as the thread title states, I am new to being a monk, but I created a heroic character monk, so I need to learn how to maximize my dps in a hurry and how to pull, as I want to be a useful monk as well as a raid monk. Can someone give me a run down of all the things I should have on my hotbars(I'll create as many hotbars as necessary) in what order to use them, or when to use them, or if there is already such a post somewhere, then perhaps someone could link it in a comment please? I already know I might get some hate for making a heroic character, but I want to learn quick, so I can be useful. Oh, if it helps to know, then I was playing everquest for about 7 years as a paladin named Rarcodor, which I name changed to Toyama. I never played any other class all my time on everquest, and when tanking became to stressful for me I was too burnt out to make a new class, but since Daybreak has given us free heroic characters I have returned because I do not like being lol
You probably do not want to hear this, but speaking from experience, I suggest scrapping the whole Heroic idea. I would say otherwise, if you had an inkling of how to play a monk. But as it stands now, based on your own post, you have zero clue on what is going on. You'd be more of a hindrance on a raid than an asset, and just another XP-sponge in a group that would be better filled by a DPS-mercenary sans the camaraderie. If you were to just start a level 1 monk, and learn from the ground up, you would benefit immensely, and be of more value to your group/raid. You will learn what works and what doesn't work (for generic content) for pulling and aggro management. Skill-wise, you're going to have to spend some time working them, and that may eat into your XP time. But it is a necessary process, as you are actively evolving your character, rather than having it handed to you. The auto-grant feature for AA's is already a significant bonus/advantage over those who had to grind them out manually. You'll need to spend some time reading the AA descriptions. If you want to work some melee skills, grab your Journeyman merc and start pounding on him in the arena. Do not neglect your 2HB. That is a bear to work up. I also suggest learning the trade-skills necessary to craft your own throwing weapon. Specifically, the fishbone dart. You can do that a minimum amount of effort, and everything is store-bought, except for the velium which you will need to craft the tool to make them. But Tizmaks drop velium weapons and they are right next to the Thurg zone line. With just a weekend of playing/researching you can be Level 51. At this point, you'll get a huge number auto-granted AA's that you can learn piecemeal. Filter the AA's by Activated and go through each one and determine how they would fit into your current melee hot buttons. Then filter by Passive and see what each ability was determined important for your class via the auto-grant feature. Look ahead to see what can be gained by putting more points into the already established AA's, and other AA's that the monk community may offer as advice to learn for your level. At this point, you will have maybe 1/10th the skillset a mediocre monk will have - but you'll be a better player - certainly better than a person mashing buttons but not knowing why they are pressing that button. Post 51, keep reading those AA descriptions and playing with them. There are a few guides out there to tell you where to go for your level. The levels will fly by, which is a blessing and a curse at the same time. Your skills will suffer as you start doing harder content with lackluster skills, and the same goes for gear, but those levels will come very quickly. To be honest - gear is the least of your worries. You can wear dropped Defiant gear in a lot of your slots, or just empty - it really doesn't matter tat this stage. Your tank mercenary will be the one power-leveling you and most gear is just a waste of money. Once you start getting into some more difficult content, you can start paying more attention to your gear. Or - maybe I'm just dumb and a Heroic is too much brain for me. //shrug// Regardless, sorry for the wall of text and not even answering your question - I just wanted to give you a fairly quick alternative to the Heroic route.
Should've rolled a zerker, monks never get any love from dev's they just get nerf or other classes will complain. Zerkers = WIN no one can deny us this power.
when I was a paladin leveling from scratch I never learned anything leveling. It was all learning from other paladins that I know, but that was just me, and probably part of the reason I wasn't as good as other paladins, so given that, and the fact that I REALLY don't wanna level a character. I do appreciate your advice though, and I will take it and apply it to my current situation. I do not plan to raid until I/the raid leader think I am ready, so it's not like I am going straight into things blind. I will play and learn as I alway have, and if that ends up making me a horrible monk, then I will just do my best to improve. That's all anyone can really do, or am I wrong? please tell me what you can that will help me and I will become all the monk I can be in the monkie reserve lol. I willtake all your advice though and put it into practice as much as I can in my current ssituation. I thank you for your advice, and I do understand why you suggest a fresh start. It probably is the better option, but it's not a viable option, to me at least.
Well the nice thing is that like 2/3 of Monks current stuff doesn't start until like 85ish+, so I disagree that any class learns anything of value pre-level 85ish in modern EQ, pretty much every class changes play style due to a lot of introduced abilities starting around that time period of the game. For pulling, it hasn't really existed as a "thing" that is needed in like 10+ years, unless you're in a really low end group, or you must have singles or something (if soloing with merc), or the Tank is being lazy, there shouldn't really be a time that requires you to pull anything.
Ignore the guy talking about rolling from level 1 instead of the Heroic route. There is absolutely nothing you can learn in the Live game these days by doing that. I don't really have the energy to type everything out that I do, but I can point you to a write-up that someone else did. I don't follow this exactly, but it does contain a lot of good information that should help you learn. http://forums.eqfreelance.net/index.php?topic=3154.0 The above has a lot of 105 stuff in it, just look the abilities up and find the 85/90/95/100 counterparts for these discs/abilities. Researching that will not only gain you knowledge in what to use at those levels, but also allow you to understand what the discs/abilities actually do.
200 hour rule. It takes that long to learn a class at 85 having never played it seriously before. Read on Alla about every AA and ability you have on the toon. Make hotkeys. Use them. Refine. Repeat. All the info is available to you using the game and Alla, there's nothing anyone can do for you except collate that, which takes just as much effort from them as it would from you to learn them yourself, and in the end only prevents you from absorbing what the class can do in a way that enables you to apply it in groups and raids. From there, app a guild and get a current monk member who comes with recommendations to sponsor you. Ask them questions, do what they say.
200 hours is ridiculous! It does not take that long to learn a class at 85 having never played it seriously before. If you put in a few hours, a couple of nights a week, you'll definitely get the hang of it. You definitely do not have to read about every AA and ability on Allakhazams. Just read the in game description. There's nothing before 85 that your going to encounter that will change how you are going to play at 85+
'Get the hang of it' and learn it to a point where you're making a difference positively in a group or raid is completely different. I've seen enough heroic newbs come into guilds and flame out in the first raid (after several weeks of playing 'a few hours' a couple nights a week), and I've seen how intelligent veteran EQ players go about including a new class in their playtime to know 200 hours is pretty baseline. If you can go faster, good for you, but it's more likely that you're aiming for a basic level of proficiency, which will only get you into a small portion of the content you might be looking for.
Hi Atsuhiko, First I apologize that the first response to your post was telling you, that you are doing something wrong instead of just trying to help you with your question. It is that mentality that is not only incorrect as many have now pointed out as you will learn nothing from lvl 1 - at least what 70 just pushing Flying kick, FD, or Mend that will perp you for the modern EQ monk. Also lets all be real here... Monks are not crazy difficult to play. If you have a proper spam bar set up, understand when to hit mend or fd you will be fine. Learning to burn will come in time and its really not that complex either. The easiest way to tell what you should use, is first buy ever tome you can from level 1 - your level, this isn't very expensive as monks barely got any abilities until the 70's and sure there could be things you can skip like anything with the word Phantom or Echo in it besides what ever your highest rank is. Once you have those, hit Alt C I believe it is (I'm at work) to bring up your combat ability window. Hit the little S simple and you will see All of them. Notice the Timer #'s this indicates what abilities share a timer. If you have 2 abilities with the same timer number, you will have to choose which to use. Now. sort by the Timers, anything with -1 are all on their own timer and can be used independently, read through each and any that do damage and have a reuse of under 45 seconds throw on your "Spam bar" Now look at each type of timer, some types don't have any damage attacks in them, some don't have any abilities that have a reuse of under 45 seconds, likely these will be situational abilities like the Palm line and such which will be considered "Burn" abilities or defensive abilities. When you encounter a timer set that are mostly under 45 second reuse time, just pick the highest level for now until you learn more about them. There is one particular set of timers that have many types in them including a line called "Synergy" such as "Calanin's Synergy" I prefer using the highest level of Synergy from this timer set. Anyway go through each timer like I said. and you should have your bar set. I could go into more detail for what a lvl 105 bar looks like but that won't help you at 85 or what ever level you are atm.
