Monk hand or weap that is the questionFollow

Lets see bare hand you get a bit faster attack and you get to use yer thundering strike skill *randomly stuns opponent for you non monks out there*

OR

Dual weild/2-handed weapon
Do more damage possibly and lets face it the monk fist weapons are crapy as hell to look at i.e. cetsus should be a big blade coming from your hand but in game it looks like half a sphere is crapy spikes on it obviously EQ did nothing to make it remotly look the right way

so is a little less damage and crapy modeling worth keeping to randomly stun your opponent?

You can calculate which weapons are better by figuring out their damge per second and choosing the higher one. Also, I believe that regardless of stats, barehands are gonna end up doing better dps because of the skills you can use when barehanded. Much like the skills a thief can use while in stealth or while attacking from behind. I just have a hard time believing that the only class in the game who can use barehands wouldn't have some reason to use them. I see more brawlers in general using weapons than barehands, but I believe barehands is the way to go. Also don't forget that you can get fistwraps to add to your barehand damage.

The real question is why would you be a monk/bruiser and not use barehands? You can only wear light armor. Your stat mod is only +1AGI higher than Warriors. All the originality lies in the barehands because they are the only ones who can do that. And like I've said before, there has to be some reason for it. My mule is a brawler, so I will level him up and let you know. What I do already know is that brawlers are supposed to be the best damage class for fighters. And since damage is calculated my the amount that a weapon does, the only differences between brawlers and other fighters is their ability to use barehands and their skills. Most zerkers will argue that they have better damage skills, and they are probably right. So that leaves the barehands. One last time, they wouldn't make brawlers the only ones who can use barehands unless their was a significant advantage for doing so.

Edited, Thu Feb 3 08:26:25 2005 by Heightserz

I use to be a Monk/druid player in EQ1. I think that I was the only Monk that I saw that was playing my Monk with his Barehands. Unless, I got found a great hand weapon. I was always increasing my skills if there was a good tank in the group. At one point I was able to out damage my 2h, Which for the life of me I can't remember what it was.

I would like to see Sony, try to make people that play the Monk type toon to use there Fists till at least lvl 15, and then open the other weapon types.

Strong believer if they gave it to you there has to be a reason.

Just my 2cp.

I actually have all this stuff figured out.

No weapons-Slow but damaging hits. Not much chance for them to parry.

2 hand blunt (quarterstaffs)-My favorite because they look cool. High damage but a bit faster than fists. also has a chance for those high damage hits. not much chance for them to parry.

Hand to hand weapons- Pretty steady damage and is duel weild. you cant really find many good hand to hand weapons early in the game, or so it seems. these get parried more.

duel wield blunt weapons-My second favorite. Nice steady damage. a lot of times youll get parried but I still think that that doesn't really affect this weapon choice. Im not sure if its faster than hand to hand weapons but I always liked them batter anyway. A lot of people go with this cause of the coolness factor but I think that just one big quarterstaff is cool :)

[quote=Follier]We're prolly reading to much into this. My guess is they left in in for tradition's sake. [quote]

This is true, but Monks are the only ones that have magic hands. So it you need to have a magic weapon to hit Mob's and you don't have one.. Just use your hands.

I'm a bruiser but we have the same capability. I tried using my hands on just some plane ol white con mobs and was getting beat to death. It just didn't seem to be as good. Of course, I only tried this for about 5 fights and then re-equiped my dual wield sticks. Actually, I can't wait till I hit 22 because I have 2 new sticks just waiting for me. Only 25%xp to go!

Pre level 10 go bare handed, the DPS outshines any weps you can get at that level. Post 10, get weapons. Use 2handers when your not tanking and use DW weapons when you are. 2handers usually do better DPS depending on their attack rating, but DW weapons give you higher chance to riposte/parry. However, these words aren't set in stone. At level 42 I have a pair of DW weapons that, with their proc, do more DPS than any 2hander I could buy at this level.

imo the strength AA line is crap. not much point in going down that line really cause it doesent have a very good skill.

i went down the wisdom line which has a gr8 skill at the end. (Double Attack for 16 seconds on 100% of melee attacks)

Edited, Mar 10th 2007 3:36pm by MervSixtyOne

My 42 bruiser does great damage with a 2h bo staff. I tried fist wraps and didn't do anywhere near the damage as with the staff, and that was before i re-speced my AAs from STR to WIS. I mostly solo and i love the attack animations of the 2h staff, so i'll most likely stay with 2hander. I also am very interested in this topic and find it strange that there isn't a definitive answer reguarding which does more damage, i guess whatever suites the player.