"most eligible"

What's a good build for PUGs in Prophecies? I'm thinking probably monk (everybody loves a healer, unless GW is vastly different from most games), but comboed with what?

Mesmer's a good monk secondary, as the inspiration line provides good energy management and interrupt protection. Quite a lot of good monk builds don't require any secondary at all, though, so it's not a pivotal choice.

monks are definitely the #1 concern in PUGs. Warrior or dervish tanks are also a good idea and most people look for an ele in order to nuke.Of course every class can help a ton if it is played correctly.

If you want to PuG....
Warrior
Elementalist
Monk
Necromancer

If you want to own:
Paragon
Monk
Necromancer
Ritualist

If you want to PUGs:
Warrior
Elementalist
Monk
Necromancer

If you don't care about PUGs:
everything else

This guy speaks truth!

Although with Dslash/SY!/FGJ and such, warrior can probably go on the second list too.

Rephrased: What's a good build that bad players will like and accept you in their groups?

Good PUGs hardly exist anymore, and it's best you find a guild or group of friends that will accompany you in your adventures.

Unless you're a Warrior (for tanking), an Ele (for killing), or Monk (for healing), most PuGs don't think much of you. Just grab some henchies and pwn stuff imo. Of course if you're lucky enough to be in a good guild with good people, you can travel around with them.

Good teams will realize that tanks (waste of a slot), ele nukers (poor dps), and healers (inefficient) are all bad. Still, you're better off being one until you get a guild or group that understands that.

If I'm running the PUG I look for Mesmer first, monk second. That being because I'm usually playing a Monk. If I'm not on my Monk or my Ritualist, then I flip the other of those two.

The last thing I look for is warriors, because there are just too many of them. Last of all is a Wa/Mo combo - I'll only consider them if the zone doesn't offer up anything else. I'd take a second mesmer, not yet at proper level, before a Wa/Mo.

Wa/Mo's tend to do more harm than good. Be wary of them casting things like Heal Area while in melee, or Healing Breeze. They also tend to over-aggro...

But... a lot of less experienced players undervalue Mesmers, so you might find it hard to get into PUGs with one until you get further into the game. In my opinion they are the most dangerous member of a team. Mesmer's don't tend to kill, but they put pressure like nothing else in the game. Mesmer's go straight for the off-switch, leaving the target just standing there like a dead log.

Early on in GW, try a monk if you want groups easily. Once you start to join more experienced players, go for Mesmer.

Oh, and good PUGs do exist. I find them quite common. The more I PUG the more I realize this. I'll get a poor PUG often enough, but most of them turn out to be not at all bad, and some of them end up quite good. The more you PUG, the better you will get at it - so the further you get in the game, the more likely the people willing to PUG that far in have more experience doing it.

I still see people asking for MMs. So I'd say a necro for a lot of areas.
Except this is for Prophecies and the fire islands aren't for MMs.

Fire Islands is Prophesies endgame. By the time a player gets that far, they'll have a lot of other ways to tool hat necromancer, and the months of play to know how to do so.

My primary character has a less than optimal build (E/R), but she already has a group who's fine with that. But for my next character I wanted to go with a build that won't have troubles finding new groups to play with, hence wanting an "eligible" build. So thanks for the advice .

Unless it took you months because you were diddle daddling around getting there, you're a horrible player.

Or perhaps they did side quests/explored/tried pvp/had a life. if you only do the missions and primary quests, it won't take long, but it takes a month or two (maybe more) otherwise. For getting a pug, the best bet is to be a monk

Why would you want to PuG? You'll have much more fun staying as far away from them as possible!

Many new players need/like PUG's, they will get as cynical as we are in a year, don't be afraid :P

As to the OP, take whatever class you like the taste of, it generally boils down to this:

-Groups that don't have the imagination to acknowledge that for example: a ranger, makes a lot of difference in a PvE team are bad, so you don't want to end up with those.

-Groups that DO have the imagination have a tendency to be less bad/good, so they are more likely to get the job done.

Fine

The best profession is Not Mesmer (TM).

I've picked up Monk for my 2nd character. I really like the feel of playing one so far, and with Smiting Prayers I can still solo without getting my butt kicked.

It's always easy to join PUGs as a healer or heal/prot monk. Basically, as a healer monk, you don't really need a secondary - you can do it quite effectively with only Monk skills. Most PUGs will assume you are a healer and won't expect (or want) you to do any attacking, so any skills you use from a secondary should only be designed to assist your healing and/or protecting ability.

I'm thinking of picking up ele as second to increase my damage output. Would that work?