We need to work together as a team but if I as a monk am gonna be told what to play, that is not the team for me.
Yeah, because individually making choices, screaming and stamping your feet saying "YOU CAN'T MAKE ME *leaves*" is being a team player. If you have something against the decision, discuss it. Not pinging your build isn't being a team player, ask everyone else to ping if it makes you feel better, because not only are you being a team player, you're also making sure everyone else is.
In Prophecies, the only required bars for farming in PuGs were for the 5-man SF green farm. UW was more of a solo/duo thing.
In Factions, Anet decided to make certain missions and elite areas require certain skills/tactics (Urgoz required Shadowsteps and NecroticTransversal/ConsumeCorpse, and The Deep required KD's and Recall. Both had rooms that changed tactics)
In Nightfall, certain heroes were required for certain missions. Once DoA came, and the damage was too high for a balanced pug, and templates were able to be seen by groups, exact builds were formulated, and if you didnt run them, you were disregarded from the group. EotN skills (especially Ursan) made it a bit easier to get into a group, but proved too easy to run with.
In GW:EN, when the dungeons came, Permasins and 600/smite groups were able to provide services at a cheap price for a great reward.
Nowadays, people only want to farm in HardMode due to greater rewards, but offered little change to difficulty as it was meant to, thanks to the templates that allow people to Easyway HardMode. And now people think of disaster if the average pugger does not have what they want them to have. The only PuGs left want to farm HardMode to grind titles/loot/weapons, and fun=nonexistant.
I can't think of another reason besides the ones already put forth by multiple members.
That being said, I agree with both gremlin *and* Skyy High. Early in the game, failure at a quest or mission was part of the game, but now, almost 4 years and umpteen-million run-thru's later, failure is much less appealing of an option, especially when ppl are just trying to turbo-boost their way thru another Title-grind.
Meh. I played thru Proph as a W/N Sword-wielding Blood-Mage up until I couldn't Bleed opponents, then I swapped to a W/N Axe-wielding Eater of the Dead to finish it up and start doing FoW. It was hardly the model of efficiency, but it was FUN, and anyone who told me otherwise was summarily /ignored. It wasn't until almost 2 years ago that I decided to try other secondaries on my Warrior, now I swap between them frequently depending on what is needed per area/farming run.
[Word of healing][Infuse health][reversal of fortune][spirit bond][protective spirit][glyph of lesser energy][aegis][resurrection chant] is what I use I find it better and more flexible then Healers boon
As a monk I run the build that I want to run. Not the build that someone else wants me to run. If I join a group and the first thing I see is monk ping your build.. ya know what.. I leave.. I am familiar with my build not theirs. They need me a whole lot more than I need them. We need to work together as a team but if I as a monk am gonna be told what to play, that is not the team for me.
Here's what I've learned about pugging over the years:
1) Ping your build immediately after joining the team, before they have a chance to say "monk ping your build". This makes you look confident in your build and skills. As you should be.
2) If and when you're asked to change the build, politely ask other monks (even ritualists) to ping their builds. Other members will interpret this as a sign of team spirit and desire to improve your chances of success.
3) Adjust your build to the builds of others and make suggestions that improve their builds aswell. Back your suggestions with knowledge of foes you'll be facing.
There's one more thing I do when pugging as monk. It's not the nicest thing to do, but it's a fail-safe mechanism when facing an elitist know-it-all: displaying "Protector of Tyria" or some other low-end title. In times when above listed things didn't help and the only response you're getting is how they know best, you're noob, suck and fail at GW for having one max title, or even getting zranked - press H, scroll down a bit and check God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals. Thank them for their time and leave the team.
Here's what I've learned about pugging over the years:
1) Ping your build immediately after joining the team, before they have a chance to say "monk ping your build". This makes you look confident in your build and skills. As you should be.
2) If and when you're asked to change the build, politely ask other monks (even ritualists) to ping their builds. Other members will interpret this as a sign of team spirit and desire to improve your chances of success.
3) Adjust your build to the builds of others and make suggestions that improve their builds aswell. Back your suggestions with knowledge of foes you'll be facing.
There's one more thing I do when pugging as monk. It's not the nicest thing to do, but it's a fail-safe mechanism when facing an elitist know-it-all: displaying "Protector of Tyria" or some other low-end title. In times when above listed things didn't help and the only response you're getting is how they know best, you're noob, suck and fail at GW for having one max title, or even getting zranked - press H, scroll down a bit and check God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals. Thank them for their time and leave the team.
I just display my gladiator title and they believe i got skills
Factors effecting monk builds:
1) The specific mission or area you’re in. Is it hex heavy, condition heavy, environmental effects, etc.
2) What build is the other healer bringing? The two builds should work together to keep the team in fighting form.
Agree but there is something you left out.
The monk build depends on the total team build and not only on what the other monk brings. For PvE also the environment matters.
I've been solo-monking (hybrid LS) various missions for a guildie because the team had some nasty shutdown for both casters and physicals.
There is no need for skills like Aegis when the foes you are facing are blind most of the time.
The same with hex and condition removal.
Sure, a monk can take care of those. But a mesmer can also take care of hexes (and hurt foes doing so). And a necro can use xxx (the skill in SR I think) that brings all conditions to the necro. Send them away or leave them on the necro while healing him/her up.
For PvE try to have others in the team hurt foes with whatever they cast on your team. Smite hexes/conditions, send conditions back, shatter hexes. Hurt foes. The sole role of the monks here is making sure that people can do their job. Dead people can't, blind melee can't, dazed casters can't.
But Backfire or VoR doesn't make anyone less effective as long as they don't die. Same with empathy or SS.
Ok, this is not common for PUG groups but it might inspire someone
Quote:
Originally Posted by cerick
3) Does the team expect me to rez or not? It is best to cover this before any serious mission.
4) Realize that the perfect build is an opinion, and you can roll with the teams “demand” or not. When it comes to obstinate noob PUG leaders sometimes I’ll ping what ever POS build they want; it only takes 3 seconds to change it back.
I would never change builds.
I challenge the proposed build by giving exact reasons why I think I should not play it. If the leader still demands the build (s)he asked I'll just leave the group. And so would smart players.
[Word of healing][Infuse health][reversal of fortune][spirit bond][protective spirit][glyph of lesser energy][aegis][resurrection chant] is what I use I find it better and more flexible then Healers boon
You don't need to have SB if you already have PS.I would put condition remover and instead of infuse remove hex or cure.I would use rebirth over res chant in real party if not then you can remove your res.
I would never change builds.
I challenge the proposed build by giving exact reasons why I think I should not play it. If the leader still demands the build (s)he asked I'll just leave the group. And so would smart players.
Been there done that. I pulled it on a group in AB. I don't mind explaining my skill choices to you, or conceding things like "OK, if after this round you still don't like it I'll modify the bar."
When it's obvious you're not going to listen, I don't bother.
Probably cuz its pretty good at saving people from stupid mistakes like charging ahead and not kiting....although it does so by being completely inefficient at using energy.
On a similar note, there's another skill that seem to be increasing in use and annoys me to no end...Unyielding Aura. So many monk I see bring the horrid pvx build which can't heal/prot for sh*t, runs out of energy constantly thx to -1 energy regen, and only served to prevent team wipe by constantly rezing while everyone builds up to 60dp....
Here's the biggest problem with pugs they r one of two things. A group of skilled players who know there class and are just looking to go to FoW or UW when there guild isnt. Or you could have the complete oposite, a bunch of morons useing a warrior/ranger tank in HM FoW and expect to clear in under 1 hour without wipe lol. I would know b/c I was in a FoWsc with such a grp and I only stayed b/c I wanted to see them fail. Afterwards I was blamed for not keeping the "tank" alive, and as said b4 I brought out my titles before that they gave me a free 1k so I was happy. But pugs force ppl to play one spacific build b/c when you ping your build and its a WoH hybrid and not HB your a noob and get black listed as a bad monk. Even though u can solo heal HM FoW. I mean seriously with good team of smart players, most likely your guild, you can 5 man HM FoW. Dont get me wrong I've solo healed with HB and WoH and I do like both skills but I think I'll stay true to WoH hybrid b/c that is what I find fun. If they call you noob ect, ect just leave the group and try to find a new one. If you can't find one do something else like complete a campaign or something I'm sure you can find something. If not there's always another day.
Last edited by whitehalo; Mar 09, 2009 at 02:20 AM // 02:20..
I will run w/e is required unless I know my build is better. I prefer WoH, but I haven't pugged anything in a long time. I find heroes are smarter. If I want to DoA, the Deep, or w/e other elite pve area, I'll get friends. It's so much less aggravating to get to know people in game.
Ill run what i want to run, i will accept changes if i have forgotten its a hex heavy area and i have no hex removal. But otherwise, i play what im comfortable with, the builds i run all the time, the builds i have the most experience with. The only time i would play a required build would be for a farm.
HB is a good safe maintainable healing build, plus makes it better for spamming healing party. But to insist that it is and only that in my opinion that is a noob monk. There are plenty of other workable healing monks builds out there IMO
A lot of pve teams will run 1 monk and although prot monks can help to negate damage, they don't make red bars go up as well as a hb/woh does. Prot monks NEED a heal monk to supplement them. Actually heal monks use prot monks as their supplement.
Another note: ppl say oh prot monks are cooler cuz they gotta watch the field. But so do heal monks... At least the good ones do. In this sense heal monks are harder to run than
a prot monk