Hello,  I posted this over at SV but thought maybe it would get more attention here.  I am only lvl 16 (Drunken), can someone point out whats good and bad about these changes on test please, I dont know enough about the mastery skills to know if most of these changes are general skill or mastery ones.  Does this fix any of the problems with Drunken monk mastery that makes it so un desirable?

Also I have seen a lot of advice to switch to Dragon or Harmonious and give up on Drunken,  How would I go about doing that if I did choose to do so?   Thanks.

Vanguard Build 1808 Patch Notes 4/13/2007 – TEST SERVER

- Monk – Lowered the mitigation penalty of the Storm Dragon Stances
- Monk – Lowered the melee slow of the Stone Dragon Stances
- Monk – Drunken Fist Stance has been altered. The damage bonus has been slightly increased, 5% parry chance and a mitigation penalty have been added. The increased hate generation has been removed.
- Monk – Drunken Sway has been altered. Dodge and Parry are both increased. The overall dodge/parry chance has increased. While in this stance you will slap all who attack you, dealing minor damage
- Monk – The refresh timer on Swaying Step has been removed.
- Monk – Reed in the Wind has had the intended refresh timer of 2 minutes added to it.
- Monk – Tiger Stance has had its endurance penalty progressively lowered. When Legendary Tiger Stance is earned the penalty is 40%.
- Monk – Stone Dragon Stance now adds the appropriate cold and fire rune (30, 40, 50%).
- Monk – All steps in the Exploding Heart Technique have been increased in power significantly.
- Monk – Added a 5 minute refresh timer to all steps of the Exploding Heart Technique
- Monk – All finishing attacks that were previously 2 minutes are now 1 minute.
- Monk – Reduced the Refresh timer on Secret of Celerity to 15 minutes.
- Monk – Increased the power of Ignore Pain, with the most power being gained at the final version.
- Monk – Iron Hand now lasts for 5 minutes and costs 5 Jin to activate.
- Monk – Secret of Flame now lasts for 40 seconds, has a 90s refresh timer and has an increased chance to apply the DoT portion. The damage is clearly marked in the description.
- Monk – Secret of Ice now lasts for 40 seconds, has a 90s refresh timer and has an increased chance to apply the stun portion. The damage is clearly marked in the description.
- Monk – Errant Strikes can now be used every 15 minutes and lasts for 30 seconds.
- Monk – Staggering Punch now deals 75% weapon damage plus an additional amount that increases over time…and thus it was that the clone wars came to an end.
- Monk – The damage of Dragon’s Breath has been greatly increased.
- Monk - Increased the damage of Divine Tsunami and Divine Avalanche to make a better, more gradual scale.
- Monk – Increased the damage and the endurance cost of Dragon Rakes its Claw
- Monk – Trapping Mantis Claw and Cloud Dragon’s Ruse have been lowered in refresh time to 2 minutes.
- Monk – Lurching Feint has had a refresh of 2 minutes added to it. This was not the intended refresh.


Vanguard Build 1809 Patch Notes 4/16/2007 – TEST SERVER

- Monk – Deadly Adder Hand’s duration now scales to 32 seconds at the final version.
- Monk – Eagle Claw’s duration now scales to 24 seconds at the final version.
- Monk – Eagle Claw now causes the Armor Chink weakness.
- Monk – Wave Hand in Cloud has been given new versions at level 38 and 50.
- Monk – Lowered the Jin cost of Wave Hand in Cloud to 6 and the refresh to 20 minutes.
- Monk – The self buff portion of Withering Palm now lasts for 60 seconds.
- Monk – Increased the damage of Withering Palm
- Monk – The effects of North Wind Breaks the Trunk will now display damage numbers both above the head of the target and in combat text (to see open chat options for your combat tab and turn the Others’ Damage Success filter on)
- Monk – Increased the damage of the effect of North Wind Breaks the Trunk.
- Monk – The self buff portion of Steal the Wind now lasts for 5 minutes.

What is loooooveee.  Devvies don't hurt meeeee don't hurrrt meee nooo moorrrrrreeee.

Cool, thanks for the info, I will stick with Drunken for a while then especially since I dont know how to switch and I am in no big hurry

Phenom

Jojo, that has a very good basis behind it, that was discussed previously between several people on the boards.  I believe we got most of the details ironed out, its just up to Talisker