Monks!

[Iendan]

I've been thinking about making a monk for awhile (since i saw a write up on them some where) and today i listened to the interview with Darrin McPherson and they talk a lot about monks and such and i have decided that i am most definitely going to play a monk anyway what do you guys think about monks and the interview in general?

clicky for interview

[Pirotess]

Havent had a chance to listen to that yet. Unfortunately this week is realy bad at work since my co-worker retired and Im running things solo. Will respond again when I get a chance to listen to it.

[Taronn Anvilmarr]

i want to try a monk but havent nailed down the race yet.

[Wakygreek]

Originally Posted by Iendan

I've been thinking about making a monk for awhile (since i saw a write up on them some where) and today i listened to the interview with Darrin McPherson and they talk a lot about monks and such and i have decided that i am most definitely going to play a monk anyway what do you guys think about monks and the interview in general?

clicky for interview

Didnt see the interview yet, but i played a Iksar Monk in EQ and it was my favorite class aside from the buffomatic Shaman. Im looking to try both of them out in Vanguard..and maybe a few of the new classes.

[Iendan]

its just audio which is nice cause you can listen to it while doing other things ( i was playing line rider )

as for race, I'm leaning towards raki, but i haven't seen many screen shots of them yet so i haven't decided for sure. but I'm definitely going to start on Kojan, ive had my fill of European high fantasy type games for a bit and i'm not too found of middle eastern type places (don't like the heat :P ) and i wanna be a sailor (assuming the sailing is fun) so kojan is the best for me

[Mobius]

I most likely will play a monk or go back to my grassroots of a rogue... not sure yet both sound very cool in their own respects. A drunken monk will be really fly, it will be interesting to see how they add those features to non human types tho. I hope Feign death is an ability of a monk I always loved being the pull punk in the party. I remember my one monk in EQ getting nearly killed at the druid port in Karanas because he was alligned with Quellious and they weren't TEHEEE.... ported in and 5 druids were smacking me up with some dirty nature magic trying to put a sty in my eye, but I just FD'd em off me and saved my life... ALL HAIL FEIGN DEATH! Yes but the animation of monk moves will be really important to me as well I've heard how the mechanics of the class work, now motion will be very important to playing off a monk, if a monk is a practitioner of Dragon Style lets say he should carry himself with the courage and dominance of a dragon, it's not just flashy reversal moves it's a dominant way of carrying yourself in life too, whereas drunken style you have to carry yourself very loosely and ready to take the blows life give you may it be physical or psychological, the drunken wushu practitioner is a very vibrant loose individual who bends with lifes curves. Those who practice Tai Chi are very introspective, yet at the same time know how to live life, so this archtype should be a happy medium between the Dragon and Drunken... I can't wait to be able to play this on my new rig.

By the way thank you very much Iendan for sharing this with us all, much appreciated.

[Iendan]

i would expect their combat animations to show that but i would very (although quite happy) surprised if their non combat animations were affected by their style.

also another thing i was wondering about was weapon choice, i know in eq1 that staffs and hand to hand were the most prominent weapon choice for monks (not sure if they could do anything else but i never saw monks w/o atleast a handtohand weapon) so i found it interesting that they are allowing monks to use swords, i personally am not going to as it does not fit with my mental picture of a monk (im going with a staff btw, think kilik from soul caliber for what im going for ), so what do you guys think about monks w/ swords and if you are gonna try a monk, which will you choose? (sword, staff, or hand to hand are the choices, the hand to hand might be split into hard or soft but i dont remember exactly)

[Mobius]

shaolin monk use tai chi swords, seen here http://www.fustyle.org/images/New%20Folder/pic7.jpg. Also sabres were wielded by the chinese armies thruout the millenia. Swords mix with wushu, they were not used as much for slashing as they were for sweeping and piercing techniques... also as a levy of balance for the various forms. :-)

[Iendan]

wow, never knew that, thats pretty awesome

[Mobius]

I pray they don't have monks using huge 2handed swords that are all heavy and blocky because that however doesn't fit monks at all. Monks to me are the epitome of balance, so you got a light bodied character and a weapon that weighs twice what they weigh which is no type of balance.