***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 only have experience with the Dragon Style, but I think it might be a little too AE heavy for my liking so I might try Drunken in release.

whats this spirit form u r talkng about?

I read on the forums a while back that at lvl 46 Dragon Monks can get a spirit form that is like stealth and levitate at the same time.  I assume it is still in the game and will be there on release.

awesome info, helps out quite a bit

Nope, not true Janner. All monks get Feign Death. You get it at lvl 10 I believe. At least thats when I remember getting it, someone correct me if I am wrong.

i

So i got beta buffed to 35 yesterday night and got all my Combat arts and what not where i want them. I was reading some of them and they have for example Dragon Disciple or Dragon mastery in the description. Does that mean only those monks who go Dragon stance are going to beable to use that combat art? Same goes for Harmonious Body and drunken disciple. Will you have to be on that stance to use that Combat art or does it have another meaning?

FD is lvl 14