This was a first.

Price of steel mission, monk advertising looking for people, so I join. It's a group of 3 monks already, so my hydromancer is feeling pretty good about his survival chances.

Lo and behold, two more monks join.

It was me and 5 monks. Wierd. (Think the 105 build is influencing peoples choices?)

No one was in invincimode yet, but they were all still growing... the quest went easily, btw.

Just thought I'd share... it was different.

Also, I keep hearing that you want to use fire vs the Undead, yet my Hydromancer was dealing some fairly significant damage vs undead critter, taking as much as a third to a half off their life bars, with maelstrom dropping entire groups. Anyone else ever use the water skills vs the undead, or is fire the "standard" way to go?

i didn't think undead had an elemental weakness (apart from against holy)... i think fire is suggested because undead tend to come in large groups and fire is the standard crowd control line.
its cool in an all monk team... very few people die... a lot of enemies die... and against undead?... ohhh momma!

Yeah - try holy damage against undead. Balthazar's Aura, Symbol of Wrath and Shield of Judement decimate them by the hoards.

True, true, but for a E/N my holy damage dealing is somewhat... limited. While I may master the elements and emjoy a smattering of death magic skills (hey, add putrid explosion to a hydromancer, instant AOE!), the gods tend to ignore my requests for aid.

Well based on typical RPGs, undead are weak against fire and holy attacks. So I presume the stereotype continued in people's minds for this game as well.

Maelstrom is an Area of effect Spell, and that is why fire is so popular in PVE.
It is even better than many fire spells, as it does good damage and interrupts any spellcasting.
But is only one spell, and the other water skills have little other effects besides "slowed for x seconds"...
(Ward against hamr is great though! )

Sure, but I like to also take blurred vision and ward vs melee, which together almost make me feel like tanking. Besides, the cold spells...ice shard, ice spike (i think... good damage, limited AOE...) and ice spear, with a high water mark, do deal some real damage. Although Ice Spear requires you to be close enough to smell their b.o., it's a rapid fire damage dealer.

What is the 105 build? This is not the first time I saw that mentioned.

It is a monk with 105hp from 5 sup runes that uses protective bond, which means ~5 dmg per hit from any monster. Combined with things like mending and bal's it is an insanely strong build in specific situations (ie against melee only).

However if the 105 monk ever gets disenchanted and killed, you won't be resing him any time soon

This is probably because your enemies are hitting Frenzy.

That would be a viable explanation for the warriors, however I tend to target the more problemsome ones, necrid horsemen, casters and the like.