New arena strategy?

I've had many matches lately where nobody (except myself) on my team would attack the opposing monk unless the entire remainder of the other team was already dead (didn't happen, as I'm sure you've guessed). There was even a short arguement in tells between myself and another guy who insisted that the monk was the absolute last target always.

So, what's with this new trend? Have I just been having the worst luck in teammates, or is there some super secret strategy I'm not aware of?

...going to roll a monk now, btw. Seems much safer than usual.

Monks have a lot of safeguards. A lot of the time it's better to kill the mesmers/elementalists/necros first.

Even a great monk cannot singlehandedly overcome focus fire on someone.

Well, I wouldnt necessarily say that the monk should be last... The rule is still Monks first...unless you realize that the monk is using a ton of self defensive spells and healing so then you switch to a softer target.

The trend is there because it seems that most monks are less about healing their team and more about self preservation nowadays.

If there's only one healer, it only makes sense to give priority to other, more dangerous opponents. Especially if you've got a half-decent Mesmer who can render him entirely useless for the duration. In such a case, the Monk is the least of your threats, and thus should be one of the last targets, if not the last.

The best reason for killing the elementalists/mesmers first is because monks can't damage your team like they can, but they have the same, if not less, defenses than monks do. And what happens when a monk dies first? Yep. Immediate res with full hp and a decent mp pool.

For starters, good monks hang way back -- why run through the other team when you can take a closer opponent? I pick targets of opportunity, if I have an incoming warrior, I'll sick my hammer on him for a while till I have enough adrenaline to do my one-two-three punch. While I'm attacking the warrior, I'll be scanning the target monk's skill bar.... I gauge their heal self vs heal other ability based on what they cast and their choice of elite. If they are a self-preservation monk; I leave them alone. If they are a healing-seed / word of healing monk, I run right over for my knock-out as soon as I have enough adrenaline. My last monk was foolishly using mark of protection, I ran up, he casted it, so I switched targets for 10s and then came back for my knock down / aftershock. I don't think its an either/or, you just need to be smart about when and why.

My ranger likes to look for the 'tank' charging our monk while the others work on squishies. They never seem to expect to be high on the target list, understandably... however I can usually drop one pretty quick, which helps the monk, then turn my own attention to any damaged squishies needing a coup de grace.

Huh...

Well, monking will be much easier now. I cannot remember the last time anyone on my team died while I wasn't being heavily assulted as a monk (outside of tombs).

Thanks for the replies.

thank goodness people are finally getting it.

Another side benefit of not going for the monk is you make your opponent react to you and do things they may not have wanted to do.

Dictate the action, don't play into an opposing team's hand.

well a good monk can just as easily defend a teammate as he can defend himself

exactly. So take out the other soft targets who actually are trying to kill your team.

enchanter monk - kill first
healing monk - kill first
smiting monk - treat like attacker
tanker monk - kill last
Holy Wrath monk - kill last
heal+prot - kill first
healer monk with super enchant armor - with enchant remover: kill first, no enchant remover: disable 1st kill later.

That is how I see it.