I think the monk should really get some new abilities. Unfortunately right now they're pretty cool looking, and some things like "Soaring leap" and the Aum lines set them apart. They could still use some new abilities.

Now, this being said, I wouldn't be much of a poster if I suggested they chance something without offering up at least a couple of ideas. Hopefully balanced ideas which just add utility (which monks could severely use a dose of) to something that could make them do a nice bit of extra damage in some situations.
Of course they should fit within the framework which in monk.

Strike Pressure point - A snare. Gods know we could use one and would be a really good pulling tool for us (especially combined with our Mez)
A note on this idea, if it was found too overpowering to have a snare as such (for pulling) it could be changed to a near-death attack (like a deathblow attack) which would do good damage and snare.

Chi Strike (alternatively, could call it Pushing hands since it apears it doesn't do what it's suposed to anyway) - Costs Jin or endurance - A knock back on enemy/enemies. Around 15-25m.

Claw Gouges eyes - Blindness strike on opponent, could either function as Paladin Blind spell (lowers acc 70% until struck) or lowering mob accuracy by a lower amount for a set duration. (like 10%)

Would also be nifty for Drunken monks to boost their defensive capabilities for a short period by drinking alcohol (we can use Jin and Gin!)

(can't think of name) - Another ability that would be good to add would be one that allows you to block hits going to an ally (set ally) allowing you to use your counters when they evade (or simply allowing you to block attacks going to that ally)

There could be a lot more abilities but I'm trying to think out of the box. Keep in mind I've only played a monk up to 21, so I know little about level 50 balance, but then monks, like all classes, need to be balanced across all levels and not just at 50.  Based on the theme of the abilities I've listed thus far, what I think monks could really use are abilities that assist other members of the group, thus allowing them to offer something interesting even later in the game.
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On another note, having recently tried Drunken Style monk (after being Harmonious for a while) I notice it odd that the Drunken monk gets less evasion (by a decent number too) than the Harmonious monk. Even the "biggest" defensive stance only offers 5% in each parry and dodge, while Crane stance offers 8% in each (this is at level 21)

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Another idea to help balance out monks would be to give them weapon based attack specialties. Such as certain attacks which can only be executed with certain weapons. This would also help alleviate some of the discrepancies between some weapon-types.

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Weapon itemization -
I'm not entirely familiar with this problem, but as far as I can understand, certain weapons created by crafters have levels associated to them, thus having a certain amount of points (or as a dev put it, "goodness") associated to them during creation, and that our hand wraps are a bit low on the totem pole. Perhaps adding in other weapons might help this. Such as having a Martial Staff and Quarterstaff. One would be on the 4th level and other at the 9th level (14 & 19, 24 & 29 etc). Same for claws, knuckles, first wraps, Knuckle-dusters, etc. Tonfa, Kartar, bladed staff, etc. And so on. Would also be good for the weapon smith as they seem to be somewhat under-desired at the moment (general feeling, unsure if it is true)

Overall not bad ideas, i applaud original suggests.

I would like to see monks brought up to the level of rangers/rogues in originality.

Rogues poisons/fletchettes/scrolls/darts  and rangers bridges and echo attacks make each very original.

Without stepping on others toes, i think monks need "Katas".  Similar to bridges (of rangers or disciples) but with a more distinct martial artist stand point.   

EG: These are the names of real kattas and what their names translate to, as well as
Ananko - (Light from the south) Small 5% self heal over 10 sec
Crescent Kick -> Boundless fist -> Boundless Fist:

Bassai-Dai(right fist covered by left hand) all attacks have a chance to echo for 10 sec


Matsumura-Seisan (Thirteen hands) Opens Thousand Fist finisher
Boundless Fist -> Ashen hand -> Goading Slap -> Jin Surge

Rohai (White heron/vision of a crane)  Makes you elusive, granting 25% avoidance for 60 seconds
Swaying Step -> Reed in the wind -> Storm Stride

Drunken
Seipai (18 hands) Doubles the dmg of Legendary Fists and Fists of transcendence
Perform Matsumura-Seisan-> Thousand fist -> Thunder fist

Harmonious
Matsumura-Bassai (Army outside the fortress) Debuffs targets avoidance and mitigation by 50 and 25% respectfully and deals Large melee dmg
Deadly Adder Hand -> whithering Palm->Tiger Pounces

Dragon
Seienchin -(calm within the storm) Removes global cool down and refresh timers for 10 sec (attacks/finishers only)
Feet of the fire dragon -> Boundless Fist -> Six Dragon Strike -> Cloud Dragon ruse

my only problem with those is thats more pvp balance then pve

disarm- only a few mobs use weapons, so this would probably involve coding mobs to use weapons, and then to have them disarmable

Paralysis - can you elaborate, i dont see how this is different then 99% of stuns, with the exception of mez most classes have stuns that last while mob is being hit.

Knockdown - so a stun that just interupts casters but doesnt actually stun?  Hm, not a bad idea, could be useful but doesnt add squat to dps

Silencing- might be cool, maybe play off the fact that monk is the one class without energy, as such we can stop the
flow of energy of other classes. 

Deflect arrows - again more of a pvp thing.  I know some mobs use arrows, but i think general avoidance is more appropriate.  Again this is more of a tanking thing/ pulling thing for a small small percentage of mobs.

Riposte - ok idea, i like the skill but its a tanking thing, and id rather see something more offensive then another new skill


Not bad ideas but my issues are that none of those are really dps increases, and most of those are main stream pvp skills with very little usefullness in pve.  Although some of those would be pretty good utility, and usefull to have, i doubt they would add new abilities.   Knockdown, paralysis, reposte, reflect arrow, disarm....all would require a bit of new code to be added being as those status effects/skills arent in the game, and it would be more likely for them to modify existing skills with new secondary abilities.  Cause honestly, they dont want to balance classes around skills they have yet to add.

If monks were to get a new skill:  Id want something original like rangers echo so that it wouldnt require much new coding.  Maybe 25% double attack at 30 (25% chance to have 1 echo), and tripple attack at 50 (5% chance to have 2 echo).   Giving all Attacks the chance to hit a second time/third time.  Much of a rogues dps and utility comes from poisons/fletchettes/darts/scrolls etcs (ie stuff he makes)  and much of a rangers comes from his innate spells, being the offensive melee that has the most benifical spells as well as detrimental effects (most snares/roots/stun and group buffs).  For monks to compete we either need some new venue of adding utility (highly unlikely since they only have 40 people total on vg and only 10 or so are actual coders) or a major revamp of modern skills 

Not bad, but I'd rather not see some disciple or ranger rip-off. I mean, giving it a different name won't make it more original.

Yeah, I do in fact mean riposte in the EQLive way, as in, automatic counterattack.

I like the idea of stun resistance as well. It's a shame we don't get any preludes to Iron Skin, cause it's pretty much the only ability that gives us something to counter stun and knockback with.

Acutally, that idea I like very, very much. It would make us a force to be reckoned with with, say, a Tuurgin Shaman, a Cleric and a Bard in the group 

Jokes aside... I honestly do like it very much.

Doesn't matter if the record is broken if it sounds classic 

I could very well imagine a toggle between:
- Secret of Fire, Secret of Ice, Secret of Transcendence all the time. Jin costs the same, but one a one-minute timer per Jin 'tick'.
- Reed in the Wind and Iron Skin for limited amounts of time (heavy Jin and/or endurance over time  costs?)

I'd still keep Celerity and Iron Hands on their current costs, reuses and such. But I do agree on Storm Stride not costing any Jin, or if they keep the Jin cost, do away with the reuse timer.

Actually that gives me a pretty good idea...

Monk are trained to handle pain, fire, cold, etc.  One thing that would be very beneficial esp in a raid environment for monks and would make up some what for our utter lack of healing would be naturally higher innate resistances.  It also shoes in with the arch-typical RPG monk which has naturally very high resists.  Something like a based resist of 5 per lvl.  Should be easy to add into the game and would provide a lot of help to the monks.


I do think that we need the ability to be at the "defense" of another character in order to use our counters.  A LOT of our functionality as monks is in our counters which are currently useless if we aren't tanking.  From my experience the difference is on the order of 20-30% (getting lots of free 200% attacks significantly boosts damage output).


why knock the wind out when you can crush the vocal cords , seems something like a throat thrust would make sense and also have it do an asphyxiation effect as a percentage.