After numerous lies and unfulfilled promises, I quit. I'm not going to put myself through frustration of someone else lying to me continually and me having to eat it each patch.

The class really gets to me, but what also does is... no high end content. I play MMOs to raid........ and you can't.

Ditto

The changes to Drunken Sway better be pimptastic to nerf our best avoidance skill (13s with a 2 min refresh.. that is absurd!).... and nothing about the stance they jacked up last patch for Drunken.

Sigh.

That's wishing for a lot imo. I'd say you need that type of dmg increase over drunken (but 20% even seems extreme) but I highly doubt you'll get that kind of return when comparing it to harm monks.

I'm not saying you need to please us as I know you are the middle man... but it sure would be nice to know exactly what is going on. The monk world has been in a black hole for a long time.

So, they push out something that wasn't ready... but don't say if they intend to fix it.. what that fix will be.. etc. That is what is frustrating. We get these little nibbles of information from Talsiker and it's just frustrating. Especially to see what he has said in the past and it has not come to fruition.

Anyway.............. I'm sure it's just as frustrating on your end.

This is just enough to tease us.. yet again. No offense to you Quinn.... but since he was suprised, obviously it's not "complete". What is the direction this stance is going to take in a future patch? When is the patch? Just sort of getting tired of getting these little tiny bits of info with no substance.


This seem interesting.. but anytime they say "slightly" it means.. like.. 1%. Also, it seems that they are being counter productive here. A 5% parry chance with a mitigation penalty? /boggle

Someone, anyone, please tell us the direction monks are going. We are so far away from what they said we'd be in beta it's unreal. As well as extremely far from what Talisker himself has stated here (and in beta) about the monk class.

All I can say is, "Sigh"

Sincerely,
A frustrated Drunken monk

Not sure if it was mentioned, but I don't see it in the bug list.

Foolhardy Swagger III (according to the tooltip) is a downgrade from Foolhardy Swagger II. Foolhardy Swagger II has a refresh of 25.5 seconds while Foolhardy Swagger III has a refresh of 30 seconds.

Staggering Punch hasn't been upgraded (again, according to the tooltip) since level 1.

Ummmm... that's the point. Drunken monks chose their stance so they could off-tank but knew it came at a price (lost DPS). This is not the case... we are no off-tank. It almost seems like they are tweaking monks to be generally the same (but going about it in different ways for each stance).

The "it's only on test and can be tweak before it hits live" is a pipe dream. We all know, 99% of what appears on test will make it to live. This is proved yet again with today's patch. So "derailing the train" is pretty much impossible once stuff hits test.

I feel like I'm being strung along by everyone associated with Sigil. "Here's the carrot, go grab it!" Then when we miss, it's like, "HAHA sucker.. got you again!"

My thoughts exactly. Extremely disappointing. In the end, we'll be nerfed and still won't live up to what was advertised when I chose this stance in the first place.

What is better for drunken.

A stance that gives 10% decrease refresh, some hatred, and measly 5% dodge.

Or

A stance that gives 20% dmg bonus and hatred.

Seems like a toss up.

This does nothing for our ability to off-tank.

Since I am a Drunken monk, I should probably follow up with what jojo said from a "tank" point of view, to one where I will normally be just a DPS type monk.

First off, the reason I picked drunken is because my wife plays a cleric, so I thought the extra mitigation would help us in the long run when her and I duo. From about 4:30 - 7:00 her and I will duo. From 7:00 - 11:00, my static group will form. So, I have the luxury of getting a view of both sides. Hopefully this will give me insight. I am close to 50 (48), so hopefully my experience will show from a little different standpoint having seen both sides of the coin.

I am going to respectfully disagree with one thing jojo said. That is that he shouldn't be tanking what he is tanking. In comparison to what a normal tank can tank (in my case, a pally tanks for us), he takes 1/3 the dmg that I do.... if that. While a mob will hit me for 1100, it will only hit him for around 300. That is a big difference in tanking ability and shows that an "off tank" monk is nothing more than someone that might be able to tank for a couple of seconds in a group situation, where you have 4 - 5 dot mobs (sometimes multiple mobs), in the current state, we are no tank... or off tank for that matter.

I'll use the same colors jojo did so there is no confusion. =)

Drunken Mastery Stance: Attack Speed +10%, Dodge +5%

Bug: jojo's concern about the bug has also been seen by myself as well as group members. They'll often comment about how that was a weird ability to have and I have to explain to them it's a bug from one of my stances. The other bug is that icons do not match. The yin yan does not match the one in the buff list.

This skill just doesn't upgrade as jojo mention. From a DPS point of view, I will use this stance when I am not tanking (since my other "DPS" stance has aggression added to it.. and I don't want to be pulling agro).

So, I will probably use it more often than jojo. I would say it's my default stance when not tanking so I don't pull agro. I mean, I have nothing else that will increase DPS without adding aggression... so it's really my only option. While this could use an upgrade, this is a drunken monks only effective stance when not tanking imo.

Legendary Drunken Fist: Damage +20%, Aggression +25%

Bug: No icon makes it very hard to know if you are in this stance or not. It's disappointing when you see Sigil working on stance icons but won't fix fundamental issues with other types of things like this.

I just cannot use this in a group situation where I am not the tank (note: I only tank when a cleric and I are grouped.. it's not effective enough to be done all the time). In this stance, I will pull agro on a regular basis. While the 20% attack is nice, it's coupled with a huge downfall when not tanking making it almost useless in a group situation.

This does increase my BH weapon DPS quite a bit. But, again, it's not usable in a group.

Immortal Drunken Sway: Dodge +15%

I'm in 100% agreement with jojo on this. This stance makes no sense. It's like the devs could not make up their minds on whether we should off tank or not so they threw us a bone with this. It just doesn't work as advertised and it's a stance I've never used (other than trying it out a few times to see if it made a difference).

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Aum Learned Abilities - I am going to copy and paste the skills from jojo's post so it's uniform. Then I'll put my own perspective on them (from a DPS type monk that sometimes will tank).

Jeering Kick IV: 15 end, 197-212 dmg and compels your opponent to target you for 2 attacks. Jin+1

This skill can be helpful but it's rarely used in a group. I'd say, I almost never use it. When I'm the one tanking, I will use it quite a bit to keep agro on me if the cleric pulls it for some reason.

The usefulness of this skill is diminished in a group situation. I can see how it would be helpful, but in my static group (shaman, pally, cleric, monk, psi), it rarely gets used. The only reason I would use it, is if the tank died and the healers were getting hit. I will use this to pull it off them. So, in that aspect it does give some utility... but it's limited.

Staggering Punch V: 22 end, 50% weapon damage, staggers your opponent for 8 seconds. Gives 1 Jin.

Bug: Agree with jojo here. What is the deal here? The skill doesn't upgrade as you go through the ranks. /boggle

This is another skill that is rarely used at my level. Crescent kick just does not pack the punch to make this worthwhile. If anything, I will use it to build up jin as well. Other than that, I won't touch the thing.

Spinning Fists III: costs 4 Jin, deals 363-279 damage but an autocrit, opens chains.

Rarely is this used as well. Lurching Feint is by far better.

Foolhardy Swagger III: costs 4 Jin, refresh 30 seconds. Taunts all opponents around you to attack you for 5 attacks.

This is a death sentence for a monk in a group. Since groups will normally go after mobs 3+ levels higher than them (and 4 dots to boot), if I were to take all agro from all mobs, I'd be asking for a rez about 2 seconds after. It's just not useful in groups.

On the other side of this, when I have to tank.... this is a great skill to have. For 5 attacks, I keep agro. Combined with Jeering kick, it's touch to pull agro off me when these are used.

Clumsy Whirl III: Dodge Counter. Recast 1 minute. A whirling attack that deals 100% weapon damage plus 467-495.

Fairly decent dmg dealer and it's good for clearing trash. That's pretty much all I have to say about this skill.

Errant Strikes: costs 6 jin, recast 1 Hour. Allows each of your attacks to strike an opponent that is attackign your defensive target for 1 minute.

This is a very very nice skill. However, I agree with jojo... 1 hour refresh? Sheesh. This is the type of thing they could reduce the refresh on and would make some of the "we don't do enough DPS" crap go away. It's a very useful skill to have that can up our DPS.. but not up it so drastically to change our DPS on each and every mob.

Lurching Feint III: costs 6 jin. You lurch and weave, confusing your opponent and causing it to stop attacking for 3 seconds. This ability increases the crit chance of your next attack by 30% and always opens finishing attacks.

Yep, I'm in agreement with jojo. A good ability that can be used to increase DPS a little bit.

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Again, while drunken monks are doing so-so, we are not off tanks at all. I do not expect to tank as well as pallys, DKs, or warriors... but when you choose a stance that specifically says you'll be able to evade incoming attacks... and then it doesn't do as advertised, it's disappointing.

What would make things nice, is if we had skills (or stance) that allowed us to tank effectively but would drain the the energy of healers around us having to heal. Right now, it's difficult for healers to even get heals off if I have to tank with group level mobs because I die fairly quick. This way, we can tank if the main tank goes down.. but it's not an effective way to do groups.

We give up DPS for evasion. Thing is.. they took our DPS when we chose drunken... but also took our evasion for the most part.

Good question.. I was just going to go learn the second version of this without doing the first. But if we can't.........

As Cartman has said: Pwned!

April fools on you 

I believe both of mine are maxed for my level (39). It tells me I cannot add any more to those stats the last time I added points.