What were devs thinking when they made Monks?

[branamil]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Monks had really terrible equipment options in vanilla, this was basically their point of balance to offset their awesome skills.

Come Kunark they had lots of amazing weapon options, then on top of that by velious they could even hit worn AC cap.

Yeah, this pretty much. The devs thought it would be cool for a class to shun armor and weapons. That's why the put in the weight limit.

Later after monks complained they had nothing to look forward to, devs realized that item upgrades were 99% of the motivation to play an MMORPG. So they itemized monks but the philosophy that they should be effective naked was baked into the class already