anyone feeling any pressure to go back Light?

[Aziiz]

I got the Demon's Blood this morning, and am now just short the Mysterious Artifact before I can get my boots crafted. From what I have been reading since update 3 though, earth-pos-earth is buff that groups will be expecting you (as a monk) to provide, yes?

I haven't done ToD at all yet, but my question is for the guys that are running it. Has your guild asked you to remain FoL, and for you puggers, have you showed up ready to drop your 500 point nukes only to be told they were looking for a light-side monk?

I'd rather not eat another feat swap (back to light) if I can help it, but I'd much rather be welcome in ToD groups at least until I can get my rings crafted.

[sinedist]

It depends on who you run with, Aziiz. Some PuGs will only take you if you are light, and I'm sure, somewhere, someday, some PuGs would only take you if you were dark.

The thing about monks in ToD is that you can set them on the jailer and forget them; you can ask them to kite sully and with their speed they should rarely if ever get hit. I don't see a particular issue with getting into ToDs as a light or dark monk. If the leader is going to be that prejudiced and anxious, you probably don't want to run with him/her anyway.

Personally? I stayed light. My AP were tight enough as they were without wanting to invest 8AP in 4 useless abilities. And after seeing the change to Ki costs? -- I would have to stop spamming strikes in order to maintain enough to use Touch of Death, so I'd be losing DPS. It just wasn't the time for me to existentially flip-flop.

Dark, however, should be getting revamped -- so stick with it for now if you want. I can't imagine the laziness of the 4 different "10% additional damage via kinds of energy 'fix'" to the dark path being permanent.

[Taimasan]

Nah you don't have to be light path to win a ToD. Since the update I have only had 1 light path monk in the party out of 3 completions since update. A light path monk is nice, but hardly required.

[Aziiz]

i'm clearly not speaking from experience, but I thought that I read there was a room-wide stun now with a high potential for tank death because the healers can't get a heal off, and our earth-pos-earth prevented that from being an issue.

[Impatiens]

i'm clearly not speaking from experience, but I thought that I read there was a room-wide stun now with a high potential for tank death because the healers can't get a heal off, and our earth-pos-earth prevented that from being an issue.

There is, however if healers keep people topped off it's usually not long enough to be an issue. Also, on my healer I wear boots and the worldshaper mantel from Threnal. The cloak absorbs the stun so I can just keep on healing. Earth-Pos-Earth is nice in ToD but it is not necessary to have it to win.

[Dark-Star]

While it's not necessary to have earth finisher to win, it can be a raid saver when your healers do not have boots or mantle.

All it takes to have things go south is for your tank to get hit with disintegrate while one or more of your healers is stunned.

I personally prefer to have a light monk with me on our ToD raids. The stun prevention is much more added value to the success of the raid than 500 damage every 15 seconds.

[sinedist]

I think the idea is this: the light monk will help prevent the stun.

On Hard/Elite the stun becomes more important/risky, and, therefore I can understand wanting to have one or more light monks in the party to lessen this particular risk. High level quests on elite are always a matter of having specialized roles in the party. A dark path monk simply fulfills a different role.

On Normal if a -- what? 3-5 second daze? -- is a succeed/wipe scenario, the leader should be reorganizing the party. Chances are "grasp of the earth finisher" won't be the deciding case in a normal ToD, party dynamic and ability will.

[Taimasan]

when your healers do not have boots or mantle.

Ack!!

[AlleyKat]

I've no guild to call my own so from a pugger stand point I have not received any mention of light or dark. They just care mostly that I make things dead... and spring the occasional 1 shot trap when there is no rogue.

[Uska]

Never been dark on my monk and dont plan on going that way like her on the light side.

[FuzzyDuck81]

Never been dark on my monk and dont plan on going that way like her on the light side.

true enough as a dark side you can dish out more pain, but i prefer blur in the face of beholders, stun immunity, -25% mana costs for allies, and the perpetually-spammed FoL for healing

[toughguyjoe]

I may change back sometime, but right now Its just too easy to use my Touch of Death to make end fights absolute Cake walks in level 9-12 content. GH questing, and most of the other like level tenish stuff I can one shot most orange names on elite and slam most red names into oblivion so fast tha they enver have a chance to cause havoc on our party, which in my experience is always good.

Might change back eventually.

Right now i'm haveing too much fun saying Early Cuyler phrases when i smash mobs like:

He done been Bye-Byenated!

[lyeman]

Why would anyone not go light?

[Impatiens]

Why would anyone not go light?

Because Touch of Death is awesome?

[lyeman]

Because Touch of Death is awesome?

Lol, pull the other one; it's got bells on.

[Darkrok]

I'll be honest...as a non-monk that casts healing spells or uses healing wands on all my characters I'm really bummed when I find out a monk in my group is death. Most groups I've been in do perfectly fine on the dps but I end up having to burn through several wands on my melee bard multi-class and my pure rogue just to keep the group alive. A lot of times I find myself in groups where people take so much damage on their pure rangers/wizards/sorcerers (the most common culprits) that the cleric/fvs in the group has burned through their entire sp bar in the first 1/4 of the quest and it falls to the only person that came prepared (me) to keep everyone topped off and cure status/stat damage. Which I find a bit obnoxious when I'm playing on my pure rogue that's not normally expected to provide those skills to the group.

But when a monk joins I know there's a good chance that all of that topping off healing and possibly even the status cures will be done by them. Heck, they may even save me having to try 2 or 3 times on that Raise Dead scroll (UMD at mid levels for a non-twink is a pain) and shell out that money to bring someone back up. It's an exciting prospect...especially the part where I know that my twf characters that have good defenses probably won't need to heal themselves a single time the entire run. I get my hopes up. Then I find out it's a dark path monk and get ready to blow through another 8800gp or so on a non-healer to keep the group alive. Not a big sum of money for the people that have those 20's to fund their alts but a decent amount for someone with 3 characters they're leveling all in the 12-13 range.

[Arvess]

My guild can't even get flagged. <sniff>

[oweieie]

Personally? I stayed light. My AP were tight enough as they were without wanting to invest 8AP in 4 useless abilities. And after seeing the change to Ki costs? -- I would have to stop spamming strikes in order to maintain enough to use Touch of Death, so I'd be losing DPS. It just wasn't the time for me to existentially flip-flop.

With Oremi's necklace you should have no problem spamming strikes constantly including Touch of Death, which, unlike light side, is a strike, so you can do it while madstoned.

Dark, however, should be getting revamped -- so stick with it for now if you want. I can't imagine the laziness of the 4 different "10% additional damage via kinds of energy 'fix'" to the dark path being permanent.

The 10%s are so bad I didn't even bother to add them to my bar, but the light side enhancements are worthless too, unless you consider saving an insignificant amount of gold buying potions is worth blowing enhancement points on.

The only reason people went light before was because it sucked less than dark, not because light was good. Now dark has at least one good thing about it. Which is more than can be said for light. With dark you can still heal yourself with wholeness of body and of course heal scrolls.

[lyeman]

Dark, however, should be getting revamped -- so stick with it for now if you want. I can't imagine the laziness of the 4 different "10% additional damage via kinds of energy 'fix'" to the dark path being permanent.

How long have you been playing this game?

[Ninetoes]

Lol, pull the other one; it's got bells on.

+1 for making me coffesnort.

Edit: Er, when I CAN rep you again.