There seems to be a lot of concern for monks in the new combat system. On my testing on lam, I find it to be fairly justified. My ~70 AC monk is taking roughly 3-4 times as much damage than on live. A lot of different suggestions have been made, so here's mine....
I'd love to see AC completely reworked for monks. Maybe tie things to stance and Ki. I've thought of a few 'out there' things that might be pretty cool.
My view of monks is that they should be a dodgy class, they are quick, don't get hit much but when they do it hurts them pretty bad. This should reflect in AC and especially dodge bonuses. Mountain stance is the exception, .
Here's some out of the box ideas (all the numbers can/should be tweaked for balance, as this is all off the top of my head):
Idea 1: Damage mitigation wildly different per stance:
Wind Stance (The dodgy stance). Going into wind stance brings your AC down to 10, however raises your dodge to your AC (capped at XX% or AC-20 or some other modifier for balancing)
Mountain stance. (The tough guy stance) AC Stays the same, bonuses to DR And PRR. Fairly similar to what it is now.
Water stance (flows with the blows) Straight up addition to AC (1 point per level?).
Fire stance (The attack stance) loss of AC, but gain to damage. maybe 5 ac, 1[W]? Or maybe: a fire shield that reduces damage by x%.
Idea 2:
Have a Ki ability to boost dodge.
Something like this:
Spend 5 ki to add 3% dodge for 2 minutes. This can be stacked monk level/2 times. No cooldown.
The numbers can be tweaked for balance.
Anyways, just some out there ideas... flame away....