[Atmas]

Monks on live at this point were pretty much at their peak. Velious was a melee expansion for sure and devs I think had a hard-on for them as almost all the high end encounters seem to have an awesome dedicated item. Devs on live took a look at their mitigation and nerfed them pretty significantly.

Monk damage avoidance is amplified on this server where mobs hit on the high end way too consistently. Avoiding a hit has tremendous benefits on this sever. A well geared monk can tank a lot of high end stuff but not to the point of a warrior because the real high end stuff has crazy attack and the potential for one or two bad rounds to take them out gets high.

As far as monks versus other tanks there are obvious trade offs and it gets a little more complicated when knowledge of mechanics are applied. For example, monks are great dps, but a warrior in beserking with a good weapon and the right disc can do phenomenal dps. As a Paladin main there are a lot of benefits monks have that I don't but the same is true the other way around. I'm too lazy to rehash all the discussions that have already come through about the benefits of healing or the efficiency of healing in a group with true snap agro control.