First raid...Depressing

[mok-mok]

Hi all,

Last weekend I did my first raid with my Wisdom based monk at tempest the Spine. I'm only at 8th level, but some friends where doing it so I decieded to get in. My experience... awfull I cound't do mole than 3 dmg per hit in most oponents (no metaline yet) and I missed a lot of hits, while the resto of my party just runout killing staff quite easily I took me like 30 seconds to kill a mob.

What am I doing wrong?Maybe my gear and level lack were a overwelming diference?

The thing is that, usually, I'm in top 2 killing staff when I quest. And in the raid.. I only got 5/6 kills per instance.

Any advice? Did I choose a good class?, because it seems to me that anything else in this game can make more DPS and is better helped in gear terms than what monks are.

[Trillea]

Hi all,

Last weekend I did my first raid with my Wisdom based monk at tempest the Spine. I'm only at 8th level, but some friends where doing it so I decieded to get in. My experience... awfull I cound't do mole than 3 dmg per hit in most oponents (no metaline yet) and I missed a lot of hits, while the resto of my party just runout killing staff quite easily I took me like 30 seconds to kill a mob.

What am I doing wrong?Maybe my gear and level lack were a overwelming diference?

The thing is that, usually, I'm in top 2 killing staff when I quest. And in the raid.. I only got 5/6 kills per instance.

Any advice? Did I choose a good class?, because it seems to me that anything else in this game can make more DPS and is better helped in gear terms than what monks are.

Monks unfortunately are a very gear intensive class, due to the fact that they have 4 stats that directly affect their combat effectiveness. If you posted what gear you are using, we could probably help you more.

[Rineth]

Agree with Trill.

Level isn't your problem. I breezed through Tempest with a level 7 toon the other night.

More info on your gear and how you're specced will help us to help you.

[mok-mok]

My gear is right now:

+2 ring to const
+2 bracer of str
+3 ring of dex
belt of moderate fort
+4 reflex googles
+2 saving throws cloak
FF boots
+2 holly handwraps (+2d6 agains bad mobs)
+5%exp trinket.
No worthy gloves yet.

http://my.ddo.com/character/cannith/batusai/

You all can check my stats there. I had My frozen handwraps on, because of the last quest I was playing seems to be inmune to good.

Well, hope that helps

[Taimasan]

Your gear does not look at THAT bad for a level 8. I probably had worse when I first went through on my monk before reincarnation. Were you really doing just 3 damage a hit?? Or are you exaggerating a little?? Don't except to do the heavy dps just yet for monk. It takes alot of planning with gear and stats to get to that point. As you get up in the levels your fists will get more powerful. I really didn't start to feel comfortable with my dps until I reincarnated with 2d12 for fists, and 2 ToD rings with holy burst and shocking burst on them to really feel like a dps help to the group. So just kinda get used to feeling that way until you get your gear the way you like. Also with the new update coming out maybe try to go dark path for the 500 pt ki strike. But at a low level it might be hard to build up 50 ki fast enough for it to really be worth it. You just gotta be patient with the class and like the ddo compendium says, the class is slow to master. Also if your worried about being a asset in kills to the group, pick up a pair of vorpals and go wind stance. Monks are very good at vorpaling in my experience due to the sheer number of attacks and speed with wind stance, and that can be a very easy way to pad your kills. I might have a low level vorpal in the bank or something I can send your way to help out if your on Sarlona server. Until then man, stick with it and you will feel the rewards later. Good luck.

EDIT: And if your missing alot maybe you have power attack on, at low levels its usually better to turn that off since the monk BAB isnt so hot at low levels.

[Trillea]

This is a decent start to posting your build, but where we really may need to help you is your feats, which are not shown in the my.ddo sheet. Do you have weapon finesse? The 1st 2 tiers of the TWF line? What is your playstyle? I see a lot of points in WIS and DEX but no +WIS item, maybe the +4 WIS belt with 2 clicks of shield is in order instead of your mod fort belt (although that is not a bad belt in the least for your level). These are the questions we need answers to.

[mok-mok]

This is a decent start to posting your build, but where we really may need to help you is your feats, which are not shown in the my.ddo sheet. Do you have weapon finesse? The 1st 2 tiers of the TWF line? What is your playstyle? I see a lot of points in WIS and DEX but no +WIS item, maybe the +4 WIS belt with 2 clicks of shield is in order instead of your mod fort belt (although that is not a bad belt in the least for your level). These are the questions we need answers to.

OK.. I probably need that belt, but prices at the AH in Canith are ridicoulous high, and I don't think that I have the money for that.

In terms of feats so far I have:

WF
TWF
Dodge
Stuning Fist
Power Attack
thoughtness

and on stances, I'm Using wind stance II as main instance (the rest of them only at level 1)

Related to de dmg... some mobs are Adamantine reduction and inmune to good damg, so.. mobs like golems are a real pain in the a** for me. the rest of the mobss where hard to hit and not big dmg done (probably they had too much life so I needed to hit them too many times before doing any significant dmg)

Hope that helps.

[Halock]

Turn off power attack, you're 8 in a minimum 10 quest, if they had it higher difficulty it could have been 12, you havent said, in any case you're to-hit is too low to be using power attack right now and for quite a while especially if you use the wf enhancment to get more damage out of PA.

i'd be willing to bet the 3's you were getting for damage were glancing blows, it means you really missed, but turbine gave you a consolation prize for trying.

Next time you go back, turn off PA, and try not to be moving when attacking, i'm sure you'll have better results, i'm speaking for the regular enemies, for the golems you'll need something to beat the DR, no way around that to do decent damage.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Which part of your high Wisdom did you expect to hit and damage monsters with?

A Wisdom based monk has some advantages, but a high to hit score, and high damage output are not among them.

The Blackguards in TS have a very high AC.

The Golems, Reavers, Tharask Hounds....Marut....end boss...Stoneskin buffed giants.
Elementals...

All have Damage Reduction that your lvl 8 fists will not breach.


You'll get better as you get higher level. But you'll need some good gear.
But so does everyone else. So don't worry about it too much.


Also, DDO has been around for four years.
Lots of players around level 10 have some awesome gear they have passed down from higher lvl toons.

A low kill count in TS, for a new lvl 8 player is nothing to worry about IMO.

[TPICKRELL]

My gear is right now:
.
.
.+2 holly handwraps (+2d6 agains bad mobs)
.
.

You will need a lot of different wraps and will need to change them a lot. I frequently switch wraps multiple times in a fight. That's one of the pain points of being a monk your effectiveness, especially against mobs with DR is directly linked to having and using the right equipment for each situation. My other toons can often get away with general purpose weapons, but my monk needs to have the right weapon to be effective.

[lyeman]

This is a fundamental problem with dex/wis builds, They are great for soloing and do well in lower level quests, but you're at the level where your effectiveness basically boils down to water-buffing the casters and occupying trash while the heavies kill everything. This is why I quit playing my halfling in favor of my elf and warforged monks.

IMO, unless you are willing to deal with this until you can farm the dozen or so named items you need, you should reroll now, while you don't have too much time invested.

[Rameses]

This is a fundamental problem with dex/wis builds, They are great for soloing and do well in lower level quests, but you're at the level where your effectiveness basically boils down to water-buffing the casters and occupying trash while the heavies kill everything. This is why I quit playing my halfling in favor of my elf and warforged monks.

IMO, unless you are willing to deal with this until you can farm the dozen or so named items you need, you should reroll now, while you don't have too much time invested.

I have no problem outkilling the Str builds on my Wis/Dex Halfling monk build so I am sure this is just your opinion not an actual fact.

But more importantly OP you should evaluate where you want your monk to excel. Then start using myddo.com and search out forum users that say they have a monk and look at their builds.

While I profess to having a Wis/Dex build Halfling Monk; I can still achieve a 34 Str on him and I deal +16 garuanteed Sneak Attack damage on all mobs that can be SA'd because of a liberal use of Unbalancing Strike 1. So that's like having an additional 36 Str on such a little Monk.

With a little informed research you can make your monk close to or better than most heavy hitters.

I am, Rameses!

[Zenako]

The ROLE each character type can most effectively play shifts as you progress in levels and the challenges change. Everyone gets a chance to shine in some quests, and in other quests perhaps not so much. A lot of players tend to stick to those quests that their characters excel in, and ignore other content. The trick is to find quests that others are willing to play that let you be effective too.

Gear is a huge thing with many builds (as many have mentioned) if your goal is to be "king of the hill", which by your referencing Kill Count, it seems you are. One can be as much of a factor in the success of a group by focusing on other aspects in quests like Tempest Spine. In a Raid, you can focus on doing something that makes everyone else's job a lot easier and contribute a lot more than by just adding another DPS machine to the team.

For example, hitting all the high AC mobs with Destruction (-4AC) effects, is very useful in many at level runs in Tempest since that will significantly increase the DPS of everyone attacking them. Cursespewing is useful too, in that it lowers the mobs saves and chances of hitting characters that have even halfway decent AC. Provide enhanced DPS by flanking, etc.

Work on other types of CC, that you might have available.

With the high AC mobs in Tempest, Power Attack can be problematic for most at level characters to try and use. They will miss a lot. The MOB AC was lowered a bit sometime back and then it was VERY hard to hit those Blackguards and took focused effort to bring them down. That was when my high to hit dex based Ranger with Precision Feat would shine as he was able to consistently land attacks with his Destruction attacks and give everyone else a chance to hit on less than 20's in many runs.

As long as you know you are contributing to the team success, that should be enough. If you need to see you name in lights on the kill (and some do), then you will also need to make sure you have all the right gear to do it.

Another point, if a number of those players had RR Power 5 Items (for level 8) or were level 10 or so, they could be using weapons that effectively IK some mobs (Banish, Smite, etc) and rack up kills that way, even with mediocre damage output.

[mok-mok]

This sounds very sad, I heard that most monks don't actually dps a lot, but... I was expecting them to be usefull to the party.

This thing is making me wonder if I got a good class or if I should reroll as a diferent class althought I like the monk, but if is unusefull in raids (wich is basically the main par of the game once you get to level 20)...

Could you please tell me some reasons to keep playing monk? and not to rerol into something else.

thanks.

[The_Duck]

I wasn't too hot for my monk until I hit level 8 and figured out all the combos and when to use them in what situations. Now I really have fun and do pretty good damage. I never picked up power-attack and I don't miss it. If you have a high to-hit, can stun, and have bursting wraps the damage takes care of itself from my perspective.

You need to have the right wraps for the specific situation.

Tempest has a LOT of different mobs and you need a weapon for each type.

axiomatic wraps work decent on the drow (blackguard too I THINK). You can get those on the xchange at a decent price or I bought mine off the weapon broker. These also work against the hill giants in there.

gotta have ice and fire wraps. That way you can do well on the fire giants and ice flensors and whatever.

Metal Golems = need metaline or adamantine wraps - i don't have these either

You can use your finishers to debuff the mob a little and to also grant you some bonuses.

BTW - your headgear and your neckalce both have concentration but they don't stack. Go get a +WIS helm or something to leverage that slot.

[Superspeed_Hi5]

This sounds very sad, I heard that most monks don't actually dps a lot, but... I was expecting them to be usefull to the party.

This thing is making me wonder if I got a good class or if I should reroll as a diferent class althought I like the monk, but if is unusefull in raids (wich is basically the main par of the game once you get to level 20)...

Could you please tell me some reasons to keep playing monk? and not to rerol into something else.

thanks.

Monks are awesome at high levels. That alone should be reason. If not how about play for fun. Is your monk fun?

However whats your Str? seems rather low if you are doing 3 per hit.

Your goggles and cloak are producing similiar effects. You should be wearing your starter goggles which give +1 to hit still at this point.

[Sir_Chonas]

I agree monks are fantastic. Remember, the higher you get the better they are to play. Also if you reincarnate, you get a bonus to damage.

[ezgoezit]

I don't think it's reasonable to expect to hang in a raid two levels above you as a monk unless you are running with top of the line equipment. At lvl 8, in my opinion, that means that you should have some metalline wraps to bypass DR. I think the only pair of those available are the Devout wraps from the shadow crypt series:

Devout Handwraps - (Weapon) +2 Handwraps, Metalline, Pure Good [ML:8, BTC]

Also, I think it's smart to see when you aren't being as effective as you would like to be at your perceived role and "roll with the blows" so to say. I found myself in a quest a few weeks ago where I didn't have the right wraps available and was doing pitiful damage while there was great dps in the party already. There was a tank that was great at holding agro and a healer that was busy healing him. At that point I decided the best way I could pitch in was to do the Aligning the Heavens" finisher as much as possible and it earned me great praise from the casters.

Don't take my advice as gospel, I still learn new monk things all the time.

Ez

[Khorban]

Well, I took a look at your stats and saw nothing wrong. You have the points in the right places, etc - blah blah.

Then I roamed thru the postings - tbh - most everyone here is giving you good advice. In a Raid, you have 12 people in the group and mainly 'True Tank/DPS'.

To gauge yourself against a Raid- is kinda unfair to you. Not to say that a monk cannot DPS or Tank (mine can) but learn from each raid. If you only did 3 dmg this time expect it next time. So, instead of rerolling - pick up some stat dmg wraps or kamas.

Power Gamers will tell you - unless you lead the Kill Count, you didn't contribute. Nothing wrong with that.

But in Reality - did you drop the Str of the AI so the Tank didn't get hit and the Healer saved SP for those who really needed it?

All a matter of perception.

Keep working your monk and finding the Named Gear - you'll look up one day and be like... WHOA

[NXPlasmid]

This sounds very sad, I heard that most monks don't actually dps a lot, but... I was expecting them to be usefull to the party.

This thing is making me wonder if I got a good class or if I should reroll as a diferent class althought I like the monk, but if is unusefull in raids (wich is basically the main par of the game once you get to level 20)...

Could you please tell me some reasons to keep playing monk? and not to rerol into something else.

thanks.

In addition to a lot of good comments from other in this thread, one thing I haven't seen much talk of, is DR. Tempest spine has a lot of mobs with fairly significant and specific DR requirements which isn't really the case in most lvl8 and lower quests. Iron golems (adamantine), clay golems (adamantine and blunt), Reavers, Ice flensers, flesh renders (holy cold iron), I think even some of the melee mobs have some sort of DR. For a monk, it can be a little tough to get past DR sometimes, because you are doing less damage per attack but have a lot of attacks, so DR can really reduce your DPS a lot more than for other melee types, even if they are using weapons that do not bypass DR. By lvl 10 you'll start to get access to epic handwraps; disrupters, smiters, banishers, and vorpal kamas which help a lot. Also, try to have some weakening handwarps on hand as well as wounding Kamas. Sometimes stat damaging things down zero where they auto-crit can be an excellent strategy for a monk. Anyway, don't give up!