About Vorpal Strikes

[Dalsheel]

Dear Devs,

I wanted to point out that there is no other slashing weapon in the game with base critical profile of 20/x2, so I think Vorpal Strikes should also make the unarmed base critical profile 19-20/x2 since it's changing the damage type to slashing.

This is on par with the PnP version of the game. In PnP there is a feat called Keen Strikes that is required in order to qualify for Vorpal Strikes. It makes your unarmed attacks deal slashing damage and gives you a base critical profile of 18-20/x2. I know 18-20 would be OP for the DDO version of the monk class but 19-20 would be just fine.

Many of you will say that there should be another feat for this reason and maybe make it a pre-req for Vorpal Strikes, but in PnP Vorpal Strikes does not change your damage type to slashing, Keen Strikes does. Apparently, the Devs merged these 2 feats into 1 and it's sad to see they left the best part of Keen Strikes out of the new implementation. I will say again: there is no other slashing weapon in this game with a base critical profile of 20/x2, so why does unarmed combat have to be any different?

For all other weapons there is a way to expand their critical profile, either with heroic enhancements or by using an epic destiny. Handwraps have been left out of this. Quarterstaves, a weapon with the same base critical profile as unarmed, can have a base critical profile of 19-20/x3 through either the Hensin Mystic or the Thief Acrobat trees, any weapon can have its critical threat range expanded by the Kensei tree.

This is something I've been thinking about for a very long time, but I chose to mention it now since the new end-game crafting system (Magma forge) has most of its melee oriented abilities proc On-Crit. I feel it's wrong for the monks out there to have no way of expanding their critical threat range in order to make these new cool weapons more effective, just like everyone else who's using a different kind of weapon.

Opinions?


-Dal

[Cardtrick]

Excellent change, monks desperately need a buff.

[rimble]

Opinions?

With full Strength bonus to Unarmed Offhand damage, no attack penalty, and naturally increased rate of attack, I feel this is unnecessary. Monks have been implemented to not be such crit monsters as other classes, and I think that's just fine.

[thegreatneil]

Dear Devs,

I wanted to point out that there is no other slashing weapon in the game with base critical profile of 20/x2

Sickle and Kama.

Also:

Violence Begets Violence: While Earth Stance is active, when an opponent misses you in melee, you gain +1 critical threat range for 6 seconds. This stacks up to 5 times and is reset if you critically hit.

This is really nice for a monk, helps with the "on crit" stuff.

[the_one_dwarfforged]

Excellent change, monks desperately need a buff.

ha, haha ha, ha

[Dalsheel]

With full Strength bonus to Unarmed Offhand damage, no attack penalty, and naturally increased rate of attack, I feel this is unnecessary. Monks have been implemented to not be such crit monsters as other classes, and I think that's just fine.

Or maybe that WAS fine before Turbine allowed Centered Kenseis to pick up eSoS and crit 13-20/x3, or Monkchers with Pinion critting 15-20/x3.
I don't know if you find this fair, I certainly don't.

Sickle and Kama.

Also:

Violence Begets Violence: While Earth Stance is active, when an opponent misses you in melee, you gain +1 critical threat range for 6 seconds. This stacks up to 5 times and is reset if you critically hit.

This is really nice for a monk, helps with the "on crit" stuff.

Kama gets +2 competence bonus to critical threat range from the Ninja Spy capstone, so it gets a base critical profile of 18-20/x2. As for sickles, you are right, I didn't think about those, but who is using a sickle anyway? My post is, mainly, about popular weapon choices. Also there is a way to expand the sickle's base crit profile via the Kensei tree.

Violence begets violence is kinda nice, but it's so restrictive You have to be in Earth Stance, you have to give up other trees tier5 abilities and you need to be missed.
Being missed is easy, but that would imply you're being attacked in the 1st place and that's not the case when you stun an enemy and beat on him, or when you're beating on groups of enemies CCed by a caster, or when you're DPSing a raid boss... the list goes on.

So, I believe, my point still stands. If everyone has a way to expand their critical threat range, why should't unarmed monks be able as well? Besides, other weapons can have their threat range expanded with Heroic Enhancements. Vorpal Strikes is an Epic Feat for crying out loud.


-Dal

[droid327]

If everyone has a way to expand their critical threat range, why should't unarmed monks be able as well?

Because unarmed gets unique ways to boost their base hit die through gear, for one. For two, unarmed has innately faster attack rates, which makes up for the DPS gap of lower crits. 5% faster attacks is equivalent to adding +1/x2 base DPS wise. Adding crit mults on top of that would be double dipping; unarmed would get *better* crits per second than armed fighting.

Third, monks get all the other monky goodness that monks get. Lower crit profile is just part of the tradeoff for that.

[Dalsheel]

unarmed would get *better* crits per second than armed fighting.

You are joking right?

Third, monks get all the other monky goodness that monks get. Lower crit profile is just part of the tradeoff for that.

Hi, welcome... this is post U19 era. Now think again..