Monk Primary - Secondary Suggestions For A Newbie?

Hi guys, I'm having a little dilemma and cannot seem to make up my mind...

I just created a new character. I've decided that I want to take monk as my primary so that in PvE, and later on in PvP, I can play a healer and mainly supporting role when part of a group.

I was considering taking mesmer as my secondary so that I could screw up opposing casters and top up my energy bar in the process, but as I would also like to solo PvE sometimes and sometimes get into the heat of the battle in PvE/PvP for a short while, I feel that such a combination would be suicide when played offensively.

At the moment I'm leaning toward a warrior or elementalist secondary, but I'm really open to any suggestions right now.

By the way... For my benefit please keep in mind that I'm not a person with a "build" mindset, so telling me lots of +1's and whatnot will just confuse me. =) I prefer to start off with a basic strategy and to see what it turns into when I'm done.

You might consider taking ranger secondary. You could pack a pet, a bow, or set traps. There's also a cool spell called "Healing Spring" which fnord is an AE Heal over time trap. I'm a Mo/Me 15, and I WISHED I had Ranger as a secondary recently for a specific application of one of their spirits.

Hmm, somehow ranger didn't cross my mind, sounds like a great choice for when I need to go on the offensive.

What about monk/elementalist? Anyone had any success playing one of these in both supporting and offensive roles?

Dont you dare, that is such not a good combo. Elementist would drain all your mana. It would be like, DAMN! :P then you couldnt support your allies.....

True, but I wasn't planning to do both at the same time. Either 100% healing or 100% attacking...

Maybe I should just give in and make two characters.

Currently running a monk/ele and having a blast..sometimes literally.

I tend not to group with players for right now--since I am drained because of my past exp. Shaman in EQ and friar/cleric in DAOC

I am having fun right now because just doing the missions with henchman I will take a healer and switch out to my offensive spells with just a couple of prot/heal spells. I seem to have alot of success.
When I feel like healing--I swap out the healer for a damage dealer and switch my skills accordingly.

It's very hard to concentrate on both healing and dealing damage. If you wish to use healing you will find targetting monsters in betwen is difficult; I tend to take passive skills as a healer - channeling and things like that, Wards, enchantments or hexes that you fire off once and have a nice long duration, allowing you to concentrate on healing. If you are switching skills around to do the various roles that's a different story. I'd say that necro can be good, as the corpse abilities aren't targetted you can simply hit one without having to fumble around, and lines like inspiration or earth have helpful but passive abilities.

I have a monk/ele but I use the elementalist part specifically for the defensive spells in the earth line. Once I start getting whacked on I throw up armor of earth and kinetic armor making me very difficult to hit. Usually by the time KA wears off whatever was whacking on me is dead and while it was attacking I was able to heal others without having to concentrate on myself. I find that this works pretty well in PVP too since I am constantly attacked by warriors and other meelee types. While they are trying to bash on a nearly invincible ( for about 10 secs anyways) target my teammates can pick em off one at a time. I get in a little trouble if I'm getting nuked but I'm hoping that ward against elements thrown in the mix will compensate for that.

I guess overall what I'm saying is going elementalist can actually bolster your healing abilities by keeping you alive and allowing you to focus on healing others instead of yourself.

Blah. I have reluctantly come to a decision... I'm going to go monk/mesmer on that character. I'll miss not being able to attack for squatt, but I guess it's a price I'm going to have to pay as a supporting role. Just going to make another character altogether for when I'm in the mood for kicking arse.

If you're considering doing 100% attacking or 100% healing, a good class combo for you may be E/Mo. This would give you massive mana reserves, hide the fact that you're really a monk in PvP, and allow you to put points into one of the elemental disciplines.

So perhaps 10 Healing, 10 (Fire|Water|Air, I'd do Water), 9 Energy Storage, 7 Protection

I prefer monk/ranger, personally. Monks are prime targets in pvp, and having multiple evasion skills at your disposal makes surviving exceedingly easier.

In PvE I like Mo/Me for the energy management and domination magic.

Mo/Ele is good with enery storage glyghs

From what I've seen, Mo/Nec can be good too.

A necro's sacrificing health to heal others, then heal yourself. In the long run more healing *I think* for the same energy, just a little more complex. Also in the necro run - Rend Enchantments, or ORder of the Vampire. Really, you may only need one or two Necro skills, so you can focus on healing.

Mo/W - Perhaps, if you wanted to be 100% healing, you can slap a Warrior secondary, for the sole purpose of building up your tactics and giving yourself a good sheild.

Lightninhopkins - I never though of the Healing/Earth magic combos. That's really a good idea.