are monks becoming buffbots?

[Jamma]

I think they're just trying to come up with a use for Void Strike.

It might even be worth an AP for me to get it. +5 to Attack means I can keep Power Attack on where I'd normally turn it off.

Monk buffs are nice buffs to have, but nobody's normally counting on them. And apparently monks almost never cast them. I've been getting a lot of 'OMG, this Align thing is great!'. Something I wouldn't expect to hear given the volume of light path monks out there.

[Eurytos]

Monk buffs are nice buffs to have, but nobody's normally counting on them. And apparently monks almost never cast them. I've been getting a lot of 'OMG, this Align thing is great!'. Something I wouldn't expect to hear given the volume of light path monks out there.

Exactly. Light monks are given a choice:

Ki strikes for DPS, or Ki strikes for buffs. They can't do both. Maintaining 2-3 buffs becomes a chore, and while possible, is very irritating to do over and over and over... and that's why my light monk is a FVS17/MNK3 so I can do my own Aligning the Heavens, and that's it.

[Cyr]

True, but look at your build, your a level 5 monk in your MC, is it fair you can buff just as good as a level 20 monk? I can see MC builds being a long the lines to discourage this arguement as they would not be able to buff as much as a true monk.

I am sure other buff/caster classes would scream if someone could cast a 40 minute buff if they only had 5 levels in their class.

LOL.

Number of times I have buffed people with my TR2 (so that's alot of XP) = 0.

As for fair? It's a class ability. You get it at a certain level. Some class abilities scale with level and some do not. Monk buffs require that you are centered. This is hardly a given for splash monks. It's also a minor ability on a dps class. Would I be upset if they changed monk buff durations to scale with monk levels? Not at all. I'm not overly concerned about it to begin with.

Eurytos, yeah your right you do need the 1 AP for void strike. I missed that. I'm sure the cost of using that buff will be unfavorable in most cases based upon the other uses you could have used your ki for during that sequence. I'm thinking it will be used more as a fast self buff so a monk can umd a little better.

[Sirslapemsack]

Is it fair for one class to have to kite shadow fiends in ToD and if that person fails, everybody dies? Every class has a roll. Im happy to keep grasp and alignment on players in ToD and any other raid.

[Will_Ferrer]

maybe, but no where close to bards. Monks will be the skill buffers, which means they will only be sought if you need a trap disarmed and the rogue you have cant do it or in the epic DQ and your intim needs a bit more to make the check.

Its important to make mention that these buffs have COOL DOWN TIMERS. Most people don't see them because they have the basic finishing moves icon and it changes as needed, but it you put the actual finishing move ICON ie Trembling Earth from the Feats list you can see the cool down for these is about 10 seconds. I would also like to make mention that there is no finisher icon for Shinning Star in the feat list making it tough to judge weather or not enough time has passed to attempt it again.

With the wording of the Moment of Clarity buff being Very Short Period of Time I can only imagine that the duration will last for 20-30 seconds at a cost of 30 ki and about 12-15 seconds to build as there is only one source for void attacks.(the cost could be 25 with the Shintao PrC) At this cost of time and ki for this duration its not very likely that a monk will be able to keep this buff going without devoting all actions to it.

With that being said, on my monk in epic DQ I can barely muster enough Ki to cast WotS when asked. In epic dragon, most of my Ki is used to do extra damage to Valah, I have to make a note to save enough Ki for AtH. With the increased Ki cost of elemental attacks its become tough to use all the bells and whistles, whilest doing even moderate damage. Now they want to give Light monks another high ki cost clicky(Smite Evil).

My ki is becoming to valuable to be used for buffs that last only 1 min(or 30 seconds for that matter)

[Mobeius]

Honestly if they just made one simple icon finishing move and charged me 50ki for all of it, I would do it a lot more.

[Missing_Minds]

Are monks becoming buffbots? Will every group now require that the monk keeps the Moment of Clarity on everyone at all times? Already groups are demanding that monks keep Grasp the Earth Dragon on tanks in VoD. Some people don't find this kind of play satisfying especially when it's forced onto a primarily melee class.

Discuss.

Garth

So.. first melees demand that sorcs, wizards and bards cast nothing but haste.

Now a melee has a buff and other melees are demanding nothing but this buff...

Conclusion: melees can be demanding jerks.

Maybe monks need to study G Gundamn more to pull off a Erupting Burning Finger. (I wanted to do Shinning Finger, but couldn't find a decent enough clip with a short search.)

[Eurytos]

no finisher icon for Shinning Star in the feat list making it tough to judge weather or not enough time has passed to attempt it again.

If there is a cool down on it, it's short enough to not matter. I often use it back to back to dance multiple things because I'm a zerger and I'm often way ahead of the group whenever I get the chance

Also, when the bard/caster in the group is useless and I have to dance things myself. (For example, had a caster in VoN3 epic that couldn't dance the elementals, so I took the time and did back to back shining stars on each of them.)

[Will_Ferrer]

Must be something else keeping me from spamming it. Ive noticed that mobs are not having to make saves as often as I'm using it. There is no message letting you know that not enough time has passed before using it again. I waste Ki but more importantly I lose my chance.

Attack > attempt to dance > 5% chance to stun > attempt to dance

If both dance attempts fail and epic mob is not dead when the stun ends FLEE as you now have all agro

PS Goki is a light path balanced monk, only 30 STR, she cant safely take down an epic mob alone