Newbie Monk

[shlence]

Hello Everyone!

It's good to see old school Everquest again!
I've just started playing here on Project 1999 and I made a monk as my first character. I never played a monk on live and they seemed fun but I had a few questions for the people that know!

I'm currently a level 5 iksar monk and have been using two staffs from the monk guild merchant I saved up for by selling scorpion pincers. Is there some other weapon I should be aiming for as well that's relatively low-cost. I have no other sources of income to twink so something realistically aimable would be good.

Also, at low levels, does the weight penalty matter much or should I just ignore it to focus on getting some money?

And finally, wtf level does mend start to work at? I've actually had it kill me, more than it's helped me. I guess until then I shouldn't use it in combat?

Thanks a bunch for your advice,

Flex!

[shlence]

bump?

[Reptak]

Welcome! You chose a fun class. Now on to your questions.


Weapons: Gosh, honestly most monks are twinked on this server. Just use what you can for now and save up for Fighting Batons (8/20). They are not unreasonably priced, but obviously out of your range for now (600pp?)
Weight: For the most part, the weight penalty should be ignored under lvl 20. Loot up what you can to save up for that fighting baton.
Mend: at 100 it works every time. Do NOT use it in combat until you get it pretty high. And when traveling or anything non-combat, still click it for the skill up chance.


Good luck and hope you enjoy it!

[malroth69]

like Reptak said, you want to put most of the points you can in mend when training at first. And spam it all the time, even if you are at full health. I had a iksar monk on live and LOVED IT. Unless you just want to use to 1 hand blunt weapons(can understand why, its just cool :)) you might want to just use your bare hands. Hardly anything you are going to be able to get right now will be any better unless you are very lucky when around 10-15+ and get into a Kurn's group and get an iksar beserker club or something(but I wouldn't doubt if that is farmed all the time) Your regular hands will problably end up doing more damage at the early levels.

It is also a good idea to try and keep hand to hand up in skill anyway in case you need to make a solo corpse run, monks have it nice in that way since you can still kick butt even though you don't have any gear lol

[malroth69]

Oh one more thing, you probably already know this but, work on your bind wound skill too. As a monk if you have worked on that skill as well you can pretty much keep going with very little downtime, a truly fun class. Makes me want to level up another one, but im too busy with my shammy and SK atm lol

[Loke]

Honestly, one of the great things about playing a monk is that you really don't need to stress about weapons and gear as much as other classes. While a fighting baton or similar would be nice, many of the monks on this server leveled up with nothing but fists and mesh/cloth armor. The point I'm trying to get at is that I wouldn't worry about gear or money much, focus almost exclusively on leveling and gear will come.

As for weight, obviously it is ideal to stay under the penalty level, however, if you're not soloing/tanking it isn't vitally important. This is actually one area where us old timers had it easy, because almost everyone had a 100% WR box because they were so common and rotted so often. Without weight reduction bags, I personally would carry the bare minimum - maybe 1 or 2 containers tops. Just enough for food/water/bandages/shurikans/whatever.

As far as mend, use it whenever it pops. Until you get into the 70s and 80s for skill, it is so unreliable that the idea of "saving it" to get you out of a tight spot or finish off a mob doesn't really make a lot of sense.

[Gorgetrapper]

I noticed that after a certain weight you reach (I think it's relatively high) your AC doesn't take as much as a hit per stone. You'll already be pretty penalized, but if you already reached that point, you shouldn't keep worrying about it anymore.

[Bruman]

Honestly, one of the great things about playing a monk is that you really don't need to stress about weapons and gear as much as other classes.

This is very true, but also one of the hardest things to come to terms with. "Real" monks are also typically quite poor, but they're the biggest twink class as well. That means "real" monks have a hard time getting any gear - the good monk stuff sells for stupid amounts of pp (especially right now), to the point where even if you get to see it drop in a group, they're unlikely to let you roll need on it.

Just get a MR, HP, and AC buff and start pulling :).

[shlence]

I appreciate the comments guys, especially about the gearing! I was thinking it was like a rogue where you needed good weaps to be useful and so you should just neglect armor to save up for them.

[malroth69]

I appreciate the comments guys, especially about the gearing! I was thinking it was like a rogue where you needed good weaps to be useful and so you should just neglect armor to save up for them.

yea you don't really need to worry about gear, since your just starting out and all your money is valuable right now, you may just want to do some tailoring. the cloth, raw cloth and cured cloth would work great because of its low weight, and can work your way up to wu's, its not really that high of crafting skill. I know on live you could get wu's stuff cheap, but I kinda doubt you can here(but I honestly don't know, haven't priced it) also as a monk make sure you hit the bank and change in your copper and gold to plat, that will weigh you down faster than anything really lol.

Oh as for bags, pick up a couple large sewing kits, you put pretty much anything in them and their weight is something like .3 lbs, rather than the regular bags that weigh 3 lbs, that adds up

[Barn]

Hailya
Consider joining a guild? There's a lot of guilds that welcome new folks.
I am in Harbingers of Thule, the all Iksar guild. It makes me so happy every day to hear friends offering quest advice, or just encouragement. And passing along loot to folks that need it.

Good luck and welcome!
Absolution

[Enderenter]

If I were you, starting out fresh on the server, I'd stick to fists, buy the light armor from vendors (forget what it is called, sold in Cab) and save up for two 5 AC 55 HP rings. Then go from there, but your fists are fine weapons, and one of the last slots I would upgrade. (they upgrade themselves as you level anyhow)