Yup, I agree. I brought this issue up over a month ago, and Quinn noted it as he always does (all us monks owe him huge, monk has come a long way). Since i'm always tempted to toggle secret of fire/ice now, it makes all that extra animation work they did that makes the monk unique pointless. I actually retired my monk until they fix it. I just don't enjoy playing him without the animations. Sounds like a weak excuse, but it's just a turnoff to see that repetative action constantly in such a visually advanced game

When will this insane patch go live?

It sounds like we are going to really be a DPS threat finally if all of this stuff gets implimented at once

on another note, now that our secrets will be rather useful, do you think they will update the animations on them so that they actually look interesting? because in my opinion the animations are rather lame when you have a secret activated. It's basically just a standard boring attack with a cheesy animation based on the secret. It would be nice to have our standard animations during the secrets

Is this a bug?? because that would be sweet!

All I can tell you is now that i'm 48 and can actually use the power bladed staff of dev, my DPS is pretty close to matching rangers with a bard in group and cleric.

The DPS of this weapon is better then 2 handwraps of striking, i've logged in and confirmed it with parsars.

It's a pretty tough call between bladed staff and handwraps end game for DPS. My bladed staff of devestation seems to have a very slight edge over my pair of Striking handwraps...

At your lvl, i'd say a player crafted handwrap of striking (lvl 22) would be a nice weapon until you get a zank at 30 for max DPS.

Bladed staffs and Handwraps, again, are very close DPS wise. Keep in mind, you have 2 handwraps working for you that hit at exactly the same time (the second for half the damage) so once you add that up, its a lot of DPS. 

What are some tactics people use to solo with their Monk vs 3 DOTS? (im assuming 4 dot being impossible with a monk)

My Monk is Dragon Style 46, and I find with Storm style on I have to kill the mob EXTREMELY fast or soloing is not an option vs 3 dot in this stance because of the mitigation NUKE. I find I solo better at times with this style OFF and prehaps the health regen style on (dragon)  (soloing seems very unpredictable with Storm Dragon stance on since the mobs hit so hard, it really depends on finishers connecting or your SOL and have to FD)

Another tactic I use is swaying step. I constantly click swaying step, then counter attack. It's slower, but safer. I also use this tactic to get my weapon skills up on weapons I do not use a lot.

I'm currently lvling up my martial sword because at 47 I have a sweet sword waiting for me (the martial sword of sorching) and am hoping that using a martial sword for soloing will be much better surviviability wise mixed with swaying step as one of my evasion skills to keep me alive.

Has anybody found a good monk solo tactic for dragon? How does drunken and harm stack up for soloing, and what are some good tactics for those as well?

hmm your thinking drunken does more DPS then dragon??

Confusing, considering dragon is suppose to be the DPS path... and drunken more less a tank class....

I bet drunken is a lot better for soloing... whats yours thoughts?

Ok, so I just got my second Flawless Striking Handwrap for my monk for the Off-hand.

Definitely brought up my attack on my off hand by about 80 points,

Trouble is, it dropped my attack of my main hand by about 50 points compared to my previous handwrap with melee damage rating.

Sure, thats still an increase, 30 points attack,

I was wondering if anybody has tried the devestation in the off-hand (+90 melee dmg) and saw an overall increase in their DPS over 2 strikings? Long shot, but hey, beats me experimenting with a platinum

--Sybrant, Xeth

Yup, best looking Monk Vest that will actually take you end game and still be pretty damn sweet....

But id rather the +177 crit hit chance

I mean, even if they would make an optional T5 armor in white, instead of PURPLE, we'd still look pretty sweet. A Full set of Kojan or Qualian Cavaliers T5 would look nice in white, and maybe a better colour for the cloak as well and give us a black belt animation we can use to offset the white tunic.

I just can't imagine a monk running around with Purple armor on, yet thats pretty much what we have to settle with if we want T5 Kojan flawless, which is basically what everyone can craft... The Qualian in a little better, but it's brown, and the threstan doesn't even look like something a monk would wear. Maybe a Ranger....

This is actually the one I have. Do you think its worth keeping instead of the Endurance Regen Staff?

Mine doesn't have the endurance regen because it can be painful to find.... Maybe I should sell mine and hunt down the endurance regen before i put it on

Great post! Love the info, great read. I've learned a thing or two. Ive actually looked at parsar logs and wanted to draw the same conclusion about the double crit.

Whats your thoughts on the parish staff of devestation? +200 melee dmg? I have one sitting in my inventory for when I turn 48 (currently 45). Should I sell it off for a pair of striking handwraps? That's probably when they will patch the double crit issue...

Thanks again fujitsu 

I havnt really thought much about it, but I have also noticed a drop in thundering fists damage wise. My second adv. finisher is always lower dmg wise but a fairly decent amount.