Epic Ready for Monks. Specifically, me.

[Deathdefy]

I'm a level 20 wis-based light halfling monk. Yep. Unique.
http://my.ddo.com/character/khyber/aggrim/

My plan is to complete my ToD rings, do three fighter lives, then reincarnate to a monk for a final time.

I had planned to do all of the TRs first, then get the rings, but having just been subject to the TR2 18 - 20 grind for the first time, I'm getting the rings now.

I was wondering if I could be doing epics during the downtime between ToD completions.

My feats are what are probably considered the standard ones for a TR monk, though I should specify with respect to the borderline ones that I have:
2 toughness feats
IC bludgeoning

none of:
weapon focus: bludgeoning
dodge


My enhancements of note are:
Void Strike IV
GM Wind / Earth
M Fire / Water
Heroic Companion II
Cunning III
Guile III
Fists of Iron
Eagle Claw
Halfling Dex I (I think; this and Wis may be the other way around)
Monk Wis II

No Light Line Enhancements.

I have no UMD.

I like all of my gear, have Oremi's and Shintao necklaces, and wouldn't change anything except the bracers of STR+6, but there's no amazing candidate for that slot save maybe the ADQ ones, or Tharne's (though I fail to see what the fuss is about there), or a Greensteel craft that I'm not creative enough to think of.

I'm also happy with my DT selection.


My worries are that:
1) I'm light. My Dps IS lower than it could be by a lot. Even spamming Earth IV, Lightning IV, Void IV, and IIIs and IIs of the above if IV's cooldowns aren't back up yet, I have a ton of ki and the bar is often disturbingly full. I could be using that ki for fat touch of death damage.

2) I'm not STR based. My Dps is again lower than it could be by a lot.

3) I don't have my ToD rings yet. My Dps is yet again lower than it could be by a lot.


So, my questions are:

Am I epic ready now?

If not, if I respecced dark would I be epic ready?

If neither, then is it fair to say a WIS build isn't epic ready till they have their ToD rings (or at least 1)?


I haven't set foot in an epic yet as I don't want to get a bad name for being terrible.

NB.
I'm only Light to ensure I get ToD raid spots when they're up as I'm not in a raiding guild. I'm increasingly questioning this as, on Khyber and in my limited experience, ToD raids are... well... really good. The tanks are real tanks and could certainly handle a pounding even if the healers were stunned, and maybe I could contribute better here as dark through additional damage via touch of death instead of boring light monk damage and largely superfluous earth dragon finishers?

[jamkriz]

I'd say if you're wis based then you're epic ready as long as you have stunning fist. As a light monk, that's gonna be your primary job in epics - Stun mobs! Your secondary job in epics is to survive. So for that you should have over 500hp and/or ridiculously high AC. If you got both of those sorted then go for it :-)

[Hydro]

You can come to stun but your DPS will barely dent a mob. Really Epics are all about max DPS for mobs with more hit points then raid bosses.

For trash your utility will come in handy (Stunning Fist) but when it comes down to a mini boss or boss your lack of DPS will really slow the group down. Would switching to dark path help? Yes but you are really going to need some TOD rings and hopefully 26+ STR to really contribute on anything that cant be stunned.

I dont want to sound down on your buld or anything its just hard to be low dps in an epic and feel like you are contributing much when you know you are adding 3 minutes of combat time to a mini boss, especially since stunning fist is really only usefull in an epic if you dont have a caster with mass hold.

Mass Hold > Stunning Fist

[Jasam01]

Aye. Stunning fist is a must.

Then I'd recomend going Dark. ToD alone is worth 60DPS if you can spam it. Ninja spy is 3d6 extra sneak, and the stacking incorp which will aid with the survivability.

Epic ready then? No idea.

[Carlll]

You're nuts.
Ah, excuse me, how rude of me. Lets me put that into different words:

You've been scared way too much about Epic by self-important muppets on the forums who take pleasure out of telling noobs that you must be able to solo Shavarath on Elite until you may set foot into an oh-so-difficult Epic quest.

Truth is that Epic isnt all that hard, some quests are more difficult than others, sure, but the easier Epics are easier than Shavarath on Hard and Shavarath Elite is tougher than anything Epic (short of maybe the raids).

Are you seriously asking if you need to TR 4 times until you may set foot into an Epic quest?

Your concerns about your character are not completely misplaced though as for melee there are 2 things that matter - stunning and DPS (mostly against stunned stuff).
Your DPS against stunned stuff will always be low as a Monk, but your stunning should be fine. Plus you bring nice buffs to the group, 25% less cost on heals and +2 attack.

You even have plenty HP.

To start out in Epic, do VoN1 and 2 first. Those are easy. Desert can be tough. Blood is quick and fun if the group knows what they are doing (dont even need a full group if ppl know what to to really) but will be brutal if someone isnt up to it. WK just takes foreeeeeever and the end fight can be an unpleasant suprise if unprepared. Chains is a nightmare without Bard CC, dont do that. Overall, Blood is the best and funnest epic quest imho. It can get rough.
Sentinels i dont know much about, ran one, was very easy, probably easier than VoN. Although the tower quest is supposed to be hard. They didnt give tokens so i didnt care about them.
Carnival i dont know.

But with VoN 1 and 2 you cant go wrong really. Stun stuff, beat it up. Most groups **** around way too much with breaking AI with Firewall and running through while invisible... while you can just beat up everything and experience it as a normal level 20 quest.
Desert can get nasty, yes. But they newer Epic stuff, from VoN on, is just level 20 stuff.

And your char seems more prepared than the majority clawing their way through there.

[Fafnir]

Epic is relatively easy unless you get yourself into a pickle by getting too many mobs. And that is avoided by being taken around the first few times by people who know it.

Epic feels like elite to be honest.

Stunning fist is great but casters usually mass hold. You will find it frustrating how you just stunned a mob and 0.25 seconds later that mob is held, plus all the others around it, making your stun kind of useless.

On red names, as Hydro mentions, you just sit there and try to do damage, of which won't be a lot. You will also miss a lot as your to hit isn't that high. Hence your idea on the fighter TRs is a good one, although you will still miss a lot on red names.

Trash remains trash.

[Fafnir]

PS. The TOD rings are great and do add dps but they aren't utopia. You will still be middle of the road on the kill list. This is because fists are x2 and the big barbie smashing the held mob will be x4 or x5 crit dmg.

[maestro973]

After looking at your gear I'd say you're plenty prepped..probably more than most. Epic is more about having players that can work together and heres the key..listen. If you're in a group that knows what is going on epic really is a breeze.

Having a monk that can successfully stun is a HUGE boon to the group, and with how caster dependent epics are I'd personally rather bring a light monk who can regularly keep the SP buff up. In my opinion you'll end up contributing more in the long run.

Make sure you have an invisibility clicky. They come in handy.

In certain quests mass hold is unreliable. Don't expect for most casters to pull it off in certain quests such as epic oob.

Also, since you're planning on so many TR's you might want to consider a life of paladin and plan on taking the past life feat as a monk...It's pretty nice.

[oweieie]

Epic is a joke, but the drop rates have been nerfed now to the point that there isn't a lot of reason to even do them. I haven't seen a carnival scroll in a couple thousand kills and seals are rather rare. Shards aren't dropping at all in sentiels so it's not even possible to craft anything from that. Unless you have the plat you're not getting a dragon scale robe for half a year of constant grinding on multiple characters. No one wants a monk for DQ2 with your short arms and sub 60 strength with overrun hitting from behind, so good luck with that, not that your chance of getting the scroll you want is very likely given the low drop rate and the shear number of desert items.

[TPICKRELL]

Sentinels i dont know much about, ran one, was very easy, probably easier than VoN. Although the tower quest is supposed to be hard. They didnt give tokens so i didnt care about them.

As the Tide Turns (the last part of Sentinel) now gives a full token after U5.

[Jamma]

I'm a level 20 wis-based light halfling monk. Yep. Unique.
http://my.ddo.com/character/khyber/aggrim/

My plan is to complete my ToD rings, do three fighter lives, then reincarnate to a monk for a final time.

I had planned to do all of the TRs first, then get the rings, but having just been subject to the TR2 18 - 20 grind for the first time, I'm getting the rings now.

I was wondering if I could be doing epics during the downtime between ToD completions.

You can do epics fine. Just play a different type of game. Listen to instructions better, let others play their appropriate roles more. Don't try and do it all. Most players aren't uber, or raid-gear equipped, so they'll appreciate the +2 from Walk on the Sun and the +5 from Moment of Clarity for +7 to-hits on both trash and boss. Nothing wrong at all with a Void4:POS:Void3 MoC routine, every 10 seconds. I just wished the thing gave a +5 to saves. Expect to see a lot more caution on the part of the experienced epic content players.

Absolutely do a few. You'll find they're not the boogie-monster in the closet these boards paint them to be.

Players don't care if you're top of the line DPS. They care if you're a good player, or some idiot-jerk that gets them all killed, or annoys everyone to the point of discomfort.

Also, you're leveling this guy to 20 what, 5 times? If you enjoy leveling that much, why even worry about epic content? I think most players derive most of their enjoyment from leveling different character builds. You sound like your in that camp, not the leet grinders for top gear camp.