Im not getting how weapons work with the monk. Should i stay hand to hand or does a weapon, say DMG 4 at level 11, help my add to my damage or reduce what i can do with just my hands? Also, how does delay work? I know this is probably a stupid question but i have never playrd a Monk.
I want to say bare fists on a Monk are basically 8/19 weapons (8dmg, 19 dly). By equipping a weapon with less damage or more delay, you are hindering your DPS. I am probably wrong. Waiting for someone to correct me. Basically you want the highest damage, lowest delay weapon you can possibly find/equip. End game Monk Hand-to-Hand weapons are around 190/19 weapons (190 damage, 19 delay).
The unmodified delay on bare fists is 38 (Iksars' have 39) at all skill levels unless you are wearing our (Monk) epic 1.0, then I think it is 26. The damage is determined by your skill in HtH. https://www.reddit.com/r/Agnarr/comments/69pwwg/monk_fist_damage_table/ Before the original revamp we had different ratios which were coded to level rather than our HtH skill, and those ratios had both the damage going up and the delay going down. Then they had the first HtH revamp which translated that to all be dependent upon our HtH skill so that it would automatically improve as we leveled without them needing to constantly hard code in new ratios. After the original HtH revamp, bare fists were superior to defiant weapons until the 50 or 60+ level range. Then there was a second HtH revamp around the time of the 2nd or 3rd iteration of the Progression servers were done in order to nerf down monks in the early game; they left the damage increases alone and simply removed the delay decreases. This second change was not given much attention because exactly what they did wasn't announced, just that they were making monk bare fists more in line at lower levels for the TLP servers. It wasn't until a few years later that we realized that the delays had gotten nerfed. So at this point any defiant hth weapons (and some 1hb) weapons will be superior to bare fists. Also of note, all classes use the same table (fore bare fists) based on HtH skill for base damage.
I believe there is solid data to suggest 2hb at the later levels is better supported by AAs and is better for overall DPS.
Once saw a level 7 monk sporting a shield. Was laughing so hard it took me awhile to stop and explain things to him. At level 110 with all the AA and equivalent level weapons I did some parsing and found 2h was about 8% more damage for me. A pity because I much prefer the dual-wielding look. Obviously it's better against riposte and damage shields, too. Since we don't use shields it's a no-brainer but at much lower levels it used to be a different story, in some cases. Actually, when pulling was more of a thing and raid dps wasn't, some monks did use shields when pulling but running backwards while pulling is something I only bothered to do when I was showing off.
Dat shield AC tho. I wish I had something to add to this thread. The early game for monks is a mystery to me. It was a long time ago (early HoT), and xp was so rampant that I didn't even bother seriously gearing up until I was 60ish. And even then it wasn't much. I ran with a tank merc until I hit 50. Practically no tanking, just DPS. No healing, tank merc could keep himself up, and FD / mend kept me up. The posts above have a lot of good information. And directing towards the tlp server strats is a great idea.
First, train in everything to lvl it up at each lvl you gain: empty hands, 1hb, 2hb. This way you can use anything that comes your way. Second, my understanding is that unless you have at least the Monk Epic 1.0, use (decent) weapons for more DPS.
Hand to hand in primary and anything h2h or 1hb in secondary, shoot for the lowest delay u can manage to get in primary, secondary delay is hard capped so there's no point in searching for a fast one.. instead look for high damage. until you get your 2hb AA then solely 2hb for dps and defense. While it saddens me that monks are forced to use only 2hb for max dps it's the truth for the time being.
Yeah I know that table and I think it's accurate. Although I wonder why people say the monk epic brings the delay of fists down. Is it because of the clickable 40% haste effect or is the haste on top? And secondly, in comparison, the ornate monk gloves (PoP era) have the same effect as the monk epic. But they go into the gloves slot and not the weapon slot. Do they affect h2h delay as well like the epic (if it's true) or ist it *just* the haste effect for them?
They say it, because it does. There is a thread around these forums somewhere in which we established the 38 delay regardless of skill, but I want to say that in the same thread we also established that wearing the monk 1.0 actually did lower the delay to 26 (27 if you're an Iksar). It is there to reflect how the monk 1.0 worked prior to all of the tweaking HtH went through.
Thanks for your response, Xianzu. So you are saying that just wearing the 1.0 epic lowers the delay from 38/39 to 26/27. Activating the clicky of the epic grants another 40% haste (and 40 ATK) on top. That's pretty cool. Now I need to find out if the monk ornate leather gloves (PoP) work the same
Did some parsing yesterday. Having the Ornate Leather Gloves for monks equipped does not lower the delay of fists. Delay stays at 39 for me (Iksar). I don't have the monk epic but will propably confirm their delay lowering feature (or not) once I got the epic. Might take a while though...
If you are bare fisted (no weapons, our Epic 1.0 also gives you an effective HtH skill of 280 with regards to calculating how much damage you do. But yeah, the lowing of delay for bare fists only applies to the Epic 1.0. as it has always given a better ratio than without it. The ornate gloves only has the clicky.
My monk is from december 2000. When he got the Epic1.0, it changed the bare fists to 9dmg/16dly . That was really fast (It also went into the main hand slot. It was not a glove item back then.)
Getting back to this thread to confirm what has been said. Ornate gloves do not lower h2h (bare fists) delay but the Epic 1.0 (I just got it today *YAY*) indeed does. Only posting this because I promised I will report back after my own comparison
No, they were always gloves, there are statements from December 5, 2000 on Allakhazam which state as much. You're likely conflating the Epic 1.0 with the Whistling Fists quest that starts in Cabilis and requires high Iksar faction giving you a hth weapon. You are correct however in that the original ratio that the Epic 1.0 gave was 9dmg/16dly.
