Strategy Strategy Strategy! (a long rant)

I have only played this game for a short time now, and have only gotten to the Desert missions with my pve ranger. I'm sure you all remember what it feels like the first time you set your foot in the desert. It's like: WOW! that thing killed me so quickly! and although it is frustrating at times, I found the rising difficulty level to be a blessing: from now on, you have to use your head.

But apparently I am the only one who thinks that way. Seems there are only two simple strategic choices to tough monster areas being applied: the "Fight Everyone Now" (which includes charging forward at everything, targeting one at a time and hoping to kill the monsters before they kill you) or "Run For Your Life" (which means we all run to the next zone/town and hope one can get there before we all die.

Of course i'm only referring to PUGs, as I said, I don't play enough to keep up with the friends I make, nor to form tight teams within my guild. So I am left with Henchies (which do NO planning whatsoever) and with PUGs.

This is frustrating: I join a team and see another ranger on the party list. so I ask the ranger what type of ranger he's playing (if he's doing barrage then I'd bring interrupt or poison, if he's a trapper I'll bring pin down...etc). I usually get no response at all. I sometimes get: "who cares? let's go kill kill kill!!!". I ask if people know whether the mission involves fighting spell-casting monsters (to know whether to bring along choking gas for instance) and get "what's the difference?" in return. During a mission. I ask people to wait behind so I can trap and lure, and I get: "Let's just get in there and kill them all". the examples are endless but you get the idea.

Now, almost every single class combination can do just a bit of everything. But we do need to plan and use strategy to be at our full potential. those two things are usually ignored.

Of course we finish the quest most of the time, get our xp and skills and whatnot, but that's not why I play this game.

I love the teamwork, let's embrace it and work together.

peace.

wow, i'm going to have to say you are one in a million. never in my long time running through missions have i ever seen a RANGER that thinks strategy... in my experience and opinion, rangers are even worse than WARRIORS for rushing into situations that get the party killed and then blame it on the monks etc... i think you could go far as a gw player.. i really do. see, either the ranger just sits back thinking that he's doing al the damage, but secretly only has 7 in marksmanship with a req 13 weapon... or he runs in and tries to tank thinking on the logic that he can tank ALMOST as wel as a warrior, but still better than a caster... keep it up m8.

This is why I refer to the desert as a "noob trap" (and also why I think everyone should be forced to do it at least once, not get rushed to Forge). Those "tactics" the OP described don't work there. I'd like to see you beat Elona Reach simply by running in and attacking every mob you see, or taking on all three teams at once at the end of Thirsty River. If more people considered the game as careful as the OP, PUGing would be a much more enjoyable experience. Hats off to you sir.

Skills are ment to compliment each other (or weapons) as well as character builds. I guess I have been lucky and most PUG teams were pretty good. There have been a few PUG's that failed terribly but there were also some really great PUG teams and man what a difference. When the team members communicate with each other to coordinate strategies it makes the game so much fun that I don't mind repeating missions several times.

This being a new game and the fact that there is no monthly fee I think will make for alot of people that don't know how to play efficiently or maybe have never played an online game before. So as the game gets older there will be more quality players and if you get into a good guild your chances to meet other good players (that actually think) increase, then it will make your gaming time much more fun. My crystal ball tells me that this game will increasingly become harder (quests and missions) and the characters will become more reliant on each other (ending monk 'gods') with future patches and expansions. I hope its correct.