U51 Preview 1: Grandmaster of Flowers

[Paisheng]

Seriously, this looks like the final phase of the War on Monks has come, and Monks have lost. At this point, they will have lost so much they'll be behind most FTP classes, and should be made one with everyone who bought one should be given a free refund. Every single update arrives with dread, wondering what new nerf they're going to apply to the Monk class under this mistaken impression that, somehow, someway they are OP. Inane. Almost every class can get something from every tree, but no other class is tied to a unique power system like ki. They should just realize that the Monk class, of all classes, would need a specialzed tree.

But that's not going to happen. Because not being able to play GMOF with other classes is not what some devs find fun. And that is the actual, factual problem.

So if it goes live, and Oryara leaves, so do I. Sorry. Ory got me into this game, she'll take me out of it.

I am in line with your sentiments. The irony is that bards are essentially buffers and debuffers from their songs and monks are essentially melees with supposedly cool ki powers to send things into the void, etc. But the Bard capstone moment is getting some form of EIN and the Monk Epic Moment is getting Buff / DeBuff powers?? Um is this the bizarro DDO world? Stay with the themes: Give bards a capstone in line with their flavor of songs and buffs and give back to the monks EiN which has been there from the beginning of the ten years or so of Epic Destinies.

This is the monk's special thing with his ki: void them out (void strike), turn them to jade (tomb of jade) and instant death (quivering palm). The epic moment should be in line with one of these. The other thing is being fast and amazing with their hands through ki -- so the only other thing that might work as an epic moment would be to give them extra strikes and/or damage for 30 seconds or so -- making them a whirl wind of melee devestation (after all they are a special class under Melee).

As many have noted -- monks are losing or being nerfed many of these abilities and powers by the proposed changes (EIN, FROG, etc). I hope the devs reconsider after hearing from the monk community again; but they did not appear to hear our concerns about this the first round of Lammania, and as you say in your post, Doug, this is probably the last battle for it....and monks have lost. We'll fight til its over. Maybe we can roll a few 20s with the Devs and save the monk we already love.

[ironmaiden-br]

https://y.yarn.co/03fc6128-61c3-45fc...185c5_text.gif

[ironmaiden-br]

[HedgeHogShadow]

[Tilomere]

As far as I remember, giving other classes monk animations in GMoF with handwraps didn't give them the multihit Whirlwind attack, so they still couldn't effectively make a handwrap build because they wouldn't have appropriate AoE.

I think that was tied to the flurry of blows feat that only monks get or maybe the monk class itself. It's not clear, but it has been a noob trap for a decade?

[Tilomere]

These need to offer basic/adept/master stances for each rank.

The Flickering Flame: +1/2/3 to hit and damage. Rank 3: +25% Fire Absorption
Flow of Water: +1/2/3 saving throws, you take 5/10/15% less damage from being Helpless. Rank 3: +25% Cold Absorption
Catch the Wind: +1/2/3% dodge, +2/4/6 max dex bonus. Rank 3: +25% Electric Absorption
Strength of Stone: +5/10/15 HP and +2/4/6 PRR Rank 3: +25% Acid Absorption

[Hawkwier]

I am in line with your sentiments. The irony is that bards are essentially buffers and debuffers from their songs and monks are essentially melees with supposedly cool ki powers to send things into the void, etc. But the Bard capstone moment is getting some form of EIN and the Monk Epic Moment is getting Buff / DeBuff powers?? Um is this the bizarro DDO world? Stay with the themes: Give bards a capstone in line with their flavor of songs and buffs and give back to the monks EiN which has been there from the beginning of the ten years or so of Epic Destinies.

This is the monk's special thing with his ki: void them out (void strike), turn them to jade (tomb of jade) and instant death (quivering palm). The epic moment should be in line with one of these. The other thing is being fast and amazing with their hands through ki -- so the only other thing that might work as an epic moment would be to give them extra strikes and/or damage for 30 seconds or so -- making them a whirl wind of melee devestation (after all they are a special class under Melee).

As many have noted -- monks are losing or being nerfed many of these abilities and powers by the proposed changes (EIN, FROG, etc). I hope the devs reconsider after hearing from the monk community again; but they did not appear to hear our concerns about this the first round of Lammania, and as you say in your post, Doug, this is probably the last battle for it....and monks have lost. We'll fight til its over. Maybe we can roll a few 20s with the Devs and save the monk we already love.

I don't play monks so don't have a dog in this fight, but I do support these comments, as it seems monks are getting a real kicking here. And, despite the fact I don't play them myself, I do play with them, and I've no idea why anyone would think they require or deserve yet more nerfs.

[Nickodeamous]

So, here I am, a happy monk, getting Dire Charge from LD from Tier 1, thinking all is fine and dandy. I was so happy that I could still stun things. I even tested it, and it appeared to stun everything on Lam. What a fool I am.

Tier 1 Dire Charge only Sunders the mob. That is useless for me if I can already hit them with my falcon for -50% fortification. I feel like I need to learn to read the fine print. I literally just saw Dire Charge, and was like "Happy Day!!!

So, now this has me rethinking what I really want to focus on. Drifting Lotus is too long of an animation to stun things. I literally never used it when I found out Dire Charge was a tier 1. Silly me. ugg.

Anyway, dearest Devs, please make drifting lotus, not so drifty. Its slow to be honest. It doesn't scale well in DPS. I have thought about changing to LD, but I am torn. My GMOF is a shell of what it was to me as a pure build monk. I hope Lam 3 shows some changes. I honestly have 1 foot out the door for good, and that makes me incredibly sad. Please make us pure build monks feel more monkish, and less like an afterthought.

Yours truly,
Nico

[Theolin]

I sure do wish that a dev could shed some light on our notes. pretty please

I for one only play a 20 monk. I personally will probably always be a 20 monk. I'm like a bare bones chiropractor. I come in and "break" necks. I have a cycle that works for me and works well. I don't need to do finishers and never have. too many buttons...give me a 1 button finisher for 15 ki and call it a day and I may think about incorporating it. lol

We lose Frog, EIN, Ghost Touch, you know, things that monks (or at least I) use frequently. Why make this a hybrid tree? Just put your 11 points in here and get your +30 melee power and call it a day. (this is where epic lives come in real handy). This was a monk tree, I mean, it is called Grand Master of Flowers, and was tailored to monks for years. Try another video game like FF14, and Monks have special attacks that no one ale has...that's how it should be. Every other melee has a go to ED. Why leave monks to the scraps on the table, which is what it looks like in some cases.

For me, make this a monk tree, with areas for people to pick up useful things like absorbs, and defenses. Don't strip out all of our goodies and make it a generic tree. That's not too cool for the 5 or 6 people that actually play a monk on Khyber. lol. Give us EIN back (or something comparable) and up our tactics DCs as well as put ghost touch back and call it a day. If I wanted to be a Bard, I would be a bard, so I could care less for 20 seconds out of every 5 mins of 10% extra DPS. This is weaksauce. If the devs are trying to get rid of instakills, why give it to other builds? I fully suspect that bard EIN will cap at 4 mobs...they tried to make it 4 for monks, but it was argued that its should be better than mass frog, so it went to 6 vs. 40 or so. lol

Honestly, love the game, but fighting over what a tree is supposed to be is exhausting. I tested it, and I can live with it, but its def weak for actual monk players. I'd argue anybody that is not a monk will not go to tier 5 here anyway, so why waste time trying to get somebody to play like a monk. silly to me.

Anyway, just my additional 2 cents.

take care guys!
Nico

Agree with this ... &

I am one of those who plays a "fvsonk" and on live I run in GMOF as I get more - no fail saves, petals, TS and ghost touch and other things from twists depending on what is needed, which all seem to be gone or useless on lama and no way to actually get anywhere close to what I have.

I found my self in LD, DC and either US or Primal because the new GMOF was total & complete rubbish compared to what I took from it before. This change basically ruins how the build plays & I do not like it.

This was originally a CC trash melee and a fully self sufficient off/backup/2ndboss tank that could remove a red named or all the trash out of an end fight and let the rest of the group deal with the boss.
With all the changes from 50&51 I have lost both parts of what this toon was build for and used for 100+ lives.

I am sad, I have lost so much with these 2 updates that I do not want to play.
No matter what I do I loose 2 CC buttons, a lot of survivability, DCs & some cool things that helped and instead get a little melee power & damage 5% or so in return, NOT even close to what I lost. And I will Not mention the huge loss I suffered with the last update, more than most due to how everything used to work compared to what it does now with stats & monks & FVs & DCs.