Better PUGing by improving your build in 7 steps

The what now? First, I don't bring heroes in PUGs, and second, they are utterly brainless when it comes to preprotting. Come on, it's not hard to micro just one skill before aggro. And more often than not I feel safer with Vekk than I do with a PuG monk.

Come on, it's not hard to micro just one skill before aggro. And more often than not I feel safer with Vekk than I do with a PuG monk. Well, maybe you do (maybe I do, too, now when I think of it), but the topic is PUGs and Vekk is left at the nearest outpost, trying to scam the material trader.

Then you also need to consider that nukes could rape your team as well inside wards (Not just damage wise in which HM damage is still felt through wards). KD from MS, burning from Searing/Tenai, interrupt from maelstrom. I really would want to play with you people. You'd never worry about nukes from the AI again.

I really would want to play with you people. You'd never worry about nukes from the AI again. We'll take your word for it.

But since I'm running an imbagon and my friends can run ER protter, we don't need to worry about nukes.

Of course if you want to PvE, sure! The more the merrier! Just don't bring your warder.

People play the role of SS because SS rits may not always be available. And The Josip has given proof that the difference is not that great between two very common SS builds we see in PUGs. "Massacre" as 10% is clearly an overstatement unless you can prove otherwise using common PUG builds. Everybody has been saying that primary rits are abundant including yourself. Furthermore, "The Josip" was wrong to claim that the damage difference between a primary rit and a secondary rit is only 1% when other posters (e.g. "Arrogant Bastard" page 3 post #46 on this thread) on this thread has shown it to be about 10%. On top of that, "The Josip" totally ignored the additional tanking capabilities of spirits with higher level, armor, duration, armor of unfeeling, and spawning power from primary rits. His arguments were flawed from the start.

For a popular class like rits, EVEN if "The Jossip" is right that ERt SS is only 1% inferior (which it is not), it is going to be a hard sell for you to convince everyone why your ERt spirit spammer wannabe should be used instead of the other available primary rits spirit spammers out there. Why even lose the 1% when I dont need to? And even if there are no available primary rits, I would still prefer to bring a rit hero and micro her, considering both offense and defense advantages over the pug ERt.

I wish this was actually the case.

Of course, I also wish people had the common sense to run out of ROJ, but no. Which IMO is a pretty good reason against bringing anything more than maybe one ward in PUGs - they just won't notice it. If they don't notice ROJ right on them... they won't notice a ward. If pugs don't notice wards, how would bringing even ONE useful? You basically have to run to them to place it on them to help them against AoE.

Edit:
Any decent team should never let an enemy caster allow to complete the casting of Meteor Shower.
As for Searing Flame spamming Ruby Djinns, I'd dare to say that the ruby should be your primary target when engaging. For as far as I know the djinn groups are never assisted by a monk, so there you go.

What wards vs imba concerns. I don't get the anti wards attitude here. It's not just about casting a ward and stand in it like a zombie.
I could list a couple things that gonna make a para useless as well, but I'll save us the debate. No matter what you go with, if you have players with a brain, you'll make it either way. MS is just an example of a nuke that has the potential for devastation if left unheeded. As you stated, a good team won't let MS be cast, but mistakes happen and a slip up causes more widespread problems and even a potential wipe.

For wards, there isn't much room for you to move in so though standing isn't the best idea, a wanderlust isn't ideal either.

Rebirth is the worst resurrection skill in the game, due to the depletion of energy after casting; and long casting time anyway. Resurrect is also terrible because you return with only 25% health and no energy to keep safe.
[Renew Life, Restore life, Resurrection Chant, Flesh of My Flesh, signet of return] These would be the most optimal on a PUG team; a warrior can fit them in, a paragon or Ritualist. Plenty of space not to need one on a monk. Rebirth is not meant to be used during combat. Comparing Rebirth against another in-combat resurrection skill is as pointless as comparing apples against oranges.

Depending on the mission, certain resurrection skills are more useful than others. Rebirth is useful in those tough HM missions where a party wipe would fail it, but the area is open enough to allow back line casters like monks to break aggro when necessary. Remember you are going with a PUG team afterall, not a super souped-up elite guild team.

Sometimes, in such missions, you can find monsters camping on bodies. When that happens you would find Rebirth to be more useful than any of those other res skills you listed.

Any decent team should never let an enemy caster allow to complete the casting of Meteor Shower.
As for Searing Flame spamming Ruby Djinns, I'd dare to say that the ruby should be your primary target when engaging. For as far as I know the djinn groups are never assisted by a monk, so there you go. 1. Pretty sure there's some mixed Djinn/Summit mobs in Forgewight where the Djinn have monk backup. For that matter, they're often paired with Flowstone Elementals, whose Savannah Heat is even more of a threat for H+H/stupid people.

2. There's a number of places in UW and Perdition rock where the number of monsters with Meteor Shower is going to exceed the number of interrupts your team can reasonably carry. Same is true for Searing Flames (Blisterbark's mob), Deep Freeze (multiple places, Talus Chute HM probably has the most in 1 spot), and most other "heavy nukes" as well. While you should be disrupting these skills when you can, you need to accept that you will get hit with them sometimes, and plan accordingly.

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Regarding rebirth:

This is a skill of very limited usefulness. You can use it for near-wipe recovery if someone managed to run away, and the team's bodies are camped by monsters. However, rez scroll now offers the same functionality. How often are you going to be the last person standing, and find your teammates camped badly enough you need the 1.2 aggro radius teleport, but not so badly that a 1.0 aggro radius teleport won't do?
(I should probably also add that I used to use it for a battle rez on a necro (with a low energy set) waaay back in Prophecies back when none of the other rezzes would pop you up "ready to go," so the safety of the teleport outweighed the bad numbers upon rez.)

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Regarding Spirit Spam:

Primary Ritualists are just better. This should be a no-brainer. Runes mean more health/armor/damage on the spirits. Spawning means more health on the spirits and some available skills that synergize with spirits. The only other class whose primary offers anything directly synergistic with spirits is Ranger. Ele and Necro can run more energy-intensive builds, but spirit spam generally doesn't require more energy than Siphon provides.

Ele and Necro can run more energy-intensive builds, but spirit spam generally doesn't require more energy than Siphon provides. With a little bit of practice it's not too difficult to keep 7 spirits up with no energy management skills.
Well ok, Anguish will have some downtime inevitably.

Depending on the mission, certain resurrection skills are more useful than others. Rebirth is useful in those tough HM missions where a party wipe would fail it, but the area is open enough to allow back line casters like monks to break aggro when necessary. Remember you are going with a PUG team afterall, not a super souped-up elite guild team.

Sometimes, in such missions, you can find monsters camping on bodies. When that happens you would find Rebirth to be more useful than any of those other res skills you listed. But why not just use rez scrolls and save a slot? I'd like to do as much bar compression as possible and forgo rez if I bring a scroll. Besides people like scrolls better.

WTB plant fiber.