The psychology of monking

You monks? Bad and selfish players usually are playing more than one class. I've been in groups with the same people under different alts and noticed the responses I get. The point is, as soon as we play a different role in the party we start getting an attitude, and at a certain point it becomes "us against them" within the group.

The psychological aspect is important as a monk. When the first player dies, the morale starts to drop, and all the bad thoughts start creeping in. "Oh no, not another horrible pick-up group. The monks suck, warrior's over aggro, and the casters are tanking." People start going into generalization mode. At a certain point, most of the monks have been in so many different types of groups that the outcome becomes predictable.

I used to run ToPK groups (non-BP) over and over for awhile. Could see from group chat, from people not paying attention to aggro bubbles, and from skill combinations which groups would make it. Some of these groups had outright horribble team builds that I just accepted blind invites too. Gave advice to take caster shutdown, and ended up with a bunch of blind warriors standing in meteor showers. Many, many groups accumulated 60% dp from some of the worst players taking on several tricky caster groups at a time, and letting the Grasp of Insanity pop ups run through the casters forcing a full retreat. It took 2 hours to get to the first chest, which some groups seemed satisfied with. Other players would quit after a few deaths. Some groups were carried through to the 4th level by monking (and they would inevitably wipe at the start of it) and someone surviving to use Rebirth over and over. At a certain point, I only monked for these groups to give players a familiarity with the area so that I could actually complete runs. Trust me, theres a reason why Barrage-Pet took over down there.

At some point during the game, most of the players have to realize that they aren't as good as they can be, and they have to start making an effort to start improving. Yes, it's a game, but monks shouldn't have to babysit so the worst players can get through it. I've done the thing where I let the one horrible player die multiple times instead of trying my hardest to keep him alive (left Mhenlo dead once and didn't rez him). But I always rez people after the battle. It felt appropriate because the group breezed throught the mission, and people are only capable of insight after mistakes are realized.

Alot of times I ask a sarcastic question like "Did you forget to upgrade your armor?", and I get a response "I'm trying to save money by keeping my Shing Jea ". Or warn warriors about using Frenzy, and then BOOM boss Afflicted explosion. Times like that I clicked "Dead Warrior is using Frenzy" shortly after his death. I click on your skillbar all mission long from healing, if you want to take my advice as being an insult, then you should understand that I'm only showing you that you were wrong. On my other characters, I've seen more monks unfairly blamed for stupid mistakes. And I've also seen the monks who see themselves as gods immune to criticism, saying that only the tank must take damage. I bet these people are one and the same.

Originally, my monk was my favorite character. Until I realized how little control I had over everything. Just heal, keep people alive, and have no control over aggro or damage. Target calls and retreats get ignored, and get energy pings (as the only monk still alive) mockingly returned to you as everyone else dies. My monk has repeated missions far more times than my other characters because of outright stupid team strategies like killing the boss first and letting the other mobs (healers included) survive the whole fight. And these missions are always dramatic failures: on last bosses, missing faction's bonuses by seconds, or team wipes after spending hours... Anyone who's ever monked long-term has earned the right to vent, so at least they won't take it out on their next group.

Well creating my monk I at the same time gave the monk vow; To always heal the wounded and cure the infected, whenever and wherever.

If I believe a person isn't playing the game efficiently enough, I'll just explain it to him via. the chat and hope he understands. Usually he'll understand and actually be grateful for the hint, and play accordingly. At other times, he might be playing according to his special build, in which case it is all a misunderstanding. And again at other times he won't listen for whatever reason. But that doesn't mean I'll *punish* him by not healing him.

I dunno, being a monk I just feel a responsibility to heal everyone to the best of my abilities, regardless of how they're acting.

In triage, doctors are often faced with the same question. If I try to save this patient, these two will die while I work on him. I may even be able to save him, but doing so will exhaust the resources (plasma, equipment time and staff) to save five more. Who do I choose? Five lives I can save or one life that seems bent on ending itself?

And so have you. You've had to make these calls too if you monk PuG missions as much as you claim. Over and over again, when people in this thread admit "I let them die" they say so adding "I do what I can for my team".

But you're lumping them--and me--with some jerk you met in a THK mission; someone who had the time to PM you, but not the inclination to heal.

But letting someone die is not the same as killing them. This is something people need to realise about monking.

Back to the triage example: They're already dying.

@all: read Trvth Jvstice's post carefully. Both his example monk and his views are models of how NOT to think in a game like this.

Guild Wars is a game based on comabt. People die in combat and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it. Maybe they're stupid. You can't fix that. Maybe they're inexpierienced. You can teach, but can't play for them. Maybe it was your fault. Live learn and move on. But don't let death get to you. The second you do, you kill someone else.

Thats the pshycology of good monking folks.

I'm going to allow myself the liberty to say that when you start punishing people by not healing them, you pretty much have the upper hand. What I mean is, you're not really having problems healing the team if you have the time to watch what each and every one of the team is doing and heal/punish them accordingly.

If you're in a tense situation, yes, you must of course make the decision to save as many as possible of the team. But if you're as far as the "punish" phase, I refuse to believe you're not able to heal the so called offender and keep the rest of the team alive as well.

You just don't get it do you? As a monk, you're not natural leader of the group. you should be too busy watching the red bars and the mini map to be leading. Just shush and heal. If a caster is getting in melee too much, let him know, but be polite. If a warrior is aggro-ing to much, let him know, but be polite.

And don't play a pug as if it is a PvP game. You will be playing with people that have never been in that mission before and other than their skill bar they will have no idea about where to go or what to do.

Your teeny little job is to keep your teammates alive. That's what you've been training to right? If someone makes a mistake, tell them. Don't let them die. Purposely letting someone die is anti-monking not monking.

Of course if a foolish pug member runs off to an area where you would die trying to save him then allow him to suicide. Remember, when a player suicides, it has nothing to do with you.

Don't ever jeopardize,your team or yourself for one player, but by gosh, if you can keep that idiot alive without risking yourself or your team, heal him.
Monks should be forced to take an oath before assuming the role: "I shall heal my teammate if I can, when I can"

It's not about telling the person you can't do something when you actually can. It's about teaching the person indirectly how to play. You can't play if you're dead on the floor. All you can do is bitch about how bad the monk is.

However I do agree that if a monk can heal well enough to punish the person and make such judgement calls mid battle, it proves they're a good monk. The next monk that person being punished gets may not be so good and may just stare at red bars.

Exactly my point.

Wrong. Logically it has to be better to attempt to keep your team alive rather than allow some of them to die when they could have been saved. That's common sense. This is no War or Combat zone. It's just playing a little game among (hopefully) friends.

I'm a professional firefighter/EMT, and I work in a hospital ER. I've made mass casualty incidents. Don't compare them to a game ok? thx.

The point is, when your team is in a pitched battle, and for example, an ele is getting hammered on by carvers, heal him then ask him to stay out of melee range if he doesn't still keep the team alive and if it's in your ability also keep the ele alive. Don't do as Minus Sign would and let the ele die even if he ccould have saved him.

And this is where I point out that you're not a good monk.

Going by that, it should apply to Warriors "I shall keep aggro on me as much as possible and have a skill bar full of stances" or Elementalists: "I should only have arcane echo, echo, meteor shower on my bar" or Necromancers: "I should be either a battery, SS, or MM, because there are no other Necromancer skillls".

Come off it! You know just as well as everyone that this discussion applies to the traditional healer monks. Do we really need to cut it out in the Sierra Maestra? Stop avoiding the subject at hand.

Any questions?

Actually, problems healing the team has more to do w/ skill recharge and energy regen. When you are overextended as a monk, and everyone on your team is taking heavy spike damage from hard hitting mobs, that's generally when you have to go into what you are calling the "punishing" phase.

As a monk you can't just stare at the party window hitting whatever keys to get those red bars back up. When I first started monking that's what I did as I was learning.. you get in a lot of trouble that way not paying attention to your own position, the position of the enemy (in case they start aggroing on you), or the positions of who you are healing. Energy and time as a monk is limited and if you cast a heal on player A who needs it less than another player B due to their positioning, in most high level areas there is a high chance that player B will be dead by the time you get around to casting on player B.

Seriously, when you are monking you have to pay attention to your own location, move if the enemy has gotten past the front line, kite if under attack. You have to know generally where the 2nd monk is (if they are at risk of danger), where your eles are, and definitely where your tank is. The last thing you want is to find out that when you go to cast a heal on a dying caster that you start running in another direction because they were out of cast range. The players who are positioned in higher risk zones will get extra attention so you can be quicker to heal or prot them from spikes and that will also dictate the type of heals you will use on them (eg. spike healing / prot / or just faster casting heals).

Monking is definitely not about just staring at the party window's red hp bars. That's how I started though when I first rolled a monk, and that was when I would often get in aggro trouble when the mobs targeted me, oh whoa.. what's the necro doing up there next to the tank? Guess I should have put a prot on him instead of orison.

I regularly hold down ctrl, then alt every few sec while healing just to check the location of my party members and the enemy. As well as checking their position on the radar when healing them. I need to know if I'm going to have to sprint for that warrior, or why some ele seems to be offscreen taking damage. At least w/ the new party window, a player turns grey when they're way out of range.
One of the most important party members you should be aware of most of the time is the other monk as when the parties start wiping, that's who's going to be watching your back so you better know if they're at a high risk of dying or not.
And yes, there is plenty of time while healing to take this all in, I do it regularly in uw/fow even when I'm continuously spamming heals and prots on everyone.

No, that's exactly what I was talking about in my former post.

Yes, but what Minus Sign is talking about is triage.

As heal monks we have to make judgement calls all the time unfortunately. Sure I wish there was an emergency 1 time use monk signet called "Heal Party + pets + important NPC's to 100%" w/ a 1/4 sec cast time, but since there isn't we have to decide who's more important when your energy is down to the wire, half your heals are recharging and you know from experience that the odds are against you of keeping everyone alive.


Let me give you some examples of scenarios I've encountered many times:

UW, right before the first reaper. 2 Warriors charge in at the terrorwebs, meteor showers start crashing down. But wait, that over eager ranger has followed 1/2 an aggro circle behind, and guess what.. that creates a chain of aggro straight to the casters. Terrorwebs start eagerly targeting your eles and necros who just love standing in pairs. A few synchronized fireball spikes and your party has collectively lost more than 60% of it's hp.
You're very low on energy now, having healed the warriors back up in the initial attack, and throwing prots and heals like no tomorrow on the spiked eles, necros and burning monk.

You can see the webs beginning to cast their second wave of meteor showers, the warriors are burning, and you start wishing your damn pug didn't kick out that interrupt mes while forming the party.

You know when the meteor shower starts falling it's going to get ugly. Your choice then becomes who are you going to save? Who's more important and more likely to help kill the enemy? Who's neccessary and who's expendable? Sure you could try to heal everyone and sap every last bit of energy you got, but you won't be able to bring them all to full hp, nor will you be able to protect everyone from the incoming ele spikes. Nor will you likely have time to save anyone once the fireballs and meteors start coming due to your lack of energy and recharging skills after all the heals.

Your best option then becomes keeping 1 ele alive instead of 2 (maybe the one w/ more hp left, or maybe the one who carries a self heal), possibly sacrificing the necro to keep the other monk up, or losing the ranger in order to keep one of the tanks who's carrying more armor buffs, or maybe he's even got an interrupt.


Or lets say your party was carrying enough firepower, and have taken out 1 web, and taken the other two to 50% hp. But that rit who was on fire retreated to far and aggro's the 2 aatxes that just happened to be patrolling at the top of the steps.

Now what? You're low on energy, the other monk is overextended. You start typing "get back" and pinging the radar furiously, but the rit goes down. The other terrorweb dies, and the aaxtes start killing off your eles and charging for the backlines.

You've regen'd a bit and you know you could heal the warrior and keep him alive, but he's so focused on killing the last web you know you're actually hoping he'll die before he finished the job. And what if the other monk keeps the warrior alive? You don't want that, and the monk isn't retreating, so you have decide whether not you want to keep the other monk alive. Because you know that if that last terrorweb dies, the reaper will spawn, and the aatxes will start tearing him apart. Your damage dealers are dead, and you're so drained on energy, it's unlikely that you would be able to keep the tank and reaper alive against the 2 bulls.

What happened in my case? well, the tank didn't die quick enough, the reaper spawned, and the two aatxes proceeded to rip our tattered party and mr reaper to shreds. hello TOA.


Maybe the last example is a bit extreme, but I can think of several similar situations, the Ghost in FOW, the King in thunderhead, in fact any NPC who ends up in the midst of bad aggro who is key to completing a mission or area ... as a monk you're going to have to decide who to save and who to sacrifice to keep from having to restart the mission.


And as interesting as this discussion is, I'm glad I only have to make these decisions for a game. I can't imagine having to decide between critically injured patients who will get a doctor's and who will have to be sacrificed in real life. Fortunately there in GW there is no need to harden ourselves to these in game decisions because a monk will always have some form of resurrect

Most of the time I form my own group now. I ask some questions to see if the player has knowledge of the game and the strat we will use. If he's not up to the task imo (can be several reasons) I apologise and kick him from the team. I also choose players on their comunication skills. Players who will shout 'go go start the game' while we're still arranging stuff will be kicked instantly without an explenation. I ask if they all got time and bring those dam keys.

When I get in a group myself, I will start asking questions at a fast rate. I want to know if the group is capable, what the plan is etc. That doesn't mean they all have to share my preference of skills etc.

But occasionaly one slips through and wants to be a real jerk. At first I will try to fit him in my plan, see if I can keep the idiot alive, I find it kinda sport. Now if he's really becoming a problem, I will comunicate and tell him. I will still keep him alive without risking other team players. I don't want a single person to die on my watch. But if he does die a few times, I will see him as a total loss and play like if he left the game.

I also tend to control the party. If I see a whammo leeching or running at the back for no reason I will tell him to move and fight (team chat). An el that tanks like a sissy will hear it right away from me. Bad idea buddy, get in the back.

Anyway, there's defenitely something as the psychology of monking. We want to keep the team alive and get the goal and we will do anything within our powers to accomplish that, even if that means sacrificing the idiot.

I do similar things to the OP. If people continually stand in maelstroms (or similar) or play stupidly, they get less healing. Also, if they aggro too much, I don't tend to heal the person who aggrod. Most of the time the message gets across, but if not, I tell the player/s responsible that I will leave and find a better group if nothing changes. This works 99% of the time, as people generally don't want to lose a monk. If not, I just leave if the team are being really stupid.

There is no point wasting your time if the team aren't going to play well, you can't expect to aggro a full group and have the monk keep you alive regardless. I think with factions coming out, and most players playing an Assassin or Rit, monks are being more appreciated, and our demands are being met better, as there aren't too many monks around. I normally play with Henchmen or Guildies anyway, so I don't usually have too much of a problem with stupid players.

Just nitpicking. Heal Party isn't a signet and doesn't heal Pets or NPC's.

Edit: Nvm, I read it wrong.


Props to the awesome disaster scenario

I'd like to add that the Warrior finally killed off that Terrorweb, Reaper spawns and just before being attacked, takes the Unwanted Guests quest.

What do you do. What DO you do?

Well, no. The only res I carry as a Monk, that is if by 'Res' you mean 'Heal' or 'lifesaver', would probably be WoH. I prefer to use all 8 skills to keep the team alive. If those 8 skills aren't enough, I don't think the team is worth it.

The coming of Factions made me happy with my Monk and overall the player base. To play a Healer there is rather challenging. The missions overall introduce Healers to actual tactics and play, making them an overall better player. No aggro a tiny group, blow your energy in 10 seconds, wait for 5 minutes to recharge, then the next tiny group.

It is however a cop out when I see Healers REQUIRING a battery to keep their energy up. I like to rage at those Monks and tell off Necromancers advertising themselves as a battery because imo, a Necromancer is actually reducing themselves to that level. I put batteries on a low level as rather useless, gimping themselves from any form of their potential. As a Necromancer, I will kick any caster out of my team who suggests I put energy management skills on my bar for THEM.

In all seriousness, yes you should be a team player, you should try to do what is best for your team. However, you should also play a personal build that you enjoy, which helps the team and isn't detrimental to it. You should be shot if you require someone to change their own build and playstyle just because you want to play a certain way.

yup yup.... again this is why the Hench monks are better than half of you...

Tai wont be a bitch and not heal someone because she thinks she is some goddess and everyone else is a noob...

I beg to differ.



RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO you Tai.

See, if Saphire had put commas into his post.. and you had read what he was saying.. it would appear that saphire would like there to be a 1 time use, emergency skill that did all of that.

Ive played around 800 hours of monk in pve.. I can't honestly say that I haven't let a few ppl die because they were just plain (insert rude nasty comment here).

A R/E that was running ahead of the tank, going melee with an enemy, then uses his bow..

Yes - I let people actually die in game. I am no welcome mat for people to step on. Do your job and I will do mine just fine.
If you suck and have the balls to blame me then why should I waste my time and energy on you - there are 6 others doing their job and seems to be staying alive just fine.

I really don't care about 'reputation'. Reputation ain't gonna help me play the game better.

LMAO!

Then you don't have enough field time with Tai. I'll take Danika over Tai any day of the week.

But anyway, its fine that players take the henches. Less crap for human monks to deal with.

i do purposely let those players who think they are invincible die. when they got DP, they will learn to stay back, i guess this is a way to manage ur team as well.

one particular class i notice, is elementalist, they put on "whatever" resistance and go up front thinking they are ok......

Ele's are a pain to heal, but letting a nuker die is by far one of the dumbest things you can do as a monk as they are a VERY large part of the damage being delt.

After you keep them up and the group dies, you let them know that they are eles and not wars. I love when I'll tell them to let the tank do the tanking, and they give me something "Shut up noob, I need to be close to them to nuke." Yes, this can be true. However you don't have to be taking 100% of the damage to be close. Let the tank take the damage and when they're busy beating on him run up and nuke away.

Personally though, my least favorite thing about PvE monking is 1% of the people know how to kite. There's basically zero damage mitigation in pve, and that makes monking so frustrating.

I've learned a little trick in this regard...

Pretype in your text box "My Energy is 0 of 45."

Whenever you find a warrior, assassin or caster overextend, simply click on your text box and scroll up to that messgae, no matter what your current energy level is.

Those words put absolute FEAR into all other classes, since they realize at that point they aren't gonna get healed. That makes them readjust their position to make sure that they aren't in harm's way, and within the range of the monk. It's a capitalistic "heal me first" approach that will make them better players through greed. Works like a charm, without causing unnecessary deaths (and also works as a nice scapegoat if they do die, as they can't blame the monk).

What saddens me more is that there are lots of player out there who think that they need abusive monks on their teams.... henchie monks do the job just as well... okay so Lina tanks, but you can at least count on that.

If you want to call the shots in a party, form one, don't join a party and take it over. I'm usually playing with 3-4 mates and if you threaten to leave my party as a monk, expect to have 4 people drop from the mission and loading up the hench monks (as I probably told them to do in the 1st place).

Also when I'm warrior I'm doing all my best to run ahead of the group to get em all out of my freaking aggro bubble. Usually only works when the monks are otherwise distracted, why do you guys insist on following the tank only just outside of his aggro bubble? I know you want to heal me as soon as I take damage, but I honestly handle the first punches thrown at me and it only gets better when watch yourself has charged, so you got 5-10 secs to respond. And when I do go in for aggro, don't pre-enchant me, if I wanted 1xx dmg from shatter enchant I would've brought mending.

When I use my monk, I can either be

1. Calm and commending

Usually when I get a team that works with me without a line typed. I end up commending them after bursts of action to raise morale. This usually gives us the best results

2. The General

I turn into the Evil Drill Sarge from Full Metal Jacket when the team makes too many schoolboy errors or if ONE person on the team does stupid things (usually an assassin). I hate doing it as I know people will think I'm grumpy, but it HAS to be done. I am nice enough to point out WHAT they are doing what, why and what they SHOULD be doing. I was happy to notice 1 assassin telling his buddy off for doing stupid things after he learned how to do it right, like this.

Being a monk is an.........experience

I concur that there are a lot of monks who are, to be frank, rubbish. However there are also lots of [every other class] who are rubbish.

The problem is, as has been said so many times before, that if a decent or even average monk lets someone die (not purposefully 'I don't like them so i wont heal them' but I can't keep healing this useless player and let the others die) its immediately seen as the monk's fault. It is also the monk's fault if we manage to save said useless player and as a result other die from unexpected aggro from said player. Its a lose-lose situation, which isn't aided by the fact that dead useless player is spamming "rez me stupid monk, I mean its not like any one else needs healing for the 6-8 seconds you are rezzing me, if you manage to cast the spell without interrupts and now have 0 energy (if its rebirth)" either, you can insert random spelling mistakes and exclamation marks yourself.

Also, it seems that no one else bothers telling the warriors not to spam frenzy/healing sig or the eles to move out of the maelstrom. So it's up to us monks: the ones who have to work around such inconveniences to make our jobs easier.

But then again I don't really think the majority of the people who are actually willing to discuss this are the bad players dragging the others down.

There's our miscommunication. You're talking about the wrong game type Trvth Jvstice. We're talking about PuGs here; not playing THK through hundreds of times with guildies as they push their character into the fire islands. We're not talking about expierienced groups where one person might make a mistake somewhere, but recovers. Teams where you can trust the majority of your members to do their job and help you do yours (since you're helping them do theirs).

And while this isn't a war or combat zone, the very nature of Guild Wars is combat. It's game physics revolve around rewarding groups of players for killing things. Would you prefer I called it a game based on murder?
No disrespect intended but anyone can say they are anything in these forums.
And the other shoe drops. In a pitched battle any monk will tell you that "I don't have time to chatter in text." That's why people use vent in PvP; good players can't type and cast effectivly and they know it.

Any idiot can heal a party member when the team is at near full health. It's at crunch time that the very mindset you say is "wrong" comes into play. Its then that the better monks--with their team beside them--prevail.

EDIT: One thing keeps nagging me about your OP. You were running a curse necro in THK. You've monked it hundreds of times. You know there's a strong possibility of a split at the gates. And you know--being a monk who runs THK hundreds of times--that it can be a bitch to keep the party up when they split. But you're relying on the monk to heal your damage...and it sounds like you're relying on him to heal all of it. As a Castor curse necro and an expierenced monk, you know that you can keep the damage to a minimum and coutner the lion's share of it if you stay up top, spam SS and self heal when able. hell, my mesmer AND my necro have soloed the east gate during the early Giant offensives staying up there. Also, based on your story it sounds like you were KDed, gained mob agro...stood up and started spamming spells.

My questions: Where was your self heal and why didn't you kite?

EDIT2:Just read this and had a Ferris Bueller flashback: Jessyi you’re my hero.

Oh so very true, there is often simply no time to type in the heat of a battle. Even if I get sometimes get out a quick "get out of mael" or "ranger, plz tank" (often horribly mispelled), the players concerned are not paying attention to the chat window. They are busy themselves casting their spells, clicking or tabbing through the enemy and interrupters are focused watching and timing enemy skills. Necros and eles are often spamming damage as quickly as they can and it's not until after it's too late that they may even notice your chat text among the item drop, skill calls, energy call messages.

Even good players may sometimes forget, or may not notice they are taking spike damage.
So as a monk you can help remind them "yes, you ARE dying and can very well die if you keep your present position"

The thing about keeping a player all healed up all the time is that they think everything is fine because <i>they</i> are still alive after all, so there must not be a problem. The other players generally aren't too aware of how much damage the rest of the party may be taking (especially when it's healed quickly). And sometimes players don't get that if you're down to 11 of x energy that may not be a good thing. Many only seem understand "My Energy is 0 of XX" and of course by then it's often too late.

I just remember my fire ele days on my first character before I had ever created a monk. I had no idea what they were doing, just that the party hp bars would bounce up and down but as long as no one was dead we were all good. I just relied on my trusty troll ungent and dodge =)


lol, that's a great trick I should start using instead of focus swapping to ping a lower energy level. I've noticed that about 50% of pug players still don't listen or do anything differently until the heals actually stop coming though

A person with 60% DP works very well with prot spirit. A boon RoF becomes Infuse Health.

Regardless of how much some of you guys wish it were otherwise, monks have the party by the balls most of the time. Unless you came into the mission prepared for no monk support, the monks decide who gets to play the game, and who spends their time facedown on the ground. This is a fact. It might not be fair, but that's how it is. If the monk wants to be a control freak, there's little you can do about it except leave.

I'm actually on my warrior most of the time, and as anyone who has read the warrior forum knows, I trust my monks. I build around damage, not tanking, so if my monk doesn't watch me, I'm going down hard and fast. And that's the way I like it - I do damage and hold aggro, and my monks keep me up. I don't ping my health the moment I take damage, and I don't ask for heals. I trust that my monk knows healing better than I do, so I just stick to doing my job and trust her to do hers. I ask my monks to ping their energy periodically to make sure they're comfortable. I scrape monsters off of them when they're under pressure. They take care of me, I take care of them, and everyone goes home happy.

When I monk, I reverse the situation. I expect people to trust me. I expect them to take care of me. I expect, if not competence, then at least the ability to follow directions and realize the significance of pings, whether it's a skill ping, an energy ping, or a map ping. In return, I will do my damned best to keep you alive against whatever kind of crazy shit we get into. I take care of you, you take care of me, everybody goes home happy.

But when people let me down, I stop taking care of them. When they start doing stupid ****, wasting my energy and reducing the effectiveness of the group, they get warnings. If the stupidity continues, they stop getting heals. You can talk all you want about how it's arrogant or irresponsible, or whatever else, but I have no problems with letting someone die if they're not being useful. A caster standing in a maelstrom isn't getting any spells off, so she's useless, and therefore isn't worth healing. A warrior with a full bar of stances and healing skills barely does any damage and doesn't need my help staying alive.

As a monk you have to recognize who gets the priority heals, who is worth keeping an eye on, who isn't worth the energy, and who is better off dead. Sure, you might be able to heal that leeroy this time, but what if he keeps doing it? Some behaviors put the entire team in danger, and that's just not acceptable. I am for sure going to let you die if you exhibit those behaviors, even if I'm at full energy and nobody else is taking damage. It's not a matter of being arrogant - it's a matter of recognizing that some people are actually worse than an empty party slot.

Usually, when a player tends to do stupid things, I set my mind on not healing him at all. But I have an "anti-death" filter in my brain, so I end up healing him when he is near death:P Works good to teach them "oops, perhaps I should start kiting when my monk tells me so!"

_Zexion

the problem repeatedly present in this thread is that most of you monks still act and feel like your higher and mightier than all other players...

comments about not healing someone because they are doing this or doing that etc etc...

its not your responsibility to play everyone elses roll do your own damn job and heal let people play their profs the way they set them up...

Rangers do well at agroing they have the best defensive stances in the game yet i see alot of you noob monks bitching about them... it is the ranger that is the best at pulling agro it is the tanks that are best at taking the damage from that agro... neither of them do any damn good when you screwy monks try your little healing games on them...

you need to wake the hell up and realise your place in a group... you werent brought on because people wanted you to tell them how to play... you were brought in the group to heal and protect people...

now its no wonder half the damn pug monks ive been in groups with suck... your attitudes explain it all... the healer henchis dont pull this shit and your all just as bad as the next player you want to point fingers at...

we dont need your attitudes we need your heals if you cant play your monk that way then you need to play some other profession...

basically most of you are guilty of treasonous activity giving players the false impression that you are going to heal them when they need it yet you play these damn games... and in which case the henchis are more relyable than you jackasses...

I know some of you play you monk the way you should... and that is to heal and be a benefit to the party... the rest of you are pitifull stop playing your monks immediately you are absolutely NO BENEFIT TO ANY PARTY WITH THIS BULL...

@ Minus Sign When I was allowed to die by the aforementioned evil monk, I was knocked down and was unable to get away. It doesn't take long for a 60 armor nec to die under the giants spike. My point was, the monk had the energy to keep me alive during my one mistake of accidentally aggroing. He even had the time to whisper me while I was knocked down twice trying to get away.

And, to be completely honest 90% of the time the only mission I monk in is THK. I Monked my way through Prophecies and immediately went back to my fav mission -THK. And there my monk remains. I tried monking UW once, with an ally group and hated it.

To me THK has become pretty easy with pugs, since I'm able to warn them of the different problem areas beforehand. Maybe since I'm so familiar with this mission, it has tainted my view of how to monk. I'll try UW again or some of the other extremely difficult monking areas and see if my opinion changes.

Now, monks aren't allowed to tell people to do stuff. But, your allowed to tell monks what to do- heal.

I'm sure I can leave it to someone else to think of a suitably witty retort.

You've found warriors, assassins, and mezmer/ele tanks that actually care what your current energy level is? Seriously? Could you PM me their names so I can party with those people, please?

The lack of kiting, as mentioned above, in PvE is what makes healing difficult. It's not hard to heal - it's hard to heal a mesmer with a superior domination rune in enchanters armor who is tanking 3 warriors and has all spellcaster aggro. I feel like I'm a weirdo when I play my caster, get aggro on me (not because of standing infront of the warriors), and run the aggro to a tank or someone better capable of handling the damage. I just want to beat my head off my desk when I'm monking and spellcasters don't even flinch when they have the entire mob surrounding them beating the hell out of them. Seriously, wtf.

Common Sense 101 - The education system needs to move this class from Graduate schools to middle school where it belongs so everyone has the opportunity to learn more about it.

There is really no psychology really to Monk it is just a team based PC game if you want to do a real life comparison think of a medic on the battle field.They can't get to everyone in an instant so some my die or end up permanently scarred or decapitated.it is not an easy jop for a medic with bomps and expolions going off.When it come to Monking we face some of those experiences but if we all coordinate with each other it would make al our jops easier not just for Monks and tell each what you are bringing prepareing before a mission is alway better eg. a B/P Ranger sneakes thier pet in which most of the time Monks won't heal the thing Rangers don't know is traps help out Monks a lot more as well as Eles who bring wards and be honest when going into a mission soem ppl ask me about what am I and I tell them active protect with my Mo/W anyway it something to consider although I don't normally do this unless we are coordinating with each other it make the mission go that much more smoother.

Doesn't wash. Any 60 AL character can get out of their agro if they try, kite to the team and break it. The alternative is to run the other way, back the way you came, and let their Ai continue them onward. If you're not getting heals, you know something is wrong. We've all expierenced KD in THK here Trvth Jvstice; your plight falls on deaf ears.

You hate monking other missions/areas, huh? I wonder why...

Not probably. I have no doubt that you've gimped yourself as a flexible monk by only monking one mission 90% of the time across 2 seperate chapters. That you come here and bash other players--speaking AS a monk--while they pound their way through one mission after another shows just how much more you have to learn. Sadly, I have no more time to devote to your instruction. GG in GW and life.

Telling the second monk "stop ***ing using symbol of wrath and retribution and spamming heal party" didnt work. So guess who had to heal all alone, including the frenzy warrior? >:[