"Are you light or dark?"

[Dan_Innella]

I tried to be a light monk...I really did. I tried Shintao, I was pre-Pre light monk......

There's just no polite way to say it..."WHY WOULD ANYONE BE A LIGHT MONK???"

Unless you enjoy gimpness...you should be a dark monk. There is zero justification to NOT wanna do 1500 damage in 1 hit. Really.

I actually prefer Light Monk, and I do not feel as if I'm being gimped. I have yet to figure out exactly how to do what and all that nonsense on a monk, so being able to hit four buttons every minute and be loved by everyone makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

[Quikster]

I’ll beg a light monk for +2 haggle when selling because I’m too cheap to open a second account


Since boot have min lv of 18, would be interested in the strategy (and contingencies) for under 18 TOD

We ran without boots fool 8)

When the raid came out, many raid groups only had a few people with boots, sometimes only 1, and sometimes none. The banish aura was much smaller than it is now (slightly larger than an aoe buff iirc) Many strats included having a tank, everyone ranging in some form or another, and immediately after a banish the group would rush in and dps for about a min, then pull out and range again.

Other groups just went in and wailed away till they got banished

[DarkFlash]

I tried to be a light monk...I really did. I tried Shintao, I was pre-Pre light monk......

There's just no polite way to say it..."WHY WOULD ANYONE BE A LIGHT MONK???"

Unless you enjoy gimpness...you should be a dark monk. There is zero justification to NOT wanna do 1500 damage in 1 hit. Really.

Uhh... Light monk with 200-300% healing amp can solo almost anything without pots/etc. (Dreaming dark on hard is a piece of cake... or pizza)
If your DPS sucks, GET BETTER HANDWRAPS for heavens sake.
In ToD I can steal aggro from barb tanker with my gimped 28point human monk, as long as I am using my +3 holy GEOB wraps.
Same goes for VoD, and didn't even use power attack.

[Crinos]

Hmmmm....

TOD
25% concealment
TOD
3d6 sneak damage
Oh, and TOD

Why would I want to be a light monk!

Nothing to apologize for there.

Go dark and be proud.

[dunklezhan]

light, dark. meh. I could care less. I'm light, I ask to make sure I'm not spamming the same mini-buffs as any other monks that might be in the party. I haven't enough experience with either to have a view on whether anyone should be feeling ashamed of themselves.

Although, this one light monk I ran with, I suggested spamming fists of light because we were running without a healer and in a dungeon full of undead told me to back off, he knew how to run his toon - got really offended (which surprised me, he had been asking for advice and sounding worried about not having a healer).

Guess who didn't die all quest? Guess who died every two minutes? Noting at the time I was on my underlevel, poorly equipped wizard, in Xorian Cipher?

Yeah. He should've been ashamed of himself. But I don't think it was his light monk-ness that was the problem there.

[maestro973]

Dark monks will always do more dps than light, that is just the way it should be.

Though, to be fair, with the upcoming changes that gap is potentially made more narrow in certain circumstances.

Don't get me wrong, I love TOD and shadow fade while leveling up and probably wouldn't grind out a life using light again, but once I get back up to cap I'll be sure to switch over to the light. I just find the abilities to be more suited with my playstyle and the epics I tend to run. To each their own, but I certainly wouldn't count out light monks in mod7.

[dranreb]

Let's end Monkism:

Light...Dark...can't we all just get along?

[rimble]

When you're asked that question, do you have an apologetic tone when you reply "I am a dark monk"?

My response is, seriously, more like:

"*laugh* Light is for sucks!"

And then I have to watch what I say when they find a Light Monk (usually we're talking ToD here) so I don't offend them on accident. What surprises me is that they ALWAYS find a Light Monk, and fairly quickly too.

Maybe at least with some Shintao improvements I will now just say:

"Nope."

[Darkrok]

I enjoy light because I'm often running with small groups without healers. It lets me keep the group up on relaxing normal runs without resource usage. I really enjoy the synergy on a human light monk of healing amp and fists of light. Those things said, I'm only going to stay light until I get to a good point - get two ToD rings done, get most of the way to unsuppressing a quor'forged docent, maybe finish a 40th shroud (maybe not...depends on how long I want to play around with the Shintao stuff) and then I'm switching over to the Metaru build. Being able to legitimately hate/hp tank stuff, especially since it'll be a warforged which opens up some more options to tanking, would be a welcome change from being just the support/dps guy.

[Desteria]

back in the day, when monks first came out, i was light, i was a tempest monk, with dule min2 kamas built to add AC adn litterly nothign could hurt me, elite VoD he needed a 20 i coudl tank the whole fight and not lose more then 30 points of fmy stone skin, FoL healign curse was amazig for soloing in devil battel field/the quests it healeed you mroe then any thign could hurt you. the grouls buffs SP savings and graps were usefull in places grasp mroe later on. thyen they added glacing blows, jacked boss to hit through the roof adn the trade offs made fro the exttream AC were only really usefull for soloing now, insted of beign a GREAT mt in raids, i was sub par dps, that took a littel less damage. then Dark started getitng buffed up. finaly they added the pre's One was absolutly AMAZING, free invis with 25% incorp, 3d6 sneak, minimal prerecs... the other had a totaly uselss banish because at 20 you run stuff with epic ward or on elite with jacked saves, a smite that was on a very long cool down, and some usless DR bypassing, since the one that would have bene really nice was missing in action with out tier 3, also the pre rec were VERY high in AP cost... in my past liek i was light, i died and was still light now i am DARK and don't see my self ever going back even though i always liked the utility of light it just needs help to over come the draw of the darkside.

[Desteria]

another way to look at it is how mainy monk levels do you have 3-8 go light the buffs are great 9+ go dark.

[KoboldKiller]

I'm dark. I think it has better flavor and doesn't dry out.

Oh sorry thought we were discussing poultry.

[dpadan17]

having 2 monks myself. i had one that was a light monk and another that was dark. I couldn't justify the benefits of being light over dark. I contemplated this for about 2 months......well, to make a long story short, i now am the proud owner of 2 dark monks. ToD for 5---2500? you bet, im in. Stun......beat......and ToD to finish it off for the biggies. That is a winning combo for me.

I know it would be easier to get into the Tower raid if I had a light monk, but i have found good success already getting into it, so Dark is the new Mark for me.

on the other hand....if the new update gives the light monks DR for the new set of the shintao......hmmmmm i might still go back for one. could be a toss up

[Ssmooth]

Uhh... Light monk with 200-300% healing amp can solo almost anything without pots/etc. (Dreaming dark on hard is a piece of cake... or pizza)
If your DPS sucks, GET BETTER HANDWRAPS for heavens sake.
In ToD I can steal aggro from barb tanker with my gimped 28point human monk, as long as I am using my +3 holy GEOB wraps.
Same goes for VoD, and didn't even use power attack.

My dark monk convert has 67 base ac. I rarely get hit except on elite/epic content with no bard.

There does not exist a pair of handwraps that a light monk can use that will hold aggro from a dark monk.

If your light monk is stealing aggro from a barb, you should be wondering about that barbs gear/build. I guarantee that your dark monk would have to really try to pull aggro from my barb.

I tanked VoD on my light monk, it was very easy. On my dark, it would be waaay easier and faster. Spamming 500-2500/20 seconds would keep aggro with ease.

[Jamma]

In all my years of MMO's I have never seen such a singular group of people so insistently and constantly begging to be whacked across the head with the nerf stick.

Was this seriously a real question posted? There's only one quest/raid in the game where anyone cares what path a monk is. Take your absurd 'Im a walking bug' 2500 ToD's in peace, and leave light path monks the sop of being partially useful in one stinkin quest out of 300.

[DethTrip]

Light monk = moderate to low dps, good solo ability.
Dark monk = awesome dps, moderate to low solo ability.

If you like to kill things on your own, go light.
If you like to make a big impact in party/raid groups, go dark.
Simple.

[SINIBYTE]

In all my years of MMO's I have never seen such a singular group of people so insistently and constantly begging to be whacked across the head with the nerf stick.

Was this seriously a real question posted? There's only one quest/raid in the game where anyone cares what path a monk is. Take your absurd 'Im a walking bug' 2500 ToD's in peace, and leave light path monks the sop of being partially useful in one stinkin quest out of 300.

Yes, it was a serious question. The only time I ever get asked is when I join a TOD (if I'm even 'allowed'...), more often than not I get "We already have a monk". When I do get in, there's never a "hello" or anything, just "Are you light or dark?", I know why they're asking, and I await the boot once I say "dark". With 20% threat reduction, I've still managed to pull aggro on Horoth, yet still they want a barb for DPS over me... Half the time the LFM shows all DPS classes EXCEPT monk, because there's one in the party already... You can hear the tone afterwards when you say dark as if you are a useless liability to a party.

There's a reason 5 or more monks queue up for a TOD raid, its the single source of GS equivalent weaponry in the game for us. The fact that we have to apologize for our build because people can't deal with a stun is ridiculous. I've solo reconstructed 2 tanks in TOD on my Sorc with no light monk - no issues what-so-ever dealing with the stun, but still this plagues me when I click on the LFM on my monk.

"Are you light or dark?", the words are like fingernails on a chaulkboard to me.

[Doganpc]

Light monk = moderate to low dps, good solo ability.
Dark monk = awesome dps, moderate to low solo ability.

If you like to kill things on your own, go light.
If you like to make a big impact in party/raid groups, go dark.
Simple.

This pretty much sums it up. Since the forums are all about maximizing your raid potential of course the Dark Monks are going to be the majority. I do find the Light monk quite nice for multiclass builds that can use it (Phoenix being a great example). My Dark path monk was quite difficult to solo as it tended to get in over its head, but man does that light path whirling steel monstrosity solo on the cheap.

Dogan
Can't justify shintao yet.

[KoboldKiller]

Light monk = moderate to low dps, good solo ability.
Dark monk = awesome dps, moderate to low solo ability.

If you like to kill things on your own, go light.
If you like to make a big impact in party/raid groups, go dark.
Simple.

Umm, have you played a Dark Monk?

I solo on mine on a regular basis and rarely use pots so not sure where you get Dark Monks have moderate to low solo ability.

[SINIBYTE]

Umm, have you played a Dark Monk?

I solo on mine on a regular basis and rarely use pots so not sure where you get Dark Monks have moderate to low solo ability.

Agreed. I farmed the Sub for hours without coming up for air. I also crafted my TOD ring with mobs hitting me.