Newbie question - what makes a good Monk?

Having just started to read the topic on Monks wanting to charge...and finding my question is totally irrelevant in that topic, I'm asking here.

What actually makes a Monk good or bad? I'm talking about a healing one here, because that's what I got, and I want some help with it.

Is a good monk one whos team doesn't die at all? Is he/she one who doesn't die in the process of saving the team.. after some monster attacks the monk and the rest of the team is... well.. busy with their own fighting?

Personally, I feel bad for letting the pet on the team die, but.. can't afford to use energy which could save the team on the pet. I've died more than I would have liked to, because.. I die easily having nothing really to defend myself.

As far as I know, I'm not doing too badly, but I wanna improve so would appreciate any advice from all you people who are geniuses in this type of game (unlike me)

Good monks can stay alive a long time.

And he can keep his teammates healed in the mean time too.

Sounds somewhat impossible, but I have seen a few good monks who're truly good.

Not to say they don't have weakness, mind you. But it's few enough.

A good monk doesnt make himself a bot for all other players, he doesnt just heal, and uses other skills also.
A good monk is not responsible for the whole team.
A good monk doesnt demand a second monk in the team.
A good monk replies "use your sword" if anyone says "HEAL!!!".
A good monk never ever joins a team that has more than 2 warriors or eles in it.
A good monk never joins a team that has no necro, mesmer or ranger in it.
A good monk never uses rebirth, it uses unyielding aura or just a signet (with vengenance?)
A good monk can do the mission all alone, but he enjoys seeing other green names next to it.

Great advice. I'll use it next time I play FoW.

A good Monk is someone who can keep an average team alive long enough to beat any mission in the game. That's pretty much it for PvE. A good PvP Monk is a little harder to define.

If you want to improve, post your build in the Builds forum. A good build will help you learn a lot and a bad build will kill you in a difficult situation.

-A good monk only has to keep the team alive if the team is also doing their job.
-A good monk knows one death is not the end of the world, especially if that Elementalist thought he was a tank
-A good monk doesn't just use direct healing, and uses a variety of spells for a variety of problems
-A good monk carries a reusable rezz, only having a signet is never enough
-A good monk understands there are some times where rebirth is the preferred rezz spell, and other times when it shouldn't be used at all
-A good monk never charges for his services, gets haughty, tanks, or yells at people
-A good monk has a plan for players who run off, die, and insult the monk. Usually this is in the form of "ressurrection retribution". I.e. Use unyielding aura, the player starts acting in an undesireable way, pull the plug
-A good monk can manage his mana well
-A good monk calls heals or spells when there are other monks on the team
-A good monk never turns his nose up to rangers, necros, or mesmers
-A good monk knows never to join the first team that randomly invites him, or to join the team where the leader is spamming in all chat (especially if they are swearing profusely)
-A good monk is not afraid to ask for help (apparently already done. /cheers )

Absolutely perfect!!!

What makes a good monk: A solid lagfree connection!

Good monks know when to run away and not fight to the last man.

a good monk know when to get out of noob groups with lvl 15's in fissure

A good monk knows the safest distance to a) stay alive and b) still be able to heal effectively.

Many groups have praised me for my cowardice.

LOL.. if only I had that.. I'd be one step closer to becoming good

Thanks for the reply, all of them, they have been/are helpful. .. I have a lot left to learn.. ok, now I wanna go and practice getting better, is that bad?

I'm quite enjoying my monkery... and I get praised often by PUG's that I team with. The best advice I can give is as follows

Learn to understand your skills
-the nrg cost and cool-down vs. life healed
-learn to maximize your heals (with divine favor and divine boon enchantment a 50 heal becomes a 150 heal)

Learn when heals are effective or inneffective
-a healing breeze (+life regen) is effective against poison, orison (straight heal) is effective for low life
-someone who has minimal life and remains in the middle of combat is going to die before you can get the heal off, don't heal them
-someone who has nearly full life or even 75% doesn't need a heal

Support the support players
-healing minions and pets (when you can afford the nrg) keeps support alive which keeps your team stronger.

DON'T ATTACK
-took me a long time to learn this, it's hard to get out of the habit of 'target nearest, attack' or 'target called, attack' As monks we don't need to attack, our dmg is so minimal anyway. If you attack you draw attention to yourself and hinder the party

And most importantly... DON'T DIE...
-if you are dead you are useless to the party
-always hang at the back, at the furthest possible distance from the fray.
-if you are attacked, run and try to brush the enemies off onto a warrior (first) ranger (second) or a caster. If you brush off onto a caster remember to buff and/or heal them so you're not the direct cause of their death.
-don't run to heal someone if they're so far on the other side of the main fray that you'll have to approach a danger zone to heal them. They should stay closer to the main action.

enjoy monkery... by the time you get to the jungle you'll find it's not so difficult and it even becomes difficult to understand why people complain about monks...

edit: one more thing -

Keep npcs alive
-watch for important NPC's. If it means the mission is failed if a certain NPC dies, then that NPC should take precedence over every other player for heals. Keep him alive first, keep your team alive second.
-you can heal anyone or anything that is not aggroed against you. Healing villagers who fight back (such as in Divinity Coast mission) can help your party by both increasing morale and by increasing the amount of fighters against your enemy (enemies of your enemies are allies, whether they show up on the party window or not)

Besides Mandar's excellent post, I'd just add this...

- A good monk recognizes that retreat is sometimes the best choice for the team to succeed.

- A good monk acknowledges and assess the group that they are in, and is able, or simply willing, to adjust their approach to benefit that particular group.

I understand how you feel there, regarding the pet. As a secondary support healer, I try to keep the pets going when the monks are otherwise occupied. Here are a couple of tips that may help...

- Warriors and friendly undead minions are excellent for dropping aggro on. So if you're being pounded on by a foe, if one of those allies is closeby then try to position yourself in a manner that places them between you and the foe. Often times they will attract the aggo, taking it off of you. But in general, it's difficult for a tank to leave what they're doing to run back to you, and minions have their own agenda, kinda. If a warrior sees the monk running in circles around them, they'll probably get involved, lol.

- Necros w/blood can really help ease the healing strain, and even have the ability to enhance your energy so you can cast more quickly. If you're lucky enough to have a good blood necro on your team, give them some attention too as most of their spells take a big cut from their maximum health... not that they are in danger of dying so much, it's that if their health is too low then they will commit suicide casting support spells on you and the others.

- It's ok to heal minions. They can really have a tremendous impact on keeping the enemies occupied, hence keeping the aggro off you and the other spellcasters for as long as possible. So if you have the extra energy, and/or recognize that the only thing between you and that lvl 24 Mountain Troll is a bone horror, go ahead and give them a little bump.

- It does make a difference when the monk is as conscious of her/his supporters as they are of her/him, and is able to get into a groove going with them. That's what my second point at the top of this post is about. Not only does it make things go more smootly, but the camaraderie thing starts to kick in. When a party feels invested in each other, they go out of their way to keep each other alive.

Quoted for truth.

boobies.

In that case, I guess a female E/Mo would be a better Monk than a primary Monk.

I started my first Monk primary a couple of days ago, totally loving it!!! It amazes me how it compeltely shifts the normal strategy you're used to of trying to kill stuff. Great fun.

<3 my Monk

A good monk brings condition removal!

I love monks who bring this and respond fast when you get the brown arrows.

--- saves the whole
Im Blind!

Im still Blind!

Now I'm Blind and Burning and Poisoned!

I'm Dead!

The party is dead!

---

Admitedly this doesnt happen a whole lot, but conditions are usually what starts off major dmg chain reactions in pve, in pvp it's even better when your warrior goes from being blindly useless to scary, and your fleeing ele or mesmer isn't a crippled squishy being hounded by war's or rangs.

Often times I'm busier removing conditions and stripping off the odd hex than actually hitting with heals. Or at least as often. This is generally due to a catch 22 situation - if someones not losing health due to degen/poison or is attacking effectively (i.e., knocking down or disrupting the enemy) they often dont get hit as hard or as often, thus not requiring as much healing.

On the other hand, I can't count the times I've had conditions on me as a warrior and had to suffer through them.

One big thing for me, if you're a healing monk, be a healer. Don't pretend to be another class. Don't tank. Don't call targets. Don't pull targets. Don't aggro. Don't attack. Don't type in the middle of battle. Don't afk. Don't leave.

Not dieing really is another big thing. One time at Hell's Precipice my entire party (after aggroing about 6 sparks and several titans at once) all died. I was then alone and running around the map for a good 5 minutes while being chased by a large mob of titans/sparks. I had the mesmer skill Elemental Resistance with me which was barely enough to keep me alive. I was down to 1 hit point once, but I never died and for some reason the mob finally broke off from the chase. I revived the rest of the party and off we went.

Well sometimes to attack as a monk in the Team 4v4 arena's but only if your team if chasing down the last of the enemy group and dont really need heals (though should stay in healing range) I have soloed a Necro and ele with my monk, simply with my holy rod, they could not kill me as my heals were too good and slowly there health went down and they died lol.

But i suppose thats a rare exception so ingore me :P

After All this advised could someone Post some skills and attributes for a Healer/Protector or what ever is best for PvE only, at the moment i am a Monk/Mes. i been doing smitting but want to change it to a Group Healer monk due to the lack of them.

could i be a Healing/protector or just healer or just Protector? can u have both ? This in only for PvE.

aswell anyone knows what is a good weapon for a healer? and were to get it from a collector.

Thanks

I am mainly a healer, but if you are just a heal bot, your energy management is shot pretty quick. If a team member is getting hit with massive damage spikes, I'll slap on Protective Spirit so that I don't drain all my energy with Heal Other or something else. If my team is fighting a big group, 9 seconds of Aegis can make a big difference. When a mob can only hit 50% of the time, it gives you a small breather to heal your party up.

As for spells, most common is Orison of Healing, Healing Breeze, Heal Other, and a res spell. The other 4 is mainly preference, some like an Enchantment build, 2 or 3 enchantments (Essence Bond and Divine Boon) with Blessed Signet. Or others will throw in protective spells. Search around the forum for Monk builds and you might find something you like.

Quoted for truth.

Nice grocery list.

I agree about the not attacking, however, damage, minimal? Since I very rarely play with PUGs, my build is usually healing+divine+smiting. Even when I do go with a PUG, I still keep Zealot's Fire in my skillbar - it's fun to watch the damage numbers fly over the screen every time I cast something on a tank, and it allows me to do nice damage while keeping the team alive. LOVE that spell (and most PUGs I have been with DID need additional damage doing to not take forever to kill stuff).

I'm not that sure about having to always bring a condition removal. Often as soon as you remove the condition, it just gets recasted on the target. Besides you won't be able to un-poison 6 people at once anyway.

Maximizing the team's damage output to simply kill everything quickly is often EASIER than bringing lots of "fixing" skills to keep fixing the warriors while they slowly kill something. It's a different kind of approach, but this is what I like.

I do often bring some form of hex removal - hexes usually are so much worse than any conditions and can kill faster than you can heal.

I don't think I'm a monk expert since I only started to play a monk about 2 weeks ago, but from my experiences so far just pointing out that what is posted earlier is not always the only "good" way to play.

Please excuse my terrible ignorance... but what is a PUG ?

And being a monk myself, i have serious doubts that Devine Boon is worth the -1 energy rgen, as it still costs 2 energy per cast , and it does the same ammount of healing as a Orison of Healing. Any thoughts on that ?

PUG = Pick Up Group

Okay, think of it this way, depending on how much your attributes are distrubted, Divine Boon can heal for just as much as Orison of Healing. Two Orison's is 10 Energy, Orison with Divine Boon is only 7 energy. The extra energy you save negates the -1 energy regen. Plus that extra boost can save a teammate. That time it takes for Orison to recharge could kill someone in a battle, but with Divine Boon it might let them survive long enough for you to cast it again.

Be sure to speak your mind when you need a moment to recharge after a battle.

After a big battle, I'm usually down to 4 or 5 energy, but the group is healed and ready to go to the next battle. Not smart. Just yell "stop!" or "wait-recharging" as soon as the battle ends to let them know you're not ready to do another battle right away.

If they insist on taking off without your energy charged, that's their loss. Just be ready with resurrection since more than likely many of them will be die without your energy recharged.

Bragg

- A focused monk is good monk
- A monk who chats during a fray is not a good monk
- A good monk knows his job and his place.
- A good monk knows he is a "support" class, therefore not a "Tanking" class
- A good monk never leaves a man behind.
- A good monk knows when to rez and when to wait.
- A good monk can heal in an average situation, without drying himself of energy in 10 seconds.
- A good monk waits to get the most of the heal. Do not panick, if a monk waits, trust em. (If u died, he waited too much :P)
- A good monk advises his party what kind of build he has, and how he can be more effective.
- A good monk can be a smitting monk, a smitting monk always lets the party know he is that.
- A good monk, is basically a good gamer and a good cordial person, like a good warrior, a good ranger, a good necro, a good ele and a good mesmer should be.

a monk with a max damage rod can pool a small yet helpful share of damage at times

even in pvp where some casters can take over 30 damage a hit

Exactly that, I see that term flying around all the time now, just wondering, since I thought the 55 had to do with the energy level.