Should I go Handless and STR AA for soloing?

[Aduma]

I have a level 28 Monk who is currently in the Butcherblock Mountains. He is my first character, and currently my highest level. I put my first 5 points into the Agility AA and I have been dual wielding Quarterstaffs. I try to keep them upgraded, and currently have two 14.5 rating weapons. I have perhaps another 5 AA points unspent. After doing some reading today, I have learned that fighting with no weapons (even handwraps) and the STR AA line can yield better DPS then most weapons of a given level. This strikes me as being advantageous for leveling as your "weapons" will always be appropriate for your level, and you don't have to spend money on upgrading. For soloing my first character, this sounds like a good idea. How does it work in reality? If I could get better damage than my two treasured quarter staffs for free essentially, I think I would be very eager to make this switch. Thanks, Andrew PS - This would be for levleing, and I know I may want to respec out of the STR line at a higher level.

[Bladewind]

<p>The short answer is yes.  I'd recommend building up your current line to 4-4-8, then respecing to 4-4-8 str.</p><p>In most cases, the damage output from having 4-4-8 in the str line will be best while you are leveling up.  Exceptions in the case of high end legendary and fabled weapons occur.  Also, at every x2 level, adorned mastercrfated weapons do very nice damage.  However, as you have observed, your bare fist damage increases every level, so even if a certain weapon combo might be good at one level, chances are the damage from having 8 points into str 3 will suprass it within a level or two.  So, unless you plan on tracking down a set of fabled or legendary weapons every 3ish levels, the str spec will have the advantage most of the time.  Naturally, once you hit the level cap and have access to fabled weapons from raiding that are level 68+, you will gain more of a benefit from switching out of the str line to another.</p><p>PS Welcome to EQ2 <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Aduma]

Thank you very much for your warm welcome! I am a former WoW player, SWG, and a few others. So far I LOVE what they've done to EQ. I tried it for a month a year ago, but it was nagging me in the back of my head so I eventually came back. I LOVE what they've done with it! Thank you very much for your informative posts. I am interested in this specifically because I don't want to track down Fabled weapons every few levels <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I was considering using my free respec to put all my AA points into STR line when I got home. However, I noticed that you suggest I should finish out the AGI line to 4-4-8 first. I've seen people talking about the Int and Wis line, but not too much the Agi line. Will it actually be advantageous to me to finish out the AA line first, or owuld I be better off just respeccing? Thanks again!

[Bladewind]

<p>Recent changes have made the agi line very viable, actually.  The reduction in casting timers reduces the number of auto attacks we miss when using fast weapons.  Int is popular because melee crits increase damage on both auto attacks and combat arts.  In addition, parry is the toughest avoidance type to increase, so tanking monks also like the int line for that.  The aoe proc in the wisdom line helps both your dps and yoru ability to hold aggro on muliple targets at once.  The end line ability, crane flock, can be devatstaing when used properly.</p><p>The reason I recommending getting up to 4-4-8 before respeccing to str is that the third box of str is where all of the dps comes from.  Without those modifications, your bare fist is a very poor weapon, roughly equivalent to a common quality 1 hander of the same level.  The third box of str gives you two things: 1) a base 20 dps increase - this boosts your base auto attack damage by ~20% (taking you into the range of treasured weapon damage) and 2) 12% double attack per rank - this is a % chance that you will attack twice instead of once.  When you have 8 ranks int he third box of strength, you will have a double attack rating of 96%, meaning that you essentially attack twice on every attack.  So, you basically have two treasured quality attacks per swing with all 8 ranks in str 3.</p><p>I suggested not changing to str until you had enough points to max out the 3rd box so you could immediately enjoy the benefits without having to go through a period of sub-par dps as you accrued AA points.  Until then, you can enjoy the benefits of a partially filled out agi line with your batons.</p><p>As far as what to get overall, it depends on if you want to focus on dps or tanking.</p><p>For pure dpsing, go 4-4-8 str, then 4-4-8 int, then 4-4-8 in either wis or agi depending on if you want to do more aoe damage (wis) or want to increase your single target damage and recast speed of your arts (agi).  Once you are 70 and have access to good weapons, spec out of str and into whichever line you did not choose before.  Sta also adds to single target dps, but my personal experience has been that the proc is too weak, and you can get the same single target dps out of the wis proc with the added benefit that it will hit multiple enemies.  Once you have solid weapons, I would think that going 4-4-8 in agi, wis, int would be the current optimum combo.  Of course, dependiing on your play style and equipment, you will probably find a combo you like better.  This is just a generic road map for you to start with.</p><p>For tanking, you will want to specialize in two lines in order to gain avoidance/health benefits from the 4th row boxes.  As you level, work to get 4-4-8-8 str first (riposte is the best type of avoidance since it gives you a free counter attack).  Then, you have to choose if you want melee crit+parry (int), increased ca reuse speed + base defense (agi), single target low damage proc, ranged debuff + deflection (sta), or aoe proc + increased health (wis).   Once you get good weapons, dump str for whichever one of these would have been your second choice.</p><p>As far as end line abilities go, here is my 2 cents:</p><p>Chi (Str):  Would be our best end line ability if the recast timer was 4-5 minutes instead of 15.  Also, the no weapon requirement on boxes 3 and 4 really makes it hard to justify taking this skill if you have good weapons.  This might be a good skill to build a balanced AA scheme for leveling up around: 4-4-8-7-2 str and your choice of 4-4-8-6-2 in agi, wis, or int.</p><p>Altruism (Agi):  I have not personally tried it, but it looks like a great beneficial art to put on the Mt of the group/raid (not so great if you plan on being the MT <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />).</p><p>Mantis Leap (Sta):  There is a nice bit of wow-factor with this one, but I found it to not be particularly useful when I had it.  Being able to port yourself to a peeled add or friend in trouble is handy, but I would think some of the other end lines offer more value.</p><p>Crane Flock (Wis):  This is our current champ, imo.  Getting 100% mulit&double attack for 16 seconds allows you to do a lot of extra damage and/or insure that you have hate on anything in range.  The recent reduction of the reuse timer to 3 minutes means you can use this skill just about every other encounter - ie, frequently enough for it to make an impact.</p><p>Eagle Shriek (Int):  On paper, this looks great.  Due to the 30% or less health requirement, it only has limited usefulness, though.  It is wonderful when you are soloing and trying to outlast whatever you are fighting, but it does nto really help in group and raid situations where the additional emergency mitigation will not blunt your incoming damage enough to keep you alive.</p><p>My personal KoS AA build is currently 4-4-8-8-2 wis and 4-4-8-7 int.  I really like the aoe damage proc+crane flock and how they help me in both the tanking or dpsing roles.  I went with int since parry was my lowest avoidance type and because melee crits apply to both arts and regular attacks.  I do decent dps and can tank anything within reason using this build.  I was side-by-side with a dedicated dps monk (4-4-8 agi, wis, int build) whom I had a lsight equiment edge over and the same outside buffs as (inquis dps, pally proc) the other night.  If I got lucky on procs, we would break even.  If I didn't, he would usually do 100-200 more dps than I would.  I would guess the difference would have been about 300 dps per encounter in his favor if we had identical gear.  So, there is a rough look at how a dps vs tanking build will stack up next to each other.</p>

[Aduma]

I really want to thank you first of all for your reply. That was really more in depth then I possibly could have hoped for. You really explained several AA paths very well and gave a good analysis of all the different abilities. That really is a good introductory guide to the Brawler side of our tree <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> IF I respec'd now I would only have 11 points. As you mentioned, I would have to have 17 points to get 4-4-8 strength and enjoy the full power of the bare hands. I will continue pumping up AGI until I have enough points and then switch! Thanks again for such a deeply informative guide. A noob can't ask for much more then that!

[Bladewind]

<p>Well, it is nice to get an informed question instead of 'wat r best AA'z 4 me?'  If someone goes the extra mile and researches the topic a bit in order to ask educated questions, I'm more than happy to bring the information firehose to bear <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p> edit - instant kama had me misspell educated</p>

[Nerill]

Bladewind has pretty much covered your questions <b>in depth</b> ! <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> All I can add is ...... <b>Welcome back to EQ2 !</b> Oh, and don't let our discussions about high end raiding discourage you. Yes, many of us a very VERY disappointed about the state of the Monk at level 70 in raids. <b>However</b>, the Monk class is a <b>very</b> fun class to play so enjoy your ride up to level 70 and <i><u>hopefully</u></i> by the time you get there, the Dev team will have all our issues sorted out. <img src="/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

Bladewind got everything right on, except one thing... Bladewind wrote: <blockquote><p>Without those modifications, your bare fist is a very poor weapon, roughly equivalent to a common quality 1 hander of the same level. </p><p> So, you basically have two treasured quality attacks per swing with all 8 ranks in str 3.</p></blockquote> It's a 2hander not 1 hander. At lvl 70, your unarmed DR is around mid 50s, which is what the 2 handed storebought (not even treasured level) would be like. So with the Strength line, it's basically like dual wielding two storebought TWO handed weapons. Think of it like spinning around two bo staves at once, heh. Hence why it can compete so well with legendary and mastercrafted.

[Bladewind]

<p>Raidi, I think you are a bit mixed up there.  Common quality lvl 60 1-handers have a DR around 40 (draconic forged blade), and a high end treasured lvl 70 1-hander has a dr of about 58 (toklar's backup hammer).  Also, a lvl 60 hand crafted 2-hander has a DR of 54 (rosewood pike).  From those examples, a common lvl 70 1-hander would be around DR 50...</p><p>Mechanically, a 2-hander and a 1-hander are identical, anyway.  But the base fist damage is consistant with a a common 1 hander of the same level.  The 20 dps boost makes it comparable to a treasured 1 hander, and double attack makes it like swinging two treasured 1 handers.</p>