they don't kick me. They kick him and look for someone else.

My advice to other monks (or anyone else): if your team DOES wipe due to a mana-sink, ask the leader to kick him. Many people don't like to kick players once they have a team together. But its better to cut out the dead wood than to watch the good players ragequit later because they're always a man down. Keep in mind, however, you can beat most missions with 6 players. Err7/ragequit teams talk about it all the time.

@OP: Be frank and open with your team. The good players appreciate you more for it.

I do that all the time with kamikaze players. I get sick and tired of tell them to be careful all the time, don't get too far ahead, etc. etc. I should not have to do that.

So I ramp back heals, and they ramp back the suicide. ITs a win win situation.

That way, I can focus on who is doing good in the group and suicide players can stay out of the way.

plain and simple:

Listen to your MONK or die! Thats my way of dealing with it. 9 out of 10 they listen. And you no what happens when you dont listen. DEATH!

hehehheh

And what makes you think that I believe my self any more intelligent than your average mending-frenzy wammo?

perhaps I haven't been clear enough. I'm not talking about trying to control everyone in the group.
This is AFTER making a suggestion to perhaps one person in the group that maybe it's not such a good idea to rush the big bad bulls as a necro. Or that to please don't over BIP as it's a drain on the monks when everyone is under fire. Sometimes the entire party is clueless about aggro, and you can type everything you want, draw lines on the radar, etc, etc, but it's all forgotten in the heat of the battle.

I'm talking about the players who repeatedly don't listen, who make the same mistakes or are just a bit new to the game and don't quite understand where the ideal places to stand in the midst of battle is. You'd be suprised by how many 1st time uw players I meet going to UW.

When everyone plays their role or class well, there's absolutely no need for this. But when you have one energy sink that repeatedly gets in trouble, doesn't seem to quite understand what the entire team means when they ask them to please stay back, well.. I'm not going to let them die, but I'm not going to go out of my way to keep them at full health so they think they're always at full hp and ready to rush in.

I'm not saying I'm oh-so-much better than all these oh-so-stupid players in my pugs. I'm not saying I'm the best monk since sliced and buttered charr. I'm just asking what do you do as a monk when you have 1 or 2 people who aern't exactly griefers but they repeatedly get the entire team in trouble. Some learn by via what you tell them via teamchat, some do not.

I don't believe in just letting them die, as part of the challenge I enjoy as a monk is to keep even the aggro hungry players alive. Of course there was this one day we had a touch ranger in my UW group.. we just couldn't convince him to stop touching the Aatxes..

i'm always frank, open and easy going with my teams.. I never get angry or anything, but these tactics are what I use for those player who don't listen, don't care, or try to listen but don't quite understand. It's not like I don't say anything to them, repeatedly (and very nice about it as well). But I'm sure we've all had the players on our team who just think they're the new leeroy, or mr invincible. When I play as a necro, etc there's not much I can do about it except repeat what the rest of the team tells them, but as a monk, it is possible to reign them in to the benefit of the entire team. And this is for high level pve areas such as uw/fow/tombs uw/deep/urgotz (as opposed to some missions where it's just easier to die and restart w/o the uncooperatives)

I don't like to resort to threats of no heals, but have had to in a few severe cases.

I usually try to be calm when there are situations where people try to be a tank when they're not or go leeroy-ing everywhere. I just advise them about what they need to do and to stay within range of the monks. If they don't listen, I let them die. If they continue to be asshats, they'll be on the ground indefinitely, and I would not care if they dropped or not.

I'd say sometimes it's beneficial to have some tricks up your sleave.

Usually it's the best thing to write some words into the team chat: Most times I do a reading-test before I even party up with strangers (when i say "no blindinvites" I mean "NO blindinvites" - period.) however on occasion it happens that I just pop into a team to help out a friend and that can get troublesome.
When the team is working together noone has to die, even if aggro is a bit off every now and then: but sometimes you just get that special someone who will not listen, nor change his behavior that is putting the group in danger. Simple solution - I will tell him that I won't risk the success of the party over his/her life and give a constructive suggestion about how things will work out better. Most times that is all that is needed - yet it's not helping in those special cases where you get that very ignorant person who just wants to be a jerk: As long as the party's success is not at stake i will start playing with his healthbar. Conditions and hexes won't get removed instantly anymore; I will keep that person alive, but not like I treat the other teammates. There will be a distinct difference that even the most ignorant person can understand.

It's not wise to be a jerk - whichever profession you play. As monk it can be harsh to get the stick handed once someone dies, but on the same time you have the benefit of beeing able to choose the party you want to be a part of. To have the healthbars of your teammates in your hands is an important task - it's a divine quest that you choose to follow when you created the monk. There is nothing high and mighty about it thou' - since without the team that goes and kills the badguys there is no progress for the monk either. Support each other -> GG & funtimes for all.
This game is about teamplay - and ignorant minds are counterproductive... Staying calm and just talking openly will get you further than any secret mindgames or insulting remarks. I can understand the situation in which it becomes necessary to use more than words to have the team succeed in its goals.

Most times you can avoid a lot of trouble by spending some more time on partymanagement. There have been some great threads around this forum, just do a search and you find some gems.
I myself run the Patient Adventurer (tm) System for more than a year now, and it works like a charm. I was inspired by the glorious Scenic Tour Groups and made my very personal system to weed out the bad apples before even leaving the outpost.
Thanks again to IxChel. ^^

~Aya Starshine~

when im monk, im tryin to keep the whole team alive. but if theres one or 2 dickheads that dont learn, im keepin the healin back to safe sum energy on others. its like when u have ur team play in a mission that involves lots AoE from the enemy side. bots r "smart" enuf to run away from AoE, but us humans? no way! i stopped countin the situations in which ppl stand in searing heat, or bed of coals, or firestorm, or whatever and they get hit and hit and burn and burn and no matter how often i tell them to get the hell out of it, they just keep standin there. on those guys, i keep the healin back and heal them only from time to time, when i dont have to heal anyone else at that moment. if they happen to die at that point, well im sorry, but i warned them about the situation.

even when im not the monk but playin anythin else and we r in such areas, i keep tellin those ppl to get out of aoe bc its a nightmare for monks, speakin of own experience.

so yea, i can understand such psychic warfare of monks, and i think sum monks used it on me aswell sumtime and i dont blame em since at those situations i was idd behaving stupid. i learnt from it.

the only thing that u need to watch out for though, is that u go back to healin normal again once the certain person did learn of his/her errors

so true... so true.

Personally I dont care how any of you monks act... because 9 outa 10 the henchis perform better than any of you...

it used to be that the henchis where the ones over extending... now over half of you that play monks believe your the group dictator... and the reality is you end up overextending and unable to keep up in the multitude of fedex missions...

I dislike bossy and greater than thou monks as much as i hate rushing assassins and wammos that spam they are tanks...

chances are of corse those of you posting here probably arent the monks im talking about... so forgive me for being blunt...

I never rely completely on a monk myself and most likely Im not one of those players you have to teach how to play the agro game... but ive definately had my fair share of Monk"eys"

perhaps you just need to form your own groups.... id be happy with that personally, a monk that is the leader of a group gets the automatic opinion from me that they are competent at their profession...

but really we could go on bitching about every profession or about pugs but again most of the guides that would assist these inexperienced players never get read by them in the first place... sad but true... most of us forum junkies here know the game well and all this info really doesnt get to the peeps who need it most

i don't heal unless they are under 50%-60% anyways.

i know how hard monking can be so if i'm in a PuG or even with guildies and notice someone standing in maelstrom or whatever i will say something.

Personally, my characters don't usually need monks unless the shit really hits the fan. On my necro i bring along Taste Of Death, on my warrior he's constantly under dolyak sig+watch yourself+a stance, and on my mesmer i just stay the hell out of the fight. On my ranger i pull, so I kinda have to be up front. But when I played with my monk, I would just stop healing the stupid ele that took aggro constanty. A few accidents is forgiveable, but I don't want a 60 armor tank walking around. And when they complained that i couldn't keep them healed, I said "Then dont take so much damage!". If they left, that was one less burden.

Monks, though they tend to be stuck up, are only like that becuase the GAME made them that way. You need at LEAST one warrior tank, an Ele nuker (or other), a Necro (MM, curses, what-haveyou), and an interrupt (mesmer/ranger). But on most of the harder missions, you NEED 2-3 monks. You dont NEED as many as any other class but monks. But they need to keep in mind that there are stupid monks as well, although it doesn't take half a brain to heal someone.

I play my monk more than any of my other characters and I have NEVER purposely let someone die. If a ranger or caster stays in mele range too much I ask them to stay back. If a warrior is overaggroing I let him know.

I don't heal the offending team member at the expense of other players , but that's not the same as "letting" them die. If it's within a monks ability to save a player from dying without jeapordizing the team, and he doesn't, then he isn't a real monk.

I have never been more outraged in this game than when playing a SS Nec, I accidentally went into aggro range of some giants in THK right after a monk called "my energy is 15 out of 45."

The giants did giant stomp and knocked me down and started attacking me. My health was steadily dropping and I was waiting to be bailed out when I got a whisper, "just making a point" from the monk. Then I died.

I didn't see the monk call his energy and that was the only time I had made a mistake in the mission. The monk had the energy to save me, he was simply being an ass withholding his all powerful omnipotent healz. I lived or died at his hand.

I had monked THK hundreds of times, (my fav mission) so I knew the mission really well, so for some jackass monk to purposely let me die really set me off.

If you're a monk, and you can keep your team alive, do so. Otherwise you're just being an arrogant ass.

No the trick is to call out which skills they are using if they're nub.

Or when they run out, you can just keep healing thel for ever, all the blue numbers should eventually get their attention.

When an assassin or something starts tanking like nuts, CALL OUT EVERY HEAL.
Once the assassin (or any other class) gets pissed because of you spamming the window, he'll probably say something. You can then counter it easily.

Or even better!
Don't pug.

The blue numbers don't get their attention, and neither does calling out heals. Most of the idiots don't understand it, and that's why they do it.

I don't try anything psychological, I just tell them, "stop trying to tank ele", or "stop leaing the mobs back to us tank". I tell them again and again. There have only been a few times when the rest of the group has actually said to me, "don't heal him", because they were all sick of the idiot. But I couldn't let him die.

To be honest.. i've played several hundred hours on my warrior in PUgs of all kinds.. ranging from Nolani academy mission to Uw.. and quite frankly i never relied on my monk to keep me alive.. if i ever ran low on health and needed a quick boost.. bam i'd hit dolyak bonettis and heal sig faster than i could click and say "my health is xxx of 520"


Now playing my monk.. oh boy i have so much fun screwing around wiht over extenders and total problem makers for my energy.. i for one just stand there.. saying if i have to move to heal you you're failing at your job (exlusion goes to warriors and assassins) as for batterys.. if i ever have one i don't bother healing them unless they really ask for it and we're mid battle, i mean they're my life line they have first pirority in battle.. but if they're just saccing themselves to death outside of battle.. oh wel

I play a monk the most out of all the characters I have, and I have done many fow runs as a monk.

Whenever somebody does something stupid, careless or 'heroic'. I come right out and tell them why I didn't heal them or let them die. I think I've been doing so since I started using a monk.
I haven't been argued on my healing abilities and choices on a run in a long time now, mainly because any time somebody tries to question me, I point out exactly what they did, why I didn't do anything about it, and why I will not do anything about it ever.

Unfortunately it's a little bit more controlling, but if some players over-extend or try to do everything themself, they need to know they wont be getting the support they might think they should be getting when the rest of the team, or myself could end up dying for their actions.

Essentially as a monk, I take care of the majority, not just one or two people, for the greater good of the team.

I suppose this is one reason why I get complimented so much on runs with my monk...

I let people die all the time. My job is to keep the party alive not heal just one person. I really dont care if they overextend and Frenzy spam. They die they die.
If they complain, then I say heal yourself then.

Don't tell me what to do because I don't call targets for warriors and casters. Do your job and I will do mine.

I'll have to admit, when I play a monk I'm very blunt and condescending. I don't try to use this fancy psychology mumbo jumbo, I just tell the person they're an idiot and why. You could attribute this to me being an arrogant monk who thinks he's high and mighty, but then there's the point where I know I'm high and mighty compared to most of the team (there's always at least one decent person in my team who I'll bitch openly to).

Then there's the arrogance, which is just my nature and has been there long before I rolled a monk. However when I play a monk, I make it very clear that I'm damn good at what I do with my playstyle. So if you end up on my team, you can hate me all you want, but I'm still keeping you alive.

No, my arrogance and annoyance with people's personalities doesn't get in the way of my judgement for healing. I've failed too many quests/missions because some guy didn't like the other guy and everyone joined in then ragequit. If I don't like you as a person, I'll make it clear verbally, then continue on keeping you alive.

The attitude that the last 3 posters have gives monks a bad rep. You're implying you purposely let your teammates die, even though you could have kept them alive without any cost to the mission/quest or team. And that= bad monk. If you can, without risking the team or mission/quest -whatever, save your teammates.

You speak positively of being arrogant? Arrogance is a negative emotion. There is no way being arrogant can help you or your team.

EDIT: Sekkira- from what I can gather from your post, you verbally assault your team mates. I don't agree with your tactics, but apparently you keep your team alive. So at least this is better than the other two who willingly let their team members die to so-called teach them who's boss.

I'll admit to succumbing to this temptation from time to time... When I'm asked why I called it I'll usually just play innocent. It's a bad habit, I know, but it does serve the purpose of letting the other experienced players in the group know how far we can rely on that player.

I try* to be as patient and gentle about noobishness as possible. I'm playing with a PuG for social reasons, after all - I'm quite confident in my ability to hench anything in the game - so there's no point to adding grief to incompetence.

My approach... Kinda depends on what it is they're doing wrong. "So-and-so, wait for the team, please" is usually enough to counter Leeroy syndrome - and they usually notice fairly quickly that I'm staying with the team and not risking them by rushing forwards to heal them. Sub-par skill usage I'll usually just let slide, though I'll sometimes try to offer positive suggestions ("you know, Minion Master, Heal Area is pretty much identical to Healing Breeze, except it'll heal your minions as well!").

...I think that sword-weilding Illusion mesmer (not an IW!) is still offended that I suggested he contaminate the purity of his degen build by putting Distortion on his skillbar, though. I mean, if someone wants to melee mobs in mesmer armour it's not the monk's job to force cookie-cutter sensibilities on them, right? Lack of build originality is ruining the game!

One thing I try to do (that kind of ties in with my first paragraph) is to get any other competent players in the group on-side. I don't mean that we ** together at the noobs, but rather that we work together to carry the team and compensate for others' mistakes. Obviously this requires that the other peeps be both competent and friendly, so I rarely find more than one per group!


*which means I've been known to fail!
**Edit: my original term here - a synonym of "chuckle" - got GOREDENGINE'd because if you remove the "s" from the front of it you get a racial slur. Can't think of another word with all the right connotations right now...

Once in fow I was with this pretty decent pug, except for this obnoxious necro that kept flaming ppl for the dumbest things. I was playing a bonder, using life barrier and bond. So we run into one of the early mobs that had a shadow mesmer, the mesmer did a shatter enchant on one of our peeps and this necro says "nice enchant noob, you just cost us 100", to which I repsonded "hey retard, I'm not dropping all the bonds for one shatter enchant".

He proceeded to flame me further, uttering things I shall not repeat here. So from that point on I kept everyone's bonds up but his. And guess what, he died 3 times before we cleared out ol' Shadow Lord Vorgis - at which point he raged. Good riddance and gg.

QFT. Seems like , cause your'e the only healer, and there is another one btw in most of the times, you have the right to tell how others have to play. Just lame.

It's a PUG. grab another , or better, take guildies or hench. That last ones will follow each and every order of you without such "techniques".

i usually monk pug-s aswell,and yes, i know how damm hard can it be

I'm making a monk tomorow, straight out of pre-sear. Monks often gets blamed a lot, even tho it's not their fault. Especially with tanking assassins and eles, some people are stupid enough to rush in when the monk pings his or her energy.

I've played a monk since the servers went live, in both PvE and PvP.

I find PvE harder, not because of the skills I carry or the different effects. But the players.
PvP players know when there going to die; from a certain spike or condition, and why they died when they've died!

In PvE I don't mind speaking my mind. I'll call energy when its low, mostly around the 5 points mark.

If I get a bad tank or a class that thinks there a tank when there not, A/Me :s I'm not afraid to let them die. Death is a powerful tool.
Yes this has often caused rage quits, But I don't mean the over extended tank. I mean the encounter 4 mobs tank, who then runs to the casters, kinda player. Death is there punishment!

If I get players bitching because they drop 1/5 of there health, I will often call my lamest skill as I cast it. and then explain: Its not even worth the energy points to heal there HP loss.

And for the mainly wammo groups and rangers thinking there melee attackers, I'll call ALL my skills I use on them. And if they fail to get the point, death soon follows.

But most of all if I get a group that full of Noobs doing the "ZOMG HEALS MEES" and calling for res in the middle of a mob.
I explain how bad the group is and how I don't need this, and map travel ftw.

As someone already said - team chat with "please don't aggro everything" and things like that helps. In most cases. When pugging into a high-lvl area such as FoW it helps to put up a demonstration of healing the tank. You know, like they do with Miracle Blade III on the shopping network cut a brick, marble and a soda can and then neatly slice up a tomato. If they keep breaking the aggro causing havoc in our lines I simply aggro the next group of baddies and tank them out. First reactions are "OMG WTF NOOB MONK" but I after I successfully tank for 30+ seconds they get the message. Warriors aggroing and retreating behind the squishies is the worst they can do. Right after breaking the aggro by retreating to the monk only to find out I don't have healing touch. By tanking a group of mobs I show the team that I can keep them alive too. I mean, if I can tank without Healing Seed on me, they sure as hell can tank with seed on them.

There are a few rules you can follow to help your monk:
1) do not aggro everything
2) do not break aggro once aggroed
3) do not retreat into the monk

There's a bonus rule for warriors: do not use frenzy while under SS.

Best thing about these rules is the fact that they are not RULES but common sense. That sometimes has to be pointed out to some people.

I've said this before in another thread...

It just comes down to the type of people you have in your party.. not the class. If you have people who are willing to communicate effectively, compromise, and adapt then the team will be successful. Players will be effective because they will but the team first and not have a narrow mindset that concentrates on themselves. It's not the class that's the problem in PUGS, it's the players themselves. Streotyping is irrelavent.

Essentially, when forced, bribed, coerced or bored into PvE missions I monk like this:

I try to heal and protect everyone to the best of my ability, but I play it like PvP. I trust people to react to the damage they're taking and either they do or they don't. If they don't, too bad, they die. If they do, good for them, and they'll get their heals just as soon as I get around to it. That's what's "great" about PvE. Your enemies are in no hurry to kill/pressure/shut you down. They don't stick to targets or co-ordinate any sort of strategy. All you have to do as a non-monk player is take a few steps back and you'll be fine. Of course, if you're not big on self-preservation then you may or may not die (depending on how lucky you are/how much God likes you). It's none of my concern, really. What's the worst that can happen? You fail? At over 2700 hours, the 35 minutes wasted isn't a big concern to me.

However, if it's really important that we succeed (ie. I'm doing a mission that I desire never to repeat) then it's best to a) know what you're doing and b) inform your team of the best strategy. If you act like you know your ass from a hole in the ground, I find that 95% of the time people will listen and follow you. It's quite easy to be vocal; just a few keystrokes can save you a lot of outrage.

Overall, I'm not in this game to teach people a lesson. Either they "get it" or they don't, not that it matters because the chance that I'll ever play with them again is too miniscule to be statistically relevant. Besides, if I really want something done right, I won't pug to begin with. GG.

-Jessyi

But fun, nonetheless.