[stormlord]

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

I do think that it is a little rough on melee's especially early on, but I am sticking with my monk as my grouping character just on the hope that he turns into a dps machine down the road. I mean sure my mage can solo reds or stream pull blues and whites at nine, but I'm sure it will get old.

Look at it this way...it's pretty goddamn fun and actually makes it more of a challenge because you have to relearn / change strategies in some situations. The best thing about the orig was the sandbox effect and learning and creating new strategies inside the environment selected.

So this sandbox is slightly different sized...are you going to rebuild the box or re-arrange the castle?

Mages are too good. I think that's broke. It's the elephant in the room. HOWEVER, if you have another melee in the group the pet can't keep taunt away from them. Who's going to heal the melee?

Monks have hte highest dual wield % in the game and the best 1 handers. They also have that nice kick ability [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Plus, you get good naked defense/offense ability (yer supposed to).

http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jhsu/everquest/eq.html

But what was it that allowed Talorien to win? Was it the rules of the contest? No armor allowed, and only a fine steel weapon in your hands? Obviously these rules are extremely biased towards Monks. They have the highest Defense skill caps of any class, in addition to have an innate AC bonus for being a Monk. Naked, a Monk has a greater proportion of his armored AC than any other class, and their AC's are among the highest in Norrath, ranking even with Warriors (full suits of Cobalt have yet to be compared). Additionally, their 1H blunt skills have the highest cap in Norrath, ending at a respectable 240 before level 50. The last thing that clinched it was Talorien was level 48, the highest level allowed in his level 40-48 bracket. Clearly victory was his alone as the sole level 48 Monk participating.

But was it the rules that allowed him victory? Or does the spectre class imbalance raise itself again? A few days before the Test of Steel (even before the Robe of the Lost Circle was upgraded), Talorien tested the waters by dueling various level 50+ Warriors while on a Plane of Hate run. The results are suprising. Against a level 53 Warrior named "Blanky", dressed in a suit of Cobalt, Indicolite, and some Crafted (I have not been able to contact him and ask how much), wielding a Jasarth Trident and a Springwood Club, Talorien won three out of three times, two of which with 3 bars of life remaining. At level 47. Obviously, something is quite wrong, for Blanky can hardly be considered poorly equipped.

Verant has always said that PvP prowess was no indication of class balance, in addition, there is group usefulness, and solo'ing ability. But the point remains, is this really fair? Warriors may claim to be the "tanks par excellance", but the claim is far from proven with comparable hybrid AC and hit points, in addition to superior Monk AC. Monks may claim partial titles in all three applications, being indespensible within certain zones or runs, in addition to being extremely able to solo. The verdict lies in Verant's court now that the results are out.