New monk Enjoying it but...

[Lithran]

<p>I just got back into the game after being gone for about 8 months. I played a raiding dirge and I wanted something different so I went with monk. I love to solo and I am doing a great job with him.</p><p>My question is, how will I be end game? Like level 80 will I have issues getting groups to get shards, or just plain doing instances. I am not looking to raid since I have a baby on the way in less then 5 weeks and I am going thru a midlife crisis and going back to school.</p><p>What is this fighter revamp I keep hearing about? Will Monks get something that will actually make them tanks?</p><p>Also anyone know where the fark I can find an updated spell list?</p>

[Blu]

<p>Monks are extremely fun to solo, all the way to 80. Once you get to 80, however, things are tough for a bit.</p><p>MC gear isn't going to allow you to tank or dps much for shard groups, and what you can tank will be tough to do, especially if they are multi-mob encounters (most TSO instances have them). Definitely do tank easier TSO instances like OoA, Scion, as you need to learn how to do it anyway -- most pickup groups will want you to tank. Some people still run RoK instances for specific gear, so test the waters there too if you can as most of those are easier than TSO. It's usually easier to find pickup groups on the weekend for me. During the week, I can be LFG all night, and usually just get tells to help kill mobs for someone's epic.</p><p>As you collect shards, you need to collect sets of gear for both tank and dps. The Wilderness shard set is a generic set for many classes and it is more slanted toward dps. The Combatant's set is our brawler set, and it is slanted towards tanking. The shard weapon (Voidbrawler's knuckles) is also a nice complement to the fabled epic.</p><p>The fighter revamp was proposed a while back and eventually scrapped as it had major problems. The fighter revamp was a boost to monks, which is why you still hear mention of it. More info/fallout on that <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=75&topic_id=446195" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>I do not know where the updated spell list is. However, they've consolidated spell names, and now you are also automatically given spells as you level, even after 50. So sorting your kb alphabetically nicely groups the spell lines together. Even if the two adventure pack spells (the double taunt, and the vampire-only CA) aren't given automatically, you won't miss them. I think Devastation Fist is given automatically now (as it has upgrades now), but I'm not certain.</p>

[Lilvoice]

<p>Hate to say this but im going through this right now. Shard groups dont want brawlers for tanks and they will pass you up as a dps more often then not for a higher dps class. Its quite frustrating to level to 80 and realize your toon is now just a shiny farmer...Groups need good dps you need groups to get shards to get better dps but they want you to already be rocking on dps...viscious circle ensues. I almost thought about quitting eq2. A brawler, and specificly the dps side of it is what i want to do but getting excluded because your not t1 dps is very frustrating. However what do i do if i quit? no good alternatives out there........rerolled a troubador was my answer. Gluck with your monk but be prepared right now to be frustrated once you hit 80 with brawlers in their current state.</p>

[Blu]

<p>Yes, I am going through this exact same thing. I simply do not get accepted to tank harder shard zones, even if I might be able to at this point (I don't really know for sure because I haven't had opportunity to). I stay LFG for long periods of time. I considered giving up on my monk also because it is very frustrating! However, I have invested quite a lot of time in him, and my closest alt is 46. So I'm trying to hunker down and get my t2 shard gear filled out and re-evaluate the situation then. As I've upgraded to shard/tso instance gear, it does seem to be getting better. I'm also buying masters and adorns as I can afford them. Personally, I like to dps and don't think my dps is that bad considering gear level, but most groups see monk and think "tank".</p><p>It helps tremendously if you can find a consistent group to run with, whether it be in your guild, or just some people you meshed well with during a pickup group.</p>

[NeVeRLi]

<p>My advice if you're dead set on playing a monk at 80 is to get in a nice guild that will help you.</p><p>Otherwise you will not like endgame as a monk at 80.</p>

[Blu]

<p>After reading around, it appears that a lot of classes are having problems with getting pickup groups. Brawlers maybe have a little more advantage at the moment, in that if you absolutely can't find a shard group (as I never can during the week), you can flop through some of the instances to do clicky quests, maybe even kill some of the lamer key mobs. Thanks to BChiz for pointing that out. I'll have to give that a go while I'm LFG.</p><p>Edit: No key mobs are soloable anymore -- all were changed to tougher ^^^ heroics. But single shard collection quests are often doable with FD and in some cases zoning out and waiting for timer to expire to get a fresh zone again.</p><p>Of course no one has mentioning the easiest way to gear yourself up. That is grey shard farming. It's an exploit (according to Kiara) that has gone unfixed for a long time, and it allows you to get shards at essentially no risk. I won't go into details on it here. I lay partial blame on it as the reason I have an even worse time getting a group than I did in RoK. Someone forming a group knows that for every new level 80 that has crappy gear, they can probably find 2 other 80s that have already farmed enough gear for a t2 set. So your choice is to exploit the obvious loophole to catch up to average (and thus propagate the gulf between the new 80s and the average t2 shard armor geared 80s), or else just have an worse time finding groups.</p><p>The other part of the blame goes to Monks still being broken and/or TSO instances being tuned towards specific classes (esp aoe). Of course in RoK, other classes were complaining that there was barely any aoe content. (And by the way, back then, monks were still complaining about being unwanted in groups, just not nearly as much as in this one.)</p><p>My 2 cents.</p>

[Cynicisim]

<p><cite>Fatshadow@Unrest wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Hate to say this but im going through this right now. Shard groups dont want brawlers for tanks and they will pass you up as a dps more often then not for a higher dps class. Its quite frustrating to level to 80 and realize your toon is now just a shiny farmer...Groups need good dps you need groups to get shards to get better dps but they want you to already be rocking on dps...viscious circle ensues. I almost thought about quitting eq2. A brawler, and specificly the dps side of it is what i want to do but getting excluded because your not t1 dps is very frustrating. However what do i do if i quit? no good alternatives out there........rerolled a troubador was my answer. Gluck with your monk but be prepared right now to be frustrated once you hit 80 with brawlers in their current state.</p></blockquote><p>Same. I would like to make my monk my main but don't really see that hapening. One advantage I have is PVP armor. Once I get a few pieces, I think I will be ok for some zones.</p>

[BChizzle]

<p>You guys hitting 80 and expecting instant satisfaction might be shooting a bit too high in the expectation factor.  Keep in mind us monks who have been around the block have been 80 now almost 2 years, we geared up in RoK so the transition from going from rok->tso was much easier, my suggestion take your time get geared, if you aren't tanking in these groups then dps like crazy use your heal ur block etc so they invite you next time.</p>