The monk conspiration!

This controversial post will most likely attract the flames of many conservative members of the Guild Wars community, but I will go ahead and reveal the terrible conspiration, led by Wa/Mo (which I affectionnately call Whammos) and Mo/--.

I will explain it quite simply in one sentence...

NO, WE DO NOT NEED 2 MONKS OR 2 TANKS!

Some will call this heresy, but I'd ask you to think about this. If we replaced the monk with an air ele spiker or a interrupt mesmer, or a curse necro, or an interrupt ranger, what would happen? Maybe the creature that was intended to score the damage that would have to be healed will die before it became a problem. Maybe the extremely damaging spell that the mob is about to cast would be interrupted by that extra ranger or mesmer before it took off.

All in all, the extra damage/utility of an added damage dealer, or an interrupter, or a snarer, a trapper or a curser is as good an addition to a team as a second monk.

Hell, you could probably do without one at all if your team is half competent.

The same goes for Warriors. Especially Whammos. "But we need to control aggro!". Bullshiat. A good Water Elementalist (and other snarers) can snare incoming enemies. And a mostly offensive group would have no problems killing them before controlling their aggro even becomes a problem.

NO class is needed twice. It's a lie spread by monks and warriors that like being the only focus of a group. Warriors espcially. They enjoy having 2 monks because it makes them feel invincible. Well guess what? Your invincibility takes up 3 slots in our party, 3 slots that could be doing damage to the enemy.

And while we're on the subject, I'd like to talk about monks. It's kind of a taboo, but... Most of you suck. Really, really badly. You don't hear it very often because most people are afraid to lose their precious monk. But they rarely even bother to manage their mana, they often heal non priority targets, run away at the first sign of trouble (dooming the rest of the team, which has become dependant on them to a quick death). It's not because you are healing us rather than doing damage that you don't need to be as good at it than we are at our jobs.

The general rule is that you will find the better players at higher level playing Necros, Rangers and Mesmers, because only the most persistent and dedicated players will go through the chore of finding the elusive groups that will accept them.

PS: I'm not saying monks and warriors are useless, only that it's a lie that they are more needed than ANY other class.

Are you talking about, PvE or PvP..or both?

depends what the scenario is. most missions in the game are ridiculously easy with a full group - running a suboptimal group config and winning with it is hardly cause for celebration. yes you can win dunes of despair with 8 air elementalists... yay we didn't use a warrior or monk.. so???

try running the mission with only 4 players. then you realise that you can't kill the enemy as fast as before, you need a tank (warrior) and you need heals (monk) to keep up. lesson : more challenging circumstances force you to make use of resources more efficiently. less challenging circumstances allows downright inferior strategies to flourish.

yes this game is deliberately easy : good, it encourages innovation and creativity in forming teams. yes we don't need either monks or warriors to win missions, perfectly true. but don't kid yourself - the "optimal" party configuration for any mission will usually include a few monks and at least one tank. try farming sorrows furnace with a 3/4 man group and i am pretty sure that you will have at least 1 warrior and at least 1 monk, and that no other class can fill their role. well maybe an e/mo healer and a r/w tank could work as well...

and choosing the lesser of two evils -> a bad interrupter ranger / mesmer being 1 second slow will not stop the enemy damage or spells, while a bad monk will still heal 1 second after you take the damage, but still in enough time before you die, and a bad warrior will still strike the enemy for damage and tank for you.

i play my monk and love it, both in pvp and pve. yes most monks suck big time. i know, because i heal alongside them. sometimes in a party with 2 monks the other one leaves : i tell the group not to worry because he wasn't doing anything useful, and we proceeded to clean up sorrows furnace without casualties with me being at almost full energy the whole time.

ballanched team for the win.
therefore no primary class more than twice and every primary class at least once.

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I'm talking about both PvE and PvP.

The interrupt example is flawed, because a monk healing 1 second too late might mean your death as well.

I'm all for balanced groups, and that means that no class is required more than once. Period. I've seen lone healers keep 8 players alive quite often, because enemies were quickly dispatched. And as for choosing the lesser of two evils, good monks are hard to come by, as the good ones are already taken. Good rangers, mesmers and necros, on the other hand, are plentiful. They are always picked last. Just try it: say "Group looking for ranger" (or necro, or mesmer). You'll get tons of answers. Try them, most will be much better players than the average monk, and you'll find the game going quite smoothly.

And for PvP, no a "couple" of healers is not needed either. Think about the damage THEIR healer would have trouble dealing with if you took an additional ranger. Think about the shutdown a mesmer could do on him. Think about the curses their monks would be trying to keep up with if you tried a necro. An extra hand doing damage or causing disruption can be worth much, much more than just "more" monks. Best group I played with were mixed groups. Most did not have 2 warriors, and some did not have 2 monks. When you have one of every class, then you can get 2 monks if that's your fancy. But keep in mind that it's NEVER a necessity. You can always get 2 rangers, 2 necros, 2 eles, 2 mesmers.

I usually make my own PUGs, but I always have trouble making a good group because of the misconceptions this conspiration is spreading. When I manage to get diverse group, I always get people asking stuff like: "Ditch the ranger, get a third monk! We need three monks for this mission!", or "Get another tank!". Even many good players believe this, it's so infuriating.

Aetherfox, I've done missons with less than full groups. And it's easy too, with adequate partners. Even without monks and tanks. You CAN kill enemies quickly, if you don't take 2 of your slots for suboptimal damage-dealers. Also, the so-called "optimal" setup you're talking about is exactly what I'm up against. It's a goddamn dogma! No even bothers trying to argue it, while there is plenty to argue against it. Why get a tank when the enemy can be slowed to a point it's no longer able to get in melee range? Why heal when you can kill the enemy or interrupt him before he deals that damage?

Try 4vs4 PvP. Best group I've played there was: me (Fast Casting Water Ele), a Ranger, a Necro and a IW Mesmer. No monk. No secondary healer. Anyone getting in our path was dispatched so quickly it never was a problem. I slowed warriors before they treathened the ranger and necro, the IW ran to them and kicked the hell outta them. Necro, Ranger and I jumped right on their spellcasters, regardless of monks. With called and concerted attacks, we could manage to kill anyone in less than 5 seconds regardless of the efforts of monks. Enemy rangers were usually left last, because of their relative sturdiness and slightly lower damage output. I've also had good groups with monks and tanks, but never as good as the preceding group. Lesson? Even with only 4 person, monks and warriors are not necessarly a given.

Now, for tombs group, I do not argue a monk is needed. But EVERY class is needed there. And you have enough slots to get them all. 2 monks, however, is usually seen as necessary, which it is not. I've rarely been far in the Tombs (mostly because I play with PUGs, thanks to my guild not being very keen on PvP), but group that went the furthest had one monk, two warriors, two rangers, one mesmer, me (back then, I was Inspiration / Earth) and one necro.

The holy MEW (Monk - Elementalist - Warrior) trinity will fall one day!

You need to chillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll~~~~~

I play a monk, and I get groups through thunderhead keep, being the only monk
People acted if I was god....lol

as for energy management, STOP aggroing when i tell you "I have 1 out of 50 energy!"

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