Isn't duel wield a LOT more dmg than 2-handers?
This is my experience from comparing Bladed staff of devastation with Handwrap of striking.

I've been experimenting with a monk solo build. Please comment what you think.

Race: Orc (the racial ability is essentially a full heal/second life)
Style: Harmonious ( for defensive stance/diamond skin + dmg reducing debuffs)
Active abilities: Aum Ti, Secret of Ice, Defensive stance, Iron Hand. (Optional/circumstancial: RiTw, Find the Centre, Swaying Step, Iron Skin, Ignore Pain)
Gear; Martial Sword (nice parry to proc -50%dmg debuff)
         Crafted +evasion gear, always Qalian style (self heal proc)
         3 or 4 Pariah's Boon of Health items (boon of health stacks with qalian self heal proc for some impressive self heals)
         A few pieces of +mitigation gear/jewellery wouldn't hurt either.

(To be specific i use the Lord's Sword of Unity, all T5 Flawless crafted gear, and the "tank" set of lucent jewellery.
Melee evasion sits at around 60%, and melee mit about 25%. Heal procs EVERY attack for 60 hp.)

I was dragon until lvl 50, and remember the long down-times (waiting for hp to regen/cooldowns to end) when trying to farm 3-dots for instance. While i'm not sure such a defensive build is achievable at lower levels...i think something along these lines may increase the speed of solo xping.
I originally made this build for pulling in Apw, but tested it in Thelaseen while farming for Motes of Ancient Power and found i could solo tank 4x 4dots there comfortably!
The other night in a crypt group at Ikwazon the dread knight had to leave so i thought i'd have a shot as MT i killed all the 4 lucents at the crypt entrance area so i could use AoEs, then just tanked each wave by spamming Whirling Storm and/or AoE finisher chain. Not saying it's possible to solo all 3 at once , i had some nice buffs and 2 healers on my back, but my HP went down much less than any plate-tanker and held aggro on all 3 at all times. Get the gear i have and try a lvl 50 4dot in flordiel for instance. It put a whole new perspective on monks for me.

You can make some useful macros involving /wear ... /combatformset ... to quickly switch between defensive and offensive gear set-ups.
I hope this helps you with your decision Zealots.

In APW all the creatures are level 53, you won't believe the Fd fail rate, think my record is 7 in a row (will take + post a screenshot next time ^^). Nothing is more annoying and makes you look more noobish when trying to split, and the mobs just run up and hammer your face in 
When you try to lose aggro in fights with a quick FD..but it fails 5 times, you've essentially lost loads of hate anyway from being out of the fight so long.
As far as lore goes, don't monks stop their own hearts and brain waves to appear dead? so it should be 100% success rate
Nah just kidding, we're lucky at all to have FD what a great ability, i certainly wouldn't trade it for sneak/invis.

Sorry if this is patronising, but.....aren't you supposed to "fight" with the big stone block statue thingy. It doesn't take damage but you do, fights cuts out at about 5% hp or so, with a quest update.
And then it is time to spend 15 minutes meditating 

As an orc - harmonious monk, i've never got this.
Not sure if race/style has anything to do with it, but hope this helps

-While leveling up i found most of the heroic+ quest rewards are Bladed Staff, so i had max skill in that.
 
-At lvl 50 i use Handwraps since it seems to be the fighting set-up that yields most raw damage.

-If you ever want to tank martial sword adds loads of evasion, and with a good defensive mit/evasion gear set up you will tank with the best of them (almost) although won't hold aggro quite as well as a decent tank.

Martial staff seems to be a poor man's bladed staff in most situations, and same for knuckles/claws relative to handwraps.
And of course skill up your shuriken/thrown skill 
Always remember: REAL men fight with their hands not with sticks 

Hi everyone (quick introduction - i'm simonson a harmo monk from xeth)

I'd just like to mention something i have noticed whilst raiding as monk.
We are of course useful for pulling, debuffing and perhaps CC in some situations, but are we in fact the highest dps class? 
With the significant amount of buffs you get...if you are well geared, and just go "all out", you will draw aggro from the tank....or rather non-monk dps classes would. With a few well placed FDs we can basically maintain an almost maximum damage output.
I'm sure other dps classes (rogue, sorc, whatever) can get more burst dps at times but their de-taunts just don't compare to FD.

So i pose the question: Is monk objectively the most dps in a raid?