Just re-sub'd to play with my wife after 5-6 months away (she never quits....like my 3rd time). Anyway, we still at the bottom of the fighters? Any monk loving since i've been gone. From reading the forums, looks like SK's still at the top of everything....funny, some things never change. ~Xordus~
Yeah I have noticed not a lot of love, but hey we are fighters right... we will try our best to fight our way towards the top right? I know that I still love the monk and wouldn't change it at all..
The main issue with Monks isn't really that the class is bad, it's just that some of the other classes are just better. Monks aren't objectively poor, we just don't compare to crusaders and zerkers. A well-played monk can do anything that an SK can do, we just have to work twice as hard to do it. A poorly played monk also looks a lot worse than a poorly played SK in many situations. That's mostly the issue. We have to work for the level of proficiency that most SKs get just by rolling their face on the keyboard, and since most players aren't especially talented, it's a safer bet to invite an SK over a monk. Once you have proven yourself within your circle of friends, you can count on being welcome as a tank, as long as you don't mind having to exert greater effort to maintain that reputation.
Yes we are still at the bottom!! I love my monk dearly. She can tank anywhere any other tank can go. I have been in several raids where she is still up and fighting for the most part after all the plate tanks have bit the dust. IMHO she kicks butt. However, I have finally decided to bench her due to the constant crap I keep hearing about how monks are not tanks and how monks can never be uber and so on. I have been passed up on being MT in groups over a plate tank that is mediocre simple because they wear plate! I am tired of being barked at for pulling the aggro (with little effort and not intentional) from a plate tank and the blame is always on me, not the simple fact that the plate tank doesn't have enough taunt power or their gear is not up to par. If soe can find a way to equate monks to plate tanks then maybe I will think about unbenching her again but until then she is dead. Good Luck with yours and I hope you have better success than I have had.
We're still at the bottom but the gap has shrunk considerably: we're now viable tanks in all situations, just not the best tank.
(( Things have been getting better for brawlers in the Sentinel's Fate era, compared to before, certainly. Before SF was released, playing my monk Lorianna, I never tanked, I just joined groups as DPS. I just didn't feel the class was equipped to the do job properly at that time, unless it had far superior gear to the other members of the group (which I never had of course). I recall, soon after SF release, starting to tank instances, with increasing success, and as I picked up AA and instance gear, moving to some of the harder instances and tanking those as well. Roll on all these months, and now I am helping tanking for a raidforce based around a few regulars and the rest all pickups (I initially joined it as a pickup one night). Often recently I have been the Main Assist and/or Off-Tank, but a couple of times now I have been the Main Tank. Last night, as part of a PerahCelsis Labs pickup raid (easy mode obviously), I was the MT against Xilaxis (successfully) and the first attempt on Perah Celsis himself (raid failed to win but got him down to 20%). This is as a monk who is not and has never been in a raidguild, and just joins pickup raids. The point I am making is, surprising as this may have seemed to me six months ago, it *is* possible to do with a brawler now. Ok, a raid will still take an equivalently geared plate tank in preference if there is one that they trust and is available, and with good reasons. Furthermore, perceptions amongst some players remain very much that brawlers are "weak tanks". There is still a gap, and I am as well aware as everyone else is that certain fighter classes especially are still rather stronger than we are, in numerous regards. But the gap that once existed has closed quite a bit now. ))
