Making Monk Decent Again
- On my server, almost nobody plays monk. The best way to measure that is by the BG rankings, where no monk is legend in rankings… except me! For most classes, you have 20-25 who have reached legendary rank. Having played all the classes extensively, this is how I believe you could bring balance back to the class.
- CC mitigation - All the melee classes have decent CC mitigation through essences that will enhance a skill and provide CC mitigation for a decent duration. Démoralise for Barbarian, Conjuration of Light for Crusader, Sanguinate or Swarm of Bats (with essence) for Blood Knight. Monk has Zen Shield, but the problem is that the Anti-CC properties only lasts while the shield is not depleted. In most fight, the shield is gone in 1 second of combat, which makes this skill’s Anti-CC properties vastly inferior to that of the other melee classes. Given the sheer amount of CC in this game, which have only increased over time, having a decent Anti-CC skill is key to the viability of the class. Solution: Make the Anti-CC of Zen Shield persist for the whole duration of the skill, even if the shield is depleted - All melee classes have this already, why not Monk?
- Primary Skill - Fist of Thunder should be the skill to use in PVP, but the 3 second delay between being able to teleport to your target is just too long. If I attack any class with ranged attacks, including BK, and my target dashes away, I can’t attack him again for 3 seconds… that’s a very long time of idleness, and I’m usually dead before I can attack again… a problem no other class has! The delay should be reduced. I would think 1 or 2 seconds would be fair.
- Movement speed - All the classes have many ways to increase movement speed, and when they do, they be faster for longer than monks who only have Zen Shield, via an armour essence, to increase movement speed, while at the same time being the monk’s only anti-cc skill. Monk needs better speed mobility, badly. Perhaps include an essence for Breath of Heaven that would increase movement speed for much longer than the default 3 seconds…
- Rubber Banding - I’ve played monk since August 2022, and rubber banding has never been this bad. This seriously needs to be fixed for monk to be viable again. It makes no sense that I dash away, and return to the same position as before the dash… without any effect, and one charge less of the skill used. I could understand that due to lag, there could be a player’s skill that was triggered before I dashed, which would block me from dashing, but I didn’t see it in my screen at the time I activated the skill due to the lag… BUT this happens regularly in PVE as well, against monsters who have no CC … … …
- Damage mitigation - If the above is implemented, I do not think Monk needs to match the damage mitigation of other melee classes (Crusader’s Conjuration of Light, Barbarian’s Undying, Blood Knight’s Sanguinate, Swarm of Bats essence, and Healing capabilities) given the Monks superior dashing capabilities.
Finally, the monk essence Branding Bond has a bug. Before, dashing would be instant, but now, there’s a slight delay before the dash occur. Problem that doesn’t exist with the other essence Travelling Scold, or any other dash skills.
