How Well Can A Monk Solo

[Nytch]

How well can an un-twinked monk solo?

[Crede]

By untwinked I'm assuming you can at least get a Wu's Quivering Staff & some 55 hp rings. But not well. Unless you don't mind constant bandages and using intimidation a lot (which sucks on your wrist). It's not a fun way to level up. Also if you're trying to maximize your solo durability then you won't be looting as much, which will make it even harder to break out of untwinked mode. Definitely try to group if you're untwinked.

My advice would be to start a caster class and go back and gear up monk later. Much more fun.

[Kutsumo]

If you can get a hold of a wu's quivering staff, some cured silk, and 5ac/55hp rings leveling solo is better than the other melee classes, for sure. You will be using intimidate and you will be bandaging, but that's just part of the gameplay.

Like Crede said, leveling a monk as your first char is a bad idea because of being able to loot. If you carry cheap bags and loot, you'll be way overweight and struggle with soloing, but if you don't loot you'll never save up cash to upgrade your gear.

[Estu]

I think people somewhat overplay the 'not being able to loot' aspect. You can make a good amount of money looting only research components and gems/jewelry, each of which weigh 0.1 each. If you're soloing, chances are you're not going to be looting a lot of heavier items that are actually worth much (though you can get the occasional item worth 20-50pp doing Kunark giants in the 20s and up, for which a tinkerer's bag is useful; the tradeoff is that Kunark monsters in general have more HP and so you will be leveling less efficiently).

Also RE Kutsumo's comment, I would say that untwinked Shadowknights are probably better soloers than untwinked Monks. Monks can fear kite after a fashion, but Intimidate is unreliable and the monster is not snareed, which makes hitting it somewhat difficult. On the other hand, Shadowknights can fear kite properly, can snare the monster, and have a pet for free extra damage. Certainly monks are better soloers than rogues and rangers, though.

[JayN]

iksar monk = solo project

[Kutsumo]

Intimidate is very reliable on low DBs and all LBs once it's max skill for your current level. It very quickly becomes useless on higher DBs and on mobs over level 40. Also, Kunark offers a path from 20-45+ in which you can fear kite large mobs that are easy to hit unsnared. I leveled both my rogue and monk to 50 using intimidate and my path was WW giants > WW brutes > FM giants > DL giants/brutes > DL drolvargs. If untwined, ride the old place out until everything is light blue so that your next camp will be easier to manage early on when intimidate doesn't work every time you hit it.