That is a question for Daybreak alright. It used to be we would wear pieces of armor intended for many different classes so we could get the lowest possible weight along with the other attributes we were seeking. I became a huge fan of regeneration, sacrificing even AC and some stats for more of it. Of course, this was when our primary purpose was pulling and before we could mend half our hp every 30 seconds. When I flopped at low hit points after a bad pull, other people were amazed by how they could see my hit point visibly rising. Now every high quality piece is tailored for every class (supposedly) and monks get tons of regeneration (and where is our endurance generation now that we have an AA with 44 ranks to allow us to get more of it from items?). The point being, raid items are almost cookie cutter now. There will be a ring for tanks and a ring for casters, and a ring for hybrids, etc., but, realistically, they are all interchangeable and all classes can wear them. The visible armor pieces are good but very boring. On the other hand, it has gotten like in World of Warcraft in that, when you go to Magelo's and look at the top members of each class on each server, you will find them all using pretty much precisely the same gear (unless they bought a few thousand real dollars worth of rare drops, which in EOK are just the exact same items with different names). Eight percent is huge in the DPS-centric way we are now forced to play to justify the existence of the monk class on a raid (due to not having a unique and valuable specific role). No knowledgeable monk is going to want the one-handers except for cosmetic reasons, or because they don't have a good two-hander (even from the previous expansion!) This means they rot (i.e. get sold for coins) unless beastlords have a reason to favor one-handers over 2-handers (doubtful). I picked up my Shattering Maw for almost nothing in DKP because it was going to rot, or be sold for raid coins, and I discovered that, after having wanted one so badly back before EOK, that this bothered me. Wonder if anyone has a comparable parse between it and Crush/Staff of the Dragoon? Under their current, dumbed-down, one-size-fits-all raid loot model, with everything interchangeable, no item in the CURRENT expansion should be undesirable unless every character capable of using it already has something in that slot. Having one-handers be dramatically inferior to 2-handers violates their own basic premise for raid loot. If anything the one-handers should be better as they require getting a set, rather than a single item, always the harder thing to accomplish. (EDIT: Ideally, they should serve different purposes. Say a monk with one handers would be the dps machine, while a monk with the 2-hander could mitigate or block some serious damage and be a bit more of the old avoidance tank.)
Thaell Ew Totem Beastlords have no 2H AA. For beastlords, 2h weapons are trash. Beastlords have amazing (compared to monks) weapon proc AAs. For beastlords, having two weapons with procs (and augments with procs) is excellent. The point being, you're trying to loot Bst weapons as a Mnk. It turns out the loot ISN"T "cookie cutter" or "dumbed down".
like monks wearing belts this expansion to look pretty elsewhere and getting rid of their belts that MEANS something to their dps...but thats just me. wonder how thats working out for those two or three
Sure it's cookie cutter, they have raid items down to a formula for each expansion. Curtaincaller = Mastermind, The Shattering Maw = Staff of the Dragoon, etc. They do this because its simpler for them and makes it easier to understand for even the more casual players (that's dumbing it down--as if everyone needing the exact same drop for each of their visible pieces as every other class wasn't already). Interesting what you said about Beastlords and 2HB, though.
Having followed this issue for several years now, it's pretty easy to spot that their failure to get this right is essentially what culminated in the current melee imbalance (aka "The Tankpocalypse") The further you look toward classic EQ, Dual Wield was the preferred DPS stance for any class that could DW or 2H. This has been lost in recent years (post-2010'ish) thanks to abilities like Shield Specialist/Weapon Stances and Triple/Flurry effects. In addition, there currently exists a situation where the survivability gap between tanks and non-tank melee classes has grown wider than it should. I think the long term solution is: 1. Change "Weapon stances" tank archetype AA and/or move to pure melee archetype 2. Modify Dichotomic Rage proportionate to #1 3. Grant Triple attack/flurry to off-hand attacks 4. Account for these changes in the next round of discipline upgrades
I have Currently parsed Crush/staff of dragoon against ...Grittooth and Shark Tooth ( DPS wise its a much better set up compared to proc on claw) *unless soloing the lifetap would help* The 2hb felt not only offered more protection with staff block even though in the past have been nerfed but burns on it were stronger by atleast 10%. I truly wanted 1 handers to make a comeback ... i worked very hard to obtain the shark tooths to have the best possible set up in game but to my disapointment.... 2hb is the sexy victor and EOK has changed nothing thus far on the matter. I will say though when 1handers are equipped you get a nice state boost but damn does your heroic dex take a dive.
In a perfect world 1handers would edge out on dps, and you could swap in a 2hb to do comparable dps but have better defensive capabilities. Then again in a perfect world Monks wouldn't be in the bad spot there are at now.
I think its probably better to: 1. remove offensive stances 2. cut dichotomic rage in half and then give it a 5min refresh 3. nope 4. nope Make the tanking stance be tanking, and not viable dps.
At various points of this journey down the rabbit hole, I'd agree with you. But at this point I'm not willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Whether you think today's tanks need a mega DPS nerf or not, you're still stuck with two problems - mechanics biased against DW and survivability balance between classes. Current implementation aside, proficiencies provide a platform to work toward resolving these issues. Lack of TA/Flurry in offhand is the root cause. Fixing it would have negated the need for proficiencies in the first place. Would you prefer we blindly do the copypasta +x% upgrade discs first, then waste an entire beta/tuning process only to botch balance again mid-expansion? Need to distinguish "tanking" from "tanks" here. If we don't want tanks to be DPS the problem is weapon mastery, not proficiencies. Proficiencies have put melee damage between tanks/stances in a good place for the first time in a very long time. They provide design space to further differentiate melee classes moving forward, according to what weapon types they can wield. My point in mentioning it here is that could even include survivability boosts for non-tank classes who might get access to proficiencies. Not to mention they can still tune the existing SPA's down if needed.
You must not be referring to Tankpocalypse 2016, where knights got stances and the warrior brosefs lost their collective minds. Tankpocalypse 2017 = tanks do too much dps, and the dps classes lose their minds? It'd be cool if DW was the preferable thing again, though. It was sposed to be a legit advantage for classes that got it.
Still trying to figure out why EOK put out an easy to get knight ratio one hander that all melee can use (that can use 1h slash).
BRD/ROG not really lore appropriate, but I love the concept of a slow DW weapon that actually has reasonable riposte damage. Cool effect too. K1H ~8.5 HWS 7.35 DW ~6.2 Ratio wise, it's smack-dab in the middle, but, y'know... 40 delay.
why is a monk holding a shield?? and the class was never intended to carry a shield, idc if the item has monk listed, but thats just my 2cp
You. I like you! Back in my day, a Monk ran naked from Freeport to Qeynos uphill both ways in 4 ft of snow because, headbands, pulled running backwards and using a shield for the damage mitigation.
Wasn't there like 1 expansion where that was actually the case, just before 2hb moved into the top spot? Sadly, in recent years it's became clear that the Dev's have no interest in moving this direction as they've only increased the divide between 1h'ers and 2hb for us. Plus they nerfed the defensive benefits since 2hb is top dps for us in current content.
