Questions for other Monks

I finished the game with my warrior/monk character so I thought I would try a different character. I now have a Mo/Me because I noticed a HUGE shortage of monks throughout the game. My questions are:

Will my energy ever be over 30? I'm level 16 now and it is ridiculous that I only have 30 energy! With ALL the healing that is expected of me 30 is just way to low!

Do people ever listen to the Monk? Will they ever treat us better? I mean... I say I need to recharge but they still trigger the monsters, LEAP into battle and get upset when I can't heal them. Or I tell spell casters to NOT try and be a warrior and tank in the game. What do they do? They equip a sword and jump into EVERY battle! UGH! They get mad at me if I don't heal their pets, when I don't heal them constantly to keep them at 100% if they use Vampiric items that gives negative health regen, if I don't follow them away from the entire group because they want to go one on one with a monster (sorry, but I need to stay with the "group" to heal them and not a solo-person who wants to feel all big and bad), if they don't see me fight (err...I can't constantly heal if I am fighting) and if they see me get a good drop (I got a fiery dragon sword drop today and my group was livid because they thought a monk, of all things, didn't deserve such a "great" and "wonderful" drop). *sigh*

Do people lie to you as well? I go into a co-op mission town and get tons of requests to join a group. I always say I will only join if it is for the primary and bonus missions. They ALL say, "Yes we are doing both". We get into the mission and, of course, they never do the bonus. After it is done with they tell me they never wanted to do the bonus anyway but they desperately needed a monk. ARGH!!!!! I always have to go back later with henches to get the bonus.

I had so much fun playing the game with my warrior but as a monk I am seriously beginning to hate this game. I now know why there are so FEW monks in the game! Please tell me things become different for a monk! I just finished the D'elassia Seaboard mission and the scant hope that things will get better keeps me playing my monk character! If it doesn't...well, I've been wanting to try a Nec character...

Thanks in advance for any answers!

WillorWil

I agree with you. Monks are very underappreciated, especially when you play with a pick-up group. They expect that just because you're a monk, you're SUPPOSED to heal them, no matter what kind of trouble they get themselves into... which is really very ridiculous.

That said, I HAVE met people who are more than happy to wait for their monks to recharge or understand that there is only so much ONE monk can do in the midst of stupid decisions like running ahead and bringing back a whole pack of monsters, but that's oftentimes a rare occurence.

I would suggest playing with guildies, when possible. At least they'll think about your energy pool and they'll listen or be willing to work out strategies.

I have a mesmer which I play with guildies and pick up groups because people don't expect her to do the impossible. I also have a monk, and with her, I only play with guildies and friends.

You could try soloing with your monk just for the fun of killing things are farming. Cast mend, round up a group of monsters and blast them with Symbol of Wrath and chaos storm... and balthazar's aura, when you get it later. It's a lot of fun. ^.^

....and if all else fails, necros could be fun. ^.^

I reached the Dragon's Lair tonight.

I scanned around and realized I was 1 of only 2, yes TWO primary monks in distrcit 1 (where it looked like about 50-75 people where).

Yes, there is a shortage. Yes we can get to about 40 or 45 energy. Really, if you are playing a monk well, you wont need too much more. You will see in time that your best skills and spells and whatnot are NORMALLY not high energy sucking, nor should you be spamming heals like there is no tomorrow.


Jana

If people start treating me badly as my monk, I start having fun with it, I'll usually whip out my chaos axe and eternal shield and tell them "no, no. I don't heal... I SMITE!"

Its really, really fun... Try it some time, its worth it. I can generally keep myself alive well beyond the other players and then its free game to make fun of them for dying. If they're that bad, they really don't deserve you, leave 'em behind and find another group.

I have played many diffrent MMO's, and at least one healer class in all of them (yes, I am a gluton for punishment). I have never played a game where I dont get yelled at by some person for not healing them (and 99% of the time I had mentioned I was out of power before they went charging off). The answer is simple - dont group with that person again. It is always hard to find a healer in the first place and that person will eventually learn to be nice to the healers, and if they dont, well they they will die...alot and I wont feel sorry for them. It wont change the fact that healers always get treated like crud, but just teaching one person a lesson is worth it.

Also keep in mind even if that person decideds to try and bad mouth you, as a healer you will ALWAYS be able to find a group as long as you are still doing your job and healing, and letting the group know when you are out of power.

If you are a monk people will always think that you are a healer.
To them a smite monk doesnt excist.

Im a monk/mesmer, and because everyone thought i was a healer monk (or just asumed i was one) i had to change my prof from smiting to healing.

I have 40 energy and when i run out of energy and someone dies they are always yelling at me, "why didnt you heal, youre the worst monk".
But when i save there butts they suddenly dont have anything to say.
(this doesnt always happen, cause 2 days ago I was in a group and the "leader" got alot of punching so I just kept healing him. When the beast died, he really was nice and told me that i healt really good and asked me if i had enough energy left)

Sometimes when someone is yelling I just don't heal anyone and let them all die, just for fun. Then I just stand in a corner and look at them being killed. You should try that sometime.

Yesterday I was at Elona Reach, just got there. And within 10 seconds i was asked for a group 16 times. Apperantly I was the only Monk there.


Oh and you where talking about them getting mad if you dont heal ther pets. Well that is one thing i just dont do, healing pets. They want to be rangers, they want pets, so the pets are their responsibility. Let them heal there own pets.

Do your best to choose your teammates wisely, and some of these problems will diminish.

Here's a list of things that I look for and avoid:

Leetspeak of any kind.

Idiotic names.

People who call anyone else in the group a "noob" or any variation of the term. As a very general rule most people who even use the term in anything other than an ironic sense are the sorts of players you want to avoid.

Swearing and histrionics. This is a game. If you can't behave with civility you need to go back to the pram. Of course there are times when a good cussing is very therapeutic, but it's not generally in town while putting a group together.

Crass sexual talk. Another indicator that the players in question are juvenile.

Any of the above is big red flag.

Keep an eye on the local chat, however painful that might be. If one of your potential teammates is making an ass of himself in local, chances are he'll make an ass of himself in your team as well. Excuse yourself politely with some social fiction; go do something in some other town for a few minutes, and come back and try to find a better team.

You'll STILL have assinine teammates, but if you keep a sharp lookout you can avoid the worst of them.

My main monk has 51 energy... it is possible.

ohh this all sounds so familiar to me..........

It wont take long before people will realize they are responsible for their own actions an thus own death.

I am a Mo/W specialized in weelding a sword and capable in keeping myself alive against mighty enemies, so tell me why is the W/Mo not using his healing skills on me when i am involved in close combat?

the best monks in game balance energy management pretty well

sounds like you arent using an ankh to get more energy my monk usually has about 40 a little less if im wearing my full censors outfit. i can get it to be around 50 if i wear tattos but if you think about it the extra energy only helps for the first 20 or so seconds and only if you like to use big heals too much. Its the regen rate that matters.

PS ( I can get my energy up to 66 if i use my +27 energy -1 regen ankh and full tattos but i wouldnt recommened it unless you like to see teammates die )

There's another thing I really hate.

If you are a warrior/monk why dont you people take ressurect with you!
When someone dies I have to heal them as fast as I can otherwise they complain.
But when I die (because they dont kill the enemys that are killing me, cause I cant kill them because they expect that im a healer, so I heal) then suddenly nobody has got ressurect.

... on the other hand - i love being a monk !
no other profession forces me to keep an eye on enemy and team !
Ask a Warrior that at least in PvE just selects next target one by one - focused on the enemies that surround him.
When the fight is over it is likely he didn't notice the mage nearly dying while casting the fire storm, he didn't notice the mesmer keeping some healer off his enemy, etc.
Most Close Combat Chars i talked to didn't get the fight dynamics and thats something very motivating for me.

Not the win of a fight is my value but how the fight went.

Sorry Will, but yes they lie, the best I can hope is that when I ask them to wait for me to regen someone will actually wait maybe 2 seconds before they just can't take it anymore and they have to run to the next encounter.

I still say there are alot of monks in the game, it's just that lots of them are fed up grouping with strangers and only travel with guildmates.

I have found that once I got to the desert people seemed to be alot nicer. Even when we all died instead of the blame game people would just say, "this is a good group we can do this let's try again" So I don't mind it as much as some of the earlier areas...

On a side note I don't mind healing pets, but I really wish heal party would heal them!

Yeah. Why in heaven's name was this left out? Where is the logic, since it FOLLOWS and OBEYS the ranger IN my group.

Undead horrors, I can see (cause they degrade) but real pets should be included.


Jana

I do. Either that or rebirth. Even try out with the healing or try giving a monk my mending. I doubt I'm the only one that does this.

I play an Mo/Me. I almost never have serious problems in groups. Here are a couple tips:

[1]Lead the group. If you're the leader, the one putting the group together, people accept you as being "in charge", especially before the mission.
[2]Assign a person to lead the group around, and a person to call targets. It's fine and convenient if it's the same person.
[3]Require that others use called targets. Remind them. Often.
[4]Do not heal retards. If your Mesmer wants to run out ahead of the designated leader and attack mobs while the group isn't even near her, then let her die. She will learn, or leave. Both of them take a bad element out of the group.

That's pretty much what I do and I've had decent luck in pickup groups. You just need someone to provide order and structure, and if no-one else is going to do it, you'd better.

Personally, I find Monk energy to be quite low, for the amount of healing they have to do. I haven't played Monk since the April BWE, but I tried it out during PVP and mixed around weapons and items, and I managed to have a little over 60 energy. Even then, it's not a whole lot -- especially compared to Elementalists who can manage spam skill after skill with their amount of energy (can reach over 100)

I just started a mo/mes healer the other day. At lvl 12 i have 50 energy with items. There is one item that adds +15 energy alone. Forget the name though.

So far my biggest grief with this class is the people who rush off into a new battle after we barely survived the last one and I have little/no energy left. Even when I spam ctrl+click energy bar to update them on my status they still run off. Sometimes i think people have the team chat turned off.

Thanks everyone! I feel so much better knowing that I am not alone! This is kinda turning into a "Monk Support Group" for me! LOL I will take all of your advice. I'll start with something I've been wanting to do for the longest, though...just let them die... LOL I hate to say it but I will savor every moment of that. But if it will get them to listen to me when I say I have NO energy left then it will be for a good cause.

I still don't get it though... As important as Monks are...why are we the most underappreciated character class? I am hoping that once I get to the desert things will change like everyone is saying. But until then, I'm going to apply what everyone has told me here and hope things will be better.

I personally feel for you monks out there... your always in high demand and never properly taken care of. I know that I always keep a very close Eye on my monks. As for bad groups just leave them... There are better people out there that know how important a monk is...

Fye Duron: Thanx, finally someone who understand how important a monk is!

WillorWil: I'm sorry but I have to disappoint you, in the desert it isn't gonna change, people will still treat you like crap. Wich is very weird because the further you get in the game the fewer monks you'll see (so you would think that they would treat you better)

btw: I created a Elementalist/monk now and i'm going to use only the monk skills, but because i have energy storage I can get a lot of energy ( just hoping that this will work)