Monk Questions

[Jadenia]

I am new to EQ 2 and I have only attained level 16 level wise with my Human Monk. But I do have some questions about the class and progression. Firstly, should I focus on no-weapons or dual-wielding weaponry? I know that building the STR line in the Brawler's Tree is good for unarmed combat, sure it is good for armed as well. I want to build my Monk for high dmg and speed, tanking will be a secondary consideration (pulling an emergency off-tank when needed). Any advice for the class is welcome.  Thank you. Jade

[DwarvesR]

<p>With the potential 96% double attack in the STR line, going unarmed can be appealing while you level up, but I found I didn't like the slow speed on it, so I spec'd out of STR and focused on the INT line for the melee crits, then AGI and STA lines for the additional damage they provide -- going 4-4-8 in each of the 3 lines.</p><p>Once I'm up to 70 and have the additional 20 AA's per tree I'll figure out a new spec then, but for now, this seems to give me the most dps.</p>

[Blu]

If the monk is your first character, I would whole-heartedly recommend going Strength for unarmed. Str is currently not useful for armed combat, as none of the abilities except the one that gives you +Str work when you are armed. The Str (unarmed) line will save you money for weapons, and your fists improve as you level versus buying a weapon and it staying the same for 10 levels until you are old enough to get a new one.<div></div><div>A slow weapon is typically better when combined with critical hit chance increase from the Int line (and later from equipment). Slower weapons tend to have a higher damage spread (lower min damage number, and higher max damage number) than faster weapons, and crits do 1.3 times the max damage of the weapon. So as your crit chance increases, slower high-spread weapons will out-damage faster low-spread weapons of the same Damage Rating.</div>