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First, i would like to start off saying that monks have never been one of my favourite character class. In my opinion, it is strong only for normal difficulty. Beyond that, i feel that they are far weaker than either the bard or the barbarian.
Armour Class
The monk has natural armour class higher than that of the other classes, the bonus depending on the type of armour they are wearing.
Situation
AC Bonus
monk with plate
dex/5
monk with mail
dex/5 + clvl/2
monk with leather or less
dex/5 + 2.clvl
other character class
dex/5
For this calculation, unique plate is considered mail while unique mail is considered leather. Thus, the Bovine Plate becomes among the highest AC armour that is easily available for the monk.
Combat Skills
| Monks | Rate | Listed Damage for | Average Damage per Second | |||
| lvl 40 | lvl 50 | lvl 35 | lvl 40 | lvl 50 | ||
| Unarmed | 0.35 | 119-139 | 158-183 | 301.7 | 367.6 | 488.1 |
| King's Staff of Haste | 0.30 | 121-143 | 155-177 | 374.4 | 438.9 | 554.4 |
| <*> Staff of Haste | 0.30 | 107-115 | 141-149 | 304.4 | 368.8 | 484.4 |
| King's Spell Staff | 0.40 | 121-143 | 155-177 | 280.8 | 329.2 | 415.8 |
| <*> Staff of Peril | 0.40 | 107-115 | 141-149 | 462.5 | 555.0 | 725.0 |
Unarmed Combat
In addition to the armour class bonuses of a monk, he is also an expert at unarmed combat.
When unarmed, the monk strikes once per 0.35 seconds (that's equivalent to a warrior with
a hasted weapon) and deals damage equal to (0.5-1).clvl. This means that a level 50 monk
will do 25-50 weapon damage with bare feet (value not inclusive of bonuses due to stats).
In general, other than a King's Staff of Haste, almost all other weapons deal less damage
than bare feet.
The Use of Staves
The other specialty of the monk is his proficiency with staves. Using staves, the monk
strikes once per 0.40 seconds (with haste, it goes down to 0.30) and gains two abilities -
the "hit-3-adjacent-enemies" ability as well as BLOCKING. Thus, a monk is
capable of blocking attacks when using a staff, which is a huge advantage. In addition, a
monk blocks at once per 0.15 seconds, which is halfway between fast-block and
non-fast-block.
Other Weapons
Proficiency with staves seemed to have robbed monks of proficiency with other weapons. As
a result, monks are pathetic with other weapons and totally hopeless with bows.
Magical Abilities
Magic for monks are hopeless as well due to their low magic score and pathetic casting
speed.
Conclusion
In general, the monks are extremely powerful in normal difficulty due to their high natural armour class and proficiencies with unarmed combat and staves. However, as difficulty level increases and monsters get tougher, they get into more and more trouble as they simply cannot match the combat capabilities of barbarians, bards or warriors; the archery skills of rogues or the magical prowess of the sorceror.
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