Balanced Stance...

[mattmandude]

I'm a little curious as to when I'd want to use the balance stance (I've never bothered). My logic has been, if I'm tanking then I'll want full defense, and if I'm DPS then I'll want full DPS... leaving no room for the balanced stance.Any input?-Thanks<div></div>

[Zheen]

Balanced is best solo or PvP (if you PvP)<div></div>

[FatedByChan]

<DIV>I actually find the Balance stance to be the best tanking stance. A good portion of hate generation comes from dps, which is lost if your melee skills go too low and you can't hit the mobs. We also have the hate stance that needs high melee skills to be useful. The balance stance offers some good defensive increases, while not hindering the offensive capabilities of the monk to terribly bad.</DIV>

[Kainsei]

<div></div>Same here.The hybrid stance is my tanking stance.I never use the def stance unless I'm grouped with a warden (due to their +crush/slash/pierce buff).<div></div><p>Message Edited by Kainsei on <span class=date_text>12-14-2006</span> <span class=time_text>05:28 AM</span>

[Gandelff]

i raid in the med stance because of the increase on both def and off to help vr AOE's. Also soloing expecialy like SOS or PoA

[Hannalynn]

<div></div>Mid stance is well nice and I use it alot.Mostly in raids, and solo.In groups where I know the tank is not going to loose agro I switch to dps stance.I think actually that I have very rarely used the 'tank' stance even before I had the mid stance, and still I did well.

[DynamicPerforman]

<DIV>Balanced is the "best" tanking stance.  For blue mobs and below I tend to use offensive, white balanced, and yellow and above defensive.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Just try tanking in each stance, and see how well the healers keep up (watch their power).  You'll get a feel for how each stance works.  If you get hit too hard (20% in one hit is TOO HARD) switch more towards defensive, if your not getting hit much switch towards offensive to kill it faster.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Quind]

I tend to run in the defensive stance, unless there's a healer around or my group's hurting for DPS.  DP made a good point though: if you're not taking any damage, make the healer work for his money and go a little more DPSy.  If you're taking too much damage, go more defensive.  If I'm just around to hit things, I just go full out squishy, because it's not likely that I'll have to worry about getting hit.  And if I do, it just means that it's time to ask the current tank to let me take point for a while.Use your judgement.  Test things, and see what works best with your gear and different mob types.  Some will swing different ways, because of procs or debuffs or whatever.<div></div>

[Lildebbie]

i don't know if it is just that i don't have enough AA or what, but at 50 with 30ish AA (mostly in brawler tree) i can solo best in Offensive stance.  now groupwise, when i tank, it's spider but that's just out of fear and habit.  when i solo level 54 or 55 mobs in med stance i usually kill with 14-20% life, in offensive stance, that number rises to 50-65% life.  this is what i have noticed in EoF zones (Lesser Fay Thexians and those damned trees specifically).  i have not taken into accout that i am still using mastercrafted armor/weps from level 42 so maybe that's it, but all my abilities are Adept III minimum with many Master I's

[Tarmagin]

<DIV>The question I have for everyone is have any of you ever seen the Master version of our balanced stance spell drop?  Black Widow is level 58 version.  This is the only CA I do not have a master of.   I have never witnesses one drop and have never found one on the broker.  If anyone knows what this drops off of I would appreciate the info.</DIV>

[DynamicPerforman]

I have master1 of all 3 stances. And all my defensive buffs (anything NOT red)  I'm working on offensive CA atm, but its slow going since they get eaten up by all the DPS monks on my server.

[Morrolan V]

<DIV>Smoothee,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The reason that you are killing 54-55th level MoBs much easier in offensive stance is that you are 50th level.  The significantly higher adds to crush/slash/pierce from offensive stance will mean that you can hit these high yellow and orange mobs, whereas you will have a much harder time hitting them in balanced.  Balanced stance will be best for low yellow down to blue.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Tarmagin,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The Black Widow Stance master dropped for me off the sandscrawler goblin king in Pillars of Flame <A href="http://eq2.ogaming.com/db/bestiary/MarTuktheSandscrawlerKing.php" target=_blank>http://eq2.ogaming.com/db/bestiary/MarTuktheSandscrawlerKing.php</A>.  He spawns around a camp fire in the goblin area that is up a wall in the south-central area of the zone.  I remember this well because a guildie - 60 zerker at the time - couldn't solo the encounter and asked for help.  I left what I was doing in Qeynos, ran all the way out to the middle of PoF just to help him kill this guy.  And he dropped my master.  Who says Karma doesn't exist?  :smileywink:</DIV>

[Tarmagin]

Thanks for the update on where you got the master drop:smileyvery-happy: and congrats on that.  I will have to go and check that little guy out.  Since I have the other two stances at master level I tend to skip using balanced stance.  Now with the EoF combat changes it is a more appealing option.

[Raidi Sovin'faile]

Balanced stance is why we are so versatile... hell, Warriors have to spend 24 AA points to get something similar to it (no penalties on stances end AA).When I'm soloing, and sometimes when I'm tanking (my wife is a warden, so +skill is rarely an issue) I tend to dance my stances, a LOT.I'm a bruiser tho, so I tend to use more combat arts... but it might be worth a try for you guys out there:Start in Offense, spam (or semi-spam to keep autoattack) your CAs until none are left that you want to use, then switch to Defensive or Balanced, depending on how hard the mob hits. I usually end up with more health that way, as I only need the Offense when I'm laying down the CAs. The small boost to defense while the mob isn't stunned from my attacks and I don't need the attacks to land as much will net me more health in the end.Might be able to take on higher level stuff, or more lower level stuff than without stance dancing.<div></div>