Hat is nice but....the loss of Minos? hmmmm

[dkyle]

20 hp? really? 20 ..... 2.0. 20? i mean... yea, i've been in situations with 1 hp left and sweat on my brow. But honestly - if that happens ALOT or if 20 hp makes or breaks your guy....R E R O L L and try again.

A useless argument. Can be applied to just about every piece of gear, and every build option in the game.

+20 HP is a great benefit to everyone. HP are very important, and getting extra from items is especially so on lower-HP melee classes like Monks. Every character should try to get a Toughness item somewhere, in their ideal gear setup. Minos is simply the easiest to get source of that.

20 HP doesn't just matter if you get reduced to 20 or less. It provides a buffer for healers so that they can safely throw heals less frequently.

[Sarisa]

Prior to this event, my plan was to finish making a Shining Crest of St. Markus for my Cleric, and put Toughness in the green slot. Then redo my less than optimal Greensteel to the "standard" 45hp/heavy fort item and a 150sp/+5 cha skill/conc opp set.

Now my plan is to use heavy fort and +15 concentration on the pirate helm, slot toughness in the green slot of the ring (permanently worn +2 luck will be great), and finally ditch my Belt of Thoughtful Remembrance for an Amrath 6 con/GFL belt.

While Minos is excellent, and it has served me extremely well for many many months; this event finally lets me free up its spot for more beneficial equipment. As a side bonus, it saves me 48 larges, 8 shards of power, 24 raw ingredients, and the grinding headache/cost for a desert epic raid scroll.

For a less equipped character, like on my new caster/rogue, I may be tempted to put Sup. False Life on the helm, along with something like Balance, a trap skill, or even Move Silently; then wear Garments of Equilibrium for heavy fort and concentration. I would net 10 less HP, but the better space consolidation is a huge help. A green slot in the future will still give the option to get Toughness.

[Carpone]

Including some of the epics from the current event, like the ring.

If you're wearing a non-ToD ring as a monk, you're doing it wrong. The added damage from Incredible Potential bursts outweighs any other benefit you can get on a ring.

[PNellesen]

I just put heavy fort and Tumble +10 on my hat (why...because I like tumble.), and heal aura for the Kobolds. I have no plan on not switching back to Minos after...those 20 HP on a caster are too important for me.

Regs,

muffinwimpy

My 9 Cleric just got Heavy Fort and Balance +10 on his hat - not sure if he'll go with Minos later or not, I have a Tezara's Sight waiting for him in the bank, so he may just look for a Heavy Fort robe or belt on the AH when he hits level 12 (or "borrow" one from one of his big brothers - I looted a ML 8 or 10 Heavy Fort robe from Tempest's Spine a while ago, but at level 9 AC still matters so none of my characters uses it )

[walkingwolfmike]

Changing gear can be like modifying an engine. If you want it to run properly, you are gonna have to change more than one thing.

[stoolcannon]

I like the Hat with the seeker +6 on it....but as monk's can be low on HP's, losing the Minos isn't all that good. I have a MinII cloak and Bloodstone already so Heavy Fort isn't the issue just don't wanna be walking around with 445 hps vs 465.

anyone have any suggestions with this? If you could do a Toughness feat on it, all would be fine. I haven't been fortunate enough to get the epic belt of mroronon to get the blue slot for "toughness"...

toughness on spyglass? That's what I did on my wizzy for the +2 int and +3 UMD. Now I can wear my Elder's C.rap for +2 enchant DCs

[krackythehoodedone]

A lot of Monks are just going without the Toughness option. Funnily enough was talking about this last night.

I personally love the Epic Belt of The Moranon. solves all those problems.

Really i think if your going to spend any time at end game then a complete re think around Epic items is what is required. So have a good trawl on DDO Wiki

Of course now that the number of Epics is so large that needs careful thought too. If you go with a full Abishai set you wont have many desert/von/fens items and so forth and so on.

Of the Monks i know at endgame the following are some of the items they most covet. A pair of Tod rings. One monk Tod set (Shintao i believe), Epic belt of Moranon and Epic cape of Roc, , Bloodstone (hopefully epic), Red Dragon Robes,the new brawler gloves seem popular and of course the Mabar Wraps. A hit point GS item. Correct me if i'm wrong but i believe that a min 2 item gives +5 prot and Hvy Fort

[Xenus_Paradox]

Craft a Min II accessory.

[Impatiens]

If you're wearing a non-ToD ring as a monk, you're doing it wrong. The added damage from Incredible Potential bursts outweighs any other benefit you can get on a ring.

You do realize that almost every burst effect you can put on the rings has a great deal of mobs that are immune or highly resistant to it? Yes, they are very very good rings and it is debatable whether this new event ring would be better. However, this ring will allow you to have +2 luck bonus all the time. It has a green slot which can be used to slot some very nice things. By slotting this ring and having toughness on it you can replace minos with a seeker +6 pirate hat like the OP is doing, combine it with the trinket that has exceptional seeker and thus have 8 seeker without grinding out an epic bloodstone. The trinket also has shocking blow, which while not replacing a burst effect, would help to make up some of the damage lost from not slotting a shocking burst ring. There are many ways to outfit characters that work well. Also, some people may not have two ToD rings yet. Please don't tell people they are doing it wrong without considering the options they are looking at.

[Carpone]

I personally love the Epic Belt of The Moranon. solves all those problems.

That precludes using any ToD belt set, like Encrusted Ring/Knost's Belt for +2 damage, 6 CON and GFL. There are plenty of other places to put Toughness and Heavy Fortification. Epic Belt of the Mroranon is not optimal for a monk.

[Xenus_Paradox]

You do realize that almost every burst effect you can put on the rings has a great deal of mobs that are immune or highly resistant to it? Yes, they are very very good rings and it is debatable whether this new event ring would be better. However, this ring will allow you to have +2 luck bonus all the time. It has a green slot which can be used to slot some very nice things. By slotting this ring and having toughness on it you can replace minos with a seeker +6 pirate hat like the OP is doing, combine it with the trinket that has exceptional seeker and thus have 8 seeker without grinding out an epic bloodstone. The trinket also has shocking blow, which while not replacing a burst effect, would help to make up some of the damage lost from not slotting a shocking burst ring. There are many ways to outfit characters that work well. Also, some people may not have two ToD rings yet. Please don't tell people they are doing it wrong without considering the options they are looking at.

Holy Burst/Shocking Burst. I can count the endgame mobs that are highly resistant or immune to that on 1 hand.

[Carpone]

You do realize that almost every burst effect you can put on the rings has a great deal of mobs that are immune or highly resistant to it? Yes, they are very very good rings and it is debatable whether this new event ring would be better. However, this ring will allow you to have +2 luck bonus all the time. It has a green slot which can be used to slot some very nice things. By slotting this ring and having toughness on it you can replace minos with a seeker +6 pirate hat like the OP is doing, combine it with the trinket that has exceptional seeker and thus have 8 seeker without grinding out an epic bloodstone. The trinket also has shocking blow, which while not replacing a burst effect, would help to make up some of the damage lost from not slotting a shocking burst ring. There are many ways to outfit characters that work well. Also, some people may not have two ToD rings yet. Please don't tell people they are doing it wrong without considering the options they are looking at.

Holy Burst and Shocking Burst are what you want on ToD rings. Icy Burst is on your Risia enchanted greater bane wraps. Flaming Burst is on the Epic Red Dragonscale Robe. The only notable mobs immune to Shocking Burst are Lailat and Abbot.

There's plenty of other gear in the game with green/blue augments for slotting Good Luck, Heavy Fortification and Toughness. Here's a great setup while still keeping Holy Burst and Shocking Burst on your rings:

Head: Pirate hat with Seeker +6, Jump +15
Trinket: Litany of the Dead (or Greater Bold Trinket)
Goggles: Tharnes
Neck: Shintao Cord
Ring: Kyosho w/ Holy Burst
Ring: Encrusted w/ Shocking Burst
Belt: Knost's Belt
Chest: Epic Red Dragonscale Robe (blue: Heavy Fortification, colorless: +1 exceptional CON)
Cloak: Epic Envenomed Cloak (green: Toughness)
Boots: Epic Boots of Corrosion (green: Good Luck, colorless: +6 DEX)
Bracer: Epic Scorched Bracer (green: whatever you want)
Gloves: Epic Brawling Gloves (yellow: whatever you want)

[SardaofChaos]

A useless argument. Can be applied to just about every piece of gear, and every build option in the game.

+20 HP is a great benefit to everyone. HP are very important, and getting extra from items is especially so on lower-HP melee classes like Monks. Every character should try to get a Toughness item somewhere, in their ideal gear setup. Minos is simply the easiest to get source of that.

20 HP doesn't just matter if you get reduced to 20 or less. It provides a buffer for healers so that they can safely throw heals less frequently.

Wrong. Extra HP has a varying importance based on what percentage it is of your current HP. If he only had high 200s or low 300s? Sure, 20 would be a good boost. But he's got 445. 20 more is not going to make a difference at that level.

[dkyle]

Wrong. Extra HP has a varying importance based on what percentage it is of your current HP. If he only had high 200s or low 300s? Sure, 20 would be a good boost. But he's got 445. 20 more is not going to make a difference at that level.

At what level? 16?

No, at level 20, there is still a significant difference between 445 and 465. Not enough to skimp on DPS gear, perhaps, but enough to put effort towards.

My Monk doesn't currently have a Toughness item, and he's around that HP, because I can't currently fit it in without taking off a significant piece of DPS/stun DC gear. I have a GS HP item instead. But the first thing I'm doing when I make a Green-slot epic is putting Toughness on it.

HP is like DPS: more is always better, more always makes a difference.

[Llewndyn]

stuff in red

It's not about the heavy fort. I randomly give heavy fort items away all the time. Minos Legens is the most important helmet in the game. stacking HP is in no way, shape, or form "blah blah", it's extra stacking HP and there's nothing in the game that does that in that gear slot. I wanted to put the pirate hat on, and yeah it's only like 20 HP, but it's still HP I am leaving on the table. Has nothing to do with heavy fort (though it is nice)

Sadly that's why even though I pick up some cool stuff (teraza's sight comes to mind) I just vendor or AH it and will continue to do so. Remember not too long ago Minos was a requirement to get into some PUGS? You know why it's not so much a reason anymore? Because everyone has one.

Peace, out.

[Darkrok]

I'm completely on board with this. Those epic setups that some posters have listed are wonderful. I'd love to have that gear. It's not going to happen. I doubt I ever have a traditional epic item because that's not the part of the game I enjoy playing. I play my monk soloing helping guildies that are leveling 17-20, in shroud, in VoD, Reaver, etc. I don't play epics for the most part unless a guildie begs me to join them. Most of my play time is spent either helping my kids level up their toons (I play their toons occasionally to get them a level or two) or work on whatever toon I'm TR'ing at the time. I only stay capped to make money and gather shroud ing's - not to run epics to death.

That's just me but I get the feeling I'm not alone...there are many people that aren't enamored with the epic game in DDO. So for those people even slotting a single epic item with a blue/green slot isn't likely outside of the event. Since we're talking monks here the chest items from the event are out. On fleshies there are no non-epic chest items for Toughness so that slot is out. The ring from the event (even once it's not bugged) is suboptimal at best due to ToD rings. The spyglass kind of defeats the purpose for slotting seeker to the hat since we can no longer put the bloodstone as our trinket.

[dpadan17]

wow, a lot of replies. thanks.

1. to the reroll comment?!? Really you sir....(refraining from rude comment)....duh

2. about getting "plenty" of epic items to put the green item on....wow, it's soooooooo easy to get em.....talk about grinding. Sure the seals and shards come easy but the scrolls are astronomical these days....carpone....that is a ton of grinding.

3. Red dragonscale armor. Sure let me just whip one up....one of the hardest things to get besides epic marilith chain..

4. 20hps are 20 hps. IM NOT ASKING YOU OPINION ABOUT WHAT YOU DO WITH YOU TOONS, WHY TELL ME?

5. I can understand a cleric not worrying too much about the 20hps for self healing..but a melee toon? hmmm, seems pretty important to me...

Finally, after much reading and thought. I'm going back to the old set up and dealing with it...I like the old set up. If i want to fit in a litany of the dead some other time (HIGHLY DOUBT IT) then so be it. I like that after rage and madstone,,,,i have over 500hps being a dex halfling. That is my preference. I was simply seeking out an alternative that i maybe did not think of. That is all. Not working out the kinks by grinding 6 more items to fit it in. I have more toons (5 more to be exact to work on and have fun).

i am open to constructive critisism mainly but some of the stuff suggested was over the top....so many quick to say reroll or "just go get this". (like you can walk to the store and just buy it for a nickel)......

sorry for the rant. but a pet peeve of mine when you ask for solid advice, people go beyond what the sole question was or just be plain rude and give a horrible answer.

[muffinlad]

My 9 Cleric just got Heavy Fort and Balance +10 on his hat - not sure if he'll go with Minos later or not, I have a Tezara's Sight waiting for him in the bank, so he may just look for a Heavy Fort robe or belt on the AH when he hits level 12 (or "borrow" one from one of his big brothers - I looted a ML 8 or 10 Heavy Fort robe from Tempest's Spine a while ago, but at level 9 AC still matters so none of my characters uses it )

Yeah, and eventually Dragon Armor can get you the Heavy Fort too with two other things (guards or a stat, etc.). I think Tezara's is good for use in combo with the others, but you will find several Wis 6 items (Con Ops) that will make the Wis 6 a duplicate.

I have several toons that wear a Heavy fort/Poison or Heavy fort/Disease belt...but they all have 500+ HP...my casters dont.

muffingear.

[Jacobius]

It's not about the heavy fort. I randomly give heavy fort items away all the time. Minos Legens is the most important helmet in the game. stacking HP is in no way, shape, or form "blah blah", it's extra stacking HP and there's nothing in the game that does that in that gear slot. I wanted to put the pirate hat on, and yeah it's only like 20 HP, but it's still HP I am leaving on the table. Has nothing to do with heavy fort (though it is nice)

Sadly that's why even though I pick up some cool stuff (teraza's sight comes to mind) I just vendor or AH it and will continue to do so. Remember not too long ago Minos was a requirement to get into some PUGS? You know why it's not so much a reason anymore? Because everyone has one.

Peace, out.

Hmmm then I have managed to play this game for 5 years with this "most important helm" on only 2 of 14 toons. Yes its a very nice item and if want it great but no means is it a must have if there was only one way to do things God would thus game be boring. Like I said if you want it and like it great use it but don't tell me its needed cause I have played plenty of epics and elite raids without any toughness item on. let people decide what they like not what you think they have to have