Monk on a new server: STR or STA?

[plzrelax]

I’m looking forward to rolling a monk when green starts. No gear, no plat, no problem.

The wiki suggests that STR may be a good start for monks on a fresh server. However, I’m still tempted to dump all my points into stamina. Or maybe a 10/10 split?

Thoughts?

[Wallicker]

Playing til Kunark or beyond? Stamina

[Troxx]

strength imo

[Jimjam]

Definately charisma so when Kunark introduces Iksar Monks you can still talk your peers into letting you join their groups.

[kjs86z]

Strength will see the most immediate benefit by far...especially a fresh server where your gear is going to by abysmally bad for a long, long time.

If you're going for the ulra-long-haul on green....make a better solo / money making character at launch and save all your plat for when Kunark is released. Make an Iksar monk w/ 25 STA and equip your twink gear at level one and enjoy the min/max.

[Ravager]

Stamina, your job is to pull and more hp means more chance for survival, especially when your fd fails and you get nuked. An extra 40 hp at lower levels may not seem like much, but it's everything when it's your last 40hp. Leave the dps to other classes.

[Croco]

stam by far

[wagorf]

all sta or some str and rest go to sta

dont think you can go wrong with any str/sta combo

[Troxx]

In early eq there is a paucity of both high quality weapons and strength gear. While carry capacity is less important for monks as their gear as light and they already face penalties, the impact on damage output is significant while leveling.

The min/max meta culture of p99 raiding generally means most people will recommend stamina but I disagree. The extra hp from going full stamina will very rarely if ever be what makes or breaks a character. Smart play, buffs, and eventually gear (as new expansions open up) are significantly more important. Melee classes in classic will already start off with a huge crutch compared to casters.

It’s a quality of life issue for the long haul through original classic imo.

Long term with raiding and velious in mind? Sure stamina. For the first 50 levels and for most routine content beyond str has value. At low levels the returns on stamina are pitiful. By the time the returns are more meaningful, better gear and buff options are as well.

Full disclosure: I’m the weirdo that put 0 starting points into stamina on my warrior. I have no regrets as the stamina difference never made a survivability difference and I knew hitting cap stamina/dex would be easier dumping into dex. My gear isn’t phenomenal but I’m still now just 15-20 points from capping that too.

[Ravager]

I disagree. The extra strength on a monk doesn't add up to a ton more in benefits since at 80+ whatever gear you have that boosts strength will be sufficient to never be encumbered, and since you're a monk, you'll likely be investing in weight reduction bags anyway and you'll be focusing on keeping weight down to avoid the ac penalties, so carrying stuff won't be a problem; which leaves improving DPS as the only reason to have more strength. If you're grouping, you're probably going to be doing more running around than dpsing anyway for the pulls and if you're soloing, the extra 20 strength won't make much of a difference because you're likely still going to be waiting 6 minutes between mobs to have Mend up for the fight, so it makes little difference if you can kill something 10% faster. And even if you're duoing, you're probably doing it with someone who is going to buff your strength anyway. The extra HP, however little it is, is still a huge boon for surviving splits.


And also, as a warrior, having as much stamina as you can is ideal at the very least because it gives you a larger buffer for zerking.

[Snaggles]

This is a monk discussion though and the stamina conversion even at 60 (vs 50 at the start of green) is not great. From the wiki:

Level 60 STA to HP Conversions
CLASS Hitpoint returns
WAR 1 STA = 6 HP
SHD / PAL 1 STA = 5.2 HP
RNG 1 STA = 4.2 HP
BRD / MNK / ROG 1 STA = 4 HP
CLR / DRU / SHM 1 STA = 3 HP
ENC / MAG / NEC / WIZ 1 STA = 2.4 HP
NOTE: Conversions scale up with level, this chart only shows level 60.


25x4 = 100 whole hitpoints at level 60. Vs being even more uncapped and missing out on attack? I’d roll strength.

[Razaz]

100hp is like having another item with hps equipped at all times. Nothing to scoff at. Plus Sta is harder to cap at endgame than Str.

Monks shouldn't carry too much weight due to restrictions so Str isnt needed there. It may help with your damage output slightly but with rng, it wont be too noticeable.

Id roll stamina.

[Legidias]

Id argue that early game, maxed sta is way better given no twink or available HP items, since mend scales with total HP. The very small increase in DPS from STR would be overshadowed by better survivability (remember, monks pretty much just have AC armor and no stats for a majority of vanilla) with more heals from mend.

IF you wanted to look at end game, everyone knows STA is better than str too.

[Freakish]

STA at low levels is essentially worthless. The return increases as you level.

[Legidias]

Str when you have like 6/30 weaps is also essentially worthless...

[Snaggles]

Well, 100 hps is best case scenario at level 60 (not 50). it gives you what, another 30 hps for mend? Max hps are great if you are sucking up CH's or strafing to the zone line as a sand giant chases you.

The faster you kill something the less damage it does to you or the group. I'd rather do my best to cap strength in the first couple expansions even if it means having lower stamina come raiding in Velious.

Or if you are minmax-extreme just wait and make an Iksar...

[Lojik]

I've deduced from this thread that points are best put into cha for better vendor prices.

[tsuchang]

Yep on the Iksar monk.
Howz about make an Erudite necro and make lots of money in the warrens while you level like crazy, the switch to Paineel guards to make plat to tweek the Iki monk? I say Erudite because you can sell the bronze stuff from warrens to paineel vendors. That faction grind is amazingly long for other races.
Then go strength to beat the crud out of the mobs. It won't help a bit in carrying stuff, but then you made enough plat to buy some tinkers bags so <big smile> there is that.

[Danth]

Slight correction for some folks in this thread: Monks get 20 points to allocate at creation, not 25.

Starting statistics hardly matter for a Monk. Strength isn't too big a deal because the Monk weight limit means Monks don't generally get too close to the encumbrance limit anyway. It's a choice, in effect, between doing very slightly more damage prior to the strength cap, or having a couple per cent more hit points prior to the stamina cap. Can't go wrong no matter what do you because the points simply don't have enough of an impact to make or break a character. If you really want to hedge your bets you can stick 10 points in each.

Lojik: Charisma isn't a totally daft idea on a class that regularly converts money to gems and vice versa using NPC vendors. Again, though, the difference from 20 points is slight so the above philosophy of near-indifference still applies.

Danth

[Ravager]

If the monk is dpsing in the group, he's doing it wrong.

[Jimjam]

If the monk is dpsing in the group, he's doing it wrong.

Should be master looter. Their low weight equipment leaves them with the greatest carry capacity.

[loramin]

Slight correction for some folks in this thread: Monks get 20 points to allocate at creation, not 25.

Starting statistics hardly matter for a Monk. Strength isn't too big a deal because the Monk weight limit means Monks don't generally get too close to the encumbrance limit anyway. It's a choice, in effect, between doing very slightly more damage prior to the strength cap, or having a couple per cent more hit points prior to the stamina cap. Can't go wrong no matter what do you because the points simply don't have enough of an impact to make or break a character. If you really want to hedge your bets you can stick 10 points in each.

Lojik: Charisma isn't a totally daft idea on a class that regularly converts money to gems and vice versa using NPC vendors. Again, though, the difference from 20 points is slight so the above philosophy of near-indifference still applies.

Danth

the difference from 20 points is slight so the above philosophy of near-indifference still applies.

Sensible talk about statistics in EverQuest!?! Sir I think you're in the wrong forum ;)