In response to you final paragraph...
Verant made life very very difficult for themselves when they raised the
level cap to 60. Keep in mind that all of EQ was designed for levels 1-50
prior to Kunark. Upping the level cap involved far more than simply giving
the classes a balanced skill/ability set post 50. MoB experience tables,
resistances, abilities, levels, etc throughout Norrath needed to be (and
still need to be) adjusted in order to accommodate the 50+ crowd. The
imminent changes to the planes, and the change to Naggy and Vox are examples
of this. I would expect changes to be made in Sol B and LGuk eventually as
well. And they still have a long way to go. With specifically class balance
in mind, I think the only thing that really makes no sense to me is not
raising the monks hand to hand skill cap to be equal to their 1hb and 2hb
weapon caps. What they have done is virtually eliminate Hand to Hand
fighting in the game. I know a lvl 52 Iksar Monk who has NEVER trained Hand
to Hand unless he was on a cr. He says his skill is about 40 or so. That
speaks VOLUMES about the redirection our class has taken since the
expansion.
The initial design of the class, according to Verant, prevents them from
doing many things (like gloves with procs). What they were able to do, was
make wielding a weapon an attractive alternative. IMHO, it is a cheap and
easy way (not to mention a cop out) to make sure we are still on par with
damage dealing when compared to Warriors. From where I sit, rather than
spend the time and resources to upgrade and balance the Monk class
correctly, they took the shortest route and abandoned their initial vision
for the class. Personally, I have been playing a monk since day 1 of
release. I had somewhere between 0 and 50 skill in 1 hb and 2 hb at level 47
when Kunark was released (perhaps slightly higher in 1hb, I forget). To
suddenly shift the focus of the class away from hand to hand was a HUGE
mistake. Had I known that in order to maintain my status as a Human DoT I
would need weapon skills, I would have been training them from level 1, as
it was a pain in the butt to raise 2hb from 0 and not have whatever group I
was in get ticked off for carrying me.
In the end though, I look at it one way, and one way only... Do I still love
playing my monk? You betcha :) And that, in the end, is the only question
that really needs to be answered.
Do you still love playing your monk? :)
Praelor
-----Original Message-----
From:
ibnalnoor@... [mailto:
ibnalnoor@...]
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2000 10:17 PM
To:
EQ-Monks@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [EQ-Monks] Crescent Armor
I would have to agree that it would depend upon the situation, but with
my weight as it is I try not to carry any extras. Most of the time the
Clerics I have been with have not even used CH on me since from what they
have said I just do not have the HPs to make it to its optimum mana
efficiency. I do not claim to know anything about a Cleric's business so I
will not say anything more on that.
I do know that most of the time recently I have not been aggroed the
most in my group. Get a good warrior or even any other real tank and they
will keep the mobs off you. When I have died the extra 135hps would not have
made jack for a difference. Those times being like when FD failed while
trying to split a spawn and times of the like. I mean when I have a Froggy
Wiz out there blasting my socks off for two bubs a nuke and knights popping
me for 100+ with double hits 135hps is not going to make a ton of
difference.
In places where the mobs have SO many HPs and hit SO hard I would much
rather do my little extra part in hitting that mob a little harder or a
little more often. I have long given up the thought that I am a tank. Any
Monk who thinks himself a tank is delusional. We do not have the HPs to be a
tank and no amount of HPs from Equipment is going to make the difference in
that. Now if you started talking about 100 or maybe even 75 for one piece of
Equipment I could see the difference.
Unless something is going to dramaticly shift the balance of power I am
not a primary meat wall. I am a damage dealer for the group. This is
actually one of my primary gripes about the Monk class. We have so much
fewer HPs then the primary tank classes and our damage output is only
marginally better I question the true value of a Monk in a group. Though in
the end I must accept my role as damage dealer and freak puller so therefore
I must side with STR items as my mainline equipment. Afterall once the spawn
is broken the Warriors or other mainline tank classes can then do a much
better job of pulling then a Monk. Being able to wait longer before needing
a heal and thus being able to build up the aggro list much higher.
This leads me to a question for all of you. Before Kunark came out
Verant said Monks were balanced with the other classes. Yes, the other
classes had much better AC for their planes armor but this was balanced out
by our much higher defensive skill caps. Well, since Kunark the new armors
for the other classes came out with insane AC and their skill caps sky
rocketed up to almost our level. We have recieved nothing. If we were
balanced before all this enhancing of the other melee classes what does that
mean now? Does this make sense to anyone out there and if it does please
explain to me.
Ibnalnoor
53rd level Monk