Would you be suprised if you knew that Brad collaborated in the original design of EQ2?

Would you be equally suprised if you knew Brad was also involved (at least partially) in the design of Luclin?

And for the trifecta, would you be suprised if I said SOE was not only involved in Velious, they were involved with the original Everquest?

Ok, I see your concern on the game ending. I am curios as to what you think is broke though. 4 months into the game it is much more stable than when Anarchy Online was this old after it went gold. I just recieved an email this week that they are now 6 years old.

I don't mind if SOE takes over, to be honest I thought they already did.

So what do you think that can change the game, I am almost lvl 50, whats left to do? Thats my point, 4 months after the game has gone gold the push is on end game content? How does SOE fix that? the only thing is roll everyone back, start from scratch and make it as hard to level as EQ1, that gives them time to develop new content, fix game mechanics and nerf everyone down to the same baseline. Or, start expansions that they will charge an arm and a leg for that "Sell's" you gear, content and abilities, things you won't get or can use unless you purchase the expansion, Thats the SOE I know.

Thats what I meant by too easy, there are people clamoring for end game stuff. A game that should want long term investment should be one that people should not even be a quarter of the way through at this point and thats the most hardcore gamer.

Soulfyst
45 Undead Monk of the Drunken Fist

Thats a very nice story.  Now let me tell you mine.  I got my monk to 35 before I gave up on it.  Not because it was unplayable but because they fail to meet the description of the monk.  After many patches of comlete half ass baindaids and pratically breaking those as well... I decided to roll an alt until it was straightened out.  Why?  Not because I could not make it to 50 but because I wanted to level to 50 as a monk the way it is SUPPOSED to be designed.  Not the half cracked implementation we see today.

The alt I am currently playing is a necro.  I am glad you told the story you did.  Because I fought those same turtles you are talking about.  They were not mere even cons or 1 or 2 levels higher either.  I was level 21 and those turtles are level 25 and 26.  Did I die alot? NO.  I died ONE time and I have killed enough of them to make a full level off of them.  If you know how slow grinding xp is then you know I killed 100's of them with 1 death. The players you see dying alot are merely lacking in skill or over achieving to their skill. Here is the best part.  I was killing 2 to 3 of them at a time NON STOP until I ran out of spawns.  Running out of spawns was my ONLY downtime.  Why?  because it only took maby 30%  mana to kill 1.  With 2 corpses at level 21 I was able to go from empty mana to full mana in the matter of a couple seconds.  If I got hit a couple times it was no big deal.  I not only have a direct health tap that gives me the health from the mobs but I also have a dot that ticks and gives me health as well.  Sure some classes are able to solo better then others and some classes can solo what is impossible than others.  You yourself had downtime at even con and was killing 1 mob at a time.  I was killing 2 or 3 of them with the mobs 4 and 5 levels higher then me with no downtime.

Thats not even a night and day difference....thats the difference of standing IN the sun and having NO sun at all.

Oh I forgot to mention...it wasnt a slow kill process either.  I could probably kill 2 of them faster then you were killing 1 even with the level difference.  Now if I was even con to them.  Id have the whole camp pulled and mostly dead by the time you though about killing 2 of them.

Vinjin...yes I see your point and I cannot say one way or the other whether the game would have gotten atleast 250k subscribers.  No way to know for sure.  What I do think though is that it probably would have. IF it was released as people thought it was going to be given all the hype AND if the performance was way better and less buggy.  You have to remember alot of people don't play on the simple fact that their computers cant handle it and they dont want to deal with all the bugs.

Dude.  I think you completely missed my point.  You gave a story and I happend to have one of the same situation.  Secondly I was not resisted hardly at all.  Thirdly Im not sure what you think but you put yourself side by side with me and I will own you in kills.  Maby the first kill will be about even ..but while you are killing 1 mob I am killing 2 or 3...even level hands down I can do 5 easy.  This has nothing to do with AE's , at this point I have 1 AE and it requires a corpse and the mobs to be within 10 meters of a corpse so it is useless almost while I am soloing.  While you are doing downtime with food I am killing more and more.  Within a half hours time I will have WAAAY more then double your kills.  Don't care if the sorceror did not have FD.  I didn't need to use mine at all.  So FD is a moot point.

Now do I think a monk should be able to do that? No.  Do I think the monk should be able to handle a couple 2 dot mobs without having to FD and without it being a down to the wire thing and without his heal...Yes.  I also think a monk that is well geared should be able to handle a 3 dot mob without much of a problem.  I think its sad that gear is that insignificant that it doesnt make that much of an overall difference.  As a necro I can solo 4 and 5 dot mobs with ease.  From what I read 6 dot mobs are not that much different.  Do I think a necro should be able to solo better then a melee class? Most definately but not by this incredible margin.

You are not out dpsing a ranger of the same skill level and gear as you. No you are not.  Are these 90% of encounters skellies?  No you are not out dpsing a ranger in 90% of your fights.  No you are not.  Especially in the first 30 seconds.
I would even go so far to say that you are not all that far ahead of an defensive fighter in offensive form.  You are probably just barely ahead of a bard.

Where does the monk lack?  They lack in DPS apposed to other offensive fighters.  They lack in an ability that another offensive fighter cannot do better. They are lacking in utility as apposed to other offensive fighters that doesnt justify our mediocre DPS.  They are too micro managed...short term buffs that if you want to keep up with any sort of dps you have to constantly make sure you are clicking them.  I could give you a big list....however they are all over these forums and I am not about to rehash them.

I played EQ1 from beta to just after PoP era.  While my primary was a wizard I had an alt monk that I worked up next.  Sorry but that monk rocked compared to the monk here. Its broken because it is not balanced correctly in our archetype.  I do not wish to play a class that is both needing and going through changes for months.  Alot of those changes that break us further for a few days or weeks.  In the case of FD a few months.

"You can answer that while I solo my quests in Ruin Falls"  <-- Do I detect a litlle elitist there.

You can play your monk in its broken state.  While you are 50, I will wait for the class to be fixed and enjoy his levels afterwards.  I never said I couldnt solo.  However it is very inefficient as apposed to almost every other class. 

Ever stop to think about why you are 1 of maby 5 monks that post that think the class is ok?  Ever stop to wonder why post 30 there are only a handful of monks and it is the second least played class...Second only to the Disciple?

Just adding on the things I may have not been totally clear on because I was in a rush this morning.

"So I guess I ask you the same question, is your thought of where a monk is suppose to be, killing 4 mobs 3 levels higher at a time with no down time? And when they can, that won't trivialize encounters across the board, how?"

Killing 4 mobs 3 levels higher then him no.  Killing a couple 2 dots 3 levels higher then him with not much downtime if he has excellent gear yes.  Killing 1 equal level 3 dot with excellent gear and comming out quite a bit ahead yes.  Does it trivialize the encounters? No it doesnt.  For one post 20 those mobs really don't give that much xp.  You are really not getting anything of real value of loot in them.  You cant trivialize an already trivial encounter.  Last but not least.  Every other class can. Speaking of trivialized encounters...in a group situation there are not many that are not trivial.  IOW this game is pretty easy mode.

Bottom line is this.  Either the monk needs some serious work OR alot of classes need to get the nerf bat.

When I was talking there, I was talking of 2 dot mobs.  I dont feel they give that much xp that it is a big deal that a well geared monk can take 2 of them with minimal downtime. Cash loot at that level you are talking maby 20 copper per.  They dont always dont drop something at all.  Id say 25% of them were empty, but lets say they all had loot that averaged 20 copper.  5 kills would equal 1 silver. So you would have to kill 500 mobs just to make 1 gold.  Thats IF they all dropped loot, which they dont AND it is a 20 copper value which isnt always the case either.  I dont think that is gambreaking.

As far as the xp goes.  To give an example at lvl 21 killing lvl 25 and 26 2 dot mobs...1 at a time but in alot of cases 2 at a time...didnt always do 2 at a time because I didnt always have the attention span for it..For 3 hours...I made half of a level.  At lvl 21 I dont think this is gamebreaking either.  <---- that was almost non stop too...just a couple breaks for quick bathroom or grabbing food.  I know these as facts...it is fresh in my mind and not just some average that I am comming up with from past experience..I did this 2 days ago.

I agree that we arent broken, I believe we just need tweaks here and there,but with lack of utiliy for solo and group play it makes me feel I  just depend on critrate and you can go several fights with low or no crit and have no utility to recover from the games random behavier.  My biggest gripe is really jin.  I like the idea, but it should at some point not decrease to 0 and maybe raise every 5 to 10 lvls.  Being caught with no jin stinks and makes pvp a big problem for the monk.  I would like FD to be more dependable as well. 

Anyways, I knew when I signed up for VG it would 6 months to a year befor the game was close ready. 


JUst a thought here maybe they could tie a mitigation bonus to our jin so each jin adds a small mit bonus so if we need to remain defensive it would limit our jin use decreasing offense but allowing us to be able to have a strategy for not taking as much damge. What do you all think?  Lol not sure if this was the right thread to post this stuff.


Leks, 29 Dragon, Varking 

Lol, everyone keeps saying we are not broken or unplayabable.....

I don't think anyone has posted here we are broken and unplayable, so there is no need for people to keep saying it over and over, hehe.

You like the direction that things are moving?  Riftway stones?  Gear binds on equip?  We don't get any REAL fixes since beta?  No talk about when we will get fixes?  Still I CTD more and more after this last patch?  The fixes monks do get are half the time nerfs (RiTW anyone) or they are rehashes of old patches, or they are just words that say some issue is fixed when it isn't.  This is not the direction I want to see VG move in.  When SoE takes over it probably wont get any better either.

I'm not sure if we actually outDPS bards.  I play on a pvp server with a cleric and i'm more worried about bards than i am monks (whom i rarely see).  Hell, i'd attack a lvl 40 monk at lvl 26 and i woudln't be terribly worried =P. 

You may be able to outDPS a DK, barely.  They have harm touch spells every 5 minutes that hit ridiculously hard.  at 46 its base damage is 3k, which means it probably hits aroudn 4k+ straight up, not to mention the damage they will do with a 2hander and their dots and AOE heals.  You may be able to out damage one, but he could drop you in one shot........  Not to mention you would never touch a DK in a duel (a good one that is). 

Anyway, my whole argument is that either all classes should be overpowered, or none of them should be.  However, I will not stand here and allow people to argue the monk is ok where he is because he is literally the weakest class int he game and that is not fair.  An even lvl monk should be able to kill an even lvl cleric.  Monk DPS should be overwhelming and there should be no coming back if he takes you by surprise.  We may not be "broken", but we sure need to be fixed   

Barely out damage a DK?  Are you serious?  I play with a DK all the time, and trust me it is not even close.  Both of us are geared well.  Ok 3-4k once every 5 minutes?  So?  Thousand fists chain does on average 10-12K every minute easy, and that is without crit.  If I crit, my chain is probably around 20K on average.  And legendary crits are about 16-20K per hit.  Yes, DK will win in PVP.  But not because they outdamage us.  Again, I am lvl42 so maybe things are different at lower levels.

As for Bard, we certainly do more damage than bard as well.  Do they have more utility?  Of course, and they should.

As for the changes, I like the fact my debuffs were made to last longer.  I like the fact that iron hand is now 5m.  I like that thousand fists has been reduced to 1 min reuse, and the same with North Wind line.  Secret of Celerity reuse time was reduced to 15 min.  All of these are great changes.  I believe that reducing the reuse time on thousand fists definitely provided a significant increase to my DPS.