What were devs thinking when they made Monks?

[branamil]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Monks had really terrible equipment options in vanilla, this was basically their point of balance to offset their awesome skills.

Come Kunark they had lots of amazing weapon options, then on top of that by velious they could even hit worn AC cap.

Yeah, this pretty much. The devs thought it would be cool for a class to shun armor and weapons. That's why the put in the weight limit.

Later after monks complained they had nothing to look forward to, devs realized that item upgrades were 99% of the motivation to play an MMORPG. So they itemized monks but the philosophy that they should be effective naked was baked into the class already

[skarlorn]

pretty cool thread, i'll admit.

I always wondered why Wu's armor was such garbage. I love this idea the devs set out to make, but can see why it totally sucked in EQ. The sad thing is it turned a very flavorful class into a boring, overpowered melee machine that competes with rogue DPS and warrior tanking with a more efficient instaheal mechanic than the paladin and superior FD to the shadowknight. Very yawn.

[Sorn]

Originally Posted by skarlorn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I always wondered why Wu's armor was such garbage.

Other monks may call my wu's fighting pantaloons garbage but my monk will wear hers forever cuz she's a Master Wu fangirllizard <3 <3 They were hand-made with love!

[skarlorn]

I believe the colloquialism for Wu's Pantaloons is "hot Trash"

[hyejin]

That was my nickname in high school!

[Lhancelot]

you guys convinced me to try a monk. Again. For the 3rd time. Never got past lvl 20 in the past...

[Brut]

Monks were busted in Velious, nothing new. Some dev probably played one considering some of the questionable endgame item choices, such as most melees not getting any earring upgrades, but MNK is randomly slapped on Garzicor ear which is a priest class earring. Or how they just figured they might as well slap fungi regen on what is essentially PD robe for a monk exclusive chest piece, so they don't have to worry about which to wear. Or AoW legs that are prty absurd. Or how basically every item is ALL/ALL 0.0wt so monks don't even have to worry about the weight and can just take all the stuff warriors and such also have as their bestinslot.

They nerfed monks hard in Luclin, as they damn well deserved. Since we probably never have to tolerate moon kittie expansion here, monk supremecy reigns forever. Is why everyone and their grandma's third cat has an iksar monk littering their char select.

[fadetree]

Ahem, Rangers. They got nerfed to death BEFORE the game went live. They were 'too OP'. They missed that part about Monks, apparently.

[Sonark]

Originally Posted by Trelaboon [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Basically Monks trade Parry for Block, and then have a much higher Dodge skill cap than Warriors. While from a roleplay perspective, this makes sense, from a game mechanic perspective it sort of doesn't. The slight AC difference just doesn't seem to make up for the fact that Monks have higher defensive skill caps and a 30% mana free, fairly short cooldown self heal. To me it just seems crazy that during live they would have made a class that was so tanky while still being pretty damn good DPS. I'm also a little drunk and bored so this post may just be a product of that. Either way.....Classic EQ is a mysterious game sometimes.

I think I remember reading somewhere that Block is also a better skill than Parry, and not just being renamed versions of the same thing.

[Kesselring]

Originally Posted by Lhancelot [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

you guys convinced me to try a monk. Again. For the 3rd time. Never got past lvl 20 in the past...

theyre kind of an active class, where an active monk can make exp really fast in a group. Same with an active enchanter. But if you are a lazy player and like sitting around then youre more of a hinderance to the group than anything. As far as soloing theyre nice because they can solo at their own speed, soloing is just boring.