Monk or Shaman epic?

[sajbert]

I have a 51 twinked monk with epic and I have a 55 sham with epic that I'm taking a hiatus from but previously had JBB and all the jazz too.

I could level a sham to 60 without Epic. Shaman is good, you can solo fine without it and especially with JBB. There's always grouping too. At 60 once you have Torpor to tank summoning mobs then Epic will help you kill and push the class into the godmode territory. Sort of useless in raids.

Leveling a monk solo to 60 without Epic, even with my heavy twinking (tstaff, fungi, beads, jbb, pegi cloak, cloak of flames, etc) I honestly wouldn't wanna do. If you group it sort of doesn't matter. At 60 it will useful both solo, grouping and in raids.

So I'd say monk epic is the better choice if you wanna solo level and/or raid. If your goal is a strong character at 60 that can solo cash camps then get the sham epic.

[tonyadams]

If you’re more drawn to the Monk, the epic amplifies your enjoyment and makes grinding more fun and efficient. It’s also more straightforward to play and less mana-dependent, which suits longer sessions better.

Chill Guy Clicker

[DeathsSilkyMist]

I have Shaman and Monk Epic.

Spend that money on Torpor and level the Shaman to 60. Then you can farm for both Epics faster.

Buy a Fungi Tunic with the leftover cash and use it on whichever character you are actively leveling.

If you have enough money for Torpor and Epic, I'd go with Shaman Epic first so you can level faster and use Torpor. Since you are an Iksar Shaman, you don't have access to JBB for free damage clicks.

A Torpor Shaman is much better at farming compared to a regular Epic Monk.

[cd288]

Monk epic is nice but not needed to get to 60 if you are twinked in other ways. IIRC I didn't get my Monk epic until I was 60 or close to 60 (I knew that if I spent too much time focusing on other things I wouldn't finish the EXP grind). If you have a fungi and a T Staff you'll be just fine and adding the epic probably doesn't move the needle as much on being able to solo additional things. Without those things...yes epic would be wayyyy more important for survivability.

Personally I find playing magic using classes more engaging, so I would probably go Shaman regardless if I were OP.

[one3eight]

Something of note: as someone who only raids now, shaman epic never gets clicked, monk epic still gets clicked constantly.

[Snaggles]

The OP is favoring the monk as their more enjoyable class. I get that and would probably do what your heart calls for unless this is a priority:

“As far as when I’m 60, who’s more capable of soloing fun content, decent plat farm etc.?”

Outside the attack and a dash of AC, 40% spell haste is helpful for a solo class or even Droga or fine steel farmer. With a CoF the Tstaff is a 29/22, with the CoF and epic click it’s a 29/17. That’s a 22% improvement. 40 attack probably adds another 4-5% dps.

The shaman will be a more painful farmer of light greens (Droga) but gate is handy for selling. It would be able to farm Geos and some Chardok/PoM spawns. Either monk or shaman can farm plat; if just rank the shaman a step higher overall.

In raids and most balanced groups the shaman epic won’t get used aside from stats. In scrappy duos and trios it will get used all the time. Basically any blue con (or higher) that takes less than 1.5 mins to kill it isn’t worth it. If it’s resisting a bunch you better hope that kill takes even longer so the dot can go full-duration. In most situations with my shaman where I’m helping kill a tough target or even most rougher group situations, I just keep Avatar memmed to help burst down stuff. Malo, slow, torp…that’s the backbone of what you bring.

Whereas the monk will constantly use the epic and it up ranks the dps of the class significantly. In a game where you don’t get many advantages, free 40% spell haste and 40 attack is never turned down.

[Jabober]

Appreciate the input guys! Lots to digest, both sound like good choices.

[Duik]

(From all the above...) I think that is why beastlord was such a great class. Out of era and OT but a mix of best melee and a sham? Clear winner. A bit OP though. Like a battle mage with actual skills.

Way better than a rng pulling from dru and war. Different era I know but still. Rng (-EDIT- averagely equiped non BIS -EDIT-) was a literal laughing stock until Luclin but had such potential. Sorry.

@OP you sound like a monk but the arguments for sham hold water regarding plat farming potential.
Tough choice you have. Hmm?

[WarpathEQ]

Shaman epic unlocks a lot more for the class and ultimately Shaman has more tools to solo/farm high end content (with torpor) however I found the shaman class got significantly more boring grinding with an Epic, its actually the least fun thing I've done on P99 (althought I'm glad to have a 60 epic/torp shaman as I bust him out when my other toons just can't handle the job).

IMO monk epic will contribute to a lot more enjoyment during your play time and exp grind as it will truly enhance playing the monk versus shaman epic just converts you to root rot everything and sit there.

[ScottBerta]

Shaman is better but having to cast canni all the time is annoying.