Monk vs Zerk

Looking at changing mains and want some advice. I currently have a 120 BST and they are pretty solid class, except on a wipe. I find that a quick rez to get back into things I am pretty gimped, because i have to then get a pet up, get a buff or two on pet etc. My thoughts are it might be better off going with a pure melee (or ranger) and then I can pop up and start swinging again.
Now I solo mostly, or run a merc with me, but I don't box (thankfully I run with friends a lot so I am up with current content), but outside of friends I like to solo/molo. Of the two above, what would solo better as a main? What would be better DPS? Survival? Utility?

Both would be massive downgrades

Wouldn't it be better to learn how to stay alive first?

Swap to MAG.

Absolutely zero benefit to moving to MNK or BER at this point in time.

I mean, I often outlive my group, FD etc, using my defensives etc, just the random like when our tank doesn't grab Zlandi fast enough, or on raids when i get summoned back up...

Are Beastlords in that good a spot? I mean, I know our pets are pretty amazing....

Running on the raid usefulness tier list; Beastlords are at the top of the melee/hybrid list with Ranger and SK. Monks and Zerkers are at the bottom of the overall list. In lower tier raid setups, monks can be reasonable due to sustain, but you may as well just run a Rogue at that point. Zerkers straight up cannot compete in the long fights that low tier guilds do.

In a group aspect, again, just play rogue if you want a sustainable melee. However, Beastlords bring so much more utility to a group setup, and can sustain pretty well if you're not going all out on casting stuff.

How is it possible that they've created a game where some toons pet tanks better than a melee class, has like 2x the HP of a latest raid equip'd melee, and then they still have their entire rest of their toon to play with?

what about Bst vs Ranger?

Ranger is good except it’s not going to be good solo, for the times when your friends can’t group, you’re basically going to be stuck as a ranger. If you’re tired of the beast maybe u could race change for a new skin? Bst is really one of the better classes in the game right now, and nobody really plays them because they are too busy. If you’re not concerned about soloing I would play a ranger over any of the melee classes.

In a raid sense, ranger is more or less even with beastlord currently. Beastlord has better burst, and can ultimately sustain about as good as a ranger, so on a personal dps level, beastlord has the edge. Both provide reasonable group level adps. However, rangers have Auspice, which is the most important raid-wide adps ability in the game. If your raid force has less than four rangers, a ranger will always be the best addition.

From a soloing/group perspective, if you are just grinding xp and sticking to humanoids, a ranger is far superior. Outside of that, a beastlord will generally provide more than a ranger.

Melee are just bad atm and the Beastlord pet would tank circles around them

Ranger is so, so, SO much worse off after a wipe than a beastlord. If "dying sucks" is why you don't like beastlord, ranger is going to blow your mind with how naive you've been.

You're better off staying a beastlord.

Monks are the worst of all DPS classes. They are the lowest DPS, bring no utility to raids, and their aDPS is garbage.

Berserkers are on par with Rogues, but with less utility. Put against hybrids, pure melee are at a huge disadvantage. Zero indications that the melee DPS stack will change any time soon.

Pretty sad when I box my monk (main) and rogue on raids and the rogues out dps's me. She is the second thought, the monk always clicks burns first and is my main focus. Its close most times but some fights where Im not running all over like the first mushroom raid the rogue is way ahead. So might I suggest rogue? =)

Im super jelly of Monks tanking ability, they make it look so easy to tank raid named, yet when I try it doesnt end the same way 8)

Yeah I totally agree on the survivability part =) Dont get me wrong, my monk is still my favorite. Just gets me mad I can out dps myself on raids lol. That doesn't happen when I box the bard!

Zerk will out burst DPS a Monk most of the time. But a properly setup Monk can out DPS a Zerk over a long fight. That said Monks in the end game are more tanky and have much better survivability.

I box a WAR, SHM, MNK, BER, BRD, CLR, and it's a well oiled machine.

But individually, only the shaman and bard have the sort of utility a beastlord has.

So you have to ask yourself if you'd be happy playing a class that is far more focused on a much more narrow set of skills than your beastlord.

Monks have a lot of ability to surrvive...but the nature of their role in pulling means they're constantly dancing with death, so they die a lot anyway. It might not be a lot on a day to day basis, but one bad camp can easily mean a few rezzes.

"Breaking Camp" is when monks risk eating dirt the most.. and if the group takes a break.. then the camp needs to be broken again..

And if mobs charm, mezz, or just hard to split... well, let's just say it can make for an entertaining pull.

Monks have come a long way in the last few months. Enough that I play my monk more than my rogue now. The latest raid T2 weapon, combined with the dmg increase we got, multiplied by our synergy just makes my monk "feel" like my auto attack DPS is equal to my rogue with latest weapons using knifeplay III disc. and auto attack and I have almost 50% uptime with Earthforce.