New to Monk

[Gengez]

Well my wife and I just started with a Monk and Templar.  I just want to make sure that we made a good decision on the two classes together.  The only other combo i was thinking about was either a sk or conj over the monk. I played a monk in eq1 and I LOVED it.  We werent always the best class but I really like the utility of the class (pulling, good dps, etc) ....is it the same kinda here as well? I have read alot of about monks not raiding and such on this game as well but i figured that us not being hardcore raiders or anything we can find a family type guild that will want us to help tag along.  Also what should I be looking at for gear (stats) str agi and wis is what i have read so far.  Thank you guys very much for your time and sorry to be a noob, I look forward to getting to know you all soon! Xenlord

[Morrolan V]

<p>Monk/healer is a great duo.  Monks DO have good DPS and fighter utility.  That said Templar is the LAST choice as a good healing companion for a monk.  Clerics' (Templar and Inquisitor) primary and most efficient heals are reactives that heal a little bit each time the tank gets hit.  That works best with a plate tank that is taking a little bit of damage on many small hits.  Monks tend to take damage in big chunks when their avoidance fails.  Reactives don't keep up well with that, and clerics' big direct heals are slow casts that may not land in time to respond to a bad streak of avoidance.  Also, other than their health/mitigation buff, Templars have no buffs of any kind that are useful to a monk.  Inquisitors, at least, have a nice DPS buff which is very helpful to a monk.</p><p>Any druid or any shaman make a much better companion for a monk.  Their heals are ward/heal over time, either of which works better with us, and many of them have buffs that help us more (fury's have a great one - agitate).</p><p>If your wife must have a templar, as much as I like monk, an SK is a better duo companion.</p><p>As far as gear goes, STR is first (damage and power), then STA, AGI, WIS and INT, in that order.  Later, resists will become more and more important.</p>

[PsyStorm]

I have to agree with Morrolan.  My husband and I have a duoed a Monk/Warden to 70.  We had a great time doing it!  On the harder stuff, you just grab a dps or a plate tank (depending on the situation) and you are good to go.  I don't think a Templar is best suited to a Monk, but we have duoed as a Monk/Defiler and that worked well too.  We also enjoy our Shadowknight/Defiler or Guardian/Fury duos.  But the best by far is the Monk/Warden.  Especially after he went down the melee AA line.  I have a hard time keeping aggro off of him once my taunts start getting old!  But there is an AA on the Monk tree that adds a hate transfer to one of your existing pwrs, that helps you hold aggro well when it's just the two of you. As far gear... sometimes we fight over the gear b/c we want pretty much the same stuff/same stats.  He wants str to do more dps for the AA line he chose.  So, he gets all of the str/wis stuff & and I take all of the str/agi stuff.  That's where I disagree w/ Morrolan.  For Monk it's str, agi, wis, and as much sta as you can get in there would be my order.  We have found that w/ this combo, for the day to day stuff, agi & wis come before sta.  It's not how many hps you have, it's how much you parry and resist.  I took the AA line of wis to help w/ group aggro (couple aoe attacks in wis) and int to get the melee crit.  But any points that you can get into parry/def/resist will work best w/ a Warden. My Monk is a jeweler and his Warden is a tailor.  We crafted rare gear all the way and use quest reward weapons and gear when it is more useful.  Plus pelts are way cheaper than metal rares. Hope this helps!