Strength will give you an overall better DPS, whatever the class. For Monks especially, as the finishers (depending maybe on the spec) do not add any useful buff / debuff, only more damage. (Some other classes have more interesting finishers, like Bards with a 2s stun.)
But Dex also adds more defence to Monks.

Personally, I go with the best items I find, with the highest Str or Dex bonus, not favoring either. Both are good.

Excellent changes.

^That is going to be awesome.

About the RitW nerf... I think they are (AGAIN) overdoing is. Two minutes is a long time for that kind of ability, especially given the cost. But right now, it's obviously overpowered.
It's still on Test. Try to offer suggestion as to how RitW should be nerfed. Because it has to be. Refresh is not the only option. End cost increase, imo, wouldn't be great. You couldn't use it in the middle of a fight.

The big problem right now is that, by design, mana regen was at one time very slow. Casters were supposed to have Burst DPS to burn down a mob and then meditate for a while. Melees had a lower but much more consistant DPS and were able to go on forever.
Later, they improved the mana regen out of fights by a huge margin. Honestly, it was needed, having to regen mana for 5 minutes is anything but fun. But they didn't nerf the burst DPS capability of casters. Now, they can burst. And then burst again. And again, and again. They don't have any down time as long as you single pull.
On a single mob, in regular settings (4-5dots mob, with a full group), the only thing holding back a Sorcerer's DPS is his aggro. If he burns his mana down, he's going to outdamage the melees easily, by a lot.
In this situation, it's not balanced.

But you have to consider other situations. If you pull 3 to 5 mobs, the Sorcerer will have to pace himself or he'll be OoM after the first mob. In raids, it should balance out as well, as fights should be longer. Even on single group boss mobs (5 to 6 dots), I believe it balances out.

All in all, I believe it's pretty balanced. It hardly matters on single pulls.

Nice list. 90% agree, except for the Lull. There's already Nerve Strike and FD. And eventually, knowing the Sigil guys, 99% of the high level mobs will be immune to Lull.

Also, a mistake, I think:
You cannot dual wield Parrying Daggers. They work *exactly* like a Shield. +AC, +Stats and +Parry, no Dmg / Dly.They are not weapons, and they are off-hand only. But I agree with the "king" part.

Thanks Quinn. Next things to check with him:
-Counterattacks being useless (shouldn't cost endurance at all for Stinging Backfist, and much less for the debuff.)
-The Drunken stance nerf: if they don't want it to be give more avoidance than 10%, at least add something else. 10% dodge and -10% accuracy is not interesting.

Finally some good news.

Now, at least, it can start moving forward. Good luck Quinn, my monkey senses tell me it won't be easy.

The Stagger is not a real effect, it's a Weakness / Vulnerability.
If you follow it with Crescent Kick, CK will do 2x more damage or something.

SP followed by CK is the best special attack combo for a Drunken Monk. More dmg, more Jin, less End cost than spamming Boundless Fist or BF + CK.

I'm pissed about the nerfs and everything, but to be fair, it has nothing to do with Disciples. We are not competing with Disciples in any manner. Their FD has a 1 minute recast and a limited duration.

Well, I have plenty of thoughts on this. If you've played an EQ1 Monk, you must know of the past record of Brad McQuaid and his evil minions. They still have a lot of nerfing to do before the game gets bland enough for his taste. Rumor is that Brad only likes 2 things: bland classes that all feel equally useless and underpowered and live puppy burgers.
Seriously, they are NOT going to have a real look at class balance before months. They are only going to nerf whatever looks overpowered from a distance and leave the players to feel sorry until expansion#4. EQ1 Ranger after release. EQ1 Paladin until Luclin. Oh, and yeah, Alchemy is not broken.

Wasn't the nerf of Drunken even worse?

Anyway, right now, I don't really feel like playing a Monk at all.

It's...
I...
Seriously, I...

Why?

Is there a point to our Counterattacks? Shouldn't they cost very little energy, or no energy at all?

1) Counterattacks only happen after a Dodge. They are a pretty rare occurence, much rarer than finishing moves.
2) They don't stay up very long, maybe half the time of a finishing move.
3) They don't trigger finishing moves when you crit on them.
4) They don't add Jin.
5) They cost a lot of endurance.

Examples (at level 8, with bare fists):

- Boundless Fist II - A powerful attack that deals melee damage plus 34 damage (Increases Jin by 1) - 24 End
- Stinging Backfist I - Counterattack your opponent, quickly backhanding for 46 to 52 damage - 27 End

They both do pretty much the same damage. The only difference is that Boundless Fist costs less energy, triggers Flying Kick, gives 1 Jin and is up all the time.

Then, at level 18, you get Quivering Palm I - Strikes your opponent dealing 113 to 123 damage and making their body quiver, lowering damage by 50% for 8 seconds - 54 or 58 End.) A debuff is great and all, but it's almost never up and when it does trigger, I almost never have more than half my endurance available. Even if I had, 8 seconds is not very long and will *never* make a difference. I'll be tanking something I know I'm able to defeat without it, as I cannot count on it to trigger beforehand.

So, is that a known bug? Are those supposed to cost no Endurance to use?

Monks used to receive Stealth in Beta.
The last day of Open Beta, I got Feigh Death AND Sneak at level 14. I was really disappointed at release when I hit 14 again
They gave it to the Rangers. Maybe they don't want to give it to too many classes, or Sneak + FD would be too powerful a combo?