monk - str versus ac

[Varren]

I'm about to reach level 35 on my human monk, which is my main. I do quite a bit of soloing because of my play schedule, and am wondering how best to prioritize my equipment. I have been prioritizing ac over everything else except for my Peacebringer, and I can still come in at 13 stone with the weapon equipped. I'm saving up for an fbss, which I figure is the most important upgrade I can make, but in the meantime...

I've heard many times that ac is sorta screwy on this server, so I'm wondering whether I ought to swap out some slots for more strength. How much does strength really affect damage? How much does ac really affect monk mitigation/avoidance?

Another question... does anyone understand how mitigation/avoidance ac works differently for monks than other classes?

By the way, here is my equipment at the moment:

Ears - Forest Loop x 1
Fingers - Platinum Fire Wedding Ring x 2
Neck - Collar of Undead Protection
Head - Fine Silk Turban
Face - Targishin's Bone Mask
Chest - Foreman's Tunic
Arms - Azure Sleeves
Back - Cured Silk Cloak
Waist - Yellow Sash of Order
Shoulders - Cured Silk Mantle
Wrists - Symbol of Loyalty to Vox x 2
Legs - Drake-hide Leggings
Hands - Treant Fists
Feet - Cured Silk Sandals
Primary - Peacebringer
Secondary -
Range -

Thanks in advance for your input!

[Freakish]

Executioners hood, 2x +5str/dex rings, the jc str neck are all options for affordably increasing your str. I know I noticed a huge difference on my monk between 100 and 200 str. What's your str at anyway?

[Varren]

Right now my str is at 93 -- nervous to replace my precious 5/55 rings! They've saved my ass so many times lol.

[Freakish]

Bracers of Erollisi are +5 str and 1.0 weight. Easy to get if you kill the pirate in OoT a few times. They're common. Only one ear? I believe there's a jc +str ear, eventually you'll want to get diamondine earrings.

[hopped]

This is funny, based on your gear I know exactly who this is in game as we were waiting on the docks earlier and I just had inspect open the whole time thinking about making a monk over my bard since I've never played a melee DPS. Problem is there are so many monks, same reason I stopped my shaman.

[Varren]

Yeah that was me, on my way to kill some more sisters. Nice seeing you here too.

I honestly don't care if there are a lot of monks. Its a fun class to play, and a skilled player can do some pretty cool stuff with a monk in and out of groups. Also, its a great class to explore with, which I love to do more than just about anything else in game. AND monks have a pause button, which is great considering how my life has changed since '99 (what with having a wife and munchkin now).

[Pan]

Holy wow. I'm on my 3rd monk on this server and I'm running my 3rd at L40 right now at 90/105 wt. All bandaids and javs...with a few empty or cloth items in several gear slots - while stacking nothing else but HPs.

I've got a fungi and good haste, granted, but even on my first monk, I leveled quickly and essentially disregarded weight. Sure it's a penalty. But so's a parking ticket that costs a quarter. Apart from being a douchebag by parking stupidly, the penalty isn't that significant.

Point is, there's a sweet spot for productivity/leveling/pulling/downtime/deaths - and for me, it's being nearly overweight with bandaids and javs. YMMV, of course. But my monks have been neither ineffective nor fragile.

tl;dr? figure out how significant the penalty is (threshold) before you start making extreme choices

[hopped]

Yeah that was me, on my way to kill some more sisters. Nice seeing you here too.

I honestly don't care if there are a lot of monks. Its a fun class to play, and a skilled player can do some pretty cool stuff with a monk in and out of groups. Also, its a great class to explore with, which I love to do more than just about anything else in game. AND monks have a pause button, which is great considering how my life has changed since '99 (what with having a wife and munchkin now).

Interesting points, my thing was I have never played an Iksar or leveled in Kunark and thought that might be a really nice experience. This may translate into either a monk or Necro as well at some point but I am not sure.

[Mirana]

I've heard many times that ac is sorta screwy on this server, so I'm wondering whether I ought to swap out some slots for more strength. How much does strength really affect damage? How much does ac really affect monk mitigation/avoidance?


Splorf has a pretty detailed AC analysis in the bug forums, might be worth a read. My interpretation was that AC does not do as much as it should at higher levels. That said, when I was soloing Highkeep guards, I intentionally looted several fine steel weapons and got about 15 lbs over the cap. Granted, it was a small sample size, but I instantly noticed an increase in how hard I was being hit. Does the ac penalty from being overweight work differently than normal AC? I'm not sure. Just something I thought I would share.

And no, don't sell your 5/55 rings. They are far more valuable than any piece of strength jewelry you could buy.

[tankh]

Splorf has a pretty detailed AC analysis in the bug forums, might be worth a read.

Do u have a link to this post please

[Mirana]

Do u have a link to this post please

http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118766

[tankh]

http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118766

Tyvm sir

[Varren]

I've always heard, though, that monks have a different dynamic at play in their AC. I remember reading that the monk AC bonus is applied to avoidance, not mitigation. I've been looking for some confirmation of this but haven't found anything yet.

Thanks all for your input.

[Pan]

I don't know if any/many/all of you have investigated/followed the conversations re how damage is calculated on this server (hint: delay of weapon here isn't as significant on this server as it was on live), but these equations (ac-mitigation/avoidance, weapon damage) or calculations are only an approximation of live. From what I understand, the originals are proprietary and the devs have done the very best they can to get it as close as they can.

That's why it's really important to parse - and learn by experience - what works best on p99. Up a few posts, I mentioned that you need to figure out how the weight penalty affects your monk...what it actually means vis a vis how you're going to outfit and play the toon. Do that with weapons choices, ac, hp, and other stats, too.

For me, dumping my resources into regen, haste, hps, good weaps, bandaids, and javs is the fastest way to level (hour for hour mostly soloing and getting hit constantly)...ignoring stats, ac, and weight almost completely. It's rather inelegant given conventional wisdom, but it has worked very, very well for me.

[Trax]

AC has a minimal impact on Monks on this server. It's completely fucked.

[Nilasbik]

the way ac is setup on eqemu is to determine whether or not you get hit. not how much dmg it takes away from the hit. on live it did both. I recently posted on Eqemu the fix that kegz made for epicemu for ac but it doesnt seem like anyone wants to use it because they would have to redo all the mobs on their servers because instead of fixing ac they just messed up all their mobs to make them work "normally"