Monk Weapon Choices

[titanshub]

Lvl 18 Monk here.

So today I got a good deal on a Cane of Harmony and now I am stuck with a dilemma. I have 1 Wu's trance stick, 1 Cane of the Tranquil, and 1 Cane of Harmony.

Up to this point I have used my Wu's trance stick in main hand and my Cane of Tranquil in the offhand. Should I just simply trade out my Cane of Tranquil for the Cane of Harmony? The Wu's trance stick does not proc for many more levels and its dmg/delay is the worst of all my 1hb's.

Even with the really low delay of the Master Wu's Trance stick, isn't it better overall to use the Cane of Harmony in my main hand and the Cane of Tranquil in my off hand?

Maybe I am missing something here.

[Ando]

isn't it better overall to use the Cane of Harmony in my main hand and the Cane of Tranquil in my off hand?

Yes.

[Skittlez]

Yes.

No, you will be dealing less damage if you calculate all the times that you will miss. Faster weapons = more hits, slower weapons = less hits. Now this doesn't apply when you use 2hb because those weapons have 25+ damage on them. (At least the 2hb weapons that you wanna be using)

[Skittlez]

Basically use the Trance stick in MH and The Cane of Harmony in your off hand.

[Ando]

No, you will be dealing less damage if you calculate all the times that you will miss. Faster weapons = more hits, slower weapons = less hits. (At least the 2hb weapons that you wanna be using)

Can you elaborate on this? I thought it was just every weapon had a % chance of missing, so delay time was irrelevant in that regard.

[mnemonikos82]

Don't forget about damage bonus and str bonus. That's independent of the damage on your weapon. A faster weapon which swings 15 times a minute means that per minute you do 15x your damage bonus. A slower weapon that swings 9 times a minute will utilize that damage less. That's why a pre-nerf Moss Covered Twig was also so sought after on live because it could be used in the main hand and swung stupidly fast with damage bonus'.

Also, the mechanics of off hand swinging are that you attempt to swing based on the delay of the weapon in your OH, but then it forces a skill check. Success = swing, Fail = no swing. That means that for raising dual wield you want a fast weapon in your OH because it will check the skill more often and raise the skill faster. Once DW is maxed, it's just about best ratio, but while leveling up, it can make a difference.

Honestly though, the level of min/maxing you're talking about between those weapons is almost unnoticeable at the lower levels. You really only see major gains at higher levels with skills closer to their caps.

[titanshub]

So it seems like I do more damage with COH in main hand and COT in offhand. I don't have a scientific way to measure average DPS. Maybe I just feel like it is more damage because of bigger numbers.

How would someone actually do that? Can I create a log file in EQ? If so I could parse it and average the data pretty quickly.

[Ciroco]

At level 18 you most certainly want Cane of Harmony in your mainhand and Cane of the Tranquil in offhand. Damage bonuses are minimal until higher levels, so you should mostly be concerned about the ratio of the weapons you're using. Trance stick won't be worth using in main hand until much later, and by then you will probably have better. Totally overrated weapon unless you need the proc, in my opinion.

Here's a chart that spells things out for you based on weapon setup and level (credit to Yaolin): http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110823. It doesn't go as low as 18, but just use 30; it's basically the same.

To answer your other questions, "/log on" turns on eqlog.txt in your EQ folder. Yalp and GamParse are popular parse programs.

[Mirana]

No, you will be dealing less damage if you calculate all the times that you will miss. Faster weapons = more hits, slower weapons = less hits. Now this doesn't apply when you use 2hb because those weapons have 25+ damage on them. (At least the 2hb weapons that you wanna be using)

I'm going to try to be nice here... this is some of the most fail logic I've ever read, please ignore this person.

Use the weapons with the best ratios. Damage bonus is a non factor until higher levels.

[titanshub]

At level 18 you most certainly want Cane of Harmony in your mainhand and Cane of the Tranquil in offhand. Damage bonuses are minimal until higher levels, so you should mostly be concerned about the ratio of the weapons you're using. Trance stick won't be worth using in main hand until much later, and by then you will probably have better. Totally overrated weapon unless you need the proc, in my opinion.

Here's a chart that spells things out for you based on weapon setup and level (credit to Yaolin): http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110823. It doesn't go as low as 18, but just use 30; it's basically the same.

To answer your other questions, "/log on" turns on eqlog.txt in your EQ folder. Yalp and GamParse are popular parse programs.

Thank you. That link really spells it out nicely.

[baalzy]

I'm going to try to be nice here... this is some of the most fail logic I've ever read, please ignore this person.

Use the weapons with the best ratios. Damage bonus is a non factor until higher levels.

For reference. Damage bonus is (Level - 25 / 3) rounded down. This means the damage bonus doesn't begin until level 28 and goes up by 1 every 3rd level.

You can start to guestimate which weapon is a better choice for the main hand by adding your damage bonus / 2 to the dmg then calculating the ratio. (not the most perfect math, but still a good rule of thumb if you're concerned about min/max without being obsessed about it).

Example:
Jade Mace is 9/18, .5 ratio
Knuckle Dusters are 14/28, .5 ratio

At level 28 your damage bonus is 1. 1/2 = .5

Jade mace is now 9.5/18, .527 ratio
Knuckle Dusters are now 14.5/28, .517 ratio

Jade mace wins in the main hand from level 28 onward.

Edit:
And just to back up the quote about Skittlez crap being nonsense. Delay won't have any effect on your hit/miss rate unless you're using short durations & the random number generator decides it hates you during that time.