fujitsu-xeth asks, "Monks got some attention in gu3, but nothing in game update 4. Feign death dealy still isnt live, our class lead has been MIA for over a month, and drunken and dragon monks are wondering when they will get their useless skills fixed or changed to something meanigful. Stuff like foolhardy swagger (doesnt transfer hate) or sun dragons corona"

silius - Monks received a pass recently and as we finish up the classes we will still fix bugs along the way. There are currently no plans to revisit monks again in the near future outside of bug fixing.

It sounds like we aren't going to see any major revamp for a while, but that doesn't mean that we won't be looked at.  Silius did say that bug fixes will still happen.  A lot of our issues would fall into the category of bugs, I think.  ie. FD not working right is a bug in my book, skills not working right are bugs, etc.

We can't be selfish, though, and whine and complain just because we aren't getting first priority over other classes.  They gave us a big patch (and no, it wasn't just harmonious monks that got improved in gu3) and now its the other classes' turns.

By all means, we need to continue reporting bugs and wish lists, but this gloom and doom over not being a major highlight of a game update is ridiculous.

Now, I know I'm not making any friends with this post so I'll offer up a rule of thumb I use for determining whether I can be happy with my class.  Hopefully, it'll provide some insight into my perspective more.

I'm a dps class and I also like to pull for my groups.  I also like to do steady dps but have an OH SNARF!! ability to use in a pinch.  So my rule is this: 

As I'm doing dps, do I have to hold back dps in order to not take aggro from my tank?  If the answer is yes, I can be happy with my class.  If I have enough control over my dps to not take aggro but have the ability to take aggro pretty much whenever I want, then the answer is I can be very happy with my class.

In my groups, does my group allow me to pull for them when I ask to?  If yes, then I can be happy with my class.  If my group asks me to pull for them, then I can be very happy with my class.

I try to avoid the whole "the grass is always greener" complex and use these rules to determine whether I'm having fun when I log on.  I find I usually can enjoy myself when I'm not worried about how I stand in comparison to other players and I believe that's what its all about, right?

Are you F'ing serious?

Yes, it would be nice if issues with some of the things our class does would get fixed asap.  But they aren't.  We aren't the only fish they have to fry.

Were we perhaps misled to believe changes were coming soon?  Sure.  And are those changes not forthcoming?  Heck yeah.  Welcome to the real world!

You should convert to rampant pessimism like I have!  Then you expect everyone who promises something to be lying thru their teeth.  Makes life a whole lot more relaxing.  And when someone does come thru on a promise?  It's a nice surprise because it wasn't taken for granted from the beginning.

But honestly?  If you're so miserable and pissed about what your monk does, change to Harmonious until Drunken or Dragon is fixed or just play a different class.

I would have someday liked to return to dragon style, guess i never will then.
Monk has never really got much attention have they?
All i remember is spams of bard/ranger/necro changes on patch notes last year.
Funny how they change 2 or 3 things, not the fundamental flaws, then call the class finished 

Nevertheless, of all my alts - monk is the most fun by far

rofl yeh, playing as caster is just horrible...feel like a frail old woman
and healers are ok but basically just the group bitches...everyone knows it ;p
Tanking is too much effort and i feel to supressed and gimpy in terms of dps

Think i'm in the same mindset as you fuji, raw power, brute force and agression ftw!
Would have been a dps berserker/barbarian if you could, alas kicking and punching things in the face was still a good choice 

Either that or go harmonious No real reason for dragon monks to stay that way out of some "principle" now. That's just nerfing yourself for an illogical reason, and won't ever change it seems.

i never realised just how bad dragon monk was at soloing since it was my first char and i had no benchmark, but yeh, they are worse than rogue. If you aren't totally pimped out with uber gear, you gotta even use Celerity/orc racial for 3dots.

i guess you were kidding about that bard thing, anyway i have a 50 bard too, yeh they are easy to lvl and uber utility; charm mezz debuffs lull fear etc etc etc, but they're boring. The first thing you'll miss is Soaring Leap, then you'll die in group situations and begin to miss FD, and then from lvl 25+ you'll see a sharp drop in dps...culminating with using a lute off-hand since it's so much better for the group overall, then you realise warrior & war clerics are owning you for DPS, and finally you'll feel like the group bitch, just as useful if you go afk and /follow Tank. 

I'm just wondering, we do NOT have a class lead right now?
QTM just vanished saying he had lots of work irl, unless he's a gold farmer he can't be doing that much work, and could at least still post a little of the forums, only takes 5mins of your day...:/
He's obviously just left Vanguard for good.
With this sad and stupid news, we really need a new class lead to get across just how unfinished/unbalanced monks are.

The Dragon style has nothing to offer - it's not highest DPS, it doesn't have unique utility. It doesn't have survivability. It has no unique DPS specials - and Drunken and Harmonious do have unique defensive specials. Stone Dragon is only useful in very limited situations - such as when you're tanking in a group or when raiding. Those limited situations should not be what a class style is based on.

I really don't get why devs think the Monk class is finished - the only finished style is Harmonious. And Fuji, if Dragon wasn't horrible, you'd be playing it.

On the Bard, I wasn't kidding. At least then, I'll offer something substantial to a raid force.

EDIT to add: frack it, I reckon I'll just quit providing SOE with my money if they refuse to invest in their product (no planned expansions, Monk class finished, no new dungeons until two months into the future, etc, etc)