This is in reply to Jagster's comment about monks being Almost able to keep pace with rangers, and somewhat about the weird mnk vs drk debate.
in point of fact, before lvl55, mnks in fact outpace rangers, by a fair margin. take a well equipped monk, and a well equipped rng, the rng will be doing 100-120 per arrow at ~540 delay. Great numbers. the mnk will be doing 50-70 per fist to these mobs, at ~430 delay. better numbers. mnks outshine there in dot, and pre 55 both jobs will be about on par in terms of accuracy. now consider weapon skills. my personal favorite, as a mithra, is backhand blow. this is a crit ws, mithra dex being what it is, my BHB's start at low 200's minimum and have gone as high as 487. Raging fists, the perrenial favorite, is somewhat unreliable, even with a large amount of accy gear ie snipers etc, but overall will start at again low 200's and has climbed as high as 650 on several occasions, but usually balances around 350-450 range. compare this with piercing arrow, which (ask a ranger) at best manages 200 or so. ive seen as low as 150 and as high as 250, but the high end is much rarer than a 500 raging fists. mnks outshine in the ws department therefore as well. now for the equaliser, barrage. barrage at lvl 30-40 fires 4 arrows, at ~lvl 60ish it goes to 5, and somewhere in the 70s upgrades to 6. 4 arrowsx 120 = 480 damage or so, if all connect, once every 4 mobs or so. now provided an SC is occurring every fight, with raging fists at a conservative 300 and piercing at a conservative 150, by the time rng gets barrage back, he has fallen 600 damage behind the mnk from ws numbers (4 sc's, (300-150)x4), so this brings the rng within 100 or so dmg of the mnks total output. but still not past it. So as far as mnks keeping pace with rngs pre 55, flip it around, rngs Almost keep pace with mnks before 55. Now all of this is not readily apparent to those who arent mnks themselves, i never even considered this until i WAS a mnk myself, so i dont expect everyone to take my numbers for granted, these are just My numbers in My pts, and i will admit i am a bit more than just Well equipped.
As far as the mnk vs drk debate, i snicker at that one, no debate at all, mnks compete with rngs, not drks. drks compete with warr's and drgs. Dont yell at me, i didnt program it, just the way the numbers fall.
Now at lvl 55, when rangers achieve the dreaded Sidewinder/slugshot, mnks /bow courteously and humbly take a backseat, as does every other dd. However, mnks do still remain very much competitive for their spot as 2nd in line for the throne. Our weapons get stronger, our delay keeps falling, and our ws's do nothing but improve. SATA howling fist or SATA dragon kick are staggering sights, and when used in conjunction with a nice Arching arrow, do wonderful burny/spikey things to critters of all shapes and sizes. also, if the mnk chooses to sub warr, they gain the wonderful double attack, which, when coupled with so many chances for it to go off, allows for some truly impressive displays of ferocity. One of the main discussions in the mnk community is about how to manage all that hate. with drks or other jobs, the answer is "dont use souleater when etc" or "learn to manage your JA's" and so on. The telling point about mnks is that we gain this hate Without our ja's. Its just from hitting. alot. and hard. It bears consideration, imo, that the most common advice from the older more experienced mnks is to just toggle lock and turn your back till the tank gets hate back, provided you cant sub thf for ta yet. The only other community that gives advice similar to this, is the rng community:
"if you get too much hate, stop shooting for a few seconds."
Oh, and to answer firestreaks point about secondary weapons, i have staff skill capped. if you dont think thats of much use, you havent seen my hundredfists macro. it triggers HF, then swaps on my stick. punch for 70 at 0 delay, or staff for 100-120 at 0 delay........ especially with some of the later staves, especially thunder..... i would however like to see some better staff ws's forthcoming, yes, full swing hurts like a mother, but thats what, the 200 skill? not sure.
anyway, thats my 2 cents, and i agree with cubs entirely. cubs, lets go pt, raging fists >> backhand blow, i'll take bhb lol.
