What weapon & shield is good for a monk

Gabe3

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2006

Well Im a warrior and I just made a monk for nightfall, what would be a good max stat weapon and shield for him? Right now I just got to the part in the game where you pick what secondary profession you want, is this the time to get a good weapon and shield or should I stick with my starter stuff. I have plenty of gold on my warrior charactor.

CtrlAltDel

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: May 2005

Ohio

Brotherhood of Havoc

Mo/Me

healing?
smiting?

scar eater for healing is pretty excellent
shields are for warriors and paragons not you :P

Stemnin

Stemnin

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2005

Mo/Me

Huh? A shield on a monk?

Offhand > shield, unless you plan to go to random arena and ripostes warriors..

As for weapons, wands, staffs, and swords that give 5 energy are usually preferred.

Tsai

Tsai

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2006

Majestic Dragons [MaD]

Mo/

I disagree, a shield on a monk is fine as long as you have an offhand to switch too. The extra armour and the extra health you receive (obviously depends on the shield) are always useful on a monk and if you really find yourself running low on energy switch to the offhand set up

Effigy

Effigy

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2005

Illinois, US

Heroes of Talia [HoT]

Mo/

The thing is, there is no one "best" weapon and offhand set for monks. You can get by with one set in PvE, but if you want to get serious about monking it's best to have 4 sets, each with a different purpose.

Your basic set (the one you'll use most of the time) would be a weapon with +5 energy and +30hp; the damage and req don't matter, and the prefix mod is only marginally important in certain builds. For the offhand, you'd want a DF req focus with +12 energy 10% reduced recharge on all spells +30hp.

The second set is more important for PvP, but it can still be useful in PvE if you're under attack. -5 energy +30hp weapon and 16 armor +30hp shield with either -2 damage while enchanted or -5 damage 20% (depending on your build).

Third set is your emergency energy swap. This will give you a quick boost of energy for dire circumstances. You want a wand with +15 energy -1 regen 10% reduced cast time or recharge on all spells and a +12 energy focus with +15 energy -1 regen +30hp.

The last set is your offensive set, in case you need to attack a target. You want a DF req max damage 15^50 wand with 10% reduced recharge on all spells and the focus from your first set.

The only weapon you need to customize is the wand from your fourth set; leave the rest uncustomized so you can resell them later if necessary.

CtrlAltDel

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: May 2005

Ohio

Brotherhood of Havoc

Mo/Me

guess it depends

i pretty much heal exclusivly in PvE and I havent started PvP'ing on my monk yet so I use the scar eater on her and thats about it for weapons for now.

Vahn Roi

Vahn Roi

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2006

[HiDE]

Never heard of an offensive set.

BTW, when does one know when to switch to their -e set?

Talin_The_Medic

Talin_The_Medic

Academy Page

Join Date: Oct 2006

United States of frigging America

Anet Nerfed [IT]

Mo/Me

What I suggest is what I use.... Brohn's Holy Rod and the Stonehart

This gives you 10% chance to half cast time of all spells, 40% chance to half recharge of healing spells, and 20% chance of +1 healing. The offhand is max of course..req 9 healing, and the wand is max req 9 divine, but I don't bother ever getting the req for a weapon because monks don't attack.... they heal.....

Talin_The_Medic

Talin_The_Medic

Academy Page

Join Date: Oct 2006

United States of frigging America

Anet Nerfed [IT]

Mo/Me

And switch to you -e set when you're not in combat.... that way you have less energy to regen, so you gain it faster.

OR

switch to it and cast rebirth on a dead party member, then switch back to your +e stuff, you'll end up with extra energy

Gabe3

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Talin_The_Medic
What I suggest is what I use.... Brohn's Holy Rod and the Stonehart

This gives you 10% chance to half cast time of all spells, 40% chance to half recharge of healing spells, and 20% chance of +1 healing. The offhand is max of course..req 9 healing, and the wand is max req 9 divine, but I don't bother ever getting the req for a weapon because monks don't attack.... they heal..... dont get the req attributes for the weapon, are you sure?

Gabe3

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2006

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/The_Scar_Eater_%28staff%29

does it really have 2, 30+ health? or is that a typo?

Effigy

Effigy

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2005

Illinois, US

Heroes of Talia [HoT]

Mo/

It does have +60hp, since staves can have a +30hp mod on the head and the wrapping. However, you'd get the same +60hp from using a weapon and focus, plus you'd have an additional +2 max energy. The Scar Eater is the only staff really worth considering on a monk, because it gives +60hp as well as 20% reduced cast time, whereas a weapon/focus would only give 10%. This can be useful because Healing Prayers have godawful cast times compared to Protection. Still, you could get by just fine with a weapon/focus on a healer, and it's hands-down the best option for prot monks.

In short, the Scar Eater is a fine choice if you're going for pure healing. However, as you become more experienced at monking you'll almost definitely start playing prot at least some of the time, and in that case the Scar Eater will be useless to you. Better to just buy a good weapon/focus to start with imo, as you can use it with any build you choose to run.

Gabe3

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Effigy
It does have +60hp, since staves can have a +30hp mod on the head and the wrapping. However, you'd get the same +60hp from using a weapon and focus, plus you'd have an additional +2 max energy. The Scar Eater is the only staff really worth considering on a monk, because it gives +60hp as well as 20% reduced cast time, whereas a weapon/focus would only give 10%. This can be useful because Healing Prayers have godawful cast times compared to Protection. Still, you could get by just fine with a weapon/focus on a healer, and it's hands-down the best option for prot monks.

In short, the Scar Eater is a fine choice if you're going for pure healing. However, as you become more experienced at monking you'll almost definitely start playing prot at least some of the time, and in that case the Scar Eater will be useless to you. Better to just buy a good weapon/focus to start with imo, as you can use it with any build you choose to run. I just got a scar eater

since Iam only level 9 should I have all my attributes in healing, or should I put some in divine for my weapon.

NinjaKai

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2006

UK

Duality Of The Dragon

If you use Mo/P as a support protection monk. You can make use of the paragons motivation line. And you could use a shield then. Heck even I use a motivation req shield.