User:BlazeRick/RA

If you have been linked to this page, you probably have had the joy of getting yelled at by either myself or another player better than yourself. Please take time to read this, so you can improve at playing Gild Wors and can stop annoying the shit out of your teammates. Thanks!

Health

There is nothing quite more annoying for a Monk than to redbar. If you don't know what is meant by redbarring; it's all in the word really. Redbarring is when you do nothing but try and fill the red bars in your Party Formation window (usually done out of necessity or because of inexperience).
When a player has as low health as you have, you are a waste of your Monk's energy and time. Energy because redbarring is expensive and time because they will not have time to cast any utility or prots on you or other team members.
You can avoid this by using Survivor Insignias. There are some exceptions: Elementalists use Blessed Insignias; Mesmers use Prodigy's; Monks use Disciple's; Paragons use Centurion's and Warriors with a knockdown on their bar should carry a Stonefist Insignia. You should also carry a defensive set with the damage reduction modifications of the greatest damage source you are facing: when facing a Fire Elementalist and a Warrior, use one with Warding on your mainhand and "Sleep Now in the Fire" on your shield; when facing two Axe Warriors, use one with Defense and "The Riddle of Steel".

Kiting

As you may or may not have noticed, the links in this article redirect to pages with more information on what I am talking about. They are there to emphasise my point and help you become a better player. Basically everything I'd like to say in this section is explained in the article linked in this heading.
But it can all be bottled down to: move the hell away from big things hitting you in the face!

Self heal

Gild Wors' base concept is simple, really. When you want to kill something, you dedicate your bar to dealing damage. When you want to keep your party members alive, you dedicate your bar to healing and protection. When you want to help your teammates out, you bring skills with utility. Etcetera.
Although it may seem smart to bring a self heal into Random Arenas (because lolMonks), it is not. You have a Monk. These bald fellas have a whole bar of 6-8 skills dedicated to keeping your ass from dying. When you try to do the same, you become more and more ineffective with every skillslot you waste on a self heal. You are useless when standing there for three seconds trying to get something of an inferior Healing Breeze going when your Monk can heal you for more in less time. Same goes for practically killing yourself, beastiality and stalling the inevitable. You are a damage dealer. You deal damage.
Disclaimer: do not confuse the concept of self heals with utility skills that happen to heal the user.

PvX Wiki

There is nothing wrong with using builds that can be found on the PvX Wiki. If you think you look smart for calling people out on using a build that happens to be published there, you are about as smart as the people contributing to said site. There is no originality in Gild Wors. There are builds that work and there are builds that do not work (yours, probably). Builds that work get more attention. Builds get even more attention by posting them on beforementioned site.
Heck, the game even has a system implemented in order to copy builds from players better than you.
Just make sure that when you do run a build from PvX Wiki, it's one from the PvP section.

Ritualists

Do not roll a Ritualist. They are inferior to Monks and have no real capabilities of dealing damage. Ritualists are Flag runners and HA Support. Nothing more.
Smiters are also not useful.

Target

There are people (like yourself) that spam an enemy Monk as their target, trying to get your party to follow your target. It is not always the best idea to go for the Monk first. Monks expect you to do so and come prepared with a bar in order to avoid your attacks or to rend you useless.
Build pressure (or Adrenaline even) on other targets. When you see that the Monk is having trouble, switch to the Monk and kill them within seconds. There are two reasons to do this. The first is that Monks have but a limited energy pool and time window. They cannot heal forever and they certainly cannot heal everyone at the same time. The second is that other targets may have a higher priority than getting rid of the opposing Monk. Such as interrupting a Mesmer or blinding a Warrior.

Forfeit

Most players play Random Arenas to get some quick battles done. Wasting time is not what they have come for.
When you have more than one Monk on your team, it is usually considered good sportsmanship to resign. This will save time for all of the players involved and moreso, teams that you face that happen to be on a streak will not potentially get screwed over just because you got a lucky interrupt or kill after nine minutes of play.
Be mindful of others. Just resign when the outcome looks futile.

Interrupts

Interrupting skills is fun. I too manically laugh my ass off irl every time I DChop a WoH or PLeak a Veil.
However. Some players (a.k.a. baddies) think that as long as they have the maximum number of interrupts possible equipped or by using their interrupts on recharge they'll eventually catch something, and be good at interrupting. NO! You are bad! You are a bad, BAED Ranger (or Mes)!

Pets

There are certain niche builds like the Thumper and the Spearchucker that require an animal companion. Apart from these few builds, pets are ab-so-lute-ly useless. They do not add "DPSLOL" and they are not the least complimenting to an Elementalist or Warrrior. Also, stop trying to be cute with your silly Beast Master. People (most of them, I hope) are not stupid and will soon enough realise that your only damage is coming from that overgrown mutt and will get rid of it quicker than killing a Frenzy Healsig IW Mesmer.
As a rule of thumb, bringing a pet into PvP is essentially wasting two of your skillslots.

Elisa Bowguard

Stop feeding him.

Energy

Energy is a huge part of Gild Wors. Energy management moreso.
You do not magically get more efficient energy management just because you have more energy available. You will still use skills at the same rate as you would with a smaller energy pool (maybe you can spam Flare less, but yeah...). So lose the Radiant Insignias and get rid of your Insightful Staff of WTFEnergy too.
Here's what you do; weapon sets. If you have been reading the sections above, you have probably already heard about a defensive set. This defensive set can be used as a low energy set by inscribing your mainhand with a "Brain over Brawns" Insciption. You switch to your 40/40 (or Enchanting set) to cast spells and you switch back to your defensive set right after. This not only preserves your energy, but your Monk's as well. You will not get hurt by Debilitating Shot or Energy Burn and your Monk will not hurt you for getting oneshot.
Click here for more information about weapon swaps.
If you cannot manage your energy with a low set like you did with full Radiant, you should look at your build and improve it in order to do so.
Oh, and yeah. Stop rolling Elementalists, acting like a Monk. It is a retarded concept. It is not effective.

Stop yelling at your Monk

It is not always their fault. After a loss, step back and take a look at what has happened. Were you not kiting enough? Did the Monk get wtfpwned by the two Mesmers on the other team chaining Shame? Did you get wtfpwned for Frenzying through Empathy? Were you trying to cast through their Monk's Veil instead of diverting their BSurge?
There are so many things that can make your team lose the match and it's more often something else, rather than the Monk's capabilities or skill. Look back at the match and try to improve based on your observations.

Stop using bad skills

There are quite a few skills brought to RA that are ridiculously popular for some reason but are also ridiculously bad.
Some of these skills are: Flare; Healing Breeze; Mystic Regeneration; Healing Touch; Illusionary Weaponry; Glyph of Restoration; Elemental Attunement; Disrupting Shot; Charm Animal; Endure Pain; Flashing Blades; Power Attack; etc.
I could go on for a while, but you get the idea.
Stop using these skills. They are bad.
If you have trouble finding skills that actually work, go have a look at the builds posted on the PvX Wiki.

Let them come to you

When your party consists of more than one ranged profession, you should wait and let them come to you. Your team will be at an advantage by being able to cast spells or shoot arrows or throw spears at them before they can even reach you. When they have one of them silly Ritualists, pooping out ethereal apparitions, you should also wait. Don't worry, given you and your team have the patience, you will be on the upper hand for the entire match.


I hope this little project has been useful to you and will help you be better at Gild Wors. GG and GL.