Where have all the Monks gone?

First: keep farming to one farming thread, or open another one just like everyone else.

Second:, im NOT one of thoose that scream like "i need at least 4 more monks and 3 more Tanks for my team", I prefer a well mixed team of all classes, if possible.
I think all Classes are equaly good anywere and onesided teams are just overspecialisated and going to die like dinosaurs.

But I can see a HUGE lack of monks in the game now, and everyone is screaming for one (like above) not seeing that there just isnt any monk anywere.
Theres 3 times more Rangers than Monks and 5 times more Palladins (!) than Rangers (with any secondary).

so where have all the monks gone?
Deleted their char because of getting tired to be the main aim of the Masses of Palladins?
Deleted their char because they cant farm well anymore?
Deleted their char because runes dont sell well anymore?
Deleted their char because some obviously overpowered skill combos with smithing prayers dont work anymore?
Or have secret meeting at the last Monks farming refugee or in the monk+Airmagic teams in the Halls of heroes?

Monk rune prices have gone down like no other rune price.
Looking at rune prices gives a nice look on average player ammount of this class just by their runes demand (sorted by highest demand):

[Runeclass] [unpopular skills] [popular skills]
Mayor Vigor: 12
Element: 2,8 (Energy 9,8 Air 20,1 Fire ??)
Monk: 2,8 (Healing 15)
Warrior: Tactics 1 (all others 5-7) [changes much]
Nrecros: 1,8 (Death+Blood 5,3)
Mesmers: 1,7 (Domination 3,4)
Ranger: 1,7 (Wilderness+Expertise 2)

Now substract all the monk rune demand from palladins (because palladins cant heal shit) and you get a total lack of healing players!!!

"The problem is that everyone demands healing (even more than extra HP) but noone wants to do it."

Found some monks and chattet with them, they are just pissed they cant farm anyomre.

hehe.
Doom to all exploiters!

guess how pissed i am that all thoose palladins wont stop screaming for a monk!!!!

I think many monks have gone soloing with henchmen to complete missions rather than being with those idiotic PUG's. The monk is often the first person to notice who is playing well and who isn't, you know. Moreover, in replying to first post, I don't think too many W/Mo and rangers are a bad thing. These two classes have great self-healing skills and actually help to make monk shortage bearable. If you start seeing lots of elementalists and messmers, then lack of monks will become a bigger problem.

I play a monk but am very tempted to stop and play a mesmer instead.

Why? Tired of people blaming me for their deaths or us losing. One second it's "good job healing", the next it's, "omg you are the worse monk eva". Sorry but my skill does not vary that much between rounds.. So quick are people to blame the monk.

Even the other day from a rl friend I was told I suck (for dying first) in retaliation of me suggesting he do some easy PvP (Competition Arena-Lions Arch) because he had almost no experience with it and doing premade Team PvP wasn't working out.

Only morons who run miles ahead of the group and die blame monks for lack of healing.

Sometimes, the person in question is out of range, and I just rezz them and offer my apologies. The same also applies if I run out of mana.

Blaming a loss on a monk is just rediculous. Everything in guild wars is a team effort. So, if you lose, ultimately it is the team's fault

There *is* a point to it.

I have three separate characters I play, a Ranger, Warrior, and a Monk. All have ascended and are around Thunderhead Keep.

The biggest gripe I have while Playing a monk is just how unappreciated the class is. Every single group screams "group looking for monk", groups sit and wait in towns to get one for eternity sometimes. The group will not survive without one. Drops normally suck for Monks. When my monk joins a group, as soon as we enter the mission or quest area, I throw life bond/essence bond on one of the warriors, and a healing seed on the warrior that engages the enemy first. I constantly am throwing word of healing, healing breeze, and other spells to keep everyone alive, while dodging the hordes that make a beeline for me. If I'm the only monk I am doubly busy, and have to manage my energy use more than any other character. If, during an especially big or protracted battle, my energy starts to lag behind the amount of healing I can possibly do, then characters will die. It's especially bad if the warriors (or whoever) run off and engage another mob immediately after a fight, and not allowing my energy to replendish. And the healer gets slammed for it. It's especially bad when I am playing one of my other characters, and have to rely on a bad monk. One that has a poor rack of skills, manages his energy poorly, or doesn't pay enough attention to what's going on and gets everyone killed. It's hard enough to get a monk in a party, and a significant amount of them are nearly worthless.

You can tell you're in a party with a good monk. You never worry about your health bar.

But I've been in parties where the others in the group cop an attitude. When I try and tell the warriors to slow down, to not charge in willy nilly, I'm told to "f**k off" or "I know what I'm doing, jerk".

Guess who isn't getting that healing seed anymore?

Want more monks in the game? Give them a hug once in a while. Find a nice healing wand? Give it up to the cause. Find a nice healing rune? Don't sell it, share with the guy that saved your arse. Tell them thank you after an especially big fight. Let everyone know you appreciate a good monk during your adventure.

Don't be a putz.

.. how did they make farming harder for monks?

I'm a monk and I'm still around. I honestly went through all the missions with my monk (it was my second time doing the PvE) and almost never saw all the problems other monks have with PuGs. Maybe once or twice someone would start complining to me about how he died, big deal, finish the fight then rez him and move on. Too many monks complain about how they can't find the perfect PuG, well guess what, there isn't one. There will always be a jerk or two, live with it.

Maybe the reason why there aren't as many monks is cause they get through the missions quicker than anyone else. As a monk, I pretty much had zero down time. I managed to finish a bunch of consecutive missions, pretty much all on my first try. Now I'm hanging around the temple of the ages, the tombs, and occasionally the fire islands.

Most good farming spots now have enemies with enchantment removals or interrupts. Us monks are nothing without our enchantments.

I'm still around. I'm just not joining your PUG. Guess why.

Mm.

I noticed a lot of enchantment removal on that last mission. It really pissed me off 'cause I specializing in protting so I had to drop all my points and all my skills and my +3 prot tattoo became worthless. ;P

It also made me realize how you don't see many monsters cast DEFILE FLESH AND SCOURGE HEALING.

We should start a Union of Oppressed Monks

100% agreed. After quitting about 14/15 teams in the competition arenas because of complete and utter n00bs, I'd have to say it's probably the complainers fault.

It's just funny how you'll call target on a mesmer or monk, then your whole team decides to attack the warrior instead! But yeah, that's ALL the monks fault. -.- (sarcasm)

last night I was doing the Frost Gate mission with a group. the two rangers (a friend and myself) hung back and used our ignite arrows and a couple of traps...trying not to aggro too many mobs at the same time. The Elementalist The Warrior and the Necro would chase mobs down and aggro them ASAP. We did what we could as rangers...I even went in to try to tank so the other three members of the party could run back and heal themselves...they never did. AND they all blamed our monk when they died. I'm sitting there thinking "hmmm I didn't die....and I don't have my healing skill equipped...wonder how that happened". Too often monks are blamed for the party losing....people won't accept they made a mistake.

p.s. the monk stayed with us for the next mission...the elem necro and warrior were booted from the party

I have three ascended characters, with my monk just ascending last night.

Frankly, I think it's a boring class to play...it's difficult, tedius, and just not enjoyable. Every battle is exactly the same. The warriors head into battle, I stay at the back and focus 90% of my attention on the red bars I need to keep full, and the remaining 10% on myself, checking energy and making sure nobody's headed my way.

Spending all my time healing everyone and running away from combat just isn't all that much fun.

I've never actually farmed a day, but I can tell you lately I've been doing all the quick missions with henchmen instead of players simply because if I have to drop in the middle for a Tombs group with my guild, the henchmen won't care and you just shouldn't do that to real people. It's nothing against PUGs, I've just been pressed for PvE time lately.

But I know monks who won't do PUGs anymore for many of the reasons above. And I'll add in another.

I see people gathering up drops that are marked for them, sometimes nice purple staves. Fine, that's the system. But when I get to loot my shiny, and something drops that is not healer-related, I have had people try to pressure me into giving it up. I had a gold shield drop and the ranger in the group wanted me to give it to him for his friend "who could really use it." Not even for himself, but for someone not in the group. And bothered me about it for 15 minutes afterward.

I won't even go into how many times I've missed out on a drop because I try to stay out of aggro range and far away from the mobs, and then the fight is over and the group is racing ahead and aggro'ing something else. I know someone will say, "Well, just let them die and get your loot," but the minute I do that, I become the Bad Monk That Ruins Good Groups. I'm not into that whole scapegoat thing.

I like people, honest, just... some days they take too much energy.

okay. i guess my plan was right to someday start a characrer named "A monk that doesnt heal"

I'm a monk and i love healing people
I just hate when no one take damage because of my protection skills.. sometime i dont even use them so i can heal or i make fun by drawing condition off everyone until someone finaly need a heal.(usualy me when i do that)

Sometime i enter mission with a sword and shield to scare people out
Funny how only then people ask me if im healer or smiting. I had people drop party just because i entered the mission with a sword lol. Even tho im fully heal/protect and never use a sword in battle.

Same here.. I lost so many drop like that.. even tho when its rare drop i will go pick it up when the the party is giving the killing blow on the last monster.

Hah! That's rich. I would have opened a trade window and dangled it in front of his nose for laughs.

I know, right?

I almost forgot. I mentioned that anecdote to someone later and he said, "Well, obviously since you play a monk you're no good at the other classes, because really who would choose to play a monk if they could play an effective (insert class here)... so why would anyone think you'd be saving it for a another character..."

I think he was joking? I lol'd... just in case...

PvE monk?? Why would you do that when you can just take a monk secondary with another class and unlock all the monk skills that way. I admit, I have a monk.mes that I'm moving through the game, but most people, for PvP purpose, just unlock skills by selecting monk as a secondary.

Yah, I have my points fairly evenly split between healing and protection and I've gimped my PvE armor healthwise with some superior runes. So I'll cast things like Divine Spirit and Aegis and Mend Condition and Prot Spirit and Remove Hex so fast that people don't even see that they're in danger. And then they don't realize how hard I've been working to keep them from ever having to see the healing numbers going up.

Wait...

lol. A lot of people seem to think it's just 'point-and-heal' for us, then they roll a monk, fail horribly and blame the team.

I have to crack a little smile every time I hear a W/Mo start rambling on about how much skill his class requires though

I've run into a few bad pug's, but I try to organize it and get them working into cohesive unit more often than not they just need to focus and they turn into a good group. If I type out in caps i'm not yelling but I need your attention immediately before you run off and pull two groups again before i'm done recovering energy. If for some reason the group refuses to listen/gives me heat for trying to get some kind of sense of order flowing, i'll try my best until we eventually wipe out and I will quickly leave said party which apparently is rare since you guys seem to run into them all the time. Now if it was bad luck (happens very infrequently) I will give it another shot but you know when its bad luck or just a bad group. I've also had my fair share of incredible pugs that weather some of the worst looking pulls i've seen and just seem to mesh in a way that doesn't require me to spam heals.

Post ascension, 80% of the people there have a clue of what they're doing and what their role at the point is. I'm not saying role as in elementalist=damage monk=healer but whatever build they've been working on actually works and contributes. It's mostly common sense, I avoid the "leet meat uber Axe" names and go in with a balanced group.

As for the monk being boring? I've never had more fun as a healer, than in GW. Sure you guys who don't like anything but damage will hate it, but I like the fact that i'm essential to the group. Everytime we come out of a bad fight and nobody dies I'm happy. That is not to say its all because of me but i see each and every close call where my party members health just BARELY missed hitting 0. I also feel that pang of guild when it does hit 0, i'm not going to cry about it but it does warrant an "aw damn" each time it happens. I quit my warrior at level 7 because it was the most boring role i've ever played, not even aggro management to contend with. Its also nice to always have a spot somewhere unlike my necro (3days at thunderhead lfg)

Well I have not read all the thread, but I have not played my monk for the last few days.

They are lvl 20 and almost ready to ascend, but I am tired of not "playing" the game.

I see the health bars and my energy bar when I play my monk. I also get to see that Elementalist taking 80% of my energy each fight. If I wanted to repeatedly tell others how to keep from dieing I would offer consulting services.(not just the Elementalists but all casting classes) There are times when you get a great group the casters stay back with the rangers (normally don’t have any healing problems with rangers) and then you just have to heal the tanks.

I have gone back to my warrior, and oh boy how easy it is compared to playing my monk. And I get to enjoy the game, look at all the scenery, and learn how to get through the maps. Though after going through them all with my monk I have no idea where I am going as I have never seen the layout of them before.

The monk is a great class but you do not get to enjoy the content of the game and you have to deal with all the not so well played characters on a very personal level.

I think it takes a different kind of player who will play a primary healer role and do it effectivly and have a fun time doing it. I for myself love the fact that I have the role of keeping my party alive(kind of an ego thing). as for what juhanah said:


[QUOTE=Juhanah]I'm a monk and i love healing people
I just hate when no one take damage because of my protection skills.. sometime i dont even use them so i can heal or i make fun by drawing condition off everyone until someone finaly need a heal.(usualy me when i do that)
QUOTE]

I <3 my protection spells. Just for the fact that if I get tired of laying down heals I could just cast a few protection spells and sit back and relax.

As for all of you who complain about not having monks to play. look me up. Ill be more than willing to play with anyone who asks(especially if its someone from the forum). I am probably too low for any help yet. (only hit 8 last night) but Ive only gotten to play about 5 or 6 hours so far since I gotten the game.

1) The only time a Monk needs to join a PUG is to do missions. I wouldn't even bother trying to recruit one for questing, exploring, or even skill capturing in a PUG. Most people are just doing that with henchmen, because the GW PvE community is really quite horrible. No one has any patience, and most everyone is just trying to get to the next zone to do the next mission.

2) Well, despite the fact that you don't want to hear it, a large portion of the Ascended Monks ARE farming. I spent 6 hours last night farming. Made >70k and bought a Sigil for my guild.

3) Monks aren't a common class for group PvE because they are a support class. Thus, there will always be fewer monks comparitively to any other class.

Your argument about the rune prices makes no sense, however. If Rangers are so ubiquitous, why are all their runes so worthless? I tried selling Majors of all types to the rune trader, and none were worth more than 500G. Hell, the Necro Major Curses rune I picked up was worth more than all 4 Ranger Majors I had combined, I think.

The most valuable runes last night were Vigors and Absorption. I sold 3 Major Absorptions for ~50k.

I have been playing a monk of late, alas to play a monk in a group you have to be a healler or you aint any use.
You also get abuse, ffs heal, you let me die... etc, etc.
Players expect you to save their hides but often dont think to let you recharge.
The better you heal them the more stupid they play, they seem to get a God Complex.
Alas not all players are like this, but these are the negatives to being a healer.

Another pet hate is, the swamps that posion, when you aint got a healler everybody avoids them, walks around them, pulls monsters out of the swamps to fight them, but hey WE got a healler, lets wade in , it dont matter if we get posioned. Some times players have a death wish, they attempt stuff they wouldn't dare do with the npc monk.
The NPC monk does a fantastic job concidering, If i got the amount of abuse that she got, I'd just stand there and watch you all die too.

As far as watching someone die, I have done just that, you only get three warnings when on my team. If you continue to agro the mobs but are not a warrior you will not get healed unless I have some energy to spare.
There are exceptions to this as you can see who is trying to stay out of agro and those that think they are invincible.

The cute thing is that when it gets to be too much and this "happens" (shame on me)... they just blame something called a "dev".

I think that is the main reason... I feel for monks here as my main is an Ele. People just don't get it when I ctrl click my energy bar bacause I have 5/70, and off they go to charge the 10 flesh golems and wonder why Meteor Shower (25pts) didn't come down all around them.

We should come up with some kind of code that denotes we read these forums and understand how to play in a group, so we can find like-minded people to group with

i have a monk/war. she smites & uses a sword. she heals sometimes but mostly is support. i think its funny to have a monk, necro, or ele that specializes in sword/ax. the game is so easy i jus goof around now. cant take this PvE thing seriously.

then when i get into a group, they get mad that my monk doesn't heal. i jus felt bad for monsters when my war/mo beat the crap out of them without even trying. so now i jus use my caster with a sword =) makes it more challenging.

if some 1 dies, they always blame the monk. whats the fun in healing the party instead of killing monsters? be happy i put "mend" on yo *ss

i wish they made monks more like shaolin.

Evil Blood Bitckh
-The Samurai Demons

Funny, I find this almost completely opposite. Even a couple of months after release I run into complete noobs all the time. I'd put the number at perhaps 50-50, but still, it only takes 1-2 noobs in a group to ruin the whole thing for everyone. You'd expect people that are level 18-20, in Elona Reach, would know how to play the game by that time....

Maybe I wasn't clear, by post ascension i mean AFTER they ascend and get into droknars forge. The missions tend to block out those who are impatient and unwilling to learn new strategies. ie: warrior DO NOT charge into those mobs and aggro 2 more groups. People generally learn this for themselves or follow directions at least to the point where its acceptable. PRE ascension (elonas/thirsty/dunes) is where most of the ididots are still at since its kind of like a bottle neck. Intially some of them get through since good players are there too but most are stuck and then it just backs up until the majority of the ppl are screaming "LFG 4 monks! w/mo damage god with UB3R aX3 !1one1!"

By post searing I mean the people have takin the time to learn some of the basics like the aggro bubble or they stay suck in the crystal desert and let their brain melt under the scorching sun.

The answer, in my opinion, is very simple. I mean, how many people here agree that Monks are the most underappreciated and most abused class? The reason there aren't many Monks around is because most people got sick of the abuse and simply stopped playing their Monk character. Why be abused and not have any fun? Simply create a new character with a different profession and things become so much better!

Want more Monks around? Then the general crappy treatments towards monks by a LARGE portion of online players NEEDS to stop.

That is just my two cents.

Great post.

I went back to the desert to help a friend get through one of the missions the other day because he kept getting into groups that just died horribly, and for the life of me we could not find a group that could manage aggro... they'd pull multiple groups and wonder why the poor monk was letting them get killed. Of course, it wasn't the monk; he had no energy left from trying to keep everyone alive fighting 2 teams. Imagine that?

Eventually we found some people that would listen to us explain aggro management, and we finally got through.

There are a lot of unskilled players who have got to the desert purely by using the MONGO SMASH approach (no attack on W/Mo intended!! ). For the frist time some thought has to be used, and when they can't, the Monk get the brunt of everyone's anger.

Eh, my experience is that monks hold a very important position in the group. Sometimes, if the player is incompetent, then they get yelled at. If a ranger is incompetent, then the group simply doesn't do as much damage, but if a monk screws up, everyone ends up dead. Therefore, monk players find that the groups are generally more demanding of them. However, as I've gone through the missions, I see that most people give far more compliments and praise to those monks that do manage to heal well. True, even the good monks may get some abuse from a disrespectful party, but in my experience, most monks are given nothing but praise if they're even half as useful as they could be. Monks also have 0 problem with getting into groups for mission, things that necros and rangers have to wait around for maybe an hour to get into. However, the responsibility of healing others may be too much for some people who just want to have fun. Compound that with a generally very boring job (monks get to watch red lines go up and down...woohoo...), and monk is a high-pressure, low entertainment class. Sure you can make a smite monk, but then you never get into groups, you'll be relegated to a warrior's position as you look for groups.

In general, I find that monks are treated very well, and only on occasion are they mistreated. Overall, I think they're given more respect than they really should recieve.

If we do a good job, no one notices. But if someone dies... well we are just worthless now arnt we?

however I dont care if someone gets mad at me for dying. If they died and it wasnt my fault... I dont care, they still are bad, and I have no problem not chasing after them if they think they are so good that they can run off on their own.

I always, ALWAYS complement the monks in the party. The other night we were doing Ring of Fire and one Monk went afk (after charging the front doors... go figure) anyway, the party worked so well together that the other Monk was able to cover 6 teammates, and did a fine job.

Needless to say we didn't complete it (damn Imps... 4 meteor showers on us as we tried to run through lava!), but man it was good fun!

Yamat I have no problem with people like you. It makes it a lot funner to be a monk when you feel like you are involved in whats going on, not just sitting back and helping someone you wish you could just let die for a good laugh. ^^

Fwiw, I played a healing monk for awhile and switched to warrior in an effort to create a monk-friendly tank that addressed the "rambo speed demon" mentality so prevalent with warriors, and to which so many complain about it.

And you know what, the last three PuGs I was in there was at least one monk who thought they were a tank or invincible, and ran ahead taking on creatures and attacking first. Last healer I played with kept running in another direction without telling anybody where he was going, and when asked what he was doing would say things like, "I'm always right", "I can do it myself" or "If you don't like it, stfu" and the like. Monks can be just as bad as any other profession...

To all of you healing monks considering another character instead, just do so because you want to play that character, and not for any other reason. This warrior I created is exactly what everyone appeared to be asking for in that profession for good PuGs, and it's turned out to be a nightmare experience. I had a lot more success with getting in fun, intelligent groups with my monk.