Hey Monks...who can take it and who can't?

Monks...our saviors and targets all rolled into one nice lovable little package for all to adore, venerate or lavish praise upon when all goes well.

So...these guys in the midst of combat are able to see who needs savin and who doesn't.

Which builds can take it and which builds can't.

Monks of GW...tell us...which are the builds and the things they do that need the most healing and the ones that seem to do okay?



gogo

The builds that need the most healing are the ones that the owner/operators run headlong into battle without the support of the team (ie its not the build so much as is the palyer). It also depends upon the team. Any caster type taht isn't specifically built to take on a bunch of baddies and decides to aggro and head to the front of the battle will need alot of help.

For the most part, I'd say that Warriors with heals (not necessarily w/mo mind you) and rangers tend to be the most sturdy but if the tank is doing his/her job and getting all the aggro then of course they will need the most healing. I have seen smiting monks and a few necros along with a few elementals who can take more punishment than most warriors due to the skills/spells they choose and experience but these aren't the average/typical user.

Bottonline is, know your role. Don't get on the frontlines and go toe to toe with the beasties unless you are designed to go toe to toe. Play a healing monk for a while and see what they go through. I think that would help a lot players grasp the frustration that some monks build up.

Ok thats my 2 cents.

I was in the fissure last night with my healer and I swear I felt a grey hair pop out of my head, then the night before in the UW where we had an idiot mesmer in group who just HAD to aggro everything in the area, then to top it off she had to take every single quest from the first reaper.

I'm to the point where if someone ticks me off even once in a mission I'll just let them die and not rez them.

I ESPECIALLY HATE THE PEOPLE WHO TELL ME HOW TO DO MY JOB!!!!!

You all non-monks wonder why it's a pain to find a monk later in the game....

I guess the better question is, who do monks not mind healing and who just makes you say, "my nrg will be better spent healing someone else."


The other night, I had a W/Mo grouping with me and after a total mission failure he asked me if we could do it again and "that spell healing me for 45 with each hit rocked." After a short bit of talking, he took off healing breeze and another healing spell and I changed my skill layout to be pure support the single tank. Seed, Vig spirit, orison, breeze, life bond, shielding hands, dodge, and rebirth. We ran the rest of the mission, lost 3 members to connection drops when it got scary, and managed to finish it no problem. Had one ranger along who quickly realized that I would be spending minimal nrg on keeping him alive (he liked to run ahead of us).

End result? The tank was never in any real danger of losing life, I was easily able to peel off mobs headed my way, and we completed Sanctum Cay easily. I enjoyed healing and working with that tank. The other Rs and Es in the mission with me.... bitched about not getting rezed in the middle of battles, complained about rebirth's effects, and made a point to get in over their heads even tho our tank was always doing his darndest to attract all the mobs AND group em up nicely.


Its not who needs healing, but who deserves it for the benefit of the team.

This is easy for me.

I hate healing E/Mo's.

This is a class that could be equal to a monk in healing or dang close if they wanted and yet the majority of them have no clue how to step backward. If you aren't a war/?? take a step back when you're getting hit.

If you want to tank you should make it clear up front the way a smiting monk should make it clear that they won't be healing.

We all know Ele's can do the most damage and I love 'em but it seriously ticks me off to heal one more than once in a fight.

Well, it's all about builds. I have no problem putting healing seed on a warrior, if that warrior has been successful so far in generating hate. A warrior that draws agro is a good thing.

For casting professions and ranged professions (E, Me, N, R), I've seen idiots in all 5 of these categories. I do remember seeing N/W run into the center, thinking that they have warrior armor, and I felt helpless in my attempt to save their skins. That is the only build that stands out as being recipe for trouble, but even for it, I believe it was just the players who mis-understood the role of their toon.

I think that the geometry of the group is often more important the builds. If a warrior runs in, and attacks one MOB in a group of 4, the other 3 will often run right past the warrior, back to the monks. The whole party (except for the warrior loner) backs up. Now the warrior is out of reach of the monk, and cannot be healed. One dead, useless warrior coming up.

Ideally, I think the warrior should chase down whichever mob is closest to the rest of your party. Tanking 1 of 4 is useless if it separates you from your group.

Warriors, find out if your healer is some one who uses healing seed. If so, make sure you stay as close to the your other warriors as possible, so that you can all share the heals.

Necros, ask your monks to broadcast when they are low in energy. Stay near them, so that you can give them a big energy boost when needed. Broadcast it yourself, so that the monk will know to return the favor with a nice big heal.

Rangers, volunteer yourselves to call targets. Make sure your monks/elementals know, so that they can give you a protection spell before you run off to pull the next target. You'll probably be the first one to take damage, so a little pre-emptive protection is really designed for you.

pretty much. you always have those one or two people that aggro huge mobs and they get pissed when you cant heal them fast enough and they get dp. healing seed works wonders, but can only do so much if you're taking on 10-15 high level enemies at a time. at this point, protective spirit and vigorous spirit are requirements for a monk imo.

I find that the team mesmer usually requires a lot of my tender, loving care.

Elementalists are the worst. Warriors are usually ok. Even though they take a lot of hits and play recklessly, they die slowly. Necromancers and Rangers will usually either take no damage or tons of damage, depending on how they play. As for Mesmers, I don't see enough of them in PvE to really know.

In PvP, I'm usually the first one targeted.

Lately I've been noticing that elementalist like the damage a little too much, mostly because (it seems) they just refuse to be mobile. I'm not talking about getting stuck mid-way through a cast either.. I've seen people spamming flare (ugh) while taking hits from 2-3+ ranged monsters.

Also, something I find most annoying is when a melee creature is hitting a caster and one of the warriors runs over to help out and the caster just stands there. Taking loads of damage. No matter how many times it happens it just floors me... I mean, let the warrior take damage for you... Is that so hard?

Easy strategy so the monk only has to heal the tank (most of the time):

Have the tank run waaay ahead of the group and aggro all mobs in the area. Since there are no other players in their aggro circle, they'll only attack him. Enter the rest of the party, heal the tank, and AOE the people killing the tank. Of course this only works in PvE.

Edit:
(sorry, that was kinda off topic.)

As a monk, I usually end up healing the mesmer or elementalists the most. People like takin out the mesmer, so thats usually the first one I end up healing, but for some reason, like someone else said, elementalists, even in PvP, stand there like idiots spamming some worthless spell while a warrior takes their health halfway in 3 hits. Terrible. You have legs. Use em.

yes , E/x's who refuse to move no matter how much damage they are taking piss me off the most. Warriors are supposed to take damage; healing seed works great with a "good" warrior.

BTW One monk can handle a whole team if the you have a smart team; ie warrior knows how to hold aggro, Elementalists knows "when" to nuke, mesemer is stopping spell casters, and necros are keeping the monk full of enrgy regen. I was in one of those teams once; it was sweet.

What I hate is the idiot that just runs off. Because a lot of us monks seem to get tunnel vision on the party health bar and there's nothing worse then focusing on that bar, seeing someone start dieing, go to heal them then realize you've left the safety of the main group.

I hate the dead whiners, who spam the chat to rez them when the rest of the team is trying to kill a mob (usually aggroed stupidly by the dead guy)

agreed. always seem to be blamed on the monks for other's stupidity.

I just simply cannot stand the "Rez Me" in the middle of a battle. People don't understand the meaning of priority whatsoever. If I could pull a resurrection out of my arse in half a second I would, but honestly, I'm going to need a little time, so if you could just chill for half a second, I'll get to you, otherwise, chill.

when playing a monk i CANNOT stand the primary necro who uses a melee wepaon and touch spells. i guess they think their health stealing skills will keep them alive when its actually my healing that keeps them up...

and also the elementalist who refuses to move during their casting while getting hit

and the warriors who run out of range/people who charge into mobs without a heads up

and people who run from one mob to the next without giving me 10 seconds to regen

Ohhhh yeah... that pisses me off... I carry rebirth much of the time when doing high-end PVE, so when their asking for a rez in mid-fight their pretty much asking me to take myself out of the fight for the next 15 seconds or so, at which point the most likly thing to happen is for us all to die.

Only gets more annoying when after explaining that to them they keep whining.

To deal with these stupid whiners, bring Unyielding Aura and Vengeance as rezz spells...it will get them to shut up REALLY quickly when they realize that now YOU have total control over whether or not they live and die.

Yep, that's what I do with UW Smite groups, it works perfectly with just one monk and 1 tank, if the tank is good I barely even spend any energy healing him, I just drop a protective spirit on every 15 seconds during combat and then an occasional dwayna's kiss.

I have started to do that actually, since i turned my healer into full protection/divine. Really funny to watch 2 or 3 guys drop dead after the battle is won.
Always gets a laugh from them too. "WTF? Oh, lol!"

As for priorities...sorry but that squishy pet might only get one RoF or guardian.
Ele's/Necro's/Mes...if you tank, you get one chance...then i'm looking after the armour and medics in the group.

As for ressurecting during battles...i might just squeeze one in while aegis is up, depending on the type of assault the remaining members are taking. It won't however be a normal res, just as ManadartheHealer stated above.

Easy topic. Some things I don't like when playing my monk, in no particular order.

- People (most often warriors) who charge headlong without any planning or aggro control whatsoever. Most of the time I simply abandon them to their fate.

- Primary caster classes who think they can tank. Typically me/w IW users or elementalists who for some reason don't know how to run away. These are moved immediately to the bottom of my list of priorities.

- People screaming "rez me i have rez" in the middle of combat. I have better things to do, like healing/protecting the rest of the party.

- People who charge forward immediately after I use rebirth, then begin screaming "heal me heal me heal me" when they realize that their life is plummeting. It's even more painful when you have to explain the fact that rebirth drains all your energy to them.


ManaCraft

Tactical has the monk role down in spades.../cheer!

I've occasionally brought unyielding/vengeance, but really I don't like putting skills in my bar just to react to idiots.. I'd rather weed 'em out and carry on.

If they get through a mission due directly to my actions then I'm just inflicting them on other people at higher levels of play.. I'd rather not do that.

I've played an E/Mo as a healer, and w/ the energy and healing prayers I can heal decently except when I run out of energy in long battles. After getting numerous rejects from parties because "we need a monk" I switched to a full nuker.

I dunno, on my monk I noticed it's not really certain classes (if it's not me getting beat on, hah...) just players

Like the ones who wont move out of AOEs, gah!!

Dont you love that? They think that for one, you have the ten energy to spare, and two, you can stop for up to ten seconds from healing to rez them. If you get a good PvP group going, make sure the /Mo bring rez, because more often than not they are more easily able to rez than I am as a monk healing my booty off.

A good mesmer shouldn't need much healing. It's those poor melee mesmers who do.

Anyone who is receiving healing ought to know as the blue numbers appear over their heads. A vampiric touch necro is fine as long as he knows what he's doing and never requires much if any healing if played right. Necro's have fantastic self-healing skills...

The most healing energy is consumed by

- Elementalists and Mesmers who think they are tanks (but then, they don't really receive that much energy from me since I just let them die at most times and save my energy for the other players... )
- the other monks in the party since they are primary targets for enemy rangers and spellcasters

The most relaxing job is a group with many W/* characters since they tend to lose health very slowly.

Whenever I see a ??/W with a melee weapon i know i'm gonna have a hard time becasue they usually think they are warriors and they just havent got the armour to tank.

Also what really ticks me off is monks who stand right next to the warriors hitting with their crappy 11-22 staff thinking they do worthwhile damage and not realising that the mobs quickly turn their attention away from the tank and to them. Actually I just hate monks in general who dont stay as far away from the battle as possible.

Not true at all. Warriors lose a lot of life quickly to aftershock and other close-range aoe spells. When I play my monk, I try not to get into a group with more than two primary warriors.

Oh yes, */W characters are a nightmare, because their players think they are having a tank - which they don't. Seems they are always forgetting about the crappy armor they wear... I have absolutely no idea what the point of these builds is supposed to be. A secondary warrior is no warrior at all.

As for the other point - those monk players are simply stupid. But you still can engage in battle a bit with your monk as long as you stay back and use your crappy 11-22 staff as the ranged weapon it's intended to be. The only thing you need to pay attention to is ALWAYS wait until the tank starts hitting the critter you want to attack. If you do the first damage, the critter will come for you and bypass the tank. That's the most common cause of monk deaths I have seen in game.

That's right, but even these spells don't kill them instantly so you have enough time to heal them again. An Elementarist being targeted by two enemy rangers dies a lot quicker then that.

I think a lot of Warriors get in the habit of "getting aggro" in PvE and forget that PvP uses not AI, but actual I. So the warrior charges forward, thinking (or even saying) "I'll fight, just heal me." Well, the opposing warriors run by and come at me, and my warrior kills one ranger at the cost of me and whatever spellcasters are in the rear with me.

But that's tactics, not build. As covered above, the real problem seems to be people who are playing their minors as majors. Today I was playing PvP and a mesmer ran up to me (my Mo/Me) and started whacking me with a sword. I almost actually Laughed Out Loud as I just smeared the poor nitwit. I pity the monk who has to look after mesmers and elementalists who think they are warriors. (myself included.)

I think any class can be played well or poorly. It's not really so much about build.

I usually don't mind healing caster -/w so long as they can protect themselves and know how to move when things go wrong. e/w comes to mind right away, they can be effective tanks as geomancers... until they get shattered. If they refuse to move after being debuffed, then they can stand there and die. People who refuse to move in PvE annoy me as well - no, that fire raining from the sky is *not* healing you. I don't mind if they're casting something long (like meteor shower) so long as they move at the earliest time possible.

The other thing that annoys me is finding warriors who actually have *less* armor than I do, because they feel they don't need to / the monk will keep them alive. Newsflash for them - if you take over 100 damage in a single attack and don't move, you life is going to end very quickly.

I like the concept of using unyielding aura to control runaway warriors, but I have yet to find one that manages to burn all my energy in a single battle, and charge to the next with half health. Actually, aside from the two examples I gave, I haven't really met anyone who has caused anything majorly annoying, or caused a mission to fail entirely. Maybe I got the 'no retards' version of Guild Wars? :P

My elementalist doesn't die easily to rangers. It depends what skills the elementalist is using. I think you will have a hard time healing say 5 warriors who are quickly losing life to elem attacks.

Point is a balanced team is always better.

I was just @ ring of fire with my monk...coventrina to be exact, stated that I wanted her skill, so we proceed to attack her, she's almost dead with 1/4 health left and this little ****er runs to the cutscene completely wasting the reason I did the mission tonight in the first place.

I've now decided I HATE being a monk....

That's not the problem of being a monk, that's the problem when playing with idiots...

I've just blown 80 hours of my life making this monk and I'm really close to hitting the delete button.

I guess you don't notice the idiots as much when you're not playing a monk....I dunno...

That's right of course. Most of the teams I play in have not more than 2-3 warriors (if a party of 8). Having only one tank is usually not enough since too many critters will bypass him/her and go for the casters and monks. 2-3 melees can form a nice line and thus make my healing job easier.
Most of the Elems I played with are Pyromancers who can't buff up that good as maybe a Geomancer can. It was those I refered to in my earlier post.

What Fantus said. The same thing could've happened if you played another profession. Not sure why you'd notice it more as a monk.