Advice for low to mid-level monks

[darkstrike]

Monk is a great class. You have high saves, good dps, and can be a good support character as well. This, however, does not make you superman. 4/5 monks I've seen in the lower levels run off and cowboy it up. They'll just save from the traps, find the mobs, kill them, then hot dog it to the boss and solo him, right? WRONG. I don't care if you can solo stuff, I don't care if you save from MOST traps. Mid level and Elite difficulty traps can very easily 1-2 shot you.

Do you know how often people remember who topped the kill chart? Very rarely. Do you know how often they remember someone who runs off and dies because he was impatient or thought he was hot stuff? Every time. I will get out of a party with a superman asap, and they're going to the bottom of my heal list. You're going to die less, you will complete quests faster, gain more exp, favor and loot if you stick with your party.

For the monks that already do this: Good job, and join my party anytime

[reddragon56]

Personally I have only delt with wizards that do that.

Of course, they were all pot-heads soooo....

[manfredshw]

I thought monks are born to neutralize enemies.
I will stick to my style anyhow. Zerg ahead, neutralize one, kill the other in a blink.

[dontcare123]

My monk is 17 now (damned altitus), and I think I can remember 1 occasion that an elite trap killed him.

Given that ive got about 6-7 pages of elite completions on the quest log, Id say that would rank somewhere in the 1% or lower of traps I have to worry about.

My monk is not uber equipped, but well equipped. The only time I worry is when there are a ton of trolls and giants swinging **** around for 40-50 damage a hit and they get their 20 on every side of the dice out.

Let me guess, you are a flower sniffer? You want everyone to wait while you disarm that trap even after full bonus and its completely irrelavent? Or perhaps you want to get conquest on low level quests where you gain a whopping 90 xp more? Maybe youre the cleric who thinks that monk needs you?

In higher level play on elite, you MIGHT be on to something, but go back to my first line. Monks can get comparitively high AC at almost any level, so that monk you are whining about either a) is a good monk and doesnt care that you are even in the dungeon, or b) saw a monk like type a) and thinks he can do it too, in which case you have reason to complain.

[SolarDawning]

@OP:
Remind me not to group with you.
If the rest of the group is sniffing flowers, and doesn't know what they're doing, and if I'm capable of soloing the mobs, and clearing the way ahead of the group, I do so. I often don't feel like spending an hour on a quest that only takes 20 minutes.

If the quest is on normal or hard, and the group isn't going at a fast pace, then why am I in the group at all? I could solo it with less difficulty and danger due to dungeon scaling, and with much less time spent.

And please, don't worry about healing me. I pack more than enough healing for myself already.

[rest]

Luckily my monk only grouped for raids on his rise to 20, so I didn't have to worry about hurting anyone's feeling by "supermanning".

Hit 1750 favor at level 16, so I did plenty of stuff on elite.

[darkstrike]

No, I'm not a flower sniffer. I like a group that sticks together as a group because things always work more smoothly that way, yet moves as quickly as possible. I've never cared overly much about optionals, and I typically just want conquest and ransack bonuses, but never go out of my way to get bonuses except in longer quests (Gwylan's, Stormcleave, raids, etc). I'm typically the cleric, and when the monk runs off, and then there's another hot dog going off in another direction, or some idiot who CAN'T make saves and is just following the person on his screen, healing gets quite...stupid. I would, however, rather go through a quest slowly and everyone stay alive than zerging and then we have to re enter because nobody was near a shrine, and people quit because they can't handle 1 death. I PUG most groups.

If you can run off and survive, fine and dandy. Don't expect a heal, and don't expect anyone to hurry up to ressurect you. But you do help group survival if you stay with the group (heck, most people need to know where to go, you could lead them). And in case it wasn't obvious from what I am saying, this is addressed to the hot dogs that DO die, that run off into the wild blue yonder on a quest they've never done, and tend to start whining about the party at that point, and like I said, about 4/5 of the monks I party with. This isn't addressed to the self-sufficient monk, or the one willing to learn a new quest, and one that goes into a quest with a good attitude.

[Xeriphim]

ever since ddo went with the free to play format . I've despised an loathed pugging . It's more effcient to solo the dungeon with dungeon scaling , or to run it with guild mates . If I need to have an extra body in the quest then I'll take a hireling cleric . Why ? Simple ... the hireling cleric doesn't whine moan or complain because they are incapable of keeping up to a fast moving monk . When I know I've got a rough fight ahead then having that cleric parked safely back and out of the fight works wonders . I get some bad luck an die .... well the pocket hireling casts raise dead an go to plan B .

The downsides to this is that there are a few quests that require 3 to 4 people in a group so certain parts of a quest can be completed like in necropolis .Those quests you just don't run solo .

Why do this ? Easy , I've found most the pugs out there lack skill , lack a desire to follow directions . The hirelings don't argue , back talk and do what you ask them to do . An sadly most the hireling clerics tend to be better then most player clerics I've encountered in pugs .