Mala-Shea
04-18-2006, 12:55 AM
<DIV><FONT size=2> <P>First off, I want to commend the people that post screenshots of their spectacular soloing efforts on open forums for the world to see. Nothing like drawing a little attention to a class that is constantly under scrutiny for being overpowered...no matter what we do. This kind of irresponsible post only negatively contributes to the perception that we are indeed overpowered. Please save your egomaniacal, whatever-gender genitalia display for crushbone.allmonks. So now, basically because of this, there is a myriad of "discussion" from others that browse our boards that will no doubt go back to their own boards where the whining about our ability to dps/tank/solo/look sexy will only manifest itself in some sort of combat adjustment or...dare I say it...nerf. Something that I, as a customer, will not tolerate again. Will SOE be smart enough to look at the facts on our dps tier vs. our tanking ability? I sincerely hope so. </P> <P>I personally believe that we are not overpowered at all. I base my own opinion, and I stress....opinion, not on calculated percentages of deflect/parry or primary/offhand procs..blah blah blah...the game mechanic's are for SOE to figure out, not me. Here's what I do know, based on an active account with over 200 cumulative days played . I raid every night. All current T7 content. Our guild raiding ability is quite advanced as well, we are DT active have taken down new T7 contested as well. My monk is prolly very close to a top end raid-geared monk, relative to what I have inspected on EQ2 players. </P> <P>Lets discuss DPS. What my observations have been (we parse every encounter, even trash) is my DPS is currently around the low end of 2nd tier. I have had a high parse of 1446 (with 100 dps increaser and applied procs, and resulted in me hitting tsunami to live), but normally parse around 1K. Our conjy, wizzy, assassin and ranger (who are equivalently geared) usually all beat me, so....working as intended. Brigs, swashies, bruisers and warlocks (poor [Removed for Content]) are right with me or a wee bit higher. Now based on what SOE intended was for brawlers to be tier 3 dps, prior to KoS. But with KoS came AA's, which basically gave everyone the option to influence their own preference of play style/abilities that they would like to enhance. Soloing ability, group utility and offensive/defensive enhancements were made available. Working as intended. So if we as monks, were given the opportunity to enhance our contribution to DPS by spec'ing out offensively, is it unreasonable that someone who has spent the points and knows how to play their character can push himself up a DPS tier? I don't think so. So again, working as intended, IMO. </P> <P>Now, we are tanks...lest we forget. So, line us up against the other fighter archetypes and lets compare. Now, my observations are based here on tanking raid content, simply because a buffed scout can tank xp grinding. Line us up against any other tank and the most obvious thing you will notice is that we wear leather, they wear plate. Two equivalently geared leather vs. plate tanks will show at least a 2K mitigation difference from armor alone. "But Slappy, we are avoidance tanks, we get hit much less than our tin can siblings" you say....right? ROFL! Get your monk raid-buffed, get your avoidance to 80% and go stand in front of a Lvl 74 X4 epic and press da' taunt. You might live, but you had better give your healers oral pleasure if you do. Because a lvl 74 (basically any yellow con) raid mob's + to hit and basic ability to ignore avoidance makes you a gaurdian in kinky pajamas . The mob is not going to miss you hardly ever, if at all. The only thing that makes this remotely achievable is our high base health which contributes to a lot of HP's, which you will need to even hope to live, due to your comparatively low amount of mitigation. Now....in end game situations, is a plate tank better than a leather tank? Every time, bar none. Mitigation pwns avoidance, hands down and without question. </P> <P>So...at the end of my rant, what is my point you say? It is simply this...we are right were we should be, as far as our abilities or contributions are concerned. We are not the best dps in the game and we are not the best tank in the game, rather a nice hybrid of both which is adjustable to two different play styles, thanks to the addition of AA's.....working as intended IMO. </P> <P>Please, leave my monk the f*&k alone. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>Slapp</P> <P>70 Monk</P> <P>Heroes-Fate</P> <P>Grobberfrost </P></FONT></DIV>