You mean, monks do NOT get an ability called Wooden Crutch Breaks the Leg, or Deadly Rooster Peck??

WTF?!?!? We need to talk to Brad asap about this!   

I like the way you think.

Although that part about kittens is rather puzzling.   

While the system may have been designed to use specials, who says how reliant you're supposed to be on those specials from a purely damage perspective though? In other words, should the player rely mostly on auto-attack for damage with a few specials sprinkled in to add supplemental damage output, or should they rely on specials to function for as much damage as possible and consider auto-attack damage as the real supplement?

The former player may not be as "active" in a fight and may need to monitor available Jin points but will probably never run out of Endurance. The latter player will be a spamming machine hovering near the Jin max almost all the time but at the expense of constantly waiting for Endurance to regen to finish off fights.

The former player will also see a bigger benefit from mods directly affecting attack speed, such as +melee haste items. The latter player will probably see a bigger benefit from mods directly affecting specials, such as +crit rate items.

I'm not sure there is a right answer to that question. Or perhaps there is one but I'm not sure we as a community have enough data posted yet to truly know for sure which way ultimately works best. This is why it's so important for people to parse their damage and post the results (and yes, I've been slacking here myself   ). You simply can't determine any of this by simply eye-balling a few hits here and there.

Let's not forget that specials also provide utility in that they add Jin, which is a mechanic that other classes don't have (although they may have something similar in concept but a different implementation than ours for monks). The perceived benefit of this utility though is certainly debatable and again, largely depends on play-style, stances used, etc.

In the end, the easiest method for Sigil to use in balancing monk's overall damage output is through auto-attack and not specials. It's simply more controllable/predictable than specials are. Available Jin, available Endurance, interrupts, player choice in which specials they utilize, etc. are a few too many variables to consider when trying to balance DPS otherwise.

32 monk here on Shidreth.

Imagine if it was named North Trunk Breaks Wind. 

32 monk here currently using Corrupt Golem Carver + Nilar's Claws most of the time and Bladestaff of the Vine as my 2Her.

That's just it though. Starting at 28, the entire area is a fantastic XP spot. You can solo, group, AE group, there's great coin drops, armor drops, candle drops, rune drops, you're really close to an outpost, the content is there to last into your high 30s at least. In other words, treat it like an XP spot and any faction as gravy and I think you'd be happy.

I'm currently 32 and planning to spend at least the next 5-6 levels here, and not so much because of faction anymore either. Knowing what I know now, it's just that good, IMO.

If possible, join a group with a sorcerer and AE. And if you can get 2 of them in group, the faction rolls in very quickly.

One of the sorcerers I was grouped with last night said he did something like 4K faction points in about 2 hours with another sorcerer in his group the day before.

(in order to be fair  )

- you successfully FD in a pack of 8 mobs
- 3K+ crits!
- an item drops that is an upgrade and everyone in group passes in your favor
- soloing 2 dots and a rare item unexpectedly drops
- grouping with 2 sorcerers. AE city FTW!!
- seeing the mob's health drop in half because of Thundering Fists
- a weapon priced at 3g in Qalia and 3.25g in Thestra is priced at 10s on Kojan. Yay me! ;-)
- you realize a fight will be so close, it will come down to who gets the last hit...and you get it
- the RNG loves you so much that inside of 30 minutes, you feel the need to start passing on all drops
- joining a PUG that you think will be terrible, but actually turns out to be alot of fun
- you remember right after wiping deep inside a dungeon that the healer gave you a rezz stone
- having an insurmountable number of mobs in camp, but somehow finding a way to win with no deaths. LOVE that!

- waiting for Thousand Fists to trigger and when it finally does, you miss the mob
- mobs corpse-camp you after a successful FD with 3% health left
- you realize a fight will be so close, it will come down to who gets the last hit...and the mob gets it
- halfway through soloing a mob after successfully splitting it, you get jumped by a roamer, forcing you to FD
- halfway through soloing a mob after successfully splitting it, you get trained, forcing you to FD
- your Thousand Fists/Thundering Fists combo triggers the split second before you trigger Crescent Kick or Ashen Hand
- thinking Ignore Pain will save you in a close fight...only to see the healed health gone again the next hit
- LFG for hours
- shouting LFG in channel...only to see another player of your same class but 3 levels higher do the same immediately after you
- searching for an hour for a healer before finally taking one 4 levels lower than the group...only to have another healer equal to the group's level shout LFG two minutes later
- getting group or loot bugged
- camping an item for hours only to have a new person join the group, and promptly win the item when it finally drops 10 minutes later
- the RNG hates you so much that you lose every roll for hours
- the RNG hates you so much that you miss more than you hit
- traveling 45 minutes to reach a PUG...only for them to decide they're breaking up 5 minutes after you get there
- joining a group/guild that relies entirely on ventrillo for ALL communication
- camping a spot for an hour to finally see a named pop...only to have another group that just showed up grab him first
- getting the first 3 items in a quest inside of 15 minutes, but still looking for the last item 2 days later
- you realize the quest you've been working on is actually broken
- settings don't save as they should (hood DOWN dammit!)


Anyone else got some to share? 

More than likely, it was probably just a bad run for you. Remember, the RNG can be very evil sometimes.

No idea yet on where it comes from but I can add it to the armor thread tomorrow.

I'll continue to update as I can. Please limit any submissions to only those items that are part of a complete set.

Wardship of the Sleeping Moon  Level 30 - requires faction

Drane's Boots
Soulbound
Feet Medium Armor
86 Armor Class
+8 Strength
+8 Dexterity
+87 Hit Points
Weight: 1.00 Item Level: 36
Required Class: Monk

Drane's Gloves
Soulbound
Hands Medium Armor
95 Armor Class
+8 Strength
+8 Dexterity
+76 Hit Points
Item Level: 36
Required Class: Monk

Drane's Helm
Soulbound
Head Medium Armor
95 Armor Class
+8 Strength
+8 Dexterity
+76 Hit Points
Weight: 1.50 Item Level: 36
Required Class: Monk

Drane's Belt
Soulbound
Waist Medium Armor
92 Armor Class
+8 Strength
+8 Dexterity
+18 Hit Points
+2 Melee Haste
Weight: 1.00 Item Level: 35
Required Class: Monk

Drane's Bracers
Soulbound
Wrists Medium Armor
69 Armor Class
+6 Strength
+6 Dexterity
+55 Hit Points
Weight: 1.50 Item Level: 35
Required Class: Monk

Drane's Reinforcement
Soulbound
Arms Medium Armor
92 Armor Class
+8 Strength
+8 Dexterity
+74 Hit Points
Weight: 2.00 Item Level: 35
Required Class: Monk

Drane's Leggings
Soulbound
Legs Medium Armor
234 Armor Class
+20 Strength
+37 Kick
+20 Dexterity
+64 Hit Points
+1 Critical Melee Hit Chance
Weight: 4.50 Item Level: 37
Required Class: Monk

Drane's Vest
Soulbound
Chest Medium Armor
293 Armor Class
+25 Strength
+46 Dodge
+25 Dexterity
+35 Hit Points
+1 Melee Damage
+1 Critical Melee Hit Chance
Weight: 7.00 Item Level: 37
Required Class: Monk


Coterie Infineum Sanctuary  Level 20 - requires quest/access

Forged Infineum Chain Belt
Bindable
Waist Medium Armor
79 Armor Class
+14 Dexterity
+18 Mental Resistance
+18 Hit Points
Weight: 1.00 Item Level: 30

Forged Infineum Chain Boots
Bindable
Feet Medium Armor
79 Armor Class
+7 Strength
+18 Physical Resistance
+7 Dexterity
+18 Hit Points
Weight: 2.00 Item Level: 30

Forged Infineum Chain Bracers
Bindable
Wrists Medium Armor
59 Armor Class
+2 Strength
+8 Dexterity
+14 Spirit Resistance
+13 Hit Points
Weight: 1.00 Item Level: 30

Forged Infineum Chain Gloves
Bindable
Hands Medium Armor
79 Armor Class
+18 Arcane Resistance
+4 Melee Haste
Weight: 2.00 Item Level: 30

Forged Infineum Chain Greaves
Bindable
Legs Medium Armor
158 Armor Class
+9 Strength
+18 Dexterity
+54 Hit Points
+1 Endurance Regeneration
Weight: 4.00 Item Level: 30

Forged Infineum Chain Helm
Bindable
Head Medium Armor
79 Armor Class
+10 Dexterity
+1 Evasion
Weight: 3.00 Item Level: 30

Forged Infineum Chain Pauldrons
Bindable
Shoulders Medium Armor
79 Armor Class
+18 Fire Resistance
+14 Dexterity
+18 Hit Points
Weight: 2.00 Item Level: 30

Forged Infineum Chain Reinforcements
Bindable
Arms Medium Armor
79 Armor Class
+7 Strength
+7 Dexterity
+18 Cold Resistance
+18 Hit Points
Weight: 2.00 Item Level: 30

Forged Infineum Chainmail
Bindable
Chest Medium Armor
198 Armor Class
+11 Strength
+30 Dodge
+23 Dexterity
+1 Melee Accuracy
Weight: 6.00 Item Level: 30

I could potentially see the argument that high Wisdom = increased chance to detect what opponents are doing in combat as well as an increased chance to counter them (I.e., counterattacks), but the problem is that there's no real way to determine how much of a benefit there is. Well, outside of a long series of parses between monks with various degrees of wisdom. Consititution on the other hand has a direct tangible benefit in the form of additional HPs. And HPs = survivability, especially in raid and absolutely in solo situations.

As for Vitality, in-combat health regen sounds nice in theory but in games like this, usually provide marginal benefit due to mobs that hit for hundreds or thousands at a time. At least they made it %-based in VG rather than hard numbers like they did in EQ. Regardless, I suspect the only benefit this will have is if you're able to put enough into it such that in-combat regen can get in the 200-300% range and even then, it's probably only useful in soloing.

Just my thoughts.

Interesting stuff. Thanks for posting.

Can you perhaps give a little more info on the parse? Was this 10 fights? 100 fights? 1 hour, 5 hours, etc?

Also, what style Monk are you? And did the others in group know that you were parsing such that they gave you an honest run?