Opinions on Gear and a GS decision

[maestro973]

As I'm starting to get down to the wire with finishing this layout I've found a need to switch around my gear a bit and craft a new GS item and I've got it narrowed down to 2 choices and would like some opinions on what you guys think. Here is the layout of other items.

helm: epic helm of frost
cloak: epic envenomed
boots: epic boots of corrosion
bracers: epic jidz-tetka
gloves: epic gloves of the claw
goggles: epic raven's sight
trinket: epic gem of many facets
ring1: kyosho's (holy burst)
ring2: connor's band
armor: dragontouched - 10% amp, 20% amp + earthgrab guard
neck: shintao cord

leaving my belt slot to be my new greensteel hp item. I also pick up 2 blue slots from the boots/cloak. So I feel as if my options are go min2 or trap the soul guard on the belt. (If you have another idea then by all means). 1 Blue slot will definitely be toughness, but the other would be reserved for heavy fort or good luck depending on the crafting choice.

Sure, min2 also gives me +5 protection but to be fair, that still makes my AC fairly worthless and if I really want it I could always put +4 on a yellow slot. The additional +2 to skills doesn't really do too much for me, though the +2 saves is always nice. At the same time, trap the soul is an awesomely effective proc for weapons, though I have little experience with it as a guard. In the end I suppose it comes down to chance of instant-kill even on epic vs +2 to all saves. (do gain +8 concentration by going min2 route as well I suppose, but thats relatively a moot point)

So fellow monks, any opinions on this one?

[Nerveya]

Hm, very interesting layout to say the least. A few things come to mind:

You're sacrificing an awful lot for that +3 profane STR bonus off of the greater might set... is it really worth it? We don't know your exact stats or build specifics, but I can give you some commentary based on my experience as a dark side monk in epics (granted I'm a splash, but I at least have 12 levels hah). I do, however, see that you have dex/exc dex on a ring, cha on helm, and wis so I'm guessing lightside dex/wis based pure monk or similar. I'll keep that in mind.

Goggles: Tharne's Goggles
Helm: +45 HP item (Dust II, Lit II, basically any guard will do or Smoke II if you solo a lot)/Epic Helm of the Red Dragon
Neck: Shintao cord (duh)
Trinket: Litany of the Dead/Epic Bloodstone
Cloak: Epic Envenomed Cloak/Epic Cape of the Roc
Belt: Knost's
Boots: Madstone Boots
Gloves: Epic Gloves of the Claw/Epic Spectral Gloves (For switching)
Bracers: Epic Bracers of the Claw
DT: Healing Amp 10%, Healing amp 20%, Earthgrab (Your choice was just fine )
Ring 1: Kyosho's (Holy Burst)
Ring 2: Encrusted (Shocking Burst)

Ok, now for the reasons.
Goggles: You had raven's sight going for you since you wanted the +4 to-hit and that's understandable. It also had true seeing, which is also nice, and a slot for.. something or another. Tharne's is +5 to-hit and +8 damage effectively in almost every situation since you will have someone who hits far harder than you initially to take aggro or enough incite to keep it. You can get +to-hit on a swap item when you need it. The +8 damage is WAY too huge on a monk to give up and the +5 SA bonus to hit is HUGE. Monks need as much to-hit as possible to weigh out not having GS wraps, but don't skimp out on the damage! Monks attack far faster than any class so +damage buffs/set bonuses are that much more potent to us!

Helm: Ok, we have 2 choices here: this is a pretty decent place to put an HP item or a +7 STR item if you have the Epic Envenomed Cloak to put toughness on. If you choose to bypass the cloak and get an HP item, go w/ the Epic Helm. If not? HP item is probably the best route to take. For the HP item, Any guards will do, really (except earthgrab if you already have that on DT . Min II is probably not a good use of your mats for this since the +con doesn't stack and you have heavy fort on the bracers. AC might be useful to some, though. I'd go Lit II/Dust II for damage, Smoke II if you solo a lot (for the blur), or Earthgrab if you don't have it on DT and choose to get like... Ooze Guard for the -AC. Just make sure to make it +45 Can't skip out on the HP item on a monk! Final Say? Go with the HP item.

Neck: Shintao cord for the Kyosho's Ring you WILL be wearing. 'Nuff said ^_~

Trinket: Litany of the Dead is your best choice for this slot. It gives you +1 profane STR and +1 profane Attack/Damage to make up for the entirity of the Greater Might set bonus in 1 item. It also gives you +1 CON which is huge. The others might help to even out your stats, but you'll likely have to build around this little bugger in the stats page. For a monk who only crits on a 19-20 for a x2 multiplier, it's the best you can get. Even the Epic Bloodstone is edged out on most endgame bosses because of the 50% fort. However, that doesn't stop you from quick swapping to the Epic Bloodstone when you get into autocrit situations! Clever clever...

Cloak: Like I said above, Epic Envenomed cloak is very nice since you can use it for toughness, gives you +5 RES, and +7 CON. It's really a nice item. You can also choose to go the DPS route and get the Epic Cape of the Roc for +2 EXC STR that monks cannot have on rings (sad panda), but you'd have to really change a lot of your gear for it. Final say? Go with the Epic Envenomed Cloak and slot it with Toughness or GL+2 if you really need saves for some reason heh.

Belt: Knost's because it gives you GFL and +2 damage which is enormous on a monk w/ their attack speed. The name of the game w/ monks is stack up the +damage set bonuses since we attack epic fast :O :O Put shocking burst on the ring since most every mob isn't immune to holy or electric and it makes amrath look really silly

Boots: Madstones since they're a nice +1 to-hit/DMG/+40 HP clickie and proc all the time. They're also +4 DEX which is basically just as good as +6... right? You don't need practically anything as a monk that can be stopped by madstones, but if you happen to, just swap it out for some other nice boots... that I can't think of atm because there really aren't any anyway, they're a nearly permanent +40 HP/+1to-hit/DMG buff since irregardless of whether or not you solo a lot, you always get hit by something or another and the proc rate is huge.

Gloves: Epic Gloves of the Claw are a no-brainer. +healing amp +4 damage set bonus... yeah, they're just that sexy. Keep spectrals/Epic Spectrals around for a quick swap for when you need the to-hit to land destruct/improved destruct in really high AC situations (the djinnis in epic DQ, djinnis in Epic VoN,a couple bosses/mobs in Epic Devil's Assault/misc. Epics), but otherwise you should be good in 98% of most situations to keep the Epic Gloves of the Claw on full time. You don't lose any STR bonuses if you unequip them because you use Encrusted!

Bracers: Epic Bracers of the Claw. This is your Fort item, your free 20 HP item, and your 'I get +4 stacking damage to beat the face of anything that gets in my way' item. It's just a really really good item lol. I saw you had the Jidz Tet'ka listed... I assume that's for the 25% healing amp? Not really needed in raid situations or even solo situations... the +10/20/30 is more than enough if you're human or halfing or even WF if you take all 3 monk enhancements (what else is there to spend ap on? lol).

DT: The Trifecta of DDO: DPS, Healing amp, AC. This DT will focus on Healing amp which is never a bad thing! +it gives you autocrits if you're rushed or mobbed. Not a bad choice you had to begin with. Sundering Ooze or Freezing Ice are also very good choices as well.

Rings: Kyosho's because you're an idiot if you don't use the monk ring on a monk... come on now. Encrusted because it gives you the ability to hot-swap to epic spectrals for +4 to hit without losing your STR item and it gives +2 DMG.

Basically, as I said above, monks are about +DMG set bonuses and items since they attack, on average, 12.5% more than other melee TWFs. They also get inherent doublestrike chances while in wind stance and bypass anti-magic/dispel for perma-haste attack speeds. Even if you're in fire stance, you still attack just as fast as someone hasted? Neat, right? All-in-all, they benefit the most out of any class for +dmg and STR, but usually lack the to-hit needed if they aren't built correctly or geared out extensively for the endgame/epic content people prefer to run for neat epic items like you have listed. So you want to max your dmg bonuses and put as much into STR as possible w/o compromising what you want your build to do. The +to-hit from Tharne's SA and litany (coupled with epic spectrals when you need it) will help you in every situation that you can come by and the occassional destruct/improved destruct kama duo might come in handy as well.

I hope this helped a little. I know they're just my opinions, but I tried to link them back to your choices as much as possible. Good Luck!

[Carpone]

Goggles: Tharne's Goggles
Helm: +45 HP item (Dust II, Lit II, basically any guard will do or Smoke II if you solo a lot)/Epic Helm of the Red Dragon
Neck: Shintao cord (duh)
Trinket: Litany of the Dead/Epic Bloodstone
Cloak: Epic Envenomed Cloak/Epic Cape of the Roc
Belt: Knost's
Boots: Madstone Boots
Gloves: Epic Gloves of the Claw/Epic Spectral Gloves (For switching)
Bracers: Epic Bracers of the Claw
DT: Healing Amp 10%, Healing amp 20%, Earthgrab (Your choice was just fine )
Ring 1: Kyosho's (Holy Burst)
Ring 2: Encrusted (Shocking Burst)

Agreed. That's the best setup for U7.

DT will be replaced by Garments of Equilibrium in U8, if you're a fleshy.

[maestro973]

Hm, very interesting layout to say the least. A few things come to mind:

You're sacrificing an awful lot for that +3 profane STR bonus off of the greater might set... is it really worth it? We don't know your exact stats or build specifics, but I can give you some commentary based on my experience as a dark side monk in epics (granted I'm a splash, but I at least have 12 levels hah). I do, however, see that you have dex/exc dex on a ring, cha on helm, and wis so I'm guessing lightside dex/wis based pure monk or similar. I'll keep that in mind.

Goggles: Tharne's Goggles
Helm: +45 HP item (Dust II, Lit II, basically any guard will do or Smoke II if you solo a lot)/Epic Helm of the Red Dragon
Neck: Shintao cord (duh)
Trinket: Litany of the Dead/Epic Bloodstone
Cloak: Epic Envenomed Cloak/Epic Cape of the Roc
Belt: Knost's
Boots: Madstone Boots
Gloves: Epic Gloves of the Claw/Epic Spectral Gloves (For switching)
Bracers: Epic Bracers of the Claw
DT: Healing Amp 10%, Healing amp 20%, Earthgrab (Your choice was just fine )
Ring 1: Kyosho's (Holy Burst)
Ring 2: Encrusted (Shocking Burst)

Ok, now for the reasons.
Goggles: You had raven's sight going for you since you wanted the +4 to-hit and that's understandable. It also had true seeing, which is also nice, and a slot for.. something or another. Tharne's is +5 to-hit and +8 damage effectively in almost every situation since you will have someone who hits far harder than you initially to take aggro or enough incite to keep it. You can get +to-hit on a swap item when you need it. The +8 damage is WAY too huge on a monk to give up and the +5 SA bonus to hit is HUGE. Monks need as much to-hit as possible to weigh out not having GS wraps, but don't skimp out on the damage! Monks attack far faster than any class so +damage buffs/set bonuses are that much more potent to us!

Helm: Ok, we have 2 choices here: this is a pretty decent place to put an HP item or a +7 STR item if you have the Epic Envenomed Cloak to put toughness on. If you choose to bypass the cloak and get an HP item, go w/ the Epic Helm. If not? HP item is probably the best route to take. For the HP item, Any guards will do, really (except earthgrab if you already have that on DT . Min II is probably not a good use of your mats for this since the +con doesn't stack and you have heavy fort on the bracers. AC might be useful to some, though. I'd go Lit II/Dust II for damage, Smoke II if you solo a lot (for the blur), or Earthgrab if you don't have it on DT and choose to get like... Ooze Guard for the -AC. Just make sure to make it +45 Can't skip out on the HP item on a monk! Final Say? Go with the HP item.

Neck: Shintao cord for the Kyosho's Ring you WILL be wearing. 'Nuff said ^_~

Trinket: Litany of the Dead is your best choice for this slot. It gives you +1 profane STR and +1 profane Attack/Damage to make up for the entirity of the Greater Might set bonus in 1 item. It also gives you +1 CON which is huge. The others might help to even out your stats, but you'll likely have to build around this little bugger in the stats page. For a monk who only crits on a 19-20 for a x2 multiplier, it's the best you can get. Even the Epic Bloodstone is edged out on most endgame bosses because of the 50% fort. However, that doesn't stop you from quick swapping to the Epic Bloodstone when you get into autocrit situations! Clever clever...

Cloak: Like I said above, Epic Envenomed cloak is very nice since you can use it for toughness, gives you +5 RES, and +7 CON. It's really a nice item. You can also choose to go the DPS route and get the Epic Cape of the Roc for +2 EXC STR that monks cannot have on rings (sad panda), but you'd have to really change a lot of your gear for it. Final say? Go with the Epic Envenomed Cloak and slot it with Toughness or GL+2 if you really need saves for some reason heh.

Belt: Knost's because it gives you GFL and +2 damage which is enormous on a monk w/ their attack speed. The name of the game w/ monks is stack up the +damage set bonuses since we attack epic fast :O :O Put shocking burst on the ring since most every mob isn't immune to holy or electric and it makes amrath look really silly

Boots: Madstones since they're a nice +1 to-hit/DMG/+40 HP clickie and proc all the time. They're also +4 DEX which is basically just as good as +6... right? You don't need practically anything as a monk that can be stopped by madstones, but if you happen to, just swap it out for some other nice boots... that I can't think of atm because there really aren't any anyway, they're a nearly permanent +40 HP/+1to-hit/DMG buff since irregardless of whether or not you solo a lot, you always get hit by something or another and the proc rate is huge.

Gloves: Epic Gloves of the Claw are a no-brainer. +healing amp +4 damage set bonus... yeah, they're just that sexy. Keep spectrals/Epic Spectrals around for a quick swap for when you need the to-hit to land destruct/improved destruct in really high AC situations (the djinnis in epic DQ, djinnis in Epic VoN,a couple bosses/mobs in Epic Devil's Assault/misc. Epics), but otherwise you should be good in 98% of most situations to keep the Epic Gloves of the Claw on full time. You don't lose any STR bonuses if you unequip them because you use Encrusted!

Bracers: Epic Bracers of the Claw. This is your Fort item, your free 20 HP item, and your 'I get +4 stacking damage to beat the face of anything that gets in my way' item. It's just a really really good item lol. I saw you had the Jidz Tet'ka listed... I assume that's for the 25% healing amp? Not really needed in raid situations or even solo situations... the +10/20/30 is more than enough if you're human or halfing or even WF if you take all 3 monk enhancements (what else is there to spend ap on? lol).

DT: The Trifecta of DDO: DPS, Healing amp, AC. This DT will focus on Healing amp which is never a bad thing! +it gives you autocrits if you're rushed or mobbed. Not a bad choice you had to begin with. Sundering Ooze or Freezing Ice are also very good choices as well.

Rings: Kyosho's because you're an idiot if you don't use the monk ring on a monk... come on now. Encrusted because it gives you the ability to hot-swap to epic spectrals for +4 to hit without losing your STR item and it gives +2 DMG.

Basically, as I said above, monks are about +DMG set bonuses and items since they attack, on average, 12.5% more than other melee TWFs. They also get inherent doublestrike chances while in wind stance and bypass anti-magic/dispel for perma-haste attack speeds. Even if you're in fire stance, you still attack just as fast as someone hasted? Neat, right? All-in-all, they benefit the most out of any class for +dmg and STR, but usually lack the to-hit needed if they aren't built correctly or geared out extensively for the endgame/epic content people prefer to run for neat epic items like you have listed. So you want to max your dmg bonuses and put as much into STR as possible w/o compromising what you want your build to do. The +to-hit from Tharne's SA and litany (coupled with epic spectrals when you need it) will help you in every situation that you can come by and the occassional destruct/improved destruct kama duo might come in handy as well.

I hope this helped a little. I know they're just my opinions, but I tried to link them back to your choices as much as possible. Good Luck!

Well I wasn't really questioning my decisions in other areas of gear, mainly laying out the fact that I already had earthgrab guard, disint guard, and was picking up various other traits so people could have a better idea of what to weigh in on the GS to craft. But, since the other layout/build seems to be in question this character is a STR based light monk (36 pt build - past lives are 3x fighter, 1x rogue, 1x monk), with the gear layout I mentioned stats are the following unbuffed:

STR = 26 + 6 + 1 + 3 = 36 + 4 = 40
DEX = 19 + 6 + 1 = 26
CON = 20 + 7 + 1 = 28
INT = 12
WIS = 21 + 6 + 1 + 2 = 30 - 2 = 28 (only have +3 tome)
CHA = 10 + 7 + 1 = 18 (only +2 tome)

Human with full healing amp, which with gear puts me right around 400% amp.

For goggles, the +4 to hit set bonus, exceptional will saves, and exceptional +2 wisdom are worth it more to me than the sneak attack. I know its been speculated that shintao may have hidden threat bonuses, and whether or not that is true, this character currently pulls aggro in just about every main raid. The sneak attack bonus hurts me the most when I'm hitting a stunned mob. However, I also have the active past life rogue feat, so I can grab the extra +5 sneak attack and +10 damage for 3 minutes anyway if needed.

The epic helm of the red dragon isn't that great. It gives me +1 str over my current setup and a fire-based guard that most creatures have huge resistances against.

Have a good pair of seeker stunners so epic bloodstone is out. Litany was one of my favorite items but the benefits I get from the gem of many facets (+4 attack, +4 damage, another slot) outweigh what I'd get from the litany due to stat breakdown.

Due to wearing shintao ring, epic cape of the roc is essentially nothing but a +2 str item. Thus, envenomed will stay attached to me.

Knosts provides overlapping CON bonuses. GFL is nice but I've got the epic items to easily slot that. Only other reason to use knosts is for the set bonus, which the ring provides more overlapping stat bonuses and adds the need for me to wear/slot dex elsewhere.

Boots: green slot + disint guard (and the +3 str that comes with it) far outweigh madstones to me. I still carry them and if need be can swap it in for the clicky and a quick proc, but as a light monk whose healing ki almost always hits me for over 100 its rare that I want that active.

Like I said, gloves of the claw act as my STR item, as well as the only place for me to get 30% amp. Due to the multiplicative nature of healing amp, the 30% comes out closer to another 100%.

Bracers: I stay in fire stance, jidz-tetka gives the +25% bonus to amp, pretty self-explanatory.

I appreciate the advice and time the both of you took to provide a response, though I feel with the layouts you've provided I'd be taking a major step backwards as most of the items overlap while providing little extra. This is just some of the things I figured your layout would provide me with:

PROS:
tharnes sneak attack bonus +5 attack +8 damage (easily the most notable thing my gear lacks)
+2 exceptional con
knosts set bonus
a proc that gives me some extra hp and +2 str, which still comes out to the same STR I'd have with the might of the abashai, though I can still swap this in for a second and then pop it back off)

CONS:
Less base STR
25% less healing amp (which comes out to a lot more than 25%)
no CHA item (-4 DC on kukan-do and dance than my layout)
fewer epic slots (1 green, 3 yellow and 2 colorless)
no exceptional +2 wisdom (-1 to stunning fist, jade strike, etc)
no disint guard
no inherent fire/cold resist


You said you thought I'd be sacrificing a lot to gain the +3 str bonus, and originally I was on board with that idea myself until I weighed in my other options for those slots.(Boots and helm) The helm slots available would be epic red (as I said I think they're mostly junk for me), epic helm of mroran (same deal, +1 wisdom over what I have and an intim bonus I won't use), or the helm of frost (gives me a CHA item - and I frequently use dance and kukan-do)

As you said there really aren't a lot of great boot options out there. The other boot options I'd even remotely consider would be epic firestorm greaves, (as I said, I have madstones and can use the clicky or swap them to take the proc in but they would never remain a permanent fixture on me as a light monk) but with corrosion having a green slot I think the decision to go with the abishai set was a simple one.

I do have the epic belt of mroran(sp?) lying around, but in the end I decided it gave me +1 str, and I could easily replace the heavy fort and toughness on blue slots/GS items)

Soooooo hopefully that provides some insight into my decisions, I still need to figure out whether I want to go with trap the soul guard or a min2 belt, anybody have experience with trap the soul guard? I know its amazing in weapon-proc form.

[Carpone]

The sneak attack bonus hurts me the most when I'm hitting a stunned mob.

Huh? I'm scratching my head on this one.

The epic helm of the red dragon isn't that great. It gives me +1 str over my current setup and a fire-based guard that most creatures have huge resistances against.

No doubt, it's currently the weakest upgrade slot for a monk.

Boots: green slot + disint guard (and the +3 str that comes with it) far outweigh madstones to me. I still carry them and if need be can swap it in for the clicky and a quick proc, but as a light monk whose healing ki almost always hits me for over 100 its rare that I want that active.

Why focus so much on healing amp if you're getting healed 100 per hit? That seems so excessive. Surely you could ditch some healing amp without sacrificing survivability/soloability.

no CHA item (-4 DC on kukan-do and dance than my layout)

You've got 18 CHA. How effective can those really be with a DC that low?

no exceptional +2 wisdom (-1 to stunning fist, jade strike, etc)

I'm curious about this. Why would you not have Stunning Blow over Stunning Fist if you're a STR build? Also, how often are you landing Jade Strike with your current WIS?

[maestro973]

Was implying that the loss to sneak attack for me is most noticable when in auto-crit situations where you also get the sneak attack damage bonus. To be perfectly honest with the fighter past lives I don't really struggle with to-hit, even with power attack on.

Taking just a little away from the healing amp would have a huge overrall impact due to the way it multiplies. As things are now, I have no troubles going toe to toe with creatures like the red named fire giant in epic VON2 solo and coming out of that fight with full health, and thats because I can get 3 or 7 hp back every time I hit the guy. Coupled with the high DC stuns and dance, I can afford to zerg ahead in an epic by myself and take on 2-3 mobs confidently and that sort of survivability was the whole design point of this build. I sacrifice some damage by not having the sneak attack or wearing redscale (and going light monk instead of dark), but instead provide myself an amazing amount of survivability allowing me to rarely need a healer even against the toughest of foes. As I said, more often than not if its a red named I tend to pull the aggro (good gear and a wide selection of greater banes). Being able to sit there with a cleric's crit aura hitting you for 250+ a tick isn't something I'd want to pass up, in fact it makes you darn near impossible to kill. You start taking a good bit of that away and I guarantee you'll notice the difference. That being said, I don't think what I have to sacrifice to achieve that high of an amp is all too terrible.

DC's on kukan-do and dance aren't that low. With the gear setup I have listed kukan-do DC is something like 48(will) and even then, it is in the range where epic mobs can and do frequently save. Dance isn't nearly as high but its still a fairly reliable and powerful method of CC for a monk and thus worth having a cha bonus somewhere (even if its on a slot).

Jade strike lands pretty often depending on who I'm attacking, I think I kept it up almost constantly last night while tanking the end voltron-guy and other orthon bosses in epic chrono.

Stunning blow DC would be (10 + STR bonus (at 40 standing = 15) + 10(wraps) + 3(fighter past life) = 38
stunning fist DC is (10 + 10 (1/2 monk level) + 10 (wraps) + 9 (28 wisdom in fire) + 3(fighter past life) = 42

[komeback]

Someone wrote if your str based why don't you have stunning blow instead of stunning fist.


The answer is stunning blow blows . It's a subpar stun with to long of a cooldown . It's for classes that can't use stunning fist. Any monk that has blow instead of fist has dumped wisdom for hopes of making a better monk.

Any monk can get their dc for stunning fist 2-4 points higher then blow very easily. At the same time improving their monk. It's impossible to get enough str to get your dc for blow higher than fist on a monk without a whole bunch of short duration buffs . But you can turn around and buff your wisdom almost as much and still have a higher dc.


Blow is wasted feat for monks stunning fist is far superior. Let the barbs and fighters have the subpar stun. And don't give up your monk abilities for a worse ability made for higher str classes.

[Gulnar13]

Is a perfect DT (healing/healing/earthgrab) really better than a red dragon robe/docent? Or it's listed just because it's WAY easier to obtain, and, if possible, one should go for the red dragon robe?

[maestro973]

Well I actually had 20 reds lying around, could never pull the shard - then thought about what the robe was going to give me, and while the flaming burst is great for dps in certain situations, maxing out the healing amp for my build was more important and I felt would be better in the long run.

I ended up giving away/trading all the reds and to be honest, don't really want the thing anymore. It's a nice "prestige" item, but just wasn't for me.

[Carpone]

Someone wrote if your str based why don't you have stunning blow instead of stunning fist.


The answer is stunning blow blows . It's a subpar stun with to long of a cooldown . It's for classes that can't use stunning fist. Any monk that has blow instead of fist has dumped wisdom for hopes of making a better monk.

Any monk can get their dc for stunning fist 2-4 points higher then blow very easily. At the same time improving their monk. It's impossible to get enough str to get your dc for blow higher than fist on a monk without a whole bunch of short duration buffs . But you can turn around and buff your wisdom almost as much and still have a higher dc.


Blow is wasted feat for monks stunning fist is far superior. Let the barbs and fighters have the subpar stun. And don't give up your monk abilities for a worse ability made for higher str classes.

The correct answer: Use whichever one has a higher DC. The OP made the right call with Fist over Blow because the math supports it (something that wasn't obvious to me when I asked).

[maestro973]

Anyway, I thought more about which type of belt to go with and I think I'll stick with the min2 route only because I think the +2 to all saves I'll get from having good luck as an option will do more for me in the longrun than a guard that while useful, shouldn't be getting much use in the first place. (doing something wrong if I'm getting hit)

[augie]

For as incredibly awesome as some of the epic DQ loot is, I find it extremely impractical to actually plan build around such items, unless you've lucked your way into acquiring them in a previous reincarnation. I see all these monk builds that casually assume that you'll have an Epic Bloodstone, Epic Cape of the Roc AND Epic Spectral Gloves available. Seriously? It's like planning builds assuming that the magical +4 tome fairy will sprinkle her magical +4 tome fairy dust on you and grant you all the +4 tomes you need along the way. Not saying it's impossible because I know a couple people who have put in the time and effort and resources to acquire the items, but seriously, let's be a bit more realistic here. There's just an insane amount of luck involved to score a scroll, shard and seal for that one specific item you want when there are 64 some-odd items in the entire epic DQ loot table. Rinse and repeat for 2 more items? No thanks. And that's assuming that you only have one character that you're looking to get that item for.

Litany, Tharnes, Madstones and ToD rings (the ones that are actually useful) are all difficult to acquire as well but definitely non-epic items to reasonably plan for as there are 20th end rewards that give a reasonably solid shot at getting those items. The recent update to Dragontouched makes getting the rune you want rather achievable as well. And the far more limited list of loot in the Fens, Sentinels and Chrono (and VoN to a lesser extent) make those epics a bit more practical to plan around.

Aside from that, I enjoyed reading the comments in this thread. Really good bits of advice and plenty to think over.

Aug

*edit* In hindsight I guess epic Spectrals might be the easiest to get out of all of those and might be OK to plan around. At least there are only a handful of shard options in the end OoB chest and it's pretty easy quest to blow through. Epic Chains of Flame for the cape is... not so fun.

[Taimasan]

For as incredibly awesome as some of the epic DQ loot is, I find it extremely impractical to actually plan build around such items,
/snip

Heh they will learn when they grind and grind for a item and then the game comes out with something better . Have to give them a perchance to dream i suppose.

[maestro973]

For as incredibly awesome as some of the epic DQ loot is, I find it extremely impractical to actually plan build around such items, unless you've lucked your way into acquiring them in a previous reincarnation. I see all these monk builds that casually assume that you'll have an Epic Bloodstone, Epic Cape of the Roc AND Epic Spectral Gloves available. Seriously? It's like planning builds assuming that the magical +4 tome fairy will sprinkle her magical +4 tome fairy dust on you and grant you all the +4 tomes you need along the way. Not saying it's impossible because I know a couple people who have put in the time and effort and resources to acquire the items, but seriously, let's be a bit more realistic here. There's just an insane amount of luck involved to score a scroll, shard and seal for that one specific item you want when there are 64 some-odd items in the entire epic DQ loot table. Rinse and repeat for 2 more items? No thanks. And that's assuming that you only have one character that you're looking to get that item for.

Litany, Tharnes, Madstones and ToD rings (the ones that are actually useful) are all difficult to acquire as well but definitely non-epic items to reasonably plan for as there are 20th end rewards that give a reasonably solid shot at getting those items. The recent update to Dragontouched makes getting the rune you want rather achievable as well. And the far more limited list of loot in the Fens, Sentinels and Chrono (and VoN to a lesser extent) make those epics a bit more practical to plan around.

Aside from that, I enjoyed reading the comments in this thread. Really good bits of advice and plenty to think over.

Aug

*edit* In hindsight I guess epic Spectrals might be the easiest to get out of all of those and might be OK to plan around. At least there are only a handful of shard options in the end OoB chest and it's pretty easy quest to blow through. Epic Chains of Flame for the cape is... not so fun.

Agreed with you before the edit

I farmed OOB every day for maybe 2 months and couldn't for the life of me pull the spectral shard. Then red fens came out and well...you can see what glove option I decided to go with.

I think the gear I posted, while mostly epic, is still fairly easy to obtain in comparison and clearly I wouldn't have gone this route if I didn't find it to be the best choice for me. To finish the layout I need:

Seal of jidz-tetka
Shard for the boots
Shard for the gem

I don't imagine it will be too many more runs before I can pick up the chrono shards or have somebody toss them my way, and EVENTUALLY I'll get some luck in bargain of blood.

Then I don't even know what I'll do....maybe TR another 10 times.

[maestro973]

Heh they will learn when they grind and grind for a item and then the game comes out with something better . Have to give them a perchance to dream i suppose.

Less posting, more grinding of the gnarly half-orc - we have epics to run!