Monk Questions

Hello all,

I have been enjoying looking at all the screenshots of monks, and am currently leveling my own. I have 2 questions I hope you all can answer, Do you perfer offhand/wand or staff and why... is it for a "looks" thing or a techincal thing in certain types of situations. The Second questions about all the shots of Monks holding Swords and Axes are these Monk/Warriors? And is a Enchanting 20% weapon a good thing for monk to have?

Thank you

Hello,

You should have posted this in the monk forum

I'll answer your questions all at once.

Most monks prefer a one handed martial weapon and a shield/focus over a staff because they offer better bonuses.

On a sword/axe/spear, you can have a permanent +5 energy, or even a -5 energy to hide part of your energy pool. You can also get +30 health or +20% enchantement bonus.

Using a shield as your main switch offers 8 armor, some health bonus, damage or condition reduction, and helps hiding energy.

You can get this flexibility with a staff, and 20/20 bonuses don't really help a monk.

As a long time monk player, I have more weapon sets and armor for my monk than any of my other characters. It's directly related to the time when a PvE toon was superior to a PvP toon in terms of flexibility in equipment. I have shields for any and every condition. Negative energy sets, high energy sets, fast cast/fast recharge sets. Armor for energy, health, +AL while enchanted (boon prot days). As you gain experience playing monk, you will find sets (armor and weapons) that work best with your skill bar and the area you are playing in. Be prepared for your monk to eat up a large amount of your GW characters' budget.

I've played monk for 2 years in pve and pvp.
The monks holding swords, axes or spears are not mo/w's. Swords, axes and spears have very good mods (+30 health or +20% enchants), and a +5 energy sword and a focus item gives you a larger energy pool. You should also have a shield: A shield, even when you don't meet the requirements gives you +8 armor and whatever mods you put on. This will result in the quite low energy pool of 25-35 depending on what kind of sword/axe/spear you have.
When you run out of energy, you switch to another set with a +5 energy sword and a +12 energy focus item. What mods you put on this item is up to you: If your micromanagement is good, you can take several focus items with +10 armor against a certain type of damage, determine what's currently used against you, and switch to the appropriate focus item. You can do the same with shields (+18 armor is about 20% damage, quite significant). If you think this will distract you too much, so you can't keep an eye on the battle anymore, just take a 20/20 cast/recharge item.