52 (epic) Monk with 52k - what to upgrade?

[remen]

Hi guys, I was hoping to get some advice from you expert monks out there on the best way to spend the extra plat I've got saved up on my 52 monk. He currently has epic, fungi, IFS, sash of the dragonborn, spider fur cloak and pretty standard stuff in the rest of the slots. I solo 90% of the time but don't mind grouping from time to time and was wondering what would get me the most bang for my buck with the extra 50k or so I saved up. The options I am considering are:

1) Tstaff - I have heard the stun proc is great for soloing
2) Haste Upgrade - Either the Seahorse belt for a 10% haste upgrade & stats or a CoCW + spider fur belt (slightly more haste but not as good stats)
3) Haste belt/Hiero Cloak - Get a less expensive haste upgrade like RBG or RBB and then use the extra plat to upgrade to a hiero cloak for a big stats boost
4) Other - is there some better item / combo of items to look to upgrade than the options I came up with?

All advice and feedback is much appreciated, thanks!

[Legidias]

Haste upgrade gives the most solid +DPS which will equal less kill time which will equal less damage taken which will equal less down time which equals more killing.

If youre soloing a ton DS pots also nice at higher lvl when fights are a bit longer and mobs hit often.

Or blow it all and pay some bored and poor 60 bard to plvl to 60

[mefdinkins]

I don't think you'd be going wrong with SG Belt, Cloak of Flames or TStaff and they can all make solo'ing to level 60 easier.

I think Spiked Seahorse Hide Belt is hard to sell so maybe you could get that for cheap and somehow hustle for a Spiked Seahorse Belt + Heirophant's cloak and end up with 34% haste +130 HP vs. 36% haste and 90 HP (COF + Spider Fur). COF is 'amazing' and highest droppable haste but IMO it's a little overrated and the 2% haste loss w/ Seahorse Belt gives you a lot of other options for itemization -- working towards Cloak of Confusion, Heiro Cloak, or cheaper options like Shimmering Terror Hide Cloak, Hooded Black Cloak, Dire Wolf-Hide Cloak.

You can also work on other items outside of dropping your plat like: Jboots (can camp for free), Peggy Cloak (can get for free if you find a group to camp), Solid Bags: Large Soiled, Couple Tink Bags, Thurg Leather MQ Wrist, Bracer of the Hammerfal. TStaff is decent for leveling but then after that is essentially luxury item to deal with damage shield mobs and for keeping aggro and minimizing ripostes while tanking.

[Legidias]

If soloing, dont just look at bigger + HP pool, that 2% haste difference can mean 10-20sec less kill time on a mob, and in that time it can hit you for waaay more than 40 hp when youre 50+.

Solo melee is entirely about the kill speed. +Other stats is nice when youre pulling for a group or raid so you dont get roflstomped on pull.

[mefdinkins]

Yes and with epic it's 74% haste with SG belt or about 15-25k less than 76% haste with COF.

[jijii]

If you mostly solo, I would get a t-staff. You will take substantially less dmg from riposte procs with a 2h compared to dw with a 9/16 primary. Your ripostes will also do much more. The proc is also super legit... 120 unresistable dmg is as good as it comes. This is only if you solo, though. In a group setting where you’re not tanking, neither of those first two benefits exist.

Otherwise, I’d keep saving for a cloak of flames. If you caved and went seahorse + eventual hiero cloak, I wouldn’t think it was a bad play, either.

[Twochain]

If you're iksar, Cloak of the Crystalline Waters i think is almost better than CoF. The +SV cold makes a big difference when the mobs you're fighting cast 1k ice comets. And obviously, it's the same haste as CoF, but without HP.

Food for thought.

T-staff is awesome for soloing but it's overpriced atm imo.

[Jimjam]

T-staff is awesome for soloing but it's overpriced atm imo.

OP mentions he isn't against grouping, so I'd suggest the T-staff being a side project to work on when he isn't soloing. KC fun times when feeling social, keep those spawns turned over to try win a T-Staff.


Come to forums crying when a rogue wins it :D.

[remen]

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses guys!

In response to some of the posts...the idea of getting the Tstaff was more about the stun proc saving me from taking damage than being a big DPS upgrade over my IFS, and with the IFS I already have the riposte advantage over using 1 handers while soloing. Having never used a Tstaff it's hard for me to gauge how often it procs and how much the stun helps in regards to avoiding damage. My line of thinking is less damage taken = less downtime = more xp. But of course more DPS = more xp so that's why I figure getting a top end haste item would be a good choice.

Just curious, I hear a few people saying to save up for the CoF...as far as I can tell it has the same stats as the CoCW other than 50hp and a different resist, is it really worth the extra 20k or so for 50hp!? Also curious why people are so down on the seahorse belt and why it would be so hard to sell? It seems like it has nice stats and non haste cloak items are better than non haste belt items. Or am I just underrating how much of a difference that 2% haste makes?

I also probably overstated how much I group, it is probably closer to 1% than 10% lol but I just don't know how feasible it will be at levels 55+

Thanks again for all the responses and feedback!

[jijii]

to address a couple of your questions:

t-staff proc dmg will end up being a bigger deal than stun duration, ultimately. sometimes the stun lasts for a long time, others a mere instant. it's the fact that it's always 120dmg that is nice (pvp is another story)

cof vs cocw and 20k for 50hp being "worth it" is pretty tough to answer. no, it's probably not "worth it" but the closer you get to an "end game" item (whatever end-game means to you and your particular playstyle), the less value you're gonna get for your plat. cof is, essentially, the pinnacle buyable haste item in terms of stats and haste %, that's why it's the most expensive. it's not as much a value proposition as it is a "best in slot for a casual" proposition. the same basically applies to the seahorse belt. it's good, but it's less haste. *value* wise seahorse belt + hiero cloak is the way to go, but "best in slot for a casual" it's probably cof + rbg.

so much of this depends on what kind of player you are, what your goals are, etc.

[Spit]

Get a better haste item and farm jail cell in kc for xp and cross fingers for t staff

[SamwiseRed]

Hi guys, I was hoping to get some advice from you expert monks out there on the best way to spend the extra plat I've got saved up on my 52 monk. He currently has epic, fungi, IFS, sash of the dragonborn, spider fur cloak and pretty standard stuff in the rest of the slots. I solo 90% of the time but don't mind grouping from time to time and was wondering what would get me the most bang for my buck with the extra 50k or so I saved up. The options I am considering are:

1) Tstaff - I have heard the stun proc is great for soloing
2) Haste Upgrade - Either the Seahorse belt for a 10% haste upgrade & stats or a CoCW + spider fur belt (slightly more haste but not as good stats)
3) Haste belt/Hiero Cloak - Get a less expensive haste upgrade like RBG or RBB and then use the extra plat to upgrade to a hiero cloak for a big stats boost
4) Other - is there some better item / combo of items to look to upgrade than the options I came up with?

All advice and feedback is much appreciated, thanks!

52 monk with epic and fungi but still asking retarded questions? smells like are em tee am i rite.

[remen]

52 monk with epic and fungi but still asking retarded questions? smells like are em tee am i rite.

No you are not right, this is my 2nd character and my twink project, so I am not an expert on this class. To throw around an accusation like that based on nothing is pretty scummy and speaks to your lack of character. Additionally, what is so retarded about my questions? How is a person who has never used a Tstaff able to gauge the impact it has on soloing as compared to a haste upgrade? Considering there were quite a few different answers and lines of thinking it seems like my questions created a decent little debate about the different options I laid out, and hopefully was informative to others in addition to helping me make a decision.

What I am curious about is why the idea of RMT was so close to your mind here and one of the first things YOU thought of? Often times people who are engaged in an illicit activity overestimate the frequency with which others engage in that same activity...just some food for thought.

And to everyone else who took the time and thought to genuinely answer my questions I do appreciate all the feedback and I am going to go with the CoCW + Spider fur belt combo until I can upgrade the CoCW to a CoF with the Tstaff being a nice toy to look to add at some point further down the road when I get some more plat and when it hopefully isn't so overpriced.

Lastly, to the person who suggested tink bags, what makes them so useful? I've done fine staying at about 15 stone just using a large soiled bag and shralok pack, and can't think of any items I would need a tink bag for, 5k seems like an awful lot for a bag, let alone 4 of them. (FWIW my soiled bag has stone of morid and food / bandages while the shralok has my OT hammer and room for random loot that is heavy but worth carrying that i might pick up)

[Jimjam]

You know you can duel wield with 2hb?

Swing primary/2hb. Unequip the 2hb, your offhand can now swing. Instantly re-equip 2hb so it swings again when it's time is due. Repeat until RSI.

Tink bags are great at carrying KC clicky armors (300pp per slot) and fine steel (only 5, but it adds up). Tink bags also decently retain their value.

[mefdinkins]

Lastly, to the person who suggested tink bags, what makes them so useful? I've done fine staying at about 15 stone just using a large soiled bag and shralok pack, and can't think of any items I would need a tink bag for, 5k seems like an awful lot for a bag, let alone 4 of them. (FWIW my soiled bag has stone of morid and food / bandages while the shralok has my OT hammer and room for random loot that is heavy but worth carrying that i might pick up)

TStaff is heavy at 10 wt. You can get by with say 1 - Large Soiled Bag, 2 Tink Bags, 1 Forager Bag, 2 Shraloks.

Tink Bag can hold whatever mats you need, I didn't have much as a 50 monk but by the time I hit 60 I had a bag filled with - Peggy Cloak 5.0 (levi is clutch), Jboots 2.5 (poor man's sow), TStaff 10 (or other 2 hander) which I swapped w/ my 1 Handers 7 wt dragonrib club + 3 weight stave of shielding, Midnight Mallet 11 (useful slow if say soloing in KC where a named could pop), Bracer of Hammerfal 4.1 (replaces need to carry bunch of stacks of ranged weapons), soulfire 5 (complete heal clicks x 5), reaper of the dead - 13 weight (1 charge complete heal), bracer of the hidden 2 (see invis + aggro clicky), slowstone amber 1 (slow/pull/aggro). -- So that super helpful bag can save you 60 weight.

Additionally, I hate going back/forth between town and killing and bandages are really clutch for limiting down time and leveling past 50. One tink bag of bandages saves you 5 weight (which isn't huge) but also means you can effectively bandage up 200 more times without leaving your camp. Even a forager bag saves you 2.5 weight and gives you 10 slots to carry useful items or even collect shit like gems. Once you start to use up your bandages you can replace those slots with stuff you can sell to make back some plat.

Honestly, on my monk from 52-55 I semi broke even depending on what I was doing to level but 55-59 selling fine steel, peridots, occassional decent item, I probably earned enough to at least buy back a tink with the extra bag slots. Again, tinks not priority #1 but i'd say any monk w/ your plat already epiced+fungied should have at least 1.

[remen]

You know you can duel wield with 2hb?

Swing primary/2hb. Unequip the 2hb, your offhand can now swing. Instantly re-equip 2hb so it swings again when it's time is due. Repeat until RSI.

Tink bags are great at carrying KC clicky armors (300pp per slot) and fine steel (only 5, but it adds up). Tink bags also decently retain their value.

Yep I know about this trick, great way to get some extra dps!

TStaff is heavy at 10 wt. You can get by with say 1 - Large Soiled Bag, 2 Tink Bags, 1 Forager Bag, 2 Shraloks.

Tink Bag can hold whatever mats you need, I didn't have much as a 50 monk but by the time I hit 60 I had a bag filled with - Peggy Cloak 5.0 (levi is clutch), Jboots 2.5 (poor man's sow), TStaff 10 (or other 2 hander) which I swapped w/ my 1 Handers 7 wt dragonrib club + 3 weight stave of shielding, Midnight Mallet 11 (useful slow if say soloing in KC where a named could pop), Bracer of Hammerfal 4.1 (replaces need to carry bunch of stacks of ranged weapons), soulfire 5 (complete heal clicks x 5), reaper of the dead - 13 weight (1 charge complete heal), bracer of the hidden 2 (see invis + aggro clicky), slowstone amber 1 (slow/pull/aggro). -- So that super helpful bag can save you 60 weight.

Additionally, I hate going back/forth between town and killing and bandages are really clutch for limiting down time and leveling past 50. One tink bag of bandages saves you 5 weight (which isn't huge) but also means you can effectively bandage up 200 more times without leaving your camp. Even a forager bag saves you 2.5 weight and gives you 10 slots to carry useful items or even collect shit like gems. Once you start to use up your bandages you can replace those slots with stuff you can sell to make back some plat.

Honestly, on my monk from 52-55 I semi broke even depending on what I was doing to level but 55-59 selling fine steel, peridots, occassional decent item, I probably earned enough to at least buy back a tink with the extra bag slots. Again, tinks not priority #1 but i'd say any monk w/ your plat already epiced+fungied should have at least 1.

Problem with Sea Horse Hide Belt and Cloak of Crystalline Waters is they do not resell anywhere near as good as a Cloak of Flames, so when its time to 'cash out' you are going to be sitting in EC tunnel a hell of a lot longer. The rich of P99 are going to continue buying CoFs and have little use for CoCW and SHHB.

Tinker Bags are great so you can actually loot things and sell. Once you get into the higher level zones you will start camping areas that have lots of drops and most of them are not conducive to a monks weight limit. If you are soloing I guess this isn't that huge of a concern. Tinker bags also hold their value and are easily re-sellable when you need fast money since its basically a built in plat sink.

You basically don't lose anything buying Tinkerbags, you are just temporarily converting your plat into Bag form... Selling 5k items is much easier than selling 50k items

Gotcha, that makes a lot of sense regarding the Tink bag(s). At this level with my current items I can get by without them but as I get to 55+ I'll plan on making a few bags the first things to get after my haste upgrade.

That's great advice regarding the resale value of the CoF vs. other haste items, you've changed my mind and my new plan is now to grind out another 10k or so and save up for the CoF (PS if anyone is selling one at a good price let me know! ;P )

[SamwiseRed]

No you are not right, this is my 2nd character and my twink project, so I am not an expert on this class. To throw around an accusation like that based on nothing is pretty scummy and speaks to your lack of character. Additionally, what is so retarded about my questions? How is a person who has never used a Tstaff able to gauge the impact it has on soloing as compared to a haste upgrade? Considering there were quite a few different answers and lines of thinking it seems like my questions created a decent little debate about the different options I laid out, and hopefully was informative to others in addition to helping me make a decision.

What I am curious about is why the idea of RMT was so close to your mind here and one of the first things YOU thought of? Often times people who are engaged in an illicit activity overestimate the frequency with which others engage in that same activity...just some food for thought.

And to everyone else who took the time and thought to genuinely answer my questions I do appreciate all the feedback and I am going to go with the CoCW + Spider fur belt combo until I can upgrade the CoCW to a CoF with the Tstaff being a nice toy to look to add at some point further down the road when I get some more plat and when it hopefully isn't so overpriced.

Lastly, to the person who suggested tink bags, what makes them so useful? I've done fine staying at about 15 stone just using a large soiled bag and shralok pack, and can't think of any items I would need a tink bag for, 5k seems like an awful lot for a bag, let alone 4 of them. (FWIW my soiled bag has stone of morid and food / bandages while the shralok has my OT hammer and room for random loot that is heavy but worth carrying that i might pick up)

yiKes

[jijii]

yiKes

what's wrong, it wasn't quite enough to take you to completion?

[remen]

yiKes

Thanks for stopping by the thread bud, your posts really added a lot

[Jimjam]

You basically don't lose anything buying Tinkerbags, you are just temporarily converting your plat into Bag form... Selling 5k items is much easier than selling 50k items

The other advantage of tink bags is that they are most of the time hidden.

This way, if anyone ever questions your judgement, you can just open a trade window, show the doubter that you carry around half a dozen tink bags at any time, and the question of the soundness of your mind will no longer be in doubt.

[Snaggles]

I’d just solo with an IBF. I’m sure a Tstaff would edge it out but it’s over 10 times the price.

Soloing either would destroy a Dw combo unless you have primals or better.

[skarlorn]

Sam wise got owned, scurry back to your sick red forums. GL!

[Beastagoog]

Eh.

I think CoF over price too...but its like the iPhone of haste items. Has a goos resale value and people go gaga over it.

I would prob go spiked belt and heiro cloak if I had the choice coz...more stats more hp. I think the 2% haste difference can be argued down. You will however loss value over time on those items quicker as they have a highet drop rate per week than a CoF.

The other thing is you would need to save up another 18-23k plat for a CoF.

Isn't the whole point of a tstaff to grab agro and also stop dmg on yourself? I.e if a mob is stunned for 12 seconds of the fight over 2 procs thats 240dmg from proc and 12 seconds of not been hit? I think tstaff is great no matter what.

I would go:
Heiro cloak
Spike belt
Save up some pp for tstaff.

You essentially got all of ^ for the price of 1 CoF.

Edit:
Also when you get bored of said monk and want to twink another toon you can lease your belt/cloak combo to them easy and throw a cheap fbss/spider cloak back on monk in the mean time.

Edit2: and yes you want atleast 1 dragon or 1 tink bag for all your heavy items.

Edit3: another thing you can do is camp another robe for clicky haste on top again...but that requires swapping fungi in and out and could get super annoying.