Avoidance

[Zaknafiend]

<div>   I have a friend of mine who quit eq2 after he logged his 50 monk in and got owned by a blue mob. It was right after a patch (not sure wich one) but it droped his avoidance way down along with other things. His avoidance was at 89% and he feels that his monk can't be good with it lower. I have looked at the forums and the general opinion is that monks rock, but all the monks I  look at seem to max there str and not agi and have avoidance of 65% or so. I would apretiate it if somebody could explain to me why the avoidance doesn't seem to be crippling you like my friend thinks. Thanks for the help in advance<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></div>

[Lareal]

The reason most monks max STR or STA rather than AGI now, is that it takes massive amounts of AGI to get a decent raise in avoidance now. So STR and STA both give better benefits.Monks and Bruisers are awesome classes. We solo very well, and have a lot to give to groups and raids. We can Tank, do decent DPS, and have a few utility skills that round us out nicely.If your friend got "owned" by a blue solo mob then he was a) Having a bad streak of luck with the RNG, or b) Didn't know the skills well enough post-revamp. He really should come back and try again, it really is a great class to play.<div></div>

[whitebear]

<div></div>I know we had a few patches that were a little tough for few days as everyone got used to the changes, but don't recall anything that would be considered crippling by any means. Very early in the game they realized that agility was having way way to much benefit to monk avoidance and changed that, but I think almost everyone agrees that it was a needed change. Monks/Bruisers are a very fun class to play, excellent soloability, excellent groupage, and versitility. I cant imagine not being able to take a blue unless it was a heroic mob and even then many well equipped monks/bruisers can still take it. The only thing I can imagine is that he had picked his armor set up for maxium agi and didn't switch it over to become more balanced with decent mitigation. As far as a Str vs Agi, I think most of us have found that you get more bang for your buck with str. It just takes to much Agi to get any noticible effect unlike str which instantly increases our power pool and damage.

[x0rtrun]

<div></div>It sounds very much like this happened right after the combat update. A lot of mechanics changed drastically at that point. It was a huge numbers shock. It didn't seem possible that we could do anything with such a huge hit in numbers, but the numbers didn't change in a vaccuum; everything else changed with them. I think that he may have also tried to take on a mob that used to be easily soloable, but is now a heroic encounter meant for groups. Mobs were also hitting really hard right after the change and needed to be tuned a bit.I was just as shocked and worried as anyone and considered quiting at first. But a patch or two later and some more play experience and adaptation, and things couldn't have been better. I can't imagine going back to the old system. It boggles my mind to hear people still complaining about the combat update as if the old system really was better.It was a little rough there for a while as things solidified, but they are rock solid now. Urge your friend to give it another try. He'll have to forget everything he thought he knew about the class and how it worked, and have an open minded approach to learning the new ways of the monk. Check out the faqs stickied at the top of the forum. There is a wealth of information contained within that will help ease him into the new way of doing things.The monk class has never been better i think. We're a robust and versatile class that is a blast to play. Everyone that i know who has a monk alt thinks they are by far their most fun char. I can't play anything but a monk. Out of all the classes, i think the monks are the happiest. I think it'd be unfortunate if your friend left all that behind because of number shock and a bad combat encounter.BTW, i regularily have between 50 and 60% avoidance and between 20 and 30% mitigation  with an attack rating of 1100 to 1300 and about 4500hp and do just fine soloing and group tanking. I can even solo most blue heroic encounters if i'm lucky and i don't have uber gear either.  It's not as big of a hit as the numbers would make it seem.<div></div><p>Message Edited by x0rtrunks on <span class="date_text">02-05-2006</span><span class="time_text">10:55 AM</span></p>