Stances ?

[Lightfoot]

<p>My monk has just dinged 31 and as mentioned in other posts I mostly solo. One more lvl and I can get all my crafters to work on a new set of gear.  <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Up until now I have been using 'Tranquil Blessing' (increases attack, decreases defense) and it is perfectly alright against normal mobs.  When fighting heroic mobs it is sort of touch and go as to whether I beat them or not.  It's a case of just beating them with a slither of health left or using feign death when health is dangerously low.</p><p>Would I be better off using 'Sweeping Crane' (increase defense, decrease attack).  I know the fight would probably go on longer, but would I have a better chance of surviving against higher lvl mobs and heroic mobs.</p><p>I don't mean to insult anyones intelligence by explaining what they do, I'm sure most people on here know.  It was just done for my benefit more than anything else.</p>

[Zagadka]

It depends on your role in the team. Monks are a "light" or "secondary" tank. If a better class is lacking, monks can tank very well - I'm the main mid-level main tank in our guild. In such cases, I go with defensive... in fact, I don't remember going offensive very often.If you're tanking, Avoidance is the main strength of monks - I avoid around 60% on an equal-con mob. In that case, defense is certainly better.If you have a good main tank, feel free to go all out offense. But remember that part of the role of a secondary tank is picking up "loose" aggro (adds, etc). Also, make good use of Intervene and Rescue that you may need to use.Frankly, I've found that monks have enough offense (especially if you take up the Wisdom/Crane AA line) to stay defensive.

[Lightfoot]

<p>Thanks for the advice.  I will keep that in mind if grouping at any time.</p><p>For the moment I'm more interested in what stance is best while I'm going <b>solo</b>.</p><p>With the points I have available at this time I have STR 4/4/8/1,  INT 4/4/8 and am just wondering if I would be better off using 'Sweeping Crane' rather than 'Tranquil Blessings'.</p>

[Anjin]

<p>That's not entirely true, although you may get away with it at lower levels (can't remember!).  Below are pros and cons of defensive stance:</p><p>Pro's</p><ul><li>Extra mitigation</li><li>Extra Avoidance</li><li>Extra mental resists</li></ul><p>Con's</p><ul><li>Seriously reduces slashing, piercing & crushing</li><li>No extra haste</li></ul><p>Now with 3 pros and 2 cons you might think it's worth using, but tanking isn't just staying alive, it's also keeping aggro.  With low melee skills your chance to hit a target is seriously reduced.  Since our hate generation (aggro) is based on our dps and ability to hit a mob (for hate proc) then any reduction in hit% is going to impede our ability to tank.</p><p>Fortunately there are some solutions to this, listed below:</p><ul><li>Use mid stance when tanking (Spider stance available at lvl 44)</li><li>Use the lvl 4 defensive stance, Dodging Monkey.</li></ul><p>Our mid stance doesn't appear until lvl 44, but it's fantastic for monks.  Basically we get benefits in mitigation, avoidance and mental resists (similar to defensive stance but not as high), but we also get extra +melee and haste.  It's basically a mixture of our offensive and defensive stances - hence mid stance.</p><p>If you are below lvl 44, I woudl suggest you using Dodging Monkey (our lvl 5 defensive stance).  This may seem stupid at first, but nope, it actually works well.  Basically using Dodging Monkey you get the same % mitigation bonus and the same %deflection bonus as any more advanced def stance, but you don't get the same reduction in +melee skills.  Below is an example:</p><p>Dodging Monkey M1 (lvl 4)</p><p><span style="color: #00cc00;">16% deflection</span><span style="color: #cc6600;">1.8 decrease in slashing, piercing & crushing</span>Increase aggo by 1.4Increases defense and deflection by 2.9249 mental resist<span style="color: #00cc00;">25% more mitigation</span></p><p>Sweeping Crane M1 (lvl 30)</p><p><span style="color: #00cc00;">16% deflection</span><span style="color: #ff0000;">9 decrease in slashing, piercing & crushing</span>Increase aggo by 7.2Increases defense and deflection by 14.4960 mental resist<span style="color: #00cc00;">25% more mitigation</span></p><p>For monks, since our avoidance is inherently high, mitigation is king for us.  Since we get the mitigation benefits using a lower version of defensive stance AND get better melee skills, this works very well.</p><p>So basically prior to lvl 44 (when we get mid stance) I would recommend using this to help you keep aggro.  Lvl 44 and above, I would recommend using spider stance as your normal tanking stance and switch to Dodging Monkey if you are getting splattered around a bit.  Switch to your current defensive stance if you are getting creamed (but make everyone aware your aggro generation will be reduced)</p><p>EDIT - obviously if your use Dodging Monkey, ensure it's at least Ad 3</p>

[mattmandude]

I've never thought of using dodging monkey, not a bad idea.Usually when I'm tanking, I start in defensive stance to see how hard the healers have to work to keep me up. If I think they're not working hard enough, I'll go into balanced to have more DPS and aggro. Again, I'll see whether or not they can keep up with the heals, and if it's still easy, I'll go into offensive.Then again, don't be afraid of switching stances mid-battle when you're tanking. If you're in offensive and things start to get hairy (a healer dies for example), go ahead and switch to defensive.As for when you're doing DPS, I wouldn't waist the DPS you could be doing by being in defensive/balanced, as again, you can always switch to defensive quickly if you need to pick up aggro. And if you're fighting yellow/orange con mobs, you're going to need every bit of +slashing/piercing/crushing to hit them.

[Anjin]

Yep - a top tip is to make a macro for each stance that issues the stance command twice.  This way you only have to press one button to cancel the old stance and start the new stance.

[Lightfoot]

<p>I'm sure that all this advice is very good for someone that is tanking in a group.  I'm not really interested in agro gain or tanking etc., I'm more interested in staying alive long enough to get the job done of killing the mobs whilst soloing.</p><p>Does the point of using 'Dodging monkey' still hold true in this situation or should I stay with my offensive stance and just try to kill them before they kill me.</p><p>If you still think that 'Dodging monkey' is a viable option I'll get my alchemist to work on an adept 3 for it.</p>

[Dorieon]

<p>Mid Stance..or Dodging Monkey in your case is always worth it. I used mostly offensive at that level but I had a solid group of friends that I leveled with. Even at 70 I still use Mid stance for soloing, so yes it will help you in your 30's. The trick is to learn when to go offensive and burst and when to go defensive and block.  The poster that said to make a macro for each stance is 100% correct. It helps a ton.</p>

[Lightfoot]

<p>Once again I thank you all for the advice.</p><p>I've made a macro for the stances and didn't realise just how fast the change over was, very effective.</p><p>So in general would you say that for the usual run of the mill mobs go offensive and if I'm taking a beating off a heroic mob switch to defensive.  Can stances be switch mid battle without getting interupted.</p><p>As a side note and after thought, what should I be able to handle at my level as far as taking on heroic mobs.  I'm just curious to know if I'm up to standard or not.  It will probably be slightly better when I've gained another lvl up to 32 and can optimise all my gear again.</p>

[githyanki]

<p>Well when i was leveling up i knew i could always take on green con heroics and have a good shot at winning.   So 6 8 lvls above was almost a certain win.   Blue cons was iffy at times.  That is in mastercrafted gear for the most part and maybe something mob dropped if it was better as i moved out of the low end of the tier.    Alot of that is also what kind of critter your fighting....be it caster mob or fighter mob etc.    Fighter type mobs always hit harder and have more hp's.   Casters you just run your stifle and stun mix and burst em down and hope for good resist rolls.   Named hunting at the lower lvls was always harder for me at least.   Unless i was just into my new gear and about 8 lvls above it was always pucker time.    My basic rule of thumb was if it was a solo mob i could do even cons most of the time and flop and regen health and power.   1 ups maybe 2 lvls above to keep a decent pace without long pauses.   Once you get into heroics though the rule of 6 to 8 lvls is pretty good.   With groups of 2 ^^ together add a lvl to gauge difficulty of the encounter.    The one thing you will notice is alot of other classes can eat up stuff solo.   But few can chew thru the amount of low green ^^^ that a monk can with little down time.  </p><p>As your monk gets older yes you can use alot of our "cool" things to make the job easier.   Middle stance being one of them.   Or offensive in tsunmai with our spell damage ward running etc.   I always like to take on groups of green heroics in offensive with our miti root buff running.    Since we do have fd it lets you experiment a bit with what you think you can get away with and flop and try again if that didn't work.    Most of your success is gonna be just random chance with not getting popped too hard.    I mean you can do the same named at the same lvl using the same strategy 10 times and have it go from horrible to easy.    Life of a monk i suppose.  </p>

[Lightfoot]

<p>So as a rough guidline when I ding 32 and have crafted all my new gear I should be able to take down a 24^^^ or maybe with a bit of luck 25^^^ giant?  Is that setting my sites to high?  </p><p>This is just an example to test my ability, it's not the only thing I shall be hunting down.</p>

[Gladiia]

<p>When you are solo, and not yet level 44, I found that I was able to take more on while in offensive stance.  The amount of time I was able to stay alive was certainly increased while in defensive stance, but the damage I was getting out was hampered even more.  If there was a fight that I couldn't quite do in offensive, I found that I could last quite a bit longer in defensive, while not getting the mob down as much as I had in offensive stance. </p><p> When you hit 44, spider stance (mid stance) is a great solo tool.  And if you are tight on money, its also a plenty good stance to tank in, although having all 3 stances upgraded and available for different circumstances is most ideal.  </p>

[Bewts]

<p>Now things may have changed a bit since I was soloing to 60 when DoF came out, but I did find that 95% of the time I was in offensive stance solo or grouped.  On solo topics, this is my theory behind offensive:</p><p>Avoidance is a dice game.  As a monk I rely first on avoidance.  The longer I roll the dice, the more opportunities for the mob to hit me.  Unless I play with loaded dice, which you don't in this game, then you need to defeat mobs as fast as you possibly can.  That means offensive.  If a mob is going to pound you into the ground in offensive, defensive will help you last longer but you won't find you kill the mob any faster than in offensive meaning even MORE chances for avoidance dice rolls to own you.  The game is loaded against you in defensive in a solo situation, so you are playing against loaded dice in defensive in my opinion.</p><p>Some people suggest middle stances, and I won't deny that it may help you live just that little bit longer.  I still think that you [Removed for Content] yourself by going middle stance over offensive stance; again prolonging a fight where you have to face the loaded dice.  Personally, if I can't beat a mob in offensive, I probably have no business beating him in any stance.  That or I must re-think my tactics.</p><p>As a lower level character, you don't have some of the more advanced tools monks get IE Tsunami or Outward Calm.  If you find you are getting pummelled in offensive you can try a few things to adjust.  First, address your weapons.  If you face a mob with a damage shield, perhaps 2hb is a better choice than DW.  Although I suggest running down the STR line and using no weapons for the HtH benefits over 95% of weapons until you are 60+.  The second is of course, your armor.  If you have early tier equipment and are facing orange/yellow cons from the early parts of your next tier, perhaps you are suffering disadvantages from mitigation, health, resists, etc and you should upgrade some pieces and try again.  The last is of course tactics.  If you face a mob that is a mage/priest, perhaps leading with a stifle would be more beneficial than dropping its defense from the get go.  Are you timing your stuns/dazes/stifles or are you spamming through?  Can you range pull a melee mob and kite him a bit before engaging in toe to toe combat?  Are you using dolls to slow down a scout mob's auto attacks or dropping a zerker/guards mitigation?  Is the HT from a shadowknight hitting you hard?  Perhaps a resist potion or resist ward will lessen the damage and turn the tides.</p><p>My biggest suggestion is to not solo with everburning blaze, etc up.  I do because I'm stubborn, but in any situation where I am through my combat arts more than twice, I am giving away a lot of health (at least 10x whatever health you lose per 'tick'<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> and I'll adjust by dropping the health drain haste.</p><p>Grouping:</p><p>I prefer offensive in almost all content with 2 healers with a few exceptions in EoF.  I will dance to middle stance once in a while depending on the con of the named, the expansion I am in, and if I know the mob is an undercon.  I've run into a few green con heroic ^^^ in DoF that hit like 65's in SoS.  I'm talking they hit me for almost 2-3k on combat arts.</p><p>If you want any input, I tanked CoV, OoB in offensive with 1 or 2 healers.  I've only swapped to middle stances in OoB at the end when I had 1 healer and it wasn't a mystic/defiler.  I've tanked unrest in defensive because I had a warden and fury.  That was rough and we ended up bringing in a plate tank because the healer/tank combo just wasn't working.</p><p>That also brings me to the point of healer combinations.  I'd suggest to make tanking as a monk easier is to always always always run with a defiler or mystic.  You can run in offensive stance almost all the time therefore increasing your hate generation and dps.  If you lack one of those two classes you just might have to swap to middle stances depending if your healers can keep up with your incoming damage.  I still prefer Defiler over Mystic, but thats just because I want the more raw HP from the Defiler to survive damage spikes.</p><p>I hope some of this was helpful.</p><p>Regards,</p><p>Sanctum</p>

[mattmandude]

Overall, I wouldn't say that you should pin point one stance as the better soloing stance. But in general, I do seem to use my offensive stance more often now, though earlier in levels I was mostly in balanced, and before that I don't remember (and even if I did it would probably be irrelevant information because that was a long time ago, and this is my first toon, so I was a newb haha).You really just have to look at each situation and be the judge. For example, usually I'm in offensive when soloing. If I notice right away by looking at the combat logs that the mobs does a LOT of mental damage for example, then I'll switch to defensive.So basically, there's 3 stances available, all of them serve well in certain circumstances, you just have to figure it out (and no, soloing is not one of those circumstances, it's way too broad imo to pick one stance).

[Lightfoot]

<p>Thank you all for the advice and insight.</p><p>Last night something happened where I surprised myself at just how much of a honed killing machine my monk had become.</p><p>I had just dinged 32 and got all excited about being able to head back to willow wood to craft all my new gear (was still in lvl 22 gear at this time).  In the excitment I forgot which area I was in and just trotted off without going to invis.  Within 2 seconds, bam!  I was jumped by a lvl 25^^^ Revenant soldier.  I didn't have time to think which stance I was in, my only thought being 'one of us is going to die and it's not going to be me'.</p><p>I actually wiped the floor with him.  He knocked me down to about 1/3 health but he bit the dust.  It was only after the fight I realised I was still in offensive stance.</p><p>I have to say this has buffed my moral right up.  I wouldn't have attempted taking on a 25^^^ if it hadn't been pushed on me like that.</p><p>Now I'm off to get all my crafters working on my nice new gear.  <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p>

[Anjin]

Not sure what server you're on (I'm on Splitpaw), but if you need any advice or help then gimme a shout - I'll be on Anjin, Thagdal or Castrato!

[Lightfoot]

Thank you very much for offering advice but all my chars are on Runnyeye.  <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />