It's all Seek-the-Monk

I don't know about other combos, but my E/Mo makes an excellent healer. Sure you can heal for more with each heal as a primary monk, but how long can you sustain those 10 energy Heal Other spells with 30-40 energy as opposed to the 70-80 energy the E/Mo has? I know I've been spending a lot more time healing rather than nuking, during & post ascention.

~40% more per heal vs. ~100% more energy is pretty close, in my opinion.

If I see a group requiring a 2nd monk, I know I do not want to be part of that group, because they obviously don't know what they are doing, but rushing in and hope enough healing saves them. I agree. No mission in game requires 2 monk. And I can count on one hand the number of missions before the ring of fire I couldn't run with just the npc healer.

Underworld and Fissure do benefict from 2 monks since the mobs here hurt a lot.

Hmm, something tells me you have yelled out, "heal plz" more than once;-). If this is case how many times have you said "elementalist please use meteor on MoB" or "Warrior please use gash on char, or hill giant". If you have never done this, why would you do this to a monk? and yes it is like telling a warrior to swing his axe as that is his basic job. If healing is not a healing monks primary job, pray tell me what is?

It has nothing to do with me being an eliteist top notch monk nor does it have anything else with the player being a newb. In fact I can say I may have heard maybe once or twice people admonishing folks who run off and aggro groups yet I hear "Res me plz" or "heal me plz" about every other 2 or 3 groups. Seriously the thing is most of us who are playing monks have played other characters. I think playing monk should be made a requirement by everyone. Maybe then they would get an idea of annoying it is.

Do I take it serious? No, I just get annoyed especially if I have kept this person alive the entire game by healing him and for some reason they now think I am not going to it. Do this for me the next PUG you get in: To each class make sure you ask them to do their job by saying "Warriors use your adrenaline skills", "Elementalist use AoE skills or lightning skills", "Ranger shoot arrows oh and include either poison arrow or iginte arrows please", "Mesmer use backfire and conjure phanthom." After doing that a few times please take a screen shot of the responses from your group as I am curious to what they will say and post them here please.

The "heal plz" isn't as annoying as the fool who runs off from the group constantly finally get his butt handed to him and yells out, "OMG why didn't you heal me?"

My first character is a Ranger and i have seen some really suicidal warriors lol, but just the other day with my warrior i witnessed a suicidal Monk. Was the funniest thing. He/she would aggro everything drag it back not waiting for group. All i have to say is goodthing he/she was a good healer hehe. I mean its not like i wasnt going to tank myself, the person was just a rusher, maybe he/she was a warrior to start. Was a new one for me, got a good laugh out of it.

I have to admit that my 3rd char., a warrior,is very tempting to charge out and rush with. Maybe it's because its my 3rd time running through everything with him, but I agree that some people really have problems. Even I can control my mouse button-happy finger when it's important.

Back on the topic of monks. I get lots of abuse with my primary healer. Most people are usually good natured about it, they die and don't say anything, or at least just say something like "dang, my bad." and keep the blame on themselves. Then I rez them, they say thanks, and we continue on. However, some people will just go crazy if I let someone die, no matter what they are doing. I've had a E/something who thought he was a tanked a rush EVERY group head on. Then when he finally died, hes all yelling and blaming me etc.

Actually, I've never once asked for a heal. My problem here is that this thread makes it sound like all monks are good players, and it's simply not true. So you can't expect everyone to say : "OMG it's a monk, he MUST know what he's doing? And when my health is almost at zero, while everyone elses havent even budged from full, then we'll just assume that our beloved monk is paying attention and heals me before I die. (On the next hit)"

Are you trying to tell me that monks never get distracted in battle and stop looking at health bars for a few seconds?

Me too.

Part of the problem, as I see it, is people are forming groups for every freaking quest. The only time I even attempt to form a group, is for the missions, everything else, I grab some henchies. If people would stop forming groups for every little quest, there'd be more monks and what ever for the big missions.

Valid point Cap. I often feel envious of the gobles or energy the Els have but let's take a closer look at this:

Primary healer with 12 at divine favor and 12 at healing:
I first hit Divine boon (monk's exclusive) so now I have +61 heal
added for every spell while I loose only 2 energy.
I save the Heal Other only for emergencies myself.
I usualy use these:

1.orizon of healing for +60
2.Dwayna's kiss for +51 +17 for each ench.
3.healing breeze for 8 pips of health reg. for 10 secs

All 3 cost 5 energy, 1 sec casting and 2-3 sec recharge...highly spammable.

In the heat of battle a 60 + 61 every 2 secs goes a longer way than just 60.
With the 121 total you'll be able to move down on the other health bar needing your attention. But with the 60 you'll need to cast something else, soon, propably immediatly after.

Who is the most effective healer? In long battles against high damage mobs I'll run out of energy faster than you but my group will be in top shape when I run out. Your group might be panicking while you strugle to keep them alive with a 60 there and a 50 here and so on. In battles against inferior mobs it doesn't realy matter, does it? I can manage my energy bar to sustain the battle indefinetly and for you it's a non issue.

It's still debatable but for me a healer that's a ?/Mo is a waste of a primary proffesion any way you look at it. And that goes double for Es who instead of being major damage dealers they are reduced to healers on wellfare...lol

Btw..an E/? will be my 3rd toon so I might change my mind by then....

Sent.-

Why wouldn't you think "OMG hes a monk and he must know what he is doing" provided you took the time to figure out that they are a healing monk? When you take in a warrior, do you expect he knows what is doing or do you expect him to go sit in the rear and cast elemental spells? Yes there are bad monks just like there are bad warriors and bad rangers and my point is in every group I have been in, I have yet to hear anyone complain about the jobs other classes are doing in game usually but they will still yell at a monk during a game.

Well i can only attest for myself and say yes I am saying healing Monks don't get distracted in battle and stop looking at health bars. There are 3 times when a monk will ever stop looking at a person health bar 1) He/she is getting beat down and no assistance is forth coming therefore they are saving their own skin 2) He/she is healing someone else or has no mana to which to heal with. 3) The monk has been healing the suicidal player who continually splits off from the group or runs ahead to go head to head when the beasties and finally decides the kamikaze serves the team best by staying dead. In my experience not being a monk, I have yet to ask a monk for a heal because I assume its his/hers job.

Further more, there are times in which a monk has to choose who to heal in case of dire emergencies. Yes as a healing monk I watch everyone's life bar. Due energy management, I am not going to heal you as soon as you take 1 point of damage but rather right around the 50 - 70 % of life bar if you are taking constant damage to a) conserve mana and b) max usefulness of healing (divine favor +divine boon + heal spell. I get between the 3 somewhere around 115 or so healing points). Some think because they use their heal before I do, I am not doing my job. No, I have to keep everyone alive not just 1 person. If you heal yourself before I do, I am not going spam heals on you or ask you to stop healing.

Have you ever seen a warrior get distracted and stop attacking mobs for any length of time? Nope. For me in every case that someone has yelled for a heal, they do it the second they get hit and those that yell res do so with a few secs of death and don't realize I can not take the time to res them during battle and a res spell can take several seconds which for some reason they don't get either.

Again, I am not saying every monk knows what they are doing nor are we saying all monks are good players. Tell me how many times have you told another class or seen another outside of a monk to do their job? I haven't. I have seen "be careful. don't pull too many mobs at once". No one here has yet to say it. What we are saying is why is the monk class the only one asked to his or hers job and that it is annoying when folks do that. Do me a favor and play as a monk. You will then see how quick some folks are at yelling out "heal me" or "Res me".

Well, my set up normally includes Word or Healing, Healing Breeze and Heal Other. Then I wait for someone to hit <50% health, cast WoH, the Heal Other just after. That's ~250 healing in a few seconds for 15 energy. And for incidental damage I have breeze. Not exactly welfare.

But still, you're right. I don't get to play meteor shower with my new found friends too often when I'm healing. Although when you have a party full of damage dealers and are stuck without a monk, it works out ok.

There's one thing E/Mo's don't have. Runes. Superior Healing + Superior Divine makes your spells *much* better as a monk. Then again, -150hp is a lot, so it's better to just get superior + minor.

I enjoy it when I see a Necromancer, Ele, or Warrior storm into the battle, get themselves killed and then scream "OMG group sux". Usualy the aggroing ( To both player and AI alike) Warrior or Necromancer is usualy the one to be screaming about the monk.

I'm not entirely guilt free here. One mission at Thunderhead keep, we had two monks, one was Prot and the other claimed to be Healing. Well, at the first mob of three beastmasters one player dies, others are severly injured.

Prot monk: Hey, so-and-so, can you heal?

Healer monk: Yah, I have 20 healing.

Sagius: What? How do you get 20 healing?

Healer Monk: Runes

Sagius: Do you have any Divine favor?

Healer Monk: no

Sagius: What do you have?

Healer Monk: Air magic.

Ok, is it wrong to be semi-mad at this kind of monk? Sure, they may be smiting or something, and it must be pretty hard getting a group as a Smiting Mo/e, but do you really have to lie(?) about it?

I sometimes do the "My health is x-480" thing when I've gone some time without healing and my health is low. I sometimes do the "I'm Dead!" or "Sagius Truthbarron is dead!" thing when I'm dead, and I also do it when other players die, but mostly in PvP. Mainly suggesting that I have a res signet.

I've never cursed out the monk before, I have, however said to the new monk after we fail previous mission things to the extent of "Hey, a monk that knows how to heal! ".

I've only had two bad expirence with being a monk, and that is at the HoH.

Once, a Korean team stormed us, poisened everyone, the other monk was buffing everyone while I tried to cure the diesse and give healing breeze to the players dying from it. I died within 45 seconds to a hammer-knock-down-spammer - "MONK HEAL" -
Me: "I'm dead!"

*Soand So raises me*

*Dies*

*Res again*

Players (1-6) "I'm dead!" "Res me!!!" "RES OTHER MONK"

"MONK SUX" "REDUE BOOT MONK"

Ok, scenario 2:

1v1 American team in the Underwold.

*Battles rage for 3 minutes, blue team, mine advances to the enemy*

A W/x and a N/x rush me with army of Minions and trap me in a corner, unable to move, forced to heal myself.

"where monk"

*Calls targets and pings on cornering warrior and necro*

"I'm trapped!"

"WTF MONK CALL WARRIOR TARGETS"

"MONK DUN CALL NOOB"

"But I'm trapped"

"MONK SUCKS"

"monk suxx"

"GHEY NOOB MONK"

*Dies*

*Party dies*

"NOOB MONK FIND NEW MONK NOT NOOB MONK BUT MONK"

"k"

*Boot*

Oh, yah, on topic: Yes, monks are hard to find.

Hahah, definitely. I helped a PUG through Dragon's Lair last night, and the other monk on the team didn't do anything other than cast a level 0 Heal Party every once in a while. There are terrible players of every profession...


I don't think that's the intention at all, but that telling the monks to heal is about as useful as telling the warriors to hit things with weapons. If they're not, there's either something wrong that they aren't communicating, or they're so out of it that yelling for heals isn't going to help. If it's the former case, you're just pissing off your monk, and if it's the latter case you're wasting your time.

If you notice a Monk just standing there doing nothing it makes sense to ask him what's going on, but that's not any different from any other profession.

Peace,
-CxE

Monks hold a lot of power.
Once a guy was being a jerk when I was forming a PUG and so I said "Stfu or I wont heal or rez you"

Silence.........

That just wont work in later missions. Try doing Fire Isle runs with no healer in group..heh...then you'll also LOVE to have your Hench healers standing in lava while trying to heal the group and themselves...or rush in after your puller just to get killed. Now it's not to say that the end game missions cant be done with henches...it can...it's just a real pain in the ass to do because they ARE stupid.

Healing monks bring healing breeze in tombs...?

I did and completed Thunderhead keep as the sole monk in a team of 8 (no henchie monks)... and by the time we ended up in ember light camp, no one had even acknowledged, much less thanked me for the healing. This, after I was forced to run back and forth between the two doors because the team split into two.

Why would anyone want to be a monk?

I fully agree with this. It is so frustrated for being a monk. Typical line I always get while playing with my pal are :-

1. Why you run away when I was fighting a group of monster ?
Answer :- How you not notice when a warrior like you are fighting a group of monsters, there are two running pass you towards me ?

2. You are good in dying.
Answer :- Yes, because you anggro two groups of monster at one time.

3. You are afraid of dying.
Answer :- Yes, I am, for the benifits of the team. Who are you going to shout "rez me" when you get killed and no one except me in the team carry unlimited "rez" ?

4. Why you need so many breaks in-between ?
Answer :- Because my father don't create this game and Arena.net says, healing spells need time to cast and recharge.

Last but not least, and it seems to be the most popular one

WHY YOU NEVER HEAL ME !
Answer :- Refer to all the above.

Of course not every warrior/ranger are idiots, but I do encounter too many of them.

Even in PvE you'll find monk templates.

1- Noob Healer (opposite of the boon healer).

This guy will overheal you in the first ten seconds of the fight to show he's good. You'll lose 20 life and be healed for 80-100 hp every time. The problem is, he'll run out of mana sooner or later. When that happens, your whole group will be gang-banged horribly, and no-one will ever know what happened, because the monk will come up with something like "I was backfired", "cant stand those friggin mesmers" and so on.

2- Protozoic Monk

This guy just discovered that protecting others is a noble task and its darn cool as well. He'll cast random prot spells here and there, doesnt matter if you're actually fighting or you're up a hill, calm and relaxed, wanding the enemy, while the Ele is being raped.

3- The Professional

This man immediately becomes the grp leader. He calls targets, he points you in the right direction and, while fighting, he gives you useless info on monsters while bragging about his legendary deeds in PvE/PvP. His nemesis are the "guild mates": mysterious and powerful guys who, apparently, always need the IMMEDIATE help of the Professional while he's about to finish a 40min+ quest with your group. Needless to say, the Professional won't give a damn about your wasted time.

Actually it's ok to heal straightaway as long as you don't overheal. You don't waste a heal other when someone loses a tiny bit of health. But perhaps a signet of devotion(no energy used) is ok or an orision of healing. You don't always have to wait until the character is at say 50% health to start healing, because by then it might be too late.

I have a primary monk and for most of the time for trips to UW/Fiss. I take charge - I recruit, I order around and make sure verybody knows what they are doing. Sometimes, rushers are not only warriors, Eles do rush too - I have an ele myself - some spells are pretty close range. My take on this for a good healing Monk you need 16 healing, 12 or 13 divine and the rest in protection for emergency.

I have cleared out Fiss 3 times - My group strategy

2 monks, healing and protect
3 warriors
3 eles, 1 air, 2 fire / or 1 blood necro

But no matter what the built, you need people that listen - most do not so sometimes as a monk, I LET THEM DIE to stop them from rushing the next time - it works, so try it monks.

As a matter of fact, I heal for 300+ but I only start healing people when their health falls below 50% if above that - I will put healing breeeze.

- Healing Breeze
- Orison of Healing
- Word of Healing
- Heal other
- Group heal (Castes CLUSTER healing) / healing seed
- Resurrect (rebirth isn't that practical at times...but then again have the other monk bring the other spell)
- Vital blessing
- Mend Ailment

Most importanly as a healing monk, I heal casters, the protection monk heal casters and watch out for my back.

~ Peace ~

My big thing had been and probably will continue to be the way people don't trust us. If you are a warrior, don't run back towards the casters when you get to half health. At level 20 most monks can drop a heal on you that will give you back half your hp.

Also I wish more whatever/monks would equip Mend Ailment as half the time at lower levels my energy gets depleted stopping bleeding or poison or both.

The Healer's Song
'nuf said.

Tetris L
Dedicated Healer

Good idea. I will follow in your footsteps.
(I play a Mo/W now, ignore the whole R/Mo on the left =P)

I don't understand this logic. I never see people complain about 2 warriors or 2 Elementalists. Why does haveing 2 Monks mean that the monks are idiots? This also implys that all monks should be healing monks. As my monk uses protection spells I usually have to have a healer around. The healer doesn't have to be a monk, but it's usually the best choice. (hell I did dunes with a warrior that was casting healing breeze when needed)

Why should they thank you. "Thank you monk for doing your job"
I never see people say "wow nice tanking warrior" "That was an awesome job nuking Elementalist!!!!" "Thanks Ranger for shooting arrows at the enemys"

Monks don't need any special treatment. Just the same respect that you would give anyone else.

Protection is very nice in all cases. The best time I had in tombs was my invincible monk. I had 10 HP and was compleatly immune to all damage. I never died and had the whole other team concentrating on me as I was the resser. They could just never figure out how to kill me.

If you are wondering how I did this it was simple. Attributes 16 Protection 15 Healing divine favor as high as it could get with a sup rune on it. And skills I used Protective spirit, mending, and spellbreaker. I healed faster than I could be hit. Spells that should be doing 100+ damage did only 1 which mending nicely healed before any one else could hurt me. Spell breaker was to stop the protections from being stripped away (granted most teams we played had no people with enchantment stripping). It was great all these people were accusing me of cheating. I want to try this with a team of 8 monks like me. Just have us all use our smiting rods on the other teams players and never die.

I would have used DOT to do it...poison, life drain etc. hehe

i might start doing just that. i rarely farm so I could use a few extra bucks

I had remove conditon and remove hexes skills and spellbreaker plus the rest of the team to take em away. And I had plague touch from my necro half for the poision or bleeding or whatever other conditions you want to place on me.

Never said a secondary monk is EQUAL to a primary monk. I *do* say that a group in PvE mostly doesn't need a primary, a secondary is just as good - IF 2 things are followed:
a) the secondary monk understands that his job is HEALING and does THAT first, then unleash primary class in the pauses (if he's ele/mo, don't. keep the mana)
b) the secondary monk's skill selection and attributes are designed to ALLOW him to work as a healer.
Then, of course a primary healer monk with divine favour and healing is going to be definitely better. But for most PvE... with the amount of stuff that dies around I'm (ne/mo) gonna be healing a lot longer than any monk, me thinks.

Also, I've never said (or thought for what is worth) that monks are all elites. There ARE inexperienced or just plain bad monks. About as many as there are bad warriors, eles, mesmers, necros, and rangers. The difference, though, is that one bad warrior can be made up for by the rest of the group, while the monk's skills are unique in nature. One bad monk in a group means there's no good monk in the group, most of the times.
GW is very similar to a competitive mud I've been playing at for years. The groups are similar, roles are similar, and the monk's job is almost the same. I know what I'm doing - althouhg I have to learn how to do it right in GW. But I'm not going to group with anyone abusive TWICE. First time I get you through the mission at my best, second time it's you or me. THAT simple.

It's not that I need respect. It's just that I want to have fun... and I'm not going to stay and receive insults for the idiocy of others. First time you're being stupid, I warn you. Second time, I let you die. You insult me, I take off (missions excluded, those I take to the end - and then take off).
IMNERHO.

No don't run give em heart attacks at random times. We were giving a leash lets use it. Bring that Unyielding Aura it controls all idiots and people who insult or are annoying.

As for any secondary monk being able to equal a monk for healing power. A E/Mo with 12 healing and using all healing skills can equal all monks for healing power except a monk with 12+ healing and 12+ divine favor.

While I appreciate healing E/Mos when I'm a Monk(any & all help is appreciated) there is not a single E/Mo that I have encountered that is as effective as I am. Not once in all my game time have I come across a healing E/Mo that was effective as my Healer.

E/Mo's may be healers but they can never be Healers. They are a good support healer & if they are on the right team, a team that is filled with competent ppl, then yea they may be all that is needed, but most groups aren't competent. Most groups are 50% or more tards so using a E/Mo is not something I would recommened for the average pug game. Healer Monks are Idiot Insurance I guess.

With a good group in PvE an E/Mo is more than suffient but in PvP they are much better utilized doing other things. As for idiot insurance use that Unyielding Aura it sure stops idiots quick.

To me a monk is the hardest class to have fun with. Not only does it get boring watching the life bars, but you'll usually be the first one they blame if something goes wrong. Out of all the classes a monk has the most responsibility. I don't expect a thank you but it's really nice to hear it.

I have left two teams before. One was in The Wilds with a group that insulted me for not wanting to carry the seed for bonus, making the monsters target me. "Make the monk carry it. All they do is stand back and heal." Pfft.

Second time was in the Fissure. After we entered I realized the leader's name was Mastor Batorr or something, but despite that I still stuck with them for 3 hours. There were many small annoyances - over and over. Ele acting like tank, people going afk often and for long periods of time, rushing from mob to mob, etc. The group was so busy chatting during a fight they didn't see another mob approaching on the map. To be a good healer I need to devote my full attention to a fight. I expect everyone else to do the same. Save the chatter for inbetween fights. Not everyone had a res signet and with two people alive I went ahead back to town. One of them whispered me an insult and then immediately put me on ignore. -_- Not sure what the big deal was. No one agreed on a time limit before entering and despite their making my job harder I stuck with them for 3 hours, maybe a little longer. I guess I should have said something before leaving, but I was hungry and by then I was quite agitated.

Bullpucky. I say that all the time. As a monk, a great tank job, bottlenecking the enemy is awesome.... and I let them know it. Well timed firestorm can WIN missions. WEll of Blood or a well-timed energy infusion from a Necro can mean the difference between life and death. When a spellcaster can't get a skill off becasue the ranger is bothering the crap out of them... I know it.. and I say 'great job".

I've said it before, say it again. GW is karmic. Treat folks like you want to be treated. I like getting feedback, both good and CONSTRUCTIVE critiques. I've noticed that in my teams, and I'm very rarely leading, a kind word or two really cements the PUG a lot stronger.

Then when things go bad, and they will... and ambush, a blinking...someone(s) die, the good will generated smooths over the rough spots.

[QUOTE=Storn]Bullpucky.

Treat folks like you want to be treated. I like getting feedback, both good and CONSTRUCTIVE critiques. I've noticed that in my teams, and I'm very rarely leading, a kind word or two really cements the PUG a lot stronger.[QUOTE]

BullPucky? That made me laugh man.

I agree with you that people should give more positive feedback. But you should never expect it.

I've had these same problems also. And this situation is glaringly proven especially in Fissure of Woe/Underworld.

Dumping off a mob chasing you to a tank doesn't take a whole lot of brain power to figure out. But that idiot either runs far, far away out of heal range and then agros even more mobs and then decides he/she needs a heal and brings all the mobs back to the - you guessed it - monk.

Another pet peeve I have with some warriors is charging far up ahead and letting mobs get through to the casters/healers behind. To heal an idiot like this means the monk has to run through the other mobs that the warrior let through. Why can't tanks just form a wall around the casters?

A good tactic is for the entire party to move together as one and kill the closest mob. Then move on to the next. Rinse and repeat. But noooooo, some idiots actually like to spread out and chase a mob and kill it solo.

One of the most important abilities for a monk is energy management.

When the battle begins, your 4 pips of energy regen aren't doing anything, assuming you are full of energy. So cast something.
Healing breeze on the warrior or something. Or a protection spell, if you have one.

10 energy down, your pips start working, the warrior is not an issue for ten seconds (provides he's not gettin ganked by 7 ataxes ), and by the time it's finished your energy is almost back up to full.

I often see monks waiting until someone is at <50% health so that their heal is being used optimally.
Ofcourse, while this happens, three other members are also being clubbed to <50%, and all of a sudden, the monk has 3 seconds to heal four people back from the brink of death. It would be far better to have used one heal less efficiently and then have more time to deal with the other people who are taking damage.

Manage your energy pips and distribute your healing. Healing breeze is an awesome spell once your heal is high enough, it literally makes it so you don't have to worry about a character for about 10-15 seconds (really drastic circumstances excluded).

If someone is hurt not too badly, but you know he'll need attention in ten seconds or so, but also two guys are demanding more of your attention, cast a low cost heal on the first person so you can stop worrying about him for awhile, then focus on the two who are in trouble.

ALWAYS remember who you have healing breeze on. Nothing worse than wasting 10 energy for a heal other on someone who would've breezed back to life.

If you have 2 healing monks, agree between the two of you who watches who. Divide the party up in half, this makes it far easier to watch, AND you avoid the super irritating 10 energy heal on someone who gets fully healed by the other monk 0.001 seconds before your heal hits him.
Only deviate from this plan if you're in trouble, and preferably, have some sort of signal to indicate to the other monk that you need help with someone. (ctrl clicking a heal on someone, for example).

Creston