I am pretty sure its 30 sec cool down timer. So we are not a premier CC class also before you try. I have already attempted to Storm Stride with it and it wont let you 

Disciplines are for all monks

Mastery Skills are Style Dependant


-Ample

Given the itemization such as it is I personally I am going to go outfitter / leatherworking. The weapons given in the first couple of tiers are not worth using. The armor however given sufficient dusts will let me boost my stats w/o the loss in dps.

-Ample

You should have only the style in whch you chose, sounds like the beta buff toons got bugged or perhaps it was to give you a taste of all 3 styles. Either way it sounds interesting

-Ample

Feel free to move this and the above post to a new thread as it is a derail of sorts.........

The whole weakness thing is not style dependant.

Here is an example

My Monk can use boundless fist on a mob, using that creates a "Enraged" state on the Mob. My groupmate Mr. Rogue detects this and he knows that any time a mob is enraged his backstabs do more damage. So he then stabs the poor sod in the back for a gazillion points of damage. This of course creates a "Staggered" state on the mob which then take advantage of with Crescent Kick so its my turn to deal extra damage....etc etc.

To me its almost a mini game to work within your group to figure out the best chain of events to maximize your damage.

Here is an old post form the VG forums its not complete but you should get the idea.

http://forums.vanguardsoh.com/showthread.php?t=100584

/derailoff

-Ample

***Disclaimer***

This is my take on the various monk fighting specialization styles as of 1/19/07. Please understand that the views and opinions expressed in this post are mine and may not reflect those at VangaurdMonks.com so be warned!!!

***Disclaimer***


Drunken Monk - The drunken monk presents the player a decent array of defensive / evasion abilities. It has sufficient means to generate decent dps but not as good as the dragon style. The drunken monk is gerneraly more durable than it's harmonious body and dragon counterparts, and can in a pinch serve as an offtank using it's aggro generatig abilities defensive stance, amd counterattacks to buy time for the group to kill off it's current target. Given the fact that some dodge abilities stop auto attack and is sometimes required to use in order to get counterattacks available, holding aggro may become a micro-mnager's delight.

In my opinion I will say though the more I play this style into the lower 30s that this is starting to become less and less effective as it's relatively easier to just Feign Death to clear aggro and then use Nerve strike to buy time for your group.

The Drunken Monk style is probably the best one currently for soloing as its evasion abilities keep it standing after the other 2 style would have to cut and run.


Dragon Monk - The Dragon Monk presents the player with an excellent ability to deal damage, It's Aum abilities highlight that. If you are a old school EQ wizzy trapped in a monk's body this would be the way to go. It's hard hitting finishing moves and advanced finishers make this style a welcome addition to a group. Although some of its AE abilities are tempting but generally go unused in dungeon crawls as any CC class would have you shot for breaking mez continually. I honestly only used them while soloing. I know,,, I know... can it tank??? Not really IMHO although it's health regen stance is nice to have it isn't overpowering enough to tank with.

The Dragon Monk's soloing power to me is fighting even con and lower two dot opponents as they can destroy these swiftly and move on with little downtime. When fighting higher cons I find thier damage to be mitigated better and extends the fights to a point where it is not an efficient form of xping and thier health regen is not sufficient to keep them going. (Although this could be said about soloing in most cases)

I actually played this style the least as I found it rather one dimensional and I have a regular static group. This style is all about dps and I like more utility.

Harmonious Body Monk - The Harmonious Body Monk present the player with an array of self only buffs and mob debuffs to create DPS. This is arguably the most group centric style as it's debuffs on mobs are of benifit to everyone within the group. The harmonious monk it pretty versitile as it can provide some DPS as well as melee debuff / disarm the mob saving valuable healer mana and limiting damage to the tank. It can do decent (read not as good as the Dragon or Drunken) dps although with a melee mitigation debuff can expand on the entire group's DPS by roughtly 15%

The Harmonious Body Style while on paper seems weaker it is actually pretty adapt at soloing as it's self only buffs, defensive stance, and melee debuffs / disarm can keep it in a fight longer than the Dragon Style although probably not longer than the Drunken Style.

This is my personal favorite as I feel I provide more to a group in this style as opposed to the others. I can CC, Debuff and DPS and I feel I am contributing more in this style than any of the others.

This concoludes my little write up on the various style and I would be happy to answer more specific questions if anyone has them.

Thank you,

-Ample

I'll throw together a brief synopsis when I get some time tonight.

-Ample

I personally tried all 3 for a bit before I decided that the Harmonious Path was for me at release. For me and my play style it seemed the obvious choice as I have a regular group with all the DPS it could ever need already. So my choice to suppliment the group with the Harmi abilities was really easy.

-Ample

Here is my quick intro,

I have been playing the monk class since the old eq days. I just can't bring myself to make another charector of a different class. 

I have been playing Vangaurd since beta 2. and I have played Monk / Disciple pretty much exclusively since thier classes inception. I got the Disciple to about 32 before the Monk was released to beta then she sat on the shelf)
I have been playing the monk exclusively ever since.

After playing for a bit in alll 3 styles to 30 I have decided the Harmonious Body style is perfect for me. I look forward to playing a 1/2 elf Harmonious Monk at release. I look forward to the building of the Monk Community here at VanguardMonks

-Ample