Why do I feel I suck at GW!? HELP!

Hi everyone.

So far I have finished Guild Wars: Prophecies and just recently bought Nightfall and Factions.

I have a feeling my characters are never that good. Not that I die all the time or anything, it's just that it seems I don't make much of a difference to the party, heck even my Heroes and Henchmen seem to do so well that if I stopped fighting they would still get through the mobs... lol.

So yes I wanted to hear how do you all feel about your characters, do you feel any of them sucked? And what are the guidelines to make a good PvM-only character. I like playing as assassin, elementalist, monk or ranger.

Most build ideas I see require skills mixed from all campaigns, so it is pretty hard to me to unlock them all.

Any advices on how to improve my playstyle would be greatly welcome because I'm almost giving up...

In normal mode the game is so easy, henchmen and heroes can do it by themselves, even if you're doing nothing. You're not alone in that. Take parties of six in eight-man areas, then you might have to do something.

Play a monk, you can see the results of your efforts more easily than perhaps with other professions.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I am playing as a Monk/Dervish in Nightfall and she's Level 20 now at the Sunspear Sanctuary (I can visit Prophecies and Factions areas with her).

And I still feel I'm a bit helpless, I tried following the guides and I have a hard time coordinating all Enchantments or being fast enough to heal before some allies die. I got my first elite skill (Light of Deliverance) and even though I read it's overpowered I don't feel it's THAT good. lol.

It's funny, I'm not a totally stupid person, lol, and I have experience with other online games, and it might be just me but I'm having trouble to adapt to the GW gameplay.

Any advice is welcome. I wanted to hear from you people how did you effectively learn the game.

You ARE making a significant contribution to your party, and unless you play with a huge amount of monks in your party as well, it should show. Trust me.

As for improving your playstyle, try, if you have 3 or 4 monks, reducing the number of monks in your party. I remember when I tried to attempt Hells Precipice as my monk, as the only monk, during my "puberty" stage of GW. Ridiculously hard, but quite educational. We wiped either way.

Maybe it's the build?

One guy in my guild started out as E/N and he used whatever skill appeared on his bar. He ended up with 9 Air, 3 Curses, 2 Blood, 6 Death, 2 Fire, and so on and so forth.

If the players in your party aren't the best, you will have a hard time keeping them alive. Good players won't put the monk's health in jeopardy by having the monk getting into the aggro. If you constantly find yourself having to heal while dealing with the aggro, you've got bad players.

Stay back and try to anticipate what you need to do by the style of your parties play. Also, it's always an advantage to "know your enemies" before you enter an area so you can build your skill bar properly. You'd be surprised how many monks constantly bring the same skill bar into every area. If you know that the foes cause more than normal hexing or conditions, bring skills accordingly (hex removal and condition removal). Hex's and conditions require more healing skills than prot. With melee, more prot than healing is required.

If there are 2 monks in the party, coordinate with the other monk so both of you have the best possible skills to keep the party healthy and alive.

Last but not least... it takes time to become a good monk and it takes a lot of time to become a great monk. It's the hardest character to play to become extremely proficient at IMO. Even the most 733T monk wont keep bad players alive.

GL and remeber it's a game and just have fun!

Are you having fun playing the game? If you are having fun, don't worry about the other things, eventually after repeated play you should get better.

Thanks for all the comments.

Well my current Nightfall-campaign build is mostly Healer (Light of Deliverance, Dwayna's Kiss, Healing Breeze, Vigorous Spirit), with a little bit of Protection (Protective Spirit). I also make sure to bring Rebirth for near-wipe situations. I'm using Dervish's Vigor-something skill (that increases my own health so monsters ignore me) and a Signet of Capture. Points are distributed mostly in Healing Prayers (max or near max), followed by Divine Favor and Prot.

She monks nicely but I feel I lack a 'spike' heal better than Dwayna. I plan to capture Zealous Benediction soon and change my build to a Protection one and see how it goes. I'll try traveling to Cantha and Tyria as well to get some extra skills.

My Prophecies-campaign monk used Word of Healing, Heal Party, Dwayna, Healing Breeze, Rebirth, etc, and he was pretty good. Though I never felt 'stellar'.

jammerpa, indeed part of my frustration is dealing with the fact that people die and sometimes I can't help it, I have to learn that most times it is not my fault (due to my helplessness feeling overall in GW, sometimes I think it is my fault). Thanks.

And yep ranger I'm having fun, those title track bars are keeping me looking forward to many goals!

I would also suggest making smaller teams...especially if you play with heros and henchman all the time...because they are better than bad real life players... To unlock skills you need to purchase them...or to use them on heros you need to unlock them...either through a purchase in PVE, hero skill trainers...or using balthazar factions gained in PVP. Also wait until you get to the end game content...sounds to me that you haven't faced any big difficulties...except for THK and ROF ....and since you have beat prophecies...try going back to some lower lvl areas...yaks bend...ascalon...and try vanquishing the areas on Hard Mode...then you will see how much you mean to your team.

Also be sure that you have a proper build....if you have a crappy multi attribute thread like mentioned above you will not be very effective. try some of the elite missions for more challenge. as stated normal mode is pretty easy...ctrl c space bar will usually beat any area in normal mode.

A good way to get skills fast is to unlock them with Balthazar faction. Once you do you can just go to any skill trainer in the campaign its from(or any trainer in the case of core skills) and you can buy it w/o having to play into the game before you're ready.

I'd be careful about packing Rebirth as your rez. Sometimes it doesn't work due to certain builds or just because you bottom out your energy. In extended battles losing all your energy to bring one person back to life is just too costly.

PvE made easy (mostly Nightfall, but works for others):
- As many members as possible should have over 500 health. Over 550 is better. Don't use superior attribute runes (with notable exceptions, mostly MM)
- Bring at least one interrupter. Ranger or mesmer henchmen work well.
- Bring a MM hero. Make it /Me secondary with and interrupt or two (I like power drain and leech signet)
- Two monks are enough - healer(you) and prot (Khim? in Nightfall)
- For monks, tri-spec works best for protection. For healing, max out healing and divine (14 healing, 13 divine)
- Healing breeze isn't good outside of Prophecies due to high cost, it's an enchant, and doesn't heal much
- Bring condition removal (dismiss condition) and hex removal (remove hex)
- Bring an ele hero with ward against melee (8 or 9 earth is enough)
- Bring a curses necro with enfeebling blood and insidious parasite
- Every hero should have rez sig, paragon's signet of return is also good. Other rez is possible, if they can have /Mo secondary. Don't make the /Mo just for the rez though. Monks as a rule should not carry a rez. You cannot wait for 6-10 seconds mid-battle to rez people.

Well, you see that's your problem. You really AREN'T contributing much to your team. The only half decent heal you have is Dwayna's Kiss and if there's bugger all Hexes or Enchantments flying around, the skill is worthless. I usually find running two monks with LoD, Dwayna's (can be substituted if lack of hexes/enchants by a more powerful 5e healing spell), Signet of Rejuvenation, Cure Hex, Dismiss Condition, Protective Spirit/Shield of Absorption/Guardian (also depending), Infuse Health (there's your spike heal) and Leech Signet/Power Drain works wonders. There are probably better bars out there that are built for each individual area, but for general purpose, you really can't go wrong with it.

Healing Breeze is a waste of 10 energy one healing someone slowly when if they're taking enough damage, they'll die anyway, if they're not, LoD fills in the blanks. Vigorous I've only found works well on the frenzy warrior, providing massive amounts of healing for just bashing away at something. Don't knock the frenzy warrior either, set up right, they can take down mobs before they even begin cutting into your energy for healing.

Well mostly you feel that you suck because everyone is going faster than you?
Well thats simple, everyone has his own style of playing, some of us dont skip mission movies etc.

I play Ranger/Monk and just got to lvl20, i use a barrage build, and want to get Ranger/Ritualist to get a Splinter Barrage build
I got the feeling with my first ranger i sucked alot, and now i know why, because i didnt use the right skills and bows

So i want give you a great tip, before you pick a proffesion, go read about them, on the forum or wiki.guildwars.com, and then pick the character that suits you the most

Sekkira and Antheus, this is VERY helpful, I'll try all of that. Much appreciated.

Longasc, I wanted to know if other people felt something like this when they started, and yes asking for hints on how to improve, not therapy. I see no shame in asking for help when I need it.

Erys: probably. :P Trying to get better though, lol.

Explodie thanks for the comment.

Ignore Longasc and Erys. It is perfectly fine to ask for help, and just because you don't seem to be making a difference does NOT mean you suck. You will find that these forums have their fair share of jerks. Keep up the positive attitude, and don't let them get to you.

As for you sucking? HA! No. Monks, as support casters don't really show up well as "making a difference" when playing with heroes or henchmen. The reasoning is that heroes and henchmen don't thank the player. Heal through a Spectral Agony on a non infused ally, and he will thank you. Protect that ele from taking a fatal blow from the Bladed Aatxe, and he will thank you. Remove that wad of hexes and conditions, and they will thank you.

If you are doing your job as a Monk, which I am sure you are, you ARE making difference! Think of it this way, those heroes may be able to clear out those mobs, but without you, the mobs can clear through your heroes just as easily.

Then again, you could go smite and do some direct damage. Whatever suits your fancy.

Longsac doesn't know how to read. Also, what gets bonus points is that you acknowledge you suck. The drive to improve is what separates the noobs from the newbies.

Just remember that no matter how good you get, there'll always be circumstances where people will die and it's something you need to accept. This is why I don't run monks, not even my own, with a res. If someone drops, I done my best, they're not my problem anymore. I have 6 other people to keep alive.

I couldn't believe this thread title. I was convinced that Guild Wars never gave people the impression that they weren't great players. Something that always annoyed me about the game is that everyone has a gigantic ego.

Myself, I play monk nearly exclusively. I can tell you that Light of Deliverance is a nice cheap party-wide heal--but you get what you pay for. It's not very powerful, because your Divine Favor bonus only applies to you. Your party members are only healed for the amount listed on the skill itself. Its real power comes from the fact it's healing many people at once--it's useful for situations where your entire team is being degened.

Unlike Sekkira, I run a Resurrection skill in PvE: Death Pact Signet. I spend a lot of my time in Hard Mode. One false step and you can easilly find yourself in a party-wipe situation, so I use Death Pact Signet as a way to escape death penalty in extreme situations. If you resurrect someone with Death Pact Signet and they end up dying again within 2 minutes, you will also die. However, your death will not cause death penalty.

I also would like to disagree with some advice given earlier about protection monks. I personally like to keep my protection monks to 2 attributes (protection and divine favor). This is probably a testament to the flexibility of monk builds. Zealous Benediction is an amazing heal--much more potent than anything in the actual Healing line. Dismiss Condition is also a fair heal, and it doesn't require an actual condition on the target in order to cause healing.

By far the two most important skills to a monk (in my opinion) are Reversal of Fortune and Protective Spirit. I definitely recommend using them at all times.

Generally, Healing Breeze is considered a "/Mo" skill because its passive benefit gains nothing from Divine Favor, and it's 10 energy. 10 energy skills are very rough on your monk.

Can't really say I disagree with you, Spazzer. I haven't really delved into Hard Mode (Doing the factions' beginner isle with my 'sin is rageface) as I've been focusing on Legendary Survivor for my ele atm, something which Hard Mode is imo suicide without a familiarity for the areas.

Here are a few tips:

1. Replace Healing Breeze with either heal other or infuse. If you bring infuse, make sure you have healing touch to heal yourself quickly.
2. Another option for a healing build is to include [skill]Healer's Boon[/skill]. It won't work on everything, but on skills like dwayna's and your spike heal you'll notice a difference. Also if you go with heal party, you'll notice a heal of about 100 points for everyone. HB also makes it easier for a monk to use a healing res in battle if you wish. Just remember that this is PvE, don't worry about rezzing if you go into PvP.
3. Consider going /e as a monk. [skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill] is great for energy management and works great with heal party.
4. If someone suggests heal sig, frenzy, and mending he's just screwing with you.
5. In general, protection is better than healing but you need to be able to recover lost health because it is going to happen. Prot spirit and even something minor like [skill]Guardian[/skill] is better than having to heal extra damage.
6. [skill]Gift of Health[/skill] is a great HP spell for a protect mage.
7. Vala is right, rebirth can problematic. Make sure someone else in the party has another res so you only have to rebirth if half the party gets wiped out in agro range.
8. [skill]Signet of Devotion[/skill] is good. [skill]Signet of Rejuvenation[/skill] is ok.
9. If you go protection be sure to bring [skill]Shield of Absorption[/skill] and use it on anyone getting ganged up on.
10. Don't worry about keeping someone at max health, just keep them alive.

If you want to get a lot better at Monking read this:

http://www.teamquitter.com/phpBB2/vi...t=2844&start=0

One of the best PvP monks in the game.

I hear this kind of thing from time to time, but isn't the benefit of a regen heal like healing breeze that it can be applied a split second BEFORE damage starts to be applied if you're a good anticipatory healer? I don't claim to be a great monk, by any stretch, but it's always seemed to work reasonably well for me as a momentary spike offset to give me that extra bit of time to apply real heals before people start dropping to the ground. I'm completely open to hearing why I'm wrong, though.

That's called pre-protting and it's done with prot skills. Such as spirit bond, protective spirit or even RoF. You have the right idea, but those will do a lot more than healing breeze.

Thanks, that makes perfect sense actually.

RoF is for this.

A spike is a < 2 second thing. Healing breeze at +10 will heal for 20 hp per second. RoF will not only negate the next damage, but also heal for it. That means, in a 2 second spike, the person only needs to be hit for 10 damage to outperform HB, at half the cost. But it'll *negate* arbitrary amount of damage, even 50000.

And not to mention shatter. You put HB around mesmers, and you just dealt extra 70-140 damage to them. Healers with HB do more damage in Glint's challenge than destroyers do through all other means. The second most frequent killer there, for example, is soul leech. People just cast through that, especially monks.

HB works in most Prophecies areas, and some other normal mode zones.

For all practical purposes, protection is where it's at. Either active or passive, as well as general damage mitigation is what makes or breaks a team. This is why holy trinity is so reliant on tank and fragile if anything goes wrong.

Healing is just upping the bars. But any even remotely difficult area will do more damage than any healer can outheal.

Before you pick your build decide what your role in the party is. Are you interupter, condition spreader, damage dealer, healer ect...

Adjust your build to do one thing and do that one thing very well.

Many people tend to make a balanced char, which does work, but to contribute to a team and really notice it you need to have a role to fill and fill it to the best of your abilities.

HB heals too slowly to be good in pre-protecting. Healing seed or healing hands would be a better choice if that is what you want to do. Here's the problem with using HB and pre-healing. At best you might get 16 or 18hp a second from it. A good spike will kill whoever it long before HB has a chance to heal the person. And unlike pre-protection, HB isn't going to reduce future damage, which 95% of the time is the better idea.

It's also kind of silly to pre-heal because healing is only useful if you've taken damage. Protection is almost always useful because it keeps you from getting damage or reduces the damage. Also HB has a 1 second cast time and can't be easily applied a split second before hand and it can be interrupted.


To be honest I really can't think of a situation where you'd want healing breeze on your bar unless you are in a starter area and that's the only 10e option you have or you are a 55monk and don't have NF. I mean you could use it to counter degen, but you are better off removing the degen.


HB is one of those skills that needs to be buffed or altered for people to want to use it. I mean if it had double the healing bonus from divine favor, that'd be something. Or if it had a 5e cost and a 1/4cast, that might make it okay.

Considering Protection spells as damage control, they effectively reduce high level pve mobs spike ability down to a humanly manageable level, and apply recovery upon that makes a good strategy.

Healing: Most efficient health recovery, even better when combined with divine favor spells.
Protection: Fastest activation, decent health recovery when combined with divine favor attribute, excellent abnormal status recovery, more variation of skills.
Smite: Other than Balthazar's as energy management and some hex removal skills, I don't see why doing damage is a monk's job in pve.

I could sympathize with a monk player wanting to do something other than healing or protecting from time to time, however they really don't have all that great of selection of skills. Smiter's boons kind of makes them more desireable if you want to bring smite hex, smite condition, and RoD but overall they ain't that great.

This is not true. ROF will only absorb up to the amount listed on the skill. If you're hit with a 150 dmg lightning orb and you catch it with a 70 healing RoF, the net effect is 10 damage. However, ROF becomes a 140pt heal.

Everyone seems to be forgetting a spike isn't necessarily a single hit. Shield of Absorption is usually better to negate a spike than RoF. However, if it is single attack damage, RoF is key. You might also want to bring Prot spirit if there's a bit of 120+ damage attacks going around.

Guardian is a waste of time in quite a lot of situations, it only really protects against attacks and while you do have every monster in PvE that attacks, the only real damage you'll get is from melee which can be negated by kiting or Shield of Absorption and ranged arrow attacks (note: if you're facing a lot of rangers, not taking Guardian is a mortal sin). If wanding effects your party badly enough to worry about it, I suggest they go back to Consulate Docks, Droks or Kaineng to get better armour.

I would always take Signet of Rejuvenation over Signet of Devotion, assuming you have points in healing. while Devotion has a faster recharge and greater heal than Rejuvenation, it also has a longer cast time and no bonus. Over all, the cycle for Devotion is 8s while the cycle of Rejuvenation is 9s and where the latter shines is its bonus heal of more than double if the target is attacking or casting. Which most of the time they are anyway.

The only reason I suggest SoD over SoR is that any monk can use SoD. If you are a healer, SoR would probably be better in most cases.

May I suggest helping lower level players to hone your skills, you will have less pressure on yourself while you can try out different skill sets.